How secure are online payments for remote workers?

Working with remote workers has many benefits, alright, but there are many security concerns that come with it. One such concern is in online payment processing whereby employees and employers alike aren’t always able to track the full course of the payment processes; from when a payment processor dispatches funds until the money is credited to the recipient’s bank account.

Technology is attempting to iron out this challenge when hiring internationals by enabling mobile money transfer and other reliable payment methods, but there still are some teething technical challenges down, up, and around the transaction path. Here are some of them:

1. Online fraud

As with any other electronic payment system, online payments for remote workers are hopelessly vulnerable to the risk of fraud. The protocol used to capture the identity of the person to whom money is sent is weak, unreliable, and prone to costly errors. Most of these protocols rely on passwords and security questions to determine the real identity of the sender or receiver of the money, which is clearly not foolproof (people guess passwords correctly all the time.

If a criminal can get his hands on the answer to the security question, he can even change passwords and steal money effortlessly. After all, the payment only requires that the password and the answers to the security questions be correct and everything else runs smoothly.

2. Automated payment systems are prone to errors

Thanks to tech advancement, online payment systems are handled by automated machines instead of humans. Although such a system saves time and overhead costs, it isn’t immune to errors. Think of a case where the automated system is handling multiple payments at once, with payments going to different remote workers in different countries and being of different amounts. The system becomes very vulnerable to the point of sending the wrong amounts to the wrong people. And what happens when an error is detected late? The only chance that the rightful recipient gets justice is if the wrong recipient agrees to surrender the wrongly-received money. There aren’t many solutions to payment conflicts.

How to Secure Online Payments for Remote Workers

1. Adopt strict rules and regulations

With strict rules governing money transfers in and out of every country in the world, cases of payment frauds will be reduced significantly. Every employer and remote employee needs to understand that failure to comply with the set rules can lead to adverse legal consequences. That is one sure way of curbing irresponsible behavior around online money transfer. Performing transfers in China, for example, is closely governed by firm laws and regulations, and that makes it safer for companies from the west to outsource workers to China.

Some of the strict regulations that have made China stand out for as long as cross-border transactions are involved are the rule that no one can enter or leave the country with USD $10,000 or its equivalent without producing a special permit from a recognized Chinese bank. In the same breath, you will need a special warrant from the SAFE (State Administration of Foreign Exchange) if you need to travel in or out with more than $10,000. Daily international transfers for Chinese citizens are capped at USD $50,000, while foreigners carry the burden of proof as to the legality of their international money transfer transactions.

As many companies are looking toward Chinese goods, many vendor companies are offering payroll management to make it easier for outsources. For example, Sky Executive, as part of their PEO Service, they offer “arranging payroll and tax” and “providing ongoing legal and HR support”.

2. Only work with highly reputable payment processing partners

If a processing partner doesn’t prioritize security and transparency, refuse to work with them. A good partner helps you to comply with all the set Payments Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) guidelines, conducts regular system vulnerability checks, and advise you on the latest, most secure payment security. That way, you can rest assured that your international money transfer is well encrypted and hacker-proof.

3. Encrypt your important transactions

Your payment partner could be using strong encryption to process payments, but that doesn’t necessarily imply that you are completely out of the woods. You, too, must make an effort of encrypting your payments in the best way you know-how. You need to understand that even if your partner is experienced and reputable, there comes a time when they lose control over the data they manage. That is nobody’s error; it just the way things are. Besides, sending data to the provider from an unsafe system makes it easy for hackers to intercept the data somewhere between your system and the providers.