Cyber crime and security affair in e-business - Article Example

This essay discusses that technology is essential part of business today. The internet has become a backbone and nervous system of business nowadays. Internet is already affecting our lives at home and offices to a great extent. While this dimension improves our lives it also creates enormous risks. Many individuals and businesses are still not aware of the risks posed by internet and the cyber space. The efficiency, complexity and speed of businesses today are attributed to technology and particularly E commerce.

This enormous growth in E commerce provides a chance for internal and external fraud and exploitation. E commerce has become a driving force for world economy however it also poses a dangerous scenario once it is attacked or hacked. E commerce is vulnerable to cybercrime within seconds. Cyber criminals take advantage of loopholes in software and hardware architecture and make big organizations collapse in days. In a Globally networked environment, cybercrime can be initiated from any location across the globe.

With the growth in size and speed of organizations, a need arose to make the systems automated and less dependent on humans. According to McQuade Robert T Morris carried out first major cybercrime attack on November 2 1988 which resulted in slow down of thousands of computers. He noted that on June 20 2007, Department of defense was attacked by coordinated hackers, as a result it had to shut down 1500 computers. Assessment of human behavior in an automated world is becoming difficult. Organizations are dependent on outsourcing and do not completely control people who work for them.

Organizations are very cautious about cyber attacks however appear helpless in front of expertise displayed by hackers. There is a greater risk to organizations from their own employees and business rivals in addition to hackers. Businesses are continuously improving their systems however there is still a lesser consideration towards privacy, access control and sharing of data. According to Wada and Odulaga (2011) phishing has been a cause of direct loss amounting $1.2 billion in USA for banks and card industry in 2003 (Wada & Odulaga 2011, P 71).

There is a need to create awareness amongst businesses, the lack of which is evident from growing number cyber attacks in year 2011. Today cyber risks are increasingly surrounding E commerce. It is evident that organizations are