Designing Secure E-Tendering Systems

Security requirements for e-tendering systems have not been closely scrutinised in the literature. This paper identifies key issues to be addressed in the design of secure e-tendering systems. In particular, the issues of secure timing and record keeping are raised. This paper also classifies existing e-tendering system designs by presenting common e-tendering architectures. A new e-tendering architecture, using distributed trusted third parties is proposed which may be suitable for secure large scale operations.