The Malaysian MAY 2012 o THE HISTORY OF ECOMMERCE: How Did It All Begin? – page 2 o E-DAGANG: Kelebihan dan Kelemahan – page 16 Your Editor: o Nazura Ngah (GA01300) o Nur Afiza Naharuddin (GA01315) o Suhada Affni Sulaiman (GA01402) May 2012 B y definition, ecommerce or electronic commerce, is the buying and selling of products or services via the Internet. For many Americans, ecommerce is something we participate in on a daily basis, like online bill payment or purchasing from an e-tailer. Nowadays the thought without ecommerce seems unfathomable, complicated and an inconvenience to many. It wasn’t until only a few decades ago that the idea of ecommerce had even appeared. of living Ecommerce was introduced 40 years ago and, to this day, continues to grow with new technologies, innovations, and thousands of businesses entering the online market each year. The convenience, safety, and user experience of ecommerce has improved exponentially since its inception in the 1970’s. This article will address some of the key players and milestones of ecommerce. recipient’s order processing system. EDI allowed the transfer of data seamlessly without any human Ecommerce Timeline 1960-1982 Paving the way for electric commerce was the development of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI replaced traditional mailing and faxing of documents with a digital transfer of data from one computer to another. Trading partners could transfer orders, invoices and other business transactions using a data format that met the ANSI ASC X12, the predominant set of standards in North America. Once an order is sent, it is then examined by a VAN (Value-Added Network) and finally directed to the 2 intervention. Michael Aldrich, an English inventor, innovator and entrepreneur is credited with developing the predecessor to online shopping. The idea came about during a stroll with his wife and Labrador when Aldrich lamented about their weekly supermarket shopping expedition. This conversation sparked an idea to hook a television to their supermarket to deliver the groceries. Immediately after the discussion Aldrich quickly planned and implemented his idea. The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 In 1979 Aldrich connected a television set to a transaction processing computer with a telephone line and created what he coined, “teleshopping,” meaning shopping at a distance. 1982-1990 It was apparent from the beginning that B2B online shopping would be commercially lucrative but B2C would not be successful until the later widespread use of PC’s and the World Wide Web, also known as, the Internet. In 1982, France launched the precursor to the Internet called, Minitel. The online service used a Videotex terminal machine that was accessed through telephone lines. The Minitel was free to telephone subscribers and connected millions of users to a computing network. By 1999, over 9 million Minitel terminals had been distributed and were connecting approximately 25 million users in this interconnected network of machines. The Minitel system peaked in 1991 and slowly met its demise after the success of the Internet 3 years later. Eventually, in 2011, France Telecom announced its shutdown of the Minitel service system. Sadly, it had not become what it had hoped to be, the Internet. 3 90’s To Present In 1990 Tim Berners Lee, along with his friend Robert Cailliau, published a proposal to build a “Hypertext project” called, “WorldWideWeb.” The inspiration for this project was modeled after the Dynatex SGML reader licensed by CERN. That same year, Lee, using a NeXTcomputer created the first web server and wrote the first web browser. Shortly thereafter, he went on to debut the web on Aug. 6, 1991 as a publicly available service on the Internet. When Berner’s Lee decided he would take on the task of marrying hypertext to the Internet, in doing that, the process led to him developing URL, HTML and HTTP. When the National Science Foundation lifted its restrictions on commercial use of the NET in 1991, the Internet and online shopping saw remarkable growth. In September 1995, the NSF began charging a fee for registering domain names. 