Wednesday, April 16, 2008

E-commerce Security Issues



Some of the more common threats that hackers pose to e-commerce systems include:
-carrying out denial-of-service (DoS) attacks that stop access to authorised users of a website, so that the site is forced to offer a reduced level of service or, in some cases, ceases operation completely
-gaining access to sensitive data such as price lists, catalogues and valuable intellectual property, and altering, destroying or copying it
-altering your website, thereby damaging your image or directing your customers to another site
-gaining access to financial information about your business or your customers, with a view to perpetrating fraud
-using viruses to corrupt your business data

What are the threats?
-Threats to e-commerce systems can be either malicious or accidental. The procedures and controls you put in place to protect your site should help minimise both.
-Malicious threats could include:
-hackers attempting to penetrate a system to read or alter sensitive data
-burglars stealing a server or laptop that has unprotected sensitive data on its disk
-impostors posing as legitimate users and even creating a website similar to yours
-authorised users downloading a web page or receiving an email with hidden active content that attacks your systems or sends sensitive information to unauthorised people


When entering an E-commerce business, you must consider certain threats that may destroy your online business and loose your source of income. One of the issues of E-commerce is privacy. It is very important to secure your data because you are exchanging data from different sources. Thus companies can exchange information from legacy systems as well as new systems and communicate that information to other entities using the Internet. The result is highly efficient transaction processing that affects all layers of a company's activities, and which is changing the way that business is conducted. Every time you exchange information to different companies it is very important to keep them secured so that the message could reach safely.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was keen to know about the various threats to e commerce systems. I am thankful that you have provided a good detail about it and helped me. Thanks for sharing.
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