eGovernment

Malaysian government has identified initiatives to implement the modernization of the public sector. MSC is Malaysia’s initiative for the global information and communication technology (ICT) industry. The e-Government initiative was launched in Malaysia in the year 1997 by the former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as one of the seven flagships of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) initiative. The e-Government initiative focuses on increasing efficiency and at the same time reducing operational costs of public services offered. All government agencies will be equipped to quick start to offer public services through e-Government if there is a standardized framework for guidance.

The current applications of e-government in Malaysia such as e-Filling, Renewing Road Tax and Driving License Online, KWSP’s i-Akaun and E-Perolehan. Nowadays, we can renew road tax and motor insurance policy at http://www.myeg.com.my/. It also provides a list of about 100 insurances companies for citizen to choose it. In addition, we also can renew driving licenses and pay or check traffic summonses through the online at http://www.jpj.gov.my/.
However, many citizens in Malaysia do not use e-government because they are lack of computer knowledge. Besides that, the languages available of e-government applications are more on English and Malay. Some consumers are not proficient in those languages, so they are rarely using the e-government applications.

Citizen’s adoption strategies
The government should be able to propose an effective strategy to encourage citizen’s adoption of e-government by focusing on these 4 areas.

1. Customer satisfaction
E-Government adoption requires that citizens show higher levels of satisfaction with the online service provided by the government. A higher level of customer satisfaction will increase the rate of e-Government adoption.

2. Service Quality
Online service quality for e-Government could be measured in terms of quality of content provided on the website, the speed of the response to the citizens concerns with problem solving approach, and the availability of names. Other important measurement factors are telephone and fax numbers of personnel with whom citizens might need to get in touch, and the integration of an offline channel with online channel so that citizens could interact with government departments through other means if necessary. Higher quality of service will lead to higher levels of customer satisfaction and thus can increase the use of e-government services.

3. Website Design
Personalization of websites, customization of product offerings, and self-care are the three key features that could be used not only to build relationship with the visitors, but also to enhance their experience. These features give visitors a sense of control and participation and could potentially enhance their adoption

4. User Characteristic
User characteristics such as perceived risk, perceived control, and internet experience can have a direct impact on internet adoption. Experience influences a citizen’s trust of e-Government. Users with prior experience, especially if satisfied, would be more likely to return to use e-Government services. Perceived risk leads to security and privacy issues that could discourage the use of online services. It is important to ensure that citizens can transact online securely and their personal information will be kept confidential to increase the level of trust and the e-government adoption rate.

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review on local e-commerce site

Blooming florist is a click and mortar business which started its business only a small retail florist in year 1981. Now, it is not just only a florist in a physical store but also with an e-commerce operation. It offered the choices between the physical location or using the website to provide the services to the customers.

There are various types of product provided in this e-commerce site. With all of these items, it has offered many type of gift packages for the customers in the different type of the occasions. For example, you can order the red rose in hand bouquet with the Berlys heart shaped chococlate during the valentine day for your girlfriend or flowers with the baby products for the new born baby.

Blooming.com.my incorporates different types and hyperlink to direct the users to their desired page, giving them the choice of pathways.The list of catalog is given in the e-commerce site, therefore it give the customers flexibility and convenience to get what they want in just a click aways in the site. After you click on the item you decide to purchase, it will link to the shopping cart. In the shopping cart, it will show the item you have selected as a review before you make the payment. After that, click the checkout now, it will appear list of form for you to fill up the delivery date and time, card message, the receipient and your billing information with the payment option. At the end, click on the confirm now button.

In conclusion, the blooming website is user-friendly website that enable the users to browse and satisfy their needs. For those who feel interest in these gift package, you may have a look in http://www.blooming.com.my/ .

Referrence:

www.blooming.com.my

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A discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysian universities: Pros and Cons from students perspective

E-learning is a term for all types of technology -enhanced learning (TEL), where technology is used to support the learning process. E-learning strategies have been introduced into public universities in Malaysia after the establishment of the Multimedia Super Corridor since 1996 . The Malaysian universities that embraces e-learning include Open University Malaysia (OUM), Multimedia University (MMU), and University Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR).

Pros and Cons from students perspective

One of the advantages of E-learning is its accessibility to all students irrespective of their residence. The learning options are not constrained by students geographic location. Self-paced learning modules allow learners to work at their own pace. So there is no need for student to worry about the transport problem, especially for the students who are living in the rural area.

Besides that, E-learning can lower the cost of extra expenses for traveling, accommodation, food and high fees for tutors. Usually, it is less costs for students than traditional programs. So the students who are facing financial difficulty can afford getting higher education degrees through E-learning.

Another advantage of e-learning is its time flexibility. Learning can be fit into student's busy schedule, especially for the part time student. One can get online resources, communicate with his tutor or class mates, send his query and write term paper at any time he can get access to the Internet.

However, there are still a few disadvantages in e-learning The major disadvantage of E-learning is lack of face to face interaction between the students and the teachers. This contributes the lack of understanding between them. While a teacher cannot easily feel a student’s demands, interests and motivations, a student can simply be lazy being non-motivated enough and having free time schedule for his e-learning.


