The market for e-commerce is predicted to exceed US $3.2 trillion by the year 2002. Almost all of these transactions will be Internet based. The Internet, a communications medium originally built for open collaboration among academics, is an inherently insecure medium. As a result, systems built on top of the Internet must be designed and developed with intrinsic security. As the complexity of Internet-based software systems has grown, the security and privacy risks have grown in scope and magnitude.

The value of the digital assets brought to the Internet gives new incentive to malicious computer hackers (or even competitors) to sabotage online systems or simply steal intellectual property. Hacking into online systems has proven all too easy for amateurs equipped only with a US $500 personal computer, a basic modem, and Internet service.