E-commerce Security: Concerns, Solutions and Proposals

This article discusses the security concerns in e-commerce and proposes solutions to improve it. The qualitative approach was used to obtain original data from people involved in e-commerce. The article also covers the technologies used in e-commerce, the reasons behind its fast growth, and the procedures and threats involved. The research gap is identified, and the aim of the research is outlined. The article concludes with a discussion on the setbacks faced by e-commerce and the need for security measures to ensure it is free from hacking.

EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES AND INNOVATIONS
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation
1

Abstract
E- Commerce refers to the buying and selling of various types of types of goods and services by the aid of a
well-organized electronic channel. In the recent past many companies and business have opted to carry out
their transactions on online, due to that many attackers are using different techniques to fraud the retailers
and customers who in most cases are using unsecured internet. Electronic commerce security has become
of great concern to ensure the prosperity of the process.
Graphic Abstract
2

Table of Contents
1.0 INTRONDUCTION...................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Significance of the research........................................................................................................................4
1.4: Research gap..............................................................................................................................................6
2.0 MATERIAL & METHODS.......................................................................................................................7
2.1 Procedures..............................................................................................................................................7
2.3 Data Collection.......................................................................................................................................8
4.0 Discussion.................................................................................................................................................10
5.0 Conclusions..............................................................................................................................................11
6.0 References................................................................................................................................................12
3

E-COMMERCE SECURITY
1.0 INTRONDUCTION
1.1 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE RESEARCH
Security is one of the major features of the electronic commerce. Without proper and effective security
being put in place online retailers and customers they put themselves in the risk of fraud payments. The
research was is very important in that it outlines the e commerce security concerns and come up with
proposals on how a secure ecommerce can be develop.
1.2: THE APPROACH OF THE RESEARCH
The qualitative approach was used in the research were by the researcher obtained the original data from
the people who were directly involved in the e-commerce. Also the secondary was obtained from the
secondary sources which containing data regarding the topic.
1. 3 LITERATURE REVIEW
The researcher was trying to establish;
The technologies which are being used in the day to day activities in the ecommerce sector. The researcher
had identified that the technologies which are being put in place are very effective.
The reasons behind the fast growing of the e commerce which most of the people are currently preferring.
The procedures of ecommerce [1].
The threats which are mainly facing the ecommerce sector
Identify the proper confidentiality as well as authentication service that can be utilized by e-commerce.
Applications and security measures that are related with e-commerce.
Proper strategies as well as methods that can be implemented in order to solve the challenges that are
generally relating to e-commerce.
E-commerce applications which are basically required for accessing integrity, control, authentication,
confidentiality, non-repudiation as well as availability.
4

Many companies in the present times are having moving to online platforms to carry out their transactions
commerce security thus is very essential regarding to this matter, the many customers and retailers who are
involved in the processes require assuarity that their confidentiality is guaranteed to avoid the fraud
payments. The alarming rates of the attackers in the ecommerce is of great worry thus this issue of e
commerce security is of great significance
The qualitative approach of the research was very original in that the researchers were directly involved in
the e commerce. The information about how the e commerce was obtained mostly from the people who are
usually involved in the processes [2].
During the research many proposals were suggested with the main aim of ensuring that the ecommerce is
secure. Some of the things which were proposed includes; A proper and efficient new method which has a
combination of both the algorithm as well as public key infrastructure, better applications such as the online
retailing-banking and e-tailing. It was also proposed that more guards to be added to the information system
to ensure that the system is more secure. Putting forward a proper PKI model which is er commerce based
model which is considered in most cases as an adaptive secure infrastructure. New procedures of
ecommerce that can basically enable a customer to access the required information about the product he/she
wants.
From the articles different aspects of e commerce were measured such as the approaches of PGP as a
method of e-commerce security for specifying the advantages of different method as well as techniques are
other parameters of the ecommerce such as the speed at which the transactions are taking place were also
measured [3].
E-commerce is the utilization of the internet to carry out transactions for selling both the goods and
services. E-commerce is comprised of software, hardware, methodologies and services which enables the
processes of the transactions to be carried out. There is need for security for this system to ensure that the
transactions are carried out without any challenge.
5

1.4: RESEARCH GAP
Most of the work which has been done by the authors does not outline the factors which leads to insecurity
in the e-commerce. Most of them are explaining the process and procedures on how the e-commerce are
carried out instead of focusing on the e-commerce security.
The authors have not proposed on how to improve the ecommerce security. The articles would been more
significant if the authors would have outlined the factors which contributes to insecurity in the ecommerce
platform and then come up with proposals on how to improve the security [4].
The articles do not clearly cover the entire area of study. Which makes most of their data to be unreliable.
Also the information contained in them is very shallow and does not cover the topic of research fully.
Some of the areas which I was researching about such as the proposals on how to improve the ecommerce
have not been covered in this articles.
1.5 AIM OF RESEARCH
the research was carried out to investigate the most recent patterns which are used in claiming the
ecommerce security. To find out ways on how to improve the processes and procedures of ecommerce to
ensure that they operate smoothly and to establish the methods through which the attackers use to fraud the
customers and retailers on the ecommerce platforms [3].
6

