AJB and First Data Team to Fight Retail Data Breaches

Payment solution provider AJB Software Design has announced that its payment processing application suite now supports the integration of TransArmor, a data security solution from First Data. Now, the 20 percent of North American retailers that use AJB payment solutions such as Flexible Integrated Payment System (FIPay) and Retail Transaction Switch (RTS) have an option to easily integrate TransArmor.

Opting for TransArmor integration will allow AJB's merchant customers to eliminate sensitive cardholder data that criminals might find useful from the retail environment. The solution enables complete encryption of a payment transaction, from the card swipe all the way through the formatting and routing of data to the financial institution. Its optional tokenization feature replaces payment card data with a random number, called a token, that preserves the value of card data for a merchant's business operations, including reconciliation, chargebacks and rewards.

Although TransArmor can reduce a merchant's risk and scope of PCI compliance, the increased level of security that the solution provides within a payment card acceptance environment can benefit all stakeholders, including banks, notes Pat Polillo, vice president of sales at AJB. "Everyone that is part of the payments processing space has a vested interest in increasing the ability to secure cardholder data and prevent issues around breaches," he says.

"At the end of the day, the solution will help simplify banks' operations and indirectly reduce costs associated with data breaches," adds Tim Horton, vice president of merchant product management at First Data.

[Read about AJB's partnership with PayPal here.]