Review on a post on Legal from E-Commerce blog.

Article from e-commerze.blogspot.com

Another SMS scam

After the recent SMS scam attack on Digi subscribers, now is the turn for Maxis subscribers to experience the similar SMS scam.

Subscribers will be informed through SMSes that they had won some cash worth a few thousands from Maxis. In order to withdraw the money, they were required to call a foreign 15 digits phone number to provide then with the bank account number.

A Maxis spokeperson beside denying their involvement, also reminded the subscribers to ignore SMSes with foreign or weird codes.

Source: TheStar, 14th July 2007.

Personal Opinion:
Seems like the SMS scams is getting bolder and innovative. A lot of new tricks are being implemented to trick the subcribers to disclose some crucial financial and personal information. How could the government and telcos help to stop this scam from spreading on? May be they can consider the actions taken by SC in closing down the illegal fund investment websites - blocking all the weird or foreign codes? The government also should control the licenses for mobile services operators which are related to SMS.

Source: http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Legal

Comments:

The SMSs scam has been in circulation in the past. They have misled many mobile subscribers, not just Digi, but now is the turn for Maxis/Hotlink customers. Maxis takes the issue of Spam and Hoax SMS very seriously. But why the public still get tricked after all these examples have been happen and even publish in the newspaper to the public. Furthermore, Maxis themselves have also advice the public to ignore it such message in ‘The Star’ (14 July, 2007). The most probably reason is because the cupidity of human. Seems the prizes for them are so attractive, they might go and try to see whether they are really such a ‘lucky star’ and finally get tricked. When receiving such SMSs, please be sane. Straight away think yourself on few questions:

• Why does the number seem like an overseas number?

• Did I join any competition?

• Why doesn’t it address me by name?

• Why do I have to call them? They should call me right?

• Why mix up English with BM? Does not seem professional.

If you just feel that the SMS is not right, just ignore and delete the message. The public must wise up to such offerings.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Blogging is experiencing explosive growth, starting with a few hundred in the year 2001 and reaching over 28 million in early year 2006. Each day, 1.5 million new entries are added to the internet.

Corporate blogging is an online phenomena providing the opportunity for employees at a levels of an organization to communicate with each other and to form communities around products, projects, and similar interests.

Corporate blogging also provide global access, they allow for a collaboration between company and clients, and provide integration with other traditional communication tools.

With corporate blogs, companies will be able to reach new audiences, and build stronger relationships with existing customers. It also allow new ways for companies to market new products and strategies and connect on a deeper level with their audiences.

There are many different types of corporate blogs, most can be categorized as either external or internal.

Internal blogs exists behind the firewall. It is accessible only from within the company’s network, which is a weblog that any employee can view. Internal blog encourage employee participation, free discussion of issues, collective intelligence and direct communication between employees and managers.

External blogs are made available on internet for the world to read. These are intended for marketing and developing a community based around the company products or brand. It offers a forum for company to communicate with the public.

Examples of the corporate blogs implementation and its effect:

Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Sun has been successful blogging both internally and externally. Their internal blog acts as an information management tool for researchers and developers.

Sun’s external blog is a forum for Chief Operations Officer Jonathan Schwartz to discuss his views on the technology industry. The blog is updated every few days and includes Mr. Schwartz’s opinion on industry happenings, Sun’s ideas and other news.

This blog is famous for giving a personal look into the mind and job of an executive at a major corporation.

http://blogs.sun.com/jonathan/


Macromedia
The Macromedia blogs are an example of how to utilize blogs beyond marketing. Developers at Macromedia use an external blog with comments to keep in touch with end users. Through their blogs, these developers disseminate information about new features in their products and how to best take advantage of included features.

They also receive feedback on current and future initiatives. This helps them quickly respond to bugs users may find and allows them to develop the product features their users want and need.

