Google defines commerce as ‘the activity of buying and selling, especially on a large scale.’ If I was writing this report just ten years ago, I would have had to say what Webster’s dictionary had to say about the definition of commerce. But, thanks to incredible advances in technology, life has changed enough for me to be able to sit down and write an essay without the need to get up to look in a dictionary. Of course, that’s not the only thing that technology has affected. Drastic changed were made in the fields of medicine, social interaction, and transportation just to name a few things that would have astonished people living just a hundred years ago. Possibly more than any of that, however, is how business was altered by the creation of the internet. The more we progress into the future, the more e-commerce becomes important. However, as essential as ecommerce is to our economy, there is a reluctance by many to embrace and accept this (relatively) new way of life because of the fear of the unknown; the issue of security when trading online. But even though there are reports abound regarding hackers and others abusing the system, if a person is careful and informed, the rewards greatly outweigh the risks. One of the main issues people have with internet security in general is the concern about who will be able gain access to their name, birthday, address, and social security and credit card numbers. People obviously want to keep this information as private as possible, doling it out only when absolutely necessary. And the steady stream of news concerning hackers cause people to think again about entering personal information online, but in reality websites can take steps to make sure that a person’s information is safe. Firstly, one must understand the many different threats that face any person who goes online. There are viruses, Trojan horses, hackers, worms, spider attacks, scanner attacks, DoS (denial of service) at