ABSTRACT
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.
