If you are transferring payment data, security should be your greatest concern; not only regarding your own information but that of your clients and customers as well. One of the most effective ways to shore up that security is by using tokenized payments. Because you can’t be 100 percent confident of how data is handled once it leaves your organisation – and let’s be clear, fraudsters will be waiting at the weakest link to intercept and make mischief – the onus is on you to ensure the safety of all data you handle.
That’s where tokenized payments come in, and they’re brilliant in their simplicity. Tokenization is a process of encoding sensitive data such as names or account numbers as a string of alpha-numeric code (a token) that is, of itself, meaningless. The source data is stored in highly secure token vaults and because the string means nothing if intercepted, it has no value and is of no interest to criminals.
Sending data in this way reduces risk, secures payment transfers and increases trust between companies and their customers. This is more important than ever given the incredible rise in digital payments, a transformation that was already gaining pace before COVID-19 turbo-charged living, working and shopping online.
By reducing risk, payment tokenization also helps drive the uptake of mobile wallet experiences like Apple Pay for consumers and companies alike. Knowing that data is being securely managed increases confidence which stimulates sales.
The greatest value of tokenization is that it has no value. By replacing sensitive data with a incomprehensible string of code, it becomes utterly worthless to criminals. That in turn makes your company unattractive to hackers and fraudsters who might otherwise try to breach security.
If your business accepts credit and debit cards, you need to consider regulations that frame the retention of sensitive data. However tokenized payments reduces that security burden because there’s less sensitive data being held by your company: names, account numbers and other data never touches your system in the first place.
It goes without saying that insecure systems are targeted by criminal groups, especially those that house, perhaps temporarily, the incredible amount of data that can be scraped from credit or debit cards. Tokenized payments are a firewall between you and thieves because once that data has been encrypted and stored in token vaults, it’s no longer available to be stolen from your company. Less risk for you, and your customers.
Neither business nor consumers will risk their data falling into the wrong hands. Tokenisation shows them that you are committed to preserving the security of their data. In return, they demonstrate their trust in your business through increased loyalty.
New technologies will continue to transform the payment industry, one that is evolving faster than ever before. So too will threats posed by criminal organisations. Tokenization payments help business manage the change, enhance their security measures and position them to take advantage of the boom in online transactions.
