6 Security Tips for Non-profits That Process Donors' Credit Card Payments

In recent years the technology transformations have provided great opportunities for nonprofits to improve brand awareness and increase funds for the cause they sustain. For example, Nonprofit payment processing platforms offer more accessible payment methods for donors.

A nonprofit payment processor handles everything from accepting donations to buying merchandise, paying membership fees, or purchasing tickets for events. -source GETTRX

While it offers various benefits, it also comes with several challenges when making online payments for donations. Needless to say, donors want to ensure the details of their sensitive transactions and personal data don't end up in the wrong hands.

Here are a few useful tips to ensure your donor's credit card payment processing ecosystem is secure and trustworthy.

These best practices will help you improve your end-user experience and nonprofit's reputation.

1. Detect Suspicious Activities and Transactions

It is critical to learn about different types of frauds affecting nonprofits, what vulnerabilities criminals can take advantage of, how it is done, and how it can be a transaction.

Become PCI Compliant

In simple terms, PCI, also known as the Payment Card Industry, provides a set of predefined regulations to accept, transmit, and store payment data securely. In addition, it mandates that all organizations handle credit card data complaints with the PCI guidelines to mitigate the risk of fraudulent activity.

Use SSL Encryption

Ensuring that all payments processes are protected with the SSL protocol is critical. SSL protocols encrypt the user card data and other sensitive data for security measures.

It optimizes payment security and also influences donors'  to use your payment processing platform.

It is recommended to add a padlock icon in the address bar as it ensures the SSL protocol protects the site. Later, then, confirms the web address begins with HTTPS.

2. Secure Payment Data

Storing credit card payment or transaction data on a network, database, or cloud-based storage system makes data vulnerable and increases the chances of hacking.

Suggested using a hosted donation form to remove sensitive payment details from your system and decrease your PCI risk.

3. Monitor Fraud Continuously

Choosing a payment processing platform offering built-in fraud monitoring tools enables you to detect the vulnerabilities of a fraudulent transaction. Further, it helps implement security measures that help in mitigating the chances of high-risk transactions.

When choosing a payment processing platform, confirm the fraud monitoring tool the vendor offers and make sure it allows you to provide a secure experience to your donors.

4. Use Biometric Authentication

Choosing a secure authentication method is a crucial step to prevent security breaches. On the other hand, selecting a weak or convenient authentication often helps hackers in cyberattacks. Therefore, executing a biometric authentication method helps mitigate the risk of a data breach during the transaction.

5. Robust Your Security Measures

Security for digital payments is about building a stronghold with multiple layers to secure the transaction data from being penetrated and stolen. Consider using encryption and tokenization, TLS certification, and even fraud management tools. Both encryption and tokenization speed the data and make it useless to hackers.

Fraud management tools can help you set secure layers on merchant accounts to prevent hackers from charging amounts larger than permitted or making transactions from blocked countries.

6. Address the Vulnerabilities of Credit Card Payment Processing

Fraud Before Payment Initiation

Fraud can occur before the payment is started. There are many methods employed by criminals to trick people into carrying out fraudulent transactions, but phishing is the most common.

In the most basic phishing variant, customers log into a fake website, where they provide credentials. These credentials are then used by criminals to take over their accounts. But, of course, merely having the credentials for an account is not sufficient to start a payment transaction.

It's best to stay on the side of alert and glance for the following signs before clicking a link or typing information:

• Misspelled URLs/little changed logos: Phishers will often re-create websites and slightly alter some elements that you might miss at a glance.
• Links to "authorized" websites: Always type manually the URL of websites where you need to provide sensitive information; links in messages and emails may lead to fake websites.

Fraud After Payment Registration

The second stage of fraud can occur once the payment details are registered.

By hacking a computer or a mobile phone with malware, the hackers can alter a transaction as it is entered; that way, the fraudulent transaction is entered instead of the actual transaction. This type of malware attack occurred back in the 1990s when vulnerable web-based banks were targeted.

Fraud After Complete Payment

The last phase during the payment process where fraud occurs is after the payment has been settled. The most common example of this type of fraud is chargeback fraud.

Usually, the merchant will be held liable, regardless of the measures taken to ascertain the transaction.

Frequently Asked Questions

What types of security risks can impact the payment processing platform?

A few main security issues are:

• Malware injection.

• Network vulnerabilities.

• Security vulnerabilities in applications.

  
  

Why is payment security important?

Secure payment processing allows the transfer of digital payments, user transaction data, and other sensitive details while reducing the chances of fraud and other security vulnerabilities.

What are the common security technologies that can help in securing payment systems?

The commonly used technologies to secure payment system includes point-to-point encryption, tokenization, EMV, and 3D secure technology.

What are the types of digital payments?

There are various types of digital payments. These include

• internet banking
• Digital payment apps
• Unified Payments Interface (UPI) service
• Mobile wallets

What's Your Next Move?

It is increasingly challenging for several businesses and nonprofits to prevent fraud risks when the cyber threat ecosystem evolves.

Implementing above mentioned security tips will help you ensure secure payment processing platforms for your end-users.