Local security for other nations

Security experts believe Australia's geographical isolation represents an opportunity to offer secure online services to nations with poor reputations for security.

John Debrincat managing director of leading eBusiness solutions provider, eCorner said Australian eCommerce currently lags the more mature European and US markets by two to three years and that means the industry can learn from their mistakes and improve our success rate.

Debrincat believes Australia's low profile and the fact that the country has only a few highly secure conduits for online traffic in and out of the country gives us a far greater ability to control and protect users than Europe, North America or parts of Asia.

"We have an opportunity to position ourselves as a very secure environment to places like China or Korea, which are largely mistrusted by users as being not secure enough,” he said.

“Of course, our ability to capitalise on this window of opportunity will be limited by existing broadband constraints, but I'm hopeful that the current focus on these issues has increased the likelihood that they will be addressed in the short to medium term."

Debrincat will be talking at the Online Shop 2007 Conference, held 18 April in Melbourne.

For more information visit www.onlineshop2007.com.au.