120,000 registered domain names were present at that time and within 3 years that number grew to beyond 2 million. By this time, NSF’s role in the Internet came to an end and a lot of the oversight shifted to the commercial sector. The 1992 book, Future Shop: How Technologies Will Change The Way We Shop And What We Buy, provided The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 insight and predictions on the future of consumerism. An overview of the book explains: For hundreds of years the marketplace has been growing more complex and more confusing for consumers to navigate. Published in 1992, long before the Internet became a household word. Future Shop argued that new information technologies, combined with innovative public policies, could help consumers overcome that confusion. A prescient manifesto of the coming revolution in e-commerce, Future Shop’s vision of consumer empowerment still resonates today. From the beginning, there were many hesitations and concerns with online shopping but the development of a security protocol - the Secure Socket Layers (SSL) - encryption certificate by Netscape in 1994 provided a safe means to transmit data over the Internet. Web browsers were able to check and identify whether a site had an authenticated SSL certificate and based on that, could determine whether or not a site could be trusted. Now, SSL encryption protocol is a vital part of web security and version 3.0 has become the standard for most web servers today. 4 Online Megastores Ecommerce The mid-nineties to 2000’s saw major advancements in the commercial use of the Internet. The largest online retailer in the world Amazon, launched in 1995 as an online bookstore. Brick-and-mortar bookstores were limited to about 200,000 titles and Amazon, being an online only store, without physical limitations was able to offer exponentially more products to the shopper. Currently, Amazon offers not only books but DVDs, CDs, MP3 downloads, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, and toys. A unique characteristic of Amazon’s website is the user review feature that includes a rating scale to rate a product. Customer reviews are now considered the most effective social media tactic for driving sales. The company attracts approximately 65 million customers to its U.S. website per month and earned revenue of 34.204 billion in 2010. In The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 2001, Amazon.com launched its first mobile commerce site. Another major success story of the dot com bubble was Ebay, an online auction site that debuted in 1995. Other retailers like Zappos and Victoria Secret followed suit with online shopping sites; Zappos being a web only operation. Also in 1995, was the inception of Yahoo followed by Google in 1998, two leading search engines in the US. These successful web directories began their own ecommerce subsidiaries with Google Shopping and Yahoo! Auction, in following years. Global ecommerce company, PayPal, began its services in 1998 and currently operates in 190 markets. The company is an acquired bank that performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other commercial users. They allow their customers to send, receive and hold funds in 24 currencies worldwide. Currently, PayPal manages more than 232 million accounts, more than 100 million of them active. As more and more people began doing business online, a need for secure 5 communication and transactions became apparent. In 2004, the Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council (PCI) was formed to ensure businesses were meeting compliance with various security requirements. The organization was created for the development, enhancement, storage, dissemination and implementation of security standards for account data protection. The growing use of the Internet, tablet devices, and smart phones coupled with larger consumer confidence will see that ecommerce will continue to evolve and expand. With social media growing exponentially in recent years, the conversation between businesses and consumers has become more engaging, making it easier for transactional exchanges to happen online. Internet retailers continue to strive to create better content and a realistic shopping experience with technologies like augmented reality. With mobile commerce gaining speed, more users are purchasing from the palm of their hand. The market for mobile payments is expected to quadruple by 2014, reaching $630 billion in value. Total sales in ecommerce have grown from $27.6 billion in 2000 to $143.4 billion in 2009 and are expected to continue its growth for the foreseeable future. The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 et us now look at the fundamental strategic requirements an organization needs to consider if it wants to ensure that an e-commerce or online security project will be a success. Technology components of good online security, such as encrypted