Introduction

E-commerce security has become a serious concern for enterprises and citizens who rely on distributed digital processing in their daily operations. From a customer's perspective, the purpose of an e-commerce system is to enable the customer to locate and purchase a desired good (tangible or intangible) or service over the Internet when he/she is interested in getting it. Its function is to provide a virtual store. From a merchant's perspective, the key function of an e-commerce system is to generate higher revenues than the merchant would achieve without the system. To this end, the e-commerce system must recreate or utilize existing data and business processes and provide other processes to facilitate electronic purchase and provide product information, inventory systems, customer service, and transaction capabilities including credit authorization, tax computation, financial settlement, as well as delivery. Additional functions of an e-commerce system are to help redefine and enhance an enterprise's capability, customer-service capability, and delivery effectiveness.