The 7 Most Important Security Features To Look For In A Payment Provider
Do not place your company or customers at risk
Cybersecurity has never been a more pressing topic for business owners with increasingly sophisticated attacks now occurring regularly. You don’t need to look any further than the recent Optus scandal that saw the personal details of over a million Australians exposed.
In fact, since the Australian Government introduced the Notifiable Data Breach scheme in 2018, there has been a reported 712% increase in cyberattacks.
Historically, many businesses have only considered the security of their financial information and personal details until it was too late. However, by taking a few simple precautions you can protect yourself and your finances from being exposed.
One aspect of your business that poses a considerable risk to hackers is your payment provider. This is where most of the financial transactions between you and your customers take place and therefore any compromised information can prove extremely costly.
In this short guide, we lay out in simple terms the key security features you need to be aware of. Use the points in this guide as a checklist to help you feel reassured you have chosen a payment provider that places an emphasis on cybersecurity.
The Key Features Essential For A Secure Payment System
1 Does not collect or store credit card data
Any cardholder data that is collected and stored by a company is at risk of exposure, whether it be from malicious third-parties or disgruntled internal stakeholders. Having this sort of sensitive data stored in an accessible database is a recipe for disaster.
Luckily, the practice of storing unencrypted credit card information is being quickly outlawed under new and improved cybersecurity regulation. However, some lesser known and offshore payment providers still employ this practice.
If you can’t find any mention of their data encryption or explicit reference as to where they store your credit card information, it is a clear sign to avoid working with them.
2 Utilises card tokenisation for maximum security
Card tokensiation is the process of converting important cardholder data such as personal identifying information, card numbers, CCV’s etc. into randomly generated numbers called a “token”.
What this does is in the event of a data breach, hackers only have access to unusable tokens rather than data they can use to conduct credit card fraud or identity theft. Card tokenisation is not mandatory and as such an important feature to identify.
3 Is PCI Data Security Standard compliant
Perhaps the most crucial and easy to recognise security feature is PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) compliant. PCI is the payment card industry security standard and is a set of requirements for organisations that handle credit card information.
There are twelve stringent technical requirements outlined by the PCI that must be met for companies to receive compliance approval. Without going into too much detail the standard mandates that companies must have the technical infrastructure to cover the following areas.
- Build and Maintain a Secure Network and Systems
- Protect Cardholder Data
- Maintain a Vulnerability Management Program
- Implement Strong Access Control Measures
- Regularly Monitor and Test Networks
- Maintain an Information Security Policy
The PCI is an independent and highly respected organization and as such looking for reference on payment providers website that they are “PCI Compliant” is a huge tick of approval.
4 Uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer – https)
This security feature is in reference to the web browser of your platform provider. SSL in recent times has become standard practice for all websites but there are still a few entities yet to implement the technology.
The easiest way to identify whether a provider is using SSL is if the website is using “https:” at the start of the web address instead of a “http”. On most web browsers (Chrome, Safari etc.) you will see a small lock symbol next to the name of the website in your address bar.
SSL protects the internet connection between your data and a website, as a result securing online transactions and ensuring your data remains secure and confidential.
5 Utilises trustworthy merchant facilities
Unless you are dealing directly with a reputable bank or merchant provider, it is likely that they are partnering with another company to utilise their merchant technology. Merchant facilities are the act of processing credit cards and other key payment transactions.
Make sure that the provider you are looking to work with in Australia is partnered with one of the large, security focused banks or providers and is not handling things in-house. This can easily be found by doing a little research on their website or in their terms and conditions.
If there is no mention of who handles their merchant facilities then either get in touch with the provider or make sure to do some more due diligence before committing.
6 Is data encrypted
Data encryption is similar to tokenisation in that it is the process of translating data into another randomly generated string of numbers or characters. Providers who employ tokenisation and data encryption serve a two-factor form of security for customers.
This process is what allows sensitive information to pass safely from your customers to your payment provider. Without data encryption anyone who has access to the area where sensitive information is stored can easily use it to commit fraud.
There are various levels of sophistication when it comes to data encryption and nearly every payment provider will state that they employ some form of encryption. Which is why you should not accept this security feature by itself to be a form of total protection. Make sure your chosen payment provider is using data encryption alongside the other security features outlined in this guide.
7 Is Australian owned and operated
Whilst we are not suggesting that only Australian payment providers are secure enough to provide your payment services, there are a number of additional benefits that warrant its inclusion.
Australia has some of the most stringent cybersecurity laws in the world and in the rare event of an attack you want to be in the hands of local support and assistance. Other government bodies such as the ACCC also regularly patrol company websites to ensure claims made are not deceptive or misleading customers.
As such, with reputable Australian owned and operated companies, you can be confident in the fact they are actually delivering on the security features outlined here.
B2Bpay As A Payment Provider
Satisfies all security features and more
If you are still in the market for a secure payment provider you can feel confident with committing to B2Bpay.
Not only does B2Bpay implement all of the security features outlined above into their platform, there is a wealth of additional benefits to working with them.
Check out some of the information below to learn more about how B2Bpay can help your business.
