Semafone, a provider of data security and compliance solutions for contact centers, today announced that its Cardprotect secure payment solution is now available in the cloud for the U.S. market.
In addition, Semafone today introduced Rushmore, a hybrid cloud that allows contact centers to experience the cloud while keeping their telephony systems on-premises.
"As Semafone grows rapidly in the North American market, there is an increasing desire from customers for a wider variety of deployment options," said Gary Barnett, CEO of Semafone, in a statement. "Now, our U.S. customers enjoy the greatest level of flexibility and choice with the richest set of features. Whether they choose pure cloud, a hybrid model, managed appliance, or on-premises, with Cardprotect, organizations can quickly and easily descope their contact centers from [the Paument Card Industry's Data Security Standards], while simultaneously strengthening data security and reducing the risk of data breaches and fraud."
Cardprotect enables contact centers to securely take payments over the phone using dual-tone multi-frequency (DTMF) masking. Customers simply enter their payment card numbers or other numerical personally identifiable information (PII) using their telephone keypads. The DTMF tones are masked with flat tones so sensitive data is never exposed to customer service representatives or eavesdroppers, captured on call recordings, or entered into non-payment aspects of the organization's information systems. The payment card data is encrypted and securely routed directly to the PSP for processing, keeping this sensitive data out of the contact center’s business infrastructure entirely. CSRs remain on the line in full voice communication with the customer throughout the transaction.
By deploying Cardprotect in the cloud, contact centers can reduce the number of PCI DSS requirements they must report on to prove compliance – from more than 400 requirements down to just six. Moreover, they can take advantage of a fast and frictionless deployment with flexible scaling options for seasonal variability in the number of channels and transactions being processed. Cardprotect works with any telephony carrier.
"Protecting sensitive payment data and maintaining PCI DSS compliance is complex, costly, and time-consuming for contact centers, but by offloading the infrastructure and network architecture onto Semafone in the cloud, organizations are reducing their operating costs and removing the contact center from the scope of PCI DSS assessments completely," Barnett said. "Moreover, by keeping payment card data out of these environments, businesses reduce the risk of their brands being targeted by hackers and fraudsters or suffering a brand damaging data breach."