National Petroleum News (NPN) has been the independent voice of the petroleum industry since 1909 as the opposition to Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. So, motor fuels marketing and retail is not just a sideline for us, it’s our core competency.
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MARKETING & SUPPLY BY KEiTHREID Security, flexibility and cost issues drive the move from VSAT SHELL OIL SELECTS CYBERA S hell oil coMpany has selecteD Nashville, Tenn.-based Cybera, a leading provider of cloudbased security and application services, to migrate its payment card traffic at domestic Shell branded stations from traditional VSAT satellite systems to a next generation secure platform by the end of 2013. The Cybera solution integrates 3G/4G wireless connectivity with Broadband or DSL to ensure that critical applications, such as payment processing, are always able to communicate. It also facilitates a range of operational applications beyond transaction security. Shell is implementing an incentive program to drive adoption of the Cybera ONE solution across its wholesaler and dealer network. This new incentive program will reduce the upfront cost of the platform for the first 4,000 orders placed from now through June 17, rewarding the store owners who make a quick decision to deploy the new platform. NPN spoke with Cybera President Cliff Duffey about his company's solution. NPN: What are some of the issues specific to VSAT that risk fraudulent activity? Duffey: The main concern is "tinfoil bandits." In the petroleum retail marketplace, most of the systems are set to auto approve a $50 or $75 fuel sale if for some reason the system is offline. VSAT frequently has little outages with rain or clouds or the sun being in the wrong place during the day. This creates a real risk for fraud if a criminal knows how things work. You can swipe virtually anything with a mag stripe if the system is offline. What the thieves are doing is sending someone up to the 26 APril 2013 roof to wrap some tinfoil around the transceiver and take the system offline, then having people in the parking lot pumping fuel $75 at a time for hours. Then they remove the tinfoil later so that no one notices. operators in the several hundred site range. It's a solution that works well for this type of client because doing all they need to from a security standpoint, in their stores is hard, and it gets tougher every year. And by us having a platform where we can keep adding new features NPN: Speaking of uptime, one con- through software, it gives us a way to cern has been broadband's reliability grow each year and give new security and uptime. How do you address that? value. The list of things required to be compliant and secure grows each year. Duffey: In our world, if you can improve the reliability and make sure NPN: Where security specifically is the store is always connected to the concerned, what are some of your network and authorize every transac- capabilities in that area? tion, you remove much of the risk of fraud. Because we run over DSL Duffey: If you recall the T.J. Maxx or cable, but also with wireless as a breach a few years back—someone backup, even if cable is cut or the DSL plugged in a wireless access point into is down you can process transactions. a remote store that allowed hackers access to the company's network. The NPN: What is the scope of site applica- PCI requirements call for scanning to tions you support with your platform? see if wireless devices are plugged in at a site when there shouldn't be. We Duffey: We have the ability to sell have some software that checks and and deliver applications to our cus- tracks that as a simple software app if tomers either from our appliance in we have a WiFi module on the device. the store or from the cloud. We have Compared to other solutions in the the full range of security apps, which market, you might have to buy an $800 has been our core focus, but we've piece of hardware just to do that. expanded the capabilities of the platWe also offer all the standard fireform to support third-party apps that walling and intrusion protection and now include point-of-sale support, all of the logging of security events with payment, loyalty, digital vide surveil- each treated simply as a software app lance and all sorts of payment gateway instead of a piece of hardware. And it is apps for fleet cards and ATMs. all basically plug and play that does not require a technician to set up and get NPN: What scale of operation is running at a site. Instead of buying appropriate for your platform? solutions for multiple vendors and then having integrators set them up Duffey: We work with major brands— and get it all running, we have a single Shell and ExxonMobil; we're in trials box. It can be set up by a store manager with Pilot and several other large brands. as long as there is a broadband line into We also work with a lot of mid-market the store and a place to set the box, and independent retailers like Mapco/Delek, it is auto-configured to be up and runMurphy USA. Alon, EZ Mart—a lot of ning in 20 minutes. NPN Magazine n www.npnweb.com