One of the world's largest Internet credit card payment processors in the world was recently compromised by fraudsters who decoded simple login passwords and were able to access the payment processor system.
   Once inside, fraudsters issued bogus credit transactions to credit cards they controlled and stole funds directly from the merchants. As system architectural constraints obstruct this and other payment processors from improving their current technology, merchants who continue to use their out-dated system are at risk.
   "The last thing merchants should have to spend valuable time worrying about is account access security vulnerabilities in their payment processing system. That's our responsibility," said Locke Walsh, CEO of Ezic, Inc., a digital payment processor that offers several tools to prevent hackers from intruding into merchant accounts and issuing bogus credits.
   To prevent fraudsters from criminally entering the Ezic system and merchant accounts, Ezic has a Triple Credential Authentication logon procedure. To logon, each user must enter a series of individual credentials: an account name, login ID, and a password. The Ezic system meets or exceed all VISA CISP security protocols, do not contain prior login names or words in the dictionary, and are changed on a regular, prompted basis.
   To prevent the issuance of fraudulent credits, the Ezic system differentiates between credit and refund transactions, making it possible for merchants to separately control these types of transactions. Merchants can choose whether credits can be issued, and if so, assign which employees may perform credit transactions.
   "Merchants that have fallen victim to ID theft or employee fraud are impressed by the Ezic solution because of its high level of access security and advanced user management capability," said Signature Card, Inc. President, Cliff Teston.�
   Hypercom Corp. also is taking advantage of fraud concerns. The company recently formed a secure systems and transactions group within the company to address growth opportunities in areas not traditionally associated with the payments market.
   The new group will integrate Hypercom's recently developed biometrics, secure identification, age verification, and transaction security products and systems. The effort will be headed up by the company's chief strategist, George Wallner, who said that the company's broad array of secure transaction terminal and network products strongly positions Hypercom for applications that demand high security, remote information access, fast transactions and ease of use.