Security Assurance Network Isolating Payment Data
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Solution Overview
Problem
Merchant enterprises face high costs and compliance challenges in managing cybersecurity risks and adhering to standards like PCI DSS, particularly in isolating and securing sensitive data during e-commerce transactions, which can lead to increased liability and audit burdens.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a security assurance network that isolates sensitive data through a secure webpage, using a hashing server to validate the integrity of the enterprise webserver and establishing a secure communication path, thereby shielding the client workstation from sensitive data entry and ensuring compliance with PCI DSS without subjecting it to an RCA audit.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If merchant enterprises implement PCI DSS compliance measures to secure sensitive data, then security reliability is improved, but device complexity and compliance costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the e-commerce architecture into distinct zones: a public-facing enterprise webserver handling general transactions, and a isolated security assurance network containing only the security webserver that handles sensitive cardholder data. This segmentation allows the majority of the system to remain simple while isolating compliance requirements to a minimal necessary scope.
Solution Approach 2:
The security webserver is extracted from the traditional monolithic e-commerce server architecture. By taking out the sensitive data handling function and placing it in a dedicated, isolated security webserver, the system removes compliance complexity from the main enterprise infrastructure while maintaining security requirements where absolutely necessary.
2Reliability
If merchant enterprises isolate sensitive data through secure webpages, then security reliability is improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The security webserver acts as an intermediary component that sits between the public internet and the sensitive data processing functions. It receives requests from the enterprise webserver, handles only the necessary security-related operations for cardholder data, and returns results without exposing the rest of the system to compliance requirements.
3Reliability
If merchant enterprises use hashing servers to validate webserver integrity, then reliability is improved, but loss of time increases
Solution Approach 1:
The hashing server performs integrity validation of the enterprise webserver in advance of processing transactions. By conducting this validation beforehand and maintaining a state of verified trust, the system avoids repeated time-consuming validation checks during each transaction, thus reducing overall processing delays while maintaining high reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure describes techniques that enable a security assurance network to secure entry of sensitive payment data associated with a merchant transaction. A security assurance webserver is configured to receive order context data associated with the merchant transaction, and selectively establish a secure webpage on the client workstation that overlays a presentation of a merchant webpage. The security assurance webserver may receive encrypted payment data via the secure webpage for transmission to an application server within a security assurance network, and in response, facilitate a processing of the payment data via the application server. In turn, the application server may transmit a payment message indicating whether the payment data was successfully processed.