Macromedia blogs also allow the developers to discuss their daily thoughts and activities. This gives users a window into the company, and fosters trust and friendship between the company and its customers.

http://weblogs.macromedia.com/


Pros and cons of corporate blogs
Advantages of corporate blogging
Following are some beneficial points of corporate blogging:
1. Managers can communicate directly with customers, suppliers and investors,
as well as employees, helping disseminate and explain strategy.

2. Compared with conference or printed memos to all staff, corporate blogs
are highly cost effective.

3. Corporate blogs give the company managers an opportunity to answer critics
in a controlled forum.

4. Corporate blogs are ideal for internal collaboration being a workspace where
project members can keep each other updated without wasting time writing
reports or searching the outlook inbox.

5. Sharing ideas freely in an honest voice brings the corporate blogging a new
connections and generate trust which will lead to more business
opportunities.

6. People are far more likely to give great feedback if they know someone
specific is listening. The power of these feedback loops can generate big
benefits to the company.

Disadvantages of corporate blogging
Following are some drawbacks of corporate blogging:
1. Corporate blogs can be tricky to drag public comment out of a company
without first routing through the sanitizing filter of a press office.

2. There is a risk that an ill-judged comment in corporate blogs could be
seized upon by the media or disgruntled investors.

3. Manage corporate blogs poorly can damage the reputation of the company.
such as blogs are not updated.

4. Poorly written corporate blogs can look fake and confuse the reader.

5. Corporate blogs make many companies look like disorganizations, with
multiple tones and opinions.

Things to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

Auction is a market mechanism where buyers make bids and sellers place offers to sell the products. The auctions will be held as the products are either valuable or when the prices of goods cannot be easily determined.

Whereas e-auction is auction conducts online where sellers use Internet-based software to bid against each other online and in real time against a published specification.

As the auction items are very unique, antique or used in many cases. The buyers may not look through or check the items that may be defective. However, sellers or buyers may conduct fraud. Some examples of fraud include bid shielding, shilling, fake photos and misleading descriptions, selling reproductions and so on.

There following are some preventions for the auctioneer to take notes to antifraud:
1. Authentication service.
Some products may be defective or may be fake thus the authenticators are able to determine whether the item is genuine and described appropriately.

2. Grading service.
The use of grading is to identify the physical condition of an item, such as “bad quality” or “mint condition”. It can differentiate the items that being graded. Different items have different grading systems.

3. Verification.
With verification, neutral third parties will identify and evaluate the condition of an item through various methods. For instance, some collectors own their item “DNA tagged” for identification purposes and provide a way of tracking an item.

4. Feedback forum.
The buyers and sellers are allowed to build up their online trading reputations. The users are able to comment on their experience with other people.

5. Insurance policy.
For instance, eBay, the Internet auctioneer offers insurance underwritten by Lloyd’s of London. The program provided with no cost to the eBay users.

6. Nonpayment punishment.
In order to protect the sellers, a friendly warning is given for the buyers who do not honor their winning bids. For a second-time offense, a sterner warning is issued. Warning will be given continuously until an indefinite suspension level reached.

7. Appraisal services.
These services include assessing the authenticity and condition and reviewing what comparable items have sold for in the marketplace.

8. User identity verification.
For instance, eBay uses the services of Equifax to verify user identities. This program encourages the users to supply eBay with information such as IC number, driver’s licence number, date of birth and so on for online verification.

Review a local e-commerce website

There are many local e-commerce website in Malaysia, i had chosen one lucky website which is http://www.matchmaker.com.my/. This website is to help to look for love /selling love by online, i am know that this is not a new thing in nowadays, but it is quite funny and it raise up a question onmy mind: Can we find our true love through internet?

Definitely, this kind of website would not be in very formal styles, it is vey comfortable and using white and red colour as for their background which meant LovE and PeacE. Beside that, we can see or view lots of the female and male pictures in the front page of the website.

