Authorize.Net

Authorize.Net

Type	Public
Founded	1996
Headquarters	American Fork, Utah, USA
Industry	Internet, Communications
Website	www.authorize.net

Authorize.Net headquarters in American Fork

Authorize.Net is a payment gateway service provider allowing merchants to accept credit card and electronic checks payments through their Web site and over an IP (Internet Protocol) connection. Authorize.Net claims a user base of over 212,000 merchants, which would make them the Internet's largest payment gateway service provider.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2007 Cybersource purchased Authorize.Net for $565 million.^[1] Authorize.Net was originally purchased in 2004 by Lightbridge for $82 Million^[2].

Services

This article is written like an advertisement. Please help rewrite this article from a neutral point of view. For blatant advertising that would require a fundamental rewrite to become encyclopedic, use {{db-spam}} to mark for speedy deletion. (March 2008)

Authorize.Net sells its services to merchants both directly and indirectly through re-sellers, and a merchant wishing to use Authorize.Net's payment gateway services can contact either Authorize.Net or a reseller. Authorize.Net resellers are typically merchant account providers, as the two services go hand-in-hand. If using a reseller pricing for services of their payment gateway will vary.

Authorize.Net offers two ways to integrate their payment gateway services into a merchant's Web site. The first method is called the Simple Integration Method (SIM). As the name implies this method is the less technically complex of the two. Using the Simple Integration Method a merchant would send the customer to the Authorize.Net website where a secure order page will capture their transaction information. Upon completion of the transaction the customer is returned to the merchant's Web site. This method is usually preferred by small businesses who do not have the technical capabilities to do a more advanced integration.

The second method of integration is called the Advanced Integration Method (AIM). This method of integration is more complex but more powerful than the Simple Integration Method. The Advanced Integration Method utilizes the Authorize.Net API to process a transaction without the customer leaving the merchant's Web site. The customer is unaware of how the transaction is processed and the checkout process is seamless to them. This method is usually chosen by larger businesses that wish to present their Web site in a professional manner.

A common misperception about Authorize.Net is that they are a merchant account provider. Authorize.Net currently does not offer merchant accounts as a service. To use the payment gateway offered by Authorize.Net a merchant will need to establish a merchant account through a separate company.

Outages

Authorize.Net's large user base makes them an ideal target for hackers and extortionists. In September 2004, Authorize.Net's servers were hit by a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack.^[3] The DDoS attack lasted for over one week and caused a virtual shut down of the payment gateway's service. The attackers demanded money from Authorize.net in exchange for stopping the attack.

On July 2nd, 2009, 11pm, the entire web infrastructure for Authorize.net (main website, merchant gateway website, etc) went offline and stayed down all morning July 3, 2009.^[4][5] None of the over 200,000 merchants who use Authorize.net payment gateway were able to process credit cards. Authorize.net's phone numbers were closed July 3rd because of the July 4th holiday as previously announced on their website (though the website was down at the time). ^[6] Other companies that have nearby offices have reported to the media that there was a fire.^[4] Authorize.net started a twitter account that morning, but did not update their phones to give notice to customers until July 5th when they reopened phones.^[7]

Media coverage

• Payment processor fears credit card crooks April 3, 2006

References

See also

• Cybersource
• Payment gateway
• Electronic check
• Merchant account
• Shopping cart software

External links

• Authorize.Net web site
• Twitter account

Integration examples (code)

• Integrate the Authorize.Net Payment Gateway with PHP - AIM integration with PHP
• Integrating With Authorize.net Using SIM - SIM integration with Perl/CGI
• Using ASP and XMLHTTP to Talk to Authorize.Net - AIM integration with ASP
• Integrating Electronic Payment Processing into ASP.NET Web Applications - AIM integration with ASP.NET