CyberSource aims to secure online payments

A feature of (and indeed, often the reason for) Web applications is the ability to take payment over your Web site and the preferred method is through credit cards. But there are lots of bad guys online, so you’ll often find yourself spending significant amounts of money on human verification of credit card transactions. The obvious answer is to automate this process. The much less obvious solution is which product to use.

A major competitor in this market is CyberSource (see links below), which offers Decision Management Solutions.

Decision Management Solutions provides a business “dashboard” (which requires no coding) that allows direct control of all fraud tools and allows you to set rules for order acceptance. Inbound transactions are automatically evaluated in real time and, based on your rules, are accepted, rejected, or sent for review.

The product works with most payment systems tools that are available either as a hosted service or as locally managed applications. The tools are:

* CyberSource Advanced Fraud Screen Enhanced by Visa (AFS), which works with all card brands and is the only fraud screen service endorsed and enhanced by Visa. The subsystem calculates a risk “score” in real time for each order.

* The Address Verification Service (AVS) evaluates whether the address information on file with the card-issuing bank matches that of the purchaser.

* Card Verification Number check validates whether the three or four digit number printed on the card matches the value the purchaser inputs.

* Payer Authentication is a feature provided by the card associations to verify cardholder identity at the time the transaction is “initiated by requesting the purchaser to enter a password. Depending on the card brand, fraud liability is shifted to the issuing bank for transactions simply requesting authentication or those that are authenticated.”

Most of these services are available individually as well as bundled under Decision Management Solutions.

CyberSource also offers electronic payment support for credit card and electronic check payments, credit card fraud management, verification and compliance services, and professional services including consulting, design, integration and optimization services.

Prices on application.