oa e-Security: Methodologies and approaches for the United Arab Emirates Online Business

Background and Objectives As e-commerce functions in a more perplex and conjoint environment than traditional businesses, a higher degree of trust is required between the users and online businesses. Uncertainties inherent to the current e-commerce environment give rise to a lack of trust and reliability in e-commerce partnerships, thereby reducing confidence and creating barriers to trade. The reason why most users and businesses in United Arab Emirates (U.A.E) are still skeptical about e-commerce involves perceived security risks associated with conducting online business. Online users consciously or subconsciously analyze the provided level of security based on their experience in order to decide whether to conduct business with the specific company or else to move on to the next company. There is a need for a better understanding of hostile environments fueled by financially-motivated, targeted cyber threats that affect consumer's decision-making behavior. The purpose of the study is to identify the factors that support the implementation and acceptance of security in e-commerce among corporations in throughout the United Arab Emirates. The study will explored the common cyber attacks that threaten the U.A.E. online businesses and will describe methodologies and approaches that can be developed to respond to those threats. Methods: A descriptive web-based survey will be adopted as an appropriate method to collect initial data from users due to its cost effectiveness, rapid turnaround, high response volume, and ability to cover a large geographical area. The combination of questions both close- and open-ended will be selected. The URL of the survey will be electronically distributed among participant using mailing lists from the Dubai chamber of commerce. Results and Conclusions: Statistics of participants from seven states of the U.A.E will be accessed and discussed here. Complete responses will be chosen out of anonymous responses for further analysis. Quantitative data will be fed into a statistical framework for researchers to understand and analyze the relationship among different responses.