Trust Issues in Ecommerce

Mechanisms for providing suitable levels of trust in the identities of the parties to Ecommerce applications is a topic with many unresolved issues. The traditional mechanisms of face-to-face contact and reputation often do not translate into the electronic realm. New mechanisms based around the use of cryptograpic algorithms and digital certificates issued by Certification Authorities are evolving, but their use in practical applications, and means for providing transitivity of trust through chains of certificates are still not well understood.

Currently, Dr Lawrie Brown in conjunction with his colleagues Dr Ed Lewis, Dr Jan Newmarch, and our research students, are investigating these issues from several aspects, including from the perspective of the customer, as well as the business provider.

Some of our results to date may be seen in our papers:

• Yinan Yang, Lawrie Brown, Ed Lewis and Jan Newmarch, "W3 Trust-Profiling Framework (W3TF) to Assess Trust and Transitivity of Trust of Web-based Services in a Heterogeneous Web Environment", accepted for presentation at APWEB 2006 - The Eighth Asia Pacific Web Conference, 16-18 Jan 2006, Harbin, China. The proceedings will be published in the Springer-Verlag, Lecture Notes in Computer Science series, and the paper is © Springer-Verlag 2006.
• Yinan Yang, W3 TRUST MODEL (W3TM): A TRUST PROFILING FRAMEWORK TO ASSESS TRUST AND TRANSITIVITY OF TRUST OF WEB-BASED SERVICES IN A HETEROGENEOUS WEB ENVIRONMENT, PhD Thesis, School of Information Technology & Electrical Engineering, UNSW@ADFA, Canberra Australia, 2004.
• Y. Yang, L. Brown, J. Newmarch, and E. Lewis, W3 Trust Model: a Way to Evaluate Trust and Transitivity of Trust of Online Services, Internet Computing Conference, Las Vegas, June 2002.
• Y. Yang, L. Brown, J. Newmarch, and E. Lewis, eCommerce Trust via the Proposed W3 Trust Model, PACCS01 research student conference, UNSW@ADFA, July 2001.
• Y. Yang, L. Brown, J. Newmarch, E. Lewis, " Trust MetaData: Enabling Trust and a Counterweight to Risks of E-Commerce", Asia-Pacific Web Conference, Hong Kong, Sept 1999.
• Y. Yang, L. Brown, J. Newmarch, and E. Lewis, "A Trusted W3 Model: Transitivity of Trust in a Heterogeneous Web Environment", AusWeb'99, Ballina, NSW, Apr 1999.
• Y. Yang, L. Brown, J. Newmarch, " Which One is for You: Issues of Trust in Digital Signature Certificates", presented at the UniforumNZ'99 conference in NZ, April 1999.
• Y. Yang, L. Brown, J. Newmarch, " Which One is for You: Issues of Trust in Digital Signature Certificates", presented at the AUUG98 Conference, Sydney, Sept 1998.