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Comment by kawsper | Hacker News Reader

Also, as I understand it, many american websites seems to store credit card details, why is that?

In Denmark we often use a payment gateway, exactly to avoid these types of attack. If my webshops database got leaked, my customers would not have to fear creditcard leakage.

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I suppose it is possible that programmers in Denmark are more skilled in crafting secure payment processes than Americans, but isn't it more likely that you're opinion is biased by a reporting bias? You are simply observing more reports of problems at US websites because they are so many more US websites than Denmarkian.

I don't believe that programmers in Denmark is more skilled, or more focused on security.

I have just often wondered why a lot of the webshops in the US that I use stores all my information, I have never seen it here.

And no, I don't believe that I use more US-based webshops than Danish.

Many American websites use payment gateways as well. That doesn't mean they all do.

We have laws that you must comply with if you store data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Payment_Card_Industry_Data_Secu...

Not a law, its an industry standard. Its enforced by the card companies (Visa, etc) but generally only if you are processing enough transactions.

Ahh, I was mistaken. I thought that you could be hit with fines if you don't comply with PCI.

(This is why I always use a payment gateway and never keep details myself.)

Yeah, you can be fined, audited, have your merchant account revoked - all sorts of badness.

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