During the last year there has hardly been an issue of a computer or business magazine not flooded with buzzwords like e-commerce, Internet, Web, or security. E-commerce (electronic commerce) is a result of moving the economy to a new medium, namely the computer network. For the most part, interconnected networks all over the world use a common set of protocols (., TCP/IP), thus making up the Internet. The World Wide Web (WWW, or simply the Web), which started as a client-server application, has turned into a new platform providing virtual information centers, shopping malls, marketplaces, stock markets, and the like. .
