Securing payment information on the Internet is challenging work. With proper care, attention to detail, and selection and use of the right tools, e-commerce site administrators can indeed ensure privacy and integrity of data for both their employers and customers alike. Remember that any security solution requires constant attention or it risks becoming a problem in and of itself. Secure payment processing environments rely on careful separation of activities where a “defense in depth” approach can help to shield you from threats coming from the Internet.
TopInternet Payment Card Systems
With today’s technology of intelligent Point of Sale (POS) devices, high speed communication networks, and hidden back-end host systems, charge processing can appear simple, transparent, and intuitive to the uninitiated, but, in fact, the participant involvement and the steps of processing are far from trivial when you examine the sheer number of systems involved and the high volume of charges (Russell, 2001). The technical complexities stem from the foundation of the equally complex concept of trust.
Credit cards, charge cards, bank cards, payment cards, no matter what you call them, all relate to a family of payment options that involve relationships rooted in trust and good faith. You trust that the financial institution that issued you a card will pay the merchant for the goods and services you purchase. Merchants trust that the card issuers will pay them reasonably quickly, and the card issuers trust that you’ll pay your bill on time each month to reimburse the money they’re advancing on your behalf.
Although they’re often thought by most people to be the same, credit and charge cards differ in how they work and in the agreements associated with each. Many of these payment cards are considerably different from one another in several ways. In general, a credit card represents an account that carries a preset spending limit established by the card issuer, based on a line of credit obtained at the time of issue. Some are signature lines of credit, while others are secured lines of credit, where funds on deposit limit charges and serve as collateral for the credit card in the event of nonpayment of charges.