Threats in Payment Security System of Fuel Dispensers

It is said that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. In the service providing business, the vulnerable link in the system security of payment is the fuel dispenser pump. Report says that in March almost 90 percent of the U.S. merchants which are classified as Level 1 and Level 2 have validated their partnership with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) and 99 percent have ceased maintaining card data.

It has been observed that businessmen are selecting the PCI (Payment Application Data Security Standard), which is developed to make sure that purchased applications, like POS software, are according to the overall PCI-DSS requirements. But security at the fuel station remains non-existent except for some of the leading and big chains that understand the importance of payment security system and make sure to protect their customers from a fraud or breach at the fuel station.

The weakness of fuel dispenser equipments is well known, not only to the related professionals, but also to organized crime and data criminals. Outside the fuel station, thieves place skimmers over the card reader slots to obtain the track data on the back side of the debit or credit card and they also place keypad overlays over the keyboards and pinhole cameras in the canopy to obtain consumers' PINs. The inside of the fuel dispenser pump is a hacker's paradise. In many pumps, consumers' PINs are sent in the clear without any form of data encryption over a ribbon cable before being encrypted inside the store.