The other disadvantage is it does not provide many social aspects of a true campus or traditional classroom. E-learning are obviously unique that the students are distanced from their teacher and classmates, and need to communicate electronically rather than face to face. This distance seemed generally to contribute a lack of class community. Thus, the student may feel isolated or miss social interaction from their teacher or classmates.


References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_learning
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/website/index.pl?read=309

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Corporate blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Because technology is changing rapidly, this means that the way people communicate, both personally and professionally, is changing rapidly as well. Corporations that used to rely on pen and paper have advanced to voicemail, e-mail, and even instant messaging to make sure that employees are connected to volumes of information at any given second.Some companies are even looking even beyond e-mail and instant messaging to other new ways of communicating electronically: through blogs (Web logs), podcasts, wikis, discussion boards and streaming video among other means. Indeed new ways of communicating digitally are being developed at a fast pace and with greater speed.

According to a recent report by Forrester Research that looked at 90 blogs from Fortune 500 companies, most corporate blogs are “dull, drab, and don’t stimulate discussion.” Sadly, two-thirds hardly ever get any comments, 70% stick strictly to business topics, and worse 56% just republish press releases or already public news.The research states that Amazon is one of the companies that really get corporate blogging and produce blogs that are informative, fascinating, and a joy to read.

Amazon Web Services Blog is a corporate blog about Amazon web services, products, tools and developer information. It helps to improve the communication and its customer services, attract more people to consume and discuss new products online. It is truly one of the great corporate blogs because it reads like a fan blog. You’d never know that Jeff Barr, the scribe behind the AWS blog, is a Web Services Evangelist at Amazon just by reading his posts. That’s because Barr doesn’t write like a corporate flak. Instead he writes with the voice of someone who is truly amazed each day by the stuff that people build on Amazon’s suite of web services, and that makes reading the blog a pleasure.

Pros and Cons of corporate blog

The pros:

• It’s very easy to set up a company blog. The technologies available today are so user-friendly that the average employee will quickly learn how to update the company blog. Therefore, this task can be delegated to trusted staff members with solid writing skills, and they can be empowered to make updates as necessary.
• Corporate blogging appeals to younger consumer groups and employees. If you want to capitalize on the energy, enthusiasm and buying power of this demographic group, then corporate blogging is an excellent resource.
• In the face of a crisis or emergency, a company blog is a good way to spread information. Blogs have quickly become a powerful tool for combating public relations fires and responding to catastrophic situations. They can be modified quickly to post critical information for employees, consumers and stakeholders.

The cons:

• A company blog is time-consuming to maintain. It takes a great deal of creative energy and regular updating to keep the content fresh. The time it takes to maintain a good company blog might actually end up costing more than the benefits that it generates.
• Corporate blogging requires strong written communication skills, and you might not have the right people in positions to produce good posts.
• Blogs are so popular that their credibility as a source of information is declining. Anyone can compose and post information in the internet these days. Visitors to your website might not view a company blog as a credible source. Likewise, stakeholders and employees may respond more effectively to more traditional mediums like email communication, memos and announcements in meetings.

Referred links:

1.http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/08/08/15-companies-that-really-get-corporate-blogging/

2.http://www.helium.com/items/254062-the-pros-and-cons-of-corporate-blogging

3.http://www.selfseo.com/story-19130.php

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The application of prepaid cash card for consumer

Prepaid cash card, a preloaded card for people to spend on the products and services with the money they deposit in the account . Unlike the credit card, using prepaid cash card you no need worry about overload your card and faced any debts. Once your spending come to the limited amount, you cannot spend anymore until the money deposit again to the account. Besides, it is also a perfect way for the users to control their own spending and budget before making any payment.

Here are the examples that are using for explain how is the prepaid credit card has been applicated in our daily life:



Touch' n Go or (TNG), smart card is used by Malaysian Expresses ang Highways operators as the sole electronic payment system(EPS). Currently, The Touch 'n Go card is no longer only for the toll fare, but also for public transort, parking services and certain retail merchant outlets. By using the touch' n go, the speed of payment can be enhanced and as convenient as we no longer requires to prepare small change. For example, the users no need to waste the time to queue up at the cash lane for the toll fare. With the touch' n go, now u can just waiver at the sensor and pay the toll fees, it really save a lot of the users' time and improve the problem of traffic jam.

Octopus card, the first contactless smart card system in the world. It lauched in September,1997 and used to transfer electronic payments in online or offline system in Hong Kong. When the octopus card first introduced in Hong Kong for the fare payment in MRT, but now the card is wisely used in multiple other services. Similarly with the Touch' n Go smart card, octopus card is wisely used payment system for virtually all public transport in Hong Kong and also used for the parking services,certain retail outlets like fast food restaurant and supermarket. It just became part of the Hong Kong people's life and simply waved over a sensor and the correct amount is either deducted or added to your balance immediately.

