Businesses would benefit from investing in cybersecurity, which plays a vital role in building trust among consumers and to encourage them to maximise the use of different e-commerce platforms, a Doha-based industry expert has said.
“Trust is one of the main factors why many people are still hesitant to make the most of e-commerce,” said Dr Salah A Rustum, chairman and president of cybersecurity solutions provider CIELTECH.
As many people turn to e-commerce to address their day-to-day needs amid the novel coronavirus pandemic (Covid-19), Rustum stressed that cybersecurity plays a crucial role in reinforcing the trust factor among online consumers.
According to Rustum, identity authentication is the “prime factor” that gives trust to trading partners and all users of the Internet. But he noted that identity authentication “has yet to become an integral part” of an organisation’s digital transformation process, citing financial houses, banks, medical or educational institutions, and the public sector.
“Actually, all this digitalisation taking place nowadays is not taking into consideration the spine factor, which is accurate Digital Identity Authentication, which means knowing who is communicating with you at the other end,” Rustum explained.
Rustum further explained that a qualified digital signature provides four advantages when it is bound to an e-mail: it authenticates the originator of the e-mail via a digital ID sent with the e-mail; it saves the integrity of the message, meaning that the recipient has received the email exactly as it was sent; it creates non-repudiation, neither the sender nor the recipient can deny it is dispatched; and it creates confidentiality – the nature of the email and its attachments contain sensitive information. It maybe encrypted.
“Moreover, Customer Identity Access Management (CIAM) is another way to authenticate the person using your applications; effective identity management is a pre-requisite to a successful digitalisation strategy.
“CIAM will help you increase customer engagement, provide better services, reduce customer care costs and increase efficiency of b2b and b2c sales and marketing, improve customer satisfaction, help you create long lasting relationships, and increases security without sacrificing convenience and enable new business models,” Rustum emphasised.
In order to be secured, Rustum also stressed that all users of the Internet, regardless of status, need to implement proper cybersecurity procedures and other similar protocols to safeguard their interests.