E-commerce

Security concerns are eroding internet users confidence and bringing a chilling effect on their online behavior. The startling rise in phishing attacks, spyware intrusions, virus infections and the compromise of personal data, have limited e-commerce activities of internet users. This paper is going to look at various security issues in E-commerce. It will look at vulnerabilities that have surrounded the e-commerce users and curtailed their level of involvement in this highly upcoming market. The paper also looks at the various defense mechanisms that can be used to restore sanity and provide possible solutions to insecurity issues in e-commerce.

E-commerce refers to the exchange of goods and services over the internet. It consists of buying and selling of products or services over electronic systems such as the internet and other computer networks. The widespread internet usage has enabled the amount of trade conducted electronically to grow extraordinarily. The aspects of e-commerce include E-tailing or virtual storefronts on websites with online catalogues, the gathering and use of demographic data through web contacts, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), the business to business exchange of data, email, business-to-business buying and selling, the security of business transactions among others (VanKetel  Tim, 2009).

E-commerce systems are also relevant to the services industry, which include online banking and brokerage services which allow customers to retrieve bank statements online, transfer funds, pay credit card bills, buy and sell securities, get financial guidance and information among others. Internet commerce applications have been threatened by continued stories of hacker attacks on e-commerce sites and abuse of consumer data privacy. This increased lack of security, may cause business operators to revert back to traditional methods of doing business. The customers computers  network and the business servers network are vulnerable to insecurity issues. Information flow is no longer immune to everyday break-ins, theft, fraud and vandalism. In order to counter this trend, network security issues at the e-commerce and customer sites must be constantly reviewed and appropriate counter measures developed (Marchany  Tront, 2002).

Background Information
Insecurity in e-commerce has been very alarming they follow right after violent crimes in the news. Rampant news about an attack on a major website where sensitive information is obtained, have been on the increase of late. This leaves us to wonder why e-commerce has been such vulnerable. The reasons that have been given by the majority of the people are that e-commerce exploits incentives are a bargain compared to other illegal opportunities. The tools necessary to perform an attack on the internet are fairly cheap compared to other crimes like robbing a bank. The pay off of a successful attack is unimaginable. A penny from every account at any one of the major banks will easily amount to several million dollars. This knowledge has left the use of e-commerce vulnerable to hackers of which immediate steps are required to be undertaken in order to counter these crimes (Khusial McKegney, 2005).

Another reason that explains why e-commerce is such vulnerable to insecurity issues is the fact that web application developers are often not very well versed with secure programming techniques. Security of the application is thus not one of the design goals of those applications. It has been occasioned by the urgent need to meet deadlines in the fast-moving e-commerce world. A delay in publishing a new feature on your website could allow a competitor to steal a march over you. The attitude is thus to put the functionality online, and issues regarding security can be dealt with later on.

In most shopping carts and online payment systems, they tout their 128-bit SSL (Secure Socket Layer) certificates as proof that their sites are well secured. The gullibility of customers to believe in this has reduced over time as experiences have taught them differently. There still exists thousands of websites displaying Thwart certificate icons as proof of their security. Any system has to meet four basic requirements that are basic principals for customer security privacy which entails information being kept from unauthorized parties, integrity where information is not tampered with, authentication which requires both the sender and the recipient to prove their identities to each other and non-repudiation which is a proof that the message was indeed received.

Threats to E-commerce
According to Marchany  Tront (2002) the standard client model has three components the server system, the network and the client system. Server systems such as Window NT and Windows 2000 are slowly replacing mainframe operating systems such as MVS, VM or UNIX. The network component includes the internal business network. It is the path between the business and the customer through various Internet Service Providers and the customers internal network. Client systems are usually PC (Personal Computers) or Macintosh systems which run their respective window 9X, NT, W2K among other operating systems. E-commerce security strategies mainly deal with two issues which are mainly protecting the integrity of the business network and its internal systems and also accomplishing transaction security between the customer and the business. There are various tools that businesses use in order to protect their internal Network.

Security Attack Methods
In order for us to identify measures that should be put in place to deal with the issues of insecurity in e-commerce, it is vital to look at the potential methods which an attacker or hacker uses. The vulnerability of a system exists at the entry point and exit points within the system. There are several points which an attacker can target, which includes the shopper, shoppers computer, network connection between shopper client and websites server, website server and software vendor among others. In these points, the attacker can trick the shopper, scan the workstation of the client, snoop the network, attack the server, or else attack the software vendor to produce rogue programs (Khusial  McKegney, 2005).