For more information, you can visit to the following websites:
http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/prepaid-cards/guide/
http://www.hong-kong-travel.org/Octopus.asp
http://www.dmsretail.com/etailing.htm
https://loyalty.touchngo.com.my/

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mobile payment system

A mobile payment or m-payment may be defined, for our purposes, as any payment where a mobile device is used to initiate, authorize and confirm an exchange of financial value in return for goods and services. Mobile devices may include mobile phones, PDAs, wireless tablets and any other device that connect to mobile telecommunication network and make it possible for payments to be made. The realization of mobile payments will make possible new and unforeseen ways of convenience and commerce. It has also been popular in Malaysia.
Mobile Money is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution to address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It only allows registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone coupled with a 6-digit security PIN via SMS. This gives the freedom to shoppers to buy products online and pay the merchant using his/her mobile phone without being physically present at the store.

Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd is one of the biggest mobile payment service providers in Malaysia. Mr. Lee Eng Sia sees the opportunity and potential of mobile money and thus initiated the idea of mobile payment system introduced in Malaysia. Its objective is to provide Merchants and consumers with a convenient and secure Mobile Payment and Mobile Commerce platform.

The introduction of mobile money has benefited both participating merchants and consumers. The merchant can now sell to people across town, across the country and take payment around the clock, which is not possible with current payment systems. Online selling (e-commerce) becomes a practical means for merchants since customers will only need to enter their mobile phone during checkout from merchant e-commerce website. With Mobile Money, merchants do not have to be concern of cash /cheque/credit card handling problems or fraud. The Mobile Money Payment System conforms to the stringent requirements set by Bank Negara Malaysia and the participating banks. Furthermore, consumers don't need to have a merchant account to apply for Mobile Money, consumers’ existing bank account will suffice. It will easily save them RM50,000 which they need to deposit in their merchant account with banks. On the other hand, consumers who use mobile money service are able to enjoy the convenience to pay anyone, including to any bank accounts from anywhere, at anytime. You can pay various bills and your loan repayments at home. With its advantage, consumer can start to buy and save from participating mobile commerce platform.

In addition, it can function like a credit card if a consumer applies for a “Pay by Mobile Phone” credit card account. Therefore, the consumer will be billed by the bank by month’s end. Alternatively, it can function as a Debit Card if the consumer applies for savings or current account. The amounted consumed will be deducted directly from the account upon successful transaction.


How it works
1. Customer That Purchase Online from an E-commerce Website
2. Pay by Mobile Phone Number(Applies to customer purchase from merchant's brick-and-mortar store or Remote Payment)


1. Customers choose to pay via Mobile Money for the goods and services from participating merchants.
Customer gives merchant his/her mobile number via phone, fax, email etc.


2. Merchant can bill the customer via IVR, Mobile Money website or SMS. When merchant requests for payment with customer's mobile number, Mobile Money sends an SMS with a Bill Reference Number to customer requesting customer to to reply with their 6-Digit Security PIN to approve the payment.


3. Customer authorizes payment by replying the SMS with the Bill Reference Number and customer's 6-digit SECURITY PIN.Mobile Money authenticates customer's SECURITY PIN and requests for bank approval on transaction.
(In this illustration, 001 is the Bill Reference Number while 123456 is the security PIN. In simpler terms, 001 means it is the 1'st SMS request for payment, 002 means the 2'nd, 003 means the 3'rd and the number increases. )


4. upon receipt of bank's confirmation to debit customer's mobile credit account or mobile Debit account, Mobile Money will send a payment notification with details to merchant as well as customer.


5. Merchant can deliver the goods / services.

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Electronic currency

Money was originally a physical substance like gold and silver. It could even be alive - cattle were one of the oldest forms of money. Today, although much of the money used by individuals in their everyday transactions is still in the form of notes and coins, its quantity is small in comparison with the intangible money that exists only as entries in bank records. Perhaps coins and banknotes will become as obsolete as cowrie shells because the use of electronic currency.


Electronic currency also knows as electronic money, electronic cash, or digital currency. Electronic currency refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Normally, it involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. E-currency provides the Internet user with a safer and more convenient way in dealing with online transaction as they can make the payment by just a simply click on the confirm button and the deal is then completed. It minimizes the risk of using the credit card where the users’ personal financial information might be explored or being stolen.

Examples of e-micro payment system:

(a)Peppercoin is a cryptographic system for processing micropayments. Micropayments are means for transferring very small amounts of money, in situations where collecting such small amounts if money with usual payments systems is impractical or very expensive, in term of the amount of money being collected. Peppercoin Inc. was a company that offers services based on the perception method. The “Peppercoin” method uses universal aggregation, which we sometimes times also call cryptographic selection. The Peppercoin system ensures that consumers are never billed for more than he has spent. Peppercoin’s micropayment system is the first that allows online merchants, banks and other companies build market adoption quickly through a consumer-friendly, pay-as-you-go approach that eliminate prepayments. Peppercoin integrates easily with existing business models and systems to accelerate revenues and increase profits while dramatically lowering transaction and customer services cost. Peppercoin collect 5-9% of transaction cost from the merchant. In 2007, Peppercoin was bought by Chockstone for an undisclosed amount.

