If you have been using aggregator
websites or ticket booking websites for booking hotels, flights and cars, be
extremely cautious about using them. The reason for this sort of warning is
that it is better to be safe than repent later on.
To understand the reason, you need
to have an idea of how websites work. The web is basically a highly
complicated, inter-connected network of different websites and computers.
Websites are hosted in servers, and each server communicates with you computer
(client) by means of some definite protocols.
Now, in this client-server model,
you send request to a server for displaying a particular webpage through your
internet browser. Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, etc. are
some well known browsers. Now, on receiving the request from the client
machine, i.e. you, the server process the request and return the results in the
form of particular webpage that you view through your browser.
You can also make payments through
the internet, in case of which the communication between the server and the
client takes place through extremely secure and complex protocols, which have
been designed keeping in mind the security of your sensitive and personal
information. More often than not, the highest grade of security is deployed for
financial transactions in which the amount you pay is debited from your bank
account and credited to the account of the seller or service provider.
In such form of communications, the
payment gateway is the most crucial point. The safety of the transaction
largely depends on how reliable the payment gateway is. But that is not the end
of the story. Keep in mind the fact that the payment gateway is like a secure
channel, but the information regarding the details of the financial transaction
is stored in a server. It may be that the server is maintained by the seller or
the service provider itself or any other party who has been hired to do the job.
The question is regarding the
security measures of the server in which your financial details are stored. It
takes experts to ensure that the data stored in the server is secured to the
highest degree. You may not believe this, but just recall any instance where
you have been prompted to save your credit card information for future use and
you have innocuously agreed to do so for the sake of reducing the boring job of
entering the details every time you buy something. Now, if the server in which
these data are stored is a vulnerable one, a hacker with the required skills
can simply pump out all the money from your account and you will be able to do
almost nothing.
Such cyber attacks have taken place
all over the globe and the internet is an extremely vulnerable place. The risk
is not just regarding the aggregator websites but also shopping websites or
ecommerce websites. However, in the later case, the reputed ecommerce websites
deploy bank grade security and it is almost impossible to hack their servers.
In case of Hotel And Ticket Booking
Service providers, only the Best Hotel Booking Service
providers also arrange for enterprise grade security. You can see a green bar
on the address bar of your browser, where the URL of the website is displayed.
This green bar is to inform the common people that the website is secure. Car
Rental And Flight Booking Service providers, who are the best in class,
can also deploy such security measures. Remember the thumb rule – green bar
indicates secured website.
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