The risks of cyber security & why you should care

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Online crime and cyber-attacks in Australia

The Australian landscape for cybercrime is rapidly growing, with many businesses falling victim to the advances of online criminals every day. And while we often read about large-scale corporate data breaches in the media, medium and small businesses are actually more likely to become a target due to their often-minimalistic approach to cyber security.

To help you as a business owner understand why you should be concerned with cybersecurity, we’ve put together a brief guide as to what could be targeted and how. More importantly, we’ve also included some good examples of how you can protect yourself. Take a read below!

What could be at risk?

While you might think that your business information wouldn’t be of interest to a cybercriminal, the reality is that just about any piece of data or sensitive information can be a target. If you acquire, retain or produce any of the following information, it’s important that your business is taking the relevant precautions to protect itself against unauthorised access:

  • Financial records and data
  • Client records and data
  • Product design or business ideas
  • Business models
  • Intellectual property (IP)
  • Patents (current or pending)
  • Employee information

While all information can be a potential target for cybercrime, financial data is likely the biggest drawcard for criminals. For this reason, online businesses, in particular, can become vulnerable to additional risk if they are not adequately protected.

 How can cyber criminals access your information?

While the ways in which cybercriminals gain access to your information evolves every day, there are a number of traditional and well-known attacks to be aware of. Some of these include:

  • Breach of your website, payment processes or mobile app
  • Viruses and malware that can infect your computers or networks
  • Theft or remote access of your hardware and devices
  • Social engineering and phishing 

How can you protect yourself?

While it’s near impossible to ever be fully protected against online criminal activity, there are strategies and technologies that can be deployed to mitigate vulnerabilities and risks. This, paired with an understanding and awareness of the way hackers might attempt to breach your data, is the best way to approach cybersecurity.

Some of the simplest ways you can protect your information include:

  • Updating your website, Point-of-Sale (POS) systems and other devices with the latest software releases
  • Develop terms and conditions or procedures for staff to follow in regard to online security and the security of all company devices
  • Develop an incident response plan to ensure you’re prepared to react should a cyber breach occur
  • Implement network security, email protection and anti-virus software (with the help of a cybersecurity or managed IT company if possible)
  • If you run an online business, aim to satisfy PCI DSS Level 1 compliance requirements

Protecting your customer’s payment details with a secure payment platform

 If your selling products or services online, the way you take payment is critical to the safety of your customers’ payment information. Moreover, financial institutions will also require that you meet certain compliance targets to ensure the safety of their customers and yours.

At Latpay, we help our clients to take payments online through the implementation of secure hosted payment pages. Offering PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, every transaction is secured and fully encrypted to the highest standards to ensure your customer’s information remains untouched.

To learn more about the comprehensive benefits of Latpay’s merchant services, click here or get in touch with our customer service team to chat with a local representative today.

Better payment processing for better business

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Regardless of the industry you’re in, the way you take payments is integral to the success of your business. It can enhance or diminish customer experience, improve or impair administration processes and strengthen or undermine security measures.

If you’re unhappy with the service you currently receive or are just interested to see what else is out there, you’ve come to the right place! Check out our top 9 reasons you should make the switch to Latpay for all your business payment needs.

$0 Set up fees 

We really value the business partnerships we create with our clients and strive to build longstanding relationships with every one that comes on board. For this reason, we don’t believe in charging unnecessary fees or working in hidden costs. We’re dedicated to being up front and transparent. As testament to this, and to say thank you for choosing Latpay, we decided to drop all set up fees.

$0 Admin fees 

We really mean it when we say we won’t charge fees for the sake of it. We believe our partnerships can be mutually beneficial without hitting you with additional monthly fees. And let’s face it, no one likes paying admin fees. Staying true to our word, we’ve dropped all admin costs so you can spend your money on the things you really need to help your business grow.

Real time processing

Whether you conduct business online, through a shopfront or on the go, instant processing makes taking payments easier. There’s no waiting around for things to clear, and no annoyed customers getting impatient with the process. It also means you’re able to accept more payments in less of the time, boosting your sales and ultimately, your bottom line.

