What is SET?

The SET Secure Electronic Transaction™ protocol was developed by Visa and MasterCard as a method to secure payments over a network. SET offers the following benefits:

SET ensures your account and payment information is safe and can be viewed only by the intended recipient. SET uses encryption to secure your information across the network.
SET enables you to confirm that a merchant is authorized to accept your credit card.
SET enables merchants to verify that you are authorized to use a credit card without needing to know your account number or expiration date.

To use SET with a credit card, you must obtain a cardholder certificate from your credit card provider. Your browser then sends this certificate to the merchant during the purchasing process in order to authorize the credit card transaction.