Internet Security Threats

The most common threats that are faced on Internet are:

Malicious code 

Malicious code is one that causes damage to a computer or system. Malicious code can either activate itself or be like a virus requiring a user to perform an action, such as clicking on something or opening an email attachment. It can also affect a network, send messaged through email and steal information or cause even more damage by deleting files. 

Sniffing 

A sniffer is a program that uses Internet to record information that passes through a computer or router in transit from sender to receiver. Using a sniffer program is like tapping the telephone wire and recording the conversation. Sniffer programs can read e-mail messages, user login, password and credit card numbers.

Denial of service attack 

A Denial-of-Service (DoS) attack is an attack used to shut down a machine or network, making it inaccessible to tie intended users. By targeting the user’s computer and its network connection, or the sites which the user tries to access, an attacker may be able to prevent the user from accessing email, websites, and online accounts like banking or other services that relay on the affected computer. The users are flooded with hundreds and thousands of messages that create traffic problem on the network. 

Cyber Vandalism 

Cyber vandalism is the electronic defacing of an existing website page. An attacker replaces the website’s original content with his / her own content. It is an example of integrity violation. It is the electronic equivalent of destroying property or placing graffiti on someone’s photograph. Today, there are so many cases of cyber vandalism where the business content is replaced by offensive material. 

Spoofing 

Spoofing or masquerading is pretending to be someone you are not, or representing a website as authentic when it is actually a fake. It is technique where the attacker tries to assume the identity of another person or system for transacting the victim site. For example, an attacker can create a fake website as www.gswan.co.in and substitute his IP address for the real website IP address. All the user’s visiting to the real site will then be redirected to the fake website.

Security Issues in E-commerce & M-commerce

Internet is a public network system that consists of thousands of private computer networks connected 

together. These private computer networks are exposed to potential threats from anywhere on the 

public network. Internet provides a good opportunity to the businesses but along with the convenience 

also come new risks. The valuable data or information that travels on the Internet may be misused, 

stolen, corrupted or lost. For example, while making online purchase on the E-commerce website, 

customer needs to provide the credit card number and personal details. This information is transmitted 

to the merchant server. The merchant server sends it to the issuing bank for authorization through 

payment gateway. All these transmissions occur on the public network i.e. Internet.  An unauthorized 

user may read the credit card number during the transmission and misuse it later on. Also, there are 

possibilities that order information might be changes in between. If the customer has ordered 10 items, 

and somehow the merchant receives order of 100 items, he would ask us to pay for 100 items. An 

intruder can steal or tamper information anywhere in the world while sitting on his computer. He can 

create new programs and run them on remote computers causing it to malfunction or break down in 

worst cases while hiding his identity. 

E-commerce / M-commerce sites have to keep their online data such as customer’s personal details, 

their bank details and many more safe. They have to be aeware of all the frauds that are taking place 

now days. As E-commerce deals with payments such as online banking, electronic transactions, using 

debit cards, credit cards and many others; the E-commerce / M-commerce websites have more security 

issues. They are at more risk of being targeted than other normal websites. Thus, it becomes very 

important to secure the data on Internet. 

The E-commerce / M-commerce security must meet four important aspects as mentioned below:

Confidentiality

It refers to the secrecy of the information so that unauthorized user cannot read it.

It is achieved by using cryptography in which all the messages transmitted are encrypted and only the 

receiver can read it after decrypting the message using appropriate key. 

This protects the data from private attacks and ensures that the message is not revealed or leaked to 

anyone as it travels to the destination.

It helps in protecting the protecting the confidential data like credit card number.

Integrity

It ensures that the information must not be accidentally or maliciously altered or tampered in transit. 

The receiver should receive the same message as was sent by the sender. 

If the message is altered in between the transition, it should be detected. 

This removes the problem of modifying the order quantity in between and later creating the payment 

problems. 

Authorization

It ensures that only authentic users are allowed to use the system. 

The login and password is one of the ways to achieve authentication.

Non-repudiation

It ensures that the sender of the message cannot deny that he / she has sent the message. 

It prevents sender or receiver from denying a transmitted message when in fact they did send it.

For example,. If the customer denies of sending a purchase order for any reason, then it can be proved 

that the customer has send the message. It is usually accomplished via digital signatures or a Trusted 

Third Party (TTP).

