You've seen it in the news - 40 million credit cards exposed!

With all the news about web sites being hacked and cyber

Thieves stealing credit card numbers and other personal data,

It's no wonder that some shoppers are still hesitant to provide

Payment information online. You don't have to be.

Is it enough that users trust you?

Common marketing wisdom shows that one of the most valuable

An asset any Internet Marketer has is trust. People go to extreme

Measures to build this trust - online pictures, testimonials,

Audio - some even go as far as to open storefronts to give

People that "good feeling".

But all of this may simply not be enough.

A recent Harris Interactive survey found that 75 percent of

Consumers polled worry that companies will share personal data

With other corporations without permissions, while 70 percent

Doubt the security of online transactions and 69 percent fear

Those hackers will steal their personal data submitted online.

You see, just because a user trusts you, doesn't necessarily

Mean that the customer trusts your website or

Your payment processor.

Once you've established rapport with your customer base,

The next step is to build trust in your website.

Whether you collect credit card information yourself, or have

A third party processor handles your transactions for you,

It's crucial that people understand that you are serious

About protecting their privacy and information.

Here are a few things you can do to help out.

*) Install a Secure Server Certificate on your server to close

That “locks" on people's browsers. Even if you don't collect

Credit card information, people feel better about having

The information they send to you be secure. Also, consider

Using a "top tier" Certificate provider, such as Revising.

While other providers may have nearly equally secure solutions,

The reason you are buying the certificate is to instill trust

In your customers, which other providers do not necessarily

Have in abundance.

*) Have a clear, clean privacy policy statement in addition

To the "legalese" required by the FTC. If you don't

Sell addresses, tell people so.

*) Secure your server. I know that this seems obvious, but most

People pay no attention to their web server or the software

They are running. Knowing what software you have running,

And keeping up-to-date on patches will help significantly.

*) Install an Intrusion Detection System (IDS) I estimate 73%

Or more of all websites have no intrusion detection system

In place. What this means is that not only can most websites

Be hacked easily, it is very likely that the website owner

Has no clue if that they have been compromised.

*) Turn off unneeded services and ports, and uninstall

Unused software. The premise here is that the less "stuff"

On your machine, the less chance for exploit. For example,

I listens on the Internet for messages form other servers,

Yet most small websites access the database system only from

The machine it is running on. It is very simple to make

Myself "invisible" to the Internet - making it much more

Secure if you don't need to access it from other systems.

There are many, many more simple techniques like this you can

Apply to your server to keep hackers out.

In summary, consumers are quickly becoming Internet savvy

And they take their privacy seriously. There is nothing,

And I mean nothing that can hurt your credibility more

Than your customers and potential customers getting SPAM

To email addresses that they provided only to you - in

The best case, they will think that you sold their address.

Responding that no, you didn't sell their address, but someone

Hacked your server and stole ALL their personal information

Won't make them feel a whole lot better about doing business

With you in the future.