Development of Transactions Authorization Protocol for Ubiquitous Commerce Systems

Transparency in transactions can only be achieved through a controlled coordination of the real and cyber worlds. The success of Ubiquitous Commerce Systems (UCS) relies on the convergence of both worlds. The mobile devices are ubiquitous; they can be used anytime and anywhere. This poses a lot of security challenges in a ubiquitous society where business transactions will be involved. With the emergence of electronic payment and other business transaction solutions, ubiquity has the potential to make commerce freer and the transaction flows easier. However, privacy, security and mutual trust are critical to its development and use. Hence, for users of UCS services to have full confidence in the system, most especially while operating in a cashless society, absolute security must be put in place by stakeholders. This paper presents a Transactions Authorization Protocol (TAP) for the UCS. TAP is conceptualized to enhance security for UCS users. This protocol is less intrusive and it allows stage by stage authentication before final authorization of the users’ requests.