Security Featured Article

As the next version of the Payment Card Industry (PCI (News - Alert)) Data Security Standard (DSS), PCI DSS 2.0, comes up, merchants are on the lookout for new solutions that help them with this standard. Helping them in this cause, Aria (News - Alert) Systems has introduced the Aria Universal Payment Token.

The PCI Security Standards Council is an open global forum for the ongoing development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection.

To enable secure, recurring payment card transactions over the internet, usual SaaS (News - Alert)-based billing and payment solutions rely on a technique known as "tokenization." Tokenization works by replacing entered cardholder data with a surrogate "token." But this leaves merchants "locked in" to a given payment processor as it lacks open standards for tokenization across different payment processors.

“A vendor-neutral, universal approach is the best way for payment card tokenization to be flexible and cost-effective. Aria Systems would like to see the payment card industry create open standards in the future to prevent vendor lock-in and lower costs for customers," said Ed Sullivan, Founder and Chairman at Aria Systems. "Merchants now have a secure, low-cost way to outsource PCI DSS compliance and avoid processor lock-in, excessive processing fees and customer churn.”

Without relying on a payment processor-specific token, the Aria Universal Payment Token approach securely encrypts cardholder data. Without having to recapture all of their clients' payment card information, merchants can easily move between payment processors for better services or lower fees. The solution also provides faster, less expensive alternative by using Aria's cloud-based delivery model as a means to outsource the risk and complexity of compliance, stated Aria in a press release.

In Aug. 2010, the company announced that Lionbridge, a provider of translation, development, and testing solutions, has deployed Aria Platform Enterprise Edition. Dominion Digital, an Aria Certified Systems Integrator Partner, delivered the implementation which provides automated self-service and self-activation for Lionbridge clients in more than 100 countries around the world. Aria Platform Enterprise Edition was selected to power Lionbridge's GeoWorkz.com ecommerce site.