“By Jamie Chase, Guest ColumnistWired Watchdog, Brian Livingston, of CNet News.com focused national attention on the latest project of local high-tech businessman Ron Ehli earlier this month. Ehli, the president of PayByCheck.com, and Rob Greenlee, host of locally produced WebTalkGuys radio show, joined forces to create the Responsible eBusiness Alliance (RE-BA). RE-BA’s mission is to guide businesses conducting sensitive business trans-actions.CNet’s interest in RE-BA followed the organization’s connection to an online database, ihateshopping.net, enabling consumers to determine if their credit card number was stolen from CreditCards.com. The credit processing service did not immediately inform consumers of a security breach until extortionists exposed more than 55,000 credit card numbers. Greenlee and Ehli hope that RE-BA membership and logo placement on e-business sites will protect consumers from irresponsible business practices in the future. Members of RE-BA agree to inform the public of all security breaches. RE-BA members agree to act according to a predetermined set of procedures in the unfortunate event of a hack attack or security breach.Consumers are tired of the discrepancies in how companies conduct themselves in the face of breaches that have divulged their personal private information, such as credit card numbers, bank account information, medical records and other personal items. Consumers want to know that the companies in whom they place trust will act responsibly and with integrity in the face of a crisis involving their personal information.Rob Greenlee, CEO of RE-BA says that consumers should begin to both look for and demand that the companies they shop with online are participants in the RE-BA program. It’s the only way we can start putting a stop to the abuse of trust propagated by unethical business practice or by businesses who are unsure of the best way to deal with consumers after a hack attack. RE-BA will be a powerful ally and resource to corporate members who seek to do the right thing, says Greenlee.Re-BA membership costs $59 and can be paid online using PayByCheck.com’s check processing center. A portion of the yearly membership dues are pledged to informing consumers of the purpose of RE-BA and to making the easily recognizable RE-BA logo the first thing consumers look for on business web sites when choosing to shop online.Consumers and RE-BA members are protecting from fraudulent use of the organization’s logo by registration data that is embedded in the image. Consumers who note a site displaying the RE-BA logo whose registered name does not match the business are encouraged to notify RE-BA. Strict fines will be enforced on businesses fraudulently displaying the logo to protect consumer faith in the organization.The Responsible E-Business Alliance is a group of RE-BA logo displaying e-businesses who have recognized the need for Internet commerce companies to band together and act responsibly towards consumers in the unfortunate event of a security breach that exposes the private information of consumers. RE-BA members agree to a certain pre-defined set of procedures to follow when a security breach or hack on e-commerce servers has occurred. Visit the RE-BA web site for additional information at http://www.re-ba.org.PayByCheck.com, located in University Place, is one of the Internet’s largest check-processing services, with nearly 20,000 merchant-subscribers. Visit the PayByCheck Web site at: http://www.paybycheck.com. “