Data Protection and Security

I

Introduction to Information Security

I.IV

Principles of Security

PRACTICE: Internet offers new opportunitiesfor new forms of interactions but on the other hand it has its own risks. One of the biggest risks is trust-related. For instance when you want to buy an item from an online auction site (such as eBay), how can you make sure that the item you will get is exactly the one described on the web site. In other words, how do you trust someone totally stranger to you?

The term reputation refers to the general opinion towards a people (or a group of a people). Reputation systems play a fundamental role to earn one another’s trust in online transactions. The idea is to collect, aggregate and distribute feedback about someone’s past behavior. If this can be done reliably, then you can make your buying decisions based on the feedback of those who have already had an interaction with the same entity. Of course this provides only limited insurance but we do not currently have a better way for building trust among strangers on the Internet.

You see an example for a member profile showing his/her reputation in eBay in the next column.

Figure I.IV-I

Figure depicting reputation of an eBay member.
[click to enlarge]