Many new business
website ownersfalsely believe that
every small business website is
automatically an e-business website. Most small business websites don't require
fully
functional e-business features. Conducting your business online, can expose both
the seller and buyer to many security risks. If your business is not careful to protect
your customer's
private or financial information, you could be needlessly exposing
yourself to serious problems. Nearly 90% of all customers who buy online goods or
services, are still concerned about the security issues of conducting e-business
transactions. Do it right, or don't do it at all!
The World Wide Web or WWW
was conceived and designed to provide
fully accessible PUBLIC INFORMATION. The method by which this public
information comes to your computer
screen is call HTTP (hyper text transfer protocol). This allows anyone with a web
browser, connected to the internet, to access all the information in all
the public files on the web. Private information should never be available on
publicly accessible webpages!
Please read the full (https description) before making a decision about
conducting "E-business".
Any attempt to "disguise" the real or common meaning of words or numbers
could be called "encryption." The degree of complexity determines the
quality of that encryption. All good encryption methods used in e-commerce
transactions use 128 bit encryption to "disguise" the
information being transmitted, over a secure (single port, https) connection.
Good Encryption is NOT a guarantee of complete privacy and security.
How "people" distribute and protect sensitive data is far more
important.
The really vulnerable time for sensitive information? After your customer gives it
to you and you store it on your company computer! Technology advances allow criminals
to attack data and databases with alarming regularity. Protecting your customers'
personal and financial information, is YOUR responsibility. No encryption code is
completely unbreakable.
40 bit encryption was supposed to be completely secure, too!
Like many terms or buzzwords, an online business is a frequently
misused term. Any information, from any small business website that was retrieved from
the www via a computer (online), was from an
online business source.
This may have nothing to do with an online payment, which would
be
an e-business transaction.
E-commerce is still in it's infancy. As with any cutting edge technology
growing pains are inevitable. Although the terminology used in e-commerce would lead
the public to believe that every transaction is simple and absolutely safe, its
not quite so (yet).
Ecommerce payments will soon become the "normal method" for
most business transactions. When the banking industry and government regulators
can agree on all the legal requirements for open, instant money transfer, it will
reach the status of "very simple and safe." Until then, most business
websites are simply relying on private companies to safeguard their customers'
information (and money)! Your website can probably avoid the
full e-commerce website
risks and still be a very profitable (commercial) website.
In the "Information Age," downloading information is a great
way to get digital products (programs, games and How-to books) instantly. For a
small business dedicated to providing digital information, understanding how your
customer can pay for and download your product is very important. Many businesses
can benefit by also providing service or product information as a "download"
that their customers can store on their personal computer.
Downloading information can create security problems for anyone
not familiar with the safeguards. Making a downloadable file available to your customers
should always be accompanied by detailed instructions on how to do so safely. Providing
webpage information as a Plain Text or .pdf
(portable document format) file, is also a safe download method.
"Who" manages and maintains your ebusiness website is a critical
decision. Conducting business online requires attention to the details. Information
management is a key issue for ebusiness websites. You can certainly manage or
"webmaster" a small business website. Conducting ebusiness, usually requires
the services of a highly competent webmaster.
Webmaster information is available from
many sources. Caution
should always be exercised when deciding who will manage your website.
The webhosting service provider is
an important component to every business
website. Many hosting services are simply resellers for major hosting
service providers and do not have any control over the server (s). Avoiding
Free hosting service providers is a must for any small business website. If you
don't take your business website seriously, why should your customers
(or search engines)? It's "free," because you agree to allow the hosting
service to sell advertising space on your website. You have little or no control
over the ads.
Webhosting Services are available from many providers. Ebusiness
websites should only be hosted by high quality service providers. Security
and control are far more important than cost. Paying a good hosting service to
protect your visitors (customers) and your site's integrity, is critical to your
success. Search engines also recognize the value of good hosting services and will
rank your webpages accordingly.
See also (
secure sockets ) for important information.
Please note: Google does not permit direct searches from non-exclusive
business websites and so they are not included. Please search Google directly at www.google.com