Tricking the Client
The easiest and most profitable attacks are based on tricking the shopper. The attacks involve surveillance of the shoppers behavior, gathering information to use against the shopper among many others. If the client is tricked into giving away the password once the challenge question is provided, the site is compromised and it is very likely that the client used the same logon ID and password on other sites which the attacker can now access. The attacker as an alternative can use the logon details of the client as personal information, in order to change details of the account of the client for his favor. He will only call the website administrators and pose as the client. Other tricks include phishing schemes where the attacker plays on the names of famous sites. He collects authentication and registration information when a client mistypes the real sites name and mistakenly enters the attackers site (Perez, 2005).

Snooping the Clients computer
Most computer users have limited knowledge of security vulnerabilities of their computer systems. They connect with the internet and shop for software in the internet. Most software vendors ensure their products are easy to install by disenabling their security features. The client will in most cases not bother to install the security features which will create a treasure trove for attackers. According to Khusial  McKegney (2005) tools such as SATAN is used to perform port scans on a computer that detects entry points into the machine. The attacker can use various techniques to gain entry into the users system based on the opened ports found. They can easily scan the file system to obtain personal information that will lead them to their end.

Sniffing the Network
The attacker is able to monitor data between the clients computer and the server. He collects data about the client, or steals personal information, which may include passwords, credit card numbers and other important personal details. It is impractical for attackers to target the middle of the network as their attacking point. This is because a single request by a client to a server is broken up in small pieces (packets) as it leaves the clients computer and is reconstructed at the server. It is almost impossible for an attacker to access all the packets in the middle of the network which leaves them with the option of targeting near the clients computer or server. It is normally easier to use the clients computer end since most clients ship their wireless hubs with security features disabled. The attacker can thus scan unencrypted traffic from the users computer (Khusial  McKegney, 2005).

Denial of Service (DoS) Attacks
This involves getting the server to perform large number of mundane tasks, which exceeds the capacity of the server to cope with any other task. A smart hacker gets the server to use more computational resources in processing the request, than he does in generating the request. It is used in popular sites where the hacker infects computers on the internet via a virus or other means. The infected computer becomes slaves to the hacker which he can use to bombard the target server with useless but resource consuming requests.

Viruses and Trojan Horses
Viruses are the most publicized threats to client systems. The insecurity of the client system makes the viruses effective. Subverting a PC will only require access to the system and no special privilege is needed to write data into sensitive system areas. The viruses once in the system will destroy the users files. Trojan horse programs which include Netbus, BackOrifice and others can allow a hacker to control, examine, or monitor any information on the target PC. They are also able to use the target PC to send information to the net as if the legitimate user has done it. Trojan horses are thus used by hackers to develop forgery, data modification and eaves dropping (Marchany  Tront, 2002).

Guessing Passwords
Attackers also can guess a users password either manually or automatically by the use of electronic devices. Automated use of password proves to be more successful than the manual, which is only carried out when the attacker has vital information about the client. Other methods which are used by hackers include use of known server bugs and use of server root exploits. As technology improves, newer methods of attacks are being developed. This implies that businesses have to be proactive in designing counter measures against these schemes and practices which swindle millions of dollars in the business world (Marchany  Tront, 2002).

Defense Mechanism Tools
Despite the existence of hackers and crackers, e-commerce can remain to be a safe and secure activity. Resources which are available to companies that are involved in e-commerce are enormous, and as such they will pursue every legal route to protect their customers. The people who use the business system should be well educated. Education will also be the only way to ensure that customers take appropriate precautions. The precautions will include, installing personal firewalls for the client machines, storing confidential information in encrypted form, the stream can be encrypted using the SSL protocol to protect information flowing between the client and the e-commerce website, using appropriate password policies, firewalls, and routine external security audits and using threat model analysis, strict development policies and external security audits in order to protect the software that is running the website (Khusial McKegney, 2005).

Personal and Server Firewalls
A firewall ensures that requests can only enter the system from specified ports. It ensures that all accesses are only from certain physical machines in some cases. It is a common technique where a demilitarized zone is set up using two firewalls. The outer firewall has ports open that allow ingoing and outgoing HTTP requests. This only allows the client browser to communicate with the server. The second firewall sits behind the e-commerce servers. It is greatly fortified, and only requests from trusted servers on specific ports are allowed through. They both use intrusion detection software to detect any unauthorized access attempts. A honey port server is also used its a resource which can involve a fake payment server, which is placed on the demilitarized zone in order to fool the hacker into thinking that he has penetrated the inner wall. These servers are closely monitored and any access by an attacker is detected. When a computer is being connected to a network, it becomes vulnerable to attack. A personal firewall helps protecting the computer by limiting the types of traffic initiated by and directed to the computer (Khusial  McKegney, 2005).

