QUESTION 3 (20 MARKS) Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or service over electronic systems such as the Internet and other computer Network. The amount of trade conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with wide-spread Internet usage. The first ecommerce transaction was made in 1994. A guy named Phil Brandenberger used his Mastercard to buy Sting's Ten Summoners' Tales via the internet for $12.48. This particular transaction made history and signaled to the world that the "internet is open" for ecommerce transactions. Why? Because it was the first time that encryption technology was used to enable an internet purchase. Required: a. Explain the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (HTTP) function and respond in internet. (4 marks) b. Describe about digital certificate used in Phil Brandenbeger transaction. Discuss how is it different from a digital signature. (7 marks) c. Discuss the certification authority and the implications for the accounting profession. (9 marks)

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Answer

Ecommerce is buying and selling of goods and services or the transmitting of funds or data over an electronic network media and highly competitive nature of e-commerce will keep on changing the retail industry and influence customers' behavior.

Required:

Ans-a

HTTP function and respond: this is the set of rules for transferring text, images, sound, video and other multimedia files where resources are exchanged between client devices and servers over the internet. The function of HTTP used on the Internet in order to control data transfer to and from a hosting server and in communication with a web browser and users to maintain the websites themselves and establish a connection with the server and send HTML pages back to the user's browser. HTTP acts as a messenger of the web where important aspects, that it is connectionless, stateless, and can deliver any kind of data. 
Respond of HTTP in internet is made by a server to a client which provide the client with the resource it requested, or inform the client that the action it requested has been carried out or inform the client that an error occurred in processing its request.

Ans-b

Digital certificates are the credentials that facilitate the verification of identities between users in a transaction  to establish the identity of users within the ecosystem. . It started with Phil Brandenberger, a man who purchased the first online product , the digital transaction is refers to all activities that involve buying or selling goods and services online. The digital certificate used to cryptographically link ownership of a public key with the entity that owns it and sharing public keys to be used for encryption and authentication and issued by a Certificate Authority which can be used to encrypt and sign information digitally.  SSL certificate that authenticates a website's identity and enables an encrypted connection.
The difference between digital certificate and digital signature: in this 
-the digital certificate is that a certificate binds a digital signature to an entity, whereas a digital signature is to ensure that a data or information remain secure from the point it was issued
-digital signature is not the same as encryption but it works in conjunction with encryption. And digital certificate the authorized third party verifies the identity of the requestor and checks if the requester meets all the requirements to receive a certificate.

Ans-c

The certification authority and the implications for the accounting profession: this is an an independent and trusted third party empowered with responsibility for the identity of organizations and individuals engaging in Internet commerce. The main goal of a CA is to verify the authenticity and trustworthiness of a website, domain and organization so users know exactly who they're communicating with online and whether that entity can be trusted  and they digital certificate for a website, users know they are connected with an official website.