Balancing The Need For Payments Safety, Security and Innovation

UL – Underwriters Laboratory, the brand associated with standards of interoperability, safety and reliability in the electrical and building industry since 1894, is bringing its expertise to the payments industry, and in a way that can help innovators in the industry bridge the gap between safety, security and innovation.

UL has been at the forefront of commercializing new technologies by certifying their safety and soundness and creating interoperable standards for nearly 120 years. Payments – and in particular, mobile payments – is their next area of focus. UL recognizes that new advancements in payment transacting promise to make it easier (and more interesting) than ever to pay at the point of sale, but, with that simplicity comes more and more complexity and risk. The need to simultaneously advance and secure technology and to create standards of interoperability around those new technologies is a critical aspect of ignition.

UL has released a brand new report that offers its take on how to do that, along with a few examples of how it has helped players in the industry bridge the safety, security and innovations gap.

For instance, UL scientists have designed a series of advanced simulations in order to test chip security on credit cards. The goal is to “hack” into them, so that they can be made safer and more secure. UL has also developed a unique testing device that enables POS vendors and equipment manufacturers to validate and certify EMV testing to assure that cards can be authenticated securely, but so that they can work across merchants, terminals and countries.

This report also quantifies new data on the cost of not having standards and ensuring the security of new technologies, some of which can be found on the infographic below.

To learn UL’s recommendations on payments safety, security and standards, read the full white paper here.

To access UL’s Transaction Security series, click here.