Explain the similarities and differences of this protocol to SET.

Question

A merchant using the SSL protocol (without SET) might implement a credit card transaction as follows: The customer purchases an item, and the merchant asks him to send his credit card information encrypted using the session key established with the SSL protocol. When the merchant receives that information, she initiates a separate transaction with the credit card company to have the purchase approved. When that transaction commits, the merchant commits the transaction with the customer.

Answer 1

Similarities:
1. Using a certificate to authenticate the server;
2. Having a trusted third party.
3. Sending the credit card in encrypted form, so an intruder cannot read it.
Differences:
1. In SET, the merchant does not get to see the credit card number.
2. In SET, each customer has its own certificate; but In SSL, customer does not have its own certificate;
3. The automic commit protocol used by SET is the linear commit protocol; while SSL does not use an atomic commit protocol.
4. In the SSL only protocol, the merchant could cheat and specify an arbitrary charge in its transaction with the credit card company.