In-built Actinic encryption

[Nancy Coppock]

I would like to know more about the In-built Actinic encryption of credit card details. I have a customer who has sent me the following email-


'So I take it that Actinic utilise some properiatary form of Public key encryption technique issueing certificates from a trusted source, and implement a key length of at least 128 bits? Without the previous conditions the encryption could be considered insufficient.'

Can I set his mind at rest that the encryption of his credit card details is secure?

[Ben]

Hi Nancy

In fact a certificate is not required for the Actinic in-built encryption because it is not SSL. Instead a java applet is downloaded into the customers browser and uses 1024 bit Diffie-Helman key to encrypt the cc data and store it securely on the server before being downloaded by you, the merchant.

It provides the same level of security as most SSL. The only down-side is that some browsers do not have a java virtual machine which is needed for running the applet.

Ben