Major Strategic Issues of Facebook

e-Commerce

MAJOR STRATEGIC ISSUES OF FACEBOOK

Identify the major strategic issues of Facebook

Facebook strategically aimed creating a platform for social interactivity in the internet. The team used the existing website technology to facilitate this interaction. In order to expand into new markets without losing what originally made it popular, Facebook must ensure that the new products are connected to its original idea in one way or the other. For instance, as an advertising tool, Facebook should make sure that corporate and businesspersons who need marketing own Facebook accounts where people connect with them.

Major Characteristics of Web 2.0

Allows web-based applications to be accessed from any place

Simple applications are used to solve specified problems

Its value is more anchored on the content rather than the software used to display the same content.

Sharing of data is straightforward.

Is uses a bottom-up distribution pattern rather than top-down.

User friendly as it allows both the employees and customers to use it on their own.

The social tools enhance collaboration among people as it allows editing, categorization, and promote information.

Enhances network effects: the higher the number of contributors, the better the content

Advantages of Web 2.0

Has facilitated free information flow thus allowing internet users to share ideas readily without fear of apprehension.

Internet becomes more personalized to the extent that users can access only that information that is tailored to their needs.

It makes a website more user friendly and functional thus allowing users to navigate through the pages and access the information they require.

Q3: What are some of the risks that companies may face if they decide to do business on the Internet?

Legality risks: carrying out business online may expose a business to legal risks, as some products may be illegal in some areas. Shipping goods or selling products to such areas may violate local laws thus translating to liability or prosecution. In addition, it poses challenges regarding to remittance of sales tax and a company may face legal hurdles for defaulting.

Fraud risks: A company may be exposed to fraudulent activities from individuals who may want to defraud the company. These include the use of fake or stolen credit cards to make payment for merchandise that has been delivered.

Startup risks: design and hosting of professional website is relatively expensive. Therefore, for businesses that may not rank favorably in search engines may end up underperforming as far as their investment is concerned.

Q4: All EC sites share common security threats and vulnerabilities.

Vulnerabilities:

SQL injection vulnerability: it entails insertion of SQL metacharacters in the input made by the user. This allows queries to be applied in the back-end database. The results obtained in such an attack may expose the nature of back-end technology besides permitting the invader to access information from the database.

Price manipulation vulnerability: It is common in shopping carts where the cumulative price of purchased products is kept in a secret HTML field of a dynamically created webpage. The attacker may then use web application proxy like Achilles to alter the total amount payable. This occurs when there is an ongoing exchange of information between the user's browser and the web server. This compromises the credibility of online merchants.

Weak Authentication and Authorization vulnerability: A case in point is an authentication system that does prohibit multiple failed logins. This may enable the invader to have the login information using tools like Brutus. In addition, an attacker may sniff the traffic to establish users' authentication in websites using HTTP Basic Authentication or those that do not confer session IDs over to Secure Sockets Layers.

To mitigate the vulnerabilities:

The solution is to build a security measure at the design stage of the website. Other mitigation strategies include strong input confirmation routines, cryptographic principles, and a 3-tier modular design. The mitigation strategies should also include the use of open-source cryptographic principles coupled with authentic coding practices.

Both B2B and B2C face similar security threats since they are both EC sites. The difference, however, emanates from the quantity of security issues. For instance, B2B has lesser channels as compared to B2C, implying that the latter is prone to more security issues.