Electronic Fund Transfer Systems
According to analyst predictions, the volume of purchases made electronically over the Internet will expand from $131 million in 1995 to as much as $600 billion by the year 2000, accounting for approximately 8% of all retail purchases worldwide. As companies of all sizes and in all industries gear up to do business on the Internet, technology leaders worldwide are working together to build the requisite electronic commerce infrastructure — this infrastructure spans everything from the networking technologies that will tie businesses together, to the software applications that will permit them to engage each other in commerce. While making electronic commerce a reality has posed an assortment of technological challenges, the issue of transaction security has received the most public attention. Both businesses and consumers have held it up as their most serious concern. The fear of hackers and fraud and financial exposure has taken a measurable toll. But the security challenge has also been the focus of the most innovative and creative inter-industry collaboration. Leaders in the technology, financial and credit card industries have spent the last several years creating the critical security component of the electronic commerce equation… @
October 4th, 2006 at 1:34 am
[…] The mainstream acceptance of online shopping hinges on convincing consumers and merchants that the Internet is secure. This is a logical next step, now that many individuals and businesses have acknowledged the value of the Internet as a personal tool or as a means to pursue new business opportunities. As sudden as the Internet’s rise to popularity was, it still followed the same cycle of assimilation as any other “brand new” technology before it, albeit a dramatically abbreviated cycle. While many early adopters were quick to investigate the Internet phenomenon, there were others who waited. Likewise today, there are people who use the Internet every day, but who still do not choose to conduct their most critical personal transactions online. There are also companies that are reluctant to evolve their purely informational Web sites to the next level — commerce enablement. Security is the linchpin for both. […]