Use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
This is a protocol that encrypts data between the Clients shoppers computer and the sites server. When an SSL-protected page is requested, the browser identifies the server as a trusted entity and initiates a handshake to pass encryption key information back and forth. On subsequent requests to the server, the information flowing is encrypted so that a hacker sniffing the network cannot read the contents. The SSL certificate is issued to the server by a certificate authority. In the procedure, the client sends a message to the server, which replies with a digital certificate. The server and client negotiate to create keys specially created for that particular transmission. Once the session keys are agreed, communication continues with these session keys and the digital certificates (LitLangs, 2010).

Digital Signatures and Certificates
According to LitLangs (2010) digital signatures meet the need for authentication and integrity. In this case a message is run through a hash function and if given a value the message digest. This digest, the hash function and the plain text which is encrypted with the recipients public key is sent to the recipient who decodes the message with the private key. He runs the message through the supplied hash function so as the message digest value remains unchanged which shows that the message has not been tampered with. The message is normally time stamped in most cases by a third party agency, which provides non-repudiation. A customer is able to know that the website receiving sensitive information is not set up by some other party posing as the e-merchant since they can always check the digital certificate which is issued by the certification authority. This certificate uniquely identifies the merchant.

Password Policies
It is fundamental for the company and the clients to ensure that password policies are enforced for shoppers and internal users. Issues such as number of attempts on account lockout threshold should be limited in order to prevent minimize the chances for hackers who guess passwords. The strength of the password should be looked into by setting the minimum length of password. The Federal Processing Standard recommends six characters. One may choose to have different policies for your clients and also policies for internal users. The policies should ensure that the passwords are sufficiently strong enough such that they cannot be easily guessed. The account lockout capability ensures that an automated scheme cannot make more than few guesses before the account is locked (Perez, 2005).

Intrusion Detection and Audits of Security Logs
An effective security system will prevent attacks and detect potential attackers. This helps in understanding the nature of the systems traffic, or a way in which the attackers can be brought to book and measures taken against them. The system should communicate to the client once a suspicious transaction is about to take place. The account should be closed and notification made to both the client and the systems administrator. The event can also be written to a security log. Any attempted unauthorized access to the system should also be logged. This will occur when a user attempts to use resources that he is not allowed to use, or perform actions that he is not allowed to perform. This indicates that the account has been co-opted and should be locked out. Business auditing should be used in addition to security logs, in order to monitor activities such as payment processing. This should also be done in order to detect patterns of inappropriate interaction at the business process level (Khusial  McKegney, 2005).

Regulation, economic issues, and privacy co-design
According to Ackerman  Donald (n.d.) there are various government attempts, by law or decree, which directs regulation of the e-commerce environment on behalf of the citizens. It has also included emerging legal precedents and case law for governing privacy in cyberspace. In the US, privacy is largely a matter of economics with the admonition that caveat emptor is the rule for consumers. All right to data is lost by an individual once heshe has provided it to an e-commerce or anyone else. The consumers are thus left with no recourse, which has resulted in loss of trust. Companies use the data supplied by their clients, which include selling it to third parties for subsequent reuse. There are some specific areas of greater protection which include medical records. The Federal Trade Commission that regulates the consumer and inter-state trade in the US has taken upon itself to take privacy cases to court.

In the European Union privacy rules are strikingly different. Europeans must unambiguously give consent after being informed as to why the information will be used. In Europe, consumers must be told of the entity collecting the data, purposes of the processing, recipients of the data, and the rights the customers have over the data. This has developed trust in European consumers and if the privacy issue is well developed in the US, a lot can be achieved in making e-commerce successful (Ackerman  Donald, n.d.).

Recommendations and Conclusion
The US congress should pass legislation to bolster online privacy protection. This will ensure that websites that interact with consumers will give a notice defining privacy policies, a choice of how the information collected by the site is used, the scope of access of data by an individual and assurances that the data is secure.

It will also be vital for the government and private sector to ensure that the consumer is well educated on security issues. Training programs, orientation programs and other programs should be developed in order to increase the general populaces awareness of security in the internet. It will also be vital for the IT and the financial controlaudit groups within the e-commerce site to form an alliance, which will overcome the general resistance to implementing security practices at the business level.

To restore consumer confidence, the customers and businesses should ensure that the defense mechanism highlighted in this paper are well developed and properly exercised, so as to ensure that hacking and cracking of systems is no longer prevalent in the economy. It will also be worth mentioning that technology should be well used so as to counter new techniques which system hackers and crackers use. The use of proactive measures will be beneficial to companies, consumers and the government, in predetermining possible areas of weaknesses that can be target areas for hackers and crackers.

