UnitWise: The Best in Security
There's been a recent demand from the regulatory agencies for credit card companies (and companies processing credit cards) to increase their security, in order to protect their customers. ProPay, a credit card company used by hundreds of thousands of Mary Kay consultants, is the leader in online processing.
During development of UnitWise, we contacted ProPay, knowing that many of our customers would be using their system. We showed them our security protocols and they liked what we were doing, so they worked with us to integrate their new ProtectPay system. They told us that ProtectPay was the latest and greatest security measure for the company, and that we would be the first to integrate it. On top of that, they told us that if other companies didn't increase their security standards to match the ones we were employing, they would stop supporting them.
Earlier this week we got an email from one of the MK Directors using UnitWise, with this link to a Blvd blog post. Here is a screen shot of that blog post. (From the post below: Therefore, come July 1, 2010, no matter what version of Boulevard software you are using, you will no longer be able to submit credit card transactions directly to ProPay.)
See, older programs like BLVD store customer credit card information on your computer in an unencrypted text format. The problem with that is it leaves your customers at risk. What if someone got on to that computer or if it got stolen? They could pull the credit card information off easily, no hacking required. Then you would be held responsible.
We just thought we'd send out a reminder that UnitWise is the safest, and most comprehensive program available
See, that's much safer and simpler!
*Blvd is a product of Main Street Software and is not affiliated with UnitWise
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I have been looking at software for my business and came across your website. I was reading some information on your blog and wanted to get some clarification. Based upon some of the research I have done, some things you're saying don't appear to be 100% accurate. I want to be sure to make the best decision for my business. Here is what I am questioning.
ReplyDeleteYour blog says the Blvd program does not encrypt stored credit card information. I asked a friend who has their program and she said it is encrypted. She sent me the following:
Credit card numbers are now encrypted in the Boulevard database to increase the security of your customer information.
I also looked at their blog and they have information saying ProPay is not recommending ProtectPay for Mary Kay women.
Help! I just want to make the right decision for my business and all these details are confusing.
Thanks for commenting Kathy. We have no reason to be untruthful. Blvd* is a desktop based program. If someone were to get a hold of your computer, they could access your Blvd files just as easily as they could your family pictures and word documents. It doesn't take some kind of master hacker, anyone with enough computer know-how can mine your Blvd files for valuable customer information.
ReplyDeleteIn Unitwise, we don't store the credit card numbers at all. We send the credit card information to Propay's ProtectPay** system using Secured Socket Layer technology. Since there are no credit card numbers stored on our systems, there's no way for anyone to get to the private information.
We don't stop there though. We are very particular about our customer data - credit card or otherwise. UnitWise members are under secured socket layer protection from the moment they sign in to our system. UnitWise is encrypted using the industry standard 128 bit encryption, backed up every 30 seconds, and is monitored by COMODO HackerProof security 24 hours a day. If you look at the URL when you login to UnitWise, you'll notice it says https--which is a more secure form of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol used on most public sites. Those are the same protocols used in online banking programs (for example, Bank of America has an https address, while Google has just http)
Propay is Payment Card Industry (PCI) certified. They have gone through very stringent certification processes. Mary Kay*** uses them to process their credit cards: https://epay.propay.com/marykay/tutorial/
The information you received about ProPay not recommending ProtectPay for Mary Kay consultants is completely false. We've worked personally with ProPay. Their ProtectPay system meets the high security standards demanded by the major credit card companies. Check out this quote from ProPay's site:
"ProPay ProtectPay Allows direct-selling corporations to mitigate the risks of storing cardholder data, lower costs of storing and processing transactions, and simplify the management of multiple forms of payment."
Does that sound like something Mary Kay consultants shouldn't be using? If ProPay felt that other desktop programs like Blvd were safe, they wouldn't have dropped them. For more information about ProtectPay, click here: http://www.propaypaymentnetwork.com/protectpay.aspx
Thank you again for your comment and questions. We assure you, we're the real deal! We want you to make the right decision for your business too, and we think that decision
should be to join UnitWise. Let us know if you have any more questions, and we'll happily answer them.