Following up on our recent blog about terminal of the future, the VX 520, today we’re going to let the other shoe drop. With the payment processing industry thrusting its spotlight onto security in the wake of the Target Data Breach, the PCI DSS and its upgraded protocols are getting a lot of attention.
Host Merchant Services has been ahead of the curve on PCI compliance, having instituted a PCI Compliance Initiative years ago. But the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council is in a continuous state of refining their security requirements and best practices so we here at HMS have to remain agile and adept at navigating these changes.
EMV smart cards, a topic we’ve discussed in depth here, are prompting PCI DSS to reorganize large swaths of its standards, and as a result, retire various terminals. As more and more POS hardware adapts to support EMV chip cards and end to end encryption, manufacturers and software developers will have to put their older equipment out to pasture. With the release of EMV/Contactless terminal applications, many of the legacy terminal devices/applications do not have the memory capacity required in order to support the association mandates. As a result, TSYS has provided a preliminary end of life schedule for credit card terminal applications that will be fully retired.
This is something the PCI DSS has been preparing for, and as such they have a schedule implemented for the retirement of older equipment. Coming up next is the VX 510 Terminal and its VDID300 Application, scheduled for retirement on June 3, 2014. Also the VX 510 and VX 570 and its VXGFT02 Application will be retired that day.
Prior to this date, Host Merchant Services has terminal upgrades available for our merchants. While we will continue to honor merchant boarding for these devices until the effective end of life date, once that occurs these devices/applications will no longer be an option available within our internal systems and downloads will no longer be available for terminal updates, swaps or technical support. So upgrading should be a priority, and Host Merchant Services will make the process seamless and trouble-free.
