Alex Lee, Inc. Solves PCI Performance Problem with Software Encryption from Prime Factors.

STK Toolkit up to 36 times faster than hardware encryption

EUGENE, Ore. -- Alex Lee, Inc., the parent company of Lowes Foods, solved a serious performance problem by implementing the STK Toolkit, a software encryption solution from Prime Factors, Inc.

Alex Lee's IT staff needed to encrypt a large amount of historical cardholder data, and attempted to do it with hardware devices. The Host Security Modules (HSMs) couldn't encrypt data fast enough. Alex Lee's mainframes are only available for three hours each day to send cardholder data to the HSMs for encryption.

"It was going to take us several weeks just to encrypt historical cardholder data," said Janice Sakkal, Programmer/Analyst. Alex Lee also is required to encrypt cardholder data on a daily basis.

The short, three-hour window for encrypting cardholder data, and a deadline to get it done by December 31, 2007, forced Alex Lee to look for an alternative data security solution. Alex Lee contacted another grocery store chain, which recommended the STK Toolkit, a high-performance, low-cost software encryption solution from Prime Factors, Inc.

After contacting Prime Factors to confirm that the STK Toolkit would meet their needs, Alex Lee took advantage of the company's standard, free 30-day trial. With help from Prime Factors' support team, Alex Lee developed a test environment in less than two weeks.

"Using the STK Toolkit, Alex Lee processed between 2,900 and 18,000 transactions per minute during testing," said Janice Sakkal, Programmer/Analyst. This compared to 495 transactions per minute processed by the HSMs.

"We really like the performance," Sakkal said. "It has significantly reduced the time to encrypt the data."

The STK Toolkit is faster because it runs on the mainframe using high-speed assembly instructions. The HSMs encrypt data by communicating with the mainframe over a network. They can't encrypt data any faster than the network speed, which is much slower than mainframe processing power.

Sakkal said that a week of accounts took just over an hour to process online using the STK Toolkit. In batch, four weeks of historical cardholder data took a little more than an hour to encrypt. She estimates that it would have taken a week or more to do the encryption using the hardware devices. And that was an undesirable option because the hardware devices process transactions on-line and would have created a competition for scarce computer resource.

"I am truly delighted with the STK Toolkit," Sakkal said. "It does everything as advertised."

The STK Toolkit has ready-to-use utilities that reduced programming time and sped up the Alex Lee encryption project. The STK Toolkit meets many security requirements by encrypting data in batch or real-time and by encrypting and authenticating fields, records or whole files on disk or tape. It has a wide range of capabilities to protect and authenticate data including the Triple DES algorithm used by Alex Lee. It also provides various methods of generating and protecting passwords.

In addition to a significant performance advantage over hardware encryption, the STK Toolkit frees up computer resources for other transaction processing. Alex Lee can get all its encryption done during the three-hour window when there is no computer activity from the grocery store operation.

"The STK Toolkit was definitely worth the investment," said Randy Miller, Director of Computer Operations.

About Prime Factors

Prime Factors provides products, along with personalized support and free advice, to companies that need to implement security the right way. More than 1,000 banks, corporations and government organizations use Prime Factors' software to guard sensitive information from internal and external threats. Our security and data encryption software reflects the knowledge and experience gained since 1981 when the company was founded. Prime Factors products include: the Bank Card Security System that provides essential functionality to any card processing operation; the Psypher Security Suite which protects transactions within a trading community; and the STK Toolkit which secures business information, including sensitive customer information specified by PCI DSS. For more information, please visit our website at www.primefactors.com.

About Alex Lee, Inc.

Alex Lee, Inc., is a holding company for four southeastern food/warehousing companies including: Merchants Distributors, Inc. (MDI), a wholesale food and merchandise distributor; Lowe's Food Stores, Inc. (Lowes Foods), a supermarket operator; Institution Food House, Inc. (IFH), a food service distributor; Consolidation Services, a public warehousing company.

Alex Lee serves its own food stores as well as other independent retail operations, supermarkets, and convenience stores. The company is also a food service provider for restaurants, schools, and other institutions. Its service area consists of Georgia, North and South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Kentucky.