The user can sign up as member for 100% free membership, once the free trial expires, the member may purchase subscription , it categorized into Six months subscription. RM60 or US$16.00 or Twelve months subscription. RM100 or US$27.00 and the prices will never go up. and it is low priced dating website, so there would not have the manpower to handle refunds, and would not offer refunds.

The payment could be made by Credit Card, Cheque, or Direct Bank-in for Malaysia only. the credit card that accepted are American Express, Diner's Club , Discover , JCB , Master Card and Visa.

This website is just available for the existence member but not for the visitor, which meant the visitor could not simply access to the content of the website, so it is quite high confidential and the privacy of the member can be protected.

But it is not user-friendly because i just able to view their FAQ and it does not provide any information about their services and background.

Related to www.matchmaker.com.my

E-government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen's adoption strategies.

E-government is started since the initiation of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by Malaysia Government in 1996. It use information technology and e-commerce to provide citizens and organizations with more convenient access to government information and services and to provide delivery of public services to citizens, business partners, and those working in the public sector.

E-Government services focus on four main customers which are citizens, the business community, government employees and agencies. In E-government system, individuals are able to initiate a request for a particular government service and then receive that government service through the Internet or some computerized mechanism.

Malaysia government website (www.gov.my ) allow user to download various kind of form for any government department application, quick link such as government news, jobs, complaint, weather, policy feedback and many others, resource centre and polling center. This website has dual language such as Bahasa Malaysia and English, so user can choose for the language. There are 4 types of E-government services which are Government-to-Citizen (G2C), Government-to-Business (G2B), Government-to-Employee (G2E), and Government-to-Government (G2G).

Internal Revenue Department (IRD), online Tax using Mykey digital signature for companies to sign their C form and submit theirs document electronically to IRD. Mykey is a digital signature embedded into individual’s Mykad. It identifies and authenticates Mykad holders over internet, providing the capability to sign a document.

There is an increment of citizen using E-government in Malaysia as compare to past, which meant citizen willing to adopt this services. Why citizen willing to adopt E-Government in
nowadays?

This is because E-government is a way for public administration to become more open and transparent, and to reinforce democratic participation, more service-oriented, providing personalized and inclusive services to each citizen. E-Services form an emerging field, which is rapidly gaining attention and importance. Citizens are who expect and demand governmental services with a high degree of quality, quantity, and availability in a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, and year-round fashion. Malaysia Governments are developing information systems and electronic services that have the capacity to meet these emerging service needs and demands of citizens and other clients.

Implementation of E-government involved cooperation between government, private sector, and others. The transparency of the skill between 2 sectors enables new product development through high leven creativity and innovation.

Beside that, E-government project is not mere computerization of government. It involved the efforts of the processor, standard and technologies, ICT need to incorporate into a package of modernization, changes and reform that challenge public administration current internal governance framework.

There is some issue like privacy and security is not easy to overcome, as it requires the collaboration of legal, technical, and social prevention and control mechanisms. Furthermore, it is the most concerned by citizens and social groups in general and on government websites specifically. As many of them are concerned about the availability of their personal data such as driving records, property and deed records, on the internet, even if the information is from the public records or the release is for the consideration of public safety and health.

Furthermore, internet security breakdown has become common for many public organizations. Along with the technology development, hackers are able to get into the system and change data and records to seek self interests or to create public crises. Anyway, the privacy issue will continue to be one of the major policy concerns in the future E-government development.

However, Malaysia is keep on improving the core government applications and integrating more services across agencies in order to solve the issues or problem faced by E-government and provide a better services to the citizens in future.

Refer to :
http://www.apdip.net/publications/iespprimers/eprimer-egov.pdf

http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf

http://www.pps.fsksm.utm.my/pars2007/pars/pars/before%20correct/information%20system%20management/26)salaheddin.pdf

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

In the recent years, the “Prepaid Debit Cards” came into existence and popularity. The biggest distinction with “Prepaid Debit Cards” is that no checks are associated with Prepaid Debit Card accounts. Prepaid Debit Cards are much safer for the banks to issue because:
· All transactions for these new debit cards are authorized online against account balances
· There are no “Floats” from written checks that can cause overdrafts

These new debit cards are applicable to just about anybody with a valid government issued ID and verifiable address.