email, secure SSL websites, and intranets/extranets all have a role to play in protecting valuable data, but for security to be effective it must be designed as a whole and applied consistently across an organization and its IT infrastructure. There is a subtle difference in the design of a software system and that of a security system. While designing softwares, the functional correctness of applications is the prime concern. In fact, in software systems, the designer aims at ensuring that for reasonable input, the user gets reasonable output. This can be traced from the system specification. But in the case of security systems, the designer has to ensure that the system properties are preserved in the face of attack. Thus the system outputs should not be completely disastrous for unreasonable inputs. In security systems, there definitely can be active interference from the adversary and 6 the system should be hardened to withstand that. Moreover, in security systems, more functionality implies more complex system and more security holes in the system. The steps to design security of a system is to model the system, identify the security properties to be preserved, model the adversary, and then ensure that the security properties are preserved under attacks. Detail modelling of the system and identification of the required security properties are possible. But it almost impossible to accurately model the adversaries and vulnerabilities of the system exploited by those adveransaries. The result is that there nothing called “absolute security”. Thus to the designer, system security means: under given assumptions about the system, no attack of a given form will destroy specified properties. Thus system security in general and ecommerce security in particular is The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 conceived of a process rather than a one-time developed product. Security engineering cycle life It is important to note that the e-commerce security need of an enterprise is dynamic rather than static and depends on the operational dynamics, shift or addition to business goals, technological advancement etc. Thereby, the process of designing and deploying an information security infrastructure is a continuous process of analysis, design, monitoring, and adaptation to changing needs. Often, the change in needs is frequent in the organizations. Security requirements 7 During this phase, the security needs of an enterprise are identified. These needs are governed by the necessity to protect the following security attributes: Authentication: This is the ability to say that an electronic communication (whether via email or web) does genuinely come from who it purports to.Without face-to-face contact, passing oneself off as someone else is not difficult on the internet. Forging the “From:” field in an email header is a trivial matter, and far more sophisticated attacks are standard fare for hackers. In online commerce the best defence against being misled by an imposter is provided by unforgeable digital certificates from a trusted authority (such as VeriSign). Although anyone can generate digital certificates for themselves, a trusted authority demands real-world proof of identity and checks its validity before issuing a digital certificate. Only certificates from trusted authorities will be automatically recognized and trusted by the major web The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 browser and software. email client Authentication can be provided in some situations by physical tokens (such as a drivers license), by a piece of information known only to the person involved (eg. a PIN), or by a physical property of a person (fingerprints or retina scans). Strong authentication requires at least two or more of these. A digital certificate provides strong authentication as it is a unique token (the certificate itself) and requires a password (something known only to the owner) for its usage. Privacy: In online commerce, privacy is the ability to ensure that information is accessed and changed only by authorized parties. Typically this is achieved via encryption. Sensitive data (such as credit card details, health records, sales figures etc.) are encrypted before being transmitted across the open internet – via email or the web. Data which has been protected with strong 128-bit encryption may be intercepted by hackers, but cannot be decrypted by them within a short time. 8 Again, digital certificates are used here to encrypt email or establish a secure HTTPS connection with