E-Commerce Security Risks and Mitigation Strategies

E-commerce provides various tools to promote a brand, including search engines, newspaper groups, and forums. It also helps collect customer data for analysis and becomes an alternate source of income through online services. However, it poses security risks such as hacking, cyber threats, and international legislation issues. The assignment discusses the methods to prevent these security risks, including Transport Layer Security (TLS), Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS), strong passwords, and alternative authentication methods.

Iceland foods ltd
Prima tech Promotional Materials

Introduction
The Iceland foods ltd is a supermarket chain of British which emphasise on the sale of frozen
foods. The company lies in the retail industry. The company provides frozen foods such as meats
and vegetables, and groceries. The share of the company in the UK food market is 1.8%. The
company started its business in 1969, and the first store is opened in Leg Street, Shropshire,
Oswestry, England with the investing partner Peter Hinchcliffe who has invested £59 for the rent
of one month (Iceland et al., 2016).
Brick operation
The company has the physical presence in the United Kingdom. The company provides company
provides its services to more than eight hundred stores. The company provides various food
frozen items at the stores. The company operates its brick operations in all the stores in the
United Kingdom.
Click operation
The company also provides its frozen food and groceries food through online mode which
enables to provide its products within the United Kingdom. The company has website and
mobile phone app in order to provide service through click button service as well. It helps to
provide the services to the wide range of customers who are not able to come at the stores. The
online services of the company are operated through website and apps.
Balancing of click operation over brick operation
The company is providing both bricks and click services to the customers in order to give high
quality of services to the customers. The company is balancing operations of both brick and click

which is necessary in order to operate in an effective manner. The company is providing similar
frozen food and groceries through brick and click operations. The operations of virtual and
physical presence are very necessary in order to promote the brand in the eyes of the customers.
The increase in the trend of online service adds competitive advantage by providing the product
and services through mobile apps and websites which offer the similar experience as they receive
in the stores (Baudino et al., 2015). But the trend of online services could be the ongoing
disruption for the traditional offline services of the company. So the company is balancing both
the operations in order to provide convenience to its customers.
Technologies
Brochure-1
The company is using various hardware and software technologies in order to provide excellent
services to its customers. The technologies used by the company include web servers, web
authorising tools, database systems, server software, and browser. The web server enables to
provide a webpage to the customers who help to provide online services to the customers. The
web server acts as a communicator between the company and client in order to deliver
information on the company and services to the customers (Stern et al., 2015). The company is
using the web browser which is a software application used by the company for traversing,
presenting and retrieving information on the World Wide Web. The database system is used to
record the data in order analyse the data for improving the level of customer satisfaction by
amending the services. The server software is used by the company which provides various
functionalities which include sharing of data, providing online service to the customers and
others. The company is also using web authorization tools for presenting the web pages.

Brochure-2
The company is using various technologies in order to provide networking services to the
company. The technologies include IP address, domain name, multiple registrations of domains;
download speed and browser and platform compatibility. The IP address is defined as the
internet protocol adders which is a numeric label given to the particular computer and it is used
in the participating in networking of computer so that the internet can be accessed by the user.
The company is using the latest version which is IPv6 (Giannini et al., 2014). The domain name
is defined as the part of the network address which enables to determine the belonging to the
specific domain. It is formed by the procedure and rules of the DNS (domain name system). The
registration of domain name is generally administered by registrars of the domain name. The
company is using highest download speed which is 43 terabits per second. The speed of
download is defined as the total bandwidth in contrast to data transmission. The platform is
defined as the hardware or software which is used by the company to host an application. The
company is using the operating system which enables to coordinate the program used within the
organisation.
Impact of e-commerce
The growth of e-commerce is rapidly increasing which impacts on the sales volume of the
company. The positive impacts of e-commerce include global marketplace by enabling the
service across the country. The e-commerce also provides trading facilities 24/7 which provide
convenience to the users. It also helps to promote the brand in the eyes of the customers through
social media, web page, and others which require low start-up for the companies and it increases
the profit margin of the companies. It also helps to collect customer data which can be further

used by the company for analysing the customer taste and preference. It also becomes the
alternate source of income by providing online services to the customers or cost of promotional
activities (Chen et al., 2012). However, the negative impact of e-commerce includes security
issues such as hacking, cyber threat and others. Another negative impact of e-commerce includes
customer trust, lack of human trust, international legislation, and product related queries. The
international laws are different from a legal system based on the state which creates a problem
for the companies in trading globally.
Recommendations
The e-commerce provides various tools to promote the brand in the eyes of the customers such as
search engines, newspaper groups and forums, direct marketing, effective user interface, banner
and popup, and others. The direct marketing includes door to door selling of frozen foods which
helps to use the product by the customers, and it enables to attract the customers by providing a
high quality of products to the customers.
Analysis of issues
The various threats are faced by the company which includes backdoors, denial of service attack,
direct access attack, eavesdropping, spoofing, tampering and others. The security issues impacts
on the brand value and sales volume of the company due to the hacking of computer system
which leaks the confidential information of the company. The leaking of company's information
may eliminate the competitive advantage of the company which impacts on the brand's image
because the strategies of the company can be used by the competitors and it impacts on the sales
volume of the company.

Analysis of methods
The various methods can be used by the company in order to prevent the security risk. The
methods are explained below:
1. TLS
The transport layered security is defined as the security which is used to prevent the
communication security over a network of computer. It is used to secure the communication
between the server and web browsers. It is used in various applications such as email, web
browsing and others.
2. HTTPS
The hypertext transfer protocol is defined as the transport layer security which is used to
provide authentication to visit the website. It helps to provide protection and integrity of the
data which is exchanged. It is mainly a protocol which is used to protect the communication
over a network of the computers. The HTTPS connection is mainly used for the transaction
of payments on various types of websites. It develops the secure channel over the insecure
networks (Pearce et al., 2013).
3. Strong passwords
The strong password helps to prevent the security over the networks. The strong password
has twelve characters which include alphabet, numeric, one special character, and one capital
letter. The combination of all the characters helps to provide strong security over the
networks. The secure password helps to provide security by reducing the risk of hacking,
attacks and others. The use of single character is not a good password because it can be easily
hacked by the hackers.
4. Alternative authentication methods

The methods other than the password can be used by the company in order to provide security
over the networks. The authentication methods include fingerprint, patterns and others. The
fingerprint is the most secure method which is used by the banks in order to provide high
security to the consumers. Other authentication methods include the onetime password, tokens,
digital certificate, smart cards and biometric devices. The pin code helps to protect the data by
providing high security over the internet. The cost of acquisition is also low.

References
Stern, B. B., & Zinkhan, G. M. (2015). Netvertising Image Communication Model
(NICM). Advertising, Promotion, and New Media, 30.
Giannini, E. (2014). Selling across the spectrum: The multiplatform brand flows of
heroes. Networking Knowledge: Journal of the MeCCSA Postgraduate Network, 7(1).
(2016). Retrieved 2 December 2016, from https://www.iceland.co.uk/
Baudino, F., & Johnson, C. (2015). Brick & Click Libraries: An Academic Library Conference
(15th, Maryville, Missouri, November 6, 2015). Online Submission.
Chen, H., Chiang, R. H., & Storey, V. C. (2012). Business Intelligence and Analytics: From Big
Data to Big Impact. MIS quarterly, 36(4), 1165-1188.
Pearce, M., Zeadally, S., & Hunt, R. (2013). Virtualization: Issues, security threats, and
solutions. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 45(2), 17.