Forget interruptions

Have you ever been half way through a transaction only for it to drop out, forcing you to restart the entire process? Nothing is more frustrating. Your customers are busy people, and any friction in the checkout process could ultimately lead them to abandon the sale. With Latpay, we back our systems with a demonstrated 99.99% up time on our incredibly secure and stable environment over the past 17 years!

Better security

Fast and reliable payments are nothing without top security standards. At Latpay, we’re certified to process high volumes of payments with the highest level of PCI regulatory compliance to protect you and your customers. That means less work for your compliance officer and peace of mind for anyone making payments through your business. 

Low cost per transaction

So, if we don’t charge set up or admin fees, our transaction fees must be high, right? Wrong! With fee-free processing for the first $750 of sales* and 1.7% + 25c + GST as our standard rate, we’ll keep your fees super low no matter where your business takes you.

*T&C’s apply. 

50,000 transactions

Looking to grow your business? You’ll need a payment platform that’s ready to grow with you! With an unlimited transaction capacity, we can help your business reach new heights whenever you’re ready.

Stay with your bank

We don’t believe in pushing you towards one particular acquiring bank over another. If you’re happy with your current financial institution, then why change? Latpay has connectivity to over 90 acquiring banks around the world, meaning you can pick and choose who you’d prefer to do business with.

Payment options

Let your customers pay the way they want! Taking online payments is about so much more than accepting cards. If your customers want the option to pay with alternative methods, then that’s what they should get! Our payment systems offer just about all payment methods, from Visa and Mastercard to JCB, AMEX and everything in between.

Are you ready to make the switch? Sign up in less than 3 minutes and start taking payments today, or chat with our team on 1800 865 224 to find out more about making the switch to Latpay.

Can mCommerce Solve the Conversion Crisis?

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Gertjan Dewaele of Ingenico ePayments argues that “mobile shopping has established mCommerce as a key sales channel”

Put your mobile where your commerce is

The vast majority of merchants understand that mobile innovation affects customer satisfaction and profitability, but this awareness needs to be matched by action if they are to make the most of the mobile commerce opportunity. No merchant can afford to ignore the revenue-generating potential of mCommerce.

More than three quarters of UK shoppers use their mobile to make purchases online while commuting or travelling, and 45% browse in their free time. It’s a growing trend. UK consumers now spend twice as much time on their mobile device as they do on a PC or laptop, and the use of mobile apps for shopping is on the rise as well. 83% of time spent on mobile is app-related and more than half of that is spent shopping.

On the other side of the Atlantic, 40% of online purchases in the US were made on mobile devices in 2017, a 29% increase over 2016.

Taking a closer look at Europe’s largest economy, Germany, we can see that mobile commerce has been a slow burner, but consumers have begun using their phones to make online purchases in greater numbers. mCommerce in Germany now accounts for 12% of purchased goods. Ready for a boom, it is estimated that mCommerce volumes will increase by 39% and represent 42% of total retail ecommerce sales in the country by 2021.

Avoid abandonment

In spite of this burgeoning international mobile trend, many merchants are falling behind in trying to meet their customers’ expectations. Research by Ingenico ePayments and InternetRetailing found that only 57% of those active in sectors such as travel and gaming declared having a responsive website for desktop and mobile as their main focus. Just 39% described themselves as being ‘mobile first’.

The negative impact of this lack of innovation in mobile is becoming increasingly clear. Our research has found that 60% of all shopping carts created are abandoned before payment and that one in five consumers do not complete the payment process. The result is a considerable amount of lost revenue for merchants and large numbers of unsatisfied customers.

A smooth customer experience

Fortunately, there are several steps that can be taken to ensure that more of these planned purchases are completed. Investing in a frictionless mobile experience is a good starting point: although just over half of the retailers we surveyed are currently investing in this area, 40% intend to do so over the next two years.

Firstly, merchants should ensure their mobile site is localized, meaning consumers can pay how they like based on where they are in the world.

As well as this, they need to be aware of the importance of optimizing the payment page, from using a numeric keypad, to automatically format credit card numbers to detect invalid inputs. Cutting out unnecessary steps in the payment process will improve conversion rates. After some merchants found that 3D Secure was showing a potential to negatively affect their conversion, they utilized it only for high transaction values or enabled tokenization to provide a fast-track experience for returning customers. 3D Secure 2.0 will use advanced data analytics to help determine cases where additional security measures are required, reducing the barriers for the majority of consumers.

