What are existing and continuing threats to the security of e-commerce? What are examples of ways to thwart these threats?

As e-commerce continues to proliferate and become an essential part of the economy, we are seeing a rise in electronic crimes.

The first major area of concern is identity theft. A key to any business transaction is being able to verify the identity of both parties to an electronic transaction. As various forms of malware including keyloggers are increasingly being used to steal password and other identity data, businesses are responding with more secure forms of identity verification. Perhaps the most secure is using a combination of biometric identification with some form of password protection.

A second security issue is phishing, a process by which scammers send out emails or create fake websites that appear to be associated with your business but which actually are not. For these, the best solution is consumer education and employee training. Some anti-virus software can also evaluate the safety of websites and warn users if a website appears to have a bad certificate or some other red flag.