Square brings encryption to its card reader

Square, the mobile payment upstart that's combined a credit card-reading dongle with the iPhone and iPad to take on established point-of-sale (POS) payment solutions providers, has just announced that it's finally bringing much needed encryption to its device.  

All of the dongles Square is shipping to merchants from today will come with encryption baked in and over time, Square will upgrade existing merchants to ensure that their readers are more secure as well. Competitor VeriFone tried to drum up sentiment against Square last year because Square’s readers did not encrypt credit card numbers from the reader to the application.