(b)Payloadz is a service to sell intangible products such as softwares, e-books, digital art, manuals, articles and files. It is an automated delivery service. This means that seller can go on vacation without worrying about sending download links to the consumers every time a payment is made. These files can be either download via hyperlink or sent via e-mail based upon seller's product. Payloadz also has an easy intergration with paypal. Payloadz services can be used depending upon seller's sales and products file size.

(c)PayPal is an e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. PayPal serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods such as checks and money orders.A PayPal account can be funded with an electronic debit from a bank account or by a credit card.PayPal performs payment processing for online vendors, auction sites, and other corporate users, for which it charges a fee. It sometimes also charges a transaction fee for receiving money (a percentage of the amount sent plus an additional fixed amount). The fees charged depend on the currency used, the payment option used, the country of the sender, the country of the recipient, the amount sent and the recipient's account type.

Referred links:

1.http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_currency

2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppercoin

3.https://www.payloadz.com/
4.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PayPal

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Credit card debts: Cause and Prevention

Nowadays, credit card have become part of our life. In the point of view of most people, these cards are symbols of wealth. However, many of them do not actually know how to use their cards wisely. According to the Credit Counselling and Debt Management Agency (AKPK), credit card debt in Malaysia has not yet reached a critical level. Based on Bank Negara Malaysia's statistics, the debt stood at RM24.4 billion as at end of March 2009. However, RM24.4 billion is not a small money. So the knowledge of the cause and prevention of credit card debts are important for us to eliminate the debts.

Causes of Credit Card debts

The main cause is that people buy with one credit card till the limit is over after that they switch to another credit card and so on. While doing so, they never think of their income or bank resources and even forget that they have to pay this back. Finally, when they see the card statement, they find themselves in a huge financial mess.

Besides that, the interest and penalties payment are the others causes. Debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay the company for the money he or she has spent. The results of not paying this debt on time are that the company will charge a late payment penalty and report the late payment to credit rating agencies. The late payment penalty itself increases the amount of debt the consumer has. When consumer has been late on a payment, it is possible that other creditors, even creditors the consumer was not late in paying, may increase the interest rates the consumer is paying.

Here are others causes of credit card debts:

• You can easily get a credit card from any company. The company themselve try hard to issue a credit card to you with multiple options and schemes.
• If you have a card you need not to carry cash so that there is no chance of loosing money.
• You can do unlimited shopping with multiple cards even if you do not have a money.

Prevetion of Credit Card Debts

• keep your credit cards to a limited number. Most of the people who have mounting credit card debts are having this problem because they have too many cards in the first place. If you want to have a card that you can use everywhere, try just having a Visa, MasterCard which are all used everywhere.
• Establish a budget and then follow that budget exactly. In other words, don't be tempted to charge that plasma TV to your credit card on a whim when you haven't budgeted for it this month.
• Avoid making any purchases with your credit during peak buying seasons such as Christmas. Credit card companies charge you more interest during these peak seasons because they know that everyone is buying more items with their credit cards. Most of these companies will not make a point to tell you this, but they make a mint off of us at these times.
• Be aware that balance transfer credit cards' teaser rates won't last forever. Six months is common now. The "normal" rate will return sooner than you think, so use that interest-free period to aggressively pay down balances.
• Finally if we find that we simply cannot control our credit card spending then we may have to opt for the most difficult step of all, putting our credit cards on ice for a while. That will mean a change in lifestyle and spending habits but if the hole from credit card debts is getting too deep then we just might have to stop digging.

References:

http://www.bernama.com.my/bernama/v5/newsbusiness.php?id=416849

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_card_debt

http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/5-simple-credit-card-debt-rules-1267.php

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The threat of online security: How safe is our data?

Nowadays, people rely on computers to create, store and manage critical information. Consequently, it is important for users to aware that computer security plays a major role in protecting their data from loss, damage, and misuse. Similarly, online security has been online trader’s main concern in protecting their websites from potential threats, such as phishing, security hacking, information theft, virus, worms and etc.

Today, i would like to discuss about the threats being bring by technical attacks and nontechnical attack.

Technical attack:

Technical attack is an attack perpetrated using software and systems knowledge or expertise. There are several threats being bring by technical attack, such as Denial-of-service(DoS)attack, virus, worm and others.

(i) Denial-of-service(DoS)attack

DoS refer to an attack on a website in which an attacker uses specialized software to send a flood of data packets to the target computer with the aim of overloading its resources.It may cause a network shut down, making it impossible for users to access the site.

(ii) Distributed denial-of-service(DDoS)attack
DDoS is a DoS attack in which the attacker gains illegal administrative access to as many computer on the Internet as possible and uses these multiple computers to send a flood of data packets to the target computer.

(iii) Virus

Virus is a piece of software code that inserts itself into a host,including the operating systems,to propogate it;it requires that its host program be run to activate it. A virus will simply infect and spread over the operating systems and consequently cause the collapse in the server system. Although viruses are self-replicating, they cannot propogate automatically across a network, they require a human to move them from one computer to another.

(iv)Worm

It's a malicious software which is a stand alone application.

