Part A.

Design & Data Collection:

Define the research design we are using

Case study

Experimental

Archival analysis

Comparative ? 2 groups

Cross-sectional ? Positivist, questionnaire

Longitudinal

Explain whether our research will be exploratory, descriptive or causal.

Evaluate how we will work towards establishing validity and reliability.

How could the B2C e-commerce industry reduce the risk of suffering cyberattacks by investing in cybersecurity?

Introduction

Our study aimed to focus on the relationship and the meaning of the effects on the investment of cybersecurity and the risk of suffering cyberattacks. We want to evaluate how B2C e-commerce companies could prevent the risk of cyberattacks by investing in cybersecurity. Our purpose is to analyze how and why the investments can reduce the risks and to identify how much it can prevent. Our literature review will explain what cybersecurity means, what is B2C e-commerce, and what kind of risks can be suffered by cyberattacks. We will use the cases from different e-commerce companies to understand what they did about investing in cybersecurity and evaluate how these practices relate to the cyberattacks. After reviewing the cases and the strategies with real data or interviews, we will assess the reasons for making investments in cybersecurity and the consequences of the practice. Also, we will discuss what causes the risk cyberattacks and what can be the most effective way to solve the problem with investments.

Review of Related Studies

This section is a report of a literature review undertaken to identify investing in cybersecurity and how business-to-consumer business(B2C) models deal with the prevention of cyberattacks. The beginning of using the concept of security has been started a long period of time ago, but as advancing the Internet, Chowdhury (2016) proves facing with cybersecurity is a vulnerability to cause malfunction of devices or leaking of personal information from combating cyber attacks (pp. 54-65). According to analysis of Kasana and Chaudhary. (2014), The following databases are shown that specific B2C companies such as Amazon and Ebay belong to online intermediates as Ecommerce platforms. Both Amazon and Ebay made significant sales, which naturally made hackers want to extort customer information because they can lose revenue with unexpected dollars (Rai & Mandoria, 2019). This paper focuses on how B2C models can better themselves to minimize the occurrence and impact of cyber-attacks even though Their companies consistently participated in the research and development(R&D) to innovate their new ideas.

Cybersecurity and Cyber Attacks

The Internet, a platform on which the development of e-commerce depends, is full of vast and complex cybersecurity risks. Cybercriminals utilize a spread of techniques to dispatch a cyberattack, along with malware, phishing, ransomware (Cohen, 1999). Therefore, for e-commerce companies, most of these attacks are related to security, which means that enhancing cybersecurity can effectively control the spread of cyberattacks. One common byproduct of a cyber attack is a data breach, where personal data or other sensitive information is exposed, which increases the credit risk of e-commerce companies (Uma & Padmavathi, 2013). Companies need to consider and focus on personal information leakage and company secrets leakage. Information security may have an impact on customers' trust, and companies may need to spend part of their investment to maintain a good relationship with customers. Cybersecurity primarily aims to protect against the unauthorized exploitation of systems and networks (Uma & Padmavathi, 2013). Therefore, either it may be a business startup or a large enterprise, cybersecurity is necessary. The network security system can not only protect the personal information security and property security of customers, but also ensure the smooth progress of the company's trading system, so e-commerce companies must consider taking certain investments in security, so as to reduce the greater loss of reputation from customers and companies.

Reducing the risk of suffering cyberattacks

For the e-commerce system's security, risk identification's primary goal is to identify the network environment risk, data access risk, and online payment risk of the e-commerce system. Ana et al. (2018) propose a model that integrates fault tree analysis, decision theory, and fuzzy theory to ascertain the current causes of cyberattack prevention failures and determine a given cybersecurity system's vulnerability. This model application proves its usefulness because it illustrates that the B2C industry is more susceptible to cybersecurity attacks than websites partly due to frequent visits by operators, credit transactions, and user authentication in e-commerce. How we can ensure the security of data transmitted over the Internet and each trading party's identity is the key to the development of e-commerce. The critical problem of e-commerce is security problems. Shi et al. (2018) proposed a concrete identity-based undetachable digital signature scheme with provable security. The study simulates the actual situation, analyzes and reduces the encrypted function's cyberattack problems, and is combined with the original signer's requirement. This research is useful to help analyze how the B2C industry could reduce the risk of cyberattacks. However, because it is a simulation experiment, it is still unable to ensure whether it can be accurately applied to the company's strategies.

