Making payments on the internet are basically electronic versions of the traditional payment systems. In the electronic payment system, everything is digital and is designed to handle electronically, no currency problems. Cyber Cash, Cyber money or the virtual money is the electronic money used to make online purchases over the internet. Cyber Cash allows on-line processing of orders, as opposed to collecting credit card information and then manually processing the transactions. The terms "electronic money," "e-cash," and "digital cash" are often used to mean cyber cash, but, in fact, they also include non-Internet-based payment instruments.

The CyberCash payment system was designed to provide fast, secure and efficient financial transactions over the internet. The number one form of CyberCash tranactions is the use of a credit card, where funds are electronically moved between accounts. There are two popular options for users to access and manipulate their CyberCash. Customer-to-Merchant and Peer-to-Peer. With these CyberCash server acts as a middle man between the involved parties.

Features :

One of the “valuable” features of cyber cash is that it is free. The financial organization will be paying for this service. Secondly, these will always provide you with merchant support you may need at times. And at last, these are also to easy to amalgamate, that is, it is easy to assimilate it with an existing website.

What cyber cash does ?

CyberCash links an implicit storefront with a credit card processor, providing authorizations at the time of purchase. After the sale, CyberCash provides a full HTML interface for capturing and settling transactions. This real-time, secure credit card authentication service is based on digital signatures. They are able to make it as safe and easy to transact business on the Internet as it is in the physical world. They give you an electronic wallet, into which you can put three forms of currency: credit, cash, and coin. These three layers will be important to the future of on-line commerce.

• Credit is the equivalent of a standard credit card. Your credit card number is encrypted, so that when you give it to a merchant on-line, the merchant can only put it into a larger electronic envelope, along with your order, and send the whole thing to Cyber cash or to the bank authorized to make transfer the funds.

• Cyber cash is equivalent to a debit card, rather than a credit card. You stock your electronic wallet with so much cyber cash, and it is good immediately. An authorized transaction reduces the amount of value in your electronic wallet and transfers the funds directly to the merchant. This will essentially replace checks and ATM transactions, and many credit card transactions as well. Cyber cash may be carried on so-called "smart cards," which you'll be able to use instead of checks or coins at merchants, telephone booths, ticket offices, etc.

• Cyber coin gives us a provision for pay-as-you-go transactions. Cyber coin makes minute transactions reasonable. It's important that the cost of the transaction not be higher than the cost of the payment. These kinds of minute royalty payments will play a large role in protecting intellectual property and rewarding creativity on the Web.

Security Measures

CyberCash is responsible to over 400,000 company's and individuals, and has an obligation to provide the strongest security possible. Firstly, the software provides encrytion on all personal information. to ensure that only the concerned parties can access the information. Secondly, the Cybercash server is under heavy protection such as fire walls.

Each CyberCash transaction is automatically encrypted, to avoid risk to a client and their customers. CyberCash transactions are encrypted with 768-bit RSA security for all financial data. This security does not depend on SSL channels and therefore is not less secure for international transactions. All credit card information is also encrypted in the merchant database to protect it from any post-sale attack. Even information sold and delivered by the CyberCash system ("payloads") is protected with 40-bit DES encryption to prevent snooping by those who did not pay for the goods.

As data is transmitted across a network is not secure, security protocols such as SSL are used on the network for secure communication. Cyber cash uses a helper wallet for the web-browser, and pass encrypted credit card number through the merchant to its own processor/ server for authentication.

Pro's and Con's of using CyberCash

Positive Factors for CyberCash:

Increased confidentiality between the two parties; to decrease the chance of identity theft. User-Friendly Service that combines multiple payment methods to give the user more control. With the CyberCash server handling the transactions, both parties are assured that the transaction will run smoothly.

Negative factors against CyberCash:

For the user to effectively use CyberCash, there is a large collection software that needs to be installed and constantly updated. This becomes a repellent as this totals up to a high cost for the user. With all transactions going through the CyberCash server as a middle man, it appears that the company knows too much information about their customers.