  Technical security is only part of E-Commerce security operations; human
usability and security perception play major and sometimes dominating factors.
For instance, slick websites with impressive security icons but no real
technical security are often perceived by users to be trustworthy (and thus
more profitable) than plain vanilla websites that use powerful encryption for
transmission and server protection. We study one important type of E-Commerce
transaction website, E-Tax Filing, that is exposed to large populations. We
assess a large number of international (5), Federal (USA), and state E-Tax
filing websites (38) for both technical security protection and human
perception of security. As a result of this assessment, we identify security
best practices across these E-Tax Filing websites and recommend additional
security techniques that have not been found in current use by E-Tax Filing
websites.