More and more consumers are using E-commerce in every imaginable way because of its flexibility and interactive nature. From booking flights to shopping for items and gathering information on insurance, the internet is being harnessed in every way possible. However all the information available may not be incredible and how far it is endangering the customers and how much they trust this information and advice is questionable.

A consumer international, a research based company has developed a project that spans 13 countries and 460 websites. They have suggested a definition for credibility for online information based on the findings of the research.

The study reveals the following information.

When it comes to the internet consumers need to be cautious while making use of the available information. In order to make judgment on the value of the information the consumers need to know

The background of the website, ownership details, the partners if any and also sponsors information.

They have to investigate the quality of the information provided like whether it is authentic and comprehensive, and also the authority of people providing such advice.

If they are seeking information then they have to make sure if the site is devoid of any commercial interests and if they display links what is the coexisting relationship.

Are they required to furnish personal details, what is the site going to do with it and whether the information being provided is safe

Several sites on the internet today are not well equipped to provide credibility in these areas and in the end they leave consumers misguided and put them at potential risks. Also the consequential results of following misleading and exaggerated advice could waste time and money and prove to be detrimental. The study on consumer protection calls for action on the businesses part to provide information that is transparent and reliable to win the consumers trust. The government should also participate in confidence building of the consumer by exercising more stringent laws on cyber safety. Consumers as of now can take full advantage of the internet tools like compare prices while shopping, get great deals and benefit from the offers. Consumers at the same time should also be able to find reliable source of information and find reliable retailers who will honor their commitment.

With adoption of technology in business, operations are running smoothly thus benefiting almost everybody (Bijan Fazlollahi. 2002). Electronic commerce has such benefits like banking or shopping any time and anywhere and elimination of middlemen. Sellers are also able to advertise their products easily through the internet targeting the right customers. In a nut shell electronic commerce or technology in business benefits both the sellers and the buyers.

Gold peak industries is a multinational company which concentrates on new product development and business to business electronic commerce in more than ten countries. The company aims at providing quality product and services to the customers, and also ensures that reliable and value added services are delivered to the customers. Gold peek industries use the latest technology so as to develop the latest products which will be competitive in the market and will result to customers being loyal and establishment of long-term relationship. The company uses technology to make sure that significant information is available to the customers like the production status of the company and shipment, the company profile, product catalogue, account summary and also the sales made. The company has developed ecommerce sites which are used as marketing tools for the company (Bijan Fazlollahi.2002).

On the other hand the company has some short falls in its operations because it is experiencing the problem of getting the right manpower since it is hard to get a person experienced in information technology and at the same time has industrial know how. The other problem experienced is that online banking services cannot be conducted in Hong Kong because the banking services are not comprehensive enough. The business also experienced a technical problem with the electronic system which was developed with an online payment feature and thus due to this problem it the online payment was scrap. Development of local business to customer businesses was inhibited because there was lack of maximum liability to support credit card transactions.

The companys aim is to gain a competitive edge in the market and for this reason it should concentrate on it strengths and at the same time work towards ironing out its weaknesses. It should make sure that the customers get the best value added products and services so that it will build a good brand name which will make the customers to be loyal, give the company a competitive edge and at the same time earn more profits. In order for the company also to get the right manpower it should train the employees to make them conversant with both information technology and industrial know how.

The company should adopt the electronic commerce wallet which is a payment method that helps in managing payment instruments. It helps the businesses or consumers to pay online accurately and conveniently (Bijan Fazlollahi.2002). This is done by storing the users debit or credit card, electronic cheque and addresses securely in the wallet for use. By use of electronic wallet online purchasing of goods and services has been made possible. The company should also adopt a good robust infrastructure system for finance and technology so that it will compete effectively in electronic business industry. In order also for the company to ensure online banking which is a success factor to many businesses, it should make sure that it has maximum liability.

In conclusion, the above information analyses the gold peak industries giving the strengths and weaknesses of the industries. The information also gives recommendations on the right marketing strategies and technology to be adopted to make the company have a competitive edge in the market.

There are various cultural and financial risks for E-Bay in Asia. The financial manager faces the major problem in the form of exchange rate risks. The cost of procurements and the cost of the final product might vary from the destinations these have been purchased or sold. This has impact on margins, which is minimized using different financial tools.

There are various financial risk experienced by thousands of finance professionals with interest in the Asia-Pacific region. E-Bay is one of these.  The financial manager needs to deal with different local and level of national banks and financial institutions like Investment banks, Regional and local banks, Private Banks, Insurance companies, Brokers, Law Firms and Consultancies.            
                           
Finance officer bear the administration cost, revenue cost due to exchange rate. The level of acceptance of e-commerce like e-bay is very less in many of the Asian countries due to low level of penetrations of internet and computer knowledge.

