Visa and MasterCard have launched free, self-assessment tools for merchants and providers to test and validate the security of their e-commerce connections.

In an effort to combat credit card fraud, both Visa and MasterCard have developed a set of standards for transaction security (called the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), a checklist for ensuring systems are up to scratch, and access to a free security assessment tool provided by ScanAlert.

Visa head of third-party assurance, Edward Lodens, said Visa has 62 percent market share in the Asia-Pacific region (including Hong Kong and Japan) which is why the company needs to take a leadership role in developing standards, rolling out programs and ensuring merchants and third-party providers can secure transactional data.

Lodens said the global program to protect cardholder information began in 2001 and since then they have tried to push the information down to the merchant level.

"It is essentially three things - a set of standards called Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS), a foundation framework to validate those standards and tools to validate compliance," Lodens said.