End to end encryption (abbreviated E2E) is the process of encrypting payment card data at the magnetic stripe reader or “at the point of swipe.”  The advantage of E2E is that the card data does not persist on the POS system.  Without E2E encryption, card data is swiped into the POS through the mag stripe reader in clear text at which point the data is encrypted or d by the POS.  There is a split second where the data is not encrypted and that’s all data thieves need. Mercury’s end-to-end encryption product facilitates secure card present transactions for E2E encrypted devices. End-to-end encryption reduces the number of systems handling sensitive card data. When an encrypted card reader is used, sensitive cardholder data is removed from the payment application and the merchant's’s PCI efforts are simplified.

 

Encrypting cardholder data at the time of swipe and throughout the transaction renders the data useless to thieves. Since cardholder data is never exposed or available in the clear past the point of swipe, P2PE significantly reduces the risk of a card data compromise by reducing the opportunity an attacker has to steal clear-text data from their environment.

 

 

Prerequisites