It's often designed to propagate through a network, rather than just a single computer. When your computer is infect of worm, computer will slow starting or slow running. It'll also face unexpected or frequent system failures.

(v)Trojan Horse
A trojan horse is a program that appears to have a useful function but contains a hidden function that presents a security risk. The name is derived from the Trojan Horse in Greek mythology.

Nontechnical attack:

Nontechnical attack refer to an attack that uses chicanery to trick people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that compromise the security of a network. An example of nontechnical attack is phishing. Phishing is a broadly launched social engineering attack in which an electronic identity is misrepresented in an attempt to trick individuals into revealing credentials.

These internet security threats will try to steal your information from your computer through the internet. It's very danger if our computer online without any internet security system such as anti-virus. For example, Trojans will track into your computer and steal your personal information such as password of your e-banking account, email account and etc. For business companies, it's really a treat to them because they save their business infromation in the computer such as daily profits, project or new planning for their business venture. Therefore, we need to take some preventive actions to prevent these threats.

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Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

What is Phishing?

Phishing is a computer geek spelling of the word "fishing". It is a crimeware technique used to steal the identity of a target company to get the identities of its customer. In general, phishing attacks are performed with the following four steps:
1) Phishers set up a counterfeited Web site which looks exactly like the legitimate Web site, including setting up the web server, applying the DNS server name, and creating the web pages similar to the destination Web site, etc.
2) Send large amount of spoofed e-mails to target users in the name of those legitimate companies and organizations, trying to convince the potential victims to visittheir Web sites.
3) Receivers receive the e-mail, open it, click the spoofed hyperlink in the e-mail, and input the required information.
4) Phishers steal the personal information and performtheir fraud such as transferring money from the victims’ account.


Examples of Phishing

ebay is one of the most popular phishing places. Scammers phish on ebay to obtain eBay ID’s which then are used to sell fake or non-existent goods or such accounts can be sold further in the underground market. In other words, the new owners of stolen eBay ID’s now are equipped with positive feedback, previously generated by the real owner, and are now used to scam people.

This eBay phishing email includes the eBay logo in an attempt to gain credibility. The email warns that a billing error may have been made on the account and urges the eBay member to login and verify the charges.



Citibank is currently the target of a series of phisher scams designed to steal sensitive personal information from Citibank customers. Scam emails, supposedly from Citibank, have been randomly mass mailed to thousands of Internet users. The scammers rely on the statistical probability that at least a few of the recipients will be Citibank customers and that a small number that are customers will fall for the scam.

There is no shortage of irony in the Citibank phishing example here. The attacker claims to be acting in the interests of safety and integrity for the online banking community. Of course, in order to do so, you are instructed to visit a fake website and enter critical financial details that the attacker will then use to disrupt the very safety and integrity they claim to be protecting.

Here are some tips to prevent become a victim of Phishing:

• Be suspicious of any email with urgent requests for personal financial information. Do not respond to it.
• Don't use the links in an email to get to any web page, if you suspect the message might not be authentic. Instead, call the company on the telephone, or log onto the website directly by typing in the Web address in your browser.
• Avoid filling out forms in email messages that ask for personal financial information.
• Don’t email personal or financial information. Email is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. Unfortunately, no indicator is foolproof; some phishers have forged security icons like the lock icon on an order form.
  
• Always ensure that you're using a secure website when submitting credit card or other sensitive information via your Web browser.
  
• Use the internet to shop for an item. Then telephone your order to the vendor rather than using the so-called secure order form.
  
• Consider installing a Web browser tool bar or anti-phishing software to help protect you from known phishing fraud websites. Perform a search engine search on "anti-phishing software" to find a product.
  
• Regularly check your bank, credit and debit card statements to ensure that all transactions are legitimate. If anything is suspicious, contact your bank and all card issuers.
  
• Regularly log into your online accounts. Check each account every 29 days or less.
  
• Ensure that your browser is up to date and security patches applied.
  
• Use anti-virus and anti-spyware software and a two-way firewall, and keep them up to date.
• If you believe you’ve been the victim of a phishing scam, file your complaint at Federal Trade Commission's website ftc.gov, and then visit the FTC’s Identity Theft website at www.consumer.gov/idtheft.
  
  

References:
http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/ss/phishing_4.html
http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/phishing.html
http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/ss/phishing_5.htm
http://www.tweakspeed.com/Stop-Phishing.htm

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How to safeguard our financial and personal data

Internet and computer are the important tools in this new age, more and more people are doing their personal activities through online such as e-payment to pay their bills and online shopping. We need to fill up our personal information such as names, addresses, phone number, bank account and credit card number in the online register forms before we proceed online payment. Therefore, It is not easy to not to share our personal data through online with others or stolen by others if the informations are not be protected. Hence, it is so important that we need to protect our financial and personal data online from being one of the victims.

Here are some tips for safeguard our financial and personal data:

• Do not use the password that easy figured out by others. Many people prefer to use the password that easy for memorize, therefore many people like to use own name or date of birth as the password. The simple password is using, the easy the hacker figured it and log on to our financial and personal data.

