Mastercard announced about its intention to enhance security of mobile and online purchases via implementation of tokenization technology in its digital wallet MasterPass, PaySpaceMagazine reports.
This step means that upon the request of issuer banks Mastercard will replace personal account numbers of holders of debit, credit, prepaid and business cards, which are kept in MasterPass, with security token – 16-digit number, representing an encrypted version of the card number.
This service will become available for US MasterPass users next year, following which it will expand into all the markets, where Mastercard digital payments are available.
Ed McLaughlin, the Mastercard Chief Emerging Payments Officer, stated: “Implementing tokenization in Mastercard, we create a “secure digital flow” directly from their banks, which can be connected through mobile and online banking tools, familiar to them. In cooperation with partner banks we create the easiest and most secure payment option so far.”
Tokenization is the technology, which allows to secure payments by using a data encryption system. Paying by card, the customer transfers his payment details to the seller in the encrypted version – as a token, which looks like a random digit dialing. Even in case of intercepting a token by swindlers, it will be absolutely useless, as it does not reflect any important information for anyone, except for the issuer bank.
