How secure is Web-Merchant?
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Security is probably one of the most significant concerns for both the shopper and the retailer during an online transaction. In reality an online transaction is probably more secure than a card transaction in a shop or conducted over the telephone or by fax, as the information transmitted online is highly encrypted using complicated logarithm combinations.

The Web-Merchant payment systems that we provide all use a combination of both established and innovative techniques to ensure the security and integrity of all sensitive data. Furthermore, our public web servers are certified by Thawte, a public Certificate Authority, ensuring that both the shopper and retailer can have confidence that nobody can impersonate the banking networks to obtain confidential information.

All the banks we use, including RBS, BarclayCard, B+S, Elevon, CAL and Tradgard etc. use state of the art security tools and techniques, both proprietary and unique, to ensure that you and your shopper are protected against what is nowadays a virtually nonexistent risk. The systems also have inbuilt system redundancy and fault tolerance, to provide you with a virtually uninterrupted service 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The systems have evolved over many years and gained full bank approval.

If the shopper keys in their card details are they encrypted before they arrive at the secure system?

Using industry standard SSL and Thawte unique encryption systems, this is exactly the case. When the shopper fills in the payment form and clicks the submit button, their details are not sent straight away. What actually happens is that a secure link is set up between the shopper's browser and the payment system and an encryption code is requested and received, which then wraps the order and transaction details before leaving the shoppers premises. read more >>>

Transaction Encryption

The transfer of the purchase details from the retailers site to the secure banking networks are encapsulated using their own encrypted and digitally-signed protocol. This uses a combination of standard methods such as PGP, RSA and MD5 to ensure that the information passed is secure and tamper-proof.

What level of encryption do you have?

Thawte 2048 bit encryption systems. At the browser 128 Bit SSL is used.

Data Storage

Data storage on our systems, and the communication between the merchant accounts that we provide and the worldwide banking networks, is regularly audited by the banking authorities to ensure a secure transaction environment. We also ensure that we stay up-to-date with the latest versions of any third-party code we use, and continually review our own proprietary code.

Can anybody FTP to the secure server?

All FTP (or any kind of upload/download functionality) is strictly prohibited to any of the secure servers.

Are Web-Merchant sites tested and fully approved?

Yes, there is an extensive Quality Assessment process. This process ensures that integrity is maintained at our clients end of the transaction process, and to ensure that the integration between the web site and credit card network has been carried out correctly. The whole process has been designed to ensure a shoppers buying experience is safe and secure.