E-business players fight the fear factor

Surveys increasingly put e-commerce near or at the top of the agenda for businesses. The vast majority of companies have an online presence, and many of them offer the chance of buying goods online.

The hype has gone, and boardrooms are again looking at the potential for web trading. The potential benefits of real-time transactions are well established.

Yet while everyone knows that the internet is there, and indeed many of us use it on a regular basis with ease, confidence and comfort, there is still a major problem that is inhibiting its further adoption and acceptance. It's called fear.

Businesses and individuals are not confident enough that the internet is secure. They are worried about making use of e-commerce facilities for fear of fraud. A number of high-profile cases, including several banks whose systems were attacked, have only compounded the situation.

To a large extent, the UK does not trust e-commerce or the security measures that are used to protect us from becoming victims of online theft and fraud.

"Trust is absolute. If people don't trust it, they won't use it," explained David Roberts, chief executive at blue-chip user group The Infrastructure Forum (Tif).

"They'll be afraid of going anywhere near it. This is not about the brand name, it's the stuff that lies between the brand and you."

Most of us are perfectly happy to hand over our credit card in a shop or restaurant without batting an eyelid.

Figures from the Civil Society Internet Rights Project suggest that only two per cent of all credit card fraud is committed over the net. Yet the public view is quite the opposite.

"The perception and the reality of security is different," said Alex van Someren, chief executive at security specialist nCipher.

"The perception is that some 14 year-old on the other side of the world has crocodile clips attached to the internet wires, and is stealing your credit card number.

"In practice, that is unlikely because there's lots of security, such as secure socket layer, built into the browser. If it's enabled, the chances of fraud occurring are slim."

There seems to be a consensus that the great British consumer gets nervous when it comes to transacting over the internet.

Bob Ayers, director of business risk services at security specialist @stake, believes that the whole issue of confidence centres on the absence of face-to-face transactions.

"If you wanted to buy something in the past, you took your money, be that gold bars or a cow or whatever, and you found what you wanted to buy and offered your cow in exchange," he said.

"The person you are buying from sees you and sees your cow, and you see the product you want to buy, and know exactly what it will be exchanged for.

"We then moved to ordering goods over the telephone, but people still interacted with other individuals and consequently were content that that level of interaction was sufficient.

"As we've moved into e-commerce, some fundamental changes have occurred. The buyer and seller don't see each other, there's nothing to validate whether the merchandise even exists, and the seller has to accept that the transaction will be honoured."

Industry body Intellect feels very strongly about the role that trust and confidence has to play in the adoption of e-commerce and e-business.

It has been working since 1999 on raising awareness about the issues relating to e-business and security.

"We see security as the key to the development of e-business," explained Beatrice Rogers, e-business programme manager at Intellect.

"It's like building a house: you need stable foundations. These issues that sometimes seem quite boring are all about creating stable foundations, and security is probably the biggest thing about creating trust for e-business."

E-envoy Andrew Pinder is working hard to reach Tony Blair's target of putting all government services online by 2005.

At the moment, his office has passed internal targets set two years ago, and 52 to 53 per cent of government services are now online. That figure is expected to grow to 75 per cent by the end of the year.

The aim is to establish the UK as the best place to do business in the world. If individuals, and indeed businesses, are not 100 per cent confident about transacting over the internet, this will not be achieved.

"It is undoubtedly true [that lack of trust is inhibiting e-commerce growth] but, if you look at the UK, there is far more confidence with e-commerce and using credit cards over the net than in other countries, especially if you have a good, solid brand name," Pinder told Computing.

"I think the real issue is where people are unsure of the supplier and don't recognise the brand, which sometimes counts against small businesses."

The issues of confidence stretch further than simply doing your Christmas shopping on the net.

"Technology has moved on a great deal, and it's much more secure than it was," said Pinder. "But if you're going to have electronic voting, for example, you need to instil confidence."

There have been numerous initiatives and campaigns to educate businesses and individuals about the benefits of e-commerce and how technology can safely be used for secure transactions, but they have so far made little impact.

Industry-led, self-regulatory and not-for-profit organisation tScheme was established to provide a Kite Mark to which businesses and consumers could refer to gain assurance that the website or online service they are using has undergone regulated tests confirming that it is secure.

Despite the fact that it has the backing of major private and public sector organisations, such as the Office of the eEnvoy, the British Chambers of Commerce, Lloyds TSB, the Association for Payment Clearing Services and Microsoft, it has only gained four seals of approval.

Rogers believes that such seals of approval will be crucial to the future take-up of e-commerce. And, while the idea is great in practice, the issue of understanding and awareness creeps back in.

Tif, which has this month decided to tackle the issue of hacking and viruses by establishing the Information Security Task Force, is not at all surprised that there are problems relating to a lack of trust.

"I think it's understandable that there's not a lot of trust, because nobody has done anything to demonstrate how trust works. Whether or not you are now entering a secure transaction holds little weight," said Roberts.

This is a situation that must change if e-commerce is to be regarded as a valuable, reliable, convenient and secure means of doing business.

"We are moving into a new reliance on electronic communications. I don't think there's any going back now," warned Rogers.

"We are at the beginning of the revolution and security should become de facto, like looking left and right when crossing the road."

SUMMARY

• If e-commerce is to become commonplace in the UK, consumers must be able to trust online transactions.
• Security and its correct use is key to raising levels of confidence and trust, according to e-business experts.
• Recent figures suggest that only two per cent of credit card fraud is committed over the internet.

FURTHER READING

Intellect's website has lots about the importance of trust.
www.intellectuk.org