Credit Card Number Theft

A credit card number could be stolen in three different places on the Internet. It could be stolen from a users home or business computer, it could be stolen in transit from the users computer to the sellers web site or it could be stolen once it reaches the sellers site.

how likely is each of these ways?

1- Stolen from the users computer : Unlikely unless users store credit card numbers on their computers .

2- Stolen in transit:Almost impossible and in fact this situation has never been reported as long as vendors use a secure Internet connection(http).Encryption algorithms make this possibility remote.

3- Stolen at the merchants site:Probably the most user acceptable concern given the following possibilities

the merchant may be cheater

the merchant may be honest but have a dishonest employee

the merchant may be honest but fails to protect its database of credit card numbers from hackers .

So one of the most important way for transaction security is using encryption system.