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Fraudsters are constantly on the hunt for ways to get into systems and steal data. Despite these concerns, customers still expect to pay for services and products using their preferred means of payment efficiently and seamlessly. Online shopping has been an increasingly popular trend in recent years, as many find it more convenient to shop from the comfort of their homes. Online stores offer virtually anything and everything, including food, apparel, jewelry, technology, and other knickknacks. But do they provide online payment security?

How to know if online payment is secure? How can you protect yourself from online payment security breaches when the dangers are so ubiquitous? What are the most effective methods for enhancing one’s safety against insecure online payment?

Online payment security is about protecting your business and customers’ personal information. In this blog post, we’re going to give you some tips on how to make your payments more secure. We’ll also tell you about some of the most common scams that people fall for. So, if you’re looking to protect your information and your money, keep reading!

Three Key Factors to Ensure Safe Online Payments

safe online payment

As the world goes online, more and more people are using online payments to purchase goods and services. But what are the key factors that need to be considered when making an online payment? In this article, we’ll look at three key factors that need to be taken into account when making an online payment. By understanding these factors, you can ensure that your transactions are as safe as possible.

  1. Fraud Management

To prevent fraud, businesses may need to alter their payment options or need further customer identification verification. If a company’s credit card processing rights are revoked due to a high level of fraud, this can negatively influence the company’s reputation.

To prevent fraud, retailers need to monitor suspicious activity and alert customers of potential fraudulent activity. This can be done through email alerts or SMS messages when someone tries to use an unauthorized credit card or make an unauthorized transaction on your website or mobile app.

Retailers should also verify customer orders before shipping them out so they can catch any fraudulent activity early on in order to minimize losses due to fraud management.

Fraud management is a highly specialized field that requires experts who understand how criminals operate and how to prevent them from doing so.

  1. Security Management

Retailers must ensure that their payment processes are safe ways to pay online to prevent fraudsters from stealing valuable personal and financial data.

The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) is a set of security standards designed to protect credit card information in the event of a data breach. The PCI DSS requires that businesses maintain a secure environment for processing, storing and transmitting cardholder data.

In addition to implementing the PCI DSS, retailers should also perform regular risk assessments and vulnerability scans on their systems. This helps identify any potential weak points where thieves could gain access to sensitive information or exploit vulnerabilities in the system.

  1. Compliance Management

The goal of regulators or individual governments is to ensure that businesses and individuals are protected from privacy and data breaches. Merchants must be aware of their responsibilities and make sure that they adhere to them no matter where they conduct business.

This can mean ensuring that merchants have policies in place to protect consumer data, preventing hacking or fraud on their websites, and providing the proper tools for merchants to self-enforce these policies.

For example, if a merchant has a policy against fraudulent transactions, they may want to provide an option for customers to dispute a charge if they believe it was made without their permission. If there are any disputes, then merchants should be able to resolve them quickly and effectively. This helps eliminate false claims while also providing customers with quick resolution.

4 Safe Ways To Pay Online

ways to pay online

Here are some of the safest ways that you can protect yourself from fraud when making purchases online:

Debit Cards:

Small business owners can also benefit from accepting debit card payments because they are subject to PCI compliance. 

A benefit for users is that using a debit card from an unfamiliar IP address can activate identity verification checks, making it one of the most secure online payment options available to such clients.

Aside from that, neither Visa nor Mastercard debit or credit cards make cardholders liable for any unlawful transactions.

Credit Cards:

Since payment compliance standards, also known as payment card industry compliance or PCI compliance, regulate the usage of credit cards, they are particularly secure online payment options for small business owners.

Since transactions made with a credit card do not immediately deplete the customer’s bank account, your clients will also benefit from credit cards. Instead, the credit card company provides the first funding, not the customer.

Mobile Wallets:
In terms of online payment security, digital wallets like Apple Pay and Amazon Pay are largely considered to be among the best options available.

Suppose your clients must use a fingerprint or PIN to authenticate their transaction.

In that case, your organization will benefit from these forms of payment because they disguise the credit and debit card details. 

Wire Transfers:
Wire transfers are one of the safe ways to pay online when the banks of your company and the client are well-known.

That’s because a bank with a great reputation lacks a history of data breaches and other security holes, which suggests that this bank has active controls in place to prevent fraud and other online payment security concerns.

8 Steps for Businesses To Assure Online Payment Security

Businesses paying online
  1. Be compliant with PCI DSS

Ensure your payment system complies with PCI DSS, an internationally recognized standard for secure card payments that includes 12 security requirements, before doing anything else to ensure safety. 

The PCI requirements are mandatory for all reputable processing providers, but it’s still worth learning about them because noncompliance can lead to legal action. Inquire about PCI compliance requirements with your processing supplier.

If your firm handles PCI compliance independently, it can be challenging. Many processors take care of everything from transaction tracking to store your credit card information.

