Protection and Security of Digital Data
The Computers Misuse Act protects computers, computer programs, and data that is stored in computers from unauthorized access, modification, interception and interference.
Privacy and protection of personal information: When a web user accesses a website or makes an online purchase, a record of his preferences and personal data is stored online. Given that an e-retailer might have access to or possess some personal or confidential information about his/her customers, (s)he must ensure that there is an information management policy to safeguard the information from inadvertent disclosure. This could take the form of employee access control, corporate firewalls, system audits or encryption technology.
Security in credit card payments: The biggest obstacle in the growth of the e-commerce industry is the lack of security or the commonly held perception that there is a lack of security in e-transactions and that credit card details are capable of being intercepted. However, in most cases, the online transmission of such sensitive information is protected by using encryption technology that encodes the information before releasing it into the Internet. This reduces the chances of fraud as the credit card details are not really made known to the e-retailer but are rather kept within a secured encrypted environment. But as an online vendor, you must ensure the protection of any credit card data that is transmitted to you.