Any organization dealing with online transactions such as Amazon.com must formulate appropriate security measures to reduce the risks involved in their businesses (Huff, 2002).
Amazon.com must put in place appropriate security measures for its customers to trust their products and services. There are several mechanisms the company should embrace to ensure that the customers’ information, communication, and transactions are protected.
The implementation of various security measures depends on the size and nature of the business undertaken by an organization. The measures help to control the accessibility of information and applications by the users.
For Amazon.com to achieve maximum security in its e-business, it must ensure its IT infrastructure enhance three quality aspects, which are availability of infrastructure, security level of the company, and security of communications.
Network level securities utilize internet protocols and encryption implementations within network devices (Kulkarni & Jahirabadkar, 2012). Secure communication should be embraced in e-business since transactions pass through the public internet where a large number of routers and servers are involved.
Thus, Amazon.com must make use of encryption and cryptography. Cryptography ensures security of information as it is passed across intranets to extranets and finally the internet.
With respect to the kind of e-business, Amazon.com engages in, the use of firewalls and content filters will enhance the security of the enterprise. Firewalls help in controlling the flow of data packets in and out of the enterprise depending on the origin and destination addresses.
The firewalls should be configured and implemented properly to protect the intrusion on the enterprise network. Therefore, the firewalls and content filters should be reliable and robust to guarantee security. Another security measure that should be put in place within the enterprise is the use of anti-virus software.
The software will curb email related virus, which might corrupt the information stored in the organization’s PC. The hackers make use of this virus to control the servers, databases, and personal computers, hence act as threat to the security of information in e-business. Thus, the need for proper and updated antivirus software to protect the servers and databases is vital for Amazon.com.
Another security measure that should be implemented by Amazon.com to boost their security of e-business is the use of digital certificates and signatures (Kulkarni & Jahirabadkar, 2012). Digital certificates help to identify and verify communications between the trading partners and the enterprise.
It identifies the organization that owns certificates. It also shows the period for which the certificate is valid. Digital signature acts as a guarantee to the persons and enterprises that own digital certificate of the sent information.
Digital signatures ensure that the information is not tampered from the time it is sent from the sender at the time it is received by the recipient. The authentication of the signatures make use of encryption and decryption keys, which ensure that exchange of critical information between the two partners is secure.
To enhance security of their e-business, Amazon.com must adopt the use of Public Key Infrastructure (PKI). The technology aims at reducing insecurity in the e-business using digital certificates and authorization (Kulkarni & Jahirabadkar, 2012).
It is important when dealing with insecurities associated with internet since e-business takes place via the public internet. PKI uses cryptographic public and private keys, which aid in the provision of confidentiality, authentication, and integrity of information and transactions.
The implementation of PKI security measures should clearly state the policies, regulations, software, and standards that are contained in the certification. Amazon.com should use Extensible Markup Language (XML) to achieve trust and security of transactions between buyers, sellers.
XML covers the contracts and payment transactions, and it authenticates partners involved with the aid of encryption and digital signatures. XML services ensure the trust services in e-business are integrated into the applications. All these developments and mechanisms ensure that security of e-business is not compromised.
References
Huff, S. L. (2002). Cases in electronic commerce (2nd ed.). Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill.
Kulkarni, P., & Jahirabadkar, S. (2012). Security and Reliability for e-Business. Oxford : Oxford University Press.