You Are Paying Safely On The Internet

It is estimated that near 75% of the worlds credit card fraud can be either directly or indirectly traced back to credit card details being compromised (hacked into, stolen, copied) when permanently stored in databases on web servers or within similar internet accessible permanent storage devices.

Although card data security is improving, this risk still very much exists. Subsequently, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent each and every year in the continuing struggle to protect permanently stored credit card details from 'hackers' and 'cyber criminals' on the internet.

To the heartbreak of cardholders and online businesses, hackers and cyber criminals still sometimes manage to breach security defences and get in, here is just one example: ZDNet Australia, CNN Money, msnbc.

Despite the known and recognised risks the practice of permanently storing credit card details on webservers, databases and in internet accessible devices remains a fundamental action of mostly all third party payment gateway processors. They can't do much about it because that's the way the system was designed all those years ago and is how the system operates still to this day.

But the new e-Path gateway is different. e-Path has been engineered to remove the need to permanently store credit card details by the gateway and subsequently is the first payment gateway of its type in the world to terminate, by design, the core reason why card data potentially becomes available to 'hackers' and 'cyber criminals' in the very first instance.

When you pay by credit card online using e-Path, not a single snippet of your highly private and sensitive credit card details, or any other details for that matter, will be permanently stored online. No names, no credit card numbers, no expiry dates, nothing. Once the business owner is in receipt of your credit card charge authorisation as far as e-Path and the internet is concerned it is as if that payment never occurred in the first place.

In the words of Damien Croft CEO ComCron '' You simply can not get a better way to protect credit card information on the internet than for it not to exist on the internet.''

• For the first time you as the cardholder can now pay by credit card online using a secure payment gateway where your private credit card details are not going to be permanently stored by the gateway on the internet or in some internet accessible storage device or database somewhere.
  
  
• When credit card data is not permanently stored online or in any internet accessible device anywhere then it can't possibly be stolen from there. 'Hackers' and 'cyber criminals' can't thieve something that doesn't exist!!!
  

The business owner whose website you've just come from is clearly very serious about security. Their decision to utilise the e-Path credit card payment gateway is evidence they are not prepared to compromise when it comes to protecting their online customers.

As a business owner accepting credit cards online with e-Path means their private merchant account at their bank is kept well away from the vulnerabilities of being open to everyone on the internet.

With the typical third party 'real time' payment processor gateways anyone anywhere can enter any credit card they like and it will be communicated directly with the business owner's merchant account, even without the business owner knowing. That's what 'live' online transactions are.

This open direct access into the private merchant account of the business owner by anyone connected to the world wide web is one of the core reasons why fraud can be so effortlessly perpetrated online.

With e-Path this vulnerability no longer exists. With e-Path anonymous individuals are denied direct access to the business owners merchant account because the merchant account is no longer sitting open and accessible on the internet. The closing off of this vulnerability represents a tangible step forward in improving the security dynamics of online ecommerce activity and management for the business owner.

e-Path finally puts the online business owner where they need to be ... in total control of their own merchant account at their bank and what credit card payments they accept and don't accept.

When a bank provides a business owner with a manual merchant account facility to enable that business owner to charge credit card payments received online through e-Path, the banks exposure to direct risk can be greatly reduced than when compared to if it were supplying an internet based merchant account facility connected up to a third party real time payment processing type gateway.

While card not present transactions are still considered a high risk transaction type, the fact is a manual merchant account will never allow anonymous online individuals to directly and automatically transact a stolen credit card live into it, the ability of which is said to be one of the main reasons why fraud still seems to be so effortlessly perpetrated online today.

With the current third party 'real time' processing gateway/internet based merchant account system anyone anywhere can anonymously enter any credit card they like online for it to be communicated live directly with the merchant account of a business owner without the business owner even knowing. It can be well argued that the third party gateway online processing system's actual design has inadvertently created the perfect made-to-measure tool for fraudsters and cyber criminals to facilitate their illegal activities on the internet in the first place.

To counter this, anti-fraud screening services such as 3-D Secure™, Verified By Visa™, Master Card Secure Code™ etc., can be deployed to defend against this open vulnerability. Each are highly potent and powerful automated fraud screening systems that are continually being improved upon. But circumstances need to be right for them to be effective.

There is a crippling $600 million fraud cost (and growing) each year that more than suggests automated fraud screening systems have a little way to go before they can unequivocally guarantee 100% protection for the online business owner against falling victim to fraudsters instantly transacting stolen credit cards into a live gateway and thus directly into the merchant account of the online business owner.

However, when e-Path is the gateway, for the first time banks can now provide a manual merchant account service to transact credit cards received online where only the legitimate bank approved merchant account owner is the only one performing the charge into the merchant account.

The merchant account facility is not being left open and accessible to the entire population on the internet and will not allow anonymous individuals to transact any credit card they like into it live on the net - this risk is completely eliminated when a manual merchant account is used. Therefore, overall exposure to direct risk for both the business owner and the bank itself is greatly reduced.

The end result of this is not only substantial potential cost savings for both the online business owner and the bank itself but also they both are making a tangible overall contribution towards reducing online credit card fraud.

Fraudsters and cyber criminals suddenly no longer have the means to anonymously transact stolen credit cards 'live' on the net and get the live transaction response they look for. This wide open door is shut permanently closed when e-Path is the gateway and a manual merchant account is the merchant account facility.

The bank will also be aware that with a manual merchant account the business owner now has the opportunity to check highly pertinent details about the buyer and order prior to deciding to charge the card. This means the business owner has the chance to identify and terminate any fraudulent payment attempts prior to them doing any harm - again, something that is not possible when accepting credit cards 'live' on the net via a third party 'real time' processing gateway system connected to an internet only based merchant account facility.

The fact that banks can now supply merchant account facilities that will only allow approved merchant account owner access as opposed to allowing full and open anonymous access from anyone anywhere on the entire internet represents a benchmark tightening-up of a core venerability that banks have always previously had to deal with, and factor in the cost of, when providing merchant account facilities for accepting credit cards online.

Recently 40 million credit cards were stolen from a third party payment gateway processor, see - ZDNet Australia, CNN Money, msnbc. The cost incurred by card vendors to replace and reissue a credit card is around $10.00. That's a 400 million dollar cost just on re-issuing those 40 million credit cards, not even taking into account the terrible cost of the fraud that was involved.

Yet, had e-Path been the credit card payment gateway not a single credit card would have been permanently stored anywhere online in the first place, therefore, not a single credit card could have possibly been stolen. You can't thieve something that doesn't exist.

We do not want to infer or imply card vendors have a particular attitude or view towards the new e-Path service one way of the other, however, we can safely assume there would have been some serious 'back patting' had they been saved from having to spend 400 million dollars, not to mention the enormous cost that also could have been saved that was incurred by every business around the world that supplied products or services purchased with those stolen credit cards.