Case #1. Amazon's response of cybersecurity in research and development

Cook (2018) describes that Amazon's web services(AWS) are in the form of on-demand, consisting of providers of cloud services that can connect information technology resources. As soon as developing AWS, their targeting highly reached 40-45% in 2017. However, as the range broadened, their aim was to strengthen security to prevent leaking customers' information. Tou et al. (2019) describes that Amazon invests "US$ 22.6 billion "(Tou et al., 2019, p. 1) on only R&D. Additionally, Tou et al. (2019) explained that Amazon has launched to build a virtual shopping assistant called Alexa for accomplishing business innovation and enhancing R&D activities. Alexa applied with an echo, which is a smart speaker for the purpose of fulfilling future-oriented dreams to users' lives although it still raises issues with user privacy and security because of their continuously listening microphones and using the artificial intelligence programs. (Jackson & Orebaugh, 2018). In addition, Bispham et al. (2019) pointed out that comprehending and representing natural language in voice-controlled digital assistants can apparently cause exploits as a type of "missense attacks" (Bispham et al., 2019) to convey exact semantics and functionalities due to "imparity between machine and human capabilities "(Bispham et al., 2019).

Case #2. eBay's response to cyber attack on 2014

Lin et al. (2007) described ebay as a company that achieved rapid growth in e-commerce using both its platform and PayPal platform. However, according to the analysis of Balushi (2016), online shopping trends to be easy to "sense of control and freedom" (Balushi, 2016, p. 162), so it is necessary to figure out that cybercrimes that cause financial damage can be widely recognized. Represently, Gandhi and Thanjavur. (2012) proved that eBay was attacked in 2003 with an unsolicited email scam that forced users to suspend their accounts, and that it had been phishing using their identity theft as if they were legitimate. At that time, It is necessary to be considered that the biggest problem was to trick a few victims using the same or easy-to-guess passwords with spoofing strategies.

How B2C companies make effective investments for cybersecurity

Security has always been the focus of the B2C e-commerce industry, because effective security is important for business continuity, customer trust and compliance with industry-specific laws and regulations (Rahman & Lackey, 2013). In fact, most of the computer related problems, such as malicious hackers and online predators, can be solved by strengthening the security. According to Rahman & Lackey's (2013) meta-analysis, in order to provide a comprehensive protection system to protect property and personal information, security is essential, but these methods will be accompanied by high costs. Therefore, investment in security systems becomes essential, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises. Although there is no fully secure network protection system, increasing investment in cybersecurity can reduce the chance of becoming a victim. However, the investment in cybersecurity is not simple. The uncertainty of cyberattack determines the uncertainty of investment, which will greatly affect the control measures of investment opportunities (Chronopoulos et al., 2017). This also means that when companies invest in cybersecurity, they must consider the uncertainty of cyberattacks, so as to determine the amount of investment and the number of investment personnel. Fielder et al. (2016) systematically analyzed that when the budget is low, the investment is more likely to provide some more stable security control measures; in a higher budget, strict patching strategies are implemented when possible, and some anti malware, firewall and security configuration are provided. These conclusions are obtained through the case study of many small and medium-sized enterprises. For the large-scale e-commerce enterprises we studied, such as Amazon and EBay, these methods seem not suitable, but it is doubtless that the investment intensity of security systems depends on the company's budget. Because there is no way to avoid the existence of risks completely, the company should consider the type of cyberattacks that it may face and how uncertain it is when making investment decisions, and then invest in the security system according to its own company's budget. By using the multidisciplinary method of combining economy, behavior, society and engineering to investigate the cybersecurity investment insight, e-commerce companies can complete more effective system and incentive structure, and improve the social ability to resist the cybersecurity risks (Fielder et al, 2016).

Conclusion

Through the literature review we understand that the cyberattack always includes computer virus and hacker attacks which are both related to cybersecurity. Therefore, investment in cybersecurity can protect the personal information of customers and confidential information of e-commerce companies even though it would cost a lot of money. In addition, there are some useful studies which analyze how enterprises prevent failures and determine a given cybersecurity system. Furthermore, we study the cases of Amazon and Ebay about how they make investment in cybersecurity and we notice that they both suffered cyberattacks in different ways and they're still working on it with a lot of costs and techniques. Finally, we evaluate that there is no way to prevent cyber attacks completely, the SMEs need to focus more on investing in cybersecurity since they are easier to get attacked by their competitors. Therefore, when enterprises make decisions about investments they need to consider uncertainty of the cyberattacks and their budgets.

