Cyber Security For 1990s Business Organisation

Cyber Security in E-business

Describe about the Cyber Security for 1990s Business Organisation.

From the mid-1990s business organisation had embraced the internet (Rhodes-Ousley 2013). With the growth of e-commerce and business the question of security also arose. A classical case is the story of Egghead software company which dealt with software. Once the data of the company was stolen it could do nothing except to be sold to Amazon.com. With the growth of the internet, network security also evolved. E-business houses required that they give the required information to the customers as well as they also wanted the information about their own functioning at the same time. E-commerce industry requires that they share information about the products, they carry information about the customer and at the same time they conduct business by working with various financial institutions for the financial transactions. The customer visiting the website of a e-commerce industry requires the security of the information that he will provide while doing the business. All this requires a high level of cyber security from the e-commerce industry.          

Cyber security in e-business carries out four important functions: (1) it provides the e-business organisation an amount of security, (2) it enables the organisation to run the various application safely, (3) it provides a form of data security to the organisation and (4) it safeguards the technology assets of the business organisation (Whitman and Mattord 2011).

According to the internet security threat report by Symantec at the close of 2015, there was a loss of 191 million data identities (Symantec.com 2016). According to Symantec the threat to a financial institution has increased to four times in a year in 2015.

By e-commerce, one does not only mention the selling and buying of products and services online, it also means the transactions between two agents of the market. These transactions are mostly monetary in nature. This attribute requires a security system as money is involved here. Here comes the cyber security. It protects both the buyers and sellers who are using the internet as the place of transaction. It protects their information from getting into wrong hands (Gupta 2016).

Estonia, one of the developed nations faced cyber attack in the year 2007, which shows the need for a cyber security plan for every state. The plans for cyber security have to be updated regularly, as the hackers also updating themselves. If the consumers and sellers are not comfortable in e-commerce, it would increase the cost of a transaction, hampering the efficiency level and the output of the country. Since this attack, state-wise policy recommendations were made to secure the transactions that are taking place online. Leaking of the security can lead to a fall in a country’s GDP (Czosseck, Ottis and Talihärm 2013).

Literature Review

With the help of cloud computing, computing as a personal commodity is replaced by computing as a public utility. The exclusiveness in nature is what makes the e-commerce special among all the marketplaces. The need for cyber security is not only from the side of the customers but also from the seller’s side. A loss of security can halt the actions in e-commerce, which will result in deterioration in terms of the economy of scale, market’s flexibility, convenience, and other. This has the potential to change the structure of a market (Rabai et al. 2013).

A lack of cyber security results in the development of false credentials. It can create an unsecured market. This kind of market never survives in the long run. Without the needed trust, the market will break. Computer and network security are must, as these can cause false information generation, which leads the economy in the wrong way. This can create loopholes in the market. False bank websites, false bankers, false buyers are the example of a lack of the cyber security of a state. Credit card fraud, false shopping sites, false billing and payments are result of this (Sudia 2013).

Using the elements of co-creation, the authorities can point out the “nudges” in cyber security. Identifying these nudges will guide to the development of the best behavioural discipline. Insecure behavior in the wireless networks is the reason the e-commerce is not moving as smoothly as it could be. This is the reason of market inefficiency. This also causes the society a cost, decreasing the social welfare. This is also another form of negative externality. It shrinks the possibility of the market expansion (Coventry et al. 2014).

A holistic cyber security system has to be adopted by the government of a state. This will let the authorities protect the citizens as well as the country’s fund for the people. The cyber security strategies are taken by the government will ensure a regular update and relief from any chaos in the economy. The government has to ensure the top quality of cyber security as only it can ensure market stability. Cyber security is more like a public good than a private good, hence the government has to take the initiatives (Atoum, Otoom and Abu 2014).

Many international; relations depends on cyber security. These relationships were mostly in the area of the countries’ economy. These days, human rights, security agendas are also incorporated currently. Cyber security capacity building is taken as a project, which will help the government maintain international relationships. Cyber security works as a stabilizer in the political and social development. Rich industrialized countries show the potential dimensions in technology and other areas. The cyber security organization should have a computer emergency response team, In the case of any unusual behaviour the response team will take over all the present and future transactions (Klimburg and Zylberberg 2015).

