Online purchasing of goods and services has grown dramatically over the last decade. Although such purchases are now conducted with communications between a user's computer and a merchant's website being encrypted, the users' credit card payment information is still susceptible to theft during the online transaction. A common approach used by hackers to steal credit card payment information is to install a malware program on the user's computer without the user's knowledge, where the malware program examines the user's keystrokes and browser content to detect payment information (e.g., credit card number, expiration date, card verification value, etc.). This is the so-called “man-in-the-middle” attack. Once the payment information is detected, the malware program transmits the data to the hacker's remote server, where it can be used or sold to conduct fraudulent transactions.
The present invention is directed to ways of evading man-in-the-middle attacks and effecting secure communication of payment information to merchants for purchases made over the Internet.