Introduction
Point-to-point encryption (P2PE) is an established standard for data protection to offer high-class security solutions for transactions that are made in the electronic mode.
Understanding Point-To-Point Encryption (P2PE)
PCI Security Standards Council is responsible for establishing the point-to-point encryption (P2PE). Today, the P2PE is standard security solutions for electronic monetary transactions. In P2PE, the data, which is a part of the transaction, is encoded with the PCI standard. It is done right from the moment the customer’s details are recorded at the point of sale. This encrypted or encoded data is transmitted to the payment processors wherein the encoded data is decrypted, and the transaction is approved.
The P2PE offers an enhanced level of security to make electronic financial transactions. With this highly secured encryption, both customers and merchants are exposed to very minimal risk of financial and personal data being leaked in an electronic transaction.
How Secured if P2PE?
The encrypted data, if leaked, is not readable by third parties. Hence, even if the data breach happens, the data available to third parties will not be of any use to them as they will not be able to decode and understand what it says. The decoding keys are not accessible by any retailer at any point in time.
The P2PE, which is established and managed by the PCI Security Standards Council, is rated higher than any other data security solutions to secure the customers’ data, such as EMV authentication for card-based transactions and tokenization. Hence, when a customer is making an electronic transaction that is backed by P2PE technology, he or she doesn’t need to worry about the risk of being exposed both financially and personally.
The P2PE providers cover solutions for third-party software and hardware encryption. It includes card processors, acquirers, and payment gateways. The P2PE providers are needed to offer unimpeachable and instant service for electronic transactions to sustain their P2PE certification. If they fail to do so, their certification will be withdrawn by the PCI Security Standards Council.
