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Why are Secure Order Forms Important

Have you ever purchased something on the internet? Have you ever worried that somebody may be able to steal your personal details? Internet fraud is a major issue in these times. The number of recorded cases of identity theft and credit card fraud, enabled by the internet, has risen steadily every year. So how do we know our personal information is safe when we are buying goods or services from a website? How can you find out if you are accessing a secure order form?

There is a security protocol available, which can entirely encrypt all data sent via the web browser. This protocol is named Secure Sockets Layer, although it is more usually just known as SSL. Every reliable internet vendor will use SSL to create a secure order form. SSL uses a combination of encryption, and a verified security certificate supplied by specialist companies, who ensure that the certificate is both current and secure. This is the actual technology which makes secure order forms possible.

How can you tell if you are viewing a web page which is using SSL to secure it? Well the first tell tale sign can be found to the left of the address bar of your web browser. All unsecured web sessions will have a URL that starts with HTTP:// and all secure web sessions will have a URL that starts with HTTPS:// instead. However, even if a session is showing as secure, you may still have a security problem if the SSL certificate is not valid. Most web browsers will pop up a small window, telling you that the certificate is not valid, and ask if you wish to proceed, the choice is then yours to make, knowing that you are not going to be accessing a secure order form.

We now know how to find out if a secure session is in progress, but how do we find out just who is certifying the session? Again, we can take a look at the browsers address bar to find out. Most browsers will display some sort of padlock, or other symbol to show that the page is secure, usually this can be found at the right hand end of the address bar. Clicking on this symbol will show the certificate information for the current site. It should include the name of the company which supplied the SSL certificate, the name of the website which owns the certificate, and the type of certificate it actually is. As long as all of these three things tally up, you can rest assured you are accessing a secure order form.

Secure order forms should be used anywhere that private personal and financial data is being passed across an internet connection. This includes web pages such as ecommerce store checkouts, pages which capture private information such as the filing of tax returns on-line, and any other website which could be exploited to gain information which could be used for criminal purposes.

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