Recent credit card and identity data breaches

The recent spate of serious data breaches resulting in vast amounts of highly confidential credit card and identity data being compromised is again forcing a re-think about the practice of permanently storing highly confidential data, such as credit card and identity information, online in databases, in "secure" storage devices or on networks.

If security defences was able to do the job then there would be no data breaches. The uncomfortable truth of the matter is there will always remain an inherent risk to the security of ANY highly sensitive and confidential information, including credit card and identity data, when that data is taken and permanently stored electronically somewhere, especially online.

When paying by credit card utilising an online credit card payment processing system, which is a method as old as e-commerce itself, credit card and identity data will be permanently stored electronically by the processing gateway, in a database somewhere, in a storage appliance or device.

It is this location, that if breached, can have catastrophic consequences for cardholders, online businesses and the whole credit card provider industry.

Your credit card data is amongst the most confidential personally identifiable data you own therefore you have a fundamental right under Australian Privacy Laws to determine who stores your data and who doesn't.

But someone either forget to tell the online credit card payment processing gateway companies about Australian Privacy Laws or they are ignoring it by choice. Who knows.

When paying by credit card online using an online credit card payment processing gateway your credit card data is usually seized and permanently stored electronically in some form or another and they will not permit you to have it deleted from their systems.

Absolutely outrageous in my opinion.

e-Path is the first credit card payment gateway designed from the ground up to put the security of cardholder data first for a change. We enable credit card payment authorisations from the internet where credit card and identity data is NEVER permanently stored anywhere within our systems. In fact, once the transaction is performed the card data simply does not exist anywhere in any shape or form.

So, make no mistake about it, while the consumer community and indeed the entire credit card industry may cringe with fear each time there is news of a serious online credit card data security breach the fact is if you paid an online business for a product or service that uses e-Path you can rest easy because no matter how successful the online breach, hack or compromise is, your credit card and identity data is simply not permanently there online to be stolen in the first place.

If you are an online business then by offering your customers the opportunity to pay online via a payment gateway that will not be permanently storing credit card and identity data within its systems, such as e-Path, you will be offering your online customers a supreme level of security that can not possibly be matched by any alternative online 'real time' credit card payment processing gateway service.

At the risk of repeating myself, the fact is the overwhelming majority of credit card and identity data theft in the world today does not need to happen, you just need to choose the right payment gateway!

... just a thought
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Peter Thwaites
E-PATH CREDIT CARD PAYMENT GATEWAY