Transcript Users - Makerere University E

Techniques and Tools used in online
Transactions
The infrastructure for EC is a networked computing
environment in business, home, and government.
 It is based on the digital economy i.e. Internet or
web economy.
 This economy brings a global meaning to conducting
business by the use of communication networks
and information technologies.
 It uses digital communication networks, including
Internet, Intranets, computers, software, and a
variety of supporting information technologies
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Computer Networking
Internet Applications
The Internet Community
Internet Commerce Transactions
Scenarios
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Is a world wide system of computer
networks or a networks of networks in which
users at any one computer can with
permission get information from any other
computer
Is a public, cooperative, facility accessible to
hundreds of millions of people world wide
Uses telecommunication networks
specifically a set of protocols called TCP/IP
(Transmission Control Protocols/Internet
Protocol)
• initially government defense specialists
scientists and researchers; young adult,
wealthy, highly educated people
• now people of all ages in all professions
including business from all countries (but still
mostly the wealthy and educated)
The Internet supports applications in the following categories : Discovery - involves browsing and information retrieval.
Provides users the ability to view documents and download
whatever they need. Examples of such are the search engines
like google.
 Communication – provides fast and inexpensive
communication channels. It also involves information transfer
and processing such as e-mail, chat groups, newsgroups etc.
 Collaboration – as a result of improved communication,
electronic collaboration between individuals and/or groups is
on the rise. Examples of such include teleconferencing.
 Electronic Commerce – purchase of products & services
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Distributed applications
Client Server Applications
Computer Networks
Protocols
Distributed processing divides processing work between two
or more computers. Participating computers can be all
mainframe, all micros or a combination.
Examples of Distributed Applications
 World Wide Web (www) – information browsing
application
 Electronic messaging – store and forward transfer of a
message
 Network news – an electronic bulletin board that supports
newsgroups e.g. usenet
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Client Server Applications are centralised and shared
resources such as database servers, mail servers, application
servers.
A Client/Server architecture divides networked computing
into two major categories clients and servers all of which are
connected by local area networks and possibly by a wide area
network.
A client is a PC or a workstation attached to a network and is
used to access shared network resources
A server is a machine that is attached to this same network
and provides clients with these services
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Examples of servers are :
 Database server that a provides a large
storage capacity
 Communication server that provides
connection to another network to
commercial databases
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Maximise the use of computer resources
Provides a way for different computing devices
to work together, each doing the job for which it
is best suited.
The clients which are usually inexpensive PCs,
share more expensive devices, the servers.
Provides as many access points to data as
there are PCs on the network.
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Not only does this increase the
processing power available, but it also
uses that power more efficiently.
The client portion of the application is
typically optimized for user interaction,
whereas the server portion provides the
centralized, multi-user functionality.
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A computer network is defined as a interconnection of
computers and computer related hard ware such as
printers .
It enables 2 or more computers to communicate with
each other.
There are several types of computer networks.
 Those classified according to the geographical area.e.g
local area networks, Wide Area Networks
 Those classified according by their shapes (topology)e.g
•Connections over a short
distance.
•Collection of interconnected
computers that can share data,
applications, and resources, such
as printers
•Computers in a LAN are
separated by distances of up to a
few kilometers and are typically
used in offices or across university
campuses.
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Connections over a large distance
 High-speed telephone lines
 Microwave (wireless)
 Satellite
• Is basically a bigger version of a LAN.
• It can cover a group of nearby corporate
offices or a city .
• A city wide network (MAN) is between
WAN and LAN.
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a network constructed using internet based
communications & application technologies that
serves only the internal purposes of an enterprise.
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An example would be connecting offices of the same
company in different locations. e.g. Makerere Univ.
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It may be a single LAN segment that uses TCP/IP
protocol , it is typically a network connected to the
Internet.
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A network operated on or on behalf of an enterprise to
support communications between the enterprise and a
community of external users.
Can be viewed as an external extensions of the enterprise
intranet.
Allow remote users to connect securely over the internet
to enterprise internet for use. Example of such are distant sales
people, online publishing personnel.
Offers limited accessibility to the intranets of the participating
companies.
Remote
User
Internet
Enterprise
Intranet
Enterprise Extranet
•Set of rules and procedures that govern the transfer of
information on the internet.
•It is the software that also helps in authentication, security,
and privacy
•Major protocols used in EC payments are:
–Secure Socket Layer (SSL)
–Secure Electronic Transaction Protocol (SET)
The WWW
 Each hypermedia document sometimes
called a page has a unique identifier called
Uniform Resource Locator (URL).
