M-commerce security: the impact of wireless application protocol (WAP) security services on e-business and e-health solutions

Mobile commerce (m-commerce) is providing real-time accessibility and new opportunities for industrial, commercial, and e-health services via mobile devices and solutions. Such services and solutions appeal to consumers over traditional forms not only because of their high availability, but the independence that can be achieved from the restriction of physical location, space, and time. Even so, the move to create a wireless, information-secure version of the internet opens up a new area of concerns and challenges. As with traditional forms of information and transactional services' delivery, the issue of security, privacy, and integrity of information and transactions being exchanged from one point of the network to another is seen as a key barrier to making mobile solutions a reality. As security is one of the most important features governing successful m-commerce applications, this paper focuses the discussion on security concerns with wireless network solutions. It features Wireless Applications Protocol (WAP)-based solutions to ensure security of electronic transactions and provides some insights into the associated benefits for using WAP-based applications. Finally, the paper highlights the impact of WAP on e-health solutions and concludes with a review of future challenge for implementing m-commerce networks and solutions.