L-Commerce

With more and more wireless handheld devices like PDA’s, Cellular phone and pocket PC’s there are  

significant opportunities for the growth of M-commerce. 

Although mobile commerce enables access to goods and services regardless of the location of buyer or 

seller, in many situations the specific location of the buyer and seller is important to the transaction.

Today various location-specific applications and services are emerging.

These applications track the user’s location in order to deliver a service or product.

The use of technologies which provide the location information for business purposes is known as L-

commerce.

The technology uses the geographical location of the mobile device to determine which applications are 

appropriate based on that area.

It enables users to log their locations, track the location of another person, and find places such as a 

bank or restaurant.

The technology works by using signals from GPS, cellular and Wi-Fi sources.

The Global Positioning System (GPS) is most accurate in determining a mobile device’s position.

It is based on a worldwide satellite tracking system where the GPS signals are generated by a group of 

satellite that orbits around the Earth.

To locate a point, a mobile device will utilize three satellites to create an intersecting point that locates 

the device within 500 meters.

This is known as triangulation. If the GPS signal is poor, weak or blocked, the mobile device can use 

the signals from cell towers and Wi-Fi hot spots.

These signals do not broadcast their own locations but Smartphone companies use databases that store 

the locations of these sources.

Another example of location based services is where one can use maps to find the path to the 

destination.

For example, the user wants to reach a particular destination whose path is not known.

Location based services offers convenience and opportunity to provide services that are more quick or 

precise and can meet a customer’s needs. 

Some examples of location-based applications are:

 1. Information or directory services: dynamic yellow pages automatically inform the users about the nearest restaurants, parking facility, traffic updates. 

2. Tracking services: tracking of assets, locating friends in a geographical location, tracking stolen 

     cars, tracking of children by parents.

3. Emergency services: emergency medical ambulance, search and rescue mission, roadside assistance, 

     police and fire response.

4. Advertising promotion: targeted ads, promotional messages, customer identification in a store.

5. Mapping: Creating maps of specific geographical location.

6. Navigation: plotting route from one place to another. 

Applications of M-commerce

Mobile Marketing and Advertising

Companies, today, are using M-commerce to expand their services from marketing to 

advertisement. Mobile advertising is one of the most popular ways for companies to reach a large 

audience. Advertising on Internet has become a major source of revenue for most of the 

portals. Many retailers are offering location based mobile advertising in order to target consumers 

and increase their sales.

An advertisement placed on the mobile device of the user can thus be made on personal 

requirements and location-specific.

 It can update the users about the various discounts and schemes available in the nearby areas of 

the current location of the user.

Mobile Ticketing

 Users can easily buy tickets for air or rail travels, movies etc. 

The tickets can be sent to the user’s mobile devices. 

 Users can further show these tickets on their mobile devices at the respective place. 

Tickets can also be easily cancelled on the mobile phones using the application or accessing the 

portals of travel agents. 

This helps in reducing the traffic and the parking problems which are increasing day-by-day as the 

user need not travel to the place for buying tickets. 

Mobile Auctions 

The auction sites are becoming more popular these days. 

Mobile devices further help in increasing the reach of these auction sites. 

A user while on the move can access these sites, make a bid, monitor bids and take a timely action 

on the bidding process. 

Many of the auction sites have built gateways and interfaces to provide access to mobile devices 

through wireless networks. 

Mobile Entertainment 

Mobile devices are used extensively for listening to audio, viewing video and playing games. 

The mobile users can subscribe to entertainment libraries where they can search for songs, videos 

or games and easily downloaded them in their device for playing later. 

Entertainment services such as pay-per-download, pay-per-event or on subscription basis can 

cater to a large number of mobile users and are willing to pay for the services.

Mobile Purchase 

Mobile purchase allow customers to shop online anytime anywhere. 

Customers can browse and order products while using a secure payment method. 

Instead of using paper catalogue, retailer can send a list of products that a customer would be 

interested in, directly to their mobile device. 

Alternatively, the consumers can also visit a mobile version of a retailer’s E-commerce site.

Mobile Financial Services 

Today, many popular banks and financial institutions use M-commerce. 

They allow their customers to access account information; perform transactions like stock purchase, remit money, via mobile phones and other mobile equipment's. 

