The susceptibility of digital signatures to fraud in the National Electronic Conveyancing System : an analysis

Public key cryptography, and with it,the ability to compute digital signatures, have made it possible for electronic commerce to flourish. It is thus unsurprising that the proposed Australian NECS will also utilise digital signatures in its system so as to provide a fully automated process from the creation of electronic land title instrument to the digital signing, and electronic lodgment of these instruments. This necessitates an analysis of the fraud risks raised by the usage of digital signatures because a compromise of the integrity of digital signatures will lead to a compromise of the Torrens system itself. This article will show that digital signatures may in fact offer greater security against fraud than handwritten signatures; but to achieve this, digital signatures require an infrastructure whereby each component is properly implemented and managed.

E-commerce experiences in the real estate industry : a preliminary study in regional Queensland

Computer systems have become commonplace in most SMEs and technology is increasingly becoming a part of doing business. In recent years, the Internet has become readily available to businesses; consequently there has been growing pressure on SMEs to take up e-commerce. However, e-commerce is perceived by many as being unproven in terms of business benefit. This research aims to determine what, if any, benefits are derived from assimilating e-commerce technologies into SME business processes. This paper presents three in-depth case studies from the Real Estate industry in a regional setting. Overall, findings were positive and identified the following experiences: enhanced business efficiencies, cost benefits, improved customer interactions and increased business return on investment.

Enhancing Agent Mediated Electronic Markets with Ontology Matching Services and Social Network Support

Os Mercados Eletrónicos atingiram uma complexidade e nível de sofisticação tão elevados, que tornaram inadequados os modelos de software convencionais. Estes mercados são caracterizados por serem abertos, dinâmicos e competitivos, e constituídos por várias entidades independentes e heterogéneas. Tais entidades desempenham os seus papéis de forma autónoma, seguindo os seus objetivos, reagindo às ocorrências do ambiente em que se inserem e interagindo umas com as outras. Esta realidade levou a que existisse por parte da comunidade científica um especial interesse no estudo da negociação automática executada por agentes de software [Zhang et al., 2011]. No entanto, a diversidade dos atores envolvidos pode levar à existência de diferentes conceptualizações das suas necessidades e capacidades dando origem a incompatibilidades semânticas, que podem prejudicar a negociação e impedir a ocorrência de transações que satisfaçam as partes envolvidas. Os novos mercados devem, assim, possuir mecanismos que lhes permitam exibir novas capacidades, nomeadamente a capacidade de auxiliar na comunicação entre os diferentes agentes. Pelo que, é defendido neste trabalho que os mercados devem oferecer serviços de ontologias que permitam facilitar a interoperabilidade entre os agentes. No entanto, os humanos tendem a ser relutantes em aceitar a conceptualização de outros, a não ser que sejam convencidos de que poderão conseguir um bom negócio. Neste contexto, a aplicação e exploração de relações capturadas em redes sociais pode resultar no estabelecimento de relações de confiança entre vendedores e consumidores, e ao mesmo tempo, conduzir a um aumento da eficiência da negociação e consequentemente na satisfação das partes envolvidas. O sistema AEMOS é uma plataforma de comércio eletrónico baseada em agentes que inclui serviços de ontologias, mais especificamente, serviços de alinhamento de ontologias, incluindo a recomendação de possíveis alinhamentos entre as ontologias dos parceiros de negociação. Este sistema inclui também uma componente baseada numa rede social, que é construída aplicando técnicas de análise de redes socias sobre informação recolhida pelo mercado, e que permite melhorar a recomendação de alinhamentos e auxiliar os agentes na sua escolha. Neste trabalho são apresentados o desenvolvimento e implementação do sistema AEMOS, mais concretamente: • É proposto um novo modelo para comércio eletrónico baseado em agentes que disponibiliza serviços de ontologias; • Adicionalmente propõem-se o uso de redes sociais emergentes para captar e explorar informação sobre relações entre os diferentes parceiros de negócio; • É definida e implementada uma componente de serviços de ontologias que é capaz de: • o Sugerir alinhamentos entre ontologias para pares de agentes; • o Traduzir mensagens escritas de acordo com uma ontologia em mensagens escritas de acordo com outra, utilizando alinhamentos previamente aprovados; • o Melhorar os seus próprios serviços recorrendo às funcionalidades disponibilizadas pela componente de redes sociais; • É definida e implementada uma componente de redes sociais que: • o É capaz de construir e gerir um grafo de relações de proximidade entre agentes, e de relações de adequação de alinhamentos a agentes, tendo em conta os perfis, comportamento e interação dos agentes, bem como a cobertura e utilização dos alinhamentos; • o Explora e adapta técnicas e algoritmos de análise de redes sociais às várias fases dos processos do mercado eletrónico. A implementação e experimentação do modelo proposto demonstra como a colaboração entre os diferentes agentes pode ser vantajosa na melhoria do desempenho do sistema e como a inclusão e combinação de serviços de ontologias e redes sociais se reflete na eficiência da negociação de transações e na dinâmica do mercado como um todo.