Besides, prepaid Debit Cards can be issued to “Bankable People” and “Un-Banked People” with:
· No bank account needed
· No banking history needed
· No credit check
· Just about everyone is approved - no declines
· No employment verification needed

The advantages of holding a Debit Card for a consumer are as follow:
1. Easy Payment
Debit Card is the simplest and most convenient way of making payment of goods and/or services purchased.

2. Convenience
The major advantage is that you need not require carrying bulky cash, as the small plastic is convenient to place in your wallet.

3. Replacement
In case your card is lost/stolen, you can immediately block the usage by informing the bank and get a replacement one.


4. Emergency Use
It is useful during emergency situations like shortage of cash, late night etc

5. Easy For Travelers
You can benefit from our International card if you are frequent traveler as it prevents hassles of foreign exchange.

Review on a post on e-tailing from my E-commerce blog

I feel that, Touch n Go(T'n'G) is a great invention, help to reduce many problems: long queue for purchasing ticket for KTM, LRT and Monorail, queue up for Toll, theme park and a few of name. It helps those users by saving lots of time for queuing up.

Now, with a new implemented by Touch n Go Company which is using Touch n Go card to buy fast food in Malaysia. It can reduce the cycle time which that make the purchase transaction faster and no need to carry a big lump sum of cash when going out.

As compare to past time, T'n'G card is expensive and only a certain location do sell it, but nowadays, you can get it from any mobile phone shop beside of its kiosk. Therefore, even for a kids or teenagers also able to afford for this card.

Anyway, nothing is perfect, although it provides lots of the benefits to the user but we still can see a “long long……” queue when we pass by the Toll. Why this will happen? It's due to an inconvenience for top up for Touch n Go card.

Not every Toll provides this service to the user. In addition that, Malaysian attitude is most likely based on last minute job, they seldom bother about their balances in the card, therefore it always happen of those embracing situation like reverse their car from the Touch n Go lane. So, if the T'n'G want to expand their service to buy fast food in Malaysia, it need to consider of the issue as I mentioned as above.
Beside that, the function of the T'n'G as same as a wallet and even can keep more moneys than wallet, so it is more attractive to be stolen by the thief , as it does not need any signature or verification, compare to credit card. So, the company could implement a signature or verification of the card in order to prevent any imitation or fraud happened.

Other incident happened like system error such as made an extra charge to the card user, a sudden breakdown of the machine, intend of the staff to defalcate and others. Thus, the T'n'G company should consistently upgrade, supervise and maintain their services.

According to the report, consist of 50% of user which is actively using the T’n’G card for retail usage as compare with the Octopus card , the transit electronic purse in Hong Kong that is one of the most successful in the world, that only 20% of the holders use it for retail purchase.
So Malaysia should provide more reload center for the users and also keep on upgrading their services.





Related to article:
Using Touch n Go card to buy fast food in Malaysia will be a reality

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Preventions

Nowadays it seems that credit cards are almost a necessity, which has caused many people to have a huge problem with credit card debt. Many people now have more than one credit card with a balance and you may even be one of those people. If you are one of the millions of people wanting to get out of credit card debt, then you first need to understand what caused the credit card debt problem to begin with.

A credit card is a card with which you are able to use by borrowing on credit. Every time you use a credit card, you are borrowing money from the credit card issuer. Also, each time you use your credit card, you are increasing your credit card debt. And excessive credit card debt can cause a poor credit rating, bankruptcy and subjection to high annual interest rates.

However, if spending habits are not controlled, which causes credit card debt to increase even faster. What started off as a small credit card debt rapidly becomes a large amount that can seem impossible to pay off.

Now that the credit card debt problem has been explained in a very basic manner, we need the solution to get the problem under control.

