Mobile Commerce Security and Its Prevention

Mobile Commerce Security and Its Prevention

Mona Adlakha (University of Delhi, India)
Copyright: © 2016 |Pages: 17
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0236-4.ch007

Abstract

Mobile commerce is the next generation of e-commerce, where payments and financial transactions can be carried out with utmost ease using handheld mobile devices. Mobile devices are at a higher security risk due to the large amount of critical financial and personal data available on it. The cause or consequence of these threats could be - malware and spyware attacks ; multiple or incorrect m-Commerce payments; breaches due to unauthorized access or disclosure, unauthenticated transactions and risk due to the use of third party networks. This chapter discusses how to manage security risks in m-commerce by first identifying them and then discussing preventive measures for their mitigation. A continuous approach for risk prevention needs to be followed, reviewing the strategy according to the latest challenges. Various risk prevention and mitigation strategies can be adopted. Service providers must follow physical and digital security measures to protect consumer's business information. Independent auditing should ensure compliance with best practice security standards.
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Background

Throughout this chapter¸ the words customer, consumer, user refer to the user of the handheld mobile device like smart phones tablets and PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Also, the word organization refers to the company or individual who plays a role in imparting an m-commerce service or is part of a transaction (discussed below).

Prior to understanding the security issues in m-commerce, we need to be aware of all the parties involved in providing m-commerce Services. The Position statement on mobile commerce, (Australian Communications Consumer Action Network (ACCAN), 2014) states that a single m-commerce transaction could involve: a) the consumer, b) the retail merchant whose service/ product is being used/purchase through the transaction, c) each party’s bank, d) a credit card provider, e) a communications network provider, f) a mobile hardware manufacturer of the handheld device, g) a mobile operating system developer and h) a mobile application developer of the of the m-commerce app being used. A failure of an m-Commerce transaction might be attributed to any one of these parties involved in providing m-Commerce Services. This complicates matters as one can not single out the root cause.

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