MagTek, Inc. Responds to the Recent Spate of Cardholder Data Breaches

Seal Beach, CA (PRWEB) February 10, 2014

MagTek, the world’s most prolific supplier of secure payment technology, announced that it will provide free response to merchant inquiries of the nation’s largest authentic card information database. The recent breaches of cardholder data at numerous merchant sites prompted MagTek to share its treasure trove of magnetic fingerprints with the merchant community and law enforcement agencies.

MagTek provides secure card reader/authenticators to merchants worldwide. Cardholder data is encrypted immediately upon contact with the magnetic head and is instantly tokenized by these readers. These two prevention measures alone could have successfully thwarted the criminals who planted malware on cash registers of unsuspecting merchants. MagTek nonetheless contends breach prevention by itself is not adequate and that real-time counterfeit detection is a much more powerful weapon in a war on fraud. MagTek advocates a more holistic view of security, combining multiple layers of technology to actually deprive the fraudsters of a Return on Investment.

How? By employing end-point dynamic authentication technologies and a global registry of magnetic stripe fingerprints, or MagnePrints.

The Global MagnePrint Exchange is housed at Magensa LLC, a subsidiary of MagTek. Magensa provides decryption, tokenization, dynamic authentication, device management and payment gateway services to a wide variety of merchants and processors. Over the past year it has harvested and stored the magnetic fingerprints of millions of cards that passed through its gateway. These fingerprints are nature made and are unique to each magnetic stripe card. A query to the Global MagnePrint Exchange gives the retailer authoritative risk management information about the card itself. If the card is a clone or counterfeit, a red flag alert is reported to the merchant. Conversely, a genuine card reports a green flag.

Armed with this knowledge, retailers can deny criminals the fruits of their labor. Breaches harm all retailers; not just those that experience a break-in, but every other merchant site where stolen data is used to make future fraudulent purchases. A free query to the Global MagnePrint Exchange can stop fraud in real time.

Annmarie Hart, MagTek's CEO said, "With or without EMV, PCI is not working. It's an expensive set of rules focused on compliance, rather than fraud reduction. Our system accepts the fact that skimming cannot be prevented and takes measures to detect and alert merchants to the presence of cloned cards. We are pleased to offer this "query for free" service to merchants and law enforcement agencies, so as a community we can turn the tables on the criminals and put them out of business."

For more information about MagTek, Magensa, or the Global MagnePrint Exchange, please contact Andy Deignan, VP Global Marketing and Strategy, MagTek, Inc. at 562-546-6603 or by email at andy(dot)deignan(at)magtek(dot)com.

About MagTek
Founded in 1972, MagTek is a leading manufacturer of electronic systems for the reliable issuance, reading, transmission and security of cards, checks, PINs and identification documents. Leading with innovation and engineering excellence, MagTek is known for quality and dependability. Its products include secure card reader/authenticators, encrypting check scanners, PIN pads and distributed credential personalization systems. These products are used worldwide by financial institutions, retailers, and processors to provide secure and efficient payment and identification transactions.

Today, MagTek continues to innovate. Its MagneSafe™ hardware architecture leverages strong encryption, secure tokenization, dynamic card authentication, and device/host validation enabling users to assess the trustworthiness of credentials and terminals used for online identification, payment processing, and high-value electronic transactions.

MagTek is headquartered in Seal Beach, CA. For more information, please visit http://www.magtek.com

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