Whether it\u2019s the local shopping market, airport or online, thieves are lurking and just waiting for you to make a critical mistake.\u00a0 In fact, much of the internet community is in a state of panic as data theft is at an all-time high.\u00a0 Credit card numbers, bank account information and identities are being stolen from companies who don\u2019t know how to properly secure their website and transactions.\u00a0 Assuming you don\u2019t want to be the next victim, we have provided three simple tips to keep you one step ahead of the attackers.<\/p>\n
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1.) Make Use of Encryption <\/strong><\/p>\n \n In order to protect the monetary transactions occurring on your site, you at least need to have an SSL certificate with no less than 128-bit encryption.\u00a0 This security tool can be installed and managed by a third-party vendor such as VeriSign or you can choose to handle the configuration yourself.\u00a0 What SSL does is scramble the data being sent over the internet in a code that is unreadable to hackers.\u00a0 Thus, when sales on your website are made, the financial details of your customers is encrypted, securely transmitted and then decrypted by your payment processor.\u00a0 By placing an SSL certificate seal on your website, you can calm the nerves of consumers and encourage them to shop your store in confidence.<\/p>\n \n 2.) Check Your Buyers <\/strong><\/p>\n \n Although you don\u2019t want to look as if you are suspicious of everyone, the prevalence of credit card payments increases the probability of a customer using someone\u2019s financial information without their knowledge or approval.\u00a0 To minimize situations like this, you should check the identity of your customers.\u00a0 This can be done by not only obtaining their name and credit card number, but also their home address, telephone numbers and the security code located on the back of the actual credit card.\u00a0 By doing so, you can better assure that the financial details submitted actually belong to the individual making the purchase.\u00a0 If the card comes back as stolen, you could end up playing a role in helping authorities track down the criminal.<\/p>\n \n 3.) Research Your Merchant<\/strong><\/p>\n \n To ensure that financial information will not be stolen following the transaction, it is imperative that you run a thorough check of the merchant account provider processing your credit card payments.\u00a0 You can start by reading reviews to learn if they have a history of fraud or security issues.\u00a0 Don\u2019t hesitate to speak to the company directly about the security measures they employ and most importantly, to make sure you are completely confident in their services.\u00a0 If you have any doubts about the provider, follow your instinct and move on to the next option.<\/p>\n \n Security is a hot topic in seemingly every industry these days.\u00a0 If you are using the internet as a medium for your business, these certainly are not times when you can just sit back and simply hope for the best.\u00a0 Hackers and their attacking mechanisms grow more advanced everyday, so it is critical that you take the appropriate actions to keep both you and your customers out of harm\u2019s way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whether it\u2019s the local shopping market, airport or online, thieves are lurking and just waiting for you to make a critical mistake.\u00a0 In fact, much of the internet community is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wds_primary_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[115,3929,186,242,321,316,110,154],"class_list":["post-428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security-issues","tag-128-bit","tag-banking","tag-credit-card","tag-encryption","tag-hackers","tag-merchant-account","tag-ssl","tag-verisign"],"views":116,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/428\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webhostinggeeks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}