1. Limit the number of cards that you have. If your cards offer low interest balance transfers, transfer the balances from your other cards onto the card with the lowest rate.

2. Pay off the entire outstanding balance each month. If you must carry a balance from time to time, pay off most of the balance each month. Stop using the credit card until you pay the entire balance off. Pay on Time, otherwise, you will get charged extra fees.

3. Try to pay off the balance during the interest free period. If your credit card offers an interest free promotional period, make the most out of it by paying off any debt that you have accumulated by the end of the period.

4. Never use a credit card for cash advances. Cash advances are subject to high fees and interest rates.

5. Create a budget by make each credit card purchase only within the framework of your budget. If you can't stick to your budget, then don't carry your credit card with you.

6. Keep all credit card receipts, and reconcile them with your statement each month. Review the statement as soon as you get it. Make sure your monthly purchases fit within your budget.

Last of all, one simple phrase can sum up the solution to your credit card debt problems is If you don't have the money to spend, then don't spend it!!

Electronic currency

Electronic currency is also known as electronic cash, e-money, electronic money, digital money, digital cash or digital currency. It refers to a system that allows an individual to pay for goods or services by transmitting a number from one computer to another. So an electronic currency is simply a unit of exchange by using the Internet.

As almost every individual knows of E-commerce, and, there is a consumer to spend money online therefore electronic payment systems are construed. Up to now, there are many countries offering the ways of transferring money by using Internet. One of the successful cases is occurred in Singapore. It had implemented the electronic money for its public transportation system such as commuter, buses, etc.

E-money requires no complicated software and it allows the transfer of electronic cash to anyone through an e-mail address. Some of the banking business industries which are in biggest names are involved in using e-money. These include Bank One and Well Fargo. Of course there are also some of the small companies using e-money system. E-money is actually designed for the exchange of funds between the individuals. Moreover, some of the e-money providers allow commercial activities for a small fee towards college students, children or making small monetary gifts. The e-money technology can also be used to pay someone, or collect funds from someone who needs to pay you. The payments you made are using your credit card or with your offline bank account.

The electronic currency system will lead to some limitations as well. A major disadvantage to electronic currency is fraud. If a customer has lost or misplaced his private key, a perpetrator would use it to withdraw funds. As a result, that customer would have to bear the payments because the bank did not know about the case. Besides, the hacker will know about the recipient of the message of the owner if the security code is broken and the message is intercepted, the hacker will have intention on stealing away the recipient of the message.

Besides, another major concern is that counterfeiters could create their own personal coins of e-cash as it is just a piece of money that is very easy to duplicate. Therefore, it is difficult to distinguish from real money and impossible to detect. Additionally, only the consumers with PCs are able to use it, while those without would not use it. E-cash may be less secure than bank money. The money which stored on a PC will be lost if the system crashes. For instance, money stored on an electronic wallet could be lost forever should the card is damaged.

Mobile Payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies.

There is a tremendous potential for mobile telecommunication networks to become an important electronic payment channel in our country considering that 88 percent of the Malaysian population are subscribing to mobile phone services.

According to Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the high penetration rate affirmed mobile phone networks as an increasingly popular channel for Malaysians to perform a plethora of activities beyond voice communication, encompassing all forms of digital communication, commerce, banking and payments.

With 25 million mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia, Zeti said there were immense opportunities to leverage on mobile phones to accelerate the migration to electronic payments, to widen the reach and appeal of electronic payment services, and to deliver innovative mobile payment products that offer speed and convenience at minimal cost for the public.There are also opportunities to enable the provision of efficient and cost-effective method of delivering financial services even in the remote areas, she said.
Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz pointed out that industry has to respond rapidly to address the need for interoperability and collaborate in areas such as developing a common infrastructure, common payment messaging format as well as common security and authentication standards, to promote the significant use of the mobile phone for financial services.A shared integrated network with common security standard and common messaging standards would make it easier, more cost-effective and more convenient for consumers, merchants and service providers to execute and receive payments, thereby increasing the attractiveness of the mobile network as a payment channel, she added.