a web-server. For extra security, data can also be stored long-term in an encrypted format. Authorization: Authorization allows a person or computer system to determine if someone has the authority to request or approve an action or information. In the physical 128 A Sengupta, C Mazumdar and M S Barik world, authentication is usually achieved by forms requiring signatures, or locks where only authorized individuals hold the keys. Authorization is tied with authentication. If a system can securely verify that a request for information (such as a web page) or a service (such as a purchase requisition) has come from a known individual, the system can then check against its internal rules to see if that person has sufficient authority for the request to proceed. Integrity: Integrity of information means ensuring that a communication received has not been altered or tampered with. Traditionally, The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 this problem has been dealt with by having tight control over access to paper documents and requiring authorized officers to initial all changes made – a system with obvious drawbacks and limitations. If someone is receiving sensitive information online, he not only wants to ensure that it is coming from who he expects it to (authentication), but also that it hasn’t been intercepted by a hacker while in transit and its contents altered. One solution is afforded by using digital certificates to digitally “sign” messages. A travelling employee can send production orders with integrity to the central office by using their digital certificate to sign their email. The signature includes a hash of the original message – a brief numerical representation of the message content. Non-repudiation: Nonrepudiation is the ability to guarantee that once someone has requested a service or approved an action, they cannot turn around and say “I didn’t do that!”. Non-repudiation allows one to legally prove that a person has sent a specific email 9 or made a purchase approval from a website. Traditionally non-repudiation has been achieved by having parties sign contracts and then have the contracts notarized by trusted third parties. Sending documents involved the use of registered mail, and postmarks and signatures to date-stamp and record the process of transmission and acceptance. In the realm of e-commerce, nonrepudiation is achieved by using digital signatures. Digital signatures which have been issued by a trusted authority (such as VeriSign) cannot be forged and their validity can be checked with any major email or web browser software. A digital signature is only installed in the personal computer of its owner, who is usually required to provide a password to make use of the digital signature to encrypt or digitally sign their communications. If a company receives a purchase order via email which has been digitally signed, it has the same legal assurances as on receipt of a physical signed contract. The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 Security policy i. The first step in securing an ecommerce venture is to formulate written security policies (website 1) which clearly define the requirements for each component of the system (human, e-Commerce security – A life cycle approach 129 technological, legal) and how they interact. An organization’s security policy defines its position on the protection of its physical and IT assets. It identifies the physical and intellectual property assets that are most valuable for the continued success of the company, and specifies how they should be protected. The security policy may cover issues like: a) What service types (e.g., web, FTP, SMTP) users may have access to b) What classes of information exist within the organization and which should be encrypted before being transmitted c) What client data does the organization hold. Howsensitive is it? Howis it to be protected? d) What class of employees may have remote access to the corporate network e) Roles and responsibilities of managers and employees in implementing the security policy f) How security breaches are to be responded to the security policy should also consider physical aspects of network security. For example: 10 ii. iii. Who has access to the corporate server? Is it in a locked environment or kept in an open office? What is the procedure for determining who should be given access? The security policy regulates the activities of employees just as much as it defines how IT infrastructure will be configured. The policy should include details