E-Commerce

E-Commerce
In its simplest form ecommerce is the buying and selling of products
and services by businesses or consumers over the World Wide Web.
People use the term "ecommerce" or "online shopping" to describe
the process of searching for and selecting products in online
catalogues and then "checking out" using a credit card and encrypted
payment processing
Definition
E-commerce describes the process of buying and
selling of products, services and information via
computer networks including internet.
E-commerce is the means to complete online
transaction and integrate the supply chain into the
transaction management process such as receiving
orders, making payments and tracking down the
deliveries or order.
E-commerce refers to paperless exchange of business information using
following ways.
Electronic Data Exchange (EDI)
Electronic Mail (e-mail)
Electronic Bulletin Boards
Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT)
Other Network-based technologies
Limitation of Traditional Commerce
Paper work
Delay in transaction
Addition cost of paper, typing, documents storage and handling.
Time consuming
Delay in payment
Difficult to reach to remote customer
Distributor, agents, wholesaler.
Features

E-Commerce provides following features:-

Non-Cash Payment E-Commerce enables use of credit cards, debit
cards, smart cards, electronic fund transfer via bank's website and
other modes of electronics payment.
24x7 Service availability E-commerce automates business of
enterprises and services provided by them to customers are available
anytime, anywhere. Here 24x7 refers to 24 hours of each seven days
of a week.
Advertising / Marketing E-commerce increases the reach of
advertising of products and services of businesses. It helps in better
marketing management of products / services.
 Improved Sales Using E-Commerce, orders for the products can be
generated any time, any where without any human intervention. By
this way, dependencies to buy a product reduce at large and sales
increases.
Support E-Commerce provides various ways to provide pre sales
and post sales assistance to provide better services to customers.
Inventory Management Using E-Commerce, inventory management
of products becomes automated. Reports get generated instantly
when required. Product inventory management becomes very
efficient and easy to maintain.
Communication improvement E-Commerce provides ways for
faster, efficient, reliable communication with customers and partners.
 E-commerce Benefits
Reduced costs by reducing labour,

Reduced paper work,

Reduced errors in keying in data,

Reduced time. Shorter lead times for payment

 E-commerce Benefits
Faster delivery of product .

New Markets. The Internet has the potential to expand your

business into wider geographical locations
Role of E-Commerce
E-Commerce is used everywhere
On-line education
Online banking
Electronic fund transfer
Online auction
Travel reservation on internet
Online retailing(homeshop18, flip cart)
Three-tier Technical Model
Server side

Client side Service system Backend system

Architecture of Web-based E-
Commerce System
Service system Backend system

Web Server Application Server

Internet Database

Intranet
Firewall
(Secure)

Client side Server side

Web Server Software
The most popular Web server programs are:
Apache HTTP Server
Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS)
Sun Java System Web Server (JSWS)

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Apache HTTP Server
Apache is the results of an ongoing group software
development effort, first developed by Rob McCool at
the University of Illinois in 1994 at the NCSA
Apache has dominated the Web since 1996 because it is
free (open source) and performs efficiently

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 Microsoft Internet Information
Server
Comes bundled with current versions of Microsoft
Windows Server operating systems
Used on many corporate intranets
Supports the use of:
ASP
ActiveX Data Objects
SQL database queries

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Telnet and FTP Utilities
Telnet
Program that allows users to log on to a computer connected
to the Internet
Telnet protocol
Set of rules used by Telnet programs
File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Defines formats used to transfer files between TCP/IP-
connected computers
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 Features

E-Commerce provides following features

Non-Cash Payment: E-Commerce enables use of credit cards, debit
cards, smart cards, electronic fund transfer via bank's website and
other modes of electronics payment.
24x7 Service availability: E-commerce automates business of
enterprises and services provided by them to customers are available
anytime, anywhere. Here 24x7 refers to 24 hours of each seven days
of a week.
 Advertising / Marketing: E-commerce increases the reach of
advertising of products and services of businesses. It helps in better
marketing management of products / services.
Improved Sales: Using E-Commerce, orders for the products can be
generated any time, any where without any human intervention. By
this way, dependencies to buy a product reduce at large and sales
increases.
Support: E-Commerce provides various ways to provide pre sales and
post sales assistance to provide better services to customers.
.
 Inventory Management: Using E-Commerce, inventory management
of products becomes automated. Reports get generated instantly
when required. Product inventory management becomes very
efficient and easy to maintain.
Communication improvement: E-Commerce provides ways for faster,
efficient, reliable communication with customers and partners
Advantages:E-Commerce Advantages

E-Commerce advantages can be broadly classified in three

major categories:

Advantages to Organizations

Advantages to Consumers

Advantages to Society
 Advantages to Organizations

Using E-Commerce, organization can expand their market to national

and international markets with minimum capital investment. An
organization can easily locate more customers, best suppliers and
suitable business partners across the globe.
E-Commerce helps organization to reduce the cost to create process,
distribute, retrieve and manage the paper based information by
digitizing the information.
E-commerce improves the brand image of the company.
 Advantages to Organizations

E-commerce helps organization to provide better customer services.

E-Commerce helps to simplify the business processes and make them
faster and efficient.
E-Commerce reduces paper work a lot.
 Advantages to Customers

24x7 support. Customer can do transactions for the product or

enquiry about any product/services provided by a company any time,
any where from any location. Here 24x7 refers to 24 hours of each
seven days of a week.
E-Commerce application provides user more options and quicker
delivery of products.
E-Commerce application provides user more options to compare and
select the cheaper and better option.
 A customer can put review comments about a product and can see
what others are buying or see the review comments of other
customers before making a final buy.
E-Commerce provides option of virtual auctions.
Readily available information. A customer can see the relevant
detailed information within seconds rather than waiting for days or
weeks.
E-Commerce increases competition among the organizations and as
result organizations provides substantial discounts to customers.
Advantages to Society

Customers need not to travel to shop a product thus less traffic on

road and low air pollution.
E-Commerce helps reducing cost of products so less affluent people
can also afford the products.
E-Commerce has enabled access to services and products to rural
areas as well which are otherwise not available to them.
E-Commerce helps government to deliver public services like health
care, education, social services at reduced cost and in improved way.
E-Commerce Disadvantages

E-Commerce disadvantages can be broadly classified in two major

categories:
Technical disadvantages
Non-Technical disadvantages
Technical Disadvantages

