Different issues of E-Commerce
Before designing an Internet-based E-commerce application, a developer must consider the various issues that will arise if the problems are not handled on time. Security is a very important aspect of any Web application; therefore, if a developer does not consider points of security, the application might fail to deliver the desired services to its full potential. On the Internet, buyers are always concerned about their social security number and credit card details. Other than E-commerce security, there are some other issues, which are as follows:
1. Security issues
2. General issues
3. Legal issues
Security Issues:
Security on the Internet means protection of unauthorized access of different users using the common E-commerce applications. Extra efforts must be made to develop an application that is designed in such a way that the users can perform only those actions that are allowed to them. The various aspects of security
that must be given special importance are as follows:
• Privacy is the most important feature required by a Web-based ""E-commerce system and is handled by encryption of data. In Public Key Infrastructure (PKI), a message is encrypted by a public key that is widely distributed and decrypted by a private key that is only held by the recipient for the identification of the sender. Banks and governments generally use such procedures to encrypt mails.
• Digital signatures and certificates are used to verify buyers and E-merchants. The certification authority issues some digital documents to E-merchants and Web servers for their unique identification. A hash function is used to generate a value, which is known as message digest and sent to the recipient along with encrypted plain text and public key. The private key of the recipient is used to decrypt the information.
• Secure Socket Layers (SSL) uses the above two methods to ensure privacy and authentication. For this purpose, WWW uses different protocols to transfer the data in the form of packets by different routes. In this procedure, the client sends a message to die server that replies with a digital certificate using different methods such as create session keys for client negotiation and transmission of data for maintaining the security of the data.
• Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI), Secure Electronic Transaction TSET), firewalls and Kerberos protocols are used to protect the information from hackers and outsiders. Some credit cards use SET for providing privacy of information to the users of Web-based E-commerce. Firewalls are used to protect the information stored in a Website from viruses and malices. The kerberos protocol is used as a symmetric secret key for the cryptography of information to restrict unauthorized access.
• Transactions are also used to maintain Lie privacy of sensitive information. In transactions, the credit card details of the buyer must be handled with digital certification of the SSL server on the E-merchant end using complex security gateway for the payment process in the bank. After that, the details of the order and the buyer are supplied to the buyer.
General issues
There are some general issues that should be considered for Web-based E-commerce systems. These issues are as follows:
• Inventory control is used to track the quantity of items in the stock and maintain the files of the stock.
• Payment process should be done using special services such as PayPal and 2CheckOut. These services provide the whole information except the payment information to the buyer.
• Shipping cost can also affect WWW/Internet-based E-commerce, so there should be effective policies for delivering goods. If a company can afford the shipping cost of the item, then it must be paid by the company as it helps impress the buyers. If there are no possibilities of paying the shipping cost by the company itself, then the sellers must tell the buyers about the extra amount needed for delivering the item.
Legal issues:
For the Web-based E-commerce system, the legal issues must be considered while taking decisions to handle risks. The legal issues are as follows:
• Trademark is used to identify a corporation or a company. Any word, sentence, symbol or design is used as a trademark. According to common law of business, the “®” symbol indicates a registered mark. Use of this mark as a trademark is illegal. In Web-based E-commerce, a unique domain name must be registered as a trademark or service mark of a company to avoid confusion in the mind of the buyer.
• Copyright is used to protect the content published on Websites. Copyright includes some special rights of the copyright owner such as the exclusive right to modify a copy of the published content , to distribution the contents of the Websites and perform or display the work publicly. A Website owner must give warranty or license with the item or the service to the buyer.
Issues in using Web-based E-commerce:
There is a number of problems related to time, improvement, budget and the techniques used in Web-based E-commerce as discussed below:
• Web-based E-commerce always depends on the speed of the Internet. If the speed of the Internet is too slow, the buyers can be bored or exhausted while waiting for the process to complete.
• In Web-based E-commerce, the users face problems to upgrade the process and the versions of the software due to the change in using different versions of application software.
• The cost of Web-based E-commerce has increased due to the changes done in the source code re-do of all modification of the application and due to the organization of the delivery chain.
• It is very difficult to handle complaints and queries of buyers and satisfy them by providing full information about the goods.
• Some problems related to EDI, Extended Markup Language (XML) and transparency may occur in WWW/Internet-based E-commerce.
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