on how it is to be enforced and how individual responsibilities are determined. For it to be effective, the policy needs regular testing and review to judge the security measures. The review process needs to take into account any changes in technology or business practices which may have an influence upon security. Lastly, the policy itself needs to be regarded as a living document which will be updated at set intervals to reflect the evolving ways in which the business, customers and technology interact. Security infrastructure The security infrastructure (website 1) is the implementation of the security policy. The security infrastructure is the technology which is chosen to secure the e-business and the rules by which it operates. Some examples of this include: The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 a) enforcing password aging and expiration b) enforcing the complexity of passwords c) blocking prohibited outbound connections from the firewall d) requiring digital certificates to authenticate remote access connections to an organization’s network e) requiring badges for physical access to building f) requiring all physical access to servers to be recorded in a written log Finally, it must be enforced. The penalties for breaches of the security policy must be made clear to all employees and partners and must be enforced if policy requirements are broken or ignored. Again, the security infrastructure entails managing the behavior of both IT and human resources. It should be regularly policed: a) Who checks written logs? b) How often are firewall reports checked? 11 The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 erniagaan eletronik berlaku melalui talian eletronik yang melibatkan urusan berkait dengan pengiklanan, pesanan penjualan dan semua aktiviti pembelian dan penjualan termasuk juga penghantaran bagi perkhidmatan atau produk yang memungkinkan dihantar melalui media eletronik saperti gambar, perisian dan khidmat nasihat. Organisasi perniagaan memerlukan polisi dan strategi dalam memasuki bidang urusniaga ini bagi menakluki pelanggan, sementara pelanggan pula mempunyai banyak pilihan untuk membuat keputusan dalam mendapatkan barangan dan perkhidmatan. Sementara juga harus pihak kerajaan menyokong dan menyediakan kemudahan serta mengadakan polisi dan strateginya tersendiri yang mana boleh melindungi kedua-dua pihak, peniaga dan pembeli. Daripada isu, persekitaran dan perkembangan e-dagang menampakkan bahawa ianya akan berkembang dan dianggarkan akan menjadi satu trend dan diterima oleh masyarakat di dunia termasuk di Malaysia. Dengan itu semua pihak yang terlibat harus bersedia untuk menghadapi ledakan e-dagang dalam masa terdekat. Penerimaaan pada peringkat permulaan mungkin agak lembab dan kurang sambutan mengenai berpunca kepercayaan dari segi keselamatan, sukar untuk berubah dengan tabiat pembelian cara tradisional, masih merasa kepuasan urusniaga tawar menawar dan juga masih ramai yang bersikap “buta dan takut komputer”. Keadaan ini sama juga semasa autoteller machine (ATM) mula diperkenalkan yang kurang mendapat sambutan dan hanya digunakan oleh gulongan “elite” sahaja ketika itu kini penggunaannya begitu meluas sekali. Perkara yang sama juga dijangka akan berlaku ke atas e-dagang. Perkembangan yang pesat dalam bidang teknologi maklumat terutama dalam perkembangan internet telah membawa kepada penggunaan menyeluruh eletronik(e) dalam bidang urusan harian saperti e-niaga, e-kerajaan dan termasuk 12 The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 juga e-dagang. Komponen penting dalam perniagaan secara e-dagang ialah e-mail dan dalam internet laman web. Pengaruh e-dagang itu sendiri mula berkembang kepada perniagaaan atau perkhidmatan dengan pesatnya. Diantara perkhidmatan dan barangan yang mempengaruhi peniagaan secara e-dagang ialah ubatan, pakaian, hadiah harijadi, tempah tiket, muzik, laman web, buku termasuk dan juga gambar lucah. Menurut Wong Fan Nay Pengarah Eksekutif PDX Infoworld Scln Bhd's : “E-commerce is still in its infancy in Malaysia. This has to do with the state of regulatory framework, Government incentives, consumer education and awarenessin Malaysia.” Di Malaysia, mengikut kajian yang dibuat menunjukkan bahawa terdapat peningkatan dalam urusniaga melalui e-dagang di mana terdapat peningkatan yang mendadak dari tahun 1998 yang hanya berjumlah RM 76 juta kepada RM 361 juta pada tahun 1999, jangkaan yang dibuat pada tahun 2000 dianggarkan akan meningkat kepada RM1.14juta. (Berita Harian, 21 Julai,2000). Gaya hidup perbelanjaan menggunakan