Electronic commerce: security of e-commerce

Résumé du document

E-commerce can be defined as all the electronic exchanges connected to the commercial activities. It recovers any operation of sale of goods and services via an electronic channel. Internet is thus only a support among the others of the e-commerce with, among others, the EDI (electronic data interchange), the telephone (Audiotel) or the television (Pay-Per-View). If the e-commerce is not a new phenomenon, the very fast development of Internet and NICTs brings in a new dimension, because it allows in theory to touch the world market at a lower cost.

This revolution comes along with an extension of the offer of the traditional goods, and the appearance of new types of goods (as the digital informative goods: software, electronic publications) and of new actors (Internet Service providers, search engines, gates (portals)). As such, the notion of e-commerce is becoming increasingly confused and reduced to the process of sale of goods and the services on the Internet, now it becomes integrated into the more general context of the business. Too often assimilated to only on-line transaction (the act of sale in itself), e-commerce includes in fact all the traditional stages of the sale, upstream (research of the customer, dissemination of commercial information, management of the orders, the delivery) as downstream (development of customer loyalty, after-sales service, relaunching). It requires the implementation of specific tools and the adaptation of the already existing structures within the company

Extraits

[...] This technology was called "packet switching THE ARPANET In August independently of any military objective, the experimental ARPANET network was created by the ARPA (Advanced Research Projects Agency dependent on the DOD, Department of Defense) to connect four university institutes: The Stanford Institute; The university of California in Los Angeles; The university of California to Santa Barbara; The University of Utah. The ARPANET network is considered as the network precursor of internet today. It already contained at this period certain fundamental characteristics of the current network: One or several knots of the network could be destroyed without disrupting its functioning; The communication between machines was made without intermediate centralized machine; The used protocols were basic. [...]

[...] Besides, customer profiles diversified thanks to the technological progress achieved these last decades to make the Internet tool accessible to the largest number. It modified the politics of sale of numerous companies by enriching the offer of products to respond better to the needs of this consumers' big variety. It is likely that the technology of tomorrow is going to create again new processes which will continue to develop this mode of purchase. These processes of communicating vases give rise to a diversification of the profiles which develop within companies practicing the on-line business. [...]

[...] The authentication of parties serves to assure the proof of an act, in this particular case an act of payment. In the absence of mechanisms of authentication, one of the parties can negate his participation in the transaction. The distribution of these situations convenient to the bad potential faith, risks destroying the confidence during exchanges. It is the reason for which the process of authentication is so important, particularly in the field of the sale of services or immaterial goods. To assure the authentication of the actors, we resort to various techniques which end in an electronic signature. [...]

[...] The on-line payment with 3D - Secure or Verified by Visa: To secure better payments on the Internet with bank cards, a new protocol was set up. In practice, after entered the number of his bank card, the customer is directed on a control window of his bank, where he has to register a new code which his bank transmitted him (either once for all, or by SMS at the time of the transaction). The advantage of this system is to limit considerably the fraudulent use of the bank card numbers. [...]

[...] One of the most important elements is the institution of the confidence. Nevertheless, the aspect of the dematerialization bound to the virtual interaction can become an obstacle to this reliable state. Besides, the problems bound to the insufficient reassurance of the on- line payments, adding up to the other disadvantages, sometimes constitute a restraint in front of e-commerce. However, all these risks prevent by no means the evolution of the purchase practice on Internet. We shall consider as proof that over the years, we observe an increasing of the cyber-buyers. [...]