 URL identifies application layer protocol
required to access a document, the server
on which the target is held, and the
particular on that server.
E-Commerce and the WWW -Web has proven an ideal application for : Vendors to disseminate details of their goods & services
 Buyers to browse the market place; consider product features,
availability and price & select a vendor
 Buyers and vendors to execute sales agreements
 Vendors to provide post sale customer services
 Providers of online services such as home banking
 Web applications supported by HTTP
 Web applications commonly used languages are HTML and Extensible
Markup Language (XML).
E-Messaging
 Allows user to send/receive messages
 Messages can be text, graphics, images,
sound etc
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Service Providers
Internet Standards
Internet Name Assignment
Internet Security
Mobile Wireless Internet Access
Service Providers – users access the internet via Internet Service
Providers (ISPs). Examples of such are infocom, DICTS, africa
online etc.
Services provided can be generally classified as follows : Access Services- these services give users connectivity to an
internet backbone (one major WANs that tie the internet
together). For internet access, full time connections are required.
Costs for full time internet access e.g for infocom are $50 per
month. Other costs such as telephone charges.
 Value Added Service – these include e-mail, website hosting
and application support. Extensive user support such as web
page design may be provided.
Organizations that provide an Internet connection.
The company that owns and operates that particular
network to which you are going to connect your
computer.
 Charge can be hourly or monthly and depends on the
bandwidth (data rate) you need
 American/International examples include America
Online and Microsoft Network (MSN)
 Ugandan examples include Infocom, Spacenet, UTL
(which provides a connection).
Internet Standards - Internet heavily depends on a set of well specified and
widely adopted technical and procedural standards.
 IAB - Internet Activities Board – responsible for coordinating
Internet design, engineering and management.
 IETF – Internet Engineering Task Force – responsible for developing
Internet standards and specification.
 Internet Standards evolve through steps
 Proposed standards – a specification enters the standard track
 Draft standard – at least 2 implementations have been
developed for which adequate operational experience has been
obtained.
 Standard : specification characterised by a high degree of
maturity
Internet Name Assignment
Assignment of names to networks or organisations (called
Internet Domains) is a thorny problem. Each domain
name needs to be registered along with a corresponding
IP address, in the Domain Name Server (DNS).
ICANN – Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers was formed in 1998 to serve as the global
consensus for coordinating Internet Naming.
maintenance of internet security is considered a community
responsibility.
Document addressing respective responsibilities of users, service
providers and product vendors.
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Users – understand and respect security policies
Users – employ available security mechanisms to protect their own data
Computer and Network providers – maintain security of systems they
operate.
Vendors and system developers – responsible for providing sound
systems with adequate security controls
Users, service providers, hardware and software vendorsresponsible for cooperating to provide security
Technical improvements – in internet security protocols should be
sought on a continued basis.
Mobile Wireless Internet Access
wireless e-commerce and other applications that involve
access to internet resources from mobile devices such as
digital phones, pagers etc.
Wireless Internet access is not challenging since it fits in
the lower levels of the internet protocols though the wire
less environment introduces some security risks not
inherent in the wired world.
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Business-to-Consumer (B2C): applications that provide an
interface from businesses directly to the consumer.
Business-to-Business (B2B): facilitates transactions
between businesses.
Consumer-to- Consumer (C2C): consumer sells directly to
consumers.
Consumer-to- Business (C2B): individuals sell to products
and services to organizations.
Intrabusiness transactions - business to its employers
Nonbusiness EC.
Peer to peer (P2P) – individuals exchanges products &
services as well.
Mobile EC - wireless environment e.g cell phones to access
the internet
Items being bought and sold appeal to individual
consumers.
Examples
Auctioning Cars – Auto dealers (autobytel.com) have a
websites where consumers are able to see the pictures of
cars they are interested in. Cost of the cars and
transportation costs are quoted online.
Art auctions – art work is sold online at various sites such
as onlineart.com
Airlines – several airlines auction tickets on their websites.
Examples American airlines (aa.com)
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Individuals using the internet to conduct business or to
collaborate with other individuals.
 Most popular C2C commerce activity is Auctions.
Examples
Classifieds – Individuals sell items by advertising in the
classified section of the newspaper, now are using the
internet for this purpose. Some of the classified services are
offered free (classifieds2000.com)
Personal services e.g tutoring, astrology
Peer to Peer and bartering – individuals exchange products
and services as well.
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business using the internet to conduct business or to
collaborate with another business.
