Patent ID: 8308063

Claim:
A front-end system configured to facilitate a secure Point-of-Sale (POS) transaction environment, comprising: a POS component configured to request a public key from an external back-end component in response to initiation of a POS transaction and to receive the public key, the POS component being a portion of a POS device; a front-end interface configured to attach to the POS component, wherein the front-end interface is further configured to intercept unencrypted data obtained directly from a payment instrument; and a security component configured to encrypt the unencrypted data using an encryption key and the public key, such that the data may only be decrypted by the external back-end component with a private key, and such that neither sensitive unencrypted data associated with the payment instrument nor tools needed to decode the data are accessible by a POS application executed by the POS device.