Sensitive data can bounce between a dozen applications, networks, payment providers, and other organizations before a transaction is complete. Without adequate protection, every handoff creates another vulnerability. Transaction security helps protect the data across its entire journey, whether it’s standing still or moving across systems.
Key Takeaways
- Transaction security protects sensitive data and helps prevent unauthorized activity as information moves through business and payment transactions.
- Modern transactions send sensitive data across systems, making data in motion an important part of transaction security.
- Encryption, P2PE, tokenization, authentication and access controls, and fraud monitoring can protect transactions at different points in their journey.
- Strong transaction security protects sensitive data throughout its lifecycle, from initial capture through transmission, use, and storage.
- Bluefin combines PCI-validated P2PE, tokenization, and processor-independent technology to protect sensitive data across existing payment environments.
What Is Transaction Security?
Transaction security refers to protecting sensitive data and preventing unauthorized activity during and after a business or payment transaction.
Typically, transaction security relies on a combination of practices and technologies to protect information such as account and payment data, personally identifiable information (PII), and protected health information (PHI). These measures support secure data transfer between systems while preserving transaction integrity so information is not improperly accessed or altered along the way.
Why Transaction Security Matters
Many business processes require transaction security to protect sensitive data as it moves across complex environments.
Transactions Move Across More Systems
Modern transactions often pass through systems operated by different companies, each with its own technical requirements and security controls. These can include payment gateways that transmit transaction information, processors that communicate between merchants and financial institutions, payment service providers (PSPs) that help businesses accept payments, and APIs that connect these services with applications, platforms, and partner systems.
Sensitive Data Is Exposed in More Places
More systems and connections create more places where sensitive information could be exposed. Each connection can add risk if payment data, PII, or PHI isn’t consistently protected.
Trust Depends on Secure Data Movement
Customers and business partners expect organizations to keep sensitive data protected throughout the transaction lifecycle. Regulators may also impose specific requirements for how data is handled and secured.
How Transaction Security Works
Transaction security generally comes into play at the following stages:
Data Capture
Sensitive information enters the transaction, whether through point-of-sale (POS) systems, ecommerce websites and portals, mobile apps, call centers, or APIs. At this stage, security measures typically limit the amount of collected data and protect it as quickly as possible.
Data Transmission
Sensitive data moves across applications and platforms, payment gateways, processors, and partner systems. Security measures at this stage focus on preventing unauthorized interception of data in transit.
Authentication and Authorization
Systems often need to verify the identity of the person, device, or institution making the transaction request through security credentials and other authentication measures.
Data Protection and Storage
If sensitive data needs to be stored after the transaction, security measures can be put into place to protect that data at rest.
Common Transaction Security Risks
Transaction security risks include threats to sensitive data, as well as operational risks from inefficient systems that can increase the cost and complexity of security and compliance. Risks to consider include:
Unprotected Data in Motion
Transaction data often travels between systems and needs to be protected from interception or exposure along the way.
Payment Fraud and Account Takeover
Attackers may use stolen or compromised credentials or create fraudulent identities to access accounts and complete transactions.
API and Integration Risk
Integrations allow transaction data to move between systems, but each connection can also create an additional exposure point.
Third-Party and Partner Exposure
Weak security on the part of processors, gateways, platforms, and service providers can add risk to the larger transaction environment.
Expanding PCI Scope
If cardholder data enters more systems than necessary, more of the organization can fall within PCI scope – the systems, processes, and people that must meet Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements. As PCI scope grows, so can the time and resources needed to manage compliance.
Core Technologies Used in Transaction Security
Transaction security needs vary by industry and the types of data and transactions involved. Technologies widely used include:
Encryption
Encryption protects sensitive data by making it unreadable without the proper key, especially while data is in transit.
Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE)
A payment-specific form of encryption, P2PE makes payment data unreadable from the point of interaction until it reaches a secure decryption environment.
Tokenization
Tokenization replaces sensitive data with non-sensitive tokens that can be used in business workflows without exposing the original value.
