What is E-commerce?
- E-commerce involves the sale or delivery of goods/services by means of using Information and Communication Technology
List five types of E-commerce and give an example for each.
- Electronic buying and selling of goods and services - takealot
- Online delivery of digital products - iTunes Store
- Electronic funds transfer - FNB internet banking
- Electronic trading of stocks - Easy equities
- Direct consumer marketing - purchasing from Nike online
E-commerce can be divided into a few main categories (3) (and sub categories)
Business:
- Business to business - alibaba.com
- Business to consumer - takealot
Consumer
- consumer to business - Fiver
- consumer to consumer - Facebook market place
Government E-services
government services to the public and businesses - tenders, municipal account payments
List 5 advantages and 3 disadvantages of E-commerce
Advantages:
- Allows small players to compete well with established players all around the world
- A business will not be geographically bound - transact with people all over the world
- Lower associated with not having ‘brick-and-mortar’ location means products can be offered at better prices and profitability can be improved
- Can be a great extension of a physical store to new markets. more convenient for customers to shop online
- Can offer a wide range of items online without having all of the stock on hand
Disadvantages
- Some customers still want to look and feel the product before purchasing
- Delivery costs could lead to one being uncompetitive
- Delay is the customer receiving their goods, whereas in-store purchasing is immediate
What is E-business? Give an example.
- E-bussines differs from E-commerce as E-business involves using the Internet and online technologies to create operating efficiencies, therefore increasing value to customers and the business
- E-business is more internally focused. It asks the question: ‘how can business be improved by technology?’ such as by integrating the sales department with the manufacturing department so as soon as an order is placed, in real time, the manufacturing department has the information on the sale
- Another example is integrating the suppliers system with the business’ system - Mercedes gets parts delivered to its manufacturing plant as the car moves along the production line, hence they save on storage costs and ordering expenses
Networks can be categorised according to the geographical area that they cover. What are the three most common networks?
- Local Area Network (LAN)
- A network that connects devices and computers within a small area (home). LAN can be wireless, in which case it is called a WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) - Wide Area Network (WAN)
- A network that connects computers over a vast area (a country). The internet is the largest example of a WAN - Virtual Private Network (VPN)
- This is a private network within a public network
- A VPN connects on a public network but uses security encryption to ensure only authorised users can access the network.
- For example, the Wits website allows you to use it without incurring data costs
What is the internet?
The internet is a global network of computers which shares and communicates information between users by means of an Internet Protocol (IP)
What is the Internet Protocol (IP)?
IP is the standard communication rules and standards to transfer data over the internet
What is the communication technology called that IP uses?
Give a brief description of it .
- IP uses a communication technology called Packet Switching.
- Packet Switching divides data into small packets to be transmitted over the internet in the most efficient manner.
- This enables faster sharing of large volumes of information
Each computer connected to the internet has a unique address to which information is sent to or from. What is this dress called, and give a very brief overview.
This address is called an IP address.
Just like our home address, to send or receive information over the internet, the information needs to be send to/from your the IP address.
Imagine if you had to type an IP address each time you wanted to access google (google:http://172.217.6.132/.) This would be hard to remember and use. What two things do we have in order to make this process easier? Provide full explanations of them.
- A Domain name
Doman names were designed to make it easier to remember a computer or resource name on the internet than an IP address.
a. Second Level Domains (SLD): the computer or host organisations name (eg Wits)
b. Top Level Domain (TLD): the nature or geographical location of the organisation using the address. eg; .ac or .edu -used for higher education .co.za -used for South African websites .gov -used for government organisations .org -used for non-profit organisations .net -used for network organisations
- Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
this is an address that defines the path of a file or facility on the web
A URL is made up of the following:
a. Protocol Prefix: https
b. Domain name: www.wits.ac.za (SLD and TLD)
c. Subdirectory name: /accountancy
d. Document name: /contact us
What is the World Wide Web (www) and where does it fit in?
The World Wide Web is:
- An application that runs on the internet
- Has a collection of resources
- These resources may be hyperlinked and can be found by URL’s
What is the fundamental format of the web?
The fundamental format of the web is a text document called a web page, that has embedded Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP)
Pages are accessed via a web browser using the URL with the homepage being the point of entry.
What is the difference between an intranet and an extranet?
An intranet is a private network which is available internally to a business’s various departments and employees so that they can have access to information and share data using the internet technology. (eg a webpage of HR policies only visible to employees)
An extranet is an intranet that is accessible via access control to authorised customers, suppliers, and other parties.
the only difference is an extranet is accessible to people outside the business who have authorised use. Eg internet banking
What are email addresses and instant messaging ?
These are methods to communicate with others digitally over the internet to exchange messages which may include documents, pictures, and videos. email and instant messages are applications that run on the internet.
What is cloud computing ?
- Cloud computing is a model for delivery of applications and services such as data storage, provision of computing power and software via the internet on demand.
- Cloud computing basically allows users to have acesss to software or storage space for information without needing the physical hardware and software.
All that users need to do is access the service via the internet. - examples are gmail, google drive
What are the three main types of cloud computing?
- Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)
A service whereby software/applications are provided to users via the internet (you do not actually download the data, only the app - Netflix, showmax) - Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
The provision of computing power and disc space to clients who access it - amazon web services, google drive - Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)
This enables firms to develop and deploy onto the cloud infrastructure, customer generated applications using vendor provided facilities.
- Google apps engine which allows you to develop mobile app without having to worry about all the infrastructure and servers to run the app.
Why don’t all companies use cloud computing? (4 points)
- They have already incurred investment in equipment and proprietary software, and Human Resources.
- Mission critical functions run on legacy systems that are many decades old and can’t interface with cloud computing.
- Companies want tailor made solutions
- Concerns about internal control and security issues - your data is dependant on a third party
What are the advantages of cloud computing? (3)
- Access on many devices
- Low cost as less investment required in terms of purchasing hardware and software
- Can expand or contract the cloud computing capabilities per the business’s needs - eg increase storage space as you need it.
Cyber risks and security - what are business risks?
definition and 3 points
Business risk is the possibility of loss or injury that reduces or eliminates an organisations ability to achieve objectives:
- in terms of cyber or electronic commerce, risk relates to the loss, theft, or destruction of data or use of computer programs that financially or physically harm an organisation
- Unauthroised and illegal employee activity is an example of intranet threats that pose a risk in e-commerce / e-business
- Intranets connected to central corporate databases increases risk that employees will view, corrupt, change, copy, or sell data.
Employees use methods such as sniffing, which is the unauthorised interception of network information to obtain emails and other confidential information
What is a cyber crime?
This is a criminal action that seeks to harm the computer itself or users of a computer or network to commit a crime. Cyber crimes often affects businesses negatively both in terms of repetitional and financial damage.
What are the 5 most common cyber crimes?
IP spoofing
Denial of service attack (DoS attack)
Phishing
Computer related scams
Malware
What is IP spoofing?
This is when a hacker impersonates another user/entity by forging their IP address to seem as if the hackers IP address is that of the authorised IP address user/entity
Eg a hacker sends an email with a forged version of an IP address of a municipality department, seeking to purchase certain items. If this is not picked up, the business thinks it is legitimate and supplies the items only to find out it was not legitimate and they incur a loss.
IP spoofing can also be used to hide the identity of a DoS attacker
What is a denial of service attack (DoS)?
This is an assault on a web server to prevent it from servicing users.
This is done by sending vast amounts of messages and requests to access a business’s website/server, which slows down or crashes the site.
