Merchant Link Signs with Phoenix Managed Networks for a Merchant Level PCI Firewall Service and Breach Insurance

SILVER SPRING, Md., Nov. 5, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Merchant Link, a leading provider of payment gateway and data security solutions, today announced the signing of a multi-year contract with Phoenix Managed Networks.

The deal will see Merchant Link offer its customers Phoenix's award-winning Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) firewall service coupled with breach insurance. This latest product addition complements Merchant Link's current portfolio and is designed to secure a merchant's IT network and customer cardholder data while protecting businesses from the high costs of an attack.

The new firewall service is a cloud-based management service with an on-site security appliance that locks down the point-of-sale (POS) system and segregates payment traffic from all other corporate IT data.

Trevor Fall, Executive Vice President for North American Sales for Phoenix Managed Networks, commented, "We are delighted to have signed with Merchant Link. They have an excellent market standing and a client base of tens of thousands of retail, hotel and restaurant businesses across the USA that will benefit from the added layers of security at the point-of-sale."

The solution requires no technical expertise on behalf of the user to install or manage, making it an ideal service for small-to-medium sized businesses or franchisees. The router further simplifies compliance with PCI standards. Key benefits include:

• Addresses the PCI DSS requirement to install and maintain a firewall configuration.
• Simplifies the process by pre-populating the PCI DSS Self Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ) document.
• Includes $100,000 of breach insurance in the event of a security breach.
• Detects and blocks network intrusions or rogue devices being plugged into the network.
• Guards the POS network from internal and external threats 24x7x365. 
• Assists network administrators by issuing real-time status alerts for potential network or security issues and monitoring staff productivity with available reports on Internet usage.
• Ensures minimum business interruption with the option to connect to a 3G network in the event the existing wire connection fails.
• Supported by a fully managed, PCI compliant, cloud-based system that configures and monitors each connection.

Fall added: "The Ponemon Institute recently reported that cyber-attacks have more than doubled over the past three years, while the financial impact increased by nearly 40 percent. It's now essential businesses deploy the right mix of security solutions to detect and protect against evolving threats."

Geoff Krieg, Vice President of Product Management for Merchant Link, said, "We see this offering as particularly attractive for businesses that want an easy-to-implement firewall solution that meets PCI requirements and allows merchants to segment their network so that POS terminals are isolated from other PCs. We continually look to partner with innovative companies such as Phoenix Managed Networks to help us expand the breadth and depth of our services to merchants and look forward to embarking on a successful relationship."

About Merchant Link
Merchant Link is a leading provider of cloud-based payment gateway and data security solutions, removing the risk and hassle from credit card acceptance for more than 150,000 hotel, restaurant and retail locations. Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Silver Spring, Md., Merchant Link currently enables more than 3 billion transactions annually for some of the world's best-known merchants, providing connectivity to the major U.S. payment card processors. TransactionVault™, our tokenization solution, and TransactionShield^®, our point-to-point encryption solution, mitigate the risk of a data compromise while lowering the cost and effort of PCI compliance. For more information, please visit www.merchantlink.com, read our blog www.merchantlinksecuritycents.com and follow us on Twitter.

About Phoenix Managed Networks
Phoenix Managed Networks is a global provider of payments communications, gateway and payment support services, delivering state-of-the-art, reliable and cost effective solutions connecting merchants with the world's banks, acquirers and processors. Founded in January 2010 with its global headquarters located in Reston, Va., Phoenix has been highly successful in advocating a combination of quality, innovation and uncompromising customer care. The company was recently recognized with a 2012 Retail Systems Award for "Best Security Initiative of the Year." 

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SOURCE Merchant Link