kad kredit telah lama mendapat tempat di Malaysia. Keadaan ini adalah bersesuaian dan menjadi faktor penyokong kepada jualan secara e-dagang dari segi kaedah pembayaran. Perlindungan juga diberi oleh Akta Teknologi Maklumat (1999) kepada syarikatsyarikat yang menjalani perniagaan melalui elektronik dan juga pengguna. Perkembangan mengenai dengan infrastuktur telah diberi perhatian oleh kerajaan melalui projek Koridor Raya Multimedia. Keadaan ini dapat menyokong perkembangan teknologi maklumat termasuk e-dagang. Beberapa polisi dan strategi yang boleh diambil oleh Kerajaan dan peniaga bagi perniagaan e-dagang di Malaysia dengan lebih berkesan. Namun begitu beberapa isu atau perkara perlu diberi perhatian semasa merancang dan polisi dan strategi bagi e-dagang di Malaysia terutama berkait dengan adat resam, agama, kebudayaan kerana ianya terdiri masyarakat majmuk. Malaysia yang terdiri daripada masyarakat majmuk terdiri daripada berbilang bangsa dan agama akan menjadikan kelainan dalam merencanakan polisi dan strategi bagi e-dagang. Polis dan strategi perlu dimainkan oleh kedua-dua belah pihak iaitu pihak swasta dan juga kerajaan. 13 The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 Pihak Kerajaan Pihak kerajaan perlu memberi sokongan berkaitan dengan aspek perundangan yang tidak membebankan, mudah dan konsisten. Peraturan hendaklah telus serta melindungi hak, harta dan mengawal penipuan. Membanyakkan insentif kepada pihak swasta membangunkan perniagaan e-dagang. Kerajaan tidak akan membuat penghalang kepada perkembangan edagang dengan mengadakan sekatan-sekatan. Meminda dan mengubal undang-undang e-dagang dari masa ke semasa bagi menyesuaikan dengan keadaan semasa demi untuk memperkembangkan urusniaga e-dagang. Melaksanakan dasar tiada tarif atau cukai dikenakan bagi cukai jualan ke atas urusniaga e-dagang. Mengalakan self regulated industry kepada sektor swasta Mengadakan infrastuktur telekomunikasi secara menyeluruh untuk dipergunakan dalam urusniaga. Menerap kecekapan ilmu IT kepada masyarakat bagi memboleh dan mempercepatkan mereka berkebolehan untuk menggunakan alatan teknologi maklumat seterusnya membolehkan mereka berurusan dalam perniagaan eletronik. Pihak Swasta Mengadakan sistem pembayaran eletronik yang lebih fleksibel dan menjamin keselamatan pembayaran oleh pembeli. Menjamin bahawa hakmilik dan data peribadi pelanggan dijamin selamat guna untuk memberi keselesaan kepada pelanggan. Menjamin keselamatan dan pengguna tidak mengalami kerugian dan mempunyai kemudahan membuat aduan. Mengadakan kemudahan untuk pelanggan berintaksi dengan menggunakan konsep mesra pelanggan. Pihak swasta sebelum membuat perancangan polisi dan strategi dibuat perlu melihat suasana persekitaran dan polisi yang disediakan oleh kerajaan supaya tidak bercanggah dan bertentangan dengan dasar kerajaan. Mengadakan kaedah yang menjamin bagi pelanggan mendapatkan semula wang mereka jika ianya tidak memenuhi spesifikasi yang ditetapkan. Menwujudkan banyak tempat perkhidmatan kepada pengguna samada ada untuk membuat pesanan atau aduan. 14 The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 Kejayaan e-dagang memerlukan gabungan perkongsian diantara swasta dan sektor awam. Dalam kaitan ini sektor awam perlu menjadi peneraju dengan mengelakan kekeliruan, pertentangan di antara beberapa agensi kerajaan serta berhati-hati supaya tidak timbul pertelingahan daripada sudut kewibaan (authority). Kepesatan dalam meningkatkan infrastruktur komunikasi dalam bidang teknologi maklumat akan mempengaruhi kelajuan penerapan e-dagang bagi sesebuah negara. Malaysia sudah pun menuju ke arah itu dengan projek Lebuhraya Multimedia. Dengan itu dijangka urusniaga melalui edagang akan menjadi satu budaya urusniaga yang menggalakan dalam masa yang terdekat. Perdagangan e-dagang mempunyai peluang yang sangat besar di dalam kegiatan atau urusan perniagaan di Malaysia. Disamping itu juga memperkenalkan cara dan gaya baru dalam urusniaga. Oleh yang demikian peniaga harus bersedia dan merangka polisi dan strategi bagi memasuki pasaran baru dengan e-dagang. Perdagangan edagang mempunyai peluang yang sangat besar di dalam kegiatan atau urusan perniagaan di Malaysia. Disamping itu juga memperkenalkan cara dan gaya baru dalam urusniaga. 