The Origins of the Online Payment Gateway 1998

We had inquired about using the Microsoft CRM and Sage Windows Accounting package for AssuredCard operations. The pricing and learning curve including for customization pushed us to focus back on the CRM and Accounting packages we started building for the updated SuccessInc. Jobs App. It was also the best option financially for our long term vision of a hosted service.

We had a good understanding of C+ and Visual Studio so imported the templates we had been building into the Windows development platform. Visual Studio Studio 6.0 was released with Visual J++ which we used for programming. We were notified Microsoft had to remove the J++ Java Engine as part of a settlement with SunMicrosystems. This was one of the events that pushed us to a SunMicrosystem solution.

We created a front end Dashboard and Windows Portal (as below) for AssuredCard operations as the processing at the early stages was predominantly manual. We added the Gateway Payments button for Admin only as most of the functions and service settings were hard coded in the early version.

AssuredCard Original Systems Dashboard & Portal with Payment Gateway Admin

Steps | Registrations | Customers | Messages | Calendar | Forms

Analytics (Reports)

Gateway Payments (Admin Only Hard Coded)

We had a system built on Windows including SQL and NT. Microsoft was accelerating its technology development as IBM, SunMicrosystems, Oracle and Netscape and many others were pushing the envelope.

We had many issues with Microsoft related to the cost of licensing. At this early stage the cost to change was too great and Microsoft had the lead in browser based access with ActiveX and Internet Explorer which had over 60% of the marketplace with their Windows 95 and 98 dominance.

We completed this version of the online payment gateway with the focus on a scalable hosted version. That was how Milinx was born. It turned into an innovation powerhouse.

Core Online Gateway NT IIS SQL System Services

Gateway NT Server Services

• Active Directory LDAP Protocol
• ASP Active Server Pages
• CryptoAPI
• TAPI API 2.0

SQL Services

• SQL Authetication
• Remote Connect
• Database Mapping

IIS Services

• ASP Active Server Pages Extension
  
• Microsoft Transaction Server (MTS) Session Management

Forms, Processing and Authorization were our focus. We had TAPI 2.0 in NT 4.0 with ACD software framework for programming the disparate and newly created processing networks not yet unified. We had online connectivity with the release of Internet Explorer 4.0 and Windows 95, 98 & NT compatibility and server side scripts. It was the easiest path to the first online payment gateway.

DHTML Forms

• Online Annual Payments
  
• Thank You Billing Details
• Verification Error Page

AssuredCredit - Fraud & Card Integrity Protection

• Step 1 validation all forms necessary were completed
• Step 2 address, phone and email validation using AssuredCard database of customers
  
• Step 3 BIN & IIS Credit Card or Financial Institution number integrity
  
• Step 4 CVC2-CSC or PIN for Card Security Verification if available as only MasterCard and American Express used network based Card Verification Services
  

Authorization

• Routing based on Credit Card or Financial Institution
  
• Terminal Profile Selection TAPI ACD.XML
  
• Connection Routing TAPI ACD Profiles
  

XML

• XML Routing Files
• XML ACD Profiles
  
• ACD.XML

Java

• KeyStore
• JSSE Java Secure Socket Extension
• Customer Key Management
  

System, connection and data integrity was a top level consideration. The Java library provided critical pieces for this early version from key management to secure transmission.

The two core components were the KeyStore itself and the JSSE or Java Secure Socket Extension. This was one of the most straight forward pieces of development yet critical for success of the first Online Payment Gateway. It was also challenging as it required error proof coding.

• FileInputStream
• TrustManager
• SSLContext
• KeyManagerFactory
• Enumeration
• InputStream

The KeyStore held keys for secure connections and system data integrity:

• Private
  
• Public
  
• Secret
  

• Data Encryption
• Server Authentication
• Message Integrity
• Client-authentication

The Java Secure Socket Extension (JSSE) is an implementation of SunJSSE that enabled secure Internet communications in a Java Runtime Environment. It implemented a Java technology version of the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and later Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols which were provisioned for the initial Hosted version built by AssuredCredit.