Risks on the Internet

PROBLEM

The fundamental problem of Internet liberalism is the inability to identify the owners of a website. The causes for this problem are the freely publicly available domains without any kind of verification of the buyer, which can even be completely anonymous, for a small annual fee. The main problem is the inability to identify the owners of a website The main problem with conducting business online is the fact that we can not identify the owners of a website.

We don't identify ourselves in every day life this way. Why do we allow it on the Internet? 

Registering a web site on all top domains (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, etc.) does not require any sort of buyer verification, and the purchaser can remain completely anonymous. Without any other information, a visitor has no means of verifying the authenticity and credibility of any particular web site hence creating the opportunity for fraud, identity theft, and “phishing”. Without an accepted means of validating on-line business sites, the average visitor remains vulnerable to fraudulent websites. Because of this the credibility of all websites is questioned, especially the smallest ones. This leads to monopolization of the Internet, as visitors only trust the biggest and best known websites.

CONSEQUENCES

• 4% of adults say they have stopped shopping on the internet altogether, because of the fear of fraud generated by media stories.
• 10% of 16–24 year-olds say they now shop online less frequently due to the fear of fraud. over 50% of all adults say they don’t shop online and never have. 84% of shoppers look for signs that the page is secure before submitting personal and financial details.
• 82% say they only shop with reputable name retailers.
• Almost a quarter (24%) of UK adults think retailers should be primarily responsible for making online shopping safer.
• Nearly one in five (19%) feel responsibility should rest with their internet provider, whilst 13% think it should be with the card schemes (e.g. MasterCard, Visa) Just 4% believe the police should be charged with improving safety online Source: CyberSource Fourth Annual UK Online Fraud Report 2008 Edition(download).

In fact, a longitudinal study done by the University of Southern California, Los Angeles between 2001 and 2007 found a significant increase in the general public’s distrust of the Internet. Such a perception may be well-founded as the incidence of Internet crime is on the rise. You can read about the specific numbers in the article about Cyber crime on the Internet.

Despite decreased consumer confidence, the actual number of online transactions is increasing every year. From this we see that the demand and desire to do business on the Internet is increasing, while the environment is becoming less friendly and more dangerous for companies and customers. Given that the Internet is a multi-trillion dollar industry, is it a responsible practice to not utilize a secure, rock-solid business verification system?

Protect your company identity and join the pool of trustworthy companies!