Secure Electronic Transaction is a world wide safety standard for e-Commerce. SET was developed by VISA and MasterCard in cooperation with IBM, Microsoft, Netscape and other well-known companies. The new standard supports the world wide card systems of VISA and EuroCard.

SET safeguards payment in the internet on several levels:

• Protection of the connection: The data transfer is protected against monitoring so the confidentiality of the informations is guaranteed.

• Integrity of data: The transferred data is unalterable so third parties are unable to falsify it.

• Identification of the participant: Supplier and buyer identify themselves so that both sides can be sure of the respectability and authenticity of the other.