RISK ASSOCIATED WITH ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

Chapter 12 ACCOUNTING INFORMATION SYSTEM

Group 6 – Elijah Alvin Danseco
RISK ASSOCIATED WITH ELECTRONIC
COMMERCE

1. INTRANET RISK
2. INTERNET RISKS
3. RISKS TO CONSUMER

RELIANCE ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE POSES CONCERN

ABOUT UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO CONFIDENTIAL
INFORMATION
 INTRANET RISK
Intercepting network
message
Accessing corporate
databases
Privileged employees
Reluctance to prosecute
INTERNET RISKS TO CONSUMER
How serious is the risk?

National Consumer League: Internet fraud rose by

600% bet ween 1997 and 1998 SEC: email complaints
alleging fraud rose from 12 per day in 1997 to 200-300
per day in 1999

Major areas of concern:

• Theft of credit card numbers

• Theft of passwords

• Consumer privacy

• Cookies and consumer security

INTERNET
RISKS TO
BUSINESS
IP Spoofing: masquerading to gain access to
a web server and/or to perpetrate an unlawful
act without revealing one's identity

Denial of service (DOS) attacks: assaulting a

web server to prevent it from servicing users
particularly devastating to business entities
that can not receive and process business
transactions

Other malicious programs: viruses, worms,

logic bombs, and trojan horses pose a threat to
both internet and intranet users
THREE COMMON TYPES OF DOS
ATTACK
Syn flood - when the three-way handshake
needed to establish an internet connection
occurs, the final acknowledgement is not sent by
the DOS attacker, thereby tying-up the receiving
server while it waits
Smurf - the DOS attacker uses numerous
intermediary computer to flood the target
computer with test messages, "pings“
Distributed DOS (DDOS) - can take the form of
Smurf or SYN attacks, but distinguished by the
vast number of "zombie" computers hijacked to
launch the attacks
INTERNET
RISKS TO
BUSINESS
Motivation behind Dos Attacks. The
motivation behind Dos attacks may
originally have been to punish an
organization with which the perpetrator
had a grievance or simply to gain bragging
rights for being able to do it.

OTHER MALICIOUS PROGRAMS.

Viruses and other forms of malicious
programs such as worms, logic bombs, and
Trojan horses pose a threat to both Internet
and intranet users.