If you are a sole proprietor or a small business owner, the idea of handling card information can be scary. You don’t want your customers’ sensitive information to be stolen, just as a computer can be hacked. Payment gateways provide a number of security features. Payment gateways provide these security measures to help secure your client’s data. This is why you should be concerned about it for your company.
Payment gateways are not well-known to many merchants or consumers. Payment gateways can be highly secure if they are properly set up and managed. These payment gateways are used by all e-commerce websites, large or small. It is important to first understand the workings of these systems to understand their purpose.
Is Your Payment Gateway Secure Enough? Top 7 Measures of Payment Security
The era of e-commerce is here. Fraudulent activities are a growing possibility due to our fast-paced lives and increasing demands. As the old saying goes, prevention is better than treatment. Every e-commerce merchant must be familiar with all security protocols. Online merchants are responsible for providing the highest level of security possible to protect your customers from fraud.
Provisions for the highest security level should be your priority when creating an e-store. This provision should include complete encryption and multiple layers of anti-fraud tools. Your payment platform must be reliable and secure enough to allow for effective transactions and prevent fraudulent activity.
Let’s take a look at the security precautions and protocols you need to provide for your customers when they transact online.
How Can You Make Online Payments Safer and More Reliable?
Data thieves will always be looking for vulnerable points to attack. To ensure your payment processing is secure, you should take the following 7 steps:
1. Compliance with the PCI DSS
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (also known as PCI DSS) is set compliance rules and security regulations that are used by major card companies. Compliance with the PCI DSS is required for all businesses that process credit and debit card transactions. Compliance schemes provide a safe environment for debit and credit transactions, without the risk of card theft or fraud.
PCI DSS, or The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, is required to protect cardholders against credit card fraud and other breaches. Here are some tangible benefits of a PCI DSS-compliant payment process:
You can be sure that your cardholders are protected from any data breaches by complying with PCI DSS compliance.
Businesses with a history of data breaches or no security measures are often viewed as less trustworthy by customers. Customers will be more inclined to consider you a company that has implemented PCI DSS compliance. This helps improve customer relations.
Trusted merchants that provide PCI DSS compliance will have higher customer loyalty which in turn will lead to increased profit. Because loyal customers share their experiences with others and you can get a larger customer base for your online store, this is a great way to increase your customer base.
PCI compliance is essential to ensure your business’ sustainability. This means that you must store, process, and transmit customers’ data safely. This is important because you could face lawsuits and a fine if you are implicated in any data breach case. This can lead to reputational damage and heavy money.
If you don’t know anything about PCI compliance, all you need is a payment gateway provider that is at least PCI Level 1 compliant. You might face non-compliance costs for PCI.
2. Three Domain Secure (3D Secure)
3D Secure 2.0 (also known as 3DS2, or EMV 3D Secure) is an authentication protocol that EMVCo developed to address customer authentication issues in online payments. After the customer has submitted their card details, they will be given an additional step to verify that their bank has received their payment, usually by using a password. This provides merchant and customer additional protection against fraud and chargebacks, while also facilitating seamless payments across channels.
3D Secure (Three Domain Secure), a messaging protocol, involves three domains: The bank, the technology processing the transaction, and the issuing bank.
This adds an extra layer of security to prevent fraudulent transactions that don’t require a physical card. You also automatically transfer responsibility to the issuing bank by using this technology.
3. Tokenization
Tokenization refers to the conversion of sensitive cardholder data into a security code. To create a token, you need to have encryption and a secret key. Tokenization is the best option as merchants cannot store card numbers unless they comply with PCI DSS guidelines. Tokenization improves security as sensitive information is sent only once over the internet. Once the token has been created, it can be used for future payments.
Even the most well-known scammers online can sometimes hack basic security protocols. You must ensure that your servers are not hacked to prevent data theft. Tokenization involves replacing credit card information with randomly generated character strings to reduce the risk that your network is hacked.
To ensure that customers don’t have the same information again, the system creates a unique number on your network. This number can be used in place of credit card data.
Learn More: The Benefits of Using a Payment Gateway
4. SSL Secure Connections
Secure Sockets Layer (or SSL) is a security technology that acts as a firewall between a payment provider’s web browser and a customer’s computer. SSL encrypts all data sent via it using all web browsers.
SSL is required for websites to process transactions directly. This is not a requirement if the visitor to the website is redirected directly to a secure checkout page at the payment gateway domain. The payment gateway will then provide the SSL URL to the browser.
5. Data Encryption
Payment gateways use data encryption to protect payments. Customers enter their card details and they are encrypted using a public key that can only be decrypted with the payment gateway’s secret key. This prevents unauthorized parties from gaining access to customer data during transmission from the gateway into the acquiring bank.
Merchant-buyer relationships are impacted by chargebacks, regardless of whether they like it. Acetify is a top online gateway provider that offers chargeback management software. This reduces the time and effort required to respond to chargebacks and improves win rates.
6. Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)
This protocol protects customer card details from being sent online. This protocol blocks merchants’ access to sensitive information and prevents them from accessing it.
Digital customer signatures establish trust and ensure that sensitive information is only shared with those who need it. These mechanisms include digitally signed, verified messages and public key certificates that provide high levels of privacy and security for all parties involved in transactions.
7. Point-To-Point Encryption (P2PE)
Once a customer swipes, dips, or taps their cards, a merchant can be vulnerable to fraud. P2PE protects such digital communications from hackers by preventing them from intercepting any transaction data as it passes from the merchant to the processor.
P2PE solutions include:
Hardware- This is where it shows the hardware that was used to take payment and collect card information.
Software- This includes the application, encryption and decryption, managing keys, configuration, software design and architecture, and any other components.
People- People can be protected against the risk of data breaches by using P2PE solutions such as protecting third-party payment processors and payment gateway providers, acquirers, or any other party that provides solutions to lower data breach risks.
Importance of Payment Security
Online businesses have always taken security as a top priority. Payment security is essential when it comes to protecting customer data and business ethics. Customers don’t want to have to deal with fraudulent charges that were made by using their card on the wrong website.
Third-party payment providers (TPP) will continue to increase as payment trends shift away from cash toward online transactions. However, higher security risks are associated with its growing use. It is risky to store payment information in cloud documents. Therefore, it is important that your information security management system properly screens and protects your payment methods.
Payment gateways are crucial in fighting fraud. Fraudsters have targeted us all in some way. It doesn’t matter if phishing emails land in your inbox or your bank calls to verify your spending habits. Fraudsters can con people out of their money online more often, which can be both alarming for customers and costly to merchants. Every month, fraudsters target European retail web shops in an average of 206,000 attacks.
The bottom line is that merchants should continue to invest in e-commerce fraud detection systems, enhanced by AI and machine learning: improving detection and mitigation. The best place to begin is to have the right payment gateway.
Final Words
Are you still unsure if your payment gateway is secure enough? If yes, then this article is just for you. These are just a few of the ways payment gateways keep users safe. This will help you to rest assured that your customers won’t be left vulnerable to theft. Not only are payment gateways easier than ever to use, but they also make them safer. This ever-growing platform for business transactions makes it more secure and reliable than cash for both consumers and businesses. If you don’t have them yet, you should check them out to see if they are right for your business. For More valuable resources & any query stay connected with techpear.com
The article was originally published on techpear.co.uk