London, UK, 28th September 2011 - Foregenix and Semafone yesterday announced a partnership that will enable call centre clients to significantly reduce their PCI scope, risks and associated costs by removing cardholder data from the call centre environment.

Semafone, the leading global secure voice transaction system, enables customers to enter data via their telephone keypad instead of speaking it over the phone to the call centre agent, meaning that the cardholder data does not enter the call centre environment.   

Foregenix, an information security specialist, has developed a market-leading cardholder data discovery solution called FScout, which enables its clients to identify unprotected “rogue” cardholder data in their business systems.  Once the data has been identified, it can then be secured, or securely removed. FScout also provides ongoing monitoring and assurance that no more rogue data is leaking into the environment.

Via the partnership, Semafone will secure all future transactions by preventing cardholder data from entering the call centre, while FScout will enable call centres to identify all historic cardholder data stored on their systems and provide ongoing assurance that no more unprotected cardholder data can enter the environment and affect their risk or PCI DSS compliance.

“We’re delighted to be working with Foregenix to help customers ease the burden of PCI compliance”, says Graham Thompson, sales and marketing director at Semafone. “The partnership will enable businesses to remove cardholder data from their call centres, resulting in significant fraud reduction, PCI scope and associated costs”.

“As the global leader in secure voice transaction solutions, Semafone offers its clients a significant improvement in security within their call centre environment from a PCI DSS perspective”, adds Benjamin Hosack, director at Foregenix.  “Combined with our market-leading FScout solution, call centres now have the ability to protect future transactions, while being confident that any residual or leaked unprotected cardholder data is identified through FScout’s persistent monitoring.  The partnership will provide our mutual clients with the peace of mind and assurance that their data is protected, while also providing a clear return on investment.”