Relying on Trust Management

In today’s world, technology has opened the doorways to a whole new meaning of how we essentially communicate. As before, we were accustomed to traveling, telecommunications, postal mailing, and other forms of carriers to transfer messages and await responses. This worked for many years and was the forefront of how communication was handled. However, timing was always a factor. In other words, the time to send and get a response was always delayed and therefore progress was delayed until further notice. With the ever emerging technology came the development of the internet, thus paving the ways to a whole new meaning of advanced communication. It is literally unheard of to have a company that does not use the internet for transferring and communicating data from point A to a point B. The heavy reliance upon the internet highways for lightning speed transmissions and ready answers from a click of a button has made the internet favorable and questionable in its ability to transfer data and at what cost. There are a handful of users who are quite familiar with how programming works. The essential to how programs that are responsible function to keep the internet performing as it should. But how does one determine the roles that each individual will play within securing vital information safe and keeping it that way? The internet is used both internally and externally and assigning the proper roles plays a big part in trust management.

Specifically we will deal with how trust management plays a major factor with business to business (B2B) domains such as eBay, when it comes to trusting sellers and buyers across the world. For every one who has been on B2B sites such as eBay as a seller and buyer, trust plays one of the most important roles. Consumers are hesitant to just dive in and buy merchandise from someone who is selling it. Why is that? It is the inability to trust someone or something that you have never met before. How do B2B e-commerce sites counteract this inability to trust issue? The main way is by relying on customer feedback. For example, eBay uses what it calls a reputation management system that enable customers to have the ability to rate their sellers and buyers. By using this system, prospective buyers and sellers can have confidence to buy goods and services provided without having to worry about not getting what is advertised. Along with ensuring proper goods are received and sold, there is also the need for personal information to remain confidential. This is where some of the challenges with distributed trust management come into play. Trust has been the foundation of building such B2B domains. B2B market places such as eBay, must note how they intend to build that trust, establish legal and risk assessment procedures and security policies. The need to secure e-commerce sites needed to be addressed. All information regarding names, addresses, phone numbers, and other information provided by customers sent over the internet were introduced by the creation of a secure web site using state of the art encryption tools, known as secure socket layer, or SSL technology. This ensured all your information remained safe. SSL technology works by using server certificates that are able to authenticate a merchant to a prospective customer and transmit payment transactions securely. All private information involving credit card transactions, checking account information, and all other private information were secured in this manner. A customer or merchant has the ability to recognize such sites or web pages as being safe and secure by a padded lock icon representing all information is encrypted and cannot be compromised. There are always challenges in a distributed trust management system. The need to be able to build upon and create such a trust worthy foundation can be successful for all to enjoy. There has been an overwhelming amount of success already with such tools that have been created for such roles to succeed with. We will introduce some of these tools that contribute and answer the challenges associated. The uses of Public key infrastructures work in providing trust for B2B marketplaces, such as eBay. Trust must be able to be verified in order for it to be effective. There must be an establishment of quality in delivery of goods and services and dependability to recover and seek damages .This has to go two-fold from buyer and seller if the seller decides to void and cancel his or her transaction. Also, the seller must be able to litigate and hold accountable the buyer if he or she refuses to pay for the merchandise or services rendered. The importance for establishing documentation is quite necessary in order to provide such resolution with any disputes that may arise between seller and buyer. When dealing with legal issues, we have seen a rise of how electronic records are greatly considered in today’s court hearings. The rise of fraud across the internet has stressed the need to also address the challenge of roles across a distributed trust system. In today’s courts, the evidence of emails and texting have played an important part in documenting paper trails as to identifying one’s identification. The option provided to adhere to electronic signatures validating one’s own John Hancock also serves as another means of self validation to one’s identification and was set forth legally binding creating the electronic signature bill making it a national legal standard . The electronic signature bill set forth into place represents electronic signatures in the same manner binding as one’s own signature written in pen, which can be legally enforced. This brings us to digital signatures where the uses of two keys are used. In other words, you are able to put your own digital signature on documents and any other data. A digital signature can be looked at as being a -œstamp- that you can place on documents which is unique to you making it very difficult for others to forge. Both public key and private key make up digital signatures, which make it very difficult to decipher code that’s transferred. In other words, the encryption is very advanced making it hard to impossible to crack. Public keys are made to be shared with the public, but private keys are not. This makes the use of private keys binding to one’s signing of all documentations allowing for verification purposes. The enabling challenges in roles with a distributed trust management system have come a long way over the years. Through due diligence and hard work to build and create such a system that would enable users to trust in, has taken time. The enhancements of various security tools and reliance upon feedback from other buyers and sellers have paved the way for B2B domains to really set a new mark in the way we continue to conduct business transactions. It is a multi-billion dollar business and revenues exceed year after year. The continued ability to trust in one’s business from buyer to seller will continue to set the way for continued growth in the future. PChelpforless.com Angel Murillo References Trust Management through reputation mechanisms. Zacharia, Giorgos; Maes, Pattie. Applied Artificial Intelligence, Oct2000, Vol. 14 Issue 9, p881-907, 27p; DOI: 10.1080/08839510050144868; (AN 3837978) Requirements engineering for trust management: model, methodology, and reasoning. Giorgini, Paolo; Massacci, Fabio; Mylopoulos, John; Zannone, Nicola. International Journal of Information Security, Oct2006, Vol. 5 Issue 4, p257-274, 18p, 15 charts, 11 diagrams, 1 bw; DOI: 10.1007/s10207-006-0005-7; (AN 22458414)

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