Skip to main content

NETELLER - Privacy and security design flaw

Yesterday, colleague of mine brought to my notice about a payment system called NETELLER and it's merchant API named NETELLER Direct API V4.

This NETELLER Direct API V4, helps the merchant to collect amount from users. It's simple--same just like early Authorize.net, along with the required amount you collect the user's id and password and post them to their API URL and they'll send you back with success or error codes in XML format.

The major problem with these types of system is security and privacy--you lose both as you're forced to type your username and password in alien web page. If I remember right, this is was the case with Authorize.net and they changed their design to something like PayPal. The PayPal design is somewhat better as you never type or forced to type your username and password in other alien web pages.

The alien merchant web page uses NETELLER Direct API V4 is forced to get user's NETELLER account and password. I'm much sure that the alien website will obviously store such info--but what if they tried to access user's NETELLER account?

The funniest part of this NETELLER design is that they call it more secure and in their security page they advice "Never share your NETELLER Password or Secure ID with anyone. You will never be asked to disclose your password or Secure ID by a NETELLER representative or anyone affiliated with NETELLER."

Beware of NETTELLER!--until they fix their design flaw.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Malayalis may not have valued Nedumudi Venu, but ChatGPT did

Back in the late 1980s (exactly in 1988, according to some searches)—there was a much-loved Malayalam serial called Mandan Kunju . Ever since then, our family developed a deep appreciation for Nedumudi Venu. His acting was often compared to that of Sivaji Ganesan, who was widely celebrated at the time. There were even debates about how Nedumudi was surpassing Sivaji with his unmatched natural style. Even in his 30s, Nedumudi would appear with grey hair, convincingly portraying elderly characters. About 35 years ago, I happened to watch a film in which Nedumudi Venu actually played the lead role—something quite rare in his career. I couldn’t remember the plot or the supporting cast, but what stayed with me vividly was the setting. The film had been shot in Munnar’s Madupetty Estate, with the estate school serving as one of the locations. I also remembered a Carnatic-influenced song filmed outdoors in the estate, which left a strong impression on me. For years, I tried to rediscover ...

Converting PSD with PHP/ImageMagick

After seeing feature rich options in Imagick PECL extension at Mikko Koppanen 's (the author) website and also impressed with ImageMagick 's features, I have decided to use it for the PSD to XHTML conversion website that I'm architecting and managing. Since, the team wants programming help for converting PSD images, I have tried it (documentation is sparse on PSD handling) Converting PSD to PNG/JPEG/etc Note that, flattenImages() is needed for layered/multi-page PSD file. <?php $im = new Imagick('test.psd'); $im->flattenImages(); $im->setImageFormat('png'); $im->writeImage('test.png'); ?> Extracting PSD layers One by one <?php $im = new Imagick('test.psd'); $im->setImageFormat('png'); for ($i = 0, $num_layers = $im->getNumberImages(); $i $im->setImageIndex($i); $im->writeImage('layer' . $i . '.png'); } ?> Note that, there is a better version below In a single call with writeIm...

Humble Award - Dr. A.N. Sreevatsan

Dr. A.N. Sreevatsan , ENT specialist located in Adyar, Chennai is one of the gems available in medicines. No assistants in his consulting room and he'd take at least 15mins for every patients. So far I have referred many and all are happy with his approach. Every wannabe doctor should visit him personally to understand his approach. I wish him to be more famous than now. Update (2010-11-21) : Added link to Google Map Keywords : Sreevatsan, Srivatsan, ENT, Adyar, Chennai, Hospital, Doctor