There can be lack of system security, reliability or standards owing to

poor implementation of e-Commerce.
Software development industry is still evolving and keeps changing
rapidly.
In many countries, network bandwidth might cause an issue as there
is insufficient telecommunication bandwidth available.
Special types of web server or other software might be required by
the vendor setting the e-commerce environment apart from network
servers.
 Sometimes, it becomes difficult to integrate E-Commerce software or
website with the existing application or databases.
There could be software/hardware compatibility issue as some E-
Commerce software may be incompatible with some operating
system or any other component.
Non-Technical Disadvantages

Initial cost: The cost of creating / building E-Commerce application in-

house may be very high. There could be delay in launching the E-
Commerce application due to mistakes, lack of experience.
User resistance: User may not trust the site being unknown faceless
seller. Such mistrust makes it difficult to make user switch from
physical stores to online/virtual stores.
 Security/ Privacy: Difficult to ensure security or privacy on online
transactions.
Lack of touch or feel of products during online shopping.
E-Commerce applications are still evolving and changing rapidly.
Internet access is still not cheaper and is inconvenient to use for many
potential customers like one living in remote villages.
Types of Electronic commerce

Business - to - Business (B2B)(metro.co.in)

Business - to - Consumer (B2C)

Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)

Consumer - to - Business (C2B)

B2B
B2B
Website following B2B business model sells its product to an
intermediate buyer who then sells the product to the final customer.
As an example, a wholesaler places an order from a company's
website and after receiving the consignment, sells the end product to
final customer who comes to buy the product at wholesaler's retail
outlet.
Business - to - Consumer(B2C)
Business - to - Consumer(B2C)

Website following B2C business model sells its product directly to a

customer. A customer can view products shown on the website of
business organization. The customer can choose a product and order
the same. Website will send a notification to the business
organization via email and organization will dispatch the
product/goods to the customer.
Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)
Consumer - to - Consumer (C2C)

Website following C2C business model helps consumer to sell their

assets like residential property, cars, motorcycles etc. or rent a room
by publishing their information on the website. Website may or may
not charge the consumer for its services. Another consumer may opt
to buy the product of the first customer by viewing the
post/advertisement on the website.
Consumer - to - Business (C2B)
Consumer - to - Business (C2B)

In this model, a consumer approaches website showing multiple

business organizations for a particular service. Consumer places an
estimate of amount he/she wants to spend for a particular service.
For example, comparison of interest rates of personal loan/ car loan
provided by various banks via website. Business organization who
fulfills the consumer's requirement within specified budget
approaches the customer and provides its services.
Example of Electronic Commerce

B2C: www.amazon.com
C2C: www.eBay.com
B2B: www.metro.co.in
C2B: www.priceline.com
Measuring Benefits
Tangible benefits of electronic commerce initiatives include:
Increased sales

Reduced costs

Intangible benefits of electronic commerce initiatives include:

Increased customer satisfaction
E-commerce categories
Business originating from . . .
Business Consumers

Publishers order paper

Business
supplies from paper
companies Consumers aggregate to
bulk purchase from Amazon
Amazon orders from
Consumers publishers

Consumers buy thousands

of Harry Potter books from Consumers resell
Amazon copies on eBay

Single chain (or converging categories) of e-commerce

Elements of E-Commerce
Database
Website(with all details)
Cookies
SSL(secure sockets layer)
Secure Certificate
Electronic payment system.
Merchant Account
Payment Gateway
 Catalog
A catalog represents a collection of products that you group
into categories.
You can then use this information to create, within a
Commerce Server-enabled Web site,
Web pages that let your customers browse your collection
of products.
The categories in your catalogs can have sub-categories, and
products may appear in multiple categories.
 Catalog
You can define a product with variations, for example, the same shirt
can have different colors. These are called a product variants.
You can also create catalogs that display on your Web site in different
languages and different currencies.
You can link two products together, so that when one is viewed, the
other appears somewhere on your Web site page as an alternate
suggestion..
 Catalog
Catalogs contain hierarchies and relationships that you use to
organize the products in the catalog
It is used to make it easier for customers to navigate to the products
that they want to buy.
You can create category hierarchies and relationships among
categories and products that are in the same catalog or in different
catalogs.

 Catalog
For example, if you have a large catalog, you can create a parent
category that includes several other categories, known as child
categories.
When customers navigate to the parent category, the child categories
appear; enabling customers to navigate quickly to the category that
contains the products they want.
For example, you could define an "alternate" relationship so that
when one product is viewed, another appears somewhere on your
Web site page as an alternate suggestion.
How To Collect The Money in Ecommerce
Ecommerce simply refers to the practice of shopping online
In order to collect funds, you need to have:-

A Merchant Account and

A Payment Gateway
 Basically, when a person enters their credit card number on a
website, the card number and buyer information is sent to a payment
gateway.
This is done securely.
The payment gateway will interface with a payment processor to
check availability of funds as well as any other criteria set for
accepting transactions.
If the funds are available, the payment processor will then deduct the
funds.
Merchant Accounts
A Merchant Account is a special type of account specifically for online retailers.
They are designed to allow non-POS (point of sale) transactions using credit cards, or transactions
where you dont have the persons credit card in hand. In other words, you dont have a card
swiper.
A merchant account is not the same as a bank account. It acts as a go-between between your
payment gateway and your bank account, accepting funds from credit cards which are then
deposited into your bank.
A merchant account is a relationship based on trust between you and the issuing bank.
The bank takes funds from the buyers account and deposits into your account. A payment
processor takes care of checking for availability of funds and debiting from the credit card
account.
The bank issuing the merchant account is trusting that you will fulfill your end of the transaction
by providing the product or service that the buyer purchased.
 Merchant account
A merchant account is a type of bank account that allows businesses to accept
payments by payment cards, typically debit or credit cards.
A merchant account is established under an agreement between an acceptor and
a merchant acquiring bank for the settlement of payment card transactions.
 What is a merchant account?

