Impact of International Networks on Standardization Process in Banking Industry： Example of Secure Electronic Transaction （SET） Initiative

The purpose of this article is to present and interpret the case study of the secure electronic transaction （SET） scheme of Internet security, as an illustration of the necessary construction of interoperability solutions for financial services. The interpretation of case data with actor network theory （ANT） provides an illustration of power coalitions among banks to create a de facto standard for transnational electronic payment security on the Internet. After a step of protecting its political interests and well-known technological solutions, the coalition understands that its mission becomes a matter of life and death for its members： Brand-new currency has been invented on the Web and one could develop business and monetary transactions without the banks. This interpretative stage tells us much about the transnational mechanisms of regulation and standardization as well as the ＂translation＂ steps regarding these transnational organizations. However, an additional step has to be added to this interpretative step, a step of framework construction. The aim is to help managers of the transnational firms involved in regulations and standardization to anticipate the evolutions and make relevant decisions. The framework has three distinctive characteristics： the ability to help conception, the ability to help conceive problems ＂ex ante＂, and the ability to facilitate collective conception of strategic maneuvers.

Formal Verification of the Merchant Registration Phase of the SET Protocol

This paper describes the formal verification of the Merchant Registration phase of the Secure Electronic Transactions (SET) protocol, a realistic electronic transaction security protocol which is used to protect the secrecy of online purchases. A number of concepts, notations, functions, predicates, assumptions and rules are introduced. We describe the knowledge of all legal participants, and a malicious spy, to assess the security of the sub-protocol. Avoiding search in a large state space, the method converges very quickly. We implemented our method in the Isabelle/Isar automated reasoning environment, therefore the whole verification process can be executed mechanically and efficiently. Keywords Formal verification - electronic transaction protocol - knowledge-based system This work was supported by EC, EPSRC, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.60496320, 60496321), and Hong Kong K C Wang Education Foundation.Xiao-Qi Ma graduated from Nanjing University of Science and Technology, China, in 1997. He received his Master’s degree from the Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2003. He is currently a PhD student at the University of Reading. His research interests include computer network security, knowledge-based systems, and operating systems.Xiao-Chun Cheng obtained his PhD in 1996. He has worked as a lecturer at the University of Reading since 2000. He is a guest professor at North East Normal University and Beijing Normal University. His research interests include theoretical and applied aspects in decision support systems, knowledge-based systems and intelligent systems.