Security is an essential part of any transaction that takes place over the internet. Customers will lose his/her faith in e-business if its security is compromised. Following are the essential requirements for safe e-payments/transactions −
• Confidentiality − Information should not be accessible to an unauthorized person. It should not be intercepted during the transmission.
• Integrity − Information should not be altered during its transmission over the network.
• Availability − Information should be available wherever and whenever required within a time limit specified.
• Authenticity − There should be a memechanism to authenticate a user before giving him/her an access to the required information.
• Non-Repudiability − It is the protection against the denial of order or denial of payment. Once a sender sends a message, the sender should not be able to deny sending the message. Similarly, the recipient of message should not be able to deny the receipt.
• Encryption − Information should be encrypted and decrypted only by an authorized user.
• Auditability − Data should be recorded in such a way that it can be audited for integrity requirements.
MEASURES TO ENSURE SECURITY
Major security measures are following: –
• Encryption − It is a very effective and practical way to safeguard the data being transmitted over the network. Sender of the information encrypts the data using a secret code and only the specified receiver can decrypt the data using the same or a different secret code.
• Digital Signature − Digital signature ensures the authenticity of the information. A digital signature is an e-signature authenticated through encryption and password.
Security Certificates − Security certificate is a unique digital id used to verify the identity of an individual website or user.
8.5 SECURING ECOMMERCE ELECTRONIC TRANSACTION
It is a secure protocol developed by MasterCard and Visa in collaboration. Theoretically, it is the best security protocol. It has the following components −
• Card Holder’s Digital Wallet Software − Digital Wallet allows the card holder to make secure purchases online via point and click interface.
• Merchant Software − this software helps merchants to communicate with potential customers and financial institutions in a secure manner.
• Payment Gateway Server Software − Payment gateway provides automatic and standard payment process. It supports the process for merchant’s certificate request.
• Certificate Authority Software − this software is used by financial institutions to issue digital certificates to card holders and merchants, and to enable them to register their account agreements for secure electronic commerce.
MOBILE E-COMMERCE (M-COMMERCE)
M-commerce is a type of e-commerce on the rise that features online sales transactions made via mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. M-commerce includes mobile shopping, mobile banking and mobile payments
Benefits of e-commerce
The benefits of e-commerce include its around-the-clock availability, the speed of access, the wide availability of goods and services for the consumer, easy accessibility and international reach.
i. Availability.
Aside from outages or scheduled maintenance, e-commerce sites are available 24×7, allowing visitors to browse and shop at any time. Bricks and mortar businesses tend to open for a fixed number of hours and may even close entirely on certain days.
ii. Speed of access.
While shoppers in a physical store can be slowed by crowds, e-commerce sites run quickly, which is determined by compute and bandwidth considerations on both consumer device and e-commerce site. Product pages and shopping cart pages load in a few seconds or less. An e-commerce transaction can comprise a few clicks and take less than five minutes.
iii. Wide availability.
Amazon’s first slogan was “Earth’s Biggest Bookstore.” They could make this claim because they were an e-commerce site and not a physical store that had to stock each book on its shelves. E-commerce enables brands to make a wide array of products available, which are then shipped from a warehouse after a purchase is made.
iv. Easy accessibility.
Customers shopping a physical store may have a hard time determining which aisle a particular product is in. In e-commerce, visitors can browse product category pages and use the site search feature the find the product immediately.
v. International reach.
Bricks and mortar businesses sell to customers who physically visit their stores. With e-commerce, businesses can sell to any customer who can access the web. E-commerce has the potential to extend a business’ customer base globally.
vi. Lower cost.
Pure play e-commerce businesses avoid the cost associated with physical stores, such as rent, inventory and cashiers, although they may incur shipping and warehouse costs.
vii. Personalization and product recommendations.
E-commerce sites can track visitors’ browse, search and purchase history. They can leverage this data to present useful and personalized product recommendation. Examples include the sections of Amazon product pages labeled “Frequently bought together” and “Customers who viewed this item also viewed.”
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