Every payment made with a credit or debit card involves the transfer
of funds to a merchant account, which a merchant (that is you) holds
directly with a bank.
The merchant has full responsibility for the transactions that occur
with their account, and each bank has its own terms of service to
which accountholders must adhere.
If you want to accept credit card payments through your Shopify
store, you will need either a merchant account of your own or the
services of a thirdparty payment processor like PayPal.
 What is an Internet merchant account?
It's an account with a bank that allows you to process credit cards
online.
 How it works
.
Your Online Shop
Payment Gateway
InternetMerchant Account
 How it works
Your customer inputs credit card information in Your Online Shop.
The Payment Gateway encrypts data and sends it securely to your
Internet Merchant Account.
The transaction is reviewed for authorisation by the customers
issuing bank.
The result is encrypted and sent back through the gateway.
You get the results and decide whether or not to fulfil the order.
Payment Gateways
A payment gateway serves as the front end to your merchant account, allowing you to manage
funds, transactions, and the like.
It also serves as a connection between your website and your merchant account.
It takes data submitted via your secure order forms and presents it to your processing bank. The
processing bank then approves or declines the transaction and sends its response back to the
payment gateway.
The payment gateway then turns around and provides this data back to the merchant for
appropriate handling of the transaction. A payment gateway, then, does not offer services such as
merchant accounts or shopping carts, although some of the larger-known gateways do provide
such options as value-added services.
Some of the common fraud detection mechanisms are Address Verification (AVS) which compares
the customers address with that on file with the issuing bank, CVV which makes use of the 3-digit
security code on the credit card (4-digit on American Express cards).
Payment gateways vs third-party processors
Third-party processors, like PayPal and Amazon Payments , may allow
you to receive credit card payments online without a merchant
account and payment gateway.
Many new e-commerce websites choose to start with a third-party
processor.
A third-party processor is generally cheaper in the short term, and
easier to set up, than a merchant account and payment gateway
combination.
 Supply chain management (SCM)
Supply chain management is the integration of the activities that
procure(buy) materials and services, transform them into
intermediate goods and final products, and deliver them through a
distribution system.
But in general, Supplychain management means the management of
upstream and downstream relationships with suppliers and
customers to deliver superior customer value at less cost to the
supply chain as a whole
 Enterprise resource planning (ERP)
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a business management software
usually a suite(group) of integrated applicationsthat a company can use
to collect, store, manage and interpret data from many business activities,
including:-
Product planning, cost and development
Manufacturing or service delivery
Marketing and sales
Inventory management
Shipping and payment
ERP provides an integrated view of core business processes, often in real-
time, using common databases maintained by a database management
system
 ERP software is considered an enterprise application as it is designed
to be used by larger businesses and often requires dedicated teams to
customize and analyze the data and to handle upgrades and
deployment.
So Generally there are lot of ERP package vendors in the
market like,SAP(SAP is an acronym for Systems, Applications and
Products.),Oracle,BANN,JD Edwards etc.Each
vendor is specialized in one or many resources.SAP comes
under ERP Package which gives business solutions to a
business setup in all areas like Finance,Sales,Costing and
materials etc.
 SAP
SAP stands for Systems Applications and Products in Data Processing.
SAP is an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system by SAP AG,
company based out of Walldorf in Germany. AG is derived from the
German word AKtiengesellschaft. According to German Language
SAP Stands for Systeme, Anwendungen und Produkte in Der
Datenverarbeitung.
SAP software suite that is being implemented as part of re-
engineering and Provides end to end solutions for financial, logistics,
distribution, inventories. Present scenario large number of companies
are using sap software for their day to day business activities.
 SAP
SAP is beautifully and neatly integrated ERP software. SAP is a leader
when it comes to easy integration among all the departments. It
provides industry specific solutions for different industries other then
its basic SAP modules. SAP suit contains SAP FI, CO, SD, MM, PP, HR,
PA and other modules
 Procurement
(obtain)
The act of obtaining or buying goods and services. The process
includes preparation and processing of a demand as well as the end
receipt and approval of payment.
 EDI

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange.

Example Flipkart receipt send to customer when product is sent.
EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange. Electronic data interchange
(EDI) is the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents
between companies. EDI replaces the faxing and mailing of paper
documents. EDI documents use specific computer record formats that are
based on widely accepted standards. EDI is an electronic way of
transferring business documents in an organization internally between its
various departments or externally with suppliers, customers or any
subsidiaries etc. In EDI, paper documents are replaced with electronic
documents like word documents, spreadsheets etc.
 EDI Documents

Following are few important documents used in EDI:

Invoices
Purchase orders
Shipping Requests
Acknowledgement
Business Correspondence letters
Financial information letters
 EFT
Electronic funds transfer (EFT) is the electronic exchange, transfer of
money from one account to another, either within a single financial
institution or across multiple institutions, through computer-based
systems.
Cardholder-initiated transactions, using a payment card such as a
credit or debit card
Question: What does "EFT (electronic funds transfer)" mean?
Answer: The transfer of money from one account to another by
computer.
Back-end EC solution
All ERP vendor Like SAP, oracle have also announced Web Ec
strategies and products like.
Peachtree software: complete package for web front and managing
order.
SBT corp Web trader is another c2b web ec package work in LAN
Great plain software:
a: Dynamic merchant for c2b, dynamic order for b2b

A number of new startup vendor are starting to provide front end ec

 Media convergence
IT + Telecommunication + Media Technology = media convergence
Mobile= telephone + high speed data + broadcast services.
You can watch television on Mobile and computer.
Now a days analogue and digital work together or analogue becoming
digital.
types of convergence
Network convergence: different types of networks becoming capable of
carrying multiple kinds of communication services.
Terminal convergence:- making it possible to watch TV on mobile.
Market convergence:- different kind of market like IT, Tele and media
working together.
 types of convergence:

1:-Network convergence: different types of networks becoming capable

of carrying multiple kinds of communication services.
2:-Terminal convergence:- making it possible to watch TV on mobile.
3:-Market convergence:- different kind of market like IT, Tele and media
working together.
4:-Media convergence is the merging of mass communication outlets
print, television, radio, the Internet along with portable and interactive
technologies through various digital media platforms
 Intranets
Private internal networks
Extranet
Used when companies want to collaborate with suppliers, partners, or
customers
Internet2
Experimental network built by a consortium of research universities and
businesses

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Auction Overview
In an auction, a seller offers an item for sale,
but does not establish a price
Stakeholders:
Bidders (i.e., potential buyers)
Sellers
Intermediaries
Shill bidders place bids on behalf of the seller to
artificially inflate the price of an item

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 Ecommerce

Understanding e-commerce is actually quite easy. There are 3 things

that make up an e-commerce transaction:

