Life does not give anyone the luxury of unlimited time so it has become possible to speed up a number of different things by using the internet. Being able to apply for a new credit card online is one such innovation. However, there are questions and concerns about whether this is safe or a scam to steal your identity and then wreck havoc with it.
The good news is that there have been immense improvements in online security and online banking security in general. Three things come immediately to mind: SSL Technology, Encryption and double encryption keys.
SSL Technology or Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a transmission protocol that literally “encrypts” or codes any kind of data send from your computer to the bank and vice versa, guaranteeing that your personal information is protected.
Encryption is in laymans terms a process that disguises data using a mathematical process. In the early days of the internet (the early 1990s), encryption was basic: You could transform any letter or number in to another (to hide the data) in up to 1 trillion ways. Today, using 128 bit encrpytion, there are over one hundred trillion possible ways to hide that same data. Using today’s top of the line computers, it would take about 20,000 years to break that encryption. So this is a second line of defense: If criminals by pass SSL, they need to wait 20,000 years to get access to the real data, you are not going to mind.
Just to make it next to impossible for your personal information and data to be read if stolen, today’s encryption methodology uses a “two-key” algorithm. As the name implies, there are two separate keys required to make the encrypted data readable. At the end of the day, your application for a credit card online is actually very secure because the criminals cannot get their hands on both keys, and if a key is compromised, changing the keys and encryption patterns is like flicking a switch for those working for the bank with the right knowledge and skills.
The bottom line is that your online credit card application is as safe and as secure as possible so long as you are on the an actual bank website thanks to SSL and encryption and “two- key” encryption technology. So long as you have verified the bank and the website, odds are your electronic application is safer than a paper and post application - think about how much mail gets lost every year! So rest assured: computer security experts work hard and continue to work had to protect all consumers from identity theft online.
