security feature of this system is that customer credit card numbers are not sent over the Internet, thereby relieving the merchant of liability in protecting customer credit card information. Disadvantages include the reliance on relatively unsecured e-mail for some degree of sensitive personal data and merchant liability under existing laws for fraud (SOURCE ). On-line credit card processing system A system developed by CyberCash, Inc. relies on powerful encryption of credit card numbers using free proprietary software. Customers register with CyberCash to set up an identity on the system and are assigned a private encryption key. Merchants are also required to load proprietary software. When a customer initiates a transaction, the merchant’s software prompts the customer’s software to open a digital “wallet” and the merchant receives the customer’s credit card information encrypted with a private key. The merchant adds merchant information and sends the information to CyberCash. CyberCash is able to use public and private keys to decode customer and merchant information and obtains credit card authorization through standard means. If the cardholders bank authorizes the transaction, the merchant is notified, who in turn informs the customer of the completed transaction. An advanced version of CyberCash’s model, Secure Electron Transaction (SET) has been adopted as a payment protocol by MasterCard, Visa, and major Internet Software companies (TADJER 4). Virtual banking has gained a solid foothold on the Internet. It is estimated that about 4.6 million customers do banking via the Internet (TADJER 5). One of the first Internet virtual banking systems was designed by Security First Network Bank (SNFB), which exists practically only on the Internet (TADGER 4). The SFNB system has three main security features: 1.A Web platform with multi-level security technology, including privilege and a...
