All online transactions are handled with industry-standard Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption.

When you enter your credit card number into the order form, it is transmitted across the Internet in an encrypted (scrambled) form, then decoded when it gets to us.

A programmer from France was able to break this encryption technology in response to an online challenge, but he required 120 workstations on two supercomputers running for 8 days to break a single message.

To break another transmission, would require another 8 days. So, while internet encryption can be broken, it requires a lot of expensive computing power. In this case the use of the equipment and facilities cost about $10,000, just to break one message.

As a result, you're more likely to have your credit card information stolen in offline ways, such as someone going through your mail or sifting through the trash from a local department store.

If you are not the kind of person who worries about being hit by lightning as you're crossing the street, you probably don't have to worry that your credit card number will be intercepted via a secure Web site.