By Paula Burkes
Copyright © 2013, The Oklahoma Publishing Company
TULSA — As of last month, Tulsa-based TokenEx technology company is providing an extra layer of security to the encrypted credit card data of tens of millions of online donors to World Vision, a global humanitarian organization that offers aid to countries throughout Africa, Eastern Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The Seattle-based nonprofit is using TokenEx’s unique data security platform that replaces primary account numbers with “tokens” that can’t be decrypted, said Alex Pezold, co-founder and chief executive.
World Vision and other customers retain only tokens in their environments, versus actual credit card information, he said. So, they no longer carry the risk of fraud and theft of sensitive information, he said.
Six-figure deal
TokenEx’s deal with World Vision, which was completed in April, was in the six-figure range, Pezold said.
Tokenization was developed several years ago, but the technology only recently was endorsed by the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council, he said. “Now, more and more competitors are getting in this game,” he said.
Pezold said World Vision chose TokenEx, which he and Jerald Dawkins formed three years ago, because “we lead the pack when it comes to solutions that will enable our customers to easily embed and integrate tokenization into their existing technologies and business processes.”
“The problem with processors and payment gateways offering this service is that the merchant is then tied to that processor or payment gateway because this data is now stored with them,” he said
“World Vision — which annually processes nearly 13.5 million credit card transactions — told us that we are helping them get more money into the hands of their charities because our solution is less costly, and easier to implement and maintain,” Pezold said.
TokenEx also can tokenize personal health information, financial account data, personally identifiable data and files, he said. So far, the company serves customers operating in the U.S., India and Malaysia, he said.
