:: Secure Online Process

Frequently Asked Questions


1. What does Secure Online Process do? 2. What is a payment gateway? 3. Why should I worry about security? 4. What is an SSL? 5. What else should I know about SSL? 6. How could someone decipher or crack a key? 7. What is a key? 8. What is a bit? 9. How many bits are 40 bit keys? 10. What is the difference between 40 bit and 128 bit Security? 11. How long until a modern computer can decipher such a large number?

1. What does Secure Online Process do? Secure Online Process is an intermediary between an online merchant and a bank's payment gateway.

2. What is a payment gateway? A payment gateway is required by online merchants to collect payments from credit cards like Visa and MasterCard.

3. Why should I worry about security? There have been increasingly more identity thefts and credit card thefts since the adoption of online payments, your personal information and credit card must be kept secure.
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4. What is an SSL? SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer; this term refers to a set of cryptographic protocols which provide secure communications on the internet for such things as web browsing, e-mail, and other data transfers. SSL runs on layers beneath applications like http:// (how you would access a website in an internet browser), it will form the secure layer https://. HTTPS is used to secure World Wide Web pages for applications like electronic commerce, such as online payments.

5. What else should I know about SSL? Early use of SSL on the web used a 40 bit SSL encryption. Unfortunately a 40 bit encryption was proven too easy to crack or decipher. To decipher or crack an SSL communication one needs to generate the correct decoding key.
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6. How could someone decipher or crack a key? In cryptography, a common deciphering technique is called brute-force decryption; which means using a computer to calculate and try every possible key one by one. For example a 2 bit encryption involves four possible key values: 00, 01, 10, and 11. 3 bit encryption involves eight possible values; 4 bit has 16 possible values and so on.

7. What is a key? In computer cryptography, a key is a long sequence of bits used by encryption/ decryption algorithms. For example, the following represents a hypothetical 40 bit key: 00001010 01101001 10011110 00011100 01010101.
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8. What is a bit? A bit is a measure of data or a length of a security key. 128 bit security refers to the number of keys in the encryption code or level of encryption of the data in question.

9. How many bits are 40 bit keys? Mathematically speaking 2ⁿ possible values exist for an n-bit key.
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10. What is the difference between 40 bit and 128 bit Security? While 2⁴⁰may seem like a very large number, it is not considered difficult for modern computers to crack or decipher this many combinations. This has been recognized and a new standard of 128 bit encryption was adopted for use on the World Wide Web. Compared to 40 bit encryption, 128 bit encryption offers 88 additional bits of key length. Using our mathematical equation this translates to 2⁸⁸ or an enormous 309,485,009,821,345,068,724,781,056 of additional combinations are required to crack or decipher the information.

11. How long until a modern computer can decipher such a large number? Security experts predict that it will take all of the world's conventional computing power approximately 10 years before all of the keys (2¹²⁸ ) in a 128 bit encryption will be deciphered.