Verifone Inc. has been awarded a U.S. patent on technology that protects point-of-sale terminals and unattended payment devices from card skimming, a move that comes as estimates indicate skimming losses grew 5% last year, reaching approximately $1 billion in the U.S. market.
In skimming attacks, bad actors use hard-to-detect devices they insert into the card slot of a payment device or ATM to pick up account data related to the card.
The data can then be used in the creation of fake cards, a crime that is hard to detect, while longstanding preventive measures such as physical seals, sensors, or manual inspections “can be bypassed by an attacker who knows where to look,” according to Verifone.
“Instead of asking a terminal to detect a specific type of attack, we asked it to autonomously recognize when its own physical environment has changed in a suspect or unnatural way,” says Will Morgan, Verifone’s chief information security officer, in a statement.
Related: Stablecoins gain ground in daily spending
The new detection technology, called Wireless Tamper Detection, is aided by the radio capability already installed in many more recent payment terminals, says New York City-based Verifone, which enables the anti-skimming technology to be installed without the need for additional hardware.
Verifone says the patent number for the device is 12,664,553, and the technology can be provided through software rather than requiring hardware, because most modern payment terminals already feature radio capability.
This approach enables Verifone to offer the technology to its clients without requiring significant upgrades or new equipment, making it a more practical solution for businesses.
Verifone, founded in 1981, commands an estimated 30% share of the U.S. retail POS terminal market, and was acquired by Francisco Partners in 2018 for $3.4 billion.
They offer a more proactive approach to preventing skimming attacks, which could potentially reduce the financial losses associated with these crimes.
Related: Healthcare Payments Industry Faces Perception Crisis
It will be important to see how Verifone’s technology is adopted and whether it becomes a standard feature in point-of-sale terminals, as they move forward with their security solutions.
SUNMI, a Singapore-based POS technology provider, announced software that enables merchants to attend to ordering and other tasks on a main terminal while accepting contactless transactions on a separate device, expanding its SoftPOS platform.
The company aims to add contactless-payment capability to a greater range of commercial payment devices, and some 24% of POS providers offer softPOS, up from 16% in 2025, according to TSG, an Omaha, Neb.-based payments-research firm.
This trend is expected to continue, with more merchants adopting contactless payment solutions in the near future.
Leave a Reply