trepreneurs, and changed retailing as consumers comparison shop and browse from their homes and offices 24 hours a day, seven days a week. However, the ramifications of electronic commerce move far beyond just using the Internet to reach catalog customers (Kehoe 20).
For many analysts, "electronic commerce" actually refers to the extension of electronic commerce and electronic business (e commerce and e business, respectively) which are based on using the Internet and related technologies for conducting transactions. These transactions include not only retail transactions that might take place at amazon.com between a business and an end customer (business-to-consumer), but also business-to-business transactions involving purchasing, inventory control and accounting. In this electronic commerce, physical facilities and the concentration of employees in specific departments (such as purchasing) may well be reduced as computers and specialized software automate functions to levels previously unimagined. Certainly the skills and job duties of many employees will change as electronic commerce becomes more commonplace (Kehoe 20).
Network security is an issue for companies regardless of whether they participate in electronic commerce; however, since most organizations have a Web site that allows some interaction with outside individuals, that perspective will be used for the purposes of this analysis.
Network security must be concerned with protecting the integrity of the data used by the company for its operations. Sales, costs, marketing information, customer information, and similar data must be accurate in order for the company to be able to function at even the most rudimentary level. This means that if the company sells 10 units for $37 per unit, it is recorded accurately as a sale of $370, recorded in accounts receivable appropriately, set up for delivery based on the contract, and have inventory quantities adjusted, as w...