E Commerce Security environment

THE ECOMMERCE SECURITY ENVIRONMENT

What is eCommerce Security?

eCommerce security refers to the principles which guide safe electronic transactions, allowing the buying and selling of goods and services through the Internet, but with protocols in place to provide safety for those involved. Successful business online depends on the customers’ trust that a company has eCommerce security basics in place.

Privacy

One of the most obvious eCommerce security basics is privacy, which in this situation means not sharing information with unauthorized parties. When you shop online, your personal details or account information should not be accessible to anyone except the seller you have chosen to share it with. Any disclosure of that information by the merchant would be a breach of confidentiality. The business is responsible to provide at least the minimum in encryption, virus protection, and a firewall so that bank details and credit card information remain private.

Integrity

A second concept which is crucial within secure eCommerce is the idea of integrity—that none of the information shared online by the customer will be altered in any way. This principle states that a secure transaction includes unchanged data—that the business is only using exactly what was entered into the Internet site by the buyer. Any tampering with information is breaking the confidence of the buyer in the security of the transaction and the integrity of the company in general.

Authentication

For eCommerce to take place, both seller and buyer have to be who they say they are. A business cannot sell unless it’s real, the products are real, and the sale will go through as described online. The buyer must also provide proof of identification so that the merchant can feel secure about the sale. In eCommerce, fraudulent identification and authentication are possible, and many businesses hire an expert to make sure these kinds of eCommerce security basics are in place. Common solutions include technological solutions—customer logins and passwords or additional credit card PINs.

Non-repudiation

Repudiation is denial, and good business depends on both buyers and sellers following through on the part of the transaction which originated with them—not denying those actions. Since eCommerce happens in cyberspace, usually without any live video, it can feel less safe and sure. The legal principle of non-repudiation adds another level of security by confirming that the information which was sent between parties was indeed received and that a purchase or email or signature cannot be denied by the person who completed the transaction.  

Customers who don’t feel transactions are secure won’t buy. Hesitation on the part of the buyer will destroy eCommerce potential. Any breach will cost a business in lost revenues and consumer trust. These eCommerce security basics can guide any business owner regarding safe online transaction protocol. 

E-commerce embodies several business transactions over utilising electronic systems. E-commerce website involves internal network which might interface with World Wide Web. E-commerce introduced external as well as internal risk to both business and website to which it connected. External threats to e-commerce website are raised from various sources involving electronic economic environment as well as risk related to the external internet. Internal threats come from staff, internal network, management and business processes. The most common risk is security-related issues that relate to the interface among the consumer transactions and network. Intruders pose a security threat to the network through DoS attack that can overwhelm site or theft of private financial information after gaining access to the internal system through vulnerabilities of an e-commerce website. Other security threats related to these websites are summarised as beneath:

Malicious code threats: These types of threats involve worms, viruses and Trojan horses.

• Viruses are external threats and have the ability to corrupt files on the website after finding their direction in the internal network. They might be critical as they completely harm the computer system and disrupt normal operations of the computer.
• Trojan horse is defined as programming code that performs destructive functions. They attack computers while downloading something.

Wi-Fi eavesdropping: It is one of the simplest ways in the e-commerce to steal private information. It is recognised as virtual listening of data that is shared across Wi-Fi network that is not encrypted. It occurs on personal and public computers as well.

Other threats: Certain other threats which are raised are data packet sniffing, port scanning and IP spoofing. An attacker can involve a sniffer to attack an information packet flow and scan unique data packs. Through IP spoofing, it becomes hard to trace the intruder. The target is here to modify the source address and provide it such a look that it must look as though it is derived from another computer.

Techniques to combat e-commerce threats

Encryption:

It is defined as a mechanism of converting normal information into an encoded content that cannot be read by others except the one who sends or receive this message.

Having digital certificates:

It is known as digital certificate being issued by a trustworthy third party company. An SSL certificate is essential because it gives a high authentication level to the website. The main function of this certificate is to secure an e-commerce website from unintended attacks like Man-in-middle attacks.

Risk of social media marketing

Time intensive:

It is time-consuming and laborious to maintain interactive social media presence. There is need to monitor every social network, respond to queries and post valuable updates.

Negative feedback:

The users of social media have the freedom to post whatever they desire. Sometimes, an unhappy customer leaves angry rants related to your business. Moreover, some of the negative feedback comes from the disgruntled employees of the company that makes the complete business look bad.

Potential for embarrassment:

It is simple to get caught up in social media and post anything that comes to mind, having a huge impact on any business.

THREATS IN ECOMMERCE

The world today is coming closer. From communicating with one person sitting at the other end of the world to finalizing business deals, everything has become fast and quick. The reason for this is the massive internet boom which has made life easier for the average person by providing a plethora of options. What’s more, it has also made your shopping experience a more interesting and enjoyable one. You can now get practically everything from online shopping.

The E-commerce splash

This boom we would call as the ‘e-commerce’ boom. It has been a total game changer of sorts for shopping to the people. The consumer can now do more personalized shopping with a hoard of options available. The whole shopping experience has become very convenient. The thing with e-commerce is that it is not just maximizing but also changing. Today the consumer faces a maze of different online choices which were not available or even imaginable some years ago.

However, it has also led to a proliferation of cyber-attacks and online threats. One of the main reasons is the inadequate technical built up and proper protection of the systems. Poor security and very high levels of vulnerability in the arrangements is also one of the main reasons for the cyber-attacks.