Security and confidentiality arose as major problems. Companies began using general controls in electronic commerce transactions. Some general controls are data encryption, firewalls, and network control logs. Data encryption protects the substance of the transmission by encrypting the data being sent. Receiving computers decode the transmission.
Firewalls use hardware and software to protect the business' internal network resources.
A network control log is a tracking tool. It logs received information to establish an audit trail of the network activities. All these pitfalls of EDI led to a demand for a more viable e-business solution. A better solution had already been implemented in many areas of business. This solution was the use of the Internet to expedite electronic commerce.