Stored Profile for Tokenization

Tokenization makes it more difficult for hackers to gain access to credit card data outside of the token storage system. Implementation of tokenization will simplify the requirements storing credit card data since the credit card information is never stored by the merchant.

The User Profile feature allows the merchant to process returning customers without the need to store sensitive and confidential customer information on the merchant’s server. Storing sensitive information requires secure servers, in addition to various certifications. The features include the ability to Add a Profile, Import a Profile, Update a Profile, and Delete a Profile for all your Check or Credit Card transactions.

Some features of using a Stored Profile for Tokenization:

  • Create and Store a Profile.
  • Process Recurring Transactions
  • Process a Transaction Using the Stored Profile.
  • Delete a Stored Profile.
  • Update the Stored Profile.
  • Retrieve a Stored Profile Credit Card Number.
  • Issue Credit using the Stored Profile.
  • Retrieve transaction results of the last transaction.

 

Why should you enable Tokenization for your business?

  • Simplify PCI Compliance – You are concerned with PCI compliance and protecting your customers’ confidential information.
  • Process Recurring Transactions or Usage Charges – You bill your customer’s different amounts or on different days each month, or only when the service is used. (e.g. utility companies or pay-as-you-go cell phones)
  • Store Customer Data – You want to provide returning customers with the convenience of not having to re-enter their personal data every time they visit your Web site.
  • Provide Payment Flexibility – Your customers can store multiple payment methods for repeat purchases.
  • Save Multiple Shipping Locations – Your customers can also save multiple shipping locations.

The Merchant Profile was created for Merchants Such As:

  • Hotels & Travel Reservations
  • Parking Garages
  • Time Shares & Vacation rentals
  • Property Management & Rent Payments
  • Pay Per Minute or Per Occurrence Services
  • Memberships

Other Features of the Merchant Profile System:

  • Process Recurring Transactions – You bill your customers different amounts or on different days each month. (e.g. utility companies)
  • Process Usage Charges – You bill your customers only when the service is used. (e.g. pay-as-you-go cell phones)
  • Simplify PCI Compliance – You are concerned with PCI compliance and protecting your customers” confidential information.
  • Store Customer Data – You want to provide returning customers with the convenience of not having to re-enter their personal data every time they visit your Web site.
  • Provide Payment Flexibility – Your customers can store multiple payment methods for repeat purchases.
  • Process Irregular Recurring Charges – You can charge your customers on a recurring basis when the schedule is not consistent.

PCI Compliance:

  • Protect stored cardholder data by not storing card numbers locally. To reduce the risk of compromise and mitigate its impacts if it does occur, it is important that all entities storing, processing, or transmitting cardholder data be compliant.

 

What Visa Says:

How Tokenization Works

Tokenization defines a process through which PAN data is replaced with a surrogate value known as a “token.” The security of an individual token relies on properties of uniqueness and the infeasibility to determine the original PAN knowing only the surrogate value. As a reference or surrogate value for the original PAN, a token can be used freely by systems and applications within a merchant environment.
Where properly implemented, tokenization allows merchants to limit the storage of cardholder data to within the tokenization system, potentially simplifying an entity assessment against the PCI DSS. As a reference or surrogate value for the original PAN, a token can be used by systems and applications within a merchant environment without having to consider the security implications associated with the use of cardholder data.
The security and robustness of a tokenization system is dependent upon the secure implementation of four critical components, and the overall management of the system and any historical data:

 

  • Token Generation: Defines the process through which a token is generated.
  • Token Mapping: Defines the process for associating a token to its original PAN value.
  • Card Data Vault: Defines the central repository of cardholder data used by the token mapping process.
  • Cryptographic Key Management: Defines the process through which cryptographic keys are managed and how they are used to protect cardholder and account data.

 

Best Practice

The following are best practices for use of tokenization technology to protect cardholder data:

1. Network Segmentation: The tokenization system must be adequately segmented from the rest of the network. The tokenization system must be deployed within a fully PCI DSS compliant environment and be subject to a full PCI DSS assessment.2. Authentication: Only authenticated entities shall be allowed access to the tokenization system.
3. Monitoring: The tokenization system must implement monitoring to detect malfunctions or anomalies and suspicious activities in token-to-PAN mapping requests. Upon detection, the monitoring system should alert administrators and actively block token-to requests or implement a rate-limiting function to limit PAN data disclosure.
4. Token Distinguishability: The tokenization system must be able to identify and distinguish between tokenized and cleartext cardholder data and avoid the propagation of tokens to systems expecting cleartext cardholder data.Note: In accordance with the Visa Best Practices for Data Field Encryption, cardholder data must remain encrypted from the point where it enters an entity”â„¢s system up to the point it is tokenized to achieve the full benefits of a tokenization solution.5. Token Generation: Knowing only the token, the recovery of the original PAN must not be computationally feasible. Token generation can be conducted utilizing either:

  • A known strong cryptographic algorithm (with a secure mode of operation and padding mechanism), or
  • A one-way irreversible function (e.g., as a sequence number, using a hash function with salt or as a randomly generated number)

6. Single-use vs. Multi-use Tokens: Tokens can be generated as a single- or multi-use surrogate value, the choice of which depends largely on business processes:

  • A single-use token should be used when there is no business need to track an individual PAN for multiple transactions. Acceptable methods for producing a single-use token include, but are not limited to, hashing of the PAN with a transaction-unique salt
  • value, using a unique sequence number, or encrypting the PAN with an ISO- or ANSI-approved encryption algorithm using a transaction-unique key.
  • A multi-use token should be used when there is a business need to track an individual PAN for multiple transactions. A multi-use token will always map the same input PAN to the same token. An acceptable method for producing a multi-use token includes, but is not limited to, hashing of the cardholder data using a fixed but unique salt value per merchant.

Conclusion

Visa supports tokenization as a means of replacing Primary Account Numbers (PANs) with non-sensitive surrogate values (known as “tokens”) to eliminate or reduce the storage of cardholder data. Tokenization can be implemented independently or in concert with data field encryption for the protection of cardholder information. To support marketplace adoption of tokenization, Visa has developed best practices to assist merchants and other stakeholders in evaluating and adopting tokenization solutions. These best practices should be viewed as high-level guidance to be considered for any such solution to assist stakeholders in the Visa payment system.

Merchants interested in signing up for a Tokenization Payment Gateway account can contact us at 1-800-757-5453 for more information.

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