Credit Cards Online
Application
Credit Cards Online
Application - How Safe is It?By
Lynette_Hill
There have been many speculations about the safety
of cardholders when they purchase items online using their cards. However, only
a few are discussing about online credit card application. Safety for credit
card usage online is one thing, credit cards online application is an entirely
different, and often untouched, thing.
How safe is it to provide your personal information
once you apply online for credit card?
Though many people doubt it, the fact remains that
secure e-commerce technology is much safer than mailing your application through
postal service. Think about it, if you send your application by dropping it on a
mailbox, how easy would it be for unscrupulous people to stick their hands into
it and pull the envelop out from a home mailbox?
While this feat may be much harder to pull once you
put your application on a public mailbox, it does not mean that it cannot be
done. Additionally, once your application reaches the post office, postal
workers will handle it. There may be surveillance cameras but dishonest people
are always coming with the most creative ways to take advantage of other people.
So, what are the security measures card companies use to handle all online
credit card application?
Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Technology
The information between your computer and the bank's
computer through the internet will be encrypted. Basically, the personal
information you give once you make a online credit cards application will be turned into a jumbled mess
and the bank's computer knows how to put it into order for human readers to
understand. If a hacker tries to intercept your message, all he will get is the
encrypted jumbled version.
But what Is encryption?
In a nutshell, encryption is a mathematical process
that conceal information in 128-bits. It is similar to a secret language, only
it is more sophisticated and much more complicated to crack. Typically, your
data is encrypted when each character you enter is transformed into another
character, in any one of 2 to the 128th power ways. To give you peace of mind,
know that the code will take no less than 20,000 years to break using today's
computers.
Two Key Algorithms
In addition, the encryption process uses a two-key
algorithm. This method uses public and a private key to unlock the encrypted
data. The computer that sends the information requires these keys and the
computer on the receiving end, which is the bank's computer, will put into order
the jumbled data and read the 128-bit encrypted information, which you provided,
in order to apply online for credit card. When a hacker tries to seize the data,
he is faced with the impossible task of figuring out the mathematical equation
needed to crack the data; he also has to crack the code for the private and
public keys.
Why go through the pain of searching for the perfect
credit card the old-fashioned way? Learn how to get the best credit
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