A shopping cart
A payment gateway
A merchant account
The Shopping Cart
The shopping cart software is what keeps track of the products your
customers want to purchase as they surf through your website.
It is the software that powers the "Add to Cart" buttons that you have
probably seen on many e-commerce websites.
Some merchants offer services and do not have a product based
website. Even if you don't sell products on your site, you will still have
some type of software that calculates how much the customer is
supposed to pay you.
The Shopping Cart
Think of the shopping cart as the cashier at the grocery store who
rings through your groceries.
It is their job to figure out how much money you are supposed to pay.
In an e-commerce website, the software performs this job and will
determine how much you owe for the sale.
Once the shopping cart has figured out how much you owe for the
sale, it needs to send this information somewhere so the credit card
can be processed.
This brings us to the second part of every e-commerce transaction -
the payment gateway.
The Payment Gateway
The function of the payment gateway is actually quite easy to
understand.
When you go to a gas station and pay with your credit card, the
attendant swipes your card through a payment terminal.
The payment gateway does the same job as that little electronic
device, except because it's an online transaction the credit card is not
physically swiped through a terminal. Instead the shopping cart
securely encrypts the credit card and order details and sends it off to
the payment gateway to be processed.

The payment gateway will electronically contact the customers card
issuing bank and check to see if they have sufficient credit to pay for
the sale. If so, the card issuing bank will return an authorization and
the funds will be debited from the customers credit card balance.

When those funds are captured from the customers credit card
account, they must go somewhere. This is where the final part of an
e-commerce transaction comes in - the merchant account.

The Merchant Account

When the payment gateway processes the transaction and the
customers credit card is charged for the sale, that money has to go
somewhere.
Specifically, it needs to deposited into a bank account.
Funds from credit card sales are deposited into a special type of bank
account -- called a "merchant account".
That really is all a merchant account is - a bank account that is used to
hold funds captured from your credit card sales. Then, once per week
the money is sent out of your merchant account into your regular
business bank account.
What is PKI?

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) refers to the technical mechanisms,

procedures and policies that collectively provide a framework for
addressing the previously illustrated fundamentals of security -
authentication, confidentiality, integrity, non-repudiation and access
control.
PKI enables people and businesses to utilise a number of secure
Internet applications. For example, secure and legally binding emails
and Internet based transactions, and services delivery can all be
achieved through the use of PKI.
PKI utilises two core elements; Public Key Cryptography and
Certification Authorities.
 Encryption and Decryption
The benefits of PKI are delivered through the use of Public Key
Cryptography. A core aspect of Public Key Cryptography is the encryption
and decryption of digital data.
Encryption is the conversion of data into seemingly random,
incomprehensible data. Its meaningless form ensures that it remains
unintelligible to everyone for whom it is not intended, even if the intended
have access to the encrypted data.
The only way to transform the data back into intelligible form is to reverse
the encryption (known as decryption). Public Key Cryptography encryption
and decryption is performed with Public and Private Keys.
 Public Key and Private Keys

The Public and Private key pair comprise of two uniquely related
cryptographic keys (basically long random numbers). Below is an example
of a Public Key:
3048 0241 00C9 18FA CF8D EB2D EFD5 FD37 89B9 E069 EA97 FC20 5E35
F577 EE31 C4FB C6E4 4811 7D86 BC8F BAFA 362F 922B F01B 2F40 C744
2654 C0DD 2881 D673 CA2B 4003 C266 E2CD CB02 0301 0001
The Public Key is what its name suggests - Public. It is made available to
everyone via a publicly accessible repository or directory. On the other
hand, the Private Key must remain confidential to its respective owner.
 Because the key pair is mathematically related, whatever is encrypted with a
Public Key may only be decrypted by its corresponding Private Key and vice versa.
For example, if Bob wants to send sensitive data to Alice, and wants to be sure
that only Alice may be able to read it, he will encrypt the data with Alice's Public
Key. Only Alice has access to her corresponding Private Key and as a result is the
only person with the capability of decrypting the encrypted data back into its
original form.

As only Alice has access to her Private Key, it is possible that only Alice can
decrypt the encrypted data. Even if someone else gains access to the encrypted
data, it will remain confidential as they should not have access to Alice's Private
Key.
Secure Electronic Transaction(SET)
An application-layer security mechanism, consisting of a set of
protocols.
Protect credit card transaction on the Internet.
Companies involved: MasterCard, Visa, IBM, Microsoft, Netscape,
RSA, CyberCash, NetBill
Not an ordinary payment system.
It has a complex technical specification
Secure Electronic Transaction (SET): Protocol

Confidentiality: All messages are encrypted

Trust: All parties must have digital certificates
Privacy: information made available only when and
where necessary
Developed by Visa and MasterCard
Designed to protect credit card transactions
 Website vs Webportal

A Webportal is also a type of website but it differs in content and services

from a typical website that provides only specialized information.
A website is a general term for any collection of pages on the same domain
or sub-domain.
A web portal is generally used for a 'gateway' site or set of pages - ie, they
are principally links signposting other sites.
A web portal is the entrance (gate) to the Web. One can enter the web
from many different portals (gates) and either dive into the portal inner
web or move to other portals in the web. Yahoo is an good example for
web portal.
It's also important to note that a "Web Portal" is also a website.
 PayPal

PayPal is an electronic payment system which can transfer money

between its accounts.
In order to use PayPal, one has to obtain a PayPal account, which is
associated either with the customer's credit card or with their regular
bank account.
The validity of a checking account is checked as follows: the customer
gives PayPal their account number, PayPal makes two small-amount
(less than $1) deposits to the account.
If the customer is able to tell PayPal the value of these deposits, then
the customer is assumed to be a legitimate user of the account.
 In order for the person to retrieve the money, they must have a
PayPal account.
To avoid fraud, PayPal sends an e-mail message to both the initiator
and the recipient of the transaction.
PayPal is used to settle online auctions, such as eBay auctions.
The ease of use and the fact that no credit card is required to use it
makes PayPal increasingly popular.
 With PayPal, you can send money to anyone with an email address.

