Financial Remote Key Loading

Document description

We all depend on encryption keys in one way or another. While few people outside the payments industry are aware of this, anytime you present your payment card at a Point of Sale (POS) terminal or use an ATM, an encryption key quickly goes to work to encrypt the PIN or the primary account number (PAN) associated with your card. This encryption obscures the data and protects against information theft as the transaction is sent back to the card issuer for validation. For this process to work, an encryption key must be securely loaded into that endpoint device, whether it be an ATM, a POS terminal, or a commercial off-the-shelf device used for payment acceptance.