Credit Card Processing Info

Old systems become obsolete: What merchants should be aware of

July 22nd, 2009

Are you a merchant who has an out of date PIN pad or terminal? As mandated by card brands, you must replace your existing equipment with Payment Card Industry (PCI) Compliant equipment by July 2010.

According to Verifone and The Green Sheet, more than 500,000 PIN Entry Devices (PEDs) that were manufactured before security certifications were mandatory in the U.S. are going to be unusable after the cut off date. This is occurring to reduce the amount of information compromised from merchants.

You should replace all of your old equipment to protect your customer’s personal information from being stolen due to the fact that you have an unsecure PIN pad and/or terminal. It is very simple for criminals to gain access to this information because the equipment is lacking the proper protection.

As a merchant, I am sure that you do not want to put your loyal customers in jeopardy of having their important information compromised. If you do not have Payment Card Industry (PCI) PED Standard equipment in your store then you will be potentially liable for this sensitive information being stolen.

The easiest way to protect yourself and your customers from having this occur and is to simply order new equipment that has all of the new security certifications installed to eliminate the risk of having a data breach occur.

For more useful information on this important topic, please read The Green Sheet’s article “Pulling the PIN on older systems”. It provides more detailed information and may clear up any questions that you may have.

If you have any questions about this topic, please contact us or your merchant services provider.

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