Interesting thing happened today, I’m making reservations to go camping later this summer, when I noticed the campground’s website is asking for credit card information over an unsecured form….that’s a BIG NO NO.
So I call to make the reservation and just mention to her that that her site isn’t secure, so she shouldn’t be accepting credit cards. She says “So”, I say “a hacker can easily intercept the credit card information, you really need to have a SSL certificate on the website”. Her justification is that she has been accepting credit cards over her website for 20 years (highly unlikely) and has never had any problems. I told her she just needs to have a problem once.
She then wanted to know how exactly hackers get the information. They get the information by intercepting packets over the internet….but does it really matter…..however they get the information, THEY GET IT! Sometimes people need to be whacked over the head before it gets through to them.
A great way to avoid problems that come along with accepting credit cards is to collect your credit card information using a payment gateway, i.e. PayPal or an online merchant account. Then the security is on them not you and your company. If you want to accept credit cards on your website make sure you have an SSL certificate and a dedicated IP address.
I highly recommend consulting your web developer when implementing any type of e-commerce on your website. It might cost you a few dollars but it will be worth it.