INSIDE Contactless first to be certified for STAR CertiFlash

AIX-EN-PROVENCE, FRANCE: INSIDE Contactless, a leading provider of advanced, open-standard contactless chip technologies, announced that its award-winning MicroPass payment processor is the first implementation to receive type approval from the STAR Network for its STAR CertiFlash contactless PIN debit security application.

INSIDE’s MicroPass-based implementation is being used by STAR in a pilot of STAR CertiFlash that will run through the end of this year in preparation for the full commercial rollout of the technology.

STAR CertiFlash protects against fraud during contactless point-of-sale debit transactions by substituting a one-time card number for the consumer’s actual card number for each transaction. In addition to the one-time card number, STAR CertiFlash transactions are protected by additional security measures designed to greatly reduce exposure to transaction data compromise.

“Building upon our long-standing relationship with First Data, we worked very closely with the STAR Network to develop the first implementation of STAR CertiFlash, taking advantage of the flexibility of our MicroPass platform to support multiple applications,” said Charles Walton, executive VP, payments, at INSIDE Contactless.

STAR CertiFlash will be made available to all STAR member financial institutions, enabling them to offer advanced convenience and security to consumers on a variety of currently available payment devices — such as debit cards, prepaid cards, payment fobs and payment stickers — as well as in future mobile applications. STAR, a First Data company, is one of the United States’ leading EFT networks with more than two million retail and ATM locations.

“INSIDE is the first to implement the STAR CertiFlash application. They are an important technology partner for First Data, which has already worked with them on several important contactless payments projects,” said Julie Saville, vice president, product management, for the STAR Network.

“We designed our patent-pending one-time card number generation system and the other security measures to address payment card industry concerns over fraud, and it is our hope that it opens the door to more widespread use of contactless technology in the cash payment market, as well as serving as the gold standard for the evolution of debit payments.”

The MicroPass intelligent payment platform is designed to power open standard contactless and dual-interface bank card payments along with other value-added applications in all global regions. Based upon a RISC architecture and optimized to the demanding requirements of contactless transactions, each of the MicroPass family of products is designed to meet the demands of issuer organizations in the bank card and mobile payments, transit, ID and access control markets.