Small Business Ecommerce: Security is not just about payment

Posted by arlene

For a small business, collecting payments is a crucial issue, especially in the early days when budgets are tight and continuing bad debts could make the whole venture unfeasible. The security devices described above go a long way to making online payments as secure if not more secure than traditional trading, as in most cases payment is received long before the goods are dispatched. But creating a secure Web site means more than just being paid promptly. Because the Internet is based on easy and rapid exchange of information there is always the possibility that people entering your system could do damage while they are there. In some cases this could include your own staff. The opportunity of e-business is also therefore a potential threat. For that reason every e-business should have a sound systems security policy. Your e-business policy review should include the following issues at the very least:

• confidentiality of data;
• access from outside;
• risk assessment;
• partner requirements;
• counter measures;
• trusted application service providers.

The traditional approach in large company IT systems security is to throw a protective cloak around the entire system so that only people within the system can access data and programs. Within this closed universe, access by staff tends to follow a hieratchical pattern based on their need for the data. External users are rarely if ever given access to it. Because e-commerce relies on people and organisations outside the business having direct access to some of your operational systems, you will have to decide on more flexible boundaries.

Customers will need to run some of your internal processes and access certain data, but it is vital that they can only view and change information they are authorised to access. The problem with the perimeter approach is that all system routines are treated with equal importance, relying on the trust factor of users. With ‘ubiquitous security‘ you can be more selective and only allow authorised visitors access to specific parts of your system.

Breaches of security generally fall into three types: operational, financial and legal. On the operational side hackers are probably the biggest danger, but they tend to target larger organisations. The most likely breach of operational security will come from someone within the organisation with a grudge to bear or simply to demonstrate such a breach can be achieved. Loss of electronic information can be a significant issue if there are no back-up files. Financial breaches could be much more serious resulting in corrupt files and, in the worst scenario, fraudulent payments. Legal issues of security include impersonation of trusted users, violation of safety regulations and the theft of copyrighted material. A major technical issue currently being looked at is how to make mobile telephones secure; some experts are predicting a significant risk of fraudulent purchases in the future unless verification systems can be improved within the context of SIM card technology.

For small businesses the cost of developing bespoke security systems for an e-business are likely to be very high. However, there are a number of security products that can be bought off the shelf to manage the security aspects of a new e-business. The expenditure by businesses on so-called TASPs (Trusted Application Service Providers) is predicted to treble in volume over the next three years as demand grows. Ovum, an Internet security specialist (www.ovum.com) reckons that expenditure on system security will balloon to over £75 billion globally by 2008 from a virtual standing start of around £25 billion in 2004.

The message is a simple one. All e-businesses need to be secure, so making your site secure before you start to trade should be an important part of your business plan.

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