Steven is paying for a product he just purchased over the web. As he types in his credit card number, the number gets encrypted. What type of technology is this?
Explanation
Answer: D - Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) is a cryptographic protocol and infrastructure developed to send encrypted credit card numbers over the Internet. The technology was proposed by VISA and MasterCard to allow for more secure credit card transaction possibilities than what was currently available. SET has been waiting for full implementation and acceptance as a standard. Although SET provides an effective way of transmitting credit card information, businesses and users do not see it as efficient because it requires more parties to coordinate their efforts, more software installations and configuration for each entity involved, and more effort and cost than the widely-used SSL method. For SET to be used, the cardholder’s bank, cardholder, merchant, merchant’s bank, and payment gateway would all have to be involved.
