E-commerce Security

E-commerce Security

E-commerce Security is a part of the Information Security framework and is specifically applied to the components that affect e-commerce that include Computer Security, Data security and other wider realms of the Information Security framework. E-commerce security has its own particular nuances and is one of the highest visible security components that affect the end user through their daily payment interaction with business. The “E-commerce” term refers to online payment transaction between Businesses to Consumer (B2C), or between Businesses to Business (B2B).

Problem

Globally E-commerce is growing; however it comes with a risk that some part of the transaction is compromised which may lead to financial loss or unintended shared private information (a breach in privacy). It is therefore the security of e-commerce transactions that is a critical part of the ongoing success and growth of E-commerce.

E-commerce – size and magnitude

Security in e-commerce is becoming more topical as the shift from traditional shopping and transactions move away from physical stores to online. E-commerce has had a drastic affect on the global economy and has rapidly accelerated over the years into the trillions of dollars a year.[1] Research conducted by JP Morgan is also showing accelerated growth in e-commerce of a predicted 19.4% for the US e-commerce industry in 2011.[2] Although only making up an approximate 3.9% of the US economy in 2009, e-commerce is certainly here to stay and continue from strength to strength.
Global e-commerce sales are growing at more than 19% per year
Global e-commerce sales by region 2010..

Mobile devices – shifting the paradigm

E-commerce is also becoming more prevalent as mobile devices are becoming extremely popular with Gartner quoting over 298 million mobile device users and 30% of them will use their mobile device purchase items on the internet.

Cyber crime and e-commerce Security

The increase in e-commerce and the rapid rise of the mobile device usage in e-commerce is not only bringing business benefit, but also increasing the threat of cyber crime as criminal organisations (and individuals alike) are exploiting its vulnerabilities for financial gain. The numbers are staggering but are reportedly more than $388 billion globally per year[4] attributed to cyber crime in general; and a large portion of that would be related to e-commerce. Verzion has published that in 2011 over 174 million records where compromised with 95% of them involving personal information.