PayPal has upgraded its Payflow Pro online payment gateway to a new, more secure, SSL server certificate hierarchy in order to improve product security. The company will begin phasing out its existing gateway server certificates in September 2009, and merchants with Payflow integration must update them to support the new certificate type. The update does not affect those customers using its hosted Payflow Link product.

Payflow Pro connects merchants' online stores to their existing Internet merchant accounts, enabling them to accept credit cards, debit cards, and PayPal. Merchants may need to update their product integration to PayPal's latest Software Development Kit or its direct HTTP interface.

Last month, eBay announced that sellers who have their own merchant accounts would be required to sign up for a Payflow Gateway account in March in order to connect their account to eBay. This will allow buyers to pay sellers directly to their Internet merchant account by entering their credit card information in eBay's secure checkout instead of sending information via phone or email. eBay said it would make available Payflow Gateway accounts for those sellers with a merchant account at no additional cost.

Link to PayPal blog announcement