When you want to purchase something online, you need to provide personal details like a credit card number or M-pesa number. A lot of people don’t go past this requirement as they fear being swindled off their hard earned money. But, this need not be the case anymore as online transactions have now become more secure.
Why are Online Transactions Secure?
Online transactions have been in existence for long, but many customers still don’t have trust in it.
But, interestingly, most of these people have already carried out an online transaction in one way or another. This is especially with mobile banking through ATM machine transactions such as deposits, withdrawals, transfers, and inquiries. Others prefer to use their phones to purchase electricity tokens or airtime from the comfort of their homes. As technology advances more people are choosing to use mobile apps for various digital payments. These are some types of online transactions that most have already used.
In reality, security concerns exist whether you choose to purchase online of offline. For instance, when you swipe up your bank card or use mobile money in a retail store, your data will be held by the retailer’s system. If there is a security breach your personal data is compromised. This is to say that security issues are everywhere.
However, what sets online retailers apart from offline ones is that they are more committed to security. An online retailer system is built from ground up with security as a top priority. Failure to do this and a simple hack would destroy their business and no serious online business wants to take that chance.
How Online Transactions are Secured
Online retailers ensure the security of online payments in various ways such as described below:
- PCI DSS Certificate – Stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. This is a set of security standards that all organizations that accept, process, store and transmit credit card information must abide by. The standards provide a guideline for online merchants on securing sensitive payment data. Some retailers may choose to use a payment provider who is PCI-compliant.
- Using anti-fraud tools – online retailers use anti-fraud tools to help them detect fraudulent activities. Since hackers are getting more sophisticated as technology advances, online retailers use a multilevel approach using more than one security tool.
- Secure socket layer (SSL) – SSL protocol helps to encrypt your card details and other sensitive data. To ensure a retailer website will encrypt your private data check for a padlock icon on the address bar. The website address should also show its secured by beginning with HTTPS.
- Tokenization – this involves replacing sensitive data with randomly generated string of characters. This means that the data on transit is in a form of a token, while the sensitive data is stored in a token vault in the merchant’s payment gateway.
- 3D secure – this is an extra layer of security that is also referred to as “Verified by Visa” or “Mastercard Securecode” (These icons indicate that a merchant is 3D secure compliant).
Security Issues with Online Transactions and Your Role to Staying Safe
Although online retailers do their best to secure customer private data, you should not let your guard down. Yes, it is the responsibility of a merchant to stay in tabs with the latest e-commerce security issues and make necessary adjustments.
Unfortunately, humans are the weakest link to data insecurity. Therefore, as a shopper you are also responsible to ensure you are not source of a security breach.
You can do this by:
- Using trusted website. Check the URL to ensure it’s the rights one and check out for variations on the web address name. Avoid clicking on links and if possible type the website address. This is because hackers can use sites similar to the one you are opening, and once you enter your details they can use the same on the right site.
- Use a secure connection. Avoid using public Wi-Fi and be careful when using computers in a Cyber.
- Regularly check your accounts statements for any suspicious transactions
- Read the privacy statement to find out how the site secures your personal information.
You can get more security tips for buying online in Online Shopping in Kenya Guide and How to Shop Safely.
Take Away Point
Online transactions are now more secure, especially because online retailers take extra measure to ensure that their customer data is secure. But, here is one thing to always remember when shopping online. Your actions will determine how safe your details will be online.