Secure Merchant Payment

E-commerce can involve any or all of the processes of selling goods, buying goods, making payments or receiving payments. For all of these activities, a secure environment is essential so that funds and customer information can be exchanged with confidence.

For Web-based businesses, the most popular choice remains Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), which provides an easy means of protecting data being transferred between a browser and a website. A key reason for SSL's popularity is that it is supported in most popular Web browsers, meaning customers don't need any additional software.

They provide a system that passes credit card data, authorization requests, and authorization responses over the internet using encryption technology. When a customer decides to purchase an item and then decides to pay by credit card, the Web Browser will open up a Secure Connection to the Web Site Host's Secure Server; the URL will change from "http:" to "https:" which indicates that the server is secure.

In most cases, SSL is virtually transparent to the user. Their browser may display a warning message to tell them they are beginning or ending a secure connection, and a small padlock might appear in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

When a web browser gets connected to a Secure Server, a small Padlock appears at the bottom right corner of the screen to indicate the Secure Connection. It means that all information being passed is encrypted for transmission. The Secure Web Site Host will upload the customer's credit card or check information along with all other order information, and assemble a transaction using the merchant's account number and PIN, and then send the transaction to the Processor or Gateway's Secure Server.

The first is to encrypt the credit card data being transmitted, so that it would be very difficult for a third party to decipher. And the other one is to certify that the message is in fact coming from where it claims to be coming from, so that it would be very difficult for a third party to forge a transaction. This is done by means of a digital certificate. Ensure all transactions are sent using a Secured Virtual Network and only transactions originated from merchant IP address are validated, which is a very strong protection against hackers.

The other features of this Secure Payment Gateway software are the functions provided to merchants online when they connect to the Secure Payment Gateway host; merchants can access their own account information via Online Reporting, use a "Virtual Terminal" to conduct transactions, handle administrative tasks, etc. (These features all reside on the Secure Payment Gateway Provider's Host computer system.)

What SSL does not provide is any guarantee to you that the destination address is actually operated by the business; or any security processing on the document itself. Once the envelope has been opened (and thrown away), the business is effectively left with an unsigned document.