Sterling, VA September 27, 2001 Years ago, comedian Archie Campbell perfected a Who's on First?-like routine that began with an innocuous statement such as, I don't have to worry about my old TV any more. The straight man would respond, That's good. Campbell would reply, No, that's bad. I don't have to worry about it because the power company disconnected me. The straight man would respond, That's bad, and Campbell would reply No, that's good. My brother heard about it and is letting me stay at his mansion until I get back on my feet. This call-and-response format would continue the brother was charging him rent, etc. until the audience grew tired. Trust me when I tell you it was funnier when he did it.
I think of Campbell when I hear some of the advances being made in technology. They can usually be distilled down into a That's good/that's bad (TGTB) essence. For instance, I love the fact that cell phones let me call home during a long road trip without having to scurry around in search of a pay phone; I loath the fact that I'm never truly out of reach of the long arm of the office.
The advent of the global positioning service is a classic TGTB scenario. It's wonderful that a hiker can be boonie-galumphing around in the sticks, whip out a handheld device synced up with satellites in geostationary orbit around the earth and find out where he is. It's less wonderful when you consider the Big Brother possibilities of such technology. (You call it paranoid, I call it cautious. And as Kissinger said, even paranoids have enemies.)
But in a definite That's good development, WorldPay, a provider of multi-currency transaction processing and e-commerce, has put a face and place on B2B e-commerce with the launch of the first-ever system that can precisely fix the identity and location of persons conducting high-value transactions. According to the company, the company's WorldPay Genesis system resolves growing concerns about e-commerce security in the face of recent attacks on world financial institutions, eliminating concerns about intrusion into sensitive transactions.
Through encryption and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) technology, WorldPay Genesis pinpoints the user to within a few feet of the location where a transaction is initiated, and provides positive identification. The system ensures the security and integrity of large commercial electronic transactions conducted by financial institutions, corporate enterprises and government agencies.
The offering uses a small transaction authentication device (TAD) developed by Enterprises Solutions. TAD performs two functions: encrypting information to Triple DES security levels before transmission, and confirming location via GPS satellite coordinates. The combination of encryption and GPS location identification ensures the highest levels of security for sensitive, high-value electronic transactions.
"WorldPay Genesis takes e-commerce transaction security to the highest level, for the first time introducing spatial coordinates into the Internet," said Nick Ogden, WorldPay CEO. "The ability to verify transaction participants is key to spurring rapid growth of B2B transactions, and comes at a time when security concerns are the foremost priority."
"We are very pleased to be working with WorldPay, the leading online multi-currency payment aggregator," said Dr. John Solomon, Enterprises Solutions' CEO. "Genesis will topple a key barrier to universal acceptance of online transactions the fear that major financial exchanges are not secure from interference."
