Page 1 - GS210401

April 12, 2021 • Issue 21:04:01

Hardware-grade security for

digital commerce – Part 1

Hardware's digital journey
Hardware's digital journey began with unplugged devices
that used batteries instead of AC plugs and sockets and
cellular networks instead of phone lines. It continued with
portable Wi-Fi-enabled products and virtual terminals on
computer screens that were pixelated renderings of coun-
tertop devices. Payments industry veterans who worked
with these early models occasionally reminisce about trans-
porting equipment, looking for cellular and Wi-Fi hotspots,
and recharging batteries.

Ferne Glemby, president at CardPlus Empower LLC, de-
scribed setting up a mobile terminal in a theater lobby in
1999. The hefty Hypercom T77 terminal with car battery
on a rolling cart was among the few options for processing
ticket sales during high-traffic ballet season, she recalled.

"We pieced together mobile terminals, car batteries and
manual imprinters that we used to call knuckle-busters,"
By Dale S. Laszig Glemby said. "I felt like I was back in the 1990s when I re-
cently showed a merchant how to use a knuckle-buster."
ardware remains integral to electronic transac-
tions but is no longer the face of payments.
Consumers aren't always marching single file
H to checkout stations to perform practiced rou-
tines. Hardware-dominant systems are acquiescing to Contributed articles inside by:
softer payment methods. Commerce is becoming more
nuanced, more of a dance than a march, with the consum- Jane Lee ...................................................................................................20
er, not the device at center stage. John Tucker ............................................................................................30

As hardware moves from a leading to supporting role in Max Miller ................................................................................................32
payments, how will solution providers bring the same
level of machine-driven PIN entry and point-to-point en- Roger McNamara ..................................................................................33
cryption (P2PE) security to the digital world of online, mo- Jeff Fortney .............................................................................................34
bile and in-app commerce? In this series, payments leaders
discuss how advanced technologies are bridging the gap Simon Fairbairn .....................................................................................35
between physical and digital security.
TOC on page 3

Continued on page 27