Finally, consider the options available. There are payment methods that work better on mobile, such as PayPal and Apple Pay, both of which are helping merchants to shift away from a sluggish system to an omnichannel future, in line with high customer demands.

Next level mCommerce

Of course, now that mobile is becoming mainstream, it doesn’t mean the environment stops evolving. Innovations are always on the horizon to stay relevant to consumers.

Already there is a new sales channel for consumers which is ideal for the mobile device: chatbots. This tool is seeing great success with Generation Z and millennials, yet just 16% of the internet retailers we surveyed were investing in messaging bots for conversational commerce. Seeing more consumers turn to this sales device is certainly likely, though, as more than half of those surveyed plan to enlist it within the next two years.

We expect this to soon become commonplace. With the first pilot results, we’ve seen a six-fold boost in conversion while using chatbots versus a mobile website. These bots learn patterns of behavior and can target customers, offering the products or services that would be of most interest – a level of personalization that leads to better conversion rates and higher customer satisfaction.

Another – often overlooked – avenue for conversion is the moment after the purchase. Following the transaction, a merchant can leverage this time to entice customers to purchase additional items or encourage their return. Providing a related product (insurance, for example) or offering smart discounts via gamification will maximize the conversion on the initial transaction and help create a loyal consumer base.

The future is within our grasp

We aren’t losing the in-store experience just yet, though. In fact, mobile may be the key to revitalizing a practice that has fought a losing battle in recent years. We’re seeing a number of ‘scan and pay’ projects creeping into the market, which are using mobile devices to drive a better in-store user experience – and boost completed transactions in the process.

It’s clear that the sheer convenience of mobile shopping has established mCommerce as a key sales channel, which means that merchants have to optimize their mobile site and payment processes in order to be in the sales game.

Source: The Paypers – http://bit.ly/2C7xDJe 

What is a payment gateway and why do I need one?

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Are you ready to grow your business online? Payment gateways are an essential step to maximising your online revenue and reaching more customers. For those who might need a little refresher on what they are and how they work, take a read of the following article outlining some key points and benefits of a payment gateway to online businesses.

What is a payment gateway?

A payment gateway or third-party service creates a connection between your ecommerce platform and your bank in order to take payments from customers online. Payment gateway software securely authorises credit card payments through the deployment of encryption, allowing sensitive information to be passed from customer to merchant to bank and back. As a security standard, businesses must have a payment gateway or third-party service in order to accept payments online.

How does it work?

The payment gateway sends credit card and other private data between parties in a secure manner to ensure all information is protected while a transaction is being processed. To complete this process, the payment gateway completes a range of tasks within about 3 seconds. To demonstrate the process in action, let’s take a look at how it all plays out.

  • Becky has decided to buy a shirt through an online store. Once she’s happy with her choice, she adds the item to a shopping cart and heads to the checkout page.
  • The website will open a secure payment page where she enters her credit card details to place the order.
  • The payment details are transferred securely from the payment page to the payment gateway.
  • The payment gateway will encrypt her credit card information and pass it on to the merchant’s bank to be authorised.
  • The merchant’s bank will decide whether or not the transaction should be approved based on a number of factors (whether Becky has gone over her credit limit, whether the card is legitimate, etc) and passes this information back to the payment gateway.
  • If the transaction is approved, the payment gateway will notify the merchant and the customer that payment has been accepted.
  • If the transaction is denied, a message will appear on Becky’s screen notifying her that the payment was declined, and the transaction has been disregarded.

The benefits of a payment gateway to your business:

Although there are a number of alternative methods available for taking payments online, having a payment gateway provides a range of unique benefits to ecommerce businesses. Some of these key benefits include:

Secure payment processing

Data security should be the number one priority for any business. Payment gateways offer the ability to take protected payments via industry-standard encryption technology. With a reputable payment gateway, customers need not worry about their credit card or personal information being intercepted and used without authority. Payment gateways protect both merchant and customer against identity fraud. 

