Payment Data Encryption

Payment data encryption is the use of cryptography to turn payment information, such as card numbers, PINs, bank account details and payment instructions, into unreadable form so that only authorised systems holding the right keys can recover it. It protects data in transit, for example between a card terminal and a processor or between a bank and a clearing system, and data at rest in databases and backups. Common techniques include Transport Layer Security for connections, point-to-point encryption from the card reader to the processor, PIN encryption inside secure hardware under PCI PIN security rules, and strong encryption of stored card numbers. Industry standards such as PCI DSS require encryption of card data on public networks and in storage, combined with sound key management. Encryption is often used alongside tokenisation, which replaces sensitive data with substitute values so that it does not need to be stored at all.