Heres how to send money:

Log in to your PayPal account.
Click Send Money.
Enter the recipients email address and the amount you want to send.
Select Purchase or Personal, then choose the reason for the payment.
Click Continue.
 PayPal

PayPal Holdings, Inc. is an American company operating a worldwide

online payments system that supports online money transfers and
serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods
like checks and money orders. PayPal is one of the world's largest
Internet payment companies.[6] The company operates as a payment
processor for online vendors, auction sites and other commercial
users, for which it charges a fee.
 In order to participate in PayPal, you must sign up to be a member. Right now it's free.
In fact, it remains a free service as long as you remain only a buyer, meaning money only moves
from your account to someone else's account or you request from your own monetary sources.
In order to sign up, you are asked all the basic questions, plus you choose the traditional login and
password. Your email is proven active by the computer sending you your confirmation number.
You get the number, return to the site, and finish the process.
After signing up, you are asked to enter either a credit card number or bank account. Either way
you go, or even if you choose to allow both, the computer system performs a check. If the
accounts are active and have sufficient funds, you're good to go.
You'll be one of over 7 million beaming money from account to account.
 Why Would I Use PayPal?
Let me put it this way, the site my wife and I put together accepts credit cards. In order to be able
to do that, we had to set up a secure server, attain a secure certificate from Verisign, and have a
shopping cart / checkout system programmed for us. It cost us a fairly decent amount of
money.With PayPal, one can basically bypass all of that. I have seen numerous mom-and-pop level
online stores that proclaim they accept PayPal as payment. The basic concept is that someone
sends an email requesting to buy an item. The seller approves the sale. The buyer then goes to
PayPal and makes a secure transfer of funds.
An email letter arrives in the seller's box with the text "You've Got Money!" It's a take off on the
AOL "You've Got Mail!" Get it?
The email provides a link. The seller clicks to check to make sure the correct amount of money
has been transferred from one account to another. If all is on the up and up, the seller can
download the payment onto a credit card, into a bank account, or request a check. The
transaction is finished and the product is sent.
Why Wouldn't I Use PayPal?
you can only deal with a client that has PayPal. If you run an e-business and only accept PayPal,
you limit yourself to only those who are "in the club".
You may not think that is such a big problem since the service has customers numbering into the
millions, but compared to the number of people who have credit cards...you're limiting those who
can use the system. To that end, I see PayPal being only one possible method of payment rather
than being the end all for an online business.
It use to be that PayPal didn't accept international customers. Well, they do now so this isn't
much of a down side but I thought I'd mention it anyway.
Lastly, and this will probably tee off some real PayPal fans, PayPal isn't seen as the "correct"
method of online buying. I am only working with what I have read and heard from others, but I
have found that many people see PayPal as something that works for auctions but not for true e-
commerce. That is reserved for credit cards in many people's eyes.
 Review the amount, the payment method, and shipping address.

Add a message (if you want to), then click Send Money.

Paypal will send the recipient an email to let them know that you sent them money. If they dont
have a PayPal account, we explain how to sign up for one. PayPal members must confirm their
email address before the money will be credited to their PayPal account.
When you send money, Paypal use your PayPal balance first. If you dont have enough money in
your PayPal balance, paypal will use the payment method you select.
PayPal acts as the middleman holder of money.
How will the person who paid know that I got their payment?
A notification of payment will go to the email address

 PayPal Requirements

You need no special technology nor a business license to send/receive money

through Paypal. The only requirements are:

a valid email address.

a valid credit card or bank account
When you open a PayPal account, you register an email address with PayPal that
you will use for all transactions through PayPal,
Select a password, and provide your bank account information and credit card
information to be used as "funding sources" for PayPal transactions.
PayPal will then make a "test" withdrawal of one cent from your bank account to
complete/confirm the link.
 How does PayPal make money?

As a middleman financial broker, PayPal makes its profit by charging a

percentage of the money it transfers for you.

PayPal is Free for Buyers and for Sending Money to Someone Else. Once a buyer
sets up a Paypal account, then it costs nothing to send money to a vendor. The
funds are withdrawn from the user's credit card or bank account, or both. PayPal
does not charge buyers to send money.

PayPal Commonly Charges Money from Receivers (Sellers) :PayPal will only
charge you to receive funds(money is received by the seller so paypal only charge
from seller not the buyer but for using paypal buyer
If you are sending money to a friend or family member (someone who is not a
registered seller), you can opt to pay for the PayPal surcharge yourself.
 Branding

The process involved in creating a unique name and image for a

product in the consumers' mind, mainly through advertising
campaigns with a consistent theme. Branding aims to establish a
significant and differentiated presence in the market that attracts and
retains loyal customers.
A personal brand is how you market yourself to others, whereas an
eBrand is a digital representation of yourself online.
Brand is the name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that
identifies one sellers good or service as distinct from those of other
sellers.[
 E-Branding
Your online business website may prove that youre knowledgeable
on the latest technology but on the reverse side, it can damage your
business image if your site does not provide a good user experience
and is difficult to load or navigate around.

Few things to consider for your online business when determining

your e-Branding are
 E-Branding
How quickly your customers can load your website,
How easy it is to navigate around and understand your website,
How easily they can purchase or contact you,
How effective are your e-letters,
where else they found your website links, etc.
The general rule of thumb is that you have less than 5 seconds to
capture the attention of a visitor
 Web Hosting
'Hosting' is a service provided by a vendor
which offers a physical location for the
storage of web pages and files.
Think of a Web Hosting Company as a type
of landlord, they rent physical space on their
servers allowing webpages to be viewed on
the Internet.
 What is a Web Server?