Furthermore, mobile payment is safe, secure and convenient. It allows everyone to pay to anyone, at anytime from anywhere with just one SMS. It also allows one to receive money from anyone, from anywhere, at anytime. Mobile payments are including credit card bills, and your loan repayments from home.

And for merchants, business can be done anywhere such as conduct billing. There will be increased business opportunities for merchants as remote mobile payment can be done easily with the lower transaction and maintenance cost.

In Malaysia there are several companies that already launched mobile payment systems such as Redtone, Maxis, Digi, Maybank, Hong Leong Bank, Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd, and mobileExec Sdn Bhd.

The application of 3rd party certification

iPhone OS is the operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPod touch. Like Mac OS X, from which it was derived, it uses the Darwin foundation. iPhone OS has three abstraction layers: a Core Services layer, a Media layer, and a Cocoa Touch layer. The operating system takes less than half a gigabyte (GB) of the devices' total memory storage.At the 2007 Apple Worldwide Developers Conference Apple announced that the iPhone and iPod touch will support third-party "applications" via the Safari web browser, referred to as web applications. The applications can be created using web technologies such as AJAX. Many third party iPhone web applications are now available.

Currently, the iPhone and iPod touch cannot officially install full programs from anyone but Apple. However, many third party native applications are now available, despite this complete lack of support by Apple. Such native applications face the possibility of being broken by any iPhone OS update, though Apple has stated it will not design software updates specifically to break native applications (other than applications that perform SIM unlocking). These are available through the installer application, which is installed on the iPhone after major methods of jailbreaking. Some well known members of the 3rd party app community have switched over to the official SDK.

Since iPhone OS has been closed down the device from UMD (or UMPC), I can conclude that the Apple iPhone is not just a smartphone. It is a very high-end feature phone. As feature phones have increased functionality, input mechanisms, and outputs (displays and speakers), some feature phones have been very smartphone-like.

How to safeguard your personal and financial data?

Online security can be treated as a “necessity” for those who own a computer. Now I am going to share with you about the safeguards on your data.

The simplest method to protect your data from stealing your information by the hackers or crackers is to install anti-virus software and must keep updating it daily. The significant threats to computer-based information consist of viruses and trojans, spyware or adware, and computer failures. If you do not own the anti-virus software, you are ruining your computer’s life. The newer programs, for instance, Norton Anti-Virus will download updates automatically. Eventhough you have anti-virus software, you also required to update it and get the edition that enables automatic updates and scans those incoming mails or items in your computer if you use the old version anti-virus software.

Besides, you can also set up the firewall for your computer. If you do not set up a firewall, it is vulnerable to those hackers. The firewall can be used to filter the inherently dangerous services and to expose the protected network to fewer risks. For instance, a firewall could block the dangerous services such as Network File System from entering the protected subnet.

Additionally, you must back up your file or data daily. Without data back up, you will be running the risk of losing your data. Mostly you save your important assets of your business or your family data in the computer. You can back up your data in CD-RW, tape, drives or even portable hard drives. If any incident such as theft, fire, flood etc happens, you will still be protected as your data has been safeguarded.

Furthermore, if you share information with another user by using a public computer such as in a library, school computer lab or Internet café, you have to remember to close the window browser. This is to prevent other users to read your personal information and mail. Avoid from using passwords that are easy for someone to guess. Your passwords you created must be strong and keep them well protected, so that the malicious users could not steal you information.

Likewise, keep an eye on anyone who seems interested in your transactions when you using an ATM. When inserting your PIN number, you should use your free hand to shield the keypad to prevent others to peep it. Bankers can also add on fingerprint scanning on ATM machine.

I strongly advice everyone to cooperate with each other to prevent the disclosure of our own or consumer personal and financial data. Hope that everyone can concern about computer security by viewing my post to follow the steps of safeguards on data.

