Diebold recently installed a triple-DES solution at the Anheuser-Busch Employees' Credit Union as part of a system-wide upgrade. The credit union is the first Diebold customer to achieve end-to-end, Triple-DES compliance in an ATM network.
   ABECU's new Triple-DES capability enhances data security for its members and brings the credit union into compliance with upcoming requirements that all ATMs tied into the Visa or MasterCard networks be Triple-DES compliant by April, 2005. The Triple Data Encryption Standard, or Triple-DES, is a higher level of encryption used to better protect electronically transmitted data like personal identification numbers.
   ABECU's primary goal in their recent network upgrade was to take advantage of Postilion's advanced transaction processing system that is based on the Microsoft Windows operating system. By implementing Mosaic's Postilion and Thales' HSMs, they also achieved triple-DES compliance while greatly expanding their ATM network functionality.

   ID Verification, a new service available to Paymentech merchants via a strategic alliance with ChexSystems, Inc., provides online, real-time customer authentication for electronic check transactions in an attempt to battle fraud. Paymentech is making the service available to merchant customers who process transactions via the Internet and telephone, where fraudulent transactions are most likely to occur.
   "It basically brings more security to the merchant, because it provides the ability to verify the same information that a merchant would check in a face-to-face purchase," said Larry De Palma, Paymentech's Director of Product Management for Electronic Transactions.
   During a transaction, Paymentech compares customer's information, including name, address and phone number, as well as the check's routing and account numbers, to existing information in ChexSystems' verification databases. Once the information is compared, the service sends back a code that immediately notifies the retailer if the information is valid ­ or not.
   In addition to avoiding improper transactions, merchants using ID Verification have the added advantage of stopping attempts to open accounts with incorrect and outdated information. ID Verification also pinpoints information that is a potential fraud risk, like fake addresses, mail drops, nursing homes, hotels and prisons.
   Paymentech also recently introduced a new service, NetConnect, which provides a secure, direct Internet connection to Paymentech's authorization center. This can reduce the average processing time from 10-15 seconds, for a dial-up connection, to three seconds.
   NetConnect provides all merchants a username and password to prevent unauthorized transactions, including refunds, from being processed against their merchant account, giving added protection that a typical DSL connection does not provide.

   MasterCard International recently introduced a new debit MasterCard card identifier. The updated card standards require MasterCard debit issuers in the United States to use a new debit MasterCard hologram which features the word "debit" in the hologram within the MasterCard identification area. The requirements apply to U.S. issued MasterCard-branded consumer signature debit, stored-value, electronic benefits transfer, prepaid and payroll cards.
   The approach provides a "clear and conspicuous" method to identify debit MasterCard cards, in line with requirements of the recent settlement of a lawsuit brought against MasterCard and Visa by merchants in the United States.
   MasterCard debit issuers and card manufacturers are required to adopt and implement the new hologram design-standard beginning January 1, 2004, and may do so sooner if they choose. Based on the settlement, debit card issuers are required to have 80% of their cards re-issued with a new "debit" identifier by July 1, 2005, 100% by January 1, 2007.
   The new debit card identification standards do not affect Maestro, MasterCard International's PIN-based debit brand, or debit MasterCard BusinessCard programs.

   Just because a credit card holder appears to be from a government agency, merchants need to keep an eye out for fraudulent purchases. In September, the Government Accounting Office found that U.S. Forest Service workers made $1.6 million in fraudulent purchases.
   In some cases, workers who left the agency still had active cards, according to the GAO.

   Eye-D-Signature Inc., New York, a software developer of security and biometrics recently unveiled two new software products that it guarantees will eliminate card fraud for users, issuers and merchants.
   Eye-D-Signature guarantees that with the use of its products a cardholder's card and identification (ID) are completely fraud free. This software, Certificate for Fraud Detection and Certificate for Detection TOO, uses biometrics technology that provides authentication of the person that is making the purchase(hand signature and face recognition authentication).