Generally used in reference to the computer

hardware that provides World Wide Web
services on the Internet, a Web server includes
the hardware, operating system, server
software, TCP/IP protocols and the Web site
content. Web servers process requests from
Browsers for web pages and serves them up via
HTTP.
 Hosting server

A server dedicated to hosting a service or

services for users.
Hosting servers are most often used for hosting
Web sites but can also be used for hosting files,
images, games and similar content.
Hosting servers can be shared among many
clients (shared hosting servers) or dedicated to a
single client (dedicated servers).
 Types of Hosting account or Hosting service
Free Web hosting

Shared Hosting

Dedicated server

Clustered hosting

Colocation web hosting service

Free Web hosting

Free services work best for private Web

pages, small-audience blogs and static
websites because you have limited control.
Your choices of monetization strategies will
be restricted because free services will run
their own ads to earn money.
 Shared Hosting

These services share dedicated server resources with

multiple users.
Sharing a server results in some security risks, smaller
processing capacity and fewer software- and
database-support options.
Prices are more affordable for smaller needs, and you
do get better administrative control and more
monetization options.
 Dedicated server

A dedicated server provides robust features,

full administrative access and unlimited use of software
and applications, but you are responsible for your own
security and maintenance.
This is the best option if you plan on generating lots of
traffic or use special software. Basically, dedicated server
hosting is like running a branch office where you are
responsible for security and maintenance issues.
 Clustered hosting

Clustered hosting offers redundant servers to take

over when one server goes off-line.
This solution can be expensive, but it might be the
best choice for high-traffic websites that target
global customers.
Highly scalable, the option provides high
availability for multiple website applications.
.
You can easily shut down one server for
maintenance while assigning its load to other
servers.
A cluster can be assemble from a bunch of
dedicated servers, cloud servers or even an hybrid
of both. This is a very robust solution
 Colocation hosting
Colocation allows you to place your server machine in someone else's
rack and share their bandwidth as your own.
It generally costs more than standard Web hosting, but less than a
comparable amount of bandwidth into your place of business.
Once you have a machine set up, you take it physically to the location
of the colocation provider and install it in their rack or you rent a
server machine from the colocation provider.
That company then provides an IP, bandwidth, and power to your
server. Once it's up and running, you access it much like you would
access a Web site on a hosting provider. The difference being that you
own the hardware.
E-commerce Architecture
Tier
What is a "tier"?
A "tier" can also be referred to as a "layer".
n the software world Tiers/Layers should have some or all of the
following characteristics:
Each tier/layer should be able to be constructed separately, possibly
by different teams of people with different skills.
 Several tiers/layers should be able to be joined together to make a
whole "something".
Each tier/layer should contribute something different to the whole. A
chocolate layer cake, for example, has layers of chocolate and cake.
There must also be some sort of boundary between one tier and
another. You cannot take a single piece of cake, chop it up into smaller
units and call that a layer cake because each unit is indistinguishable
from the other units.
Each tier/layer should not be able to operate independently without
interaction with other tiers/layers.
 Presentation logic - the user interface (UI) which displays data to the
user and accepts input from the user. In a web application this is the
part which receives the HTTP request and returns the HTML
response.
Business logic - handles data validation, business rules and task-
specific behaviour.
Data Access logic - communicates with the database by constructing
SQL queries and executing them via the relevant API.
Three tier ecommerce architecture
 E-commerce Framework
Framework tells about the detail of how e-commerce can take place.
It defines actually how e-commerce implemented, how online
trading or business can be done.
It defines important components that should be present to do some
transaction

However determining a right framework for ecommerce solutions is a

major challenge.
Most of the frameworks are quite general and usually depend on the
country or organization needs.
 Four Layer Framework
Barua et al.6 proposed a four-layer framework.
The Internet infrastructure layer addresses the issue of backbone
infrastructure required for conducting business via the net.
It is Largely made up of telecommunication companies and other
hardware manufacturers such as computer and networking
equipment.
The Internet applications layer provides support systems for the
Internet economy through a variety of software applications
 E-commerce Framework
Framework tells about the detail of how e-commerce can take place.
It defines actually how e-commerce implemented, how online
trading or business can be done.
It defines important components that should be present to do some
transaction

However determining a right framework for ecommerce solutions is a

major challenge.
Most of the frameworks are quite general and usually depend on the
country or organization needs.
 Four Layer Framework
Barua et al.6 proposed a four-layer framework.
The Internet infrastructure layer addresses the issue of backbone
infrastructure required for conducting business via the net.
It is Largely made up of telecommunication companies and other
hardware manufacturers such as computer and networking
equipment.
The Internet applications layer provides support systems for the
Internet economy through a variety of software applications
 The Internet intermediary layer includes a host of companies that
participate in the market making process in several ways.
Finally, the Internet commerce layer covers companies that conduct
business in an over all ambience provided by the other three layers
 Zwasss Hierarchical Framework
Zwass (1998) presented a very comprehensive hierarchical framework
of E-Commerce, consisting of three meta-levels:

1:- Infrastructure,
2:- Services, and
3:- Products and structures
and
seven functional levels
 This model clearly builds upon the work undertaken by the
developers of the various layered network protocols or
architectures, which have been developed to explain the
inter-connection of telecommunications networking, such as the OSI
Reference Model.
which use a similar layering approach, where each layer has a
clearly defined area of functionality.
This separation of tasks means that a change at one layer does not
normally affect the other layers, with significant positive implications
for software developers.
The 3-Tier Architecture

The 3-Tier Architecture

This is where the code for each area of responsibility can be cleanly split away from the others
Note here that the presentation layer has no direct communication with the data access layer -
it can only talk to the business layer.
Requests and Responses in the 3 Tier
Architecture
The Rules of the 3 Tier Architecture

The code for each layer must be contained with separate files which
can be maintained separately.
Each layer may only contain code which belongs in that layer. Thus
business logic can only reside in the Business layer, presentation logic
in the Presentation layer, and data access logic in the Data Access
layer.
The Presentation layer can only receive requests from, and return
responses to, an outside agent. This is usually a person, but may be
another piece of software.
 The Presentation layer can only send requests to, and receive
responses from, the Business layer. It cannot have direct access to
either the database or the Data Access layer.
The Business layer can only receive requests from, and return
response to, the Presentation layer.
The Business layer can only send requests to, and receive responses
from, the Data Access layer. It cannot access the database directly.
The Data Access layer can only receive requests from, and return
responses to, the Business layer. It cannot issue requests to anything
other than the DBMS which it supports.
 Disadvantage of this approach
The use of a similar approach to analysing E-Commerce would have
equivalent benefits in terms of separating out tasks and enabling solutions
to be developed without impact on other E-Commerce activities.
The disadvantage of this approach, however, is that there is less flexibility
because of the sequence of the layers. Why, for example, are there seven
layers?
We believe that the components of Electronic Commerce are constantly
changing over time and as particular technologies are pressed into
service.
The layering approach, which works very well for networking, where the
functions and activities can be fully described and do not evolve outside
the limits of the model, are thus less applicable to the very mutable
functions and activities of E-Commerce.
Kalakota and Whinston's Pillars Framework
Kalakota and Whinston have also developed a generic approach to
providing a framework for Electronic Commerce (Kalakota &
Whinston 1996).
Using a very different scheme from that taken by Zwass, they use the
metaphor of pillars (public policy and technical standards), to
support four infrastructures
(network, multimedia content, messaging, and common business
services)
on top of which they place E-Commerce Applications.
 These authors suggest that the elements of a framework for E-Commerce
are a convergence of technical, policy and business concern. This model is
simple to understand and visually attractive but it lacks theoretical depth
and
is not particularly useful for researchers endeavouring to incorporate it
into empirical research projects.

