Allen Friedman

Allen Friedman is Director of Payment Solutions at Ingenico Group, North America where he is responsible for Ingenico Group’s EMV Payment Solutions and the EMV implementation strategy in the United States. Prior to joining Ingenico Group, Allen worked for Vital Processing Services (now TSYS Acquiring Solutions) in Tempe, Arizona beginning in 1999 and during his fifteen year tenure held a variety of management positions in technical support, solutions implementation, and Product Management. Most recently as Associate Business Development Director, Allen was responsible for the core authorization and capture platforms, payment forms and connectivity solutions, and led the EMV implementation strategy for the merchant segment of TSYS. Allen has been a member and active participant in the EMV Migration Forum since its founding, and he continues to serve on several committees and working groups. Also, he is an active contributing member of the Smart Card Alliance Payments Council.

How will EMV affect merchants’ day-to-day retail business?

Allen Friedman • Nov 17, 2014 • Security, EMV, Contactless/NFC

How will EMV actually affect how merchants’ conduct day-to-day retail business?

From a merchant’s perspective, the migration to EMV probably seems like a no-brainer. A small merchant, especially one that uses a pre-programmed standalone terminal (like Ingenico Group’s iCT250), might not expect to notice much operational change; after all, retailers will still accept credit and debit cards, still do business with a processor or acquirer, and still sell goods and services to customers who pay in a variety of ways.

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Learn the Lingo: Speaking Clearly about Payment Security

Allen Friedman • Oct 27, 2014 • Security, EMV

EMV terms and acronyms for the elements of multi-layered security

The details of changing security solutions can be confusing, not least because of the proliferation of terms and abbreviations with specific payment-industry meanings. Here are some industry terms and acronyms that can help define and explain the components of multi-layered security:

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EMV Q&A: Things everyone should know about EMV

Allen Friedman • Aug 06, 2014 • EMV

In most other countries, card-present fraud has been virtually eliminated by the widespread implementation of EMV; as a result, that fraud has moved to the U.S., where magnetic stripe technology prevails. Adopting EMV will require operational changes for the Issuer, the Merchant, the Processor and the Acquirer. Here are a few of the things everyone in the industry should understand about implementing EMV:

Why is the mag-stripe technology more susceptible to fraud?

Magnetic stripe data is static – the same information is sent on every transaction. Because magnetic stripe cards have no reliable means of authentication, cardholder authentication is limited to:

signature comparison, which is notoriously subjective and inaccurate, or
ZIP code verification (in some cases), which will not necessarily cause a transaction to decline because it is not specific to an individual cardholder.

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EMV: The time is right for the US. Now!

Allen Friedman • May 28, 2014 • EMV

Why right now? The liability shift is still months away. Many of your customers don’t have chip cards (in fact, many of them probably have no idea what that even means).

So why now instead of later?

U.S. is 14 years behind the EMV curve

This is not just another new program from the card brands. Europe and most of the rest of the world have been using chip-based technologies to combat fraud for 14+ years. So we in the US are already behind the curve (or, potentially, behind the eight ball, which leads me to the second reason).

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Why EMV?

Allen Friedman • May 11, 2014 • Security, EMV

They call it a “data breach.” An “attack by unknown hackers.” “Sensitive” customer information becomes “exposed.” Credit and debit cards are “compromised.” Pundits wring their hands; merchants live in fear; and customers become increasingly wary of using their cards. Still, the reports just keep coming in.

Let’s be honest: the core problem is that using stolen MSR card data to create and sell counterfeit cards is big business. Big, international, lucrative business. It’s an organized crime scheme that is increasingly migrating to the US because we are one of the last countries to implement EMV to authenticate cards used in payment transactions. In essence, we’re leaving the back door wide open and inviting the counterfeiters in.

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