Généralités sur le e-commerce (document en anglais)

Table des matières

Introduction 3

CHAPTER I GENERALITY ABOUT E-COMMERCE 4

I. Definition of E-commerce 5

II. History of e-business 5

III. Types of e-commerce 6

IV. Advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce 7

1. Advantages of Ecommerce 7

2. Disadvantages of Ecommerce 9

CHAPTER II SECURITY ISSUES OF E-COMMERCE 11

I. Security basic maxims of e-commerce 12

1. Privacy 12

2. Integrity, Authentication & Non-repudiation 13

II. Type Types of security issues 14

1. Technical Attacks 14

a. Denial of Service Attacks 14

b. Distributed Denial-of-Service Attacks 15

c. Brute Force Attacks 15

2. Non-Technical Attacks 15

a. Phishing Attacks 15

b. Social Engineering 16

Conclusion 17

References 18

Introduction

The web has become an indispensable tool covering several aspects of business, education and personal life. The Web “has changed the ways in which we buy products (e-commerce), socialize (on-line dating, social networking), understand the world (portals), acquire news (on-line media), voice opinions (Web Logs - blogs), entertain ourselves (everything from music downloads to on-line casinos), and go to school (on-line learning)” (Pressman, R., Lowe, D., 2009). The power of the internet also allows for the efficient, inexpensive collection of vast amounts of information without consumers’ consent (Chung, W., and Paynter, J., 2008).

E-Commerce security must include a set of procedures, mechanisms and computer programs for authenticating the source of information and guaranteeing the process (Kim, C., et al., 2009). Consumer security fears about E-Commerce have resulted in retailers’ loss of an estimated $2 Billion in 2006, according to a Gartner survey of 5,000 U.S. adults (Baseline, 2006). Approximately one-half of those losses ($913 million) could be attributed to people who avoided sites that seemed to be less secure and the rest (about $1 billion) came from consumers who were too afraid to conduct E-Commerce business at all. The report also includes on-line banking, where some 33 million U.S. adults have avoided on-line banking due to security concerns. 

I. Definition of E-commerce

Electronic commerce is the paperless exchange of business information using electronic data interchange (EDI), e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, fax transmissions, and electronic funds transfer. It refers to Internet shopping, online stock and bond transactions, the downloading and selling of “soft merchandise” (software, documents, graphics, music, etc.), and business-to-business transactions.

The concept of e-commerce is all about using the Internet to do business better and faster. It is about giving customers controlled access to your computer systems and letting people serve themselves. It is about committing your company to a serious online effort and integrating your Web site with the heart of your business. If you do that, you will see results!

The Internet’s role in business can be compared to that of the telephone. It is a way for people to communicate with each other. It is also a way for a consumer to communicate with a company’s computer systems without human intervention. In fact, the Internet is a communication medium like the many others we use in business every day.

II. History of e-business

History of ecommerce dates back to the invention of the very old notion of "sell and buy", electricity, cables, computers, modems, and the Internet. Ecommerce became possible in 1991 when the Internet was opened to commercial use. Since that date thousands of businesses have taken up residence at web sites.

At first, the term ecommerce meant the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which gave an opportunity for users to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. The ability to use these technologies appeared in the late 1970s and allowed business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically.

Although the Internet began to advance in popularity among the general public in 1994, it took approximately four years to develop the security protocols (for example, HTTP) and DSL which allowed rapid access and a persistent connection to the Internet. In 2000 a great number of business companies in the United States and Western Europe represented their services in the World Wide Web. At this time the meaning of the word ecommerce was changed. People began to define the term ecommerce as the process of purchasing of available goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services. Although the dot-com collapse in 2000 led to unfortunate results and many of ecommerce companies disappeared, the "brick and mortar" retailers recognized the advantages of electronic commerce and began to add such capabilities to their web sites (e.g., after the online grocery store Webvan came to ruin, two supermarket chains, Albertsons and Safeway, began to use ecommerce to enable their customers to buy groceries online). By the end of 2001, the largest form of ecommerce, Business-to-Business (B2B) model, had around $700 billion in transactions.

According to all available data, ecommerce sales continued to grow in the next few years and, by the end of 2007, ecommerce sales accounted for 3.4 percent of total sales.

In 2007, Fortune magazine ranked Dell as the 34th-largest company in the Fortune 500 list and 8th on its annual Top 20 list of the most successful and admired companies in the USA in recognition of the company's business model.

History of ecommerce is a history of a new, virtual world which is evolving according to the customer advantage. It is a world which we are all building together brick by brick, laying

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