Electronic Businesses

Electronic Businesses

My topic is the prevent security risk in Electronic Businesses (e-business). Information has been a valued commodity since the beginning of time. How information is used is no concern until it involves their consumers. General information given from e-business may be harmless, but personal information can be detrimental in the wrong hands. Managers need to focus on data privacy, authenticity, and data integrity in order to run a successful online business. Consumers may be unaware who can view their personal information and how much are found.  Especially in with a growing number of e-businesses, data controversy continues.

Electronic businesses, a name given by IBM in the 1990’s, is more than “e-commerce” and “e-procurement”.  Every department in an e-business revolves around the internet and it can range from collaborating with another department to researching with another team.  Utilizing such resources allow companies to flourish.[1]

Amazon.com is known as the largest online retailer, such as Amazon.com. The company is trusted by many consumers; however, the addition of Cloud Drive caused some consumers to question their trust in the e-business.  Amazon Cloud Drive is a free online storage space with up to 5GB of room. Its purpose is to preserve any documents, photos, music, or videos just in case of wipes or crashes. Consumers can purchase additional space for a fee. [2] Amazon has created the business plan with some questionable security plans. Consumers were concern on personal file protection. George Reese, a consumer, blogger, and founder of enStratus Networks LLC and Valtira, spoke out his findings of Amazon Cloud. He said that Amazon has control over your data and weak security for points. Reese questions the stability of the company and information in regards to the aftermath of the company. [3] He has all the right to be skeptical. When applying for college, high school students use sealed envelopes and the post office to secure transcript privacy. In a similar fashion, E-business secures data privacy with encryptions and firewalls as protection. To secure any data loss, third party software can be added to company’s network. Anti-viruses software is an example of a third party. [4]

Other possible concerns in an e-business are authenticity and data integrity. As a former retail employer, I know the authenticity of a transaction was signature through the pad.  Now online businesses signatures are obsolete in purchases, which posses as a problem. Online businesses can always verify with customer’s knowledge of a password and credit card. [4] Businesses should ensure data is preserved and untampered while movement. One way to ensure to preseve information is through backup. Backup is important because the growth of data is exponential and prevents failures within the network. Another way is to ensure preservation is to future-proof data storage. The system will have new and old data, policies, and encryption to secure data. [5]

In conclusion, e-business can overcome risk in security. In order to run an online business, security must be taken under consideration; such as data privacy, authenticity, and data integrity. It all comes down to securing and preserving consumer’s information.

[1] http://searchcio.techtarget.com/definition/e-business
[2] https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/learnmore
[3] http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2008/11/key-security-issues-for-the-am.html
[4] http://www.ehow.com/list_6943198_e_business-security-concerns.html
[5] http://www.digitalpreservation.gov/meetings/documents/othermeetings/3-4_Clarke-SUN-Data_Integrity.pdf  (Slides 3 - 14)