RSA Security to Secure Visa Smart Card Point of Sale Solution

Visa International has integrated RSA BSAFE encryption software into its Visa Smart POS acceptance software solution to enable vendors and merchants to securely authenticate their customers identities, help avoid fraud and meet industry standards for interoperability. Visa selected RSA BSAFE encryption software because of its ability to optimize performance, minimize code size and significantly reduce the development time of Visa Smart POS. Visa Smart POS is point-of-sale (POS) software built into a workstation that is designed to be a computerized replacement for a cash register. Visa Smart POS software was developed with RSA BSAFE Crypto-C Micro Edition to enable Visa to meet EMV interoperability requirements, significantly reduce development time and avoid compromising security for performance. Developed jointly by Europay International (now Mastercard Europe), Mastercard International and Visa International, the EMV standard enables interoperability between chip cards and terminals in payment transactions. Typically, POS device vendors that develop EMV products must invest in time- consuming and expensive software development projects to add EMV functionality. Visa Smart POS was developed to enable immediate and cost-effective EMV smart card acceptance for merchants. Visa Smart POS can be integrated into any new or existing POS terminal to reduce vendor compliance costs and save months in smart card migration time. Visa smart cards have a built-in computer chip that stores more than 100 times the information contained on a traditional Visa card and offers the ability to combine store and discount cards in one. Visa smart cards connect to the Visa Smart POS system to provide real-time information about buying trends and customer preferences to help retailers cut costs, improve service, and make better use of data that stores already collect. The Visa smart card is password-protected to authenticate a transaction and removes responsibility for unauthorized uses, online or off. Visa Smart POS is a platform independent application program interface (API) that provides transaction APIs for someone creating a smart card reader. Numerous interfaces in the Visa Smart POS API are provided with cryptographic implementation from RSA BSAFE encryption software. The Visa Smart POS application uses RSA BSAFE Crypto-C Micro Edition and RSA BSAFE Crypto-J software. The cryptographic operations that need to be implemented include RSA operations (public and private), and SHA-1 hashing. The RSA BSAFE line of encryption software provides all of the components required to make virtually any application safe and secure. Over one billion RSA BSAFE-based applications are currently being used to protect business transactions worldwide, enabling developers to roll out mission-critical applications more quickly and with greater confidence.