SMALL BUSINESS ENCRYPTION AND TOKENIZATION
Secure your most critical information
By scrambling or replacing your sensitive data, you can protect against hackers.
M&T can help you build a strong fraud defense
Small businesses are continuously targeted by cybercriminals that have developed sophisticated methods of stealing sensitive information like credit card numbers, PINs, passwords and Social Security numbers. Encryption and tokenization can help your business protect customer data and avoid a disastrous security breach. By either scrambling data (encryption) or replacing it (tokenization), you can render intercepted information useless to criminals.
Small business encryption
Encryption uses an algorithm to scramble data, making it unreadable to anyone without the correct password-protected key. It is commonly used to mask credit card numbers so that businesses can process card payments without revealing sensitive information to cybercriminals.
Small business tokenization
Tokenization replaces information like credit card or Social Security numbers with a randomly generated surrogate value called “tokens.” There is no mathematical relationship between the tokens and the data they have replaced, so the tokens can’t be deciphered by anyone who does not have access to the original tokenization system.
PCI Advance
M&T Bank can help you prevent credit card fraud and stay ahead of emerging threats. Merchants who work with M&T are automatically enrolled in our Payment Card Industry (PCI) Advance program. Get an external vulnerability scan, access to an online compliance reporting portal, 24/7 live technical support, breach protection of up to $100,000 per incident and much more.
Learn how to help your business thwart off fraud. Visit your local M&T branch or schedule an appointment.
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Fraud Detection & Prevention
Our resources can teach you and your staff how to recognize the signs of fraud and best practices for processing credit card transactions, avoiding suspicious hyperlinks, paying invoices, and much more. Learn more about fraud detection & prevention.
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M&T’s Business Banking Specialists are ready to offer you support at any stage of your business. Get to know the advantages of being an M&T Business Banking client.
Top questions, answered by our experts.
What does encrypted mean?
Encrypted refers to a cybersecurity method of protecting data from unauthorized users. Encryption uses an algorithm to scramble data, making it unreadable to anyone without the correct password-protected key. It is commonly used to mask credit card numbers so that businesses can process card payments without revealing sensitive information to cybercriminals.
Business owners considering their cybersecurity strategy want to know, does encrypted mean secure? The answer is that, yes, properly encrypted data is secure. In fact, for businesses that accept credit cards, encryption is required to be Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliant. But for encryption security to be effective, access to the password-protected data must be strictly limited.
A data-theft-prevention alternative to encryption is tokenization, which replaces data with a randomly generated surrogate value. Encryption and tokenization are cornerstones of fraud prevention. M&T Bank can provide you the tools to do both.
What is tokenization?
Tokenization is a means of masking sensitive data so that it can’t be intercepted by cybercriminals. Tokenization replaces information like credit card or Social Security numbers with a randomly generated surrogate value called “tokens.” There is no mathematical relationship between the tokens and the data they have replaced, so the tokens are undecipherable to anyone who does not have access to the original tokenization system.
Tokenization is commonly used to combat online credit card fraud. Payments can be authorized, settled and funded without revealing the information a criminal would need to make a fraudulent transaction. An alternative to tokenization is encryption, which scrambles data into a non-readable form rather than replacing it with tokens. Using either tokenization or encryption is a key component of any effective cybersecurity.
Protect your data and minimize your risk of loss. Merchants who work with M&T are automatically enrolled in our Payment Card Industry (PCI) Advance program. Get an external vulnerability scan, access to an online compliance reporting portal, 24/7 live technical support, breach protection of up to $100,000 per incident and much more.