"Visa is absolutely committed to helping the Web reach its full potential as a new channel for commerce," says Visa International president and CEO Malcolm Williamson. "We believe this new initiative will help do that by combining state-of-the art technology, global standards and best practices, and the promise of the Visa brand."

The initiative incorporates a Payment Authentication Programme, designed to reduce the risk of unauthorised use of a cardholder account, and a Global Data Security Programme to establish standards and best practice for e-commerce merchants so that they may better ensure the security of cardholder data on their sites.

"Ultimately, we want to bring an extra measure of confidence to the Internet by delivering higher levels of security," says executive vice president Philip Yen, head of Visa's Internet and access channels group. "This initiative builds upon many of the security and authentication measures we have already developed for the Web."

The Payment Authentication Programme is based on a new "3-Domain" model, designed to provide participants with the confidence that an Internet transaction has been conducted by legitimate parties, thus reducing the potential for disputes.

Visa's European region has announced deployment of the 3-Domain model for implementation of server-based SET (Secure Electronic Transactions) in the European Union marketplace, with full implementation scheduled for 2001. The Visa Latin America and Caribbean region has also recently endorsed the 3-Domain model for server-based SET. And, Visa USA will pilot a new 3-Domain SSL-based (Secure Socket Layer) authentication protocol beginning this summer.

The model provides options to authenticate the payment online, protect the privacy of transmissions, and ensure that data in transmission remains unchanged. The model will also work with new payment products and channels, says Visa, including chip cards, mobile phones, personal digital assistants and set-top boxes.

The Global Data Security Programme, to be rolled out later this year, will include a series of standards and guidelines for e-commerce transactions that both buyers and sellers should follow. Additionally, a self-certification tool will be available to help merchants evaluate and improve the security of their sites.

The self-certification tool, standards and guidelines will all be available to merchants on the Web later this summer. Additionally, technology to upgrade merchant sites once the self-certification has been completed will be available from a variety of Visa approved vendors via direct links on the Web.