How safe is it to shop online?
You might be concerned about giving your credit card details over the Internet. And you ought to be. Around 14% of all credit card fraud occurs online. At around 4%, the fraud rate for online transactions is 24 times higher than it is offline. Fortunately it’s the merchants and credit card companies who pick up the tab. Customers rarely find themselves liable for Internet fraud. The most important thing you need to look for when you’re giving your card details over the Web is a small closed padlock or key symbol, usually at the bottom of the screen (sometimes the top). If you see this, it means your details are being encoded and travelling safely down the wire. If you don’t see it, don’t give your card details. The symbol means the retailer uses SSL, a coding method that’s extremely hard to crack. It’s not impossible to unravel, but the cost of breaking the code is more than your credit details are worth (unless you’re Bill Gates). So criminals don’t bother. In any case your credit car
Today, the Internet is actually the safest way of doing business with your credit card. We have made it safer to use your credit card on our site than it is to use it in more traditional ways, such as in retail stores or restaurants. What is SSL and how does it protect my privacy? We use Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology for mutual authentication, data encryption and data integrity – all to ensure secure transactions for our customers. SSL is the industry standard security protocol to encode sensitive information, such as your credit card number. SSL creates a shared digital key which only lets the sender and the receiver of the transmission scramble or unscramble information. To everyone else, even the servers relaying the message, the SSL transmission is indecipherable. SSL encryption can only be broken by intercepting the encrypted message, recording it, and using a computer to try every possible combination until the key is cracked. Most keys range from 40 to 1,024 digits long..
