Through a grant from Heartland, the new center will help protect consumers’ privacy and advance the data security of payments and identity through education programs on industry best practices and advances in security technology.

Heartland, Smart Card Alliance Collaborate to Improve Payments and Data Security
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The center, located at 2900 Crystal Drive in Arlington, Va., offers live, interactive and dynamic education activities including workshops, courses, briefings, symposiums, training and certification testing for the Alliance’s Certified Smart Card Industry Professional (CSCIP) and Certified System Engineer (CSEIP) Identity Credentialing and Access Management Physical Access Control Systems (ICAM PACS) training and certification programs.

Key Highlights/Facts

The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.

Educational programs are available to Smart Card Alliance members and non-members.

Through its active membership composed of leading technologists and practitioners in payments, identity, government and other sectors, the Smart Card Alliance currently provides a large number of educational resources examining important industry issues or implementation considerations, summarizing best practices and informing stakeholders on latest developments in secure smart card technology.

The center offers the following training and certification exam sessions.

• CSCIP – a program that recognizes professionals who undergo training to gain advanced levels of technical knowledge and understanding of usage models for the smart card industry and is the smart card industry’s only standardized certification program.
• CSCIP/Payments – an extension of CSCIP training that recognizes professionals who undergo training to gain advanced knowledge of payments usage models for the smart card industry.
• CSCIP/Government – an extension of CSCIP training that recognizes professionals who undergo training to gain advanced knowledge of government-related identity and security usage models for the smart card industry.
• CSEIP – a program that provides advanced training for integration engineers on how to set up and test E-PACS (electronic Physical Access Control Systems) to align with mandated certifications required under the federal government’s physical access control system procurement specifications.

In an age of increasing cyber assaults, Heartland has become a gold standard in security strategy. After a remarkable recovery from an international hacking conspiracy in 2009, Heartland emerged as a champion in the fight against cybercrime. Heartland played a prominent role in the formation of the Payments Processing Information Sharing Council and helps advance the Smart Card Alliance mission.

Heartland Secure™ is a comprehensive credit/debit card data secure payment solution that combines three powerful technologies, Europay, MasterCard and Visa (EMV), end-to-end encryption technology and tokenization, and works in unison to provide merchants with the highest level of protection for card-present transactions.

The Heartland Secure Out-of-Scope solution streamlines the point-of-sale (POS) provider’s path to EMV acceptance by taking the POS system completely out of the payment authorization process, which means no cardholder data is sent to the POS system.

Heartland is the first company to offer a comprehensive breach warranty. If the encryption fails on a Heartland Secure machine, Heartland will reimburse the merchant for the amount of compliance fines, fees and/or assessments the merchant must pay to the card brands, issuing banks and acquiring bank(s).

Robert O. Carr, chairman and CEO, Heartland “Protecting customers is our number one priority so it is duty that we help educate them to better protect consumers’ privacy and advance the security of payments and identity through education programs on best industry practices and advances in security technologies like our Heartland Secure™, Heartland Secure Out-of-Scope solution and our comprehensive breach warranty. The National Center for Advanced Payments and Identify Security is yet another way in which Heartland will help educate others to avoid the pitfalls of payments and identity security.”

Randy Vanderhoof, executive director, Smart Card Alliance “Education is fundamental to improving the way the industry manages security. With this donation from Heartland Payment Systems, the Smart Card Alliance is able to greatly expand education and collaboration programs aimed at improving security across multiple markets and subject areas, including payment security, identity security and privacy protection, through face-to-face and online events and assets.”