Tokenization in card payments is primarily used to:

Tokenization in card payments is primarily used to:

• A. Encrypts the entire card data so it cannot be read.
• B. Replaces sensitive card data with a non-sensitive token that maps to the tokenized data in a secure system; reduces risk of data theft.
• C. Stores card details in plain text for faster processing.
• D. Deletes card data after every use.

Answer: (B)

Tokenization replaces sensitive card details with a non-sensitive placeholder, a token, that stands in for the real data. The token is useless to anyone who intercepts it, and the mapping to the actual card information lives securely in a token vault controlled by the payment processor. This means merchants never handle the real card number, which greatly reduces the risk of data theft and helps limit PCI DSS scope. This is why the option describing a non-sensitive token that maps to the real data in a secure system, reducing theft risk, is the best fit. Encryption protects data by converting it into unreadable form with a key, but the data can be restored if the key is compromised; tokenization eliminates the real data from the merchant environment entirely. Storing data in plain text or deleting it after each use would undermine the workflow and security goals of tokenization.

Tokenization replaces sensitive card details with a non-sensitive placeholder, a token, that stands in for the real data. The token is useless to anyone who intercepts it, and the mapping to the actual card information lives securely in a token vault controlled by the payment processor. This means merchants never handle the real card number, which greatly reduces the risk of data theft and helps limit PCI DSS scope.

This is why the option describing a non-sensitive token that maps to the real data in a secure system, reducing theft risk, is the best fit. Encryption protects data by converting it into unreadable form with a key, but the data can be restored if the key is compromised; tokenization eliminates the real data from the merchant environment entirely. Storing data in plain text or deleting it after each use would undermine the workflow and security goals of tokenization.