• Avoid to save the financial and personal data in the computer. Keep all the personal data such in the computer such as name, addresses, bank account number and password, it may easy for us to refer when need to use it. But it is very easy to steal by others when they using the computer. In stead of keep the data in the computer, we can save our personal data in the thumb drive and put in the safe place, plug into the computer when we need to use the data.

• Use the sucure internet browser when we are online. IE and Mozilafox are the most common browsers used by the online users. By using a secure internet browser can help to protect against browser hijacking, etc.

• Make sure anti-virus and anti-spyware are up to date. Installing the PC security software can protect from viruses, spyware, hacker, phishing scams and etc. Therefore, we should installed trusted anti-virus software program like Kaspersky, McAfee or free anti-virus software to protect our PC from online fraud.

• Always access the Internet from behind a firewall. A firewall adds a security layer between our PC and the Internet, and protecting our personal information stolen by hackers, destroying our files, or using our PC to attack others.

• Check the credit report frequently. We should check our credit history up to date . This is one of the best ways to find out if someone is using our personal finance information without our permission.

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Review

It's a sad fact of life for today's information-driven organizations that the nature of security threats is continuously shifting and evolving. Intrusion mechanisms such as worms, Trojans and rootkit exploits continually evolve into more-developed forms and wax and wane in terms of number and frequency of attacks.

Analysts estimate roughly 75 percent of all security attacks are targeted at applications. However, only 10 percent of enterprise security spend is focused on application security. This show the potential attacks to be encountered by the enterprises. So they are starting to focus more on application security that requires customers to invest in extending what they are doing at the network level to the application level. In addition, the need to protect applications and data resources more proactively is also driving the development and application of heuristics. Otherwise, in my opinion if a person does not know how to best configure it, it will make a computer slow and software not working properly.

If a potential threat can be identified early, prevention will be that much easier. That's where the process of designing new heuristics begins. This process benefits our users or consumers. As the primary means of identifying new threats, heuristics have become a core component of today's security systems. The key component in good heuristics design is that which will take into account the existing methods and vectors of infection, of course. And just as importantly, false positives must be kept to an absolute minimum. Heuristics, in contrast, are used to protect against unknown threats. Heuristics analyze the files as they are scanned or accessed, and look at what it appears the file will try to do. If the file is writing to the registry and modifying a system file, it may be a critical security patch.

Whether you decide to add a security component to your web site project initially it is a good idea to think about or have a discussion about web site security when planning the site. You should also review your security systems periodically whether that is changing your password or reviewing and updating your security system.

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An example of an e-commerce failure and its causes

The internet has lead lots of e-commerce success like Amozon, ebay ,Dell. But there are also some failed e-commerce.

Pets.com is an example of the e-commerce failure. Pets.com founded in 1998, an online retailer of pet products, information and resources direct to consumers over the world wide web. It gained high national attention by advertising at the variety of media such as megazine, TV, radio and etc. The famous featured sock-dog "spokespuppet" which was voted the fifth most popular spot in USA and the slogan "because pets can't drive" made the Pets.com became the well known company in USA.

Although the sales rose dramatically due to the high attention from the consumer, it still went from Initial Publishing Offering to liquidation in a mere nine months because of the dot-com bust just like others dot-com.

There were some reasons that cause the Pets.com failed and defunct in 2000. First, the Pets.com was lacked of workable business plan because they spent more than their earned revenue. Overestimated the potential market was also one of the failure reason. Pets.com spent million on the warehouse space and tried to obtain the online pet market. however, there wasn't large enough market and the growth wasn't rapid as their estimated. The other main reason was they had poor customer position.They offered discount and shipment to attract customers, but never think why should a customer purchase online rather than just buy at the nearer pet accessories store.Thus, these are the reasons how the well known online business can shut down in the short time.

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Indentify and compare the revenue model for Google,Amazon.com & Ebay

Google Revenue Model

As a business, Google generates revenue by providing advertisers with the opportunity to deliver measurable, cost-effective online advertising that is relevant to the information displayed on any given page. Today, the majority of Google revenue comes from advertising. Its products and services include:

1)Google AdWords : It enables advertisers to deliver relevant ads targeted to search queries or web content to potential customers across Google sites and through the Google Network, which consists of content owners and websites. Their proprietary technology automatically matches ads to the content of the page on which they appear, and advertisers pay them either when a user clicks on one of its ads or based on the number of times their ads appear on the Google Network.

2)Google Adsense :Google distribute their advertisers' AdWords ads for display on the Google Network through their AdSense program. They share most of the revenue generated from ads shown on a site of a Google Network member with that member.

3)Froogle :Keeping in touch with other sites like Amazon.com, Buy.com and Yahoo.com, Google created a new shopping search tool called “Froogle". It has been called one of the most innovative price conscious tools on the Internet. Using the same technologies of Google.com, Froogle employs direct data received from merchants and through web crawls alone. Depending on the successes of the beta testing phase will provide adequate information as to whether Google continues with Froogle

eBay Revenue Model

Launched in 1995, eBay started as a place to trade collectables and hard-to-find items. Today eBay is a global marketplace where businesses and individuals can buy and sell practically anything.

ebay revenue model is very similar to Amazon.com. Both of their majority revenue are from sales and transaction revenue model. eBay generates revenue from a number of fees. There are fees to list a product (Insertion Fee) and fees when the product sells (Final Value Fee), plus several optional adornment fees, all based on various factors and scales.