The simplest course of action to ensure online payment security is to employ cyber security consulting solutions, such as Jumpstart Security, that make cyber security simpler and more accessible for micro and small organizations worldwide.

  1. SSL Protocol

Businesses that sell products and services online are the only ones affected by SSL protocol. Secure socket layer (SSL) is a term used to describe an internet security encryption protocol. You’ve probably seen SSL, even if you didn’t know it.

If a website’s URL begins with HTTPS, it is likely protected by SSL. An SSL certificate is required for any URLs that start with HTTPS. The padlock is another prominent SSL symbol.

There is a good chance that most payment processors will have an SSL-certified online payment portal. Ensuring your website is protected is only a concern if you build it yourself.

  1. Ensure Data Encryption

Encrypting consumer financial information is the third level in strengthening online payment security. Identity theft is on the rise, and if the data isn’t encrypted, hackers can do it with relative ease, thanks to unsecured WIFI networks. The websites your company uses for online transactions should be legitimate and have legitimate operators. 

Data encryption ensures that only authorized parties have access to your private information and that it does not fall into the hands of unauthorized individuals. It also greatly minimizes the risk of a password being stolen. Transactions were more secure thanks partly to all of these technologies working together.

  1. Tokenization

The customer’s payment information is protected by tokenization, an additional degree of protection. When a payment processor offers tokenization, a program generates a random string of integers from the payment data.

Because this data has been tokenized, hackers would not use it. So that’s why online payment tokenization is such a desirable feature in terms of security. Ask if the payment processor employs tokenization if you’re still looking for one.

A second line of defense for online payment security is always a good idea.

  1. Address Verification Service

You’ve had to type in your billing address on a website, right? Your credit card is authenticated using this billing address. Transactions can be completed if your billing address matches the one on record with your credit card company.

One of the most widely used security measures for online payment security is the address verification service (AVS). Because it’s so simple to build, nearly every processor uses it. Not only does this lower the likelihood of fraudulent charges being processed, but it also reduces the likelihood of a charge being rejected.

  1. Implement 3D Security

To avoid chargebacks in the event of fraudulent transactions, 3D Secure is an authentication system to prevent unauthorized card use. 

To ensure the security of their transactions, merchants, card networks, and financial institutions exchange private information. 3D Secure is an easy method for shops to comply with new EU regulations for strong consumer authentication.

To verify that the correct person is using the card, this additional level of protection is included with every online payment. There are some, but not all, payment processors that offer this feature.

  1. Request the CVV

Using the Card Verification Value (CVV) on the phone or online is a way to verify card transactions that aren’t physically present.

In cases where credit card numbers have been stolen, businesses can confirm a transaction by asking for information that is only available on the card.

  1. Conduct Security Assessments

Finally, undertake annual security assessments of your system by professionals who can conduct penetration tests and vulnerability assessments to investigate your network from a hacker’s perspective. 

Their job is to test the system manually, look for vulnerabilities, and offer advice on how to know if online payment is secure. In addition, they can find unencrypted data leaks and security gaps in wireless and network security systems.

  1. Train Employees

Educate employees so they can recognize and respond correctly to situations in which they are involved. When the workforce is familiar with the secure online payment options, they can spot fraudulent activities in real time and avert security breaches.

Suggest Reading: Avoid Online Scam – Check out this guide if you have been a victim or hacked attempt ever in your life. This guide provides you exceptional ways to how you can avoid online scam, and protect your data in a convenient way.

Take your cyber security to the next level with Jumpstart

Businesses of all sizes face security threats every day, yet they lack the resources to protect themselves in-house. Cybersecurity is a huge challenge, but it’s not impossible. We can help.

Jumpstart Security  provides comprehensive cyber security and data loss prevention to businesses that lack the resources to hire and train IT and support employees. We offer secure cloud-based solutions to protect you from malware, viruses, phishing attacks, ransomware, leaks and more.

Whether you need data loss prevention services, full-time employee monitoring or just want to reduce your risk of a cyber attack, we’re here to help. 

Explore the features of our platform here

The Takeaway

Online transactions and payments must be processed securely to avoid fraud and data breaches. Due to fraud, you could find up paying huge fees for chargebacks. Data breaches may be a public relations nightmare, leading to a lack of trust among customers.

Securely selling your products is no longer an issue, thanks to many service providers offering cutting-edge online payment security measures. Is it only a matter of finding the correct processor for you?

A first line of defense against cyber criminals, Jumpstart Security provides comprehensive cyber security and data loss prevention to business owners who lack the resources to hire and train IT support. By protecting your devices, preventing data loss and monitoring suspicious activity in real time, our software provides peace of mind so you can get back to running your business.

Small businesses can use to protect themselves from insecure online payment methods that can lead to malware, ransomware, phishing, and other forms of cybercrime, as well as to identify infected devices and keep tabs on suspicious activities.

Jumpstart Security is an enterprise-level solution that provides small businesses with the ideal combination of cyber security and ease of use. 

So what are you waiting for? Get started with Jumpstart Security.