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Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) today announced global industry best practices for data field encryption, also known as end-to-end encryption. The best practices are designed to further the payment industry’s efforts to develop a common, open standard while providing guidance to encryption vendors and early adopters. Data field encryption protects card information from the swipe to the acquirer processor with no need for the merchant to process or transmit credit card data in the “clear.”

“While no single technology will completely solve for fraud, data field encryption can be an effective security layer to render cardholder data useless to criminals in the event of a merchant data breach,” said Eduardo Perez, global head of data security, Visa Inc. “Using encryption as one component of a comprehensive data security program can enhance a merchant’s security by eliminating any clear text data either in storage or in flight,” he added.

In addition to issuing encryption best practices, Visa has led efforts to develop a much needed industry data field encryption standard as chair of the ANSI X9F6 standards working group. Establishing industry wide standards are essential for ensuring that emerging encryption solutions are open, consistent and enable merchant choice. X9 is the ANSI accredited committee for financial services that is focused on “standardization for facilitating banking operations.” Membership includes financial institutions, vendors, insurance companies, associations, retailers and regulators.

“Given the interest expressed by merchants and processors, guidance from the card brands is a critical determinant in figuring out how to move ahead with encrypting data in transit, especially absent a global standard,” said Avivah Litan, Vice President and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner Inc. “Companies should also be aware that if data is decrypted anywhere in their system, they are still at risk for a data breach.”

Source: Visa