Survey Reveals Consumer Concern Over E-Commerce Security Issues

A recent report issued by Rockbridge Associates, Inc. -- intended to measure consumer acceptance and confidence in various technologies -- has revealed a reluctance among many consumers to embrace e-commerce, based partially on concerns over security issues.

"E-commerce creates considerable concern in the minds of the public," commented Charles Colby, President of Rockbridge. "Consumers are worried about the privacy and security of their online transactions; more than half (58%) do not consider it safe to do any kind of financial transaction online."

"In addition, 67% do not feel confident doing business with a place that can only be reached online," continued Colby. "77% do not consider it safe to give out a credit card number over a computer, and 87% want their electronic business transactions confirmed in writing."

According to Colby, "success in cyberspace will be determined by how well organizations address these issues." The report, "National Technology Readiness Survey," was developed over a 2-year period, and included input from 1,001 randomly chosen households.

Established in 1992, Rockbridge Associates, Inc. is a market research firm that focuses on technology issues for Fortune 500 companies. Copies of the 100-page report are available through the company.

Over The Crypto Rainbow

One of the hottest issues at the meeting point of e-commerce and security concerns is cryptography. A means to scramble data by utilizing mathematical algorithms, cryptography is requisite for the integrity of e-commerce transactions and for gaining the trust of online consumers.

Rainbow Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: RNBO) has made a number of announcements recently regarding its CryptoSwift cryptographic hardware security solution, including adoption by Datek Online, the nation's 4th largest online brokerage firm.

"Online brokerage is all about getting encrypted Web pages out there faster," said Peter Stern, Chief Technology Officer for Datek Online. "With CryptoSwift, we can encrypt more pages faster," thus improving customer service and confidence.

CryptoSwift is deployed in Internet applications for, among other uses, e-commerce. A single CryptoSwift card can, according to the company, handle up to 200 transactions per second and perform a reference RSA signature in under 5 milliseconds.

Recently, Rainbow also announced a strategic alliance with Phaos Technology Corp. Phaos will extend SSLava, its Java security toolkit, enabling Java applets and applications to work with CryptoSwift, which holds the potential to in turn improve secure Web server performance in Java.

"Combining our experience in the Java Security development area with Rainbow's expertise in accelerating public-key and bulk data cryptography, creates a unique Java product offering to our joint customers," stated Darren Calman, Vice President of Business Development at Phaos.

Calman continued, "together, our complementary technologies provide developers with a robust, scalable and easy to use solution for building secure, high-performance Java applications."