Authentication and Access Controls
Authentication verifies that a person, device, or system involved in a transaction is who or what it claims to be, often through passwords, multifactor authentication (MFA), digital credentials, and biometrics. Once authorization is given, access controls determine the type of actions that entity can take in a system.
Fraud Monitoring and Risk Scoring
Fraud monitoring analyzes transaction activity for patterns or behaviors that may indicate fraud or unauthorized activity. One technique is risk scoring, which assigns each transaction a score based on how likely it is to be fraudulent or otherwise risky.
Why Data in Motion Is the Future of Transaction Security
Today, many businesses connect to numerous applications, services, and partner ecosystems that data must move through. Newer payment models create even more connections, from embedded payments built directly into apps to payment orchestration that routes transactions across different processors and providers.
Since sensitive information can be intercepted or exposed as it travels between systems, protecting data only while at rest leaves many gaps. To fully secure transactions, data must be secured even while in motion.
Best Practices for Strengthening Transaction Security
Strong transaction security requires considering the entire path that sensitive data takes:
Protect Data at the Point of Interaction
Encrypt sensitive data at the beginning of the transaction process with P2PE to keep it secure throughout its journey.
Reduce Where Sensitive Data Exists
Accept, use, and store sensitive data only when and where needed to limit the places where it can be exposed.
Secure APIs and Integrations
Protect the connections between systems with strong authentication for applications and services and monitoring activity for suspicious behavior.
Use Tokenization to Support Secure Workflows
If data needs to be reused or stored, tokenize the information so systems can use tokens instead of sensitive data.
Reduce PCI Scope Where Possible
Limit the number of systems that store, process, or transmit cardholder data, and separate that environment from systems that don’t need access to it.
How Bluefin Supports Transaction Security
Bluefin helps organizations protect transactions across their environment without building and managing every part of the security system themselves.
Protect Sensitive Data Before It Moves
Bluefin’s P2PE-as-a-Service model lets organizations integrate encryption-first approaches to security without building and managing their own P2PE programs.
Reduce Exposure Across Transaction Ecosystems
Along with P2PE for payment data, Bluefin provides tokenization for PHI, PII, and other sensitive information and can preserve the format of the data to keep it working in existing systems.
Support Secure Interoperability
Bluefin’s processor-independent architecture can work across different systems, so organizations can protect data without having to replace their existing payment infrastructure.
Reduce PCI Scope and Compliance Burden
Bluefin’s PCI-validated P2PE can keep readable cardholder data out of more systems and networks to dramatically reduce the environment subject to PCI DSS requirements.
Build Transaction Security Around Data in Motion with Bluefin
Effective transaction security shouldn’t require rebuilding payment environments from scratch. Bluefin helps organizations add protection across existing systems and workflows while simplifying the security infrastructure they have to manage themselves.
Learn how Bluefin can help you build a transaction security approach that works across your existing environment.
Transaction Security FAQs
What is the difference between transaction security and payment security?
Transaction security refers to protecting sensitive data and processes in many different types of transactions, while payment security focuses specifically on financial transactions and payment data.
What types of data need transaction security?
Payment data, PII, and PHI are among the most common types, but any sensitive data that needs to be protected from unauthorized access requires transaction security.
Why is data in motion important for transaction security?
Transactions require data to move through systems, and modern transactions can send sensitive information across a number of different applications and networks. To keep that data secure, organizations need to protect it throughout its journey, including as it passes between systems.
How does tokenization improve transaction security?
Tokenization replaces sensitive data with tokens that can be used in place of the original information. Format-preserving tokenization can also create tokens with the same structure as the original data, allowing them to work with applications designed for that data format.
How can organizations reduce transaction security risk?
Organizations can reduce risk by considering the entire path sensitive data takes through a transaction: collecting only the data they need, protecting it as soon as it enters the environment, keeping it protected as it moves between systems, and preventing sensitive data from entering systems that don’t need access to it.