Internet is still used for communication purpose and it is not perceived as a proper mode for shopping experiences. People usually not enjoy shopping through internet. They feel internet shopping is not safe at all, so they prefer to go market and purchase whatever they want. However companies like E-Bay are making the shopping a fun experience for their consumers by introducing bidding into the same (Ihlwan, 2010).

There are various risks from culture to the exchange rate that affects the business operations. The growing numbers of internet users on one hand are increasing the hope for expanding market whereas current shopping behavior of consumer does not recognizes the e-shopping as major solutions for their needs.
Setting of a new offices and starting the new operations needs to be within the regulatory frame work of the respective country. The finance officer needs to look at these issues for the organization before making the financial investment decisions.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of selling books and goods over the internet
The globalization of the world and modern day technology has made it possible to carry out complete businesses online. All the tasks of handling a business can be carried out online. Likewise, books are also traded, sold, and bought online. The biggest site for online book buying is Amazon. There are certain disadvantages as well as advantages of selling goods online.

The advantages of the online book selling business are that first of all the buyer gets to browse through millions of books and read reviews. The buyer can get any book he wants from a single place. He does not have to wander from shop to shop.  The ease with which a book can be found from the huge database is a plus point. The user simply enters the name of the book, or author name and the book, its description along with its different editions is displayed. The system of payment and delivery is also simple and fast. Books can be bought through a PayPal account or a credit card number. People are more accustomed to trusting online trading. Another advantage of online selling is that the store is open 24 hours. The look of the site can have a great influence on the image of the store. A professional look of the site portrays the image that the site is not a spam and we are here to do business.  (Bragg, 2007)

The disadvantages of online bookstores are the hidden costs that are attached to the shipping process. Buyers get very annoyed with such costs and dont buy frequently. Another disadvantage of selling online is having the fear of not being able to handle the computer operations. The frequent cost of maintain a website is a disadvantage. A lot of time and effort is required to direct a site to the intended customers. The owner has to give a lot of time to sort out the books and orders that are placed on daily basis.  (Bragg, 2007)

If books can be downloaded online, how will Amazons business change
The downloading of online books will affect the business of many bookstores like Amazon. Their business will go in great lose as one will want to buy a book. Everyone would prefer to download it to save a few bucks. To avoid this, Amazon has already a membership fee that has options of downloading in a limit. The fee although is quite expensive. If books were available free online, bookstores like Amazon which depends upon buying and selling of books would simply go out of business.

Amazon has come up with a solution for such a situation. It has designed Kindle. This enables users to not only buy and sell books but also subscribe to major newspapers and magazines. By this the traditional way of online selling is transformed. Books will no longer have to be shipped. This will save the site some money as well.  (NewsWeek, 2007)

What do traditional stores have to gain from setting up an e-commerce side to complement their retail stores
The pleasure of buying books from traditional stores is unbeatable. Many people still want to buy books only after they have personally viewed its condition and contents. This experience is missed in online shopping. To provide a personal feeling, traditional stores have showrooms and advertise their books that can be bought online. This gives them the advantage of selling books both ways. International customers also benefit from their favorite bookshop in this way. E-Commerce reduces the facility and employees cost.  (Neowave)

The emergence of computers in the commercial world has seen revolutionary changes in the way business processes are accomplished. The internet and the World Wide Web have to a large extent enabled traditional business processes to be conducted seamlessly over distant geographical locations.
Elaborate e-commerce systems handle various processes of the transactions including enquiries, ordering and order tracking and payments. Traditionally these transactions were accomplished by human resources. But with the advent of electronic commerce systems, the computer systems have replaced the human resource.

E-Business Informates
Business processes automation also result into a different concept. The machines that translates electronic signal into action may also register data about that process thus generating new streams of information. Such information may include Model of the machine that accomplish a task, various time-stamps on which a certain process occurs and duration of a process. Such information may trickle down to lower levels and may even land in the wrong hands. With so much information in the wrong hands, the system becomes vulnerable to external attacks or manipulation.

For example, computer-based, numerically controlled machine tools or microprocessor-based sensing devices not only apply programmed instructions to equipment but also convert the current state of equipment, product, or process into data. Scanner devices in supermarkets automate the checkout process and simultaneously generate data that can be used for inventory control, warehousing, scheduling of deliveries, and market analysis. The same systems that make it possible to automate office transactions also create a vast overview of an organizations operations, with many levels of data coordinated and accessible for a variety of analytical efforts. (Zuboff, 1988 p. 9)

ICT has enriched work for many people instead of deskilling them or making them redundant
The primary concern that arose with emergence of computer systems at the work place was the imminent unemployment. It was to later be realized that unemployment was not to be blamed on automation. Laying off human resource whose tasks were executed by emergent systems was more of economical politics in organizations.