2.0 MATERIAL & METHODS
Research and Systems Development method
2.1 Procedures
Literature Review about the e commerce security was carried and the different articles which have been
written by different authors regarding to this topic were reviewed to get the existing knowledge about the
topic. The security risks which are associated with the e commerce and the different ways through which
the attackers use to fraud the customers and retailers and also the security solutions which can be put in
place to ensure that the e commerce security improves and is carried out in a very efficient way.
7

Software Development Life Cycle.
Integrated system of the ecommerce clearly understood and how it works to enable the researcher be able
to understand the whole system. The components of the system were also researched about to gain further
knowledge of the whole system [2].
Data gathering
Primary data was obtained by interviewing the various people who are involved in the ecommerce
transactions. The people who participated in the research were interviewed on the following questions;
What security threats are ecommerce systems facing today?
What solutions are used by companies for managing security of the ecommerce system?
What latest advances are seen in the field of ecommerce security?
Secondary data was obtained from the secondary sources which were related to topic of study. The data
was obtained from Journals, websites and research reports.
2.2 Data analysis
The data which was obtained from both the primary and secondary sources was further analyzed to get a
better understanding of the content and enable the researcher to come up with a conceptual framework.
Prototyping [2]
The security components which were proposed were prototyped and a development methodology was put
which was to ensure that the security of the e commerce security was to be improved.
2.3 Data Collection
The people who were interviewed were provided with questionnaires which they were required to fill. The
fill questionnaires were further analyzed to get the required data about the research.
8

Data was also collected from the secondary sources which were having relevant information regarding to
the topic of study.
An investigation on how to the coordinated framework meets the expectations to which the security
websites, Ict journals and the exploration reports to determine the main factors which contributes to the
high levels of insecurity in most ecommerce platforms.
The collected data was further analyzed by use of Matlab and other math works to get the clear
understanding on how the ecommerce security can be improved.
Ethical considerations.
The personal information of all the people who participated in the research was kept confidential and their
contributions regarding to the ecommerce security were kept as a secret.
The security professionals who took part in the research their contributions were not recorded due to the
nature of their professional. Incase their contributions were to be recorded the some of them might have
risked losing their jobs
3.0 RESULTS
From the research which was carried out in three months. The data was collected during the first month, the
second month the data was analyzed.
The following were the findings from the research which was carried out.
The main causes of the ecommerce insecurity includes;
Price Manipulation which is a very common vulnerability in that in most cases the total cost of the
purchased goods is hidden in the HTML fields of a dynamic generated web page.
Buffer overflows was also mentioned as one of the factors which contributes to high levels of ecommerce
insecurity.
Cross-site scripting which was also one of the attacks which are usually witnessed in the ecommerce
platforms
9

Weak authentication and authorization. Which in most cases gives the attackers an easy way to carry out
their malicious activities.
Risk analysis
The risk analysis which was carried out was to display the types of dangers which are likely to happen on
the e commerce platforms. The table below show the types of risks which were likely to happen.
Risk Probability Impact Response plan
Information which
was obtained may not
be enough to design a
proper and
appropriate solution
Medium High
Experts can be
contacted to fill the
information gap in the
process
Delays spilling over
the work beyond
timelines.
Medium Medium Increase the speed of
the remaining work to
ensure that the final
deadline of the project
is met
4.0 DISCUSSION
Ecommerce being one of the fastest and most reliable means methods of carrying out businesses it requires
very high levels of security to ensure that the process is not affected in any way by the external attackers.
A lot of knowledge regarding to the e-commerce security has been gathered. It has been established that a
lot of e-commerce activities are being affected worldwide by the security issues. From the research carried
out daily thousands of people lose their valuable information and money from their bank accounts due to
their personal information in the e-commerce getting into the hands of the online attackers [1].
10

Most of this issues which rises it’s due to the lack of proper security measures mostly in the payment
gateways which in most cases should be kept secure all through.
During the gateway payment process a lot of information is transferred including the most confidential
information such as the card details and the account location. It was found 0ut from the researches which
has been conducted that some fraud organizations are implementing some security measures deliberately to
get information regarding to account. The information which they gather they hand to the hackers to carry
out their malicious activities which in return they pay the organizations some commissions.
E commerce security should be put in place to ensure that the hackers does not get room to carry out the
fraud activities.
5.0 CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, e- commerce has gained a lot of popularity in the recent past. Most of the people prefer e-
commerce to other forms of business due to its faster way in which the transactions are carried out.
Even though the e-commerce is being considered as one of the most efficient ways of carrying out business
it is faced with a lot of setbacks which are mainly contributed by security issues. There is need to come up
with ways to ensure that the e-commerce is very secure and free from hacking.
11

6.0 REFERENCES
[1] A. K. Ghosh, E-Commerce Security and Privacy, London: Springer Science & Business Media, 2015.
[2] M. Khosrowpour, E-commerce Security: Advice from Experts, Chicago: Idea Group Inc, 2016.
[3] A. K. Ghosh, E-Commerce Security: Weak Links, Best Defenses, Chicago: Wiley, 2014.
[4] D. Cameron, E-commerce Security Strategies: Protecting the Enterprise, London: Computer
Technology Research, 2014.
12