iKP;MIME;STT;protocol;PKCS #7;Internet">

Question 140. What is SEPP?

SEPP is the Secure Electronic Payment Protocol, an open specification for secure bank card transactions over the Internet developed by IBM, Netscape, GTE, CyberCash and MasterCard [IBM95]. A draft version was released for comment in November 1995. SEPP provides an embodiment of the iKP protocol (see Question 139) intended for HTTP transactions and adapted to bank card payments; SEPP messages are transmitted with MIME (see Question 131) and are based on common ASN.1 syntax including X.509 version 3 certificates (see Question 165) and PKCS #7 "signed data" (see Question 166).

SEPP and STT (see Question 142) were being merged into a joint Visa-MasterCard protocol called SET, Secure Electronic Transactions, as of this writing.