Your security

Is it safe to shop on the internet?

When you shop on the Internet, you have the same concerns as you do when you use a catalog to shop over the telephone.

• Impersonation: Is the business that takes receiving my order authentic?
• Eavesdropping: Could someone "listen in" to my order and steal my credit card number?

In the real world, you often give your credit card to cashiers or waiters, and you are regularly asked for your account number over the phone when placing an order. Using your credit card number on the Internet is generally much safer than these practices. In fact, it is often more secure to give out your account number over the Internet... this is because many sites work with your browser software to encode your transaction, so if your information is intercepted, it cannot be read.

Holidays Allover utilises a technology called SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) which is a set of rules followed by all computers connected to the Internet... These rules include the following:

• Encryption, which guards against eavesdropping.
• Data integrity, which ensures your communication is not tampered with during transmission and
• Authentication, which verifies that the party actually receiving your communication is who they say they are.

How encryption works

There are two levels of encryption: 40-bit and 128-bit.

• With 40-bit encryption, there are billions of possible keys to decipher the coded information, and only one of them works. Someone intercepting the information would have to find the right key - a nearly impossible task.
• With 128-bit encryption, there are 300 billion trillion times as many keys as with 40-bit encryption... and would be impossible for an unauthorized party to find the right key, even if they are equipped with the best computers... Holidays Allover uses 128-bit encryption.

To check a site's security status

Look at the site's URL in your browser window. An "s" added to the familiar "http" (to make "https") indicates the SSL is in effect.

• In Netscape Navigator 3.0 and earlier, the broken key symbol in the lower-left corner of your browser window becomes solid when you are in secure mode.
• In Netscape Communicator 4.0 and 4.5, the padlock symbol in the corner, usually open, is closed in secure mode.
• In Internet Explorer 4.0, a closed padlock appears when you are in secure mode.
• If you're about to send information to a site that's not using SSL, your browser will warn you first.
• SSL protects your communications during transmission.