Authorize.Net
Encyclopedia
Authorize.Net is a payment gateway
service provider allowing merchant
s to accept credit card
and electronic checks payments through their Web site and over an IP (Internet Protocol
) connection. Authorize.Net claims a user base of over 305,000 merchants, which would make them the Internet's largest payment gateway
service provider.
In November 2007 Cybersource
purchased Authorize.Net for $565 million. Authorize.Net was originally purchased in 2004 by Lightbridge for $82 Million.
and extortion
ists. In September 2004, Authorize.Net's servers were hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The DDoS attack lasted for over one week and caused a virtual shut down of the payment gateway
's service. The attackers demanded money from Authorize.net in exchange for stopping the attack.
On July 2, 2009, 11pm, the entire web infrastructure for Authorize.net (main website, merchant gateway website, etc) went offline and stayed down all morning July 3, 2009. None of the over 200,000 merchants who use Authorize.net payment gateway were able to process credit cards. Authorize.net's phone numbers were closed July 3 because of the July 4th holiday as previously announced on their website (though the website was down at the time). Other companies that have nearby offices have reported to the media that there was a fire. Authorize.net started a twitter
account that morning, but did not update their phones to give notice to customers until July 5 when they reopened phones.
Payment gateway
A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. It is the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets...
service provider allowing merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s to accept credit card
Credit card
A credit card is a small plastic card issued to users as a system of payment. It allows its holder to buy goods and services based on the holder's promise to pay for these goods and services...
and electronic checks payments through their Web site and over an IP (Internet Protocol
Internet Protocol
The Internet Protocol is the principal communications protocol used for relaying datagrams across an internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite...
) connection. Authorize.Net claims a user base of over 305,000 merchants, which would make them the Internet's largest payment gateway
Payment gateway
A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. It is the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets...
service provider.
In November 2007 Cybersource
Cybersource
CyberSource is a provider of electronic payment and risk management services. CyberSource solutions enable electronic payment processing for Web, call centre, and POS environments. CyberSource also offers industry risk management services for merchants accepting card-not-present transactions...
purchased Authorize.Net for $565 million. Authorize.Net was originally purchased in 2004 by Lightbridge for $82 Million.
Outages
Authorize.Net's large user base makes them an ideal target for hackersHacker (computer security)
In computer security and everyday language, a hacker is someone who breaks into computers and computer networks. Hackers may be motivated by a multitude of reasons, including profit, protest, or because of the challenge...
and extortion
Extortion
Extortion is a criminal offence which occurs when a person unlawfully obtains either money, property or services from a person, entity, or institution, through coercion. Refraining from doing harm is sometimes euphemistically called protection. Extortion is commonly practiced by organized crime...
ists. In September 2004, Authorize.Net's servers were hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The DDoS attack lasted for over one week and caused a virtual shut down of the payment gateway
Payment gateway
A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. It is the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets...
's service. The attackers demanded money from Authorize.net in exchange for stopping the attack.
On July 2, 2009, 11pm, the entire web infrastructure for Authorize.net (main website, merchant gateway website, etc) went offline and stayed down all morning July 3, 2009. None of the over 200,000 merchants who use Authorize.net payment gateway were able to process credit cards. Authorize.net's phone numbers were closed July 3 because of the July 4th holiday as previously announced on their website (though the website was down at the time). Other companies that have nearby offices have reported to the media that there was a fire. Authorize.net started a twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
account that morning, but did not update their phones to give notice to customers until July 5 when they reopened phones.
Media coverage
- Payment processor fears credit card crooks April 3, 2006
See also
- CybersourceCybersourceCyberSource is a provider of electronic payment and risk management services. CyberSource solutions enable electronic payment processing for Web, call centre, and POS environments. CyberSource also offers industry risk management services for merchants accepting card-not-present transactions...
- Payment gatewayPayment gatewayA payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes payments for e-businesses, online retailers, bricks and clicks, or traditional brick and mortar. It is the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in most retail outlets...
- Electronic checkElectronic funds transferElectronic funds transfer is the electronic exchange or transfer of money from one account to another, either within a single financial institution or across multiple institutions, through computer-based systems....
- Merchant accountMerchant accountA merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept payments by debit or credit cards. A merchant account is established under an agreement between an acceptor and a merchant acquiring bank for the settlement of credit card and/or debit card transactions...
- Shopping cart softwareShopping cart softwareShopping cart software is software used in e-commerce to assist people making purchases online, analogous to the American English term 'shopping cart'...
External links
Integration examples (code)
- Integrate the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway with PHP - AIM integration with PHPPHPPHP is a general-purpose server-side scripting language originally designed for web development to produce dynamic web pages. For this purpose, PHP code is embedded into the HTML source document and interpreted by a web server with a PHP processor module, which generates the web page document...
- Integrating With Authorize.net Using SIM - SIM integration with PerlPerlPerl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...
/CGICommon Gateway InterfaceThe Common Gateway Interface is a standard method for web servers software to delegate the generation of web pages to executable files... - Using ASP and XMLHTTP to Talk to Authorize.Net - AIM integration with ASPActive Server PagesActive Server Pages , also known as Classic ASP or ASP Classic, was Microsoft's first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated Web pages. Initially released as an add-on to Internet Information Services via the Windows NT 4.0 Option Pack Active Server Pages (ASP), also known as Classic...
- Integrating Electronic Payment Processing into ASP.NET Web Applications - AIM integration with ASP.NETASP.NETASP.NET is a Web application framework developed and marketed by Microsoft to allow programmers to build dynamic Web sites, Web applications and Web services. It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework, and is the successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages ...