Significant Importance of E-Commerce Security Research Paper

Significant Importance of E-Commerce Security - Research Paper Example In today’s dynamic world companies spent heavily on their IT departments for the technical support to smoothly run their e-commerce activities. Companies even develop e-commerce strategies to reduce the  cost of the business, expand sales and increase customer services and satisfaction in the long run. (Ghosh, 2001; Khosrowpour, 2004; Smith, 2004) The introduction of e-commerce into businesses has widened the scope of all business activities. Due to increasing use of e-commerce by the businesses and customers, it is now essential to provide a secure structure of e-commerce. Unfortunately, the current internet security policies don’t support these needs. In order to gain a competitive edge in the market company needs to adopt a security policy which caters the needs of everyone involved in the e-commerce process. (Al-Slamy, 2008) The businesses operating widely over e-commerce don’t want to lose their customers due to risks involved in using online services. Sol id security measures are now needed to run the businesses effectively and safely. (Oswald, 2005) E-Commerce in Organizations: In most organizations e-commerce total security programs are installed to protect firm’s resources and e-commerce operations. Such programs are necessary for e-commerce survival and their effectiveness in the organization. Such programs are kept updated and management practices and latest technologies are incorporated from time to time. (Khosrowpour, 2004) E-commerce is widely used for many business purposes like product research, order entry; customer’s related matters like support, services, communication, inquiry, invoicing etc., outbound and inbound logistics. E-commerce has revolutionized not only businesses but every aspect of life - the world is now a click away. (Smith, 2004) E-commerce system and related threats: Developing an e-commerce system is a challenging and crucial step to any organization. The initial process would be to conduc t a research regarding the importance of e-commerce program to the organization and impact of e-commerce on the long-term profitability. Leadership and commitment to upper management in the implementation of the e-commerce is essential. The next step is developing a privacy policy for the organization that outlines privacy issues, the sensitivity of information and purchasing guidelines. The next step would be to assess risks imposed by the system regarding its security, both internally and externally. It is often seen that identifying internal threats is difficult compared to external ones. For the purpose, many software packages are available and are installed in order to ensure that the system is safeguarded against the internal and external threats. (Khosrowpour, 2004; Epstein, 2004) An organization can face many problems due to poor security in e-commerce systems. An e-commerce continuity plan is extremely important which provides the outline to deal and prevent any problems in the system. The basic security step is the use of anti-virus programs and firewalls installation. The risks usually faced by an e-commerce system include loss of data due to fire or explosion or any other accident, intentional destruction and theft of hardware and software or important documents, loss of key e-commerce security personnel, loss of communication, vendors and technology etc.