The massive increase in online shopping in the last decade has been matched by a similar increase in attacks on online payment systems. These attackers are becoming expert in exploiting vulnerabilities, both in web applications and in third party components. Consequently, one of the major requirements for those involved in ecommerce website design is ensuring the security of the sites, and specifically of transactions on the sites.

Necessary To Attract Customers
It goes without saying that the whole point of being involved in online retailing is to make a profit, and for this to happen, it is necessary for customers both to visit your site, and to make purchases. If visitors do not feel safe doing this, you will not make any money. In Australia, spending on online retail is less than half the total in countries like the UK and USA, and research into the reasons for this found that the number one reason given by respondents was concern about security of online transactions. In order to gain more customers, it is essential for Internet retailers in Australia to ensure not only that their sites are secure, but that they are seen to be secure.

Why Vulnerabilities Occur
There are a few reasons for the occurrence of security vulnerabilities in online payment and shopping cart systems. One major reason is that developers of web applications are not always well versed in secure programming techniques, and in addition, the security of an application is not always one of the main design goals. What exacerbates this is that site owners are often in a big hurry to add functionality, either to get ahead of the competition, or to handle sudden changes in the commercial environment so the priority is to get the application online, and sort out the security later.
Types Of Attack
When these vulnerabilities arise, attackers are very quick to exploit them. The particularly vulnerable stages in the process, which they can target, include shoppers themselves, the shoppers computers, the network connection from shopper to seller?€?s server, the seller?€?s server itself, and the software vendor. Examples at the shopper’s end include social engineering attacks, such as tricking the shopper into revealing personal data, or phishing schemes to collect banking data. At another stage the attacker can sniff the network, as it is called - that is, monitor the network between shopper and server, and collect data.
How To Be Confident
The standard protocol for securing e-commerce transactions is SSL or Secure Sockets Layer. This encrypts information such as credit card numbers and other sensitive data. An SSL certificate on a secure server can be 40-bit or 128-bit, but as the 40-bit has proved easy to hack, a 128-bit certificate is regarded as highly advisable.
However, although a 128-bit SSL certificate is necessary, it is far from sufficient, as these sites still contain vulnerabilities. The only way to be confident is for security to be built into applications at the actual ecommerce website design stage. Designers must carry out detailed risk assessment procedures, identifying all potential threats and vulnerabilities for the whole system, designing countermeasures, and constantly testing.
Security Rather Than Speed
Vulnerabilities that occur in online retail sites are obviously present in all sorts of other web applications as well, but of course are more serious where financial transactions are involved. Security failures not only mean loss of revenue for the retailer, but loss of reputation as well, and in some cases prosecution. It is essential for all those involved in ecommerce website design to make security their priority, rather than speed, and for site owners to insist on this.
References:
http://www.symantec.com/connect/articles/common-security-vulnerabilities-e-commerce-systems


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