Comportamento do consumidor brasileiro no e-commerce

Este é um estudo sobre o perfil do e-consumidor brasileiro. Através de um enquadramento do ecommerce no Brasil e de uma pesquisa qualitativa, o trabalho busca identificar quem é este consumidor, o que ele compra, porque ele compra online, como coleta as informações necessárias para escolher um produto ou serviço, quais são os fatores determinantes da compra e quais os locais escolhidos.

Arbitrage en ligne et les litiges du commerce électronique

"Mémoire présenté à la Faculté des études supérieures en vue de l'obtention du grade de Maîtrise en droit (LLM)"

L'encadrement juridique du traitement des données personnelles sur les sites de commerce en ligne

"Thèse en vue de l'obtention du grade de docteur en droit de l'Université Panthéon-Assas (Paris II) et de docteur en droit de la faculté de droit de l'Université de Montréal en droit privé"

Nature et impacts juridiques de la certification dans le commerce électronique sur Internet

Le sujet sur lequel porte la présente étude est inspiré de la problématique à la base du développement du commerce électronique : la confiance. En effet, l’accroissement exponentiel du nombre d’internautes et des sites Web commerciaux pose un sérieux problème à ce niveau. Ces sites présentent au public une information et des services divers, mais peu vérifiables. Ainsi, le principal obstacle au développement du commerce électronique avec les particuliers est le manque de confiance qu’inspirent les lieux visités. En effet, comment savoir si l’entreprise existe, quelles sont ses politiques concernant la sécurité ou la gestion des renseignements personnels, etc. La vérification et la certification des sites apparaissent comme une solution de plus en plus attrayante et utilisée pour ajouter cet élément de confiance. Déjà, de nombreux sceaux de qualité sont apparus sur les sites commerciaux. Certains sceaux portent sur la confidentialité tandis que d’autres ciblent la protection des consommateurs. La certification peut provenir de la compagnie même, d’un tiers certificateur ou d’un organisme public. Ces éléments constituent des balises et repères importants pour le consommateur sur Internet. Toutefois, les incidences légales sont multiples et certains concepts demeurent flous. Pour apporter une réponse à ces questions, nous définirons le concept de certification des sites Web et ses enjeux dont plus particulièrement la problématique de la confiance des consommateurs. Les différents objets de la certification seront analysés, tant au niveau de l’entité, du contenu du site que de la dimension transactionnelle de celui-ci. Les processus possibles et les impacts de la certification occupent la seconde partie du travail. Il s’agit d’examiner successivement les étapes menant à la certification, soit l’établissement des standards, de l’évaluation de l’entité et de la certification elle-même. L’analyse des impacts de la certification, tant sur le plan de la portée, de la responsabilité légale et des effets sur la concurrence de la certification constitue quant à eux, l’aboutissement de la recherche, soit de savoir quel est l’impact juridique d’un tel mécanisme. Le but de la recherche est de permettre au lecteur de mieux cerner ce phénomène de l’utilisation de la certification sur Internet avec ses avantages et ses limites. Certes, cet outil peut s’avérer très utile pour bâtir la confiance des consommateurs, promouvoir l’essor du commerce électronique et constituer une forme d’autoréglementation. Toutefois, mal utilisé ou mal encadré, il peut engendrer l’effet inverse et détruire cette confiance si fragile à construire dans un environnement dématérialisé.

