Today, we have come to a point where almost all of our transactions are conducted utilizing various electronic payment methods such as electronic bill payments, paying with credit cards, etc. Similarly, electronic payment methods are preferred and are widely used in educational organizations due to many reasons such as convenience, speed, limited costs, etc. Nothing is more convenient than electronic payment since you do not have to handle any paper money, write a check or swipe and credit card but rather, all you have to do is enter some information into your web browser that includes your account information such as your credit card number and then click your mouse (Hord, 2005). In addition to these, convenience is also provided with electronic payments due to the fact that electronic payments can be carried out 24 hours a day, seven days a week (Is4profit Ltd, 2005).
Electronic payments can be conducted with the highest speed. Electronic payment methods can be carried out very quickly and immediately unlike other payment methods such as sending cash or cheques by post that is slow and has also security and currency conversion implications (Is4profit Ltd, 2005). Another benefit related to electronic payment methods involves reduced costs. As reported by the Is4profit Ltd, making electronic payments means that many banking processes become automatic.
The training that students of an educational organization need to acquire is very simple. The only thing that they need to know is how to enter their account information into their student account. Additional knowledge can also be provided to the students by the Student Accounts Office of the educational organization that is responsible for receiving and processing the payments to the students’ accounts and for applying the online payments to the students’ accounts.
But training in electronic payments is not the only issue that students should be aware of but also and most importantly the issue of privacy and security raised with electronic payment systems. When students make an electronic payment their credit card information is vulnerable to interception by network sniffers, software that easily recognizes credit card number formats and hence, security measures must be taken and used in order to prevent such kind of security problems (Sashenko, n.d).
With electronic payment methods there is also the possibility of identity theft. Students must ensure that there are safeguards available to protect their sensitive personal information from falling into the wrong hands while they must also defend themselves against identity theft by using virus protection software and a firewall on their computer and ensure also that their educational organization makes use of data encryption that codes their information in such a way that only the key holder can decode it (Hord, 2005). As Oak (2008) noted, it is important for students to carry out money transactions over a secure server.
In order to make secure online payments, students must ensure that the educational organization that hosts their account follows strict security policies because if passwords are susceptible to being hacked then there is a potential risk of their personal and account details to be stolen and this could mean a financial loss for students (Oak, 2008). Students must ensure that the educational organization is committed to offering a secure online account management system and that when they make an electronic payment and provide their username and password, they are securely passed for instance on the Nelnet Business Solutions system using a 128-bit MD5 encryption scheme (Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia, 2001). Generally, for security, only encrypted credit cards should be used at the educational organization and credit card details can be encrypted by using various security methods such as the Secure Socket Layer (SSL), E-Wallets (or digital wallets), or Secure Electronic Transaction (SET) (Turban, Leidner, Mclean & Wetherbe, 2008). For instance, Secure Socket Layer (SSL), developed by Netscape, that is one of the most useful security schemes, automatically encrypts the data passing between the students’ web browser and the educational organization’s server (Sashenko, n.d). Confidentiality and security is offered at Northcentral University and in specific, its website makes use of the industry standard Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption when it collects students’ personal information while also, the website is hosted in a data center that makes use of multiple levels of redundant firewalls and database encryption in order to protect information (Northcentral.edu, n.d).
References
Hord, J. (2005) How Electronic Payment Works. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from http://www.nu.e-association.ca/cim/dbf/how_electronic_payment_works-english.pdf?im_id=68&si_id=305
is4profit Ltd (2005) Electronic Payments. Retrieved January 29, 2010, from http://www.is4profit.com/business-advice/it-telecoms/electronic-payments/the-benefits-of-electronic-payments.html
Northcentral.edu (n.d) Privacy Policy. Retrieved January 27, 2010, from http://www.northcentral.edu/content/privacy-policy?section=node/754
Oak, M. (2008) Disadvantages of Electronic Payment Systems. Retrieved January 24, 2010, from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/disadvantages-of-electronic-payment-systems.html
Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia (2001) Student Payment Information. Retrieved January 25, 2010, from http://www.virginia.edu/studentaccounts/student_payment.html
Sashenko, A. (n.d) Electronic Commerce Systems. Retrieved January 28, 2010, from http://www.scribd.com/doc/396840/Electronic-Commerce-Systems
Turban, E., Leidner, D., Mclean, E., & Wetherbe, J. (2008) Information technology for management: Transforming organizations in the digital economy (6th ed.). New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.
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