Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Wireless Credit Card Terminal

Credit Card Processing Security Concerns
By Debbie Dragon

As an online merchant accepting credit card payments, you have
numerous security issues that you must be aware of for the
safety of your business and your consumers. At this time, there
are two main aspects of credit card security for credit card
processing, including “AVS” and “CVV”. Both allow credit card
transactions to be completed anonymously over the internet, and
any merchant accepting credit cards online should require both
forms of information of your customers.

Address Verification Service

The “AVS”, or address verification service, is used to
determine that the address provided by a customer matches the
address associated with a credit card account. This helps
generate confidence that the person who is entering the credit
card details is the person who owns it. While the AVS is not
required to process credit card transactions, when it is
provided the transaction processor will send a response back
with details of how much of the address provided matches the
address on the credit card.

A credit card will not be denied if the address is entered
wrong, it is up to the merchant to decide what to do if the
address only matches partially or not at all. You can deny the
sale, or require the buyer submit additional information, or
give them the opportunity to correct the address information,
before processing the transaction.

Card Verification Value

The “CVV”, or card verification value, sometimes referred to as
the CVV-2 is a three to four digit number found on the back of
American Express, MasterCard and Visa cards. It’s on the card
but not on any statements, so that if an individual has found a
credit card statement in the trash, they aren’t able to complete
a sale that requires the CVV code for verification purposes.
When a customer is able to enter the CVV code, it’s a strong
indication that the customer has the credit card in hand, which
increases the potential of the card belonging to the person who
is attempting to use it to make a purchase online.

Most credit card fraud online occurs when a thief has found a
discarded receipt or a thrown out credit card statement, but by
requiring the CVV code, the merchant can eliminate that type of
fraud.

If a CVV number is entered and is incorrect, the transaction
will be declined by the credit card issuer.

Providing Consumers with Top Security

If you are going to accept credit cards online for payment for
products or services offered through your website, it’s
imperative that you provide your customers with a guarantee that
you’re protecting their credit card information.

Credit card processing typically requires that the customer’s
information is transferred about four times, which means there
are four instances when someone could gain access to the
cardholder’s details.
When a customer first sends the credit card information to you
via your checkout or web based form. You are solely responsible
for security as the internet merchant, at this stage in the
credit card transaction process. Having a secure server and a
valid security certificate with the https protocol will protect
and encrypt private information you receive from customers.

You will want to be sure that the credit card transaction
processing software you use for your business is secure by using
a reputable processing company.
As customer information is moved in and out of a database
through the transaction process, the security must be top of the
line- and this is ensured by choosing a solid company that
offers encrypted software for this part of the process.

Finally, when customer credit card information is viewed or
handled by you or your staff, it’s important that you ensure
security at this stage as well.

About the Author: This article has been provided courtesy of
Creditor Web, http://www.creditorweb.com .

Source: http://www.isnare.com

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