With the advent of business processes automation, there arose rewarding employment opportunities to those who would sustain the technology. Such professions as Internet security professionals arose. In addition, it opened the traditional boundaries set by geographical and social economic factors.  Today, a small firm in Africa can buy equipments in Europe at the click of a button.

Poorly structured e-electronic commerce systems frustrate users.  It also results to tedious and ineffective services. If for instance an online stores order now link is malfunctioning, it results to inconveniences to all the customers who use it. This results to bad company image and may lose clients.

Privacy Online
Online banking has gone a long way in easing access to your finances regardless of your geographical location. With billions of dollars and pounds changing hands over the internet, more and more cyber cash crimes are being reported.

Despite the challenges, large transfers of different currencies are exchanged over the internet day in day out.

People are scared of the safety of their transfers but they hope that their transactions wont be intercepted by malicious hackers.  The banking industries, aware of the risk they have to face have in return invested in elaborate technological and security measures. Owing to the vulnerability of their transaction, they build secure private networks with high levels of security implementations.

While online banking scares are real, they are should not hinder online money transfers. In essence, they are as hard to occur and might require a genius to intercept the communication leading to eavesdropping.
In events of breaching of privacy leading to exposure of a clients details or loss of cash, the safeguards and penalties are not enough. A banking system that is vulnerable to cyber cash crimes results in customers having little confidence with the bank. In cases like these, banks come up with compensation schemes which are in no way effective in winning back the confidence of the customer. Much more should be done to enhance the security of banking transaction online. Cyber cash crime policies should be stringent and elaborate.  Governments, which have the collective roles of creating enabling infrastructural environments should set standards and well outlined policies to govern the online banking transfers.  Unfortunately, just but a few governments have put in place measures like these.

Virtual Organizations
Modern web based technologies have led to emergent concepts arising from inter-linking markets.  As such online commerce leads to customers accessing markets that are far geographically separated from what they would physically access. A web based store reflects what is stocked in a store somewhere. A vendor just places an advert on an online page in the virtual organization. A client just need to access a web page and enquire, order and the rest is implemented in a shopping cart manner.

Virtual organization have there advantages and disadvantages. Many have come up and disappeared, often with clients orders- fully paid. This infidelity has led to increased caution when dealing with them. Users need more assurance that the service they are paying for will be delivered in the right and agreed form.  With little legal constraints, accountability in a virtual organization transaction becomes an issue of concern.

Putting in place stringent rules and prequalifying approved virtual organizations would be a great leap to the fore for online buyers and sellers.  Governments and policy makers should lay down appropriate policy that will govern the way the transactions are conducted on the virtual organizations. So doing there will be end to end assurance that transactions are safe and reliable.  Setting stringent rules and standards as well as assurances that they can sustain and be accountable for their malpractices should be prioritized.

Unfortunately, in the present virtual organizations remain at your own risk business entities. With increased incidents of social engineering, it remains an activity so insecure and vulnerable. People from as far as Africa buy from e-bay based on trusting that everything will be fine. However they dont know who to complain to.

Usability of Web System
The implementation of technologies running over the internet has been a challenge to the world of developers. For a long time balancing between the fuss that is the technology running beneath and the aesthetic value that would make the system workable for a lay man whose eyes react to beauty easily  has proven to be an uphill task. However, that has been addressed by emergence of scripting languages like java script, DHTML, PHP, ASP etc.  Web based distributed system now implement aesthetic menus as friendly as the vista buttons and which add to the aesthetic appeal of a system.

A poorly designed website with many navigations will take too much of a prospective customers time. They will spend too much time looking for an item as opposed to the time they might be having. If a website has many malfunctioning and error prone links, they repel the user. If a web page keeps on submitting a page in error the customer might lose patience and seek an alternative source.

Adapting user friendly design strategies in earlier stages of system analysis and design would help address the problems arising from poor planning and design implementation. Some web based systems have a high latency arising from poorly optimized data base tables.  Ensuring that the design strategy address optimization to the database tables is important.

