Wireless data and electronic-commerce applications should become increasingly popular in the future, with users trading stocks, comparison shopping and making travel arrangements all via wireless devices.
However, for such transactions to be completed, sensitive data such as personal identification information and credit-card numbers must pass over the airwaves. As in the world of Internet commerce via personal computers, security is an important issue that must be addressed so customers feel comfortable using wireless e-commerce applications.
Dayakar Puskoor, chief executive officer of JP Systems Inc., a U.S.-based company that has developed software to enable wireless data applications, said it wasn’t long ago that many people were afraid to transmit personal information and credit-card numbers via the Internet in the desktop environment. With security measures becoming prevalent, consumers are more willing to conduct business online, he said, and the same should follow in the wireless environment.
Educating consumers that wireless e-commerce is safe probably will have to be spearheaded by carriers and e-commerce companies, such as financial institutions, said Prakash Kondepudi, vice president of service development at Saraide, which develops wireless data applications that carriers can offer end users. With consumers already more accustomed to the idea of e-commerce in the desktop environment, acceptance should happen more quickly for wireless, he said.
JP Systems and Saraide both have signed agreements with e-commerce security companies to ensure their applications are secure.
In addition to protecting consumers in wireless e-commerce transactions, security is needed for corporations that forward e-mail to mobile employees and allow them to wirelessly access company intranets and databases, said Prakash Panjwani, director of wireless markets at Certicom Corp., a U.S. company that provides security solutions for wireless e-commerce.
JP Systems’ Puskoor noted a third group that is interested in secure wireless links: retailers. For example, companies might want to issue electronic coupons to entice certain customers to buy products from them, but they don’t want those coupons to be intercepted and widely distributed, said Puskoor.
Certicom’s Panjwani identified two main components to securing wireless e-commerce transactions. The first is authentication, which ensures both participants in a transaction are legitimate. The second piece is encrypting the transferred data so that even if a transmission is intercepted, it can’t be read.
An additional piece of secure transactions, said Panjwani, is non-repudiation, which guarantees digital signatures are legally binding.
Incorporating security into their product offerings could give wireless e-commerce providers a competitive advantage.
“With the added security that (Diversinet Corp.’s) Passport Certificate Client provides, we have greatly increased the marketability of our product,” said Kashif Hassan, president of Wysdom Inc., a wireless e-commerce platform software provider based in Canada. “Reaching target markets such as the financial sector and other areas where security is paramount is a significant advance, and opens a broad scope of potential business.”
Diversinet, a Canadian provider of security software for wireless e-commerce, has signed several agreements to provide its security products to wireless e-commerce companies, including with Wysdom and Saraide.
