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Shopping Online SecurelyMany people are hesitant to shop online for fear of identity and credit card theft. With technological advances like SSL, (Secure Socket Layer, designed by Netscape) and SET, shopping online has become much safer and secure. I have been shopping online for many years without experiencing any problems with security. Most credit card companies back online purchases 100%. As you know, credit card companies don't like to take chances. You can find a very easy to understand and fun to read turorial of how the credit card process works at Newbie.com. If you would like to add a bit more security to your online buying, PayPal is a very good option. With PayPal, you never need to enter your personal information. Your information is transferred digitally encrypted so there is no need to type credit card numbers or other sensitive information into your browser. accounts are free for online shoppers
A shameless plug for PayPal, If You Have A Website Or An Online StoreSign up for a merchant account. Opening a PayPal merchant account is free and allows you to accept all major credit and debit cards. Also, you can set up a PayPal shopping cart on your web site for free and it's really easy. I use a Mercant Account and it works like a charm. Some Things You Should Know. Email SecurityYou should never send payment information via e-mail. Information that travels over the Internet as regular electronic mail is not fully protected from being read by outside parties. How do I know My Browser is secure?When you click on a button or link to make a purchase, you are often taken to a shopping basket or checkout page. At the checkout page you will be directed to click on another button or link to enter your credit and shipping information. The credit and shipping page should load on a secure server. So how do I know it's secure, you ask? You can tell you are on a secure server by looking at the URL box at the top of your browser window. If you are in a secure environment your URL. Ex. "http://some.server.com", will have changed to "https://some.server.com". ("https" Hypertext Transmission Protocol Secure) Most Internet browsers will notify you that you are entering a secure server. Firefox shows a yellow background in the URL box and a closed padlock on the right side. Internet Explorer Version 6 with Service Pack 2, shows a yellow closed padlock in the lower right hand corner of the browser window. Netscape version 7.x also shows a closed padlock with a yellow background in the lower right hand corner of the browser window. Also your browser has safeguards in place to verify the security of a server so that a secure URL can not be faked. Your browser will also inform you if a server is NOT secure. Not all websites use the exact procedure described above. When you reach the page that asks for your credit card information, look for the secure server URL https:, if your browser does not notify you with a pop up window that you are entering a secure server.  | Home | Bytepowered Articles | Guides Index | | Shopping For Hardware | Shopping Securely | Computer Hardware Online - Compare Retailers | Get The Plan | Choosing Hardware | Motherboards Guide | Computer Cases | CPU Guide | Memory Guide | Video Card Guide | Hard Drives Guide | Hardware Organizer | Download OpenOffice |
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or a yellow highlighted URL. The pop up window security notification can be turned on and off in most browsers from the options menu.
