Paradise Pay applies multiple layers of encryption and access control to protect payment data throughout its lifecycle.
All communication withReefpay is encrypted using TLS (Transport Layer Security).
| Requirement | Details |
|---|---|
| Protocol | TLS 1.2 or higher |
| Enforcement | HTTP requests are rejected; only HTTPS is accepted |
| Certificate | Issued by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA) |
| Cipher suites | Strong ciphers only; weak or deprecated ciphers are disabled |
- Always use
https://for all API requests toapi.sandbox.paradisegateway.net(sandbox) and the production endpoint. - Verify TLS certificates in your HTTP client — do not disable certificate validation.
Sensitive payment data stored in the token vault is encrypted using AES-256 in CBC mode.
| Component | Encryption method |
|---|---|
| Card PANs | AES-256 CBC |
| Bank account numbers | AES-256 CBC |
| Routing numbers | AES-256 CBC |
| CVV values | Not stored (used for authorization only, then discarded) |
| Encryption keys | Managed in a dedicated key management system, rotated on schedule |
- Encryption keys are stored separately from the encrypted data.
- Keys are rotated on a defined schedule in compliance with PCI-DSS key management requirements.
- Key access is restricted to authorized processes only — no human access to production encryption keys.
- Key rotation is transparent to integrators and does not require any changes to your integration.
The API enforces a strict write-only policy for sensitive payment data. Fields like PAN, CVV, account number, and routing number are accepted in requests but are never returned in any API response.
| Field | Accepted in requests | Returned in responses |
|---|---|---|
pan (card number) | Yes | No — last_four and bin returned instead |
cvv | Yes | No — cvv_result code returned instead |
expiry.month / expiry.year | Yes | No (for inline cards); Yes (for stored tokens) |
cardholder_name | Yes | No |
account_number | Yes | No — last_four returned instead |
routing_number | Yes | No |
This design ensures that even if API response logs are compromised, no usable cardholder data is exposed.
Paradise Pay operates a multi-tenant architecture with strict data isolation between merchants.
| Isolation layer | Implementation |
|---|---|
| Token scoping | Tokens are bound to a specific merchant MID and cannot be used across merchants |
| Encryption key isolation | Per-merchant encryption keys prevent cross-tenant data access |
| API key scoping | API keys authenticate to a specific merchant or reseller account |
| Query filtering | All data queries are automatically scoped to the authenticated merchant |
Even thoughReefpay handles the most sensitive payment data, integrators are responsible for protecting data in their own environment.
| Data | Protection |
|---|---|
| API keys | Store in a secrets manager (not source code, config files, or client-side code) |
| Payment tokens | Store securely, but no PCI-level controls required |
| Transaction IDs | Log for reconciliation; no sensitivity concerns |
correlation_id values | Log for debugging and support requests |
| Customer PII (name, email, address) | Protect per your privacy policy and applicable regulations |
| Data | Reason |
|---|---|
| Full card numbers (PAN) | PCI-DSS violation if stored without full compliance |
| CVV / CVC / CID | PCI-DSS prohibits storage of CVV after authorization, even if encrypted |
| Raw bank account or routing numbers | Unnecessary risk — use tokens instead |
| API response bodies containing sensitive data | The API does not return sensitive data, but verify your logging does not capture request bodies containing PANs |
Audit your application logs to confirm that request bodies containing raw card data are masked or excluded. Log the correlation_id and transaction ID instead.
Paradise Pay API responses include standard security headers.
| Header | Purpose |
|---|---|
Strict-Transport-Security | Enforces HTTPS for future requests |
X-Content-Type-Options | Prevents MIME type sniffing |
X-Frame-Options | Prevents clickjacking via iFrame embedding |