Furthermore, affiliate fees also one of the ebay’s revenue models. eBay runs an affiliate program under the name eBay Partner Network. eBay affiliate marketers fees are paid a percentage of the eBay seller's transaction fees. The payout is 50% to 75% of the fees paid for an item purchased.

Amazon.com Revenue Model

Amazon.com started as an on-line bookstore but soon diversified to product lines of VHS, DVD, music CDs and MP3s, computer software, video games, electronics, apparel, furniture, food, toys, etc.

There is a significant difference of revenue model between Google and Amazon.com. Amazon.com generates its majority revenue by sales and transaction revenue model. Amazon Marketplace allows sellers to offer their goods alongside Amazon's offerings. Buyers can buy new and used items sold directly by a third party through Amazon.com using Amazon Marketplace. This sales strategy and program has been very profitable for Amazon.com. Amazon charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a transaction fee, and a variable closing fee.

Besides that, Amazon.com also generates revenue by affiliate revenue model. Amazon derives about 40 percent of its sales from affiliates whom they call Associates, and third party sellers who list and sell products on the Amazon websites. Associates receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon by placing links on their websites to the Amazon homepage or to specific products. If a referral results in a sale, the Associate receives a commission from Amazon. Worldwide, Amazon has "over 900,000 members" in its affiliate programs.

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History & evolution of e-commerce

What does e-commerce mean anyway? E-commerce is the pre-eminent buzzword of the online business revolution. It captures the excitement and focus of this fast emerging market. Moreover, electronic commerce (e-commerce) is the paperless exchange of business information using electronic data interchange (EDI), e-mail, electronic bulletin boards, fax transmissions, and electronic funds transfer. It refers to Internet shopping, online stock and bond transactions, the downloading and selling of “soft merchandise” (software, documents, graphics, music, etc.), and business-to-business transactions.

E-commerce was firstly started to develop in the early 1970s with electronic funds transfer (EFT), electronic data interchange (EDI) and interorganizational system (IOS). EFT is the funds that can be routed electronically from one organization to another. Furthermore, the use of this application was limited to financial institutes, large corporations, and some daring businesses. Then, EDI was evolved to improve the limitation of EPT. EDI is used to electronically transfer routine documents that expanded electronic transfers from financial transactions to other types of transaction processing. While IOS is a system which allows the flow of information to be automated between organizations in order to reach a desired supply-chain management system, which enables the development of competitive organizations.

However, in 1984 EDI was standardized through ASC X12. This guaranteed that companies would be able to complete large amounts of transactions with one another reliably and stable. The next major step occurred in 1992 when the Mosaic web-browser was made available, it was the first ‘point and click’ browser. The Mosaic browser was quickly adapted into a downloadable browser, Netscape. It was providing users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer. So, Amazon and eBay were popular e-commerce sites in the year 1995. Besides, in July 1995, Jeff Bezos boxed up the first book ever sold on Amazon.com from his Seattle garage. Within its first 30 days of business, the self-proclaimed "Earth's largest bookstore" sold books to online shoppers in all 50 U.S. states and 45 countries. He was the first person to sell his books by using e-commerce. In addition, the digital subscriber line (DSL) was another key moment in the development to of e-commerce in the year 1998. It allowed quicker access and a persistent connection to the Internet.

In the same year, AOL was another emergence in the development of e-commerce. AOL had sales of 1.2 billion over the 10 week Christmas season from online sales. With the development of Red Hat Linux, those who used computers had a choice. Linux gave users another choice in a platform other then Windows that was reliable and open-source. Therefore, Microsoft faced with this competition needed to invest more in many things including electronic commerce. Napster founded in 1999, gained a vital stage even though in the beginning it was only a source through which users shared free music files. Many consumers used the site and were ordering what they wanted from the industry. In the year 2000 Time Warner and AOL merged and which combined a new online company with the well set traditional company. In February 2000 hackers attacked some major players of e-commerce, including Yahoo, eBay and Amazon. These attacks resulted that the need for improved security came to the forefront in the development of electronic commerce.

There was a prediction that the revenues, up until 2006, will grow 40% to 50% annually. Expectations of higher prices as well as larger profits for e-commerce business are also presented. As a result, e-commerce was adapted by almost every major retail company such as Wal-Mart, Borders bookstores, Sears because it was simple and convenient to sell electronically. It can be seen that there will be a large growth in Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce, Business-to-Business (B2B) and Consumer-to-Consumer (C2C).

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An example of E-Commerce success and its causes-Dell

E-shopping brings a lot of convenience to the consumers. In Malaysia, more and more people start to purchase something online such as clothes, bags or even electronic products.Thus, you should not be strange about Dell.com-one of the most successful e-commerce company. It was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell on a simple concept: selling computer systems directly to customers.

