Firewalls are critical to an ebusiness solution. A firewall establishes security by defining the services and access permitted to various user. Effectively. it creates a barrier between a corporate network and an external network. Technically, a firewall is software and hardware that alows only external users with specific characteristics to access a protected network or site.
It gives insers full access to services while granting outsiders access to services only selectively, based on user names and passwords, an Internet IP address, or a domain name. There are various types of firewalls. They include simple logging traffic systems, IP packet screening routers, hardened firewall hosts, and proxy application gateways. Encryption is another way to protect sensitive information. It is designed to secure information that travels over public channels such as copyrighted or confidential data. And it helps to ensure privacy, confidentiality, and integrity, three key requirements of transaction based ebusiness. Two kinds of encryption exist: secret-key encryption and public-key encryption. Secret-key encryption (also known as symmetric key encryption) involves the use of a shared key for encryption by the transmitter and decryption by the receiver. uses two keys, one to encrypt the message and another to decrypt the message. The two keys are mathematically related so that data encrypted with one key can only be decrypted by using the other. This is a more sophisticated form of encryption.
Biometrics are a means of using biology and or physiology to identify a user though either thumb prints, eye-scans, or voice recognition. Biometrics are generally used for physical security for highly sensitive for highly sensitive sites. Digital certificates are attachments to electronic messages that are used for security purposes. They are just one of the methods of ensuring the identity of a person or entity in order to guarantee the integrity and to verify the origin of the user/order. (SSL) Secure Socket Layer negotiates point-to-point security between clients and servers. By convention, Web pages that require an SSL connection starts with https: instead of http:
While not comprehensive SSL are the most common security device used in ebusiness.
PKIs are key security tools for ebusiness. They are internet specific security suites that combine encryption technology software and services. They enable organization to secure online business transactions and communication. PKIs integrate public-key cryptography and digital certificate technology into an organization-wide security infrastructure. PKI services are comprehensive. Their functions include issuing digital certificates to users and servers as well as tools for managing corporate certificates, end user software enrollment control, and the application of encryption for higher security requirements.