A secure solution?

[Benson]

Is anyone running Actinic Catalog? (http://www.actinic.com) At US$400 it isn't inexpensive, but really seems complete. Generates HTML pages instead of using CGI calls for every page, and has built-in encryption.

[Rich]

The only encryption I could find in their feature list was SSL encryption. In fact, I'm not aware of *any* shopping carts or catalog systems these days that do not support SSL for secure communication with the user.

However, this is only half of the security battle. To be fully secure the application also must store the order information in encrypted format. I highly recommend you put this at the top of your requirements list.

Rich
-- For sale: one slightly used decoder ring

[Rich]

Thanks, Benson, I missed that and stand corrected.

Unfortunately, according to their white paper their design uses a java applet to encrypt the order data. This is a rather unconventional approach. Most implementations use a public key stored on the SERVER to encrypt the order details and then use the merchant's private key (on their PC) to decrypt them.

Because of the java applet requirement, you should expect to lose many, many potential customers. If you don't make the buying process as EASY as possible you will drive sales away. As soon as visitors are required to download the applet to continue the order process, many will just go away. In addition, many people have downloading of applet's turned off as a security measure!

Given all this, I will admit that they do have the encrypted orders requirement covered. Given the choice of the java applet implementation, I would hardly call it "built in".

Rich

[This message has been edited by Rich (edited 10-25-00@8:06 pm)]

[Benson]

Rich -
Their site is tough to sift through, I think you missed it. Actinic Catalog claims to use built-in, 128 bit encryption. Data is not stored or transmitted unencrypted.  Here is the link:

http://www.actinic.com/catalog/security.htm

ciao

[Benson]

Thanks, point taken. I'll have another look at ShopFactory.