E-Commerce Problems and Solutions

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e-commerce. Social and business issues are shown in different forms. This section will examine and analyze the social and business aspects of privacy in e-commerce.

Social Issues

The internet has created a new economic ecosystem that is the e-commerce. However, there are social issues encountered by the e-commerce. It is necessary to study what exactly the social issues are in the field of e-commerce.

Definition of social issues. According to the economist, social issues in

e-commerce are problems that influence and opposed by many people in a society. Most of the time, it is because of individual’s control in a geographical environment. Social

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issues in e-commerce are generally coming from the temptation of others to spy and manage someone else information.

Characteristics of the issues. Privacy issues are about who owns and manages customer’s private information and the way how it is gathered. Sheehan and Hoy (2008) found that huge factor of customer’s willingness to provide their information online are the concern about their privacy. This problem leads customers to not trust in several retailer Websites.

Business Issues

The problem is not only about social aspect but there is also business issue that

e-commerce encounters. The problem related to e-commerce privacy is important to know. How the company and individuals deal with this privacy is going to come up with a win/win situation.

Introduction to business issue. Business issues in e-business are generally referred to trusts in a transaction. Fisher (2001) says that the rapid growth of usage of Internet has grown with the mistrust of some people towards e-business. It is necessary to find solution about business issues in e-commerce in order to gain the trust of the clients.

Business issues in e-commerce’s privacy. Because of the aftermath of Internet towards privacy, physical, and technological obstructions to gathering data of customers are rapidly vanishing. According to a survey, some organization and IT staff keep passwords of their clients to gather and sell their data about their clients’ buying habits and send these confidential information via email or couriers (IT World, 2008). Nowadays, it is becoming common and easy to collect data and information from Internet.

Technologies for Privacy

Clarke (2008) argues that “simple practices can lead to customer’s profile that is no longer based only on the individual’s dealings with a single organization, because their data is shared by multiple merchants” (p. 45). However, the reuse of data collected after a purchase differs according to different countries. There are two kinds of privacy concern among customers. The first is that they are concerned over unauthorized access to personal data because of security violation or the lack of internal controls. Second, consumers are concerned about the risk of secondary use of their personal information. The consequence is almost the same: the gain or the loss of trust of customers.

Economic Issues

The last consideration is economic issues. Smith and Shao (2007) argue that privacy is an old concept, but their implementation in the field of e-commerce is still new. The mistrust among customers may have an impact on the economy of a country. Government and individuals have their own part to the regulation of the issues. The form of issue differs in every country. In the case of the United States and European Union, it is totally different when it comes to privacy of information in the Internet. In the European Union, for example, it is totally not accepted to use data collected unless a very special use.

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CHAPTER 2

SECURITY ISSUES

E-commerce security is the protection of e-commerce assets from unauthorized access, use, alteration, or destruction. These assets may take the form of intellectual property, client computers, and messages traveling on the communication channel, and web server with its hardware (complex systems and networks). This chapter focuses on the vulnerability of security in e-commerce.

Security Weaknesses in E-Commerce

Security weaknesses are one of the major issues in e-commerce. Most of the time, customers and servers are the most affected groups by the security weaknesses. A security features do not guarantee a secure system, it is necessary for them to build a secure system.

Key Points of Vulnerability

Recent breaches have highlighted common security weaknesses that continue to affect clients begun to affect server as well. Gaming network, social media, and educational institutions are among those breaches. These vulnerabilities affect the

e-commerce environment (Visa, 2012).

Client and server. Hackers could initiate fraudulent orders from a victim system and the e-commerce server would not know if the order was fake or real because of

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malicious program that can be controlled remotely by hacker (Seyyed, 2011). Customers and Suppliers might be the initial target because of the vulnerability of security in

e-commerce.

Communications channel. Security is defined as “the protection of data against accidental or intentional disclosure to unauthorized persons, or unauthorized modifications or destruction” (Yazdanifard, Sadeghzadeh, & Ojaroudi, 2010). In e-commerce, security is very significant to achieve success. High security’s risks belong to e-commerce are laws and regulations defect, systems and technology flaw and the Internet (Yazdanifard et al., 2010). They investigated in their survey study the concerns of privacy and security of online IT users while shopping on the Internet, or using of e-mails. The findings show that most of users are seriously concerned about their security, and they considered them as the main barriers for e-commerce.

Common Threats

Nowadays, the problem is that there