Secure transport protocol for E-commerce - SET versus SSL

In this paper, we will compare different aspects in the protocol issues of SET, Secure Electronic Transaction, and SSL, Secure Socket Layer, in terms of data integrity, confidentiality, and authentication. Also, we will briefly describe a security flaw, called Million Questions Attack, and some solutions to it. The comparison will be useful for us to seek for a well-founded secure protocol as the basis for building different E-commerce applications so as to increase the confidence of customers to do net-shopping. Finally, we will also try our best to justify these 2 protocols. In essence, mathematical foundations of the inside cryptography, but the whole authentication flow, is not our concern here.