What do you get when you combine a
cloud-based network management company, a payment network services
provider and a data storage and management solution
provider?
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You get PaySecure Connect: a PCI DSS-compliant
payment and communications service for merchants set up by Mako
Networks (cloud-based network management company), Phoenix Managed
Networks (payment network services provide) and InTechnology (data
storage and management solution provider).
Cards International has spoken to
Phil Hambly, group marketing director of InTechnology, Bill Farmer,
CEO and Chris Nation, CEO and commercial manager Europe for Mako
respectively, and John McDonnell, and Alan Stephenson-Brown, CEO
and director (UK & Europe) of Phoenix Managed Networks
respectively.
PaySecure Connect is an end-to-end PCI DSS
compliant service that runs on a Multiprotocol Label Switching
network, often simply abbreviated as MPLS.
MPLS is a standard technology for network
traffic flow speed. It eliminates the need for a data router and
works on the Internet Protocol (IP).
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By GlobalDataAnd this is exactly what PaySecure Connect is
about.
It is a single managed service that
compromises an MPLS network and a PCI-compliant infrastructure that
delivers voice and data services over the same connection.
The PaySecure Connect highlights, according to
the Mako, Phoenix and InTechnology are:
- Instantly makes merchants PCI DSS compliant,
thus reducing the risk of a security breach and the corresponding
fines, - Faster and safer card payments,
- Broadband based, which saves merchants money
on the cost of additional telephone lines, - Data management,
- IP and traditional telephony,
- Internet connection.
PaySecure Connect separates and transmits card
data over an IP network, making transactions and data transmission
safer, the three companies say.
Mako and Phoenix have signed an international
agreement to market the PaySecure solution. Phoenix Managed
Networks, will distribute and operate the customised central
management system and, says InTechnology’s Hambly, as part of
the PaySecure Connect partnership, InTechnology will be the
reseller of the product.
The three companies are targeting Tier 3 and
Tier 4 merchants.
“This merges the cloud, payments and PCI DSS
standards,” says McDonnell. Farmer adds that this is an end-to-end
suit and the modem that comes as part of the service will only work
on the POS that is registered to that particular modem.
This end-to-end suit enables merchants to
substitute legacy payment systems and be compliant with cards
industry standards just by plugging in their POS to the PaySecure
Connect modem, says InTechnology’s Hambly.
McDonnell highlights that the fines merchant
acquirers charge their merchants for every month that the merchant
is not compliant with PCI DSS standards are almost identical to the
monthly payment a merchant would have to pay if they used the
PaySecure Connect service. “So they may as well use it and be
compliant,” he says.
The service will first be launched in the UK
and US simultaneously, but the three partners add that from the UK,
they will look into branching out into the rest of Europe. “For us,
the US spans from Canada to South America,” Farmer adds.
“Obviously the UK is a market to target. But
to be honest if you look anywhere at the moment around the world
there isn’t a PCIDSS Level router solution , so there are markets
open to us. For now, the focus is the UK, US and then possibly the
rest of Europe,” says Mako’s Nation. “I’m actively
investigating a number of countries,” he adds.
The physical appliance is managed through
Mako’s service, which will police PCI DSS on the PaySecure Connect
appliance. And Phoenix routes these transactions back to any number
of bank connections, so there is an intelligent payments network in
the background as well, the companies say.
The companies are trying to encourage
merchants to start using broadband for payments, particularly
merchants with more than one line and more than one card payment
terminal, “so they can actually get rid off the dial up lines,”
they say.
This should create a number of improvements
and business benefits for merchants they say. Phoenix’s McDonnell
says that the challenge for merchants is that by moving into
broadband, they are exposed – possibly more than otherwise- to all
risks that exist on the internet which is what we are
addressing.
According to Hambly, the physical piece of
equipment would typically replace the existing broadband router and
firewall. That creates a secure environment – “it sort of ring
fences the card data environment,” he explains.
But as most merchants have long-standing
contracts with broadband providers, they can also just plug the
PaySecure Connect into their system, so the modem and the PaySecure
Connect service is an additional layer on top of the merchant’s
payment and broadband network.
Phoenix’s Stephenson-Brown says:
“We are not just focusing on the payment, what
we are doing, especially for smaller merchants, is protecting the
other use of the internet from hacking. Rather than just coming
into the merchant store and do payments and that’s it, we are
saying merchants could consolidate a lot of different
technologies.
“For example a merchant could have a dial-up
line, broadband for normal businesses…but if can bring as many of
those together and then a cost benefit typically. But the key thing
of course is ensuring that they are going to be able to meet their
compliance.”
“We are complementary to QSA, because we can
actually feed in information from outside into a QSA portal to
reduce the number of questions and we can integrate into QSA as
well.”
Nation explains:
“We are using the cloud as a way of
managing the PCI DSS environment on the merchant side, so we are
not storing card data. The cloud gives us the ability to securely
manage many thousands of merchants’ sites and enforce PCI DSS in an
economic way for merchants.
“A number of the acquirers would have aligned
themselves to QSA and that QSA would provide consultancy into the
very big merchants – but what they typically do is provide
compliance programmes to try to assist the smaller merchants, in
Levels 3 and 4.
PCI DSS is a journey, not a project. It has to
be continued all the way through. And so we are able to provide
information into those QSA resources and to the bank.”
According to Phoenix’s Stephenson-Brown,
PaySecure Connect is in talks with acquirers, processors,
retailers, and QSA, and telcos.
“All the telcos predominantly offer
services like voiceover IP or managed internet services. They never
offer payment services to their customers, so a deal would be
complimentary to both businesses,” he says.
“We are not saying that we solve PCI DSS,
nobody would say this without distorting the truth, but what we can
do is we can address card presence merchant – some of the most
difficult areas for PCIDSS,” says Mako’s Nation.
