Expected to become available commercially in Q4, 2009, E3 has successfully undergone testing of its initial phase. This first step involved the production transmission of AES-encrypted card transactions from a merchant and through to Heartland’s processing platform. This marked the first time to Heartland's knowledge that encrypted transactions were sent from a merchant’s card reader to and through a major processor’s payments network.
The cards in the test phase were read by Heartland’s newly developed pilot E3 terminal. The data was encrypted as the electronic digits left the magnetic stripe and entered the device's TRSM. The encrypted transaction data was successfully transmitted to and through Heartland’s processing platform for authorization and settlement.
Heartland continues to roll the pilot out to businesses of all types and sizes. The next phase of Heartland’s pilot project involves integrating a set of security-protected chips that is planned to further safeguard the data throughout the lifecycle of the transaction.