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Next year will be a defining moment in how the payments industry addresses protecting cardholder data, according to Robert Carr, CEO of Heartland Payment Systems Inc. In a keynote speech at the ATM Debit & Prepaid Forum hosted by SourceMedia in Las Vegas this week, Carr continued to throw his support behind an end-to-end encryption system that would encrypt cardholder data from the moment the card is swiped at the point of sale until it reaches the networks or card issuers. "There are current and realistic opportunities to improve security and there has been a lot of cooperation among industry stakeholders. Heartland needs to look at the whole industry, not just our proprietary part of it," Carr told CardLine sister publication ATM&Debit News after the speech. Heartland is currently developing an end-to-end encryption system. Carr also continued to support the mission of The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, which administers the PCI Data Security Standard. "PCI DSS is a good system and required by the industry," Carr said during the speech. At the moment, Visa Inc. is the only card association that has given its merchants guidance if they choose to implement data security measures that go beyond the standards. Encryption is not required by the PCI Council, though the organization currently is attempting to make encryption's definition more clear. Two payment card brands, one widely believed to be Visa, are supporting Heartland's encryption efforts. "The two brands that support us have been very receptive and we believe that as soon as we have our product live, we'll have the cooperation of the other brands," Carr said. SourceMedia publishes CardLine.
