Two New US Patents Awarded for Eckoh's Secure Payment Innovation

Recognizing Eckoh's reputation for innovation in secure payment technology, these new patents secure the intellectual property in the US payments solution portfolio

Eckoh plc (AIM:ECK), the global provider of secure payment products and customer contact solutions, has now been granted the two US patents that were pending from November 2017.

The first patent, which was filed in 2012 (US Patent Number US9887966) covers Eckoh's unique tokenization process, which is used in CallGuard, Eckoh's market-leading secure payment solution.

CallGuard automatically replaces card data or other sensitive data such as Social Security Numbers with 'placeholders', prior to it entering an organization's contact center or IT environment. CallGuard can completely de-scope a contact center from a PCI DSS audit as it prevents sensitive card data from ever entering the merchant's environment. This ensures that contact center agents are no longer exposed to customers' payment data and there is no sensitive data stored within the merchant's environment thereby making them vulnerable to a data breach.

Furthermore, with Card Not Present ('CNP') fraud expected to rise to $7 billion in the US by 2020, and more than a third of CNP crime taking place in contact centers, organizations are increasingly at risk if they do not take the necessary steps to protect themselves.

All of Eckoh's CallGuard customers in the United States use either this patented solution or an earlier version of CallGuard, which is covered by a separate patent. Eckoh's secure payment solutions only use software developed in-house and these new patents further expand Eckoh's intellectual property protection.

The second patent (US Patent Number US9892409) is an innovative authentication concept that offers merchants an even more secure way to take a payment on a phone call where it is more difficult to verify that a caller is the genuine cardholder.

Eckoh's new process uses both voice biometrics to authenticate a caller, and a phone 'footprint' to authenticate the caller's mobile device. The dual authentication mechanism increases the merchant's confidence that the caller is the genuine cardholder.

Today, a fraudster may be in possession of stolen card details (including the 3-digit security code on the reverse of most cards), but they are highly unlikely to pass a voice biometric check and also to be calling from the cardholder's own mobile phone. As such, Eckoh's approach, significantly reduces the risk of fraud.

Nik Philpot, Eckoh's Chief Executive Officer, comments, "These two new US patents extend the protection of our intellectual property in the largest market globally and showcase our commitment to continuous and relevant innovation in the secure payment sector. With these patents in place we can ensure that Eckoh remains at the forefront of contact center security and evidences the significant depth of technical talent that we have in the company."

Sources and further reading...

eGUIDE: The Definitive Guide to PCI DSS

eGUIDE: The rise in CNP crime in contact centers

VIDEO: CallGuard - de-scopes your entire call center from PCI DSS

For more information contact MediaResponseUS@eckoh.com