A form of protocol for electronic credit card payments. As the name implies, the secure electronic transaction (SET) protocol is used to facilitate the secure transmission of consumer credit card information via electronic avenues, such as the Internet. SET blocks out the details of credit card information, thus preventing merchants, hackers and electronic thieves from accessing this information.

|||Secure electronic transactions are backed by most of the major providers of electronic transactions, such as Visa and MasterCard. SET allows merchants to verify their customers' card information without actually seeing it, thus protecting the customer. The information on the card is instead transferred directly to the credit card company for verification.