How to know if your business is processing secure payments

With a more digital and connected world, we have seen a surge in the adoption of eCommerce technologies and contactless payments. But as digital payment technologies continue to evolve and change the way we do business, how businesses accept and make payments becomes increasingly important, especially around data and payment security.

As more information and activity continues to move online, opportunities for criminal activity also increases. Cybercriminals have become more proactive than ever before as they find new ways to try to defraud businesses and consumers by attacking security and processing systems. In 2022 Australian consumers lost $1.01 billion to debit and credit card fraud. Similarly, in 2021, Australian businesses lost $227 million to payment redirection scams , a 77 per cent increase from 2020. On top of this, $80 million was lost between 2021-2022 to business email compromise fraud.

Couple that with the recent high profile data breaches in Australia against telecoms giant, Optus and private health Insurer, Medibank, it has become imperative that both businesses and consumers adopt key security measures that prevent unauthorised access to keep payment information and personal/business data safe and secure.

What is payment security?

With contactless payments becoming commonplace, secure payment systems are necessary for every business. Payment security includes all the steps a business takes to safeguard itself and its customers against unauthorised transactions. It combines systems and software, data encryption and other data security tools to provide users’ security online.

To be able to accept secure digital payments across your business, a payment processing partner (the company that can move payments between your customers’ credit/debit card, their bank account, and your business bank account) is required.

How to find the right payment processor for your business

When conducting research on suitable payment systems for your business, it is important to start by finding a payment processing partner that prioritises security.

A few things to consider can include:

• How do they keep transactions secure and protect user data and payment information?
• Are they compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards?
• What tools do they use to authenticate customers?
• Who has access to any payment data?
• How do they store data?

Your chosen provider should have the resources you need to protect your business from fraud and data breaches. They should deliver you with the payment infrastructure which enables your business to accept payments safely and allows your customers to make payments with confidence.

Secure your payments with Spenda

We make it our business to protect your business. When partnering with Spenda, you can accept and make payments safely and know that all your data, and your customers’ data, is in safe hands.

We do this by:

• Establishing a partnership with a world-leading authenticator provider, Auth0, to provide an extra layer of security and identify management for the Spenda product suite.
• Using mandatory Two-step Authentication across the Spenda suite and all internal and external systems.
• Implementing tight internal policies and procedures to protect against internal threats.
• Adherence to strict Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) checks, laws, and industry regulations.
• PCI Compliant Card Data flows and Storage, meaning we do not store any card data, only a secure tokenised/anonymised representation of your card and the relationship with Spenda – which makes it impossible for your card to be compromised and leaked to be charged for any other purpose other than in Spenda’s ecosystem.
• Software system rules that protect against tampering with payment information and mitigate against fraud risk.
• Collecting, storing, and deleting personal information in accordance with applicable privacy legislation to ensure our customers data is always protected. This means we only store essential information required for business operations.
• Regular Security Testing using reputable third parties
• Automated software testing

Click here to learn more about Spenda’s payment services and security.