Visa beefs up its online security.(sets new standards along with other companies)(Brief Article)

Visa International plans to replace a set of online security standards that many U.S. merchants call expensive and unwieldy with a new method that could make Internet shopping easier and save e-merchants millions of dollars in fraud-related charges.

The Foster City-based credit card association -- in conjunction with Palo Alto-based Sun Microsystems Inc., Oracle Corp. of Redwood Shores, San Francisco's Brodia Group and others -- developed the new protocols over the past two years. It will broadly launch the standards this fall.

The new payer authentication system allows online merchants to continue using the technology of "secure electronic transaction," or …