M-Commerce
Mobile commerce describes the phenomenon of obtaining business services ion mobile devices.  Including mobile phones, PDAs, blackberry etc. Wikipedia describes it in the following terms Mobile Commerce is any transaction, involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods and services, which is initiated andor completed by using mobile access to computer-mediated networks with the help of an electronic device

Due to the ubiquitous nature of mobile services, m-commerce is gaining popularity. Streamlining and putting the necessary regulations in place is necessary in the industry.  With increased access to mobile devices a move to regulate the industry by putting in place proper regulatory step would make the technology trustworthy and reliable.

M-commerce has been successful in poorer countries due to the following
mobile devices are relatively cheaper than computers which are used in developed countries
the GSM and CDMA technologies are relatively pronounced even poor economies
they are relatively easier to use as opposed to distributed web based systems
banks and financial institutions have stringent banking requirements and regulations
The future of m-commerce is brighter in this age due to the fact that mobile technology is rapidly growing.

Other reasons for its growth include the fact that mobile devices are mobile than any other equipment in market today and have functional ability rivaling the microprocessor.

M-banking is in no way a threat to mainstream banking. Banks that seize the opportunity and partner with m-banking services providers will benefit from easier utility services e.g. cash transfers between accounts, deposits, withdrawals and others like standing orders payments. M-banking is strongly complementing standard banking which is rather inconvenient or demanding especially in the third world.

E-Business Development
Unlike in traditional business that was based on a buyer and a seller meeting in the market and exchanging goods and services with cash, e-business  emphasizes on a buyer and a seller, wherever they maybe exchanging services or commodities over electronic medium e.g. the internet.   However, the systems of business are quite different when it comes to the e-business. A computer hardware company in United States can have its assembling industry in Malaysia and its headquarters in New York. Sales department maybe located in the US while production is done in the Far East. This is because, e-business has become ubiquitous unlike the traditional business where the buyer has to meet the seller at the market place.

Therefore stronger emphases need to be applied in the ensuring that quality assurance, shipping and secure payment methods are in place to make the trade a success.

Unlike in the traditional business processes where the buyer and the seller settles the deal at the market place, in e-commerce the process is quite different because the buyers sees the product only after it has been shipped overseas.  This requires that the requirements cited above be met.

Online Communities
Online communities have been a great success in the recent past. Many successful companies in the world have resulted to creating online communities as a marketing tool across the globe.  Users register in forums such as training and support and in return the companies market their products. E-bay and Amazon enjoy relative popularity the world over for the services they offer virtual markets. They make it possible for people from different corners of the globe to interact in various business processes like ordering, paying and shipping. All these processes are comparable to the real markets and often at a fraction of their cost.

Unlike the ordinary communities in our lives, online communities comprise of people who hardly know one another. They may have or never have met but they all belong to that community. Online communities are not demarcated by borders political or otherwise. To live in an online community, one does not have to have formal documents like national identity cards etc. and most of all, online communities comprise of people of similar interest.

In the context of online communities, we broadly describe them as a group of telecommuters who have a certain interest in common and share the same infrastructure over the internet to meet their needs.  It has greatly changed our perception of the community in that communities no longer describe physical residents who share a neighbourhood.

Government Promotion of E-business
E-business caught the world unawares, or so I suppose. Mostly so because, very few policy makers had an idea what was going on in the internet world and for a long time, they thought of the internet as a place where computer geeks come to exchange wits and invade computer systems. For a moment, internet was for office solutions e-mails and file sharing. Revolutionary e-commerce shyly became a reality in the 90 and vibrantly burst into scenes in the early 2000s.

E-commerce is facing challenges of plausibility in that it lacks clear cut regulations governing its processes despite being ubiquitous. Thus, it suffers from lack of credibility of end to end delivery of the process. Governments have been involved in formulation of strategies and policies due to their natural control over cyber space through statutory bodies like the Communication control commissions.  Their input is necessary for legislation purposes. A policy affecting national economies is better addresses by the governments.

In the city of Paris in France, 10 years ago in 2000, Mobipocket saw light. This was the result of the collaborated efforts between Nathalie Ting and Thierry Brethes in order to fulfill the demand of an e-book reader that is secure and is also compatible with Palm OS, Symbian, Blackberry, Java Me and many other PDA operating systems. In the early months of 2000, the first version of the reader was introduced. Mobipocket succeeded in gaining a reputation of an innovative enterprise by introducing a new technology to a sector that was suffering from obsolete methods. In 2005, the company was acquired fully by Amazon which was believed to be a strategic decision to answer the Adobe systems to cease updating and supporting its e-book software and package. Today, with a concentrated strategy and a new owner, the company is selling different types of e-books as well as creating innovative and secured readers for the e-books. However, the company takes of Paris as its main headquarters.