Dell used the networking show as a platform to boast of his company's success in moving products online via its Web site, which claims $100 million in revenue and 2.5 million unique visitors per week. It also become one of the top five computers makers in the world, behind Hewlett-Packard in 2008. Dell using direct online trading as its major e-commerce activity,their strategy is to sell products with no retail outlets and no middleman. Therefore, there is more cheaper for us to buy online.

What makes Dell to be successful?

1. Culture.
Dell's winning ways begin and end with its culture. Dell has created a disciplined culture that focuses on optimizing its operational model, responding to its customers' needs and sustaining a self-motivated workforce.
2.Being a low cost provider creates flexibility and market advantage.
Their products are inexpensive and in good quality. The low costs attract customers and the quality of their products is maintained from time to time.
3.Technical supports such as business-hours telephone support and next business-day on-site support increase customer's confidence towards Dell. Customers can fix their problem by phone call to customer service centre or visiting by technician.
4.Focus on customer-oriented and allow customers to customize their products.
Buyers can customize their own computers during the ordering process by choosing what components that they prefer based on their budget and needs.
5.Effective and efficient delivery services.
Products will be delivered to customers in 5-8 working days.

In conclusion, Dell will become stronger in the future with its successful online marketing strategy due to the online shopping has become relatively popular.

Referred links:

1.http://www.dell.com/

2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dell

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About me

Hi everybody!! Thanks for visit our blog.
I'm Shi Li and i'm from Seremban, the famous " siew pao city". Well, watching movie and TVB series and surf ing internet are the most activities i like. i can spend my whole day by just sitting in front of my laptop watching the drama series and surfing internet , therefore i'm kind of person that can't survive in the world without internet. The most websites i visited is http://www.facebook.com/ because i can keep in touch with my friends, see the new photos uploaded by them and play the quizzes. I like to read my friend's blog to know about their recent happenings. Besides that, i also like to visit some blogger's blog because I can get the latest infomation and interesting stories from their blog. sometime http://www.youtube.com/ , i love to visit youtube to watch some funny videos and http://www.google.com/ is the website that i always use to search information to keep updated myself.
thats all about me..

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self-intro

Hi, my name is Loh Woon Yal, female, 20 years old. I was born in Kluang, Johor. Due to some reasons, I have moved to Sandakan, Sabah since I was eleven years old. I'm taking accounting course in University Tunku Abdul Rahman.

My hobbies are listening to music, shopping and watching movies. I like R&B, sentimental, romantic songs very much. During leisure time, I'm addicted to watch movies and dramas. I cannot hear anyone was calling me when watching movie. So friends, please forgive me if you are the ones. I think girl likes shopping very much, this theory is not excluded me. Sometimes, I will donate my old clothes to charity.Otherwise, I would like to buy more wardrobes to keep my clothes.

I keep in touch with my friends through friendster. I also know many friendster from other location in friendster. Besides, I usually visit to malaysiaairlines and airasia website. I need to compare the price of flight ticekts between two of them before booking. These comparison can make me save more money. PPstream is my third website that I always visit. I can directly watch movies and dramas in this website. Furthermore, the most important webiste is chinapress. I like to read news, especially entertainment news.

I usually download songs & dramas, chat with friends by msn, search information from some websites, read news and check mail. I think I cannnot live without internet. This is all about me!

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Introducing...Ying Min

Hi everyone, my name is Tan Ying Min, currently studying in Utar Sg. Long. I come from a small town, Triang which is in Pahang. The one in purple colour shirt in the photo is me. I enjoy watching drama and listening to music during my leisure time.

I love internet because i can get latest news and search for information from there. The top 5 websites i often visit are google, facebook, sinchew, youtube and sogou.

I always download the latest dramas online especially TVB series and share these dramas with my friends. Besides, i search information to complete my assignment, read the latest news, download music from these webites too. I like facebook the most among these websites because it has many interesting applications and i can keep in touch with my friends. Well, that is a little about myself. Have a nice day^^

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Introduction- Puishan

Hello, I am Pui Shan, one of the contributors of this blog. I come from Kuantan which is a peaceful city. Now I am an accounting student in UTAR.

During the leisure time, I like to watch drama and movie, especially the TVB drama. Moses Chan and Tavia Yeung are my favourite artist. I also like to play badminton. I always play badminton with my friends in the weekend.

Besides that,I like to surf net when in my leisure time. The following are my favourite websites that I visited the most:
1. http://www.youtube.com/
There are many uploaded video here. Recently, I am watching America's next top model.
2. http://www.google.com/
I always use google to search information for the assignment.
3. http://www.jbtalks.cc/
This is a forum that I like the most. I always buy the facial mask and bag from this website.
4. http://www.sports.163.com/
I am a MU fan. I always get their latest news from this website.
5. http://www.fmx.cn/
Reading novel is one of my hobby. I can get many novel here.

My internet activities usually are checking email, searching for information, viewing forum, and downloading music . Besides that, i like to chat with friends through MSN.

I hope that all of you can kindly to leave your comment after reading of our blog.Thanks.

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