Although it may seem like you can buy anything online, that's not always the case. E-commerce merchants are required to comply with rules that restrict them from selling certain illicit, fraudulent and illegal materials. The rules are set not only by the law, but also by the major credit card brands. The major credit card brands mandate that acquiring banks (which process credit or debit card payments on behalf of the merchant) make sure the rules are followed.
Monitoring hundreds of thousands of e-commerce websites can be an insurmountable task for an acquirer, so we created a service to make it easier. Trustwave Web Content Monitoring provides automated scans, analysis and detection of illegal and certain illicit activity on merchants' websites. The service also includes an in-depth, hands-on review of sites before reporting violations back to the acquiring banks.
While this product isn't new to our portfolio, it recently achieved a major milestone - a patent granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The patent titled, "Methods and systems for scanning and monitoring content on a network," US 8683031 B2, was filed Oct. 29, 2004 and published March 25, 2014.
This patent is significant because it cements our leadership and credibility in the web content monitoring space.
Let us explain.
Additionally, the service includes an automated check to see if the site has a secure checkout page and a proper SSL certificate. It also conducts frequent monitoring of the content on the site to help ensure the merchant remains in compliance with the card brands' rules. Once the scans and analysis are completed, the acquirer receives a user-friendly and easy-to-understand report of the findings.
As more shoppers turn to the web, the proliferation of e-commerce sites, servers, pages and applications becomes more difficult to manage. The process of assessing and verifying compliance with legislation and standards, such as those set by the major card brands, can be costly, time-consuming and sometimes incomplete. That is why a service like Trustwave Web Content Monitoring, which covers all of the websites associated with a merchant, is critical in helping an e-commerce business secure its valuable data and adhere to the rules.