The main website of Mobipocket,  HYPERLINK httpwww.mobipocket.com www.mobipocket.com, is a web 2.0 application and is dynamic in nature.  The website is developed with ASP in order to give the user an interactive experience with the interface. The concepts of marketing efforts have been changed by the internet. A successful marketing effort today means having a high traffic of online visitors and a high ranking on Google and other famous search engines. The wellness of Mobipockets indexing can be revealed by a simple search on Google for e-book readers. Moreover, a direct link to the books available at Mobipockets store has also been placed by Amazon.com in e-book formats. The two extensions that were introduced by Amazon .mobi and .prc became the most frequently used formats for e-books. Through these efforts, Mobipocket started noticing an increase in its traffic at alexa.com. Another important point to note is that Mobipocket relies on new technology being introduced which is secure as well as stable in order to build the trust and enhance the image of the company. Mobipocket is ranked among the top websites for e-books and is well known even though the marketing efforts are not strong.

Market of Mobipocket.com
Segments
Mobipocket is a company that introduces innovative technology to readers and is also a pure .com company. The segmentation of the market is done according to the technology that is used by the potential customer such as PDA, Computers and Mobile Phones. Sub-segments are also made by Mobipocket for each segment for example if the user uses a computer, what is the operating system used by him like Mac, Windows or Unix. Mobipocket uses psychographic segmentation as it is also an e-book store. According to the potential customers preference of genre, like fictional or non-fictional, the company sub-segments each criterion.

Targets
All types of readers are targeted by Mobipocket by offering different genre, but more accurately, the users who can read English, French, Spanish or German are the target market of Mobipocket, even though the technology is itself available to everyone.

Differentiation
The differentiation by Mobipocket is only being done from the competitors whose e-readers give access to screening reading of 40,000 books instantly to different electronic devices like internet retailer.com.

Positioning
The company has not only positioned itself in the world of e-books as a pioneer but also provided a unique technology that guarantees security from fraud and offers compatibility.

General GoalsObjectives
According to a press release, the goal of Mobipocket is to make sure that the technology is used and adopted by 50 million users in the next three years. The second e-commerce objective of Mobipocket is to increase the usage of its readers by retailers and publishers and to make use of its extension the most portable e-book format.

E-business Model
The E-business of Mobipocket has been a pure play as it is on the enterprise level and a pure dot com business. Since Mobipocket sells its products online directly to the consumers, most of the activities of the business are automated such as accounting, sales and also support. Instant interaction with the customer and use of content sponsorship is also offered by the company.

Marketing Mix
ProductService Offering
Two types of products are offered currently by Mobipocket, the online e-books that only the reader can read and the Mobipocket reader itself. Mobipocket created a new online brand, being a pure play firm. This strategy allowed the company to avoid any conflicts with the offline market. In order to benefit from the low prices, the customers do not have any other choices than to go online and participate in the e-business experience.

Pricing Valuation
A Hi-Low pricing strategy is used by Mobipocket which keeps different prices for each book and the prices are kept in accordance to the value that is given by a customer to that book. The prices are occasionally reduced when the demand from the consumers is low. A discount coupon is also offered to the customers to be used during a specific period which expires when the time is up and the prices are returned to normal levels. A boost is given to the sales during a period of stagnant sales with this strategy.

Supply ChainDistribution
Mobipocket uses direct marketing as most of the e-businesses do as it sells directly to the customers through the website. Any intermediaries are bypassed in attempt to sell directly to the customers. Moreover, the customers are redirected to the main site, which are on an affiliate site to conclude any sales. For example, the customers shopping on Amazon.com are redirected to Mobipocket.com if they are found to be interested in any e-book.

Integrated Communication Mix
The main aspect of any dot com business is communication as it is the key of development and innovation. Mobipocket has a wiki in order to inform its customers about the new advancements in the technology and also to attract any suggestions from the consumers. The forum also provides support to the users and developers, a knowledgebase and a platform to the users to give feedback anytime of the day.

Performance Metrics
The goals of Mobipocket have been customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and improvement of the customer perception of the product. To measure these goals, the company measures the number of abandoned carts and the number of complaints from the users. The number of purchases during a specified period is also measured in order to keep inventories including the percentage of refunds during a specified period.

The internal perspectives of the business are measured by online technical help, quality of online service and the size of operational web server size. In order to measure these metrics, the company measures the uptime percentage, the number of customers who use the services and the number fo problems covered on the wiki and the forum FAQs.

The learning and the growth of the organization is reflected by the innovation in online service which is measured by the number of new products or services to market in a year.

The goals of financial perspectives of the firm are increase in profit from individual customers and enhancement of conversion rate. These goals are measured by the average value of an order and the total number of orders or visitors.