EDI began when large companies affiliated with their suppliers to expedite economic transactions. The benefits of electronic interchange quickly arose. The electronic interchanges improved response time, reduced paperwork and eliminated potential for transcription errors. 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.