Security Tops Retailers’ Wish Lists this Holiday Season

As we enter the biggest retail season of the year, transactions are increasing, as are the numbers of hackers and skimmers — targeting shoppers’ cardholder data. The last thing retailers need to worry about is cyber threats that lead to ransomware or data breaches, as they welcome shoppers and juggle supply chain disruptions. Futurex, a leader in hardened, enterprise-class data security solutions, recommends retailers implement point-to-point encryption (P2PE) to encrypt cardholder data at the point of sale to keep it safe from malware that might be spying on network traffic and capturing credit card numbers. Futurex secures transactions for several of the nation’s largest retailers, protecting shoppers’ sensitive cardholder data and payment information.

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U.S. retail sales now through December are expected to grow 10.5% to a record $859 billion, compared to 2020, according to the National Retail Federation. Meanwhile, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) have warned about the increase of cyber threats, including ransomware, around the holidays. 

“Behind every gift, every purchase, and every payment, retailers and consumers depend on secure transactions to protect payment information,” said Ryan Smith, vice president, global business development, at Futurex. “As the critical security backbone of the global financial ecosystem, we work with the world’s largest retailers and financial institutions to safeguard data in transit and at rest.” 

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The use of hardware security modules (HSMs) in transaction processing is critical, as payment HSMs provide the cryptographic functions needed to support end-to-end data security, including encryption and cryptography key management. In a compliant P2PE environment, sensitive data is encrypted from the point of interaction and decrypted only within the secure boundary of a FIPS 140-2 Level 3 or PCI HSM-validated HSM. Learn more about point-to-point encryption.