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Security Information

Security on the Wolff Fording & Company Web Site
  By Security, we mean the ways we make sure the information you send us remains secure.

If you don't find your concern addressed here, feel free to contact us by e-mail or phone 1-800-888-8496.

Security Page Contents:

  1. Is my credit card number secure?
  2. What does the "warning" window that sometimes comes up really mean?
  3. Why do I hear so much about security on the Internet?
  4. What's the worst thing that could happen?
  5. How do I know if a website is secure?
  6. Which parts of the Wolff Fording & Company site are secure?


Is my credit card information secure?
 

We have taken many steps to ensure the security of your transaction. Some of them involve adopting industry standards. (For example, the secure connection between your browser and sensitive portions of our site uses industry standard encryption.)


What does this "warning" window that comes up in the ordering process really mean?
 

Security Information pop-up window On some browsers, this window can be a bit intimidating. But it simply means that you're entering the safest, most secure area of our website.

This should be reassuring since this is where credit card transactions take place. Click to continue. Going from Secure mode to unsecure mode, you'll likely receive another similar alert message, just to make sure you know what's happening.


Why do I hear so much about security on the Internet?
  Several things conspire to make Internet security a newsworthy item. First, it's relatively new, so people wonder and talk and write about it. Secondly, the Internet is "technology", so people find it interesting to discuss. And tend to be a little suspicious of it.


How do I know if a website is secure?
  In order to be accurate, we're going to get a bit detailed here. When buying something on the Internet, there are three things to be sure of:
  • Data you send is strongly encrypted.
  • The site you're doing business with is the site you think it is.
  • The site you're doing business with processes your credit card and address information in a safe and responsible manner.
Points 1 and 2 are taken care of by SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), the industry standard security protocol that the Wolff Fording & Company site uses to communicate with secure browsers like Netscape and Internet Explorer. When communicating with a secure server like ours, these browsers encrypt the information you send in a way that is extremely difficult for anyone else to decode. (You don't have to know whether your browser supports secure transactions— if it doesn't, you won't be able to complete the checkout process.) We've included a visual representation below of what to look for in your browser window to see if you're viewing a site securely.

Many security experts say the most important thing is what happens once the merchant receives your order. At Wolff Fording & Company, we take several steps to keep things on our end as safe as possible. For example, we keep orders encrypted until we're ready to process them. We process orders several times each day, so they don't "sit" anywhere very long. We do our order processing on machines that aren't connected to the Internet, so there's no danger of people gaining access to them. Finally, we don't keep a copy of your credit card number on file. While this is a minor inconvenience — whether ordering on the Internet or by phone, you have to give us the number every time you order— we believe it's the safest and most honest way to do business.

Which parts of the Wolff Fording & Company site are secure?
  Most of the activity on our site involves the viewing of materials we've prepared and made accessible to everyone, so there's no need for these pages to be "secure". With a product page or a page from our event calendar, for example, no security risk exists because there is no "information" being exchanged.
The portion of the Wolff Fording & Company site we've made secure is, not surprisingly, the checkout area. This is where you actually purchase the items you've put onto your order form. If you choose to use our secure server, the entire checkout process, from login to final confirmation, takes place in a secure environment.

There are several ways to confirm that you're in a secure area. All SSL capable browsers have a symbol to indicate secure mode. Specifically:

Browser Symbol Location Normal (Insecure) mode Symbol Secure Mode Symbol
Netscape 1.2, 2.0
and 3.0		 Lower left Broken Key Broken Key Complete Key Complete Key
Netscape Communicator (4.0) Lower left Open Lock Open Lock Closed Lock Closed Lock
Microsoft Internet Explorer Lower Right NONE Closed Lock Closed Lock


You can also tell when you're in a secure area because the URL to the left of the colon changes from 'http' to 'https' to signify that a SSL protocol is being used to communicate with the server. (http = HyperText Transport Protocol; https = HTTP with SSL.) In most browsers you'll also see a solid blue line in the upper portion of the browser's window — another visual aid that lets you know you're browsing a secure area.

One additional note: some browsers give you a warning when you go from a secure area to a regular area. The aim is worthy enough— to ensure that people know when they've left a secure server. But in practice, the message is often a bit startling, and makes it look like you've done something wrong even though you really haven't.

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