BLOG| Internet Cloud Canada | Informations & Services

09 Apr

Accept credit cards on your website

There’s lots of Online payment solutions these days. These solutions are however not all good for everyone and some contains unknown dangers, strange rules or limitations that might hurt your business development.

Simplicity

Technically accepting payments by credit card, it’s simple. You need:

a) A secure website

b) A payment processor

c) A bank account

Payment processors

Payment processors, commonly called “payment gateways”, are gateways that connect between your website and Visa, Mastercard, American Express etc.

They are not all equal and do not give you all the same customization options for the payment pages. In addition, some require you to redirect your customers on their website and then, return them later, others may accept payments on your website with certain safety conditions (SSL certificate).

Internet Cloud Canada do not recommend PayPal. Many people like this solution, but if you stands out, beware! You make too many sales? PayPal blocks your funds … An payment dispute? … You lose for sure! PayPal is a nightmare from which you may not come out ever … (you are advised!)

Customer redirection to another site

The fact of not having an SSL security certificate on its website, may force some webmasters to use PayPal services (or other similar gateways), but you should purchase an SSL certificate and be autonomous. This is not complicated and your web developer can install it for you!

Redirecting your customers on an external site like PayPal, is somehow unappropriate. The checkout will last longer, redirections will confuse your customer, you’ll have to advise that 2 directions will be done ( 1 to go, 1 to come back), confusion of languages on payment pages etc.

In addition, for many business owners, redirecting a client means not having control over what happens next, and they are right! The procedure is the conclusion of the sale, it can be risky to entrust this crucial stage of your marketing to another …

The user experience will be affected. Your customer may abandon his purchase due to wait times, confusion, having to fill more fields. All these factors undermine confidence in your business.

On the client statement, he will see a real mess of data:

*** PayPal # 3y33js7u www.yourwebsite.com … $ 49.45

It is neither professional nor clear to the customer who may believe in a fraud on his credit card or not remember this or that purchase on Paypal : CONFUSION!

Paypal payment processing on your website

If you take the option to have Paypal processing payments directly on your website, there will be a monthly fee for the service whether or not you have transactions. Allow about $ 30 / month, or as much of $ 400 per year. If you do not sell much, how can you be competitive on long term and stand out? An SSL certificate costs much less than that, even installed by your web developer!

PayPal also has fees on returns, fees for American Express are high, chargeback is expensive ($ 20), costs on international cards are 1% etc!

Export customers

If you have a monthly subscription website for example, and you decide to change your current PayPal for another payment solution, you can not export the data!

Full of happiness? I doubt! PayPal refuse to transfer customer card details securely. Your customers will therefore have all to enter their details again. Imagine if you have thousands? The losses you’ll have, the impact on your reputation, a real headache!

Paypal Horror Stories

We heard that several customers using PayPal were often vistims of false “chargebacks”, frozen funds and fraudulent transactions. The customer service is slow, unilingual and rarely, more never on your side when happen payment disputes, especially when you sell services (which is intangible).

When your customer is stuck with PayPal, he may think that you can help, and since you can not do nothing, you’ll lose credibility for sure.

Some experiences are shared on the net about PayPal, we’ll let you judge this part, do a search on Google and you will have thousands of unsatisfied PayPal clients.

What is the best solution?

Fortunately, there is not only one! There are new players in the industry who have carved out a significant place in the field of processing credit cards.

For many, they charge no monthly fees and have rates of 2.75% to 2.9% + $ 0.30 / transaction depending on your volume of sales. For most webmasters, these solutions are advantageous. If you want your own solution of this type, you will find it for sure!

Integrated Solutions

Internet Cloud Canada offers integrated solutions to accept credit cards. Your clients trade on your website, an SSL security certificate is installed and no external redirections are made. No monthly fees even when there are no sales.

The statement of the credit card mentions the name of your company. The export of secure data is provided to another approved supplier. It’s complete, professional, safe and ajusted to have the best user experience.

