Trust, Privacy and Security in Digital Business

An important aspect of e-business is the area of e-commerce. According to recent surveys, one of the most severe restraining factors for the proliferation of e-commerce, as measured by the gap between predicted market value and actual development is the (lack of) security measures required to assure both businesses and customers that their business relationship and transactions will be carried out in privacy, correctly, and timely. A large number of individuals are not willing to engage in e-commerce (or are only participating at a reduced level) simply because they do not trust the e-commerce sites and the underlying information and communication technologies to be secure enough. This paper first considers privacy and security requirements for e-commerce applications; it then discusses methods and technologies that can be used to fulfil these requirements.