The technology comes at a time when processors and payment-software vendors are introducing products to meet an increasingly urgent need among merchants to shore up their defenses against data leaks. These efforts have gained urgency because of a series of high-profile computer intrusions sustained at major chains, including most recently Hannaford Bros. Co. (Digital Transactions News, March 17), where hackers gained access to account numbers for an estimated 4.2 million cards. Vendors also hope merchants will adopt the technology as part of their due diligence in complying with the Payment Card Industry data-security standard (PCI), an industry standard aimed at keeping card data out of the hands of fraudsters. VeriShield Protect represents one of the first entries in the encryption market from a hardware vendor with a substantial installed base of point-of-sale terminals.