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Julian Corlaci
ECT 250 – 101
Homework 6
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Chapter 4
1. The six pieces of the e-commerce site-building puzzle are:
Organizational Capabilities, Hardware Architecture, Software, Telecommunications, Site Design, Human
Resources
3. A simple logical design includes a data flow diagram that describes the flow of information at your ecommerce site, the processing functions that must be performed, and the databases that will be used. The
logical design also includes a description of security and emergency backup procedures.
A simple physical design translates the logical design into physical components. The physical design
details the specific model of server to be purchased, the software to be used, the size of the
telecommunication link that will be required, the way the system will be backed up and protected from
outsiders.
8. Basic functionalities of a Web Server
Processing of HTTP requests, Security services, File Transfer Protocol, Search engine, E-mail
11. There are three steps that can be taken to meet that demands for web site services:
Scale hardware vertically by upgrading the servers from a single processor to multiple processors.
It can become expensive to purchase with every growth cycle and entire site becomes dependent on a small
number of very powerful machines.
Scale hardware horizontally by adding multiple single-processor servers to your site and balancing the load
among the servers. It is inexpensive and often can be accomplished using older PCs and if one machine fails
another machine can pick up the load dynamically. The bad part is that horizontal scaling introduces
redundancy and the size of physical facility increases in the same time with the site growth.
The third kind of scaling is improving the processing architecture by combining the vertical and horizontal
scaling.
14.
CGI (Common Gateway Interface)
a. A set of standards for communication between a browser and a program running on a server.
b. Permits an executable program to access all the information within incoming requests from clients.
c. CGI programs can be written in nearly any programming language as long they conform to CGI
standards.
Active Server Pages (ASP)
a. Server-side programming for Windows
b. The major technique for server-side Web programming in the Windows environment.
c. Enables developers to easily create and open records form database and execute programs within an
HTML page.
JavaScript
a. Controls the objects on an HTML page and handle interactions with browser.
b. It is most commonly used to handle verification and validation of user input.
c. It is stable and it is restricted to the operation of requested HTML pages.
All these tools are significant to e-commerce because they make the website more interactive and more
effective in generating sales and encouraging return visitors personalizing the experience for customers by
addressing their individual needs, and customize the content of your offerings based on their behavior or
expressed desires.
15. Privacy policy – a set of public statements declaring to your customers how you treat their personal
information that you gather on the site.
Accessibility rules – a set of rules design objectives that ensure disabled users can effectively access
your site.
Financial reporting policies – statements declaring how will account for revenues and costs at your
sites.
Chapter 5
8. The major points of vulnerability in a typical online transaction are:
Internet communications, servers, and clients
9. Macro virus is the most common type of virus. It affects only the application for which it was written.
File-infecting viruses usually infect executable files, such as *.com, *.exe, *.drv and *.dll files. They may
activate every time the infected file is executed by copying themselves into other executable files. Fileinfecting viruses are also easily spread through e-mails and any file transfer system.
Script viruses are written in script programming languages such as VBScript and JavaScript. The viruses
are activated by double clicking and infected *.vbs or *.js file.
14. Firewalls and Proxy Servers are intended to build a wall around your network, and the attached servers
and clients.
Firewalls are software applications that act as filters between a company’s private network and the Internet.
They prevent remote client machines from attaching to your internal network.
Proxy servers are software servers that handle all communications originating from or being sent to the
Internet, acting as a bodyguard for the organization. Proxies act primarily to limit access of internal clients
to external Internet servers.
16. There are five steps involved in building an e-commerce security plan:
a) Perform a risk assessment – an assessment of risks and points of vulnerability
b) Develop security policy- a set of statements prioritizing the information risks, identifying acceptable risk
targets and identifying the mechanisms for achieving these targets
c) Develop an implementation plan – the action steps you will take to achieve the security plan goals
d) Create a security organization – educates and trains users, keeps management aware of security threats
and breakdowns, and maintains the tools chosen to implement security
e) Perform a security audit – involves the routine review of access logs (identifying how outsiders are using
the site as well as how insiders are accessing the site’s assets)