Verifone

Security
March 10, 2011
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Square CEO takes high-road, downplays VeriFone’s security claims

By on March 10, 2011 at 7:01 PM.

Square CEO takes high-road, downplays VeriFone’s security claims

Yesterday, we told you about VeriFone’s unprovoked, online vendetta waged against mobile-payments startup Square. VeriFone CEO, Douglas G. Bergeron, wrote and open letter to humanity and created a YouTube video declaring that consumers were in “dire risk” because of Square’s card reader. Although the accused company did not respond to requests for comment yesterday, Square’s CEO has published a letter of his own, downplaying VeriFone’s concerns, while taking the proverbial high-road.

“Any technology—an encrypted card reader, phone camera, or plain old pen and paper—can be used to ‘skim’ or copy numbers from a credit card,” writes Jack Dorsey, Square’s CEO. “The waiter you hand your credit card to at a restaurant, for example, could easily steal your card details if he wanted to—no technology required.”

The letter goes on to reassure Square users that the company is “constantly improving the payment experience to enhance security” and that it’s partner bank, JPMorgan Chase, “stands behind every aspect” of the company’s service. Hit the jump to read the full context of the rebuttal. More →

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Security
March 9, 2011
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VeriFone CEO slams mobile payments startup over security concerns [video]

By on March 9, 2011 at 4:35 PM.

VeriFone CEO slams mobile payments startup over security concerns [video]

VeriFone’s CEO, Douglas G. Bergeron, has taken to the Internet to publicly voice his company’s concern with a mobile payments startup named Square. Via a YouTube video and an open letter, Bergeron explains that Square’s reader has a “serious security flaw” that “places consumers in dire risk.” Bergeron and VeriFone’s beef stems from the fact that Square’s reader does not utilize any type of hardware encryption schema when scanning cards. What does this mean? If you were to use a VeriFone card scanner, the information scanned off of a credit card’s magnetic stripe would be encrypted, stored, and transmitted to the desired payment agency for processing. Square’s scanners attach to the 3.5mm audio jack of an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, and scan/store the read credit card information in plain text — making it later viewable by a person(s) running a skimming scam. More →

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Retail
March 5, 2011
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Verifone to include NFC in all new payment systems

By on March 5, 2011 at 8:21 AM.

Verifone to include NFC in all new payment systems

In an attempt to combat what it is referring to as “merchant resistance,” payment solutions company Verifone has taken an unprecedented step with NFC (Near Field Communications) technology. The company will begin to include NFC in all new POS (point-of-sale) systems deployed to merchants. “The retail point of sale represents a point of convergence for smartphone-initiated payments, social networking and electronic couponing, but it won’t happen if retailers are expected, on faith, to absorb the costs of making it work,” said the Verifone’s CEO, Douglas G Bergeron. “We find ourselves at the epicenter of the mobile payments revolution and the key enabler of the integration of new payment methods with the world’s existing payment infrastructure.” Mr. Bergeron does caution that the mere presence of NFC in POS systems does not make a retailer ready to accept touch-less payment, rather it takes “deep software richness at the point-of-sale to interact with the smartphone and manage a services-based model.” The move is sure to have a positive affect on the future adoption rate of NFC, and we applaud Verifone for taking this giant step. More →

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