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E – COMMERCE SECURITY PROBLEMS
There is no doubt that e
– commerce is an ever green industry
which will only move upwards, yet, there
are several security issues that will
hinder the growth of e – commerce to a
certain extent. In this article a few of
the major security concerns will be
explained, which are the obstacles to
the growth of e – commerce.
One of the major factors
in recent times is the several attacks
from several viruses like KAK and resume
viruses which attack the famous
Microsoft Outlook application. This
proves that convenience allows or fuels
the rapid spread of these viruses on the
internet. This problem becomes even
worse when rumours begin to spread about
attacks on e – commerce sites which has
led to consumer information being stolen
by the hackers. Once the hackers get
hold of the information, they ask for a
ransom amount to with hold from printing
the credit card details of the
customers. But, consumer privacy is
still the number one issue surpassing
even issues such as theft and fraud.
These issues can be tackled by following
4 simple objectives: non repudiation,
authentication, veracity and privacy.
The issues related to
privacy can be over come by encryption.
The message is encrypted using a public
key and decrypted using a private key.
However, hackers pose a
greater threat by using viruses to
attack and damage business information.
Then, they stop access to a few
authorised users of the web site, which
makes the website produce a downgraded
service by carrying out DOS or denial –
out – service attacks. Highly sensitive
data like catalogues, price lists and
other precious intellectual property can
be accessed by wrong people or getting
altered or destroyed. This is just one
of the several insecurities that exist
in e – commerce. Another risk or concern
is modifying the site by putting
corrupted images which will lead the
consumers to another competitor site.
Also, the financial and
business information should be kept
totally under the wraps else, it will be
stolen.
Furthermore, all the
risks given above have a huge impact on
e – commerce businesses. Hackers can be
arrested and filed for criminal charges
under the Computer Misuse Act or the
Data Protection Act. Your e – commerce
business’ market share will drastically
fall down once the consumers lose
confidence on you. You will incur huge
financial looses which will lead to
unfavourable stuff and publicity.
This is the reason why it
is absolutely necessary to tackle these
security problems. One method to do this
is to give a user name and password
combination for every site. You will
also need an authentication token. For
this purpose a personal identification
number should be given. There is also
the concept of digital certificate which
can be used to achieve privacy. There
should be several network restrictions
to access computer systems and networks.
There are several ways by
which you can make your website secure.
Therefore, just like all other things in
life, one has to take precautions in the
e – commerce industry also. |