Accept payments instantaneously

With a process taking less than 3 seconds, payments can be accepted online in real time. This means that customers don’t need to wait when purchasing their goods and merchants don’t need to wait for payments to be received.

Enable international purchases

With the ability to process transactions in multiple currencies, payment gateways allow you to access a global network of online shoppers. The ability to accept any currency means you can expand your potential target audience and create a worldwide network of customers.

Complete transactions around the clock

With a payment gateway connected to your ecommerce store, you’re always open for business. Consumers can access your store and complete a transaction at any time of the day meaning you can make money even while you sleep or travel.

Keep web users on your page

dPayment gateways enable you to take payment from your customer without directing them to a third-party page; the last thing you want to be doing is guiding traffic away from your website. Having a payment gateway allows you to keep your customers right where you want them – on your web page.

Latpay’s Merchant Facilities

Activating a merchant account can be challenging and sometimes even a little stressful. At Latpay, we make the process straight forward and simple to get your business up and running as soon as possible. With long-standing partnerships with a range of acquiring banks who know and trust our platforms, we’re already known for meeting a range of challenges and volume requirements. We also maintain the highest accreditation for industry data security as a PCI Level 1 Service Provider, meaning banks and customers alike are comfortable and confident in doing business through our gateways.

Latpay services have a strong focus on security, reliability, user experience and customer service driven by our Australian-based headquarters and support centre. If you’re ready to start taking more payments online, get in touch with our team on 07 5515 0402 or learn more about our merchant solutions here.

We’re on the list of Visa Global Registry of Service Providers

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Our commitment to compliance has once again been showcased after recently being announced as a service provider on the Visa Global Registry. For merchants, this means that Latpay is compliant with both the Visa program requirements and Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) to store, process or transmit Visa cardholder information.

The Visa Global Registry of Service Providers:

The Visa Global Registry has been compiled to make it easier for customers to choose the best merchant service provider for their needs. It’s important to note that:

  1. The Registry now distinguishes service providers that support secure technologies, such as EMV, tokenization and point-to-point encryption.
  2. Merchants can now check how long the provider has had a relationship with one of Visa’s clients or partners, which can be useful for a technology partner looking for a start-up versus an established company.
  3. The Registry also features service providers that are early adopters of the most recent version of the PCI DSS 3.2, which was released in April 2016. The key changes included a multi-factor authentication for administrators accessing cardholder data and additional security validation steps for service providers.

To learn more, visit the Visa Global Registry of Service Providers.

Why our compliance is good for your business:

  1. Protect yourself

Acquiring a compliant merchant service provider ensures that your business is meeting all legal and compliance requirements. In order to be cleared to take payments both on and offline, there are numerous hoops to jump through to ensure you’re providing a secure service for your customers. Working with Latpay takes the stress out of compliance obligations so you can get back to business.

  1. Protect your customers

As well as meeting all your legal requirements, working with a highly secure and compliant merchant service provider like Latpay ensures that your customers are protected from theft and fraud. Your customers are the lifeblood of your business, so protecting them against unauthorised transactions is critical. More than this, it also safeguards your business against reputational loss that often follows a financial breach.

  1. Allow customers to shop with confidence

When shoppers are confronted with unknown or untrustworthy payment systems, it forces them to think twice about making their purchase. Offering the highest security measures and trusted payment platforms can help your customers feel confident with their purchases and therefore less likely to second guess their decision. The transaction journey should be smooth sailing, allowing the customer to pay for goods or services without a second thought. Latpay can help you offer the peace of mind your customers need to shop with absolute confidence.

If you find that your payment service provider isn’t offering you the highest levels of data security and PCI compliance, it’s time to start shopping around.

Why choose Lateral Payment Solutions:

As a leading Payment and Merchant Service Provider in Australia, UK and Canada, Latpay offer superior fraud management capabilities and data tokenisation services to online businesses around the world.

With industry-leading technology, exceptional Level 1 PCI compliance and fraud management proficiencies, Latpay are proud to provide a truly complete payment solution for companies of all shapes and sizes.

Talk to us on 1800 865 224 to see how we can alleviate the hassles of security and compliance, so you can get back running your business.