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4.2.3 The safe sell

The use of a credit card is analogous to a consumer filling out an order form and sending it in a paper envelope via postal mail. The customer is reasonably certain that the order and credit-card number will arrive safely. The vendor relies on a separate step -- authorization and credit balance checking via the traditional credit-card networks -- before fulfilling the order.

Once the PC vendor has received the order and verified the validity of the customer's account, the vendor must ship the product. Many personal computer vendors custom assemble each PC as orders arrive. In Tenenbaum's plan, the PC vendor would also rely on the Internet as a way for retail vendors to send orders to its suppliers.

Orders for everything from the chassis to the motherboard to the monitor would be sent over the Internet. With computerized inventory control, such orders could be placed online automatically, with the retailer able to operate using just-in-time inventory methods.

In fact, Tenenbaum sees virtual corporations springing up as a result of these technologies. Retail firms might become so intimately linked to their suppliers-with order processing occurring so fluidly and rapidly-that the nature of the relationship between suppliers and retailers would be changedaltogether.

Encrypted credit-card transactions are only one type of business that companies would like to conduct on the Internet. In the everyday business world, signatures are an essential element-for signing purchase orders, contracts, and the like. Most companies will accept facsimile transmissions of some documents, but Internet e-mail is easily enough `spoofed ` that its use is discouraged for these applications. Some sort of digital signature is required to verify the integrity of such documents.

The major elements of security required for commerce on the Internet, therefore, are the following:


next up previous
Next: 4.2.4 Terisa is born Up: 4.2 A Tool to Previous: 4.2.2 A head for
Denis Arnaud
12/19/1997