Secure Payment Peripheral Intermediation for POS Data Isolation
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing point of sale (POS) systems face significant security risks due to unencrypted payment data exposure, leading to potential data breaches and increased liability for merchants, especially smaller ones, despite efforts by security consortiums to enhance payment security.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a Secure Normative Intermediated Payment Processing (SNIPP) system that isolates payment processing peripherals from the POS system, using secure processors to encrypt and manage payment data, and offloads security certifications to payment management systems, providing a unified interface for various peripherals and POS systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If POS systems directly access payment processing peripherals, then system complexity is reduced and ease of operation is improved, but security reliability deteriorates due to unencrypted payment data exposure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a payment management system as an intermediary layer between the POS system and payment processing peripherals. This intermediary handles all communication with payment devices, encrypts payment data before it reaches the POS system, and manages security certifications. The POS system interacts only with the payment management system through standardized interfaces, never directly accessing payment peripherals, thus eliminating unencrypted data exposure while maintaining operational simplicity.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple third-party payment peripherals are integrated into POS systems, then adaptability and versatility are improved, but security reliability worsens due to varied security standards and data breach risks
Solution Approach 1:
The payment management system implements a universal standardized interface that works with multiple types of payment processing peripherals from different vendors. This single interface handles magnetic stripe readers, PIN pads, contactless readers, and other payment devices uniformly. The payment management system maintains security certifications and manages encryption keys centrally, allowing the POS system to support diverse payment peripherals without compromising security or requiring separate integration code for each device type.
3Reliability
If payment data is encrypted at the peripheral level, then security reliability is improved, but device complexity increases due to embedded encryption requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the encryption function from the payment processing peripherals and relocates it to the payment management system. Instead of requiring each peripheral device to have embedded encryption capabilities, the peripherals simply transmit data to the payment management system, which then applies encryption using centrally managed keys. This approach maintains strong encryption security while simplifying the peripheral devices and centralizing security management in the payment management system.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods for secure virtualized intermediated configuration and control of payment processing peripheral devices, as may be embodied in a SNIPP system, are provided. Such systems and methods enable the request of purchaser payment information from payment processing peripheral device(s) on behalf of a POS system and the aggregation and association of that purchaser payment information with a corresponding purchase transaction received from the POS system. The purchase transaction and the payment transaction are aggregated and thereby associated; and the resulting aggregated payment transaction is submitted to an electronic payments processing facility that responds with a confirmation indicating ‘acceptance’ or ‘denial’ of the payment transaction. The confirmation is relayed to the POS system and possibly to the payment processing peripheral device(s) such that it may be displayed to the purchaser and/or an attendant.