Mr. William Bartram
General Manager of PCA Cyber Security Germany
Payment devices sit at the heart of the global economy. From contactless point-of-sale terminals to ATMs and embedded payment modules, payment devices process billions of transactions daily.
Yet for the manufacturers, operators and financial solution providers behind them, the challenge isn’t only innovation – it’s resilience.
The pressure is constant: accelerate product launches, meet evolving regulatory requirements, pass certification and maintain customer trust. Compliance frameworks are essential. But as we see, in today’s threat landscape, compliance alone doesn’t guarantee security.
Too often, security efforts concentrate on passing an assessment just before release. A checklist turns green, certification is achieved and the product ships. What may remain hidden are deeper weaknesses in firmware, hardware interfaces, transaction logic or third-party software components. Without continuous visibility after launch, newly disclosed vulnerabilities can trigger emergency patches, costly incident response and reputational damage.
Real-world security requires a lifecycle approach
From early design through development, integration, certification, launch and ongoing operation, payment devices must be evaluated as dynamic systems – not static products. Pre-compliance penetration testing helps manufacturers uncover exploitable paths across hardware, firmware and communication interfaces before formal certification. This proactive approach reduces late-stage surprises, thereby saving additional costs and strengthening assurance before products reach the market.
Compliance is the baseline. Sustainable trust is built on resilience
But launch isn’t the end of the story.
Modern embedded payment devices depend heavily on third-party and open-source software. As software supply-chain risks grow, and for every third-party component, there are new threats and vulnerabilities, regulators and customers increasingly expect transparency into what’s inside a product. Software Bills of Materials (SBOMs) are becoming a cornerstone of that transparency.
When operationalised correctly, SBOMs move far beyond compliance documentation. By generating or ingesting standardised inventories and linking them to continuously updated vulnerability intelligence, manufacturers gain real-time visibility into affected components when new vulnerabilities are discovered post market-launch. Instead of lengthy “blind spot” investigations after every major CVE (Critical Vulnerabilities and Exposures) disclosure, teams can immediately assess impact, prioritise remediation and respond with precision.
From reactive certification exercises to ongoing security assurance
Continuous, product-focused vulnerability monitoring further strengthens this posture. Tracking emerging threats and mapping them directly to specific device models and firmware versions allows engineering, security and operations teams to work from a shared, actionable view.
As a newly approved Associate Participating Organisation (APO) within the PCI SSC community, PCA Cyber Security supports this shift by helping manufacturers embed security across the entire product lifecycle. Compliance is the baseline. Sustainable trust is built on resilience. For payment device manufacturers navigating an increasingly complex landscape, the question is no longer whether to go beyond compliance, but how.
