Safety in e-business

Because buyer and seller never meet, e-business has its own risks. The first group is transaction risks, when one side fails to do its part (a default):

• Default on order taking or giving: the seller denies receiving an order, or the buyer denies placing it.
• Default on delivery: the goods are not delivered as promised, or wrong goods arrive.
• Default on payment: the seller is not paid for goods sent.

How to reduce them: verify the identity and address of the customer at registration; confirm each order and payment; use cookies (small files that record a visitor's details and choices); and, as a buyer, shop on well-established websites and check the seller ratings given by other buyers.

The second group is risks to data. A virus is a program that copies itself and damages a computer's data and working; the book grades their effects in four levels. Hacking is breaking into a computer system without permission. Protection comes from anti-virus programs and cryptography: the message is scrambled into cyphertext that nobody can read, and only someone with the secret key can turn it back into plain text.

The third is risk to privacy: information put online can be hard to protect, and once your details are out, you may receive junk mail you never asked for.

To set up an e-business, a firm needs, besides the usual money, men and machines, a good website: its address, or location, on the world wide web, where customers find it.