As more and more businesses move online, 
the need for ensuring the safety and
security of transactions and customer
data has increased.
According to a study conducted by Verizon, 37% of all data breach
related security incidents in 2012 were targeted at financial organizations.
While 52% of these breaches used some form of hacking,
a massive 76% of the data breaches were made via stolen
identity obtained by exploiting the gaps in network security.
These incidents paint a scary picture of what could
happen with your online data if it is not protected.
Any business conducting transactions online would do well to adhere to
some of the most secure technologies available to ensure they do not fall prey
to hackers and identity thieves. Here are some of the major security
concerns and how technology can help secure these issues.
User Identity Authorization
Since June 2000, the United States has authorized the use of online signatures
as a legally binding way to engage in business contracts. One of the major benefits
of this technology is the speed and ease of engaging in business agreements
with people from any part of the world without the delay caused by physical
shipping of business contract documents.
While e-signatures are an important part of business transactions today,
it is easy to spoof identity in the absence of proper security measures.
Leading e-signature companies, including the likes of Silanis,
EchoSign and Docusign, make use of user authentication techniques
that ensure that only the intended recipient of the document may
view the document and sign them electronically.
These technologies also ensure that the hosted documents are
tamper-proof so that signed documents may not be tampered
with in any way after the document has been signed.
Data Encryption & Transmission
The most critical part of any business transaction is when the data is
transmitted from one computer to another. During this period,
the data flows between several servers and is handled by multiple operators.
It is extremely essential that all these servers and computers that the data
is transmitted through are built with sufficient layers of encryption so that
none of this data can be read by intermediaries and hackers.
Although this is the most critical part, it is not impossible thanks
to the various encryption standards that are available today.
This includes PKI, Hash Standards, RSA and AES.
Besides encryption of data, key management is another critical part of
encryption since insecure handling of this data can result in data
being broken into. SSL and TLS are two of the most common
key management systems that are popular among e-businesses today.
Digital Certification
Regardless of how impenetrable the online security is, potential customers
to the business may not be convinced as long as there is a third party
validation of the security procedure.
Digital certificates offer this validation to businesses that handle secure data online.
There are multiple certification authorities like Verisign, Symantec, Comodo
and Network Solutions that certify the security according to their own criteria.
Obtaining this certification is not only something that will help build customer
trust but can also ensure that your encryption techniques are
implemented correctly and securely.
Disaster Recovery Standards
E-business relies on a lot of cloud-hosted applications and services. In these cases,
confidential data is not available on-premise with the business at all times.
Consequently, it is extremely critical to not only ensure proper mitigation
of risks, but also establish processes to recover data after disaster strikes.
Some of the most common ways to ensure seamless recovery of data are
- Ensuring data is synchronized across multiple datacenters across the world
- Online backup of all data
- Hot Site DR – a proactive site that keeps the backup site and servers running even
during a recovery to ensure mission critical applications are not impacted
Security in e-business if of paramount importance. Even a few isolated incidents can
derail customer confidence and can be disastrous for the business.
By adhering to the highest standards set in the industry, businesses can
ensure that they are available securely to their customers at all times.
This goes a long way in building brand reputation and growth over the long term.
The end.