Research Methodology

The agents of an economy are widely benefited by e-commerce. The openness of the internet is benefitting for some with good intentions, and the market as well.  But this openness has lead to misuse of personal information. Many countries have now policy measures to protect the economic agents operating in the market. The approach of cyber security varies from country to country. The developed nations have a tighter security system than the countries Nigeria and other backward countries which are yet to enact any such measurements (Adelola, Dawson and Batmaz 2015).

The History of e-commerce is not that old. It is younger than most of the existing market structures. This keeps an open end to the possibilities in which the policy measurements have to be taken by the government of a country. Thus, ensuring cyber security is not an easy task. Failure of taking proper measurements will lead to many adverse effects on the economy. There are a lot of start ups, who bank on the e-commerce falls due to breach of internet security. It costs people their jobs, leading to unemployment. It is the state authority’s responsibility to provide them a proper guard from the criminals who otherwise have the potential to bankrupt the entrepreneurs (Bayuk et al. 2012).

The significant growth in e-commerce is followed by an increase in the rate of cyber attacks. The attackers’ primary choice of weapon is malware. This situation urges the state authorities to innovate new techniques to stop the attackers.  Without proper measures from the government the online transactions will break the chain, resulting in a devastating situation. The recently developed malwares can put an economy back to the initial stages, as most of the government and bank transactions are now done through online activities. Leakage of this information will hurt the country’s economy. The countries linked to the former country through trade and other medium will also face the negative effects of the massacre. Hence, cyber security is an essential concept in the case of e-commerce (Jang-Jaccard and Nepal 2014).

To address the present research on cyber security and e-commerce a survey questionnaire would be developed (Flick 2015). The survey questionnaire would be mailed to IT and cyber security experts who have experience of e-business. The survey questionnaire would test how the threat of cyber security has increased over the years. The research question would focus on the methods of cyber crimes that can occur with e-business. The research also focuses on the steps being taken by e-business organisations to provide cyber security. The challenges being faced by the e-business organisation would also be identified.  The relation between cyber security and e-commerce would be established. The research would also try to seek the tools being used by e-business organisations in providing cyber security.

	Week 1	Week 6	Week 10	Week 13	Week 14
Introduction
Literature review
Data collection
Data analysis
Conclusion

Figure 1: Gantt chart of the research

(Source: created by author)

The present research is based on the fact that the e-commerce industry is dependent on cyber security. The B2B and B2C are dependent on the web and the security being provided by the web. The present research aims to find the various challenges faced by the business organisation doing e-business. The data would be collected from IT experts who have adequate experience of cyber security to e-business organisation. The analysis of the data would represent the challenges being faced by cyber security agencies in providing security to e-business organisations. The analysis of the data would also provide insight into how the cyber security threat perception has increased and how the e-business houses are gearing up to the challenge of cyber security.

The process of sampling is one of the most important processes of a research. For the purpose of the present research quantitative research methods would be used (Floyd 2013). The sample size would consist of 200 IT and cyber security experts who have an adequate experience of providing security to e-commerce would be selected. The experts would be mailed a survey questionnaire.

The present research focuses on cyber security in e-commerce thus only people having adequate knowledge and background of the subject can form the respondents to the present survey.

Microsoft excel would be used to analyse the data (Winston 2014). The data would be mapped for the security vulnerability of the e-commerce house. The mapping would provide an answer to the different types of methods in which the cyber security of a e-business organisation can be breached. This would provide for what the e-business organisations thinks about cyber crime. The data analysis would provide an answer into what the business organisation thinks is important in cyber crime. The data analysis would provide an answer into the most common methods by which a cyber crime is conducted and the profile of a cyber criminal. It would also provide an answer into the mind of a cyber criminal. Whether the cyber criminal is a single entity or multiple persons working together. The analysis of the data would provide an answer to the various tools that are being used by e-commerce industry. This would also provide an answer to the efficiency of the tools used for cyber security. The analysis of the survey would provide an answer to the reasons behind cyber security breach. Finally the analysis would provide an insight into whether cyber breach takes place on any particular days or it can happen on any given day throughout the year.

