Despite online transactions being very commonplace these days, customers are still very skeptical about many payment processes. Whenever clicking to pay leads to a pop-up or another page of confirmation, many will shy away through fear of giving away their payment information to another entity. Yet, another layer to the payment process is what helps to empower safe online transactions.
Having been around for quite some time now, 3D Secure has become an increasingly trusted protocol for making secure payments on the internet. Drawing on three dimensions of authentication, it’s being used by all kinds of businesses seeking to both reassure customers and ensure that payments coming in are safe. Here’s a look at how 3D Secure is helping major cardholders to make safe transactions as the desire to uphold security and privacy grows ever stronger.
3D Secure in Action all the Time
People will interact with 3D Secure often when making purchases online – especially if they’re based in the EU. However, due to the process, many businesses feel it necessary to forewarn customers and quell any fears they may have. This can be seen at comprehensive online casino sites, where even the FAQ will detail how 3D Secure works as an extra layer of customer security and takes the form of a second PIN code.
Whenever customers are committing to making payments online, the last thing they want to see is a pop-up – even if it does feature the logos of their bank and card provider. When first interacting with it, skepticism is understandable. However, with one-time passwords and biometric verification now viable, people feel much more secure getting a unique password or method to authenticate that’s often sent to a different device.
People are getting more accustomed to these additional screens and steps for identification, and that’s helping to further the pursuit of online transaction security and customer verification. In turn, the risk of crimes like fraud and chargebacks will be reduced online, while also opening the door to the next innovative step in payment authentication.
3D Secure and its Place in Online Payments
In retrospect, 3D Secure was ahead of its time. The protocol — developed in 1999 for Visa — tapped into using the domain of the payment recipient, the domain of the card issuer, and the Interoperability Domain provided by the payment system to add the extra layer of security. Nowadays, this final domain has become much more viable with the increased accessibility of one-time passwords, enabling an increasingly frictionless final authentication method.
Still, 3D Secure is a versatile protocol that leaves the Interoperability Domain to the card’s payment system to decide. As such, major cardholders will often experience 3D Secure differently. Without consistency across online payments, it makes sense that some customers would flag the additional authentication steps as potentially fraudulent. After all, anyone who has been on the internet for longer than a decade will remember pop-up fears.
Now, each card brand has its own name for the 3D Secure service with different protocols in place for authentication. For Visa, it’s Visa Secure, but for MasterCard, it’s SecureCode. Each of them, including those from Discover, American Express, and JCB International, do adhere to the requirements for strong customer authentication in the European Union, helping the market to grow to $1.1 billion in 2022.
The advent and eventual widespread adoption of 3D Secure has enabled a much more secure state of play for online transactions, empowering customers around the world.
