Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and 3D Secure are two technologies used to enhance the safety of online transactions.
SCA is a regulatory requirement introduced by the European Union’s second Payment Services Directive (PSD2) to make online card payments more secure and reduce fraud. It applies to most electronic transactions within the European Economic Area (EEA) and affects both customers and businesses processing payments.
The goal of SCA is to ensure that customers provide multiple layers of authentication before completing an online transaction. This helps in preventing unauthorized access to bank accounts and reduces the risk of financial fraud.
3D Secure is a specific implementation of SCA used by card issuers and banks to provide an additional layer of security during online card transactions. The most common implementations when using 3D Secure transactions, customers are redirected to their card issuer’s website, where they have to provide additional authentication information before the payment is authorized.
This ensures that the transaction is authorized by the legitimate cardholder and not by someone attempting fraudulent activities with stolen card details.