A higher number of people all over the world are switching to digital payments in a post-covid world as they have become cash averse due to the risk of infection. Moreover, digital payments are convenient, fast, and offer a seamless experience to customers, giving them more traction over conventional cash-based transactions. However, this also means that the risk of financial data leak and the personal data of consumers being compromised is also at an all-time high as fraudsters are on the constant lookout for vulnerabilities in the system. So, as a merchant you need to ask yourself this very important question, is your gateway for online payment secure? And can you trust it with protecting customer data? As a merchant, you need to understand a few mandatory security requirements and protocols set by the Government of India if you care about offering your customers a secure environment they can trust and transact with. And even though it’s next to impossible to eliminate online fraud, you can take steps to secure sensitive information the best you can. Let’s look at a few protocols that can make your payment processing gateway more secure and give your customers more confidence while they shop online!
SSL Protocol
The SSL or Secure Sockets Layer is an encryption-based internet security protocol that uses an encrypted algorithm for integrity testing. It also protects the data that’s being transmitted between the web browser and server and prevents anyone from reading sensitive information while in transition. Therefore, it’s important to get an SSL certificate if you are in the business of selling goods and services online to protect customer data.
TLS Protocol
Known as transport layer security, it is the SSL’s successor and is an improvement over the technology. It offers enhanced privacy and data security for online transactions by improving upon the encryption technology for online communication.
Tokenization
It’s a process that replaces sensitive data with ‘tokens’ which is a randomly generated character string. By doing this tokenization helps in reducing fraud since all card data is hidden within the randomly generated character string.
PCI DSS
PCI DSS stands for Payment card industry data security standards which is a set of regulations set to manage cardholder data for online payment systems. It has 4 levels and is designed to maintain 6 goals.
- Building and maintaining a secure network
- Implementing strong access control measures
- Protecting cardholder data
- Maintaining a vulnerability management program
- Regularly monitoring and testing networks
- Maintaining an information security policy
3DS Protocol
It’s an XML-based protocol that adds a layer of security for cardholders when making online transactions. The 3DS protocol interacts with 3 domains, i.e., the merchant/acquirer domain, the issuer domain, and the interoperability domain. Whenever a transaction is initiated by the customer on the payment gateway, it contacts the directory server for the card’s authenticity status. The customer is then redirected to a 3DS page where they need to enter an OTP, which is then shared with the payment gateway to approve or decline the transaction.
2 Factor Authentications
It has been recently introduced to add a layer of security on top of existing security features to make transactions as secure as possible. It consists of customer information like username and password and combines that with randomly generated OTP or using biometrics to verify the authenticity of the transaction. As a merchant, it’s in your best interest to provide the most secure environment to your customers. The more secure your store, the more customers will love and value your brand. Therefore, you must implement all security measures to prevent fraud and data leaks while providing a seamless checkout experience to your customers.
