Recertification: 02/2017
Previous recertifications: 03/2012 and 08/2014
Initial certification: 03/2010
ValidSoft proved that its IT product VALid-POS complies with EU data protection law. Customers of ValidSoft such as banks or payment processors use the product in order to identify possibly fraudulent credit- and debitcard “card-present” transactions at Automated Telling Machines (ATMs or “cashpoints”) and at Point of Sale (POS) terminals. They can be sure that the respective data processing is in line with the demanding provisions of EU data protection law. Card holders (bank customers) can be positive that their data is only used to assist financial institutions in countering the fraudulent use of credit- and debit cards.
Press Release 2010 
Product/Version
VALid-POS® Standard Edition v2
Qualification: IT product
View the VALid-POS Certificate
Cert. No.
EP-P-PL0Y59
Version of Certification Criteria
11/2011 (95/46/EC)
Validity
03/02/2017 until 28/02/2019
Second recertification on August 12, 2014
First recertification on March 31, 2012
Initial certification on March 31, 2010
Public Report
2017 recertification VALid-POS public report [PDF]
2014 recertificaton VALid-POS public report [PDF]
2012 recertification VALid-POS public report [PDF]
2010 VALid-POS public report [PDF]
Manufacturer/Provider
VALIDSOFT LIMITED
Arthur Cox Building
Earlsfort Terrace
Dublin 2
Ireland
BEST
VALid-POS sticks to the principle of data avoidance and minimisation by keeping the personal data processed to the absolute minimum and by making use of obfuscation measures. Buyers of the software are comprehensively informed about their data protection obligations and contractually bound to ensure compliance with the applicable data protection law when making use of VALid-POS.
ATTENTION:
n.a.
Summary
VALid-POS is a tool to assist financial institutions such as banks or payment processors (henceforth referred to as “banks”) in identifying possibly fraudulent credit- and debitcard “card-present” transactions at Automated Telling Machines (ATMs or “cashpoints”) and at Point of Sale (POS) terminals, as used in supermarkets, retailers, restaurants, etc. Basically, VALid-POS verifies, with the help of a partner telecommunications service provider (TSP), whether the card that is being presented is in the same country or area as the mobile phone that the cardowner has registered with the bank.
Details
Recertification 02/2017:
The TOE has not changed. Nothing has been added to the TOE. Nothing has been removed from the TOE. There are no new regulations relevant to the TOE. The EuroPriSe Criteria Catalogue requirements relevant to the TOE have not changed. The experts verified that there are no new technical standards relevant to the TOE and that the state of the art has not changed.
Recertification 08/2014:
The TOE has not changed. Nothing has been added to the TOE. Nothing has been removed from the TOE. There are no new regulations relevant to the TOE. The EuroPriSe Criteria Catalogue requirements relevant to the TOE have not changed. The experts verified that there are no new technical standards relevant to the TOE and that the state of the art has not changed.
Initial certification (03/2010):
The product is to be used by ValidSoft’s customers (banks or payment processors) as follows: If a proposed ATM- or POS-terminal transaction is assessed as potentially fraudulent by the bank’s own risk engine, information on the ATM or POS terminal is sent within the bank to the VALid-POS tool, together with the number of a mobile phone which the card-holder has registered with the bank, and a unique lookup reference number. This information does not reveal the geographical location of the ATM or POS terminal: for the software, it is simply a unique (abstract) number.
The VALid-POS tool passes the telephone number on to the partner-TSP. The latter one carries out a “lookup” of the mobile phone in question and, on the basis of this lookup, sends largely obfuscated information on the whereabouts of that mobile phone to the VALid-POS tool. The obfuscation means, in particular, that the information as sent from the TSP to the software does not reveal the geographical location of the mobile phone: for the VALid-POS tool, this too is simply a unique (abstract) number.
The software then correlates the two unique numbers relating to the ATM or POS terminal and the whereabouts of the mobile phone and can determine from this whether it is likely that the card is in the same country or area as the mobile phone. VALid-POS is capable of this because the pattern of links between unique numbers relating to particular ATMs and (obfuscated) unique numbers relating to particular mobile network segments has been previously established by the software during a learning phase.
If the card and the mobile phone are not in the same country or area, this suggests that the transaction is indeed potentially fraudulent, and that the bank should indeed consider declining the transaction as its own risk engine suggested. On the other hand, if the mobile phone is in the same country or area as the card, it is less likely that the transaction is fraudulent, and therefore more likely that the bank’s risk engine’s conclusion was a “false positive”.
Technical Evaluator
Javier Garcia-Romanillos Henriquez de Luna
Calle Zurbarán 7, 6B
28010 Madrid
Spain
Legal Evaluator
Prof. Douwe Korff
Wool Street House
Gog Magog Hills
Babraham
Cambridge CB22 3AE
UK
Formerly Certified Versions
n.a.