1.6 Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).

SET is a group of protocols designed for safe credit card payments over the World Wide Web. It is one of the technologies that will make the Internet marketplace a reality (IBM 1997).

Regardless of the type of payment system, it relies on some fundamental principles: trust and security. For a credit card payment on the World Wide Web the appropriate response is provided by the cryptographic processes of SET (IBM 1997).

SET enable users to employ the existing credit card payment infrastructure on an open network, such as the Internet, in a secure fashion. In essence, SET consists of three services (Stallings 2002) :

	Providing a secure communications channel among all parties involved in a transaction.
	Providing trust by the use of X.509v3 digital certificates.
	Ensuring privacy because the information is only available to parties in a transaction when and where necessary.