Sheldon:
Any idea what the Veridcom deal is about?
Also, the following is an interesting post from the IDX thread. I wonder if CAI/NRI have positioned themselve to effectively influence the selection/determination of the standard and s/w... Sure hope so. Comments anybody?
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Wednesday November 19 2:59 PM EST
Credit card giants agree to work together on Net
By Chris Jones
SAN FRANCISCO (Wired) - Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and JCB Company have
banded together to oversee the implementation of the SET 1.0 protocol, a means for securing
credit-card transactions over the Internet.
Secure Electronic Transactions, or SET, are the technical standards laid down by credit card
companies to promote safe credit card transactions. The growing use of credit cards over the
Internet has spawned an entire new branch of secure transaciton protocols.
"Our goals in designing SET as an open standard were to represent and reinforce the positive
characteristics of payment cards in the physical world, and use technology to translate them to the
virtual world," Steve Herz, Visa International's senior vice president of Internet commerce, said in a
press release.
The companies have formed a group, SETCo, to manage the evolution of the SET specifications and
software-compliance testing associated with the system.
MasterCard and Visa have promoted the SET specifications thus far, and by letting AmEx and JCB
into the game, the companies hope to demonstrate a more united and global support for the system.
Vendors and consumers will need digital IDs and other software to verify the identity of each party
involved in a SET transaction. One of the missing components thus far, however, is the software that
will be used to make transactions.
Vendors are now developing the various pieces, and those that meet all SET requirements will be
stamped with a "SET-compliant" logo.
SETCo will also establish an Industry Root Key Certificate Authority to manage the component of
SET software that will allow for verification of transactions by an authorized party.
All four of the companies will share equal voting rights in SETCo, and technology vendors will also
be able to participate in the process. IBM, for instance, has been active in SET initiatives since its
announcement in early 1995.
(Reuters/Wired)
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