Trust is everything in business, they say. Yet, everyday businesses struggle to work up that trust off their customers on one hand all the while battling security risks and external threats to their business and IT networks. If it’s about doing business online, there’s data transfer through the web. If data hauls from Point A to B, there’s a risk involved.
Consumers are already concerned about phishing, ID theft, and credit card fraud, among other things. If businesses don’t address these concerns, sales will plummet, shopping carts are abandoned, and a whole new can of worms will open up.
Is that even real? According to a study, more than 21% of online shoppers do not conclude an online transaction on the basis or fear and security concerns over credit card security. The 11th Annual Online Fraud Report estimated that U.S and Canadian online retailers report losses of at least US $ 3.3 bullion. TNS research reveals that 73% of online customers feel threatened by Identity Theft.
Yet, there’s great interest in shopping online. The convenience of online shopping with products delivered or shipped to customers’ doorsteps is unparalleled benefit that offline establishments barely hope to achieve. Businesses can’t think of obviating the online route. Supply has to meet consumer demand.
Fortunately, it can be done thanks to technology such as encryption and SSL (Secure Socket Layer). Today, businesses using SSL certificates can boast of encryption best practices thereby claiming to help consumers conduct safe transactions online.
Encryption involves transforming data to make it “unintelligible” to everyone else except the intended recipient – the data renders itself useless to fraudsters or hackers who try to access or interpret this data transfer. E-commerce couldn’t have gotten anywhere without this technology, of that much we are sure.
SSL is the world-standard for encryption and information protection for data transfer on the web, which uses the HTTP protocol. An SSL certificate is an electronic file that enables encrypted communications. Of course, there are various layers within this technology. For instance, encryption is available at “bit” levels where the minimum standard is at least 128-bit. Today, we see 256-bit encryption more often. Off late, SSL vendor Verisign also has other levels of security such as Extended Validation (EV) SSL that is even more reassuring for consumers transacting online.
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