e-Commerce notes
E-Commerce or electronic commerce is a general concept covering any form of business
transactions or information exchange executed using information and communication
technology, between companies, between companies and their customers, or between
companies and public administrations.
(Esprit, 1997)
e-Commerce includes electronic trading of goods, services and electronic material.
The three categories of of eCommerce are:
● Electronic Markets - An electronic market is the use of information and communications
technology to present a range of offered goods and services available in a market
segment so that purchasers can compare prices and other features of the offerings and
make a purchase decision. A common example of this is an airline booking system.
● Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) - EDI provides a standardized system for coding trade
transactions so that they can be communicated directly between two computer systems
without the need for printed orders and invoices and the delays and errors implicit in
paper handling. EDI is used by organizations that make a large number of regular
transactions. One sector where EDI is extensively used is large supermarket chains
which use EDI for transactions with their suppliers.
https://www.commport.com/edi-in-ecommerce/
● Internet Commerce - Here, sales, advertising, and other business activities happen over
the internet. This type of e-Commerce is typified by the commercial use of the Internet.
Note that Internet is not the only technology used in this type of service and this is not
the only use of the Internet in e-Commerce.
DO NOT confuse categories with the different types of business models based on transaction
parties and transaction types.
RSA algorithm:
RSA(Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) Algorithm is an asymmetric or public-key cryptography algorithm
which means it works on two different keys: Public Key and Private Key. The Public Key is used
for encryption and is known to everyone, while the Private Key is used for decryption and must
be kept secret by the receiver. RSA Algorithm is named after Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and
Leonard Adleman, who published the algorithm in 1977.
Example of Asymmetric Cryptography:
If Person A wants to send a message securely to Person B:
● Person A encrypts the message using Person B’s Public Key.
● Person B decrypts the message using their Private Key.
RSA Algorithm is based on factorization of large number and modular arithmetic for encrypting
and decrypting data. It consists of three main stages:
1. Key Generation: Creating Public and Private Keys
2. Encryption: Sender encrypts the data using Public Key to get cipher text.
3. Decryption: Decrypting the cipher text using Private Key to get the original data.
RSA Algorithm:
1. Key Generation
● Choose two large prime numbers, say p and q. These prime numbers should be kept
secret.
● Calculate the product of primes, n = p * q. This product is part of the public as well as the
private key.
● Calculate Euler Totient FunctionΦ(n) as Φ(n) = Φ(p * q) = Φ(p) * Φ(q) = (p – 1) * (q – 1).
● Choose encryption exponent e, such that
○ 1 < e < Φ(n), and
○ gcd(e, Φ(n)) = 1, that is e should be co-prime with Φ(n).
● Calculate decryption exponent d, such that
○ (d * e) ≡ 1 mod Φ(n), that is d is modular multiplicative inverse of e mod Φ(n).
Some common methods to calculate multiplicative inverse are: Extended
Euclidean Algorithm, Fermat’s Little Theorem, etc.
○ We can have multiple values of d satisfying (d * e) ≡ 1 mod Φ(n) but it does not
matter which value we choose as all of them are valid keys and will result into
same message on decryption.
Finally, the Public Key = (n, e) and the Private Key = (n, d).
2. Encryption
To encrypt a message M, it is first converted to numerical representation using ASCII and other
encoding schemes. Now, use the public key (n, e) to encrypt the message and get the cipher
text using the formula:
C = Me mod n, where C is the Cipher text and e and n are parts of public key.
3. Decryption
To decrypt the cipher text C, use the private key (n, d) and get the original data using the
formula:
M = Cd mod n, where M is the message and d and n are parts of private key.
Example:
● Choose p = 3 and q = 11
● Compute n = p * q = 3 * 11 = 33
● Compute φ(n) = (p - 1) * (q - 1) = 2 * 10 = 20
● Choose e such that 1 < e < φ(n) and e and φ (n) are coprime. Let e = 7
● Compute a value for d such that (d * e) % φ(n) = 1. One solution is d = 3
[(3 * 7) % 20 = 1]
● Public key is (e, n) => (7, 33)
● Private key is (d, n) => (3, 33)
● The encryption of m = 2 is c = 27 % 33 = 29
● The decryption of c = 29 is m = 293 % 33 = 2
Difference between DES (Data Encryption Standard) and AES (Advanced Encryption Standard):
https://www.tpointtech.com/des-vs-aes
