One of the main worries - and rightly so - of any shopper using an online shop is: "Is it safe to send my card details across the internet?". We use SecureTrading (ST), a payment service provider who process payments by credit card and debit card in real time across the internet. Their e-payment network uses digital signatures and strong encryption to ensure that all sensitive information is protected throughout the payment process.

Information is communicated using an extremely high level of security: namely, 2048-bit RSA encryption with variable 168-bit session keys. This is many billions of times more secure than standard web browser security, and is also much higher than all currently proposed new standards for encryption in e-commerce.

The information you are viewing at present, along with the other pages in the News Recreated shop, is being served from a normal web server. When you click on ‘Order Now’’, your basket will appear which is not secure since it contains no sensitive information. Only after you have confirmed your agreement to the Conditions of Sale, will secure pages be in use (cutting down on website download times).

You will be taken to the SecureTrading (ST) secure server and asked to fill in your name, address and credit card details. After confirming the order your transaction is carried out and authorised through the banking network. In reality, payment through a secure payment service provider like SecureTrading (ST) is probably more secure than a card transaction in a shop or conducted over the telephone or fax. Information transmitted is encrypted using complicated logarithm combinations, unlike these other methods that use standard medium coding.

Further protection is provided because card issuers protect cardholders from fraudulent use of their card in a “card not present” environment, such as over the Internet. As the shopper did not sign for the goods, they have the absolute right to demand a charge-back if those goods did not arrive or the card was used fraudulently