Similarity Formation of Groups and Key Management in Dynamic Peer-to-Peer E-commerce

Abstract

The ease of shopping and comparing products and prices online has made it an attractive option for many shoppers. When it comes to time to enter personal information or complete a business transaction on the Internet, most people hesitate, and understandably so. They've read about credit card fraud, identity theft, spoofing, hacking, phishing and other abuses. These business transactions take place among peer to peer systems at the edge of the internet. In peer-to-peer environments, a peer needs to interact with unknown entities. In the method proposed, the peers form groups in order to ensure security. Each group is based on interest among the peers and has its own way of operation. The paper gives a clear outline of how peers form groups, select group leaders. Peers can belong to more than one group to a maximum of n groups hence exempt a similarity behavior. This paper also addresses the distribution and management of keys among the peers.