Major Benefits of B2B auctions
Generating revenue – increase in customer base, venue
where obsolete, returned products can easily be sold
Increase in page views – users spend more time on
auction sites , companies are willing to advertise on such
sites
Acquiring and retaining members – All bidding
transactions result in additional registered members which
increases the value of the company.
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Categories of B2B auctions
Independent auctions – use of 3rd party auctioneer to
create the site and sell goods
Commodity auctions – many buyers and sellers come
together to a third party website to buy and sell commodities
. E.g. band-x.com we have energy access, utilities and
telecommunications being sold.
Private Auctions – take place by invitation only such as
the sale of old equipment to a company’s regular customers
Auctions at the company website. Companies that are
able build an auction capability on their own websites.
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Productivity Advances – represents shareholder value
expectations, attracts new investment capital, overcomes
competitive onslaughts
Expanded and Better focused markets – e-commerce can
expand market reach dramatically.
Cost reduction – costs of performing traditional business tasks
can be slashed
Quality gains – reduction in transaction times and error rates,
resulting from elimination of manual steps such as telephone
operator, transaction entry
Improved Customer appeal – e-commerce empowers the
customer by putting information and control of transactions in the
customer’s hands.
Improved employee satisfaction – employee communication
processes and hands-on access to benefits systems provide new
opportunities to increase retention rates of most valued
employees.
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Direct financial loss resulting from fraud – external hacker
or fraudelent insider might for example order goods but
charge payment to someone else or non existent account.
Exposure of “crown jewels” – proprietary information such
as marketing competitive pricing information that is crucial to
business might be unwittingly exposed competitors or others.
Damage to relations with customers or business partners
– relationships might be severely damaged due to disclosure
of confidential information.
Unforeseen costs – Legal or public relations costs might be
incurred in recovering a security compromise
Public relations damage – damage to corporate image or
credibility might result from an outsider masquerading as
corporate spokespersons.
Examples of documented reports of attacks on networks
include :
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Alteration of content on commercial or
government websites.
Falsification of news bulletins
Penetration of a major bank’s cash management
system
Systematic sniffing of passwords on a scale of
millions
Publicity of such attacks may be so damaging to
a company in terms of loss of customer
confidence or competitive advantage.
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Lack of universally acceptable standards for quality,
security and reliability
Insufficient Telecommunications bandwidth
Still evolving software development tools
Difficulties in integrating the internet and EC
software with some existing applications and
databases
The added cost of special web servers in addition
to network servers
Expensive and / or inconvenient accessibility to the
internet for some.
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Many legal issues are yet unresolved including the issue
of taxation. E-commerce is largely carried out on open,
interconnected and unregulated networks.
Global trade – this can provide problems with different
laws in different countries. National and international
government regulations and standards are not
developed for some circumstances.
Political issues – economic, national security, law,
privacy, peoples’ rights.
Difficulty of measuring some web advertisements
Many sellers and buyers are waiting for EC to stabilise
before they can take part.
Perception that EC is expensive and unsecured.
People do not yet trust paperless, faceless transactions.
There are fundamental, practical and legal differences between
the two forms of commerce.
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Paper based commerce has inherently security – signatures,
letterheads, watermarks, time stamps. Alterations can be
detected.
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Biometric of signatures (uniqueness of pressure, shape, pen
direction).
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Digital is easy to copy and modify. Needs cryptography and
digital signature techniques to make secure. More on these
critical security techniques later
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Overall both types need different techniques to make secure.
Without the application of specialised external security
mechanisms, computer based records can be modified freely
and without detection.
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Obviousness of modifications, interlineations and deletions
Questions
What is electronic commerce ?
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How does e-commerce over the internet differ from traditional
commerce.
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What are the benefits of using e-commerce ?
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What are the possible risks of using e-commerce ?
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What are the advantages of the electronic job market for job
seekers and employers
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Site 3 examples of EC in the service industry.
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Explain the following terms :
Internet, Intranet, Extranet ,Client/Server architecture,
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What are ISPs, B2B, C2C, Internet Standards,
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What does internet community refer to?
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What are protocols ?
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Highlight key features on the following websites
Business to Consumer websites
- www.autobytel.com
- www.flysaa.com
Business to Business Website
- www.band-x.com
Visit the site
www.business2.com/b2/web/articles/0,17863,528103,00.html
Title : Domain Name Hog Doesn’t take Chances, and read about the
Scandinavian company and highlight key issues that caused them to
buy the 3,080 domain names