Rôle et travaux au sein de l’Union européenne et de l’Allemagne en matière de la protection des consommateurs en Commerce Électronique

Cet article délivre un bref aperçu de la nouvelle législation européenne et allemande relative au commerce électronique et à la protection des consommateurs. Il décrit le développement du commerce électronique, de la législation et de la jurisprudence au cours des dernières années. Une distinction est établie entre les niveaux européen et allemand. La nouvelle Directive sur le commerce électronique a été adoptée le 8 juin 2000 et doit être transposée dans la loi nationale avant le 17 janvier 2002. Elle sera décrite et succinctement analysée avant d’aborder la nouvelle loi allemande portant sur les contrats à distance qui vient d’être adoptée par le Parlement allemand pour transposer la Directive sur les contrats à distance de 1997. Le cadre juridique existant avant l’entrée en vigueur de la nouvelle loi sur les contrats à distance sera également exposée en tenant compte de la protection des consommateurs. Alors que l’Union européenne vient de créer une nouvelle Directive sur le commerce électronique, les États membres sont encore occupés à transformer celle de 1997 en loi nationale. En comparant la législation européenne et allemande, nous soulignerons donc le point faible de la législation européenne : le temps nécessaire pour établir un cadre juridique efficace et fonctionnel peut facilement atteindre plusieurs années. L’article s’achèvera sur une courte présentation du « powershopping » ou « community shopping », en passe de devenir un nouveau modèle pour le consommateur européen, qui a fait l’objet de décisions restrictives ces derniers temps.

Dissolution of Dynamic Electronic Institutions, a first approach: Relevant factors and causes

In the context of the digital business ecosystems, small organizations cooperate between them in order to achieve common goals or offer new services for expanding their markets. There are different approaches for these cooperation models such as virtual enterprises, virtual organizations or dynamic electronic institutions which in their lifecycle have in common a dissolution phase. However this phase has not been studied deeply in the current literature and it lacks formalization. In this paper a first approach for achieving and managing the dissolution phase is proposed, as well as a CBR process in order to support it in a multi-agent system

Persuasive technology and users acceptance of e-commerce: users perceptions of website persuasiveness

Persuasive technologies have been extensively applied in the context of e-commerce for the purpose of marketing, enhancing system credibility, and motivating users to adopt the systems. Recognising that persuasion impacts on consumer behaviour to purchase online have not been investigated previously. This study reviews theories of technology acceptance, and identifies their limitation in not considering the effect of persuasive technologies when determining user online technology acceptance. The study proposes a theoretical model that considers the effect of persuasive technologies on consumer acceptance of e-commerce websites; with consideration of other related variables, i.e. trust and technological attributes. Moreover the paper proposes a model based on the UTAUT2, which contains relevant contributing factors; including the concept of perceived persuasiveness.

E-commerce and graduate education: is educational quality taking a nose dive?

Purpose: Online education has been growing rapidly, but has not had the benefit of the extensive teaching pedagogy development of traditional face-to-face teaching. This paper aims to provide a review of the current literature and present the results of a survey, conducted to determine the effectiveness of a graduate online subject. Design/methodology/approach: The literature was reviewed to identify measures of success and quality in online education delivery. These measures were then considered in relation to their application in practice via a case study based around a survey conducted at Deakin University in Australia. Findings: A total of 16 relevant measures of teaching quality were identified in the literature. Most measures had elements of bias and some were more generally applicable to online learning. The case study suggested that the value of computer mediated learning in an online environment was limited and that a combination of print and computer mediated conferencing performed better in more of the identified quality matrices. Practice implications: Online learning does not save teaching resources if standards of quality are maintained. It can be used to provide a remote teaching facility, provided it is backed up by resources such as printed study guides. For the subject evaluated, online mediated learning did not the provide the same quality of education. Originality/value: Whilst some research has been conducted in this area, no substantive grounded theory has been applied to postgraduate or fee-paying online education regimes. As a result, case studies of such applications can be very helpful in the design of future teaching systems.

A security risk management approach for e-commerce

E-commerce security is a complex issue; it is concerned with a number of security risks that can appear at either a technical level or organisational level. This paper uses a systemic framework, the viable system model (VSM) to determine the high level security risks and then uses baseline security methods to determine the lower level security risks.