There is significant concern circulating about data security and the ways consumers and merchants might accidently
subject themselves to credit card fraud, with particular attention paid to the riskiness of internet shopping and credit card use.
But it bears remembering that many of these scary technologies, such as modern
payment processing systems and wireless credit card POS systems, in many ways represent significant steps forward in credit card and financial security when compared to the systems and technology that were in place even just 20 years ago.
For example,
POS services in Canada for small businesses and new merchants include dynamic security
strategies developed by niche experts in various aspects of the credit card field. From the physical
credit card’s design and materials to the credit card reader itself, to the POS computer that receives the
information, the software installed on that computer to communicate with the credit card payment processor,
the merchant’s bank, and the credit card provider, each step and each player has a strong incentive to prevent
fraud that targets itself or its customers. Every pair of hands that touches each piece of technology from its design
to construction to installation to use belongs to someone who was specifically trained to responsibly and securely handle his or her task.
Consider a quick swipe of a credit card approved by the customer’s signature and processed through several layers of security checks including those by the provider of POS services in Canada, the internet service provider, the bank, encrypted connections, and immediately verifiable by the cardholder via online banking. Compare this with paying with a credit card at the grocery store before 1990, using a manual imprinter. The process entailed creating a paper copy of all the important information on a credit card and either mailing bunches of these copies into the bank or depositing them. The opportunities to steal this information were infinitely more than they would be now, with technology and regulations having virtually eliminated physical copies of all vital credit card information.
Clearly there are a number of evolutionary steps in credit card processing since that time, but the point is the same. At each step the techniques needed to steal information have become more technical and complicated, increasing the security of the customer’s information.