The present research would show how the threat perception to e-business has increased from 1990 when internet and thus e-commerce was born. It would also show the vulnerabilities to e-business. Cyber security poses of the greatest dangers to e-business. The dangers are not just to the business organisations but also to the customers of the e-business organisations. The outcome of the research would show how business organisations are coping with threat of cyber security. The present research would also show how e-business organisations have increased the cyber security of their websites and thus have been able to provide a sense of CSR to the customer.

The present research would provide an insight into the financial implication of cyber security on e-business. It would provide a peak into the various tools being used by business houses to enable cyber security. The research would also provide information into how business houses conduct e-business. 

Conclusion

The present research would show that with the growth of e-commerce the threat perception has also grown. It would show the threats being faced by the e-commerce industry. It would also show how e-business organisation have understood the requirements of providing cyber security in the changed domain and have upped the level of security. The present research would show how cyber security and e-commerce have had a symbiotic relationship. The present research would also show the probable impact of cyber insecurity to e-commerce. The present would provide an idea into the steps that have been taken by the e-commerce industry to secure themselves. 

References

Adelola, T., Dawson, R. and Batmaz, F., 2015. Privacy and data protection in e-commerce in developing nations: evaluation of different data protection approaches.

Atoum, I., Otoom, A. and Abu Ali, A., 2014. A holistic cyber security implementation framework. Information Management & Computer Security, 22(3), pp.251-264.

Bayuk, J.L., Healey, J., Rohmeyer, P., Sachs, M.H., Schmidt, J. and Weiss, J., 2012. Cyber security policy guidebook. John Wiley & Sons.

Coventry, L., Briggs, P., Jeske, D. and van Moorsel, A., 2014, June. Scene: A structured means for creating and evaluating behavioral nudges in a cyber security environment. In International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability (pp. 229-239). Springer International Publishing.

Czosseck, C., Ottis, R. and Talihärm, A.M., 2013. Estonia after the 2007 cyber attacks: Legal, strategic and organisational changes in cyber security. Case Studies in Information Warfare and Security: For Researchers, Teachers and Students, 72.

Flick, U. (2015). Introducing Research Methodology: A Beginner’s Guide to Doing a Research Project. 2^nd Ed. Sage Publication

Fowler Jr, Floyd J. (2013). Survey research methods: 5^th Ed. Sage publications.

Gupta, B. ed., 2016. Handbook of Research on Modern Cryptographic Solutions for Computer and Cyber Security. IGI Global.

Jang-Jaccard, J. and Nepal, S., 2014. A survey of emerging threats in cybersecurity. Journal of Computer and System Sciences, 80(5), pp.973-993.

Klimburg, A. and Zylberberg, H., 2015. Cyber Security Capacity Building: Developing Access.

Rabai, L.B.A., Jouini, M., Aissa, A.B. and Mili, A., 2013. A cybersecurity model in cloud computing environments. Journal of King Saud University-Computer and Information Sciences, 25(1), pp.63-75.

Rhodes-Ousley, M. (2013). Information security. Emeryville, 2^nd Ed Calif.: McGraw-Hill/Osborne.

Sudia, F.W., 2013. False Banking, Credit Card, and Ecommerce System. U.S. Patent Application 13/747,368.

Symantec.com. (2016). Internet Security Threat Report 2016 | Symantec. [online] Available at: https://www.symantec.com/security-center/threat-report [Accessed 6 Oct. 2016].

Whitman, M.E. and Mattord, H.J. (2011). Principles of information security. 4^th Ed. Cengage Learning

Winston, W. (2014). Microsoft Excel 2013 Data Analysis and Business Modeling: Data Analysis and Business Modeling. Pearson Education.