We believe that this model is useful for those who are approaching
Electronic Commerce for the first time
but do not feel that it can be used as a foundation for more detailed
analytical study.
 Riggins and Rhee's Domain Matrix
Riggins and Rhee (1998) have used the Harvard matrix approach to identify
a view of E- Commerce based upon type of relationship and
internal/external focus.
This descriptive framework takes as its axes the location of the
application user and type of relationship,
thus essentially distinguishing between intranet-based applications and
those which use either an extranet or the public Internet to provide access
to the
applications concerned.
Such a model is clearly useful to companies which wish to classify their
trading partners into internal and external and, within these, into new and
ongoing relationships it categorises E-Commerce applications into four
categories
 which can be helpful in identifying relationships and technology
needs.
Despite these useful characteristics, however, the model is limited in
its identification of E-Commerce types being primarily focused upon
trading relationships.
It would be more difficult to use such a model in the development of,
say, a government-sponsored virtual community such as Victorias
Warrnambool on the Web project. (Warrnambool on the Web 1999)
 If you look carefully at those layers you should see that each one
requires different sets of skills:
The Presentation layer requires skills such as HTML, CSS and possibly
JavaScript, plus UI design.
The Business layer requires skills in a programming language so that
business rules can be processed by a computer.
The Data Access layer requires SQL skills in the form of Data Definition
Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML), plus
database design.
 E-commerce Framework
Framework tells about the detail of how e-commerce can take place.
It defines actually how e-commerce implemented, how online
trading or business can be done.
It defines important components that should be present to do some
transaction

However determining a right framework for ecommerce solutions is a

major challenge.
Most of the frameworks are quite general and usually depend on the
country or organization needs.
 Four Layer Framework
Barua et al.6 proposed a four-layer framework.
The Internet infrastructure layer addresses the issue of backbone
infrastructure required for conducting business via the net.
It is Largely made up of telecommunication companies and other
hardware manufacturers such as computer and networking
equipment.
The Internet applications layer provides support systems for the
Internet economy through a variety of software applications
 The Internet intermediary layer includes a host of companies that
participate in the market making process in several ways.
Finally, the Internet commerce layer covers companies that conduct
business in an over all ambience provided by the other three layers
 Zwasss Hierarchical Framework
Zwass (1998) presented a very comprehensive hierarchical framework
of E-Commerce, consisting of three meta-levels:
infrastructure,
services, and
products and structures and
seven functional levels
 This model clearly builds upon the work undertaken by the
developers of the various layered network protocols or
architectures, which have been developed to explain the
inter-connection of telecommunications networking, such as the OSI
Reference Model.
which use a similar layering approach, where each layer has a
clearly defined area of functionality.
This separation of tasks means that a change at one layer does not
normally affect the other layers, with significant positive implications
for software developers.
The 3-Tier Architecture

The 3-Tier Architecture

This is where the code for each area of responsibility can be cleanly split away from the others
Note here that the presentation layer has no direct communication with the data access layer -
it can only talk to the business layer.
The Rules of the 3 Tier Architecture

The code for each layer must be contained with separate files which
can be maintained separately.
Each layer may only contain code which belongs in that layer. Thus
business logic can only reside in the Business layer, presentation logic
in the Presentation layer, and data access logic in the Data Access
layer.
The Presentation layer can only receive requests from, and return
responses to, an outside agent. This is usually a person, but may be
another piece of software.
 The Presentation layer can only send requests to, and receive
responses from, the Business layer. It cannot have direct access to
either the database or the Data Access layer.
The Business layer can only receive requests from, and return
response to, the Presentation layer.
The Business layer can only send requests to, and receive responses
from, the Data Access layer. It cannot access the database directly.
The Data Access layer can only receive requests from, and return
responses to, the Business layer. It cannot issue requests to anything
other than the DBMS which it supports.
 Disadvantage of this approach
The use of a similar approach to analysing E-Commerce would have
equivalent benefits in terms of separating out tasks and enabling solutions
to be developed without impact on other E-Commerce activities.
The disadvantage of this approach, however, is that there is less flexibility
because of the sequence of the layers. Why, for example, are there seven
layers?
We believe that the components of Electronic Commerce are constantly
changing over time and as particular technologies are pressed into
service.
The layering approach, which works very well for networking, where the
functions and activities can be fully described and do not evolve outside
the limits of the model, are thus less applicable to the very mutable
functions and activities of E-Commerce.
Kalakota and Whinston's Pillars Framework
Kalakota and Whinston have also developed a generic approach to providing a framework for Electronic Commerce (Kalakota &
Whinston 1996).
Using a very different scheme from that taken by Zwass, they use the metaphor of pillars (public
policy and technical standards), to support four infrastructures
(network, multimedia content, messaging, and common business services)
on top of which they place E-Commerce Applications.
These authors suggest that the elements of a framework for E-Commerce are a convergence of technical, policy and business
concern. This model is simple to understand and visually attractive but it lacks theoretical depth and is not
particularly useful for researchers endeavouring to incorporate it into empirical research
projects.

We believe that this model is useful for those who are approaching Electronic Commerce
for the first time but do not feel that it can be used as a foundation for more detailed
analytical study.
 Riggins and Rhee's Domain Matrix
Riggins and Rhee (1998) have used the Harvard matrix approach to identify a view of E-
Commerce based upon type of relationship and internal/external focus.
This descriptive framework takes as its axes the location of the application user and
type of
relationship, thus essentially distinguishing between intranet-based applications and
those which use either an extranet or the public Internet to provide access to the
applications concerned.
Such a model is clearly useful to companies which wish to classify their trading partners
into internal and external and, within these, into new and ongoing relationships it
categorises E-Commerce applications into four categories
which can be helpful in identifying relationships and technology needs.

