Ruston Miles, founder of Bluefin, recently spoke to CardRates.com to discuss the evolution of payment processing, and the challenges that were brought on by the evolution of e-commerce and the subsequent boom.
As the internet evolved through the 2010s, Bluefin adapted to new challenges, notably the rising concerns about payment security highlighted by high-profile breaches like Target’s in 2013. In response, Bluefin became the first North American payment gateway to introduce validated point-to-point encryption (P2PE) as well as the vaultless ShieldConex® tokenization solution to protect sensitive data including PII and PHI.
This vaultless solution improved security by encrypting data, which is sent back to merchants, with Bluefin retaining the decryption key, ensuring both security and efficiency. Miles explained the costs and impracticality of a vaulted tokenization system.
“Merchants pay an entry fee every time they put a new piece of information in the vault, but they also pay a rental fee for the aggregate. Data unused for weeks, months, years, and even decades contribute to the rental fee cost. What that means is you’re constantly trying to work out what to keep and discard because your vault costs just go up and up. If you’ve been in business for ten years, you’re paying hundreds of thousands monthly for vault data you don’t need as often.”
With Bluefin’s vaultless solution, the key stays with Bluefin with an agreement to decrypt it on demand. It works with any processor — and Bluefin works with all of them.
Bluefin’s vaultless tokenization and ShieldConex Proxy Service provide merchants with flexibility, allowing them to switch processors without the risk of being locked into costly contracts. This model offers a significant advantage over traditional vault-based systems, addressing the issue of processor lock-in and ensuring that merchants can easily manage and protect their payment data.
“ShieldConex encrypts data for local storage to lower costs, provides fast PCI compliance, and links merchants, software providers, and payment processors in a seamless web through the ShieldConex Proxy Service. Bluefin protects payment data for more than 35,000 connected companies in 59 countries worldwide.”
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