Intel Makes Retail Payments More Secure With New IoT Security Tool

Intel has announced the release of an Internet of Things (IoT) tool which is designed to help retailers fight the growing problem of data theft.

The computing giant unveiled Intel Data Protection Technology for Transactions at an event in London, hailing the release as the first product to provide end to end security for consumer and financial data, and hopefully a landmark in getting IoT solutions into a retail environment.

Following several recent high-profile customer data breaches, shoppers are becoming reluctant to share their details with retailers, a trend which can be reversed using Intel’s new tool, Intel’s director of mobility and payment security Michelle Tinsley (pictured below) said.

Safe and sound?

Developed with consumer transaction technologies specialist NCR, the service is able not only to protect payment data such as credit card numbers, but can also be used to prevent the theft of other types of data which might be part of a transaction, such as ID cards.

The service works by adding in an extra layer of software below a retailer’s point of sale (POS) terminal to protect the payment process. Stored on an Intel Galileo chipset, the software establishes a secure and encrypted ‘pipeline’ connection between the transaction endpoint, POS system and server networks.

This is able to securely carry consumer information without having to put data at risk from a potentially compromised POS terminal.

Intel says it is compatible with all the leading credit and debit card payment provides, and works with all leading authorisation, tokenisation and other data protection technologies, including NFC technology and digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

The client software is available for retailers now, with the full solution based on Intel Data Protection Technology for Transactions will be available to retailers in the first half of next year.

“This solution introduces a significant improvement in today’s retail transaction data protection without costly hardware upgrades, and provides retailers a path for adopting new Internet of Things technologies,” Tinsley added.

“It also sets the stage to expand to other industries such as financial services, healthcare or even government agencies.”

Research carried out by Intel found that enterprise businesses spent $114bn dealing with malware-related cyberattacks in 2013.

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