Electronic business:
It is
the application of information and communication technologies (ICT) in support
of all the activities of business. Commerce constitutes the exchange of
products and services between businesses, groups and individuals and can be
seen as one of the essential activities of any business. Electronic commerce
focuses on the use of ICT to enable the external activities and relationships
of the business with individuals, groups and other businesses or e business
refers to business with help of internet i.e. doing business with the help of
internet network.
Business model:
When organizations go online, they
have to decide which e-business models best suit their goals. A business
model is defined as the organization of product, service and
information flows, and the source of revenues and benefits for supplier and customer.
The concept of e-business model is the same but used in the online presence.
Revenue model:
A key component of the business model
is the revenue model, which is a framework for generating revenues. It
identifies which revenue source to pursue, what value to offer, how to price
the value, and who pays for the value. It is a key component of a company's
business model. It primarily identifies what product or service will be created
in order to generate revenues and the ways in which the product or service will
be sold.
Concerns:
While much has been written of the
economic advantages of internet enabled commerce, there is also evidence
that some aspects of the internet such as maps and location-aware services may
serve to reinforce e-commerce inequality and digital divide. Electronic
commerce may be responsible for consideration and the decline of mom-and-pop,
brick and mortar businesses resulting in increases in income
inequality.
Security:
E-Business systems naturally have
greater security risks than traditional business systems, therefore it is
important for e-business systems to be fully protected against these risks. A
far greater number of people have access to e-businesses through the internet
than would have access to a traditional business. Customers, suppliers,
employees, and numerous other people use any particular e-business system daily
and expect their confidential information to stay secure. Hackers are one of
the great threats to the security of e-businesses. Some common security
concerns for e-Businesses include keeping business and customer information
private and confidential, authenticity of data, and data integrity. Some of the
methods of protecting e-business security and keeping information secure
include physical security measures as well as data storage, data transmission,
anti-virus software, firewalls, and encryption to list a few.
Privacy and confidentiality:
Confidentiality is the extent to which
businesses makes personal information available to other businesses and
individuals. With any business, confidential information must remain
secure and only be accessible to the intended recipient. However, this becomes
even more difficult when dealing with e-businesses specifically. To keep such
information secure means protecting any electronic records and files from
unauthorized access, as well as ensuring safe transmission and data storage of
such information. Tools such as encryption and firewalls manage this specific
concern within e-business.
Authenticity:
E-business transactions pose greater
challenges for establishing authenticity due to the ease with which electronic
information may be altered and copied. Both parties in an e-business
transaction want to have the assurance that the other party is who they claim
to be, especially when a customer places an order and then submits a payment
electronically. One common way to ensure this is to limit access to a network
or trusted parties by using a virtual private network (VPN) technology. The
establishment of authenticity is even greater when a combination of techniques
are used, and such techniques involve checking "something you know"
(i.e. password or PIN), "something you need " (i.e. credit card), or
"something you are" (i.e. digital signatures or voice recognition
methods). Many times in e-business, however, "something you are" is
pretty strongly verified by checking the purchaser's "something you
have" (i.e. credit card) and "something you know" (i.e. card
number).
Data integrity:
Data integrity answers the question
"Can the information be changed or corrupted in any way?" This leads
to the assurance that the message received is identical to the message sent. A
business needs to be confident that data is not changed in transit, whether
deliberately or by accident. To help with data integrity, firewalls protect
stored data against unauthorized access, while simply backing up data allows
recovery should the data or equipment be damaged.
Non-repudiation:
This concern deals with the existence
of proof in a transaction. A business must have assurance that the receiving
party or purchaser cannot deny that a transaction has occurred, and this means
having sufficient evidence to prove the transaction. One way to address
non-repudiation is using digital signatures. A digital signature not only
ensures that a message or document has been electronically signed by the
person, but since a digital signature can only be created by one person, it
also ensures that this person cannot later deny that they provided their
signature.
Access control:
When certain electronic resources and
information is limited to only a few authorized individuals, a business and its
customers must have the assurance that no one else can access the systems or
information. Fortunately, there are a variety of techniques to address this
concern including firewalls, access privileges, user identification and
authentication techniques (such as passwords and digital certificates), Virtual
Private Networks (VPN), and much more.
Availability:
This concern is specifically pertinent
to a business' customers as certain information must be available when
customers need it. Messages must be delivered in a reliable and timely fashion,
and information must be stored and retrieved as required. Because availability
of service is important for all e-business websites, steps must be taken to
prevent disruption of service by events such as power outages and damage to
physical infrastructure. Examples to address this include data backup,
fire-suppression systems, Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) systems, virus
protection, as well as making sure that there is sufficient capacity to handle
the demands posed by heavy network traffic.
Security solutions:
When it comes to security solutions,
sustainable electronic business requires support for data integrity, strong
authentication, and privacy.
Access and data integrity:
There are several different ways to
prevent access to the data that is kept online. One way is to use anti-virus
software. This is something that most people use to protect their networks
regardless of the data they have. E-businesses should use this because they can
then be sure that the information sent and received to their system is clean. A
second way to protect the data is to use firewalls and network protection. A
firewall is used to restrict access to private networks, as well as public
networks that a company may use.
Encryption:
Encryption, which is actually a part
of cryptography, involves transforming texts or messages into a code which is
unreadable. These messages have to be decrypted in order to be understandable
or usable for someone. There is a key that identifies the data to a certain
person or company. With public key encryption, there are actually two keys
used. One is public and one is private. The public one is used for encryption,
and the private for decryption. The level of the actual encryption can be
adjusted and should be based on the information. The key can be just a simple
slide of letters or a completely random mix-up of letters. This is relatively
easy to implement because there is software that a company can purchase. A
company needs to be sure that their keys are registered with a certificate
authority.
Digital certificates:
The point of a digital certificate is
to identify the owner of a document. This way the receiver knows that it is an
authentic document. Companies can use these certificates in several different
ways. They can be used as a replacement for user names and passwords. Each
employee can be given these to access the documents that they need from
wherever they are. These certificates also use encryption. They are a little
more complicated than normal encryption however. They actually used important
information within the code. They do this in order to assure authenticity of
the documents as well as confidentiality and data integrity which always
accompany encryption. Digital certificates are not commonly used because
they are confusing for people to implement. There can be complications when
using different browsers, which means they need to use multiple certificates.
The process is being adjusted so that it is easier to use.
Digital signatures:
A final way to secure information
online would be to use a digital signature. If a document has a digital
signature on it, no one else is able to edit the information without being
detected. That way if it is edited, it may be adjusted for reliability after
the fact. In order to use a digital signature, one must use a combination of
cryptography and a message digest. A message digest is used to give the
document a unique value. That value is then encrypted with the sender's private
key.
