IP: BLANKET INSECURITY?: Edupage, 10 July 2000

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

>Recent events have shaken consumer confidence in the Web as a
>vehicle of commerce.  Privacy violations and security lapses,
>such as AOL's recent admission that hackers used an e-mail virus
>to obtain information about member accounts and Netscape's
>lawsuit charging that it violated federal privacy laws by
>monitoring customer downloads, have all alienated consumers, who
>are becoming more attuned to privacy and security issues,
>according to e-commerce analysts.  Many consumers say that even
>the potentially large savings that can be accrued by shopping
>online are not worth the costs of potential snooping into
>personal information by Internet service providers or hackers.
>The recent passage of the Electronic Signatures in Global and
>National Commerce Act, which makes online documents as legally
>valid as signed printed documents, will also open up new scamming
>opportunities for Web criminals, according to computer security
>experts.  Forgery of signatures and other identity theft could
>explode as a result of the passage of the law, say analysts.
>(InfoWorld.com, July 2000)