About Online Security
There is much uncertainty about using your credit card information over the Internet. Office General is aware of customers concerns and is using an industry standard "Secure Server" with authentication and encryption technology for handling on-line credit card transactions. Customers using web browsers that recognize our security system will notice that the screen will change to the 'Secure Mode' when viewing pages that contain sensitive data. When your web browser is in secure mode, any confidential information like a credit card number is encrypted and transmitted in a manner that will prevent anyone, other than Office General, from being able to read and understand your transmission.

How does SSL security technology protect me?
The SSL protocol delivers server authentication, data encryption, and message integrity. SSL is layered beneath application protocols such as HTTP, SMTP, Telnet, FTP, Gopher, and NNTP, and layered above the connection protocol TCP/IP. This strategy allows SSL to operate independently of the Internet application protocols. With SSL implemented on both the client and server, your Internet communications are transmitted in encrypted form. Information you send can be trusted to arrive privately and unaltered to the server you specify (and no other).

To what degree can SSL security protect me?
SSL uses authentication and encryption technology developed by RSA Data Security Inc. For example, Netscape Navigator's export implementation of SSL (U.S. government approved) uses a medium-grade, 40-bit key size for the RC4 stream encryption algorithm. The encryption established between you and a server remains valid over multiple connections, yet the effort expended to defeat the encryption of one message cannot be leveraged to defeat the next message.
A message encrypted with 40-bit RC4 takes on average 64 MIPS-years to break (a 64-MIPS computer needs a year of dedicated processor time to break the message's encryption). The high-grade, 128-bit U.S. domestic version provides protection exponentially more vaster. The effort required to break any given exchange of information is a formidable deterrent. Server authentication uses RSA public key cryptography in conjunction with ISO X.509 digital certificates.
Netscape Navigator and Netscape Commerce Server deliver server authentication using signed digital certificates issued by trusted third parties known as certificate authorities. A digital certificate verifies the connection between a server's public key and the server's identification (just as a driver's license verifies the connection between your photograph and your personal identification). Cryptographic checks, using digital signatures, ensure that the information found within a certificate can be trusted.

How can I tell when security is in effect?
You can tell whether a document comes from a secure server by looking at the location (URL) field. If the URL begins with https:// (instead of http://), the document comes from a secure server. To connect to an HTTP server that provides security using the SSL protocol, insert the letter "s" so that the URL begins with https://. You need to use https:// for HTTP URLs with SSL and http:// for HTTP URLs without SSL. A news URL that starts with snews: (the letter "s" inserted in front of news:) is used for a document coming from a secure news server.
You can also verify the security of a document by examining the security icon in the bottom-left corner of the Netscape Navigator window and the colorbar across the top of the content area. The icon consists of a doorkey on a blue background to show secure documents and a broken doorkey on a gray background to show insecure documents. The doorkey has two teeth for high-grade encryption, one tooth for medium-grade. The colorbar across the top of the content area is blue for secure and gray for insecure.
A mixed document containing secure and insecure information is displayed as secure with insecure information replaced by a mixed security icon. Some servers may permit you access documents insecurely (using http://) to view mixed documents in full.

If you still are uncomfortable transmitting your credit card information over the Internet, you may contact Office General at 1-415-283-3200 M-F, 9am-5pm, PST to complete your request over the phone.