DTMF Tone-to-Token Platform for Secure Card Data Transmission
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing call center environments face security risks due to the vulnerability of dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones, which can be reverse engineered to reveal sensitive credit card data, posing a threat to Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliance and exposing customers to fraudulent transactions.
Innovation Solution
A system intercepts DTMF tones and converts them into tokens before they reach the merchant system, ensuring secure transmission and compliance by using a tone-to-token platform that generates and transmits tokens instead of clear cardholder data, maintaining customer-agent interaction and workflow efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If DTMF tones are used for data transmission in call centers, then ease of operation and customer-agent interaction are maintained, but security is compromised as tones can be reverse engineered to reveal sensitive cardholder data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a tone-to-token platform as an intermediary between the DTMF tone generation and the merchant system. This platform captures DTMF tones, converts them into tokens, and transmits only the tokens to the merchant system. The intermediary prevents direct exposure of sensitive cardholder data while maintaining the ease of DTMF-based data entry, thus resolving the contradiction between operational ease and security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts the sensitive information from the DTMF tones by converting them into tokens that do not contain the original cardholder data. The tone-to-token platform separates the useful function (data transmission) from the harmful element (exposed sensitive information), keeping only the tokenized representation that maintains functionality without security risks.
2Productivity
If DTMF tones are transmitted to merchant systems, then data transmission functionality is maintained, but PCI DSS compliance scope increases
Solution Approach 1:
The tone-to-token platform serves as an intermediary that reduces PCI DSS compliance scope by preventing sensitive cardholder data from entering the merchant system. By converting DTMF tones into tokens before transmission, the platform ensures that the merchant system only handles tokenized data, thereby maintaining data transmission efficiency while reducing compliance complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the data transmission process into two distinct stages: first, conversion of DTMF tones to tokens by the tone-to-token platform; second, transmission of tokens to the merchant system. This segmentation isolates the sensitive data handling to a controlled environment, reducing the compliance scope for the merchant system while maintaining overall productivity.
3Reliability
If call centers implement enhanced security measures to protect cardholder data, then security is improved, but operational complexity and costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The tone-to-token platform acts as a specialized intermediary that provides enhanced security without requiring complex changes throughout the entire call center system. By concentrating security functionality in this single platform, the patent achieves improved data security while minimizing overall system complexity and avoiding the need for widespread operational changes.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems are disclosed for enabling the generation of a token corresponding to a tone generated by a telephony system, comprising receiving one or more dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) tones generated by a telephony system, generating a token based on the one or more DTMF tones; and transmitting the generated token to a merchant system.