We recommend these solutions. The security certificate (SSL) improves your SEO, and allows you to secure any part of your website you want.

It is important to have the keys of your business.

Final Advice

Keep control of your website and your customers!

09 Apr

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit to protect against unknown threats

The function of a antivirus on the Internet is to recognize malwares by comparing them to a list. This regularly updated list includes definitions or if you want a list of the ingredients of a virus.

Although essential on several platforms, antivirus only protect what is “known”. What is acts as unknown threats is therefore a vulnerability (exploit), which is may be used by a hacker.

What is an “exploit” or a vulnerability?

An exploit is actually a vulnerability in a program or a specific application. The program contains thousands of lines of code wich are analyzed by the hacker. It may reveals a “workable” backdoor for his mischievous act. The hacker then program the attack specifically to take advantage of the vulnerability found.

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit is a lightweight program that works perfectly with any antivirus. It acts as an extra layer of protection to detect exploitable parts of a given application in real time, and counter intrusion on it.

It acts on unknown threats that might happen on the application you use. Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit will be completely invisible most of the time and will not take any action but when an exploit attempt is made.

This program requires no no definition updates and runs in the background without you noticing it. It requires little memory and will not affect the browsing speed.

Free Version

The free version will add an addon module to your browser and will protect the scripts in Java. This free protection will satisfy most users. A paid version is also available for specific applications.

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit is another series of layers of protection because it wraps the navigation and protects you from unknown targeted attacks on the Internet. Everyone should download it!

09 Apr

Cybercrime cost Canadians $3B and $500B a year to global economy

A Complex Criminality!

Every second there is an exchange of nearly 3 billion emails in the world, 90% are spam. Cybercriminals are increasingly present on local and global scene. Yesterday, April 8, TV5 MONDE was hacked and their website ,Facebook and Twitter accounts have been affected.

Whether it is terrorists , a malicious person or groups, cybercrime has thousands of different faces. This diversity in illegal online activities makes it hard for the authorities to fight back. There is only one way to lower the impact of these groups or individuals who hack the Internet to serve their own purpose: COOPERATION.

Safety Programs and Counter Crime Units

Microsoft and Google have safety units against piracy and cybercrime or information centers about online safety. They are part of the vast majority of the industry leaders who also have this kind of units.

Facebook, for example, recently created a platform (the ThreatExchange) to exchange information on phishing attacks and other malicious softwares. There are hundreds of examples like these : Good programs, good ideas to counter cybercrime.

Governments and Police Forces

Canada, Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other police forces in Quebec and other provinces have laws, resources and units to counter this crime. They joined in the global effort in this regard.

BUT, Is there a real cooperation?

NOT AT ALL. And that’s where cybercriminals takes the most benefits. All the efforts in detecting, locating, tracking and identification is done by localized sections at the Government, the police forces or individual organizations.

This division of forces, allows hackers to better rule the Internet. This division of forces is also a shield allowing some organizations to defend themselves by saying that it is not their responsibility to share information. This help them follow their own internal policies to serve their own goals and objectives.

This April 9, Le Journal de Montréal, reported that an Ivoirian Police Officer receives no collaboration from Microsoft and Google to fight cyber criminals in his country. A concrete example of the lack of cooperation.

Europol and Interpol

Europol and Interpol are international police services which includes the police forces in Europe and the world. Europol attempts a first approach to consolidate the efforts on cybercrime and share information, we will see in the coming months and years the results of these efforts.

Until then, this is the FAR WEST and outlaws take all the rights to make money on your efforts. Get on your computer, arm yourself with your firewall pistols or your antivirus Colts. Protect your property the best way possible because the cavalry may arrive a little late to protect yourself.

Blogue

Accept credit cards on your website

Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit to protect against unknown threats

Cybercrime cost Canadians $3B and $500B a year to global economy

A Complex Criminality!