Network Reputation Certification Services Research

The 21st century is the age of information economy, and electroniccommerce is an important branch of it. Because of its convenience,electronic commerce such as news online, shopping online, e-mailentered into our lives rapidly. But leaking personal privacy and cheatingonline are terrible. For electronic commerce, security becomes a greatobstacle. It is getting more and more important. Just this weakness bringsCPAs a new opportunity. Thus AICPA and CICA offered jointly thewebtrust service in 1997. The webtrust is a professional service offeredby the chartered accountant. The CPA industry and electronic commerceare combined felicitously through the webtrust. At the present, the studiesabout the webtrust have not yet formed a theoretical system, how shouldwe put the webtrust in practice with the electronic commerce developingvery quickly in China. These questions will be researched one by one inthe thesis. This thesis is composed of four parts. The first part mainly introduces some basic concepts of the webtrustbriefly. The author believes that the high risk of Internet and the troublehappened to the CPA industry are just the reasons led to the webtrust. Onthe one side, the webtrust can enhance trust and confidence amongcustomers and promote the well-liking development of electroniccommerce. On the other side, the webtrust can release the stresses in theCPA industry and extend the service offered by CPA. It is necessary for usto know what the webtrust is. In this part, the author defines it correctlyafter analysing several domestic definition of the webtrust. The authorthinks the webtrust is a professional service offered by the CPA who hasbeen qualified. The CPA will censor the website including B2B, B2C,ASP, ISP, CA and validate whether the present circumstances of thewebsite are in accord with Principles and Criteria for WebTrust or not.The objectives of the webtrust include online privacy, security, businesspractices/transaction integrity, availability, confidentiality,non-repudiation. At the end of the service, CPA should give aprofessional report. In order to understand clearly the webtrust, the authordistinguishes the webtrust from several correlative concepts such asfinancial audit, website auditing, SysTrust and Certificate Authority. The second part analyses the problems the webtrust faced, whichfocus on three aspects including market scale, competitors andprofessional ability. For the webtrust, how to overcome the problems isvery important .The author tries to find a way to solve these problems bycomparing five well-known ways of certification. The author researchesthe advantages of the webtrust from the subjects, objects, objectives andcriteria. On the basis of the research, the author points out that thewebtrust is a "large-scale" service, not only the content but also the area.With the internationalization of electronic commerce, the webtrust willplay an important part. The third part mainly researches the theoretic framework of thewebtrust. Theoretical studies are the footstone of practical applications.The author puts forward a theoretic framework comprising objects,objectives, standards, concepts, assumptions, techniques and processes,using the studies of Anderson as reference. For the characteristics ofelectronic commerce, the objects are the beginning of the frameworkwhich decide the objectives. Then the author analyses the relations ofeach element. On the basis of the analysis, the author researches everyelement in the theoretic framework in detail. In fourth part, the author brings forward we should carry out thewebtrust in China step by step under the present conditions of electroniccommerce and the present abilities of CPAs. The author thinks thewebtrust is needed in China according to the 15th report by CNNIC.Afterwards the author researches the feasibility through analysing thesurroundings of electronic commerce, website, Internet user and CPAs.The conclusion shows the webtrust is completely feasible except for someproblems. So the author suggests we should take the "step by ste...