Hassan Aljifri

Global e‐commerce: a framework for understanding and overcoming the trust barrier

As the Internet revolution moves into full swing, those countries that have not embraced e‐commerce technology will face new hurdles as they seek to develop their economies. Standing in the path of these countries’ attempts to adapt e‐commerce technologies are several key issues that can be broadly defined as trust barriers. Rather than think of the trust issues as barriers one must think of them as assets. Presents a conceptual model and framework that highlight the key factors in business trust relationships within developing countries; information security, technical and industrial infrastructure, education, government, and socio‐cultural factors. These factors are considered in the light of different types of e‐commerce business transactions taking place within and across borders such as business‐to‐business (B2B), business‐to‐consumer (B2C), consumer‐to‐business (C2B), and consumer‐to‐consumer (C2C).

E‐commerce and Arab intra‐trade

This paper focuses on the disparity that exists between Arab and non‐Arab trading blocs and the potential that e‐commerce offers in narrowing this gap. The current Arab intra‐trade state of affairs is analyzed, targeting potential trade opportunities. These prospects are evaluated, along with the adoption of technology to render advantages to the Arab world. Many countries have and continue to benefit from the acceptance of e‐commerce; understanding its applicability and effectiveness beyond and within the Arab trading blocs is of vital importance to increase trade. Our analysis presents a perspective on regional trade and utilization of technology within the global community and broadening trade possibilities among Arab countries.

Security model for Intra-Domain Mobility Management Protocol

Intra-Domain Mobility Management Protocol (IDMP) provides a mobility solution for mobile nodes (MNs) in next-generation wireless networks. It provides a solution for intra-domain mobility without assuming the existence or use of any global mobility management protocol. It is, therefore, necessary to set up security associations between the mobile node and the entities that provide connectivity and mobility in the IDMP environment. In this paper, we propose a security model for Authentication, Authorisation and Accounting (AAA) for IDMP. This AAA architecture provides authentication and encryption for MNs within the home domain as well as in the foreign domain. Simulation results verify the validity of the proposed security model.

International legal aspects of cryptography

Historically, the legal systems in different countries have had to adapt to the advances in technology. For instance, the appearance of automobiles as a popular means of transportation led in the last century to the creation of driving laws and traffic police; in the telecommunications field, telephone networks have made their way into local legislation, with implementations such as government security agencies able to perform surveillance activities through wiretapping of telephone communications. The phenomenal advance of computer technology and network communications, most clearly exemplified by the reach and popularity of the Internet today, is gradually finding its way within legal frameworks throughout the world. However, the constantly evolving environment and complex technical issues involved in this area make it a particularly hard subject to approach legally, requiring from lawmakers both expertise and up-to-date knowledge in order to legislate logically and usefully. In this context, cryptography is only one of numerous computer-based technologies in widespread use [1], but it is a mathematically intricate and often misunderstood area, and thus one of the most difficult to include in legal frameworks. Furthermore, attempts to regulate cryptography, most predominantly when some kind of limit or control is involved, have originated heated debates in recent times, and the delicate balance between national security and individual freedoms has proven to be extremely hard to achieve in this particular field.

Search engines and privacy

Search engines have become a fundamental tool to access the vast amounts of information available in the World Wide Web in an optimized fashion. As they become ever more powerful, there has been concern on what this could mean for privacy issues, considering the accessibility to personal information in electronic format. This article addresses the nature of these concerns, attempting to clarify the issues at stake in a balanced view considering the position of all parties involved in the problem.

Data Protection Using Watermarking in E-Business

In the past decade, the business community has embraced the capabilities of the Internet for a multitude of services that involve access to data and information. Of particular concern to these businesses have been the protection and authentication of digital data as it is distributed electronically. This paper proposes a novel approach that combines the reactive rule-based scheme of an active database management system (ADBMS) with the technology of digital watermarking to automatically protect digital data. The ADMBS technology facilitates the establishment of Event-Condition-Action (ECA) rules that define the actions to be triggered by events under certain conditions. These actions consist of the generation of unique watermarks and the tagging of digital data with unique signatures. Watermarking is a technology that embeds, within the digital data’s context, information identifying its owner and/or creator. The integration of these two technologies is a powerful mechanism for protecting digital data in a consistent and formal manner with applications in e-business in establishing and authenticating the ownership of images, audio, video, and other digital materials.