15 Oleh yang demikian peniaga harus bersedia dan merangka polisi dan strategi bagi memasuki pasaran baru dengan e-dagang. The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 ana-mana pengguna biasa yang ada komputer peribadinya tersendiri, ada telefon dan modem, ada akaun dengan mana-mana pemberi khidmat Internet (Internet Service Provider atau ISP), boleh berurusan dengan mana-mana ''pedagang'' yang telah mengiklankan barangannya atau perkhidmatannya menerusi internet. perniagaan menerusi talian tidak akan terhalang oleh aspek geografi. Produk yang dipasarkan menerusi talian boleh dicapai oleh pengguna dari serata dunia.Dengan itu membolehkan pelanggan membeli belah 24 jam dari mana-mana lokasi. pakar-pakar pemasaran sebagai satu sektor perniagaan dan pemasaran yang tidak boleh diabaikan lagi dan menjadi satu alternatif wajib untuk apa jua jenis perniagaan yang ingin pergi ke peringkat antarabangsa. Antara kelebihan lain ialah menyediakan pelanggan dengan lebih pilihan, menyediakan barangan produk yang lebih murah dengan membuat perbandingan, penghantaran lebih cepat, maklumat terperinci, lelong, interaksi dengan pelanggan lain dan sebagainya. Contoh kelebihan Pasaran Perdagangan Elektronik kepada individu: Salah satu kebaikan dan keuntungan daripada menggunakan kaedah edagang ini ialah perangkaian dan integrasi di antara semua syarikatsyarikat yang berhubung baik sebagai pembeli, penjual ataupun penyedia perkhidmatan yang berkenaan. Dengan cara ini pertukaran maklumat dan transaksi perniagaan dapat dijalankan daam sekelip mata yang dahulunya mungkin dibelenggu oleh karenah mengisian borang-borang kertas dan birokrasi. Membolehkan pengguna mencari, membeli, menginsurankan, membuat penghantaran tanpa perlu pergi ke pengedar (dealer) & boleh lakukan carian di Yahoo! Untuk senarai pembekal kereta. Pengguna boleh mencari, membuat pesanan dan membuat pembayaran melalui web dengan menggunakan cek atau kad kredit. Diskaun sehingga 30%. Secara idealnya semua ini dapat dijalankan dengan efisyen oleh semua pihak yang terlibat dalam rangkaian edagang itu dan tidak dibelenggu oleh isu-isu ketidakserasian (incompatibility) atau piawaian (standard) teknologi dan telekomunikasi yang tidak serupa. Ini telah ditawarkan oleh teknologi Internet yang menggunakan protokol telekomunikasinya yang dipanggil TCP/IP yang telah diterima pakai sebagai satu piawaian yang membolehkan sebarang pelantar (platform) komputer dapat saling E-dagang semakin meluas digunakan di kalangan masyarakat Internet terutama di negara-negara barat mulai pada pertengahan tahun 1990an. Malah edagang sekarang ini diakui oleh syarikat-syarikat antarabangsa dan The Malaysian e-commerce 16 May 2012 berhubung dan bertukar maklumat dengan mudah. Pengguna Web juga dapat berinteraksi dengan dunia Web dengan mudah dengan hanya menggunakan sebuah perisian pelayar Web (Web browser) seperti Netscape Navigator, Internet Explorer dan lain-lain lagi. Penggunaan e-dagang oleh sesebuah syarikat itu juga dapat membantu mengintegrasikan semua bahagian dalaman syarikat tersebut dengan sesebuah transaksi perniagaan itu untuk meningkatkan kualiti perkhidmatan kepada pelanggan. Sebagai contohnya apabila pelanggan membuat tempahan pembelian menerusi e-dagang, tempahan tersebut boleh dengan serta merta dihantar kepada beberapa bahagian dalaman yang berkenaan seperti bahagian penjualan, bahagian logistik dan bahagian pembuatan. Dengan ini, pengkoordinasian dalaman untuk memenuhi pesanan tersebut akan menjadi lebih efisien. E-dagang sebenarnya terdiri daripada beberapa komponen yang mempunyai ciri-ciri dan fungsinya yang tersendiri sebagai contohnya Pertukaran Data Elektronik atau Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Internet, pensijilan digital, tandatangan digital, wang digital, Electronic Funds Transfer , Electronic 17 Catalogs, Intranets, Kod Bar dan lainlain lagi. Jika halangan utama bagi seseorang usahawan menjalankan perniagaan di bandar (untuk peluang pasaran yang lebih luas) ialah kadar sewa bangunan yang tinggi, maka dengan E-Dagang masalah itu tidak wujud lagi. Dengan menempatkan perniagaan di sebuah pelayan web utama, mereka telah menempatkan diri secara global. Ini kerana teknologi web membolehkan ia diakses dari mana-mana tempat sekalipun. Apa yang menarik lagi ialah kosnya secara relatif adalah amat kecil. Contohnya untuk menempatkan perniagaan produk/perkhidmatan di pelayan web Yahoo Geocities atau Fortunecity, dua buah pelayan web yang mempunyai komuniti berjuta-juta pengguna Internet anda hanya perlu membayar lebih kurang RM100-150 sebulan. Potensi pasaran usahawan ialah kesemua komuniti Yahoo Geocities/Fortunecity khususnya dan pengguna Internet amnya. Selain itu usahawan turut ditawarkan khidmat penyelenggaraan perniagaan maya mereka. Bagi E-dagang Internet, diharapkan ialah The Malaysian e-commerce apa yang kecepatan May 