Success Stories

PCS makes smooth entry into the secure gift card market; Bank Card Security System leads the way

Prime Factors' software and consulting expertise helped Premier Card Solutions (PCS) make a smooth entry into the secure card personalization market. PCS, a large-scale card manufacturer, was new to the secure card manufacturing process when it signed a contract to provide security codes for network branded gift cards.

Premier Card Solutions has the capacity to produce 700 million plastic cards a year, but had no experience creating card security codes like CVVs and CVCs that are mandated by Visa®, MasterCard®, Discover® and American Express®.

Some secure card manufacturers develop custom code to create security codes. However, custom programming is complex because of the requirements to develop an integrated key management system and to interface with a hardware device (in this case a Thales HSM 8000). PCS' Chris Erickson, Director of Information Technology, didn't have the time, staff or expertise to tackle the project. Instead, he selected Prime Factors' Bank Card Security System (BCSS).

"We really needed help because of our unfamiliarity with the secure personalization process," Erickson said. "Prime Factors had the knowledge of the process, and software that already does everything. I wanted to go with experience."

Industry Leaders Use BCSS
BCSS customers include some of the largest secure personalization bureaus and card issuers in the business. Since 1981, Prime Factors has offered middleware (BCSS and its predecessor) that simplifies secure card creation and processing. BCSS is a lower-cost alternative to the custom programming ordinarily required to implement key management, and to create card security codes and PINs. Issuers and acquirers rely on BCSS to keep them current with the latest security standards for different types of plastic media: magnetic-stripe cards, chip cards and contactless cards.

BCSS supports a range of platforms from PCs to mainframes. Premier Card installed the Windows version of BCSS. Erickson has been impressed with BCSS' functionality and usability.

"The BCSS client is extremely user friendly," Erickson said. "It's very straightforward. BCSS simplified what was a very intimidating situation. It was really easy to pick up."

Knowledge Transferred to PCS
Prime Factors' consultant Mary Still went on site to train and coach members of the Premier Card team. Initially it was a challenge for PCS to understand cryptographic terminology and key management procedures such as assigning portions of the key value to different people who are then physically responsible for entering their portion of the key into BCSS. After a slow start, the team learned quickly and the implementation was completed in three days.

"The training and consulting went really well," Erickson said. "Once we pulled the trigger and started planning the implementation, Mary was a great help in getting everyone organized before she came on site.

"When you are first exposed to handling the data in a secure way, it is a bit daunting. Also, we really struggled with key management. But once Mary got on site, everything was far less intimidating."

Key Management Simplified
A significant benefit of BCSS is that it provides a user-friendly interface and secure storage of all the keys required for secure issuing and authorization processes. BCSS and the Thales HSM 8000 work together to facilitate key generation, key exchange, key loading, key storage and key usage. The multi-user key creation procedure, in which two or three people each enter separate components that are then combined and encrypted using the Thales HSM, completes the solution.

Once key management procedures were established and test keys were exchanged, the next step was to test the system. Erickson said Mary was especially helpful in analyzing test data.

"Once we got the data, she helped filter it, and tell us what we were getting," Erickson said. "Then she told us where to start the secure personalization process, and what to do. It really got us off the ground quickly."

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