Any business that accepts credit card (CC) payments is in danger from credit card fraudsters and hackers. Most brick and mortar establishments acknowledge this danger and have restructured their credit card processing systems to incorporate secure technologies and protocol. eCommerce websites also face the risk of being robbed by criminals. They must protect the business and its customers by complying with industry best practices for secure credit card transactions and federal regulations.
Risks faced by eCommerce websites
eCommerce website owners can be targets of various kinds of credit card fraud. Some of these may be so stealthy that their effect will not be immediately noticeable in the business finances. Some of the risks faced by eCommerce websites are:
Stolen credit card numbers used to pay for goods
The most common credit card fraud seen by eCommerce websites is the use of stolen card numbers to make purchases.
Randomly validated credit card numbers used for big purchases
A compromised eCommerce website can be used by hackers to validate card numbers with small purchases. Once a credit card number is validated, it is used by the fraudster later to make a hefty purchase.
Credit refunded to stolen credit card
Experienced criminals can force an exposed eCommerce website's payment processing system to submit the credit back from the merchant account to a stolen card account. This way, the difference in the short-term account balance can be overlooked by the card holder.
Customer payments diverted to fake clearing accounts
Hackers that have compromised the security of your eCommerce application can enter their own information to replace the payment data. While the eCommerce application moves the order information towards fulfillment, the criminals divert the payment to their forged account instead of the merchant's.
Responsibility of securing the eCommerce website
Merchant gateway providers use open systems to increase the customer friendliness of their product. eCommerce website owners purchase the necessary software solution to transfer customer information to the payment gateway agencies. There is a constant tussle between the eCommerce website solution providers and merchant payment platform operators over taking responsibility for the security of CC transactions.
eCommerce website design and Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance
The PCI Security standards council has laid down guidelines for secure transaction processing across the industry. PCI DSS (Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard) hopes to simplify the process of protecting customer information from website hackers and criminals.
PCI data security standards regulate the minimum level of security features in:
* eCommerce website software solutions
* database archives on the server
* the physical premises of the server
An eCommerce website that fails to comply with PCI standards can lose its sanction for processing online transactions. They are also liable to pay fines up to $30 for each CC number that was compromised. Though there is a cap of $500,000 on the fine, eCommerce website owners cannot afford to lose the online transactions function of their business.
Professional eCommerce website designers are conversant with PCI regulations and can help you build a strong and secure website to reduce CC fraud and hacking. The cost of a skilled website design team is worth the thousands of dollars it saves you by protecting your business from fraud and for following industry security guidelines.
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