Mobile Information Services 

A wide variety of information services can be delivered to mobile phone users in much the same way as 

it is delivered to personal computers. The services include:

§  News service

§  Stock market data

§  Sports news

§  Financial records

§  Traffic records

§  Traffic information

Benefits & Limitaions of M-Commerce

Mobiles are being used more and more on daily basis and today it is not merely used to make or receive a call. Mobile companies are coming up with new features for their smart phones, which offer consumer ease, flexibility and security at the same time. The ease of availability and faster speed has made M-commerce more popular now days. The Web design and development companies have also optimized the websites, such that it can be viewed correctly on mobile devices. M-commerce is the integration of wireless networks accessed through handheld devices and Internet.

The benefits of Internet and E-commerce are offered by M-commerce also.

Some of the advantages of M-commerce as listed.

• It provides convenience to the user.
• In just few clicks on the mobile device, the user can do shopping, banking and download media files while on the move.
• Mobile device enables the user to be contacted at virtually anytime and anywhere.
• Reduces transaction cost.
• Reduces the time to order. The user does not need to be on the PC or laptop to order.
• Streamline business processes.
• Provides global reach.
• Conduct business 24*7.
• Flexibility of accessing the information through any mobile devices.
• Payment can be done using the mobile devices itself just the same way as it is done on personal computer.
• Useful to deliver time critical and emergency information.
• Easily identifies the physical location of the handheld device. The emergence of location based applications enable the user to receive relevant information.
• Customized alerts can be easily received on the mobile device.
• Instant connectivity and availability of faster 3G services has made M-commerce more popular these days.
• Timely information can reach the user.
• The information like flight or train schedule, delay or cancellation can be given to the user on his mobile device on real time basis.

Limitations of M-commerce

Though the list of advantages of M-commerce is large it has a number of limitations.

Some of the limitations of M-commerce are listed below:

• The handheld devices commonly used today offer a limited screen size. This further limits the types of file and data transfer. At times it is difficult to display videos.
• User interface is less convenient when compared to personal computers.
• Mobile devices have limited computing power, memory and storage capacity.
• It operates over wireless networks which are less secured as compared to wired network.
• It offers a limited bandwidth.
• High cost of establishing mobile and wireless broadband infrastructure.

What is M-Commerce

 Mobile Commerce is also known as M-Commerce.

• It refers to buying and selling of goods or services through the use of Internet enabled wireless devices such as a Mobile phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDAs), Smartphones, Tablet, Palmtop or any other mobile device.
• M-commerce provides the user with the advantage of flexibility and ubiquity.
• By using the mobile phone, consumers can conduct business transactions without being fixed at a computer terminal or being physically present at the shop.
•  These devices are carried by the user wherever he/she goes, making it possible to access the Internet from any place.
• It allows real time transactions while on the move.
•  As the popularity of smart phone’s and tablets is increasing day by day, more usres are moving towards the use of M-commerce.
• Some of the examples of M-commerce are:

·         Purchasing airline tickets.

·         Purchasing movie tickets

·         Restaurant booking and reservation

·         Hotel booking and reservation

·         Stock market analysis

• Banks and other financial institutions are increasingly using M-commerce to retain their business.
• They allow their customers to access account balance, stock quotes, make transactions via mobile phones. This service is known as Mobile Banking or M-Banking.
•  The stock market services offered via mobile devices is also becoming popular and known as Mobile Brokerage.
•  News information, sports, entertainment, shopping and reservation areas have also grown with the demand for mobile related services.

E-commerce Business Models

The business models of E-commerce are defined on the parties involved and the type of business activities or services provided. Many business models have been proposed for E-commerce but the following are the most popular amongst all. Generally, the classification is done on the basis of who is selling to whom.

•  Business to Consumer (B2C)
•  Business to Business (B2B)
• Consumer to Consumer (C2C)
• Consumer to Business (C2B)

Business to Consumer

Business to Consumer (B2C) refers to business and organizations that sells products or services to consumers over the Internet using websites. Consumers from anywhere can browse and order the products or services anytime. The sellers can sell products directly to the consumers. And the buyers are individual customers. This is the type of E-commerce that the consumers are most likely to see on Internet. Lately, it has gained a high popularity amongst consumers due to simplified and fast way to buy products. Apart from online retailing, B2C also includes services like online banking, retail estate services, travel services and many more. Some examples of B2C websites are: amazon.com, rediff.com, fabpart.com, flipkart.com etc.

