Electronic communications form an essential part of our society. E-commerce has experienced massive growth in the past two years- online sales doubled in 2002 from the previous year. Internet shopping is growing at a rate 15 times faster than general retail sales and December 2002 saw 60% of the UK’s online population (12.8 million people) shun the high streets to browse online. There is little sign of the trend faltering- with the introduction of Broadband it is only going to get easier. There