 Despite these useful characteristics, however, the model is limited in

its identification of
E-Commerce types being primarily focused upon trading
relationships. It would be more
difficult to use such a model in the development of, say, a
government-sponsored virtual
community such as Victorias Warrnambool on the Web project.
(Warrnambool on the
Web 1999)
Requests and Responses in the 3 Tier
Architecture
 If you look carefully at those layers you should see that each one
requires different sets of skills:
The Presentation layer requires skills such as HTML, CSS and possibly
JavaScript, plus UI design.
The Business layer requires skills in a programming language so that
business rules can be processed by a computer.
The Data Access layer requires SQL skills in the form of Data Definition
Language (DDL) and Data Manipulation Language (DML), plus
database design.
Tier
What is a "tier"?
A "tier" can also be referred to as a "layer".
n the software world Tiers/Layers should have some or all of the
following characteristics:
Each tier/layer should be able to be constructed separately, possibly
by different teams of people with different skills.
 Several tiers/layers should be able to be joined together to make a
whole "something".
Each tier/layer should contribute something different to the whole. A
chocolate layer cake, for example, has layers of chocolate and cake.
There must also be some sort of boundary between one tier and
another. You cannot take a single piece of cake, chop it up into smaller
units and call that a layer cake because each unit is indistinguishable
from the other units.
Each tier/layer should not be able to operate independently without
interaction with other tiers/layers.
 Presentation logic - the user interface (UI) which displays data to the
user and accepts input from the user. In a web application this is the
part which receives the HTTP request and returns the HTML
response.
Business logic - handles data validation, business rules and task-
specific behaviour.
Data Access logic - communicates with the database by constructing
SQL queries and executing them via the relevant API.
Three tier ecommerce architecture
What is a Domain Name?

New computer users often confuse domain names with universal resource
locators, or URLs, and Internet Protocol, or IP, addresses.
The universal resource locator, or URL, is an entire set of directions, and it
contains extremely detailed information.
The domain name is one of the pieces inside of a URL.
An Internet Protocol, or IP, address is different than a domain name
The IP address is an actual set of numerical instructions.
domain name as a nickname for that code so that can remember easily.
Ip could be 232.17.43.22, for example. However, humans cannot
understand or use that code.
That why name given to numeric which difficult to remember.
 For example, in the URL http://www.pcwebopedia.com/index.html,
the domain name is pcwebopedia.com.
Every domain name has a suffix that indicates which top level domain
(TLD) it belongs to. There are only a limited number of such domains.
Because the Internet is based on IP addresses, not domain names,
every Web server requires a Domain Name System (DNS) server to
translate domain names into IP addresses
For example:
gov - Government agencies
edu - Educational institutions
org - Organizations (nonprofit)
mil - Military
com - commercial business
net - Network organizations
ca - Canada
th - Thailand
Difference between HTTP and HTTPS
HTTP, HTTPS
The "S" in HTTPS indicates a secure site.
If you visit a web site or web page, and look at the address in the web
browser.
it will likely begin with the following: http://. This means that the web site
is talking to your browser using the regular 'unsecured' language.
This is why you never ever enter your credit card number in an http web
site
But if the web address begins with https://, your computer is talking to the
web site in a secure code that no one can see.
 Difference Between the Internet and the
WWW?
People commonly use the words "Internet" and "Web"
interchangeably.
This usage is technically incorrect.
The Internet is the large container.
the Web is a part within the container.
the Net is the restaurant.
the Web is the most popular dish on the menu
The World Wide Web, or "Web" for short, is a massive collection of
digital pages.
 the Web is based on hypertext transfer protocol.
But another protocol you can use like ftp etc.
Only http is www another is not.
The Internet, not the Web, is also used for e-mail, which relies on
SMTP, instant messaging and FTP.
So the Web is just a portion of the Internet
Characteristics of Domain Name
Domain names are restricted to
only the ASCII letters 'a' through 'z' (in a case-insensitive manner).
the digits '0' through '9.
and the hyphen ('-').
 Parts of a Domain Name
Each domain name consists of two parts.
Top Level Domain - A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the
domain name located to the right of the dot. The most common top-
level domains are .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Some other popular top-
level domains are .BIZ, .INFO, .NAME and .IN etc.
Second Level Domain - . The second-level domain name is the part of
the domain name located to the left of the dot. Steps-to-make-your-
own-website is the second-level domain name and represents the
organization or entity behind the internet. Second Level Domain
name must be registered with an Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers (ICANN)-accredited registrar.
 Domain Name Level
Top Level Domain - A top-level domain (TLD) is the part of the domain
name located to the right of the dot. The most common top-level domains
are .COM, .NET, and .ORG. Some other popular top-level domains are .BIZ,
.INFO, .NAME and .IN etc.
Generic top level maintained by IANA and country code top level reserved
for a country.
Second Level Domain - . The second-level domain name is the part of the
domain name located to the left of the dot.
Third level domain name:-which are written immediately to the left of a
second level Domain.
Each level is separated by a dot or period symbol.
 What is a Subdomain?
A subdomain is a domain name that is a part of the main domain.
It is used to organize a website with regard to various functions,
sections, topics, etc.
For example www.google.com is the main domain name.
They have separated news.google.com that handles their news
section of the website as news.google.com
Similarly they have other subdomains too which are other sections of
their main website.
like maps.google.com, news.google.com, video.google.com, etc
 What is DNS?
DNS is the acronym for Domain Name System.
This system translates the number format of your IP address to the
word format.
It is done because it is relatively easier to remember words than
numbers.
it is easier to name an e-mail address as service@sitesell.com than
service@216.95.221.39.
The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical distributed naming
system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the
Internet or a private network
 Digital Certificate
An attachment to an electronic message used for security purposes
It is trusted ID card in electronic form that binds a websites public
encryption key to their identity for the purpose of public trust.
The most common use of a digital certificate is to verify that a user sending
a message is who he or she claims to be, and to provide the receiver with
the means to encode a reply.
An individual wishing to send an encrypted message applies for a digital
certificate from a Certificate Authority (CA).
The CA issues an encrypted digital certificate containing the applicant's
public key and a variety of other identification information.
 In the physical world, you protect your written correspondence by
putting it in an envelope before posting. In the online world, sending
an email message is like sending a postcard.
it is easy to intercept and read as it travels across the Internet. Instead
of risking disclosure of your private email message,
one option for safeguarding them is to use a digital certificate