Protecting credit card payments
06 July 2010
A new device will protect consumers and banks from losing millions each year through fraud.
Theft of customer payment data exchanged over the telephone could soon be a thing of the past thanks to a simple device developed in less than two months by British company Veritape.
Security industry sources have told Veritape that there have been ten major audio data thefts in the last year alone. This data can apparently be easily searched in order to find card numbers and security codes.
The CallGuard device solves what has appeared to be a near-insurmountable technical problem for call centres, with other solutions taking months or years to implement and potentially costing millions of pounds. In contrast, CallGuard can be set-up within hours.
Industry rules make protection and non-storage of credit card details a mandatory requirement for call centres, but despite this, most call centres are in breach of the guidelines. A recent study by Veritape identified 93% non-compliance amongst UK call centres due to the complexity and cost of compliance.
“The ‘eureka moment’ came during a company away-day, amidst the flip charts and whiteboards,” states Cameron Ross, Managing Director of Veritape. “Businesses have been searching for a solution to the problem of protecting customer data given in over-the-phone transactions for years, without a massive overhaul of processes and systems. We’ve worked out a simple and affordable way of achieving that. This is especially relevant where a company has already invested thousands of pounds in a call recording system, only to later find that it does not comply with Payment Card Industry (PCI) regulations. The beauty of Veritape CallGuard is that it is ‘plug and play’ technology – there is no complicated or expensive integration with current systems, it simply ‘bolts on’ to the existing set-up. In pre-launch discussions with several leading call centres, all have virtually committed to buying our product. We believe that there will be a global market for our new box of tricks.”
CallGuard works by doing two key things. Firstly, it detects and blocks the ‘DTMF’ tones, the sounds produced when keying in a number. By doing so it prevents any storage of the numbers being communicated by the customer. At the same time it automatically enters these card details into password style fields, which themselves are obscured with asterisks or similar characters. The technology is built into a box the size of a shoe box, with an additional small USB device per workstation. It can also work internationally, protecting calls made to off-shore call centres. Veritape have taken the concept from idea to implementation in just two months.
Ross added: “Data theft is literally an everyday occurrence, costing billions worldwide every year, and yet an amazing 93% of companies operating call centres are currently non-compliant with industry standards on the exchange and storage of credit card details. CallGuard plugs a very large hole in data security and removes any risk to the customer by shielding the data from potential fraudsters.”
CallGuard is fully compatible with any call recording system. It ensures that recorded telephone conversations are fully compliant with the PCI regulations. The PCI Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) are the international guidelines governing credit card transactions. For larger call centres, introduction of the new technology could also have a positive commercial impact in securing them lower/discounted charges with their banks for operating a PCI compliant environment.
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