Maybe there’s one bit of stolen digital information fraudsters can’t make use of: tokens.
Calling them “the magic behind payments,” Valeri Vanourek, vice president of digital products at Discover® Global Network, told PYMNTS in an interview that tokenization is emerging as a double-duty asset for digital payments. It enhances payment security for merchants, issuers and consumers as they interact across digital channels without introducing any friction into the process.
“The token protects the data in the case of a breach … because it’s meaningless to a fraudster,” she said.
As Vanourek observed, if a fraudster gets their hands on a token, they won’t be able to complete a transaction.
On the merchant and issuer side of the equation, there still is some education needed about the benefits of tokenization, but Vanourek said merchants are keenly aware that they are at risk for data breaches and are looking toward tokenization as a key line of defense.