What is Electronic Commerce ?
E-commerce is the utilization of computer technology to accept payments and fulfill delivery of products and services via the Internet or private networks.
The explosive growth of online transactions push some companies into becoming CSP (Commerce Service Providers):OneHost, AT&T, etc.
Characteristics:
- transport over insecure public networks
- confidentiality: based upon cryptographic protocols
- authentication and trust: based on digital certificates and signatures
- fundamental unit: financial transaction