The UK government has launched the latest round of research funding into the development of new technologies to fight fraud and increase e-commerce security.
Four projects at UMIST, Paisley, York and Manchester universities will be given a total of £3 million to develop electronic solutions to help boost confidence in e-commerce and tackle fraud. They include research to combat mobile phone; tackle benefit fraud; develop software to improve e-trading processes; and address consumer and industry barriers to e-commerce.
E-commerce minister, Douglas Alexander says: "Consumer confidence is key in developing a thriving market trading online. Later this month we will provide a further boost with our campaign to raise consumer awareness on how to shop safely online."
Merrill Lynch and the Co-operative Bank are participating in two of the funded projects - on the development of safeguards for securing data passed over private trading exchanges and the development of privacy enhancing technologies for SMEs respectively.