2012 penghantaran dan penerimaan barangan (atau perkhidmatan), terdapat maklumat produk yang lebih terkini dan rapi, terdapat kemudahan membuat pesanan on-line, peningkatan usaha pemasaran massa, dan penyingkiran orang tengah. Andainya semua ini wujud atau dapat diwujudkan, matlamat mutakhir ialah harga barangan (atau perkhidmatan) itu akan menjadi lebih murah dan kompetitif. Dengan E-dagang sesebuah syarikat atau individu boleh melakukan transaksi jual dan beli dari dan di mana sahaja di dunia ini. Pra syarat terpenting untuk menjalankan perniagaan dalam suasana yang menggunakan teknologi E-Dagang ini ialah pemilikan kelengkapan IT yang sesuai dan prasarana telekomunikasi yang membolehkan anda mengkases Internet. Dengan itu, lebih ramai individu bekerja di rumah; kurang perjalanan untuk membeli belah, mengurangkan kesesakan trafik, mengurangkan pencemaran udara, harga barangan lebih murah. Isu Polisi Undang-Undang Awam dan Kebebasan Peribadi (Public Policy Legal and Privacy Issues) Di dalam rangka kerja Kalakota dan Whinston, berbagai lapisan infrastruktur adalah disokong oleh dua tiang, iaitu tiang ‘polisi awam’ dan tiang ‘piawai teknikal’. Polisi Awam berkaitan dengan etika, sosial dan rangka kerja undang-undang yang mana peniagaan dijalankan. Memandangkan organisasi menjalankan perniagaan elektronik dilakukan secara maya, maka sukar untuk melaksanakan polisi. Contoh: Perjudian atas talian sah kepada sesuatu negara tetapi tidak sah 18 kepada negara lain, namun polisi sukar dibuat kerana perniagaan seperti ini berlaku secara maya. E-Dagang melibatkan transaksi perniagaan menerusi rangkaian telekomunikasi iaitu Internet. Penerimaan para pengguna terhadap teknologi E-Dagang ini masih di tahap yang rendah. Pelanggan tidak berhubungan secara langsung dengan peniaga. Sehubungan dengan itu, perniagaan yang melibatkan atas talian ini sudah tentu mengundang faktor ketidakpercayaan di kalangan para pelanggan untuk berurusan melalui kaedah ini. Apabila pengguna memasukkan maklumat peribadi dan kad kredit, mereka berkemungkinan besar terdedah kepada penggunaan yang tidak beretika dan penyebaran maklumat kepada pihak yang tidak sepatutnya. Walaupun pengguna hanya melakukan ‘window shopping’ tanpa membeli sebarang produk, kemungkinan datadata mengenai aktiviti mereka dikumpul secara automatik dan disalahgunakan atau disebarkan tanpa pengetahuan mereka (Ohlson, 1999). Dengan ini menimbulkan persoalan dan tanda tanya di kalangan pengguna, sejauh manakah tahap keselamatan terhadap maklumat yang diberi agar tidak berlaku penyelewengan dan eksploitasi oleh mana-mana pihak. Kurangnya elemen trust di kalangan pengguna telah menjadi penghalang utama terhadap perkembangan E-Dagang. Kebanyakan pengguna tidak percaya untuk berurusan di atas talian. Hampir 95% pengguna yang menolak untuk memasukkan maklumat peribadi The Malaysian e-commerce May 2012 mereka ke dalam laman web. 63% daripada pengguna ini menyatakan yang mereka tidak percaya terhadap proses pengumpulan maklumat terbabit (Hoffman et al 1999). Faktor kejayaan kritikal bagi aplikasi edagang adalah bergantung kepada kepercayaan pengguna. Kewujudan teknologi Internet telah dijangkakan membawa perubahan yang agak besar dalam sektor perniagaan dan sektor kewangan. maklumat yang dipaparkan boleh disalahgunakan. Ini kerana, maklumatmaklumat yang terkandung di dalam laman web boleh diubahsuai tanpa meninggalkan sebarang kesan. Terdapat juga syarikat yang tidak selalu mengemaskini laman mereka. Ini akan memberi kesan terhadap transaksi seperti harga, deskripsi dan status produk. Walaubagaimanapun, peningkatan penggunaan Internet oleh pengguna tidak membawa kepada peningkatan terhadap penggunaan aplikasi yang melibatkan e-dagang (Rosencrance, 2002). Ini jelas menunjukkan bahawa pengguna masih belum bersedia untuk menggunakan Internet sebagai medium untuk urusan jual beli kerana di dorong oleh rasa ketidakpercayaan terhadap syarikat atas talian (online vendors). Urusniaga menerusi skrin komputer menjadi salah satu faktor penghalang terhadap pembinaan trust. Pelanggan tidak dapat berinteraksi secara langsung dengan peniaga sebenar. Di dalam Internet, tugas peniaga diganti dengan kolum FAQ (Frequently Asked Question). Satu cara untuk mewujudkan interaksi yang lebih berkesan di antara pelanggan dan peniaga adalah dengan mewujudkan agen yang boleh membantu pelanggan. (Egger, 2003) Memandangkan kebanyakan individu mampu membina laman sendiri dan mendaftar nama domain, jadi agak sukar untuk membezakan laman yang sah dan penipuan. Kadangkala, 19 The Malaysian e-commerce