USB Interrogation







Counter Solutions Limited offers clients the ability to collect the data from cashless devices using a USB memory stick. We recognise the importance of data security and have taken a number of steps to ensure that the system integrity is maintained.

The port is configured so that only CSL approved devices are supported via the USB ports, therefore the USB sticks which are used for interrogating the data from the device have a specific identifier recognised by the software. This prevents individuals using the USB port to gain access to the data held on the device and attempting to manipulate it.
When an interrogator stick is inserted into the device, a copy of the data is transferred onto it, the original data is still held locally on the device. This ensures that, should the stick containing the data be lost, the device could be interrogated again to retrieve the lost information.

Once the data has been transferred to USB it is protected by checksums which prevents the opportunity for an individual to remove the data from the stick and trying to manually change it. The data on the stick is identified using unique Group, Site, Device and Transaction ID’s therefore the accurate reporting can be performed on this information. These identifiers are also used within SmartSuite to alert the user if no data has been received from a particular device via a traffic light system.

All the devices have a unique identifier and the system will check that figures have been received from each device ID within a configurable time parameter. The USB stick will also contain the Card ID, time and date associated with the transaction, all of which are also protected by checksums.

The data is transferred from the USB stick to the SmartSuite database using a Counter Solutions Limited Internet Data Transfer Program. This enables the user to insert the stick into any PC with an active internet connection and, via auto-activating software, the information will be transferred to the database.

The configuration file on the USB stick directs the data to the secure PCI compliant web farm where the database is hosted. The figures will remain on the stick until the server sends confirmation that the data has been received in full before it is removed on the stick. If for any reason this process fails the data will still be held locally on the device until the memory becomes full, allowing the user to interrogate the data again if necessary.

When the data is transmitted, the server checks the identifiers within the data to verify that the information is from a valid device. This process exists to confirm that data is being assigned to the correct devices within the database for accurate reporting.

SmartSuite software has the capability to identify duplicated transfer data and reject it to certify that information is not duplicated within the database. Only after all of the identifiers have been checked and verified is the data populated into the database.