Part b

Additional information (in $000); Insurance, $3, was prepaid at 31 August 2018. Wages and salaries due but unpaid totalled $12 at 31 August 2018, Depreciation of $66 should be provided on furniture and fittings at 20% per annum using the straight-line method. . The provision for doubtful debts should be maintained at 5% of accounts receivable. . The partnership agreement includes the following terms: - Interest should be charged on drawings. For the year under review, the interest to be charged has been calculated as follows: Geeta $4 000, Henry $5000, Irvin $7 000. - Geeta is entitled to receive a partnership salary of $28000 per annum. - Partners are entitled to receive interest on capital at the rate of 10%. Prepare: a. an income statement (trading and profit and loss account) for the year ended 31 August 2018 b. an appropriation account for the year ended 31 August 2018 C. partners' current accounts d. a statement of financial position (balance sheet) at 31 August 2018. The statement of financial position (balance sheet) should show only the balances on the partners' current accounts at this date. armance of a partnership22. End-of-year financial statements of a partnership The Geeta, Henry and Irvin are in partnership sharing profits and losses: Geeta 209%, Henry 4096, Irvin 409%. The following trial balance was extracted from the business's books of account on 31 August 2018, the last day of the partnership's financial year. Trial balance at 31 August 2018 Dr Cr SOOO Accounts payable 18 Accounts receivable 40 Bank overdraft 12 Capital accounts: Geeta 260 Henry 310 Irvin 370 Current accounts: Geeta 6 Henry Irvin LO Discounts 11 15 Drawings: Geeta 44 Henry 61 Irvin 52 Furniture and equipment: Cost 220 Provision for depreciation, 1 September 2017 66 General expenses 19 Gross profit 291 Insurance 27 Inventory, 31 August 2018 68 Premises at cost 660 Provision for doubtful debts, 1 September 2017 Wages and salaries 139 1356 135Question 5 (20 marks) The comparative Balance Sheets and the Income statement for the Marine Corporation are as follow. Marine Corporation Income Statement For the Year Ended December 31, 2019 Sales $ 3,500,000 Less: Cost of Goods Sold 2,050,000 Gross Profit 1,450,000 Less: Selling, General & Administrative Expenses 240,000 Operating profit 1,210,000 Less: Depreciation Expense 180,000 Earnings Before Interest and Taxes 1,050,000 Less: Interest Expense 80,000 Earnings Before Taxes 970,000 Less: Taxes (50%%) 485,000 Net Income $ 485,000 Marine Corporation Balance Sheet Assets 2018 2019 Cash $35,000 $40 000 Marketable Securities 185,000 170.000 Accounts Receivable 225,000 210,000 Inventories 250.000 240.000 Investments 80.000 55.000 Totel current assets $775,000 $715,000 Plant and Equipment 1,100,000 1,550.000 Less Accumulated 410,000 580,000 Amortization Net plant and Equipment $690.000 $970,000 Total Assets 1,465,000 1,685,000 LIABILITIES AND SHAREHOLDERS' EQUITY Accounts payable $90.000 $75,000 Notes payable 75,000 25,000 Accrued Expenses 20.000 5,000 Income Taxes Payable 8.000 12,000 Bonds Payable (2016) 700,000 300,D00 Common Stock (100,000 shares) 200,000 200,000 Retained Earnings 372,000 568,000 Total Liabilities' and Shareholders' $1,485,000 $1,685,000 Equity Required: Prepare a Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended December 31, 2019 using the Indirect Method showing the operating, investing and financial cashflows up to the net change in cash.Sunshine Limited has the following cost estimates: variable cost per unit is $18, total fixed costs are $85 000 and the projected sales price is $33 each. The new accountant suggests that fixed costs can be reduced by $9 000. If so, how many units must be sold to produce a profit of $104 000? Select one: O a. 11 000 O b. 16 250 O c. 10 000 O d. 12 000