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minimal intervention, as they want to attract investors that will contribute to
economic growth. North American countries, the European Union and Japan for
example have realized that it is in their best interest to collaborate in order to create
market conditions of trust. However, the interests of specific countries may at times
prevail, and the compromises reached may be at a cost for digital democracy. A
characteristic example is the difference between European and American provi-
sions for personal data protection and its impact on electronic transactions between
the two areas. This issue
is addressed in further detail at the security and privacy
levels in the next paragraphs.
Security
Network security and especially Web security is one of the most sensitive
issues identified in the electronic commerce literature (e.g., Crocker, 1996;
Kosiur,
1997; Liddy, 1996). A recent survey of Australian firms (Dinnie, 1999), “among
the world’s earliest adopters”
of electronic commerce, reports that network
security is a continuing concern and companies are more concerned about external
threats. The survey reports that “sixteen per cent of firms have suffered, or believe
they may have suffered, at least one break-in via the Internet”
(p. 112). Despite their
perceptions of external threats, however, thirty per cent of businesses admitted that
their organization had no formal information security policy. More generally, the
anxiety about security is expected to increase in coming years as web-based
applications are increasingly used for financial transactions. As the number of
computers, networks, data and information multiply every day, the need for better
security practices that protect information systems from malicious attacks and at the
same time preserve the civil liberties, will increase in the future (Hurley, 1999).
Cryptography is put forward as a powerful technological solution to network
fraud. At an international level it can be applied with the collaboration of govern-
ments, the business community and trusted third parties (Denning, 1996). The
required use of public and private keys in cryptography methods, raises several