International Verifact Inc., which supplies technology for the point of sale and electronic funds transfer market, introduced a line of terminals to process personal identification numbers at the point of sale. The Sentinel and Sentinel Plus personal identification number pads interact with all POS terminals, without any software or programming changes.
The pads support both current data encryption standards, called Master Session or DUKPT (derived unique key per transaction) security. Master Session uses an internal algorithm with a coded variable for each institution. It requires new variables to be put in the system manually by the host.
The variables remain the same and are seldom changed. DUKPT security, which many expect to be the industry standard in the future, creates a new variable at both the host and the PIN pad for each new transaction. The Sentinel line processes both.
International Verifact is based in Scottsdale, Ariz.
