Security Information

As an online shopper, you may be concerned about submitting your credit card and personal information online. Mercantec SoftCart has built-in security measures that offer the highest level of security in the industry.

Once a merchant storefront is set-up according to the installation instructions, your order information is completely secure from the time it leaves your browser through its receipt at the merchant's desktop. We do this with high-level encryption software, and no non-encrypted (interpretable) order or credit card information is stored or accessible on the Internet.

Q. Why is Mercantec's security better than others?

A. Below is a diagram explaining the benefits of Mercantec's security system.

There are (at least) three computers involved when you make an online purchase and two major actions that occur.

The first action is you placing your order on a merchant's web site, which is hosted at the merchant's service provider. In this action, SSL (Secure Socket Layer) provides a secure connection between you and the web store. This important aspect of security ensures that your information gets to the merchant's store securely. SSL is used with most storefront systems.

The second action of securing a web store involves the merchant storing and retrieving your order data from the web site, to the merchant's computer. The merchant needs this data so that he or she can process your order. This second aspect of securing order delivery is often overlooked in most storefront systems.

Some systems send the order data to the merchant's computer "in the clear" (non-encrypted or not scrambled) via e-mail. Some store the order data in the clear on the ISP's web server. Many systems use encryption that stores the key, which unscrambles the order data, on the web server. In this case, anyone with root access to the web server (usually many of the service provider's employees)
have access to the key to your store data. There is a better way!

Mercantec has gone to great lengths to insure that a shopper's order data is secure for its entire journey, especially when it is stored on an service provider's web server or being delivered to the merchant. This is where many other systems are weak. It must be understood that a security system is only as strong as its weakest link (and a smart hacker will find the weak link).

Mercantec employs an industrial-strength encryption technology called PGP (Pretty Good Privacy). It is so strong, that the U.S. Bureau of Export Administration prevents shipment of this technology to certain foreign countries.

Mercantec SoftCart encrypts (scrambles) the merchant order data on the service provider's server. This order data can only be decrypted (unscrambled) and downloaded only by the merchant who has installed the SoftCart Encryption Software CD onto his local computer. The merchant receives this software from Mercantec shortly after registering SoftCart. Once this download has occurred it is
recommended that the merchant delete the order files.

This entire process ensures that your order data is transferred securely from the instant you submit your order to the time the merchant processes the order.

We have collected some online shopping tips to keep in mind when making purchases over the Internet.

Security tips for shoppers using the Internet

1. Make every attempt to ensure that you're dealing with a reputable merchant.

2. Before ordering merchandise, make sure a store has a secure shopping policy and protects password and order data through the use of encryption technology.

3. Ensure the policy is securely in place. This can be done easily through the web browser.

When you place orders or access password protected areas on the site, look for a lock icon in the lower right hand corner of the browser, or look at the URL and make sure it begins with https. This means that the merchant is using SSL encryption technology and ensures that all the information submitted by the shopper through the browser to the merchant store is protected with encryption
technology.

SoftCart goes a step further and actually encrypts the order data that resides on the ISP's server. The order data can only be decrypted by the merchant using PGP encryption.

4. Find out what systems a merchant has in place to notify you if your credit card is stolen.

Information about the Mercantec Softcart was obtained from http://www.mercantec.com.
For more information about Nida Lighting's Security, please call us at 1-888-594-5544 or email us at info@nidagroup.com.