TABLE OF CONTENTS Even the lion must defend himself against gnats.
Anonymous
The Internet s openness makes it the perfect platform for e-commerce it offers an inexpensive mass communication media and an economy of scale for low-cost distribution. However, the lack of security of web-based transactions and the ease with which the privacy of online communications can be violated are e-commerce s main stumbling blocks. Internet s very openness means that all communication traveling over it is inherently difficult to secure. To make matters worse, hacking is an epidemic that is on the rise.
Ira Winkler, president of the Internet Security Advisors Group in Severna Park, Md., and author of Corporate Espionage (Prima Publishing, 1999) succinctly states the average e-commerce business s security dilemma: To a hacker, you re just an IP address. You get hit because you let yourself be an easy mark.
Here are some eye-opening figures to contemplate: A study by Gartner Inc. indicates that 50 percent of all small to midsize enterprises were hacked in 2003, with almost 60 percent of those not even knowing they had been hacked. According to the Computer Emergency Response Team (better known as CERT, www.cert.org), a total of 82,094 incidents were reported in 2002. But, as Fig. 16 shows, incidents are rapidly increasing there were 76,404 reported incidents in just the first half of 2003.
Don t be an easy mark. Recognize and appreciate that you...
