E-Commerce Security Threats, Defenses Against Attacks and Improving Security

E-commerce is the buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the Internet. Online transactions for e-commerce are increasing at high rate and different types of attacks against security of ecommerce system have also increased. Consumers may be at the risk for losing their personal information, since they may be unaware of the security aspect of performing on-line transactions. Therefore, it is very important to make the Internet safe for buying and selling products on-line. The attackers can use the vulnerabilities in components of e-commerce system. The vulnerability of a system exists at the entry and exit points within the system. The threats in the ecommerce security system can be either accidental or malicious. A risk assessment on the ecommerce systems should be done to understand the risk facing the ecommerce system, risk in the business processes followed, and the possible impact on the ecommerce system if any security threats occur.