Security is an incredibly important part of credit card processing. Credit technology has improved significantly over the last decade, and new techniques and protocols are very effective at preventing unauthorized card use. Merchant card services programs often provide several automatic security tools that help businesses avoid fraudulent transactions. New security technology keeps customer data secure as its transmitted and processed, and protects businesses, as there are harsh penalties under federal law for companies that fail to adequately protect their customers from fraud and identity theft.
Most new security technologies focus on the way that data is handled and transmitted to prevent malicious credit or debit card use. Encryption is a particularly important form of security for protecting information related to a customer’s credit. Technology used in credit card encryption has been around for a while, but encryption methods have been gradually upgraded to provide better security. Without the proper authentication tokens, it’s completely impossible for any third party to decode and read customer credit card information. Modern encryption methods are impossible decipher, as they use complex, partially random methods to encode data, usually measured in bits (64-bit and 128-bit encryption methods are fairly common, especially for Internet transactions). Data is submitted over a secure connection to an authentication gateway. Even if the secure connection could be broken, the encrypted data would be a garbled mess to malicious hackers.
Authentication tokens have also improved dramatically. Tokens are basically passwords, keys and other text elements that are used by customers and payment gateways to authenticate the customer’s identity. They’re used in all types of payment terminals, including wired terminals, wireless terminals and Internet processing tools. Credit card processing companies use established protocols to set and use authentication tokens. Customers may choose their own passwords or key phrases to prevent unauthorized users from making a purchase on their accounts. The simple implementation of authentication tokens into credit technology has allowed for an easy experience for customers while keeping data secure.
Modern credit technology is very effective at preventing unauthorized charges. Most instances of credit card fraud occur on the customer’s end, as passwords aren’t always properly protected, but modern security technology protects businesses from harsh legal penalties for losing credit card information. Security protocols vary from one credit card processing service to the next. However, they’re all held to the same set of federal standards, and as security continues to improve, credit card and personal information theft has become extremely difficult. Businesses with dependable merchant accounts can process bank cards without worrying about the repercussions of submitting customer information digitally to a payment gateway.