Verifone Patents Security Technology That Lets Payment Terminals Detect Their Own Tampering

New innovation protects merchants from card skimmers with no extra hardware or manual checks required

‍New York, NY — July 23, 2026 — Verifone today announced it was granted a U.S. patent for Wireless Tamper Detection (U.S. Patent No. 12,664,553), a security technology that allows payment terminals to continuously monitor themselves for physical tampering, including threats invisible to the human eye. This new patent adds to Verifone’s valuable global patent portfolio covering physical security of terminals.

The technology is designed to protect merchants and customers who rely on unattended payment devices every day: gas pumps, self-checkout lanes, outdoor kiosks. These terminals process millions of transactions with no one nearby to watch over them, making them a potential target when hidden device criminals attach or insert card skimmers to silently steal card data during legitimate transactions.

Card skimming remains one of the most persistent and costly threats in payments. Experts estimate that card skimming costs U.S. consumers and financial institutions approximately $1 billion annually [1], while FICO data shows that skimming incidents increased 5% in 2025 compared with the previous year. [2] What makes it particularly difficult to combat is that a skimmer can be small enough to slide into a card slot without changing how a terminal looks, sounds, or feels to anyone using it.

How it works

Traditional security measures, whether physical seals, mechanical sensors or manual inspections, can be bypassed by an attacker who knows where to look. Verifone's approach is different. Rather than trying to detect a specific type of attack, the technology teaches a terminal to know what “normal” looks and feels like and then notices when anything changes.

A skimmer slipped into a card slot wouldn't change how a terminal looks. But it would change how radio signals bounce around inside it — and the terminal would act on that immediately.

“Instead of asking a terminal to detect a specific type of attack, we asked it to autonomously recognize when its own physical environment has changed in a suspect or unnatural way,” said Will Morgan, Chief Information Security Officer at Verifone. “Security is paramount in a payments infrastructure which is why we are constantly innovating new ways to stay ahead of bad actors. A radio can pick up on a change that a person walking by would never see, and it can do that continuously, without any extra parts.”

Because radio capability is already built into many modern payment terminals, this protection can be delivered through software rather than new hardware with no device replacement required.

Physical and software security: A growing threat

Today's most sophisticated attackers don't stop at the hardware. They combine physical tampering with software-level exploits, targeting both layers of device security at once and exposing the limits of any single line of defense. Wireless Tamper Detection addresses the physical layer. Keeping terminal software current addresses the other.

That's why alongside this patent, Verifone is calling on merchants to verify they are running the most updated software on their terminals. During October's Cybersecurity Awareness Month, the payment and commerce solutions provider will launch “Verify Your Verifone Security” — a new, annual campaign to help merchants of all sizes take stock of their terminal and software security and ensure they are protected against today’s threats. Customers will receive more details soon.

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[1]  FBI: How we can help you: Safety and Scams

[2] FICO BLOG: “The State of Card Skimming in the US: 2025 Year in Review”

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