Business to Business 

Business to Business (B2B) refers to E-commerce activities between different business partners. In B2B both the seller and the buyer are business entities. It enables the business to form E-relationship with their suppliers, distributors and other entities. This allows more transparency among the business entities involved and results in more efficiency. For example, a manufacturer deals with a supplier, a distributor and a wholesaler. The manufacturer using B2B can quickly communicate to the supplier about diminishing stock product, the supplier in turn can respond quickly to it. With the help of B2B, the companies can improve the efficiency of common business activities like supplier management, inventory management, payment management and many more. It is an effective media for managing telemarketing, supply chain, procurement, just-in-time delivery, online services. Some examples of B2B websites are commodity.com and tradeindia.com.

Consumer to Consumer 

Consumer to Consumer (C2C) refers to E-commerce activities involving transactions between and among the consumers. It enables the consumers to directly deal with each other through online auctions and classified advertisements without the involvement of third party. Any Internet user can become a vendor or purchaser at C2C websites.  Auctions sites are a good example of C2C model. If there is a product to be sold, it can get listed at an auction site and others can bid for it. Some of the C2C websites are Ebay.com, OLX.com And Quikr.com.

Consumer to Business Consumer to Business (C2B) involves reverse auctions where the consumers determine the prices of the products or services. In this type of E-commerce, consumers have a choice of a wide range of products and services, along with the opportunity to specify the range of the prices that they can afford or are willing to pay for a particular product or service. The companies bid to offer the products or services to the consumer. This helps in reducing the bargaining time while increasing flexibility for both the consumer and the company. C2B uses Internet to reverse the normal buying process wherein the consumers decide what they are willing to pay and business decides whether to accept it or not. Some examples of C2B websites are bidstall.com, JeetLe.in.

Traditional commerce vs. E-commerce

 Due to the growth of Internet, the nature of competition in traditional way of doing business and using E-commerce has changed significantly. 

In traditional commerce, the businesses have to compete within a single industry and limited geographical area. 

 In many cases business processes use traditional commerce activities very effectively and they cannot be improved through technology.
The products that customers prefer to touch, smell or examine precisely are difficult to sell using E-commerce.
For example, buyers will hesitate in buying perishable food items, expensive jewellery and high-fashion cloth as they cannot be examined closely before purchase.
In traditional commerce, the retail merchants with their years of experience create the store design that helps to convince the customer to purchase a product.
This arrangement of products, store design and layout is called merchandising.
The merchant develops the skills to identify customer needs and find products and services that meet those needs.
But this art of merchandising can be difficult to implement over Internet.
Some of the common features of traditional commerce are:
·         Operates within a certain period of time or during business hours.
·         No sharing of information with competitors.
·         Hiring of sales persons, sales manager and many more.
·         Location renting or purchasing, advertising, inventory, shipping of products.
However, in today’s fast paced world it is very important to break through these conventional rules.
We need to adapt to the new ways of doing business worldwide using Internet.
Some of the features of E-commerce are:
·         Advertising of the product is done electronically.
·         Customers can browse through products catalog and available offers.
·         E-payments systems are used for receiving payment. However, in many cases payment on delivery option is also available.
·         Goods are delivered to the customer within few days.
·         Reduces the per transaction cost.
·         Reduces the time taken to perform an overall transaction.

Applications of E-Commerce

The major areas of business and commercial activities where E-commerce is widely used today includes trading of goods which comprises of marketing and selling, auctions of goods, financial services like banking and insurance. E-commerce is not limited to the areas discussed here but spreads many other developing areas for doing business and other activities.
Internet Bookshops 
One of the first applications of E-commerce is Internet bookshops. Customers prefer purchasing books on Internet as they do not require to be physically checked and can be easily described. Books can be easily shipped to the customers place little or no damage to them. Online bookstores need a good website displaying all the books category wise, picture of the cover page, description of the books including the number of pages, price of the book, discounts and reviews of other customers. The search of a book can be made by title of the book, author’s name or publication name. The online bookstores may also record the customer’s interests and inform them about new arrivals to attract and retain their interest.

