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Sometimes powerful things come in small packages. Take Square Reader, the “little white card reader” known and loved by millions of businesses globally. Many are aware of its compact design and portability. Others know about its ability to accept all major card and mobile payments. What some don’t realise is that Square Reader comes equipped with the top safety and security features to protect your business and prevent fraud. Read on to find out four ways Square Reader puts your security first.
End-to-end encryption for every single payment
Square Reader keeps payment information safe by encrypting it as soon as it’s received. Whether the payment is EMV chip + PIN, or contactless, Square follows the appropriate protocols to make sure the data stays secure. We then continue to monitor your money until it’s transferred safely to your bank account.
There are multiple layers of encryption for any transaction using Square Reader:
- The payment card details are encrypted in the card’s EMV chip
- The contactless transfer of information between the card’s chip and the reader is encrypted on any tap payment.
- If the cart is inserted into Square Reader, that information transfer is also encrypted.
There’s no chance of card skimming
Card skimming is the criminal act of stealing card data by interfering with the EFTPOS payments terminal in a business. With some of the bulkier, less sophisticated payment terminals and devices on the market, card skimming is a real threat. Not so with Square Reader. Each Square Reader device is security hardened. This means that card skimming techniques typically used – like installing a card skimming device – are not possible.
If a criminal ever attempts to steal your Square Reader to open it up and modify it, the Square Reader will be instantly disabled. So you and your team can breathe a sigh of relief knowing that even if your Square Reader is stolen or misused, there’s no way for card data to be accessed from it.
Fraud protection is built in
When you take a payment using Square Reader, Square acts as the merchant of record automatically. This means that Square does all the heavy lifting for you when it comes to fraud prevention, compliance and processing. This also means that if there is a payment dispute for any reason, Square steps in so you don’t have to deal with the bank. All you need to do is provide the transaction details and Square does all the rest.
Square monitors each transaction made on Square Reader to watch out for any suspicious behaviour from the moment it is processed to settlement. Square uses fraud–detection algorithms to spot and freeze malicious or suspicious activity. We’re looking out for you and your customers at each step. What’s even better is that as Square grows and transactions accumulate across Australia and the world, our data set continues to become even more advanced.
Plus, Square Reader is PCI compliant
PCI compliance is an important security consideration for any business that deals with customer and payment data. Put simply, if you accept card payments, then you need to be PCI compliant if you want to prevent credit card fraud.
So what does it mean? PCI-DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) are industry-accepted measures that help merchants safely and securely accept, store, process and transmit cardholder data (aka your customers’ credit card information) during a transaction. For example, as a PCI compliant company, all Square apps undergo strict security checks that prevent any possible modifications. As a result, phones that are rooted or insecure are not compatible with Square software.
PCI compliance includes a series of protections and encryption measures. The PCI standards are overseen by the PCI Security Standards Council which has representation from the world’s major credit card companies including Visa and Mastercard.
As with all of Square’s payments and POS hardware, Square Reader is built to protect you and your customers’ data at every step. From hardware security locks through to online payment encryption, you can be assured that though Square Reader is small and affordable, it packs a powerful security punch.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute professional advice. For specific advice applicable to your business, please contact a professional.
