Electronic Commerce Technology

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Electronic Commerce Technology
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Technology

• Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol
• TCP/IP
• TCP
• Data transport
• IP
• Routing
• Addressability

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Data transport

• Circuit switching
• Resource dedication
• Packet switching
• Resource sharing
• Split messages into packages
• Number packages
• Reassemble packages

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Routing

• Dynamically determining the best route through
  the network
• Packets may not all take the same path

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Addressability

• Every server must be uniquely addressable
• InterNIC assigns unique IP addresses
• An IP address
• 32-bit number
• 4 groups of decimal numbers in the range 0 - 255
• 128.192.28.91
• mis.cba.uga.edu

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Infrastructure
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National information infrastructure

• The foundation
• Hardware
• The communication networks
• TV, radio, telephone, Internet
• Critical to national competitiveness

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Message distribution infrastructure

• Software for sending and receiving messages
• EDI, e-mail, HTTP

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Electronic publishing infrastructure

• The content layer
• The Web
• Uniform resource location (URL)
• Network protocol (HTTP)
• Markup language (HTML)

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Business services infrastructure

• Support common business processes
• Secure transmission of data
• Encryption
• Authentication
• Electronic money exchange

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Electronic commerce application

• The top layer

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HTML vs. PDF
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PDF

• Portable Document Format
• Adobe Acrobat
• Exchange
• Reader (free)
• Electronic publishing from any application

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HTML

• A markup language
• Marks a particular portion of text
• ltstronggtImportantlt/stronggt
• Browser determines how presented

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Electronic commerce topologies
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Internet
Computer
Organization
Server
Legend
Internet backbone
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Intranet
Firewall
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Extranet
Firewall
Firewall
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Electronic data interchange (EDI)

• The electronic exchange of standard business
  documents
• Standardized data formats for common business
  documents
• ANSI X.12
• EDIFACT

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Advantages of EDI

• Reduced paper handling
• Real time exchange of data
• Fewer errors
• Enhanced coordination
• Acceleration of money flows

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Limitations of EDI

• Almost 80 of information flow between companies
  is still on paper
• VANs are too expensive for many smaller firms
• EDI will become Internet based because of lower
  costs

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Security

• The openness of the Internet makes security more
  difficult
• Computer technology can be used to attack the
  Internet

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Data access control

• Controlling who has access
• However, goal is often to attract not restrict
  visitors
• Authentication mechanisms

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Firewall

• A device placed between an organizations network
  and the Internet
• Monitors and controls traffic between the
  Internet and Intranet
• Approaches
• Restrict packets to those with designated IP
  addresses
• Restrict access to applications

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Encryption

• Encryption is as old as writing
• Sensitive information needs to be remain secure
• Critical to electronic commerce
• Encryption hides the meaning of a message
• Decryption reveals the meaning of an encrypted
  message

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Public key encryption
Receiver
Sender
Encrypt
Decrypt
Receiver's public key
Receiver's private key
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Signing

• Message authentication

Receiver
Sender
Verify
Sign
Sender's private key
Sender's public key
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Electronic money

• Electronic commerce needs
• speed
• security
• privacy
• internationalization
• Paper-based systems are inadequate

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Electronic funds transfer

• Introduced in the late 1960s by banks
• Electronic check writing
• Fast and flexible
• All transaction must pass through the banking
  system and are recorded
• No anonymity

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Digital cash

• Electronic parallel of notes and cash
• Prepaid cards
• Smart cards
• Combines many functions
• Privacy of cash
• Can be lost or stolen

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Ecash

• Digicash can be used to withdraw and deposit
  electronic cash over the Internet
• Anonymity
• Need a digital bank account
• Person-to-person transfers
• Uses public-key encryption

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Credit card

• Safe, secure, and widely used
• Secure servers and clients support the use of
  credit cards
• Credit card suppliers are working to improve
  security (SET)
• Does not support person-to-person transfers
• Does not have the privacy of cash

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Electronic moneycharacteristics
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Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)

• Created by Netscape for secure message
  transmission.
• Uses public-key encryption
• Browser is the client
• Netscape servers can be enabled for SSL
• Other servers can be enabled by installing the
  Netscape SSLRef program library

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Secure Electronic Transaction (SET)

• Backed by Visa and MasterCard
• Based on cryptography and digital certificates
• Digital certificates uniquely identify the
  parties to a transaction
• An electronic credit card
• Registries for authentication
• A digital signature is used to guarantee a
  senders identity

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SET Components

• Cardholder wallet
• Merchant server
• Payment gateway

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The SET process

• Certificate authority
• Computerworld quick study
• http//www2.computerworld.com/home/features.nsf/al
  l/980629qs

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SET pros and cons

• Merchant cannot decipher credit card details
• SSL is well-established and simpler

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Java

• Object oriented
• Portable network programs
• Program is compiled into Java bytecode that can
  run on any server or client in a network that has
  a Java virtual machine
• The Java virtual machine converts the bytecode
  into instructions that will run on the real
  computer hardware.

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JavaBeans

• An object-oriented programming interface from Sun
  Microsystems that lets you build re-useable
  applications or program building blocks called
  components that can be deployed in a network on
  any major operating system platform

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JavaScript

• Netscapes interpreted programming language
• Easier and faster to code than Java but not as
  powerful
• Good for editing forms
• Can be embedded in HTML pages and interpreted by
  the Web browser

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Cookie

• Remembers details of a single visit or stores
  facts between visits
• small file
• Visit tracking
• Site improvement
• Storing information
• Subscription services
• Customization
• New services
• Marketing
• Banner ads

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Shortcomings of HTML

• Not extensible
• Cannot define own tags or attributes
• Unstructured
• A presentation language for displaying
  information
• Lack of desciption
• Cannot include metadata to describe the data
• Each book must have a title
• No support for validation

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XML

• XML is a markup language for documents containing
  structured information
• Overcomes shortcomings of HTML
• XML specifies neither semantics nor a tag set
• All of the semantics of an XML document are
  defined by the applications that process them or
  by stylesheets
• HTML is a presentation language with predefined
  tags

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XML

• Paper form
• Infer meaning from headings, titles, and context
• EDI
• Infer meaning from position in the record
• XML
• Infer meaning from surrounding tags

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XML

• An encoding standard
• Exchange format
• Vocabularies
• Open Financial Exchange Format (OFX)
• Chemical Markup Language (CML)