Electronic Newspaper 

An electronic newspaper also known as E-newspaper is a newspaper that exists on the Internet in digital form. It has advantages over the printed newspaper and the news broadcasted on television and radios. It can give us up-to-date news on the issues that are happening worldwide. With the advent of digital technologies, the browser can be set to select the news as per the interest of the reader. It also removes the hassle of printing process and further help in reducing the costs. Majority of the leading newspaper now provide E-newspaper to the readers.

Online Auctions 

An auction is the process of buying and selling products or services by offering the customers to bid the price and selling the product to the highest bidder. The traditional auctions have limited participation of people. Today, the same auction mechanism can be implemented using E-commerce technologies which allow the people to bid on Internet. This is known as Online Auction. There are many websites providing live auctions of goods. These websites provide the platform for both the seller and the bidders. When a product is placed by someone for auction on these sites, he or she becomes the seller. At the same time if someone bids for a product which is placed by other sellers on the site, in that case one becomes a bidder. To sell an item through an online auction site, one needs to first register with the site. This is required so the items one sells or bids on, can be tracked and also to determine the winning bids and build a database of seller and bidder feedback. Members are also required to provide their basic contact information before they are allowed to sell. Then, the member must go through the site’s steps to sell each item that they want to put up for auction. The member generally puts a digital picture of the item and writes a brief description about the item. By placing goods for auction, a person can get a good price through bidding and once the target price is reached or the time limit is over, the item is transferred to the bidder. Various payment options are also provided to the bidder. The sellers can get the advantage of getting best price for their products and the bidders save time to get the product of their choice. 

Marketing and Selling

Many companies’ now-days conduct their business of marketing and selling of goods and services by their websites. They provide their product catalog online over Internet for better marketing. The catalog displays different categories of products with images, videos in some cases, brief description and features of the product. The customers can view the catalog and select the products of their choice by adding them to the shopping cart. An online shopping cart is similar to the original store shopping cart. The store, the customer selects the products and puts it in the shopping cart. When finished, the final billing is done for all the products in the shopping cart purchased by the customer. Similarly, in online shopping cart the customer can add the product, review what he/she has selected, make necessary modification or addition and finally order the products while checking out. The user needs to provide shipping detail. The payment of the purchase can also be made through Internet. Today, one can purchase groceries, toys, computer accessories, mobiles and many more products from Internet. Some websites provide holiday packages along with airline tickets. Today buying an airline or railway ticket can be easily bought online. Once the ticket is booked the E-copy of the ticket is sent on one’s mail as well as an SMS on one’s mobile. 

Online billing 

In online billing, companies send their bills to customers through E-mail. Once the customer receives the bills, he/she can pay on the company’s website using credit card or net banking facility. Companies who need to send the bills to a large number of customers periodically can use these facilities. 

Information Services

Many organizations use the Internet to provide latest information to their users or members. This includes educational institutes and universities, which provides the examination results, online enrollment forms, examination schedule and seating arrangement and important notices. Students can view their results using the website from anywhere. Another example of information services is the notices and reminders sent to the customers by the companies or banks. Many organizations provide various forms to be downloaded so that the customer can easily download and use it. Companies can also get the information or details about the customers by filling the forms online. 

Support services 

Support services have become increasingly important due to the huge technological changes that have taken place in the last decade. Today, even the simplest products utilize sophisticated electronics which require specialized knowledge and technical ability for the maintenance and support when any problem arises. After selling the products, companies are providing online support to the customers. For example, a company selling electronic product provides online complaint registration to their customers, which is then forwarded to the support engineer. Customers can also track the status of their complaint placed online. Software companies provide online support to their customers for any problem in installation, configuration or use. Software vendors also allow their licensed customers to download the recent updates of the software. Hardware vendors put software drivers for their devices so that the customer can download them by choosing proper product type and model. 

Net Banking

Net banking or electronic banking is getting more popular day by day. Sometimes a customer may want to make an urgent payment or check his account without visiting the bank due to some problems. Online banking can help the customers solve these problems. Online banking is the process of conducting the banking transactions over the Internet. Today majority of the leading banks have started providing online banking facility to its customers. With the help of online banking customers can avail the following services. Check account balance at any time. Transfer the money from one account to other. Obtain statements for any credit or debit. Find status of transactions. Pay various bills online like telephone, electricity and many more without going to the bank. The customer is provided with a password for online banking services with which he can log in to the bank site and performs all the banking activities from his computer or mobile.