Reference:

1. http://www.aroundhawaii.com/lifestyle/computers/2004-05_take_a_few_steps_to_safeguard_your_pc_and_data.html

The threats of online security: How safe is your data?

Nowadays, Internet attacks are increasing in number and complexity. When Internet users browse any websites which contain the damaging threats, the regarding threats would attack or destroy their computers. The damaging threats such as viruses, spyware, adware, scumware, hacker attacks, identity theft and fraud are common occurrence.

Trojan horse refers to one of the most serious threats to the computer security. A Trojan horse is a program in which malicious or harmful code is contained inside harmless programming that it can ruin the file allocation table on the hard disk or even stop the computer’s normal functions. Furthermore, Trojan horse not only attacks your computer once you trapped by it, but may also attack other people’s computer unknowingly. Therefore, everyone must be aware of this type of virus because Trojan horse can be spread to hurt other people easily when you are infected.

Besides, spyware is another virus that attack user’s computer. A large number of problems that have arisen are such as pop-up ads that multiply uncontrollably, system slowdowns of freezes and mysteriously redirect us to the websites we have never heard of. Adware is similar to spyware, which is software that installed on the computer to show advertisements. Adware can also slow down user’s pc and even increase the instability of user’s system because many adware applications are not well-programmed.

Internet fraud has a broad meaning in covering Internet transaction that involves falsified information. The common Internet fraud are such as fake IDs, diplomas, and recommendation letters sold as credentials and others. Some Internet fraud schemes also involve identity theft-wrongful obtaining and using of someone’s personal data in some way that involves fraud or deception, typically for economic gain. For example, in 2001, the entire municipality of Largo, Florida lost their emails for more than a week because an unknown company has compromised its identity. Then the company hacked into the city’s email relay system to steal the identity of the Largo.com. Because of the e-mail spam from Largo.com addresses the net, all incoming and outgoing messages were blacklisted from the city.

Another internet fraud is done through the use of stolen credit card information.

The crackers who probably are the companies’ employees can easily obtain the huge quantities of credit card information from the companies’ databases. They deal with the companies’ customers in selling those credit cards information to them. This has led to criminal cases occurrence. Besides, the use of credit cards for making online purchase or payment can be unsecured. The so-called secure transactions are actually not fully secure since the information need to be decoded into plain text to process it.

Therefore, we have to safeguard our data carefully and properly. If we don’t do so, the more and more online threats will be continuously occurred in our life.

References:
1. http://www.bsagovernment.com/downloads/MajorOnlineThreats.pdf
2. http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci213221,00.html

A review on a post on Internet Security from My E-Commerce blog

After viewing the blog, I feel so curious to know more about mobile Malware. It has a rapidly growth of mobile Malware recently, the primary reasons which are as below:
· The price of phone continues to drop and vendor involved in production.

· Virus writer is allowed to gain a deep understanding of the operating system.

· Mobile phone users tend to save a great deal of private data into their devices, so there is a potential financial gain from identity theft or misappropriation of credit card information.

· Windows Mobile and Win32 are very similar, so it is easy for Win32 malware author to transition to mobile malware.

There are many ways to prevent of mobile Malware except of those in the article.
· The best way to prevent mobile from Malware attacks is to install anti-virus and anti-Malware tools. Such as, a combination of both PC-based anti-virus software and mobile anti-virus software, it is the most effective solution to prevent infection than products that only detect or clean viruses.

· Off the WI-FI and Bluetooth when in outdoors, because these function are easier to exploit for sending malicious code or viruses.

· Make a frequent back up of data stored on mobile services, as contact lists are vitally important, then if the mobile device had been infected, so we can recover the default setting to clean the system.

· Don’t save the business data or any confidential files or photo in mobile device as possible. This is a profit motive to drive those Malware writers to create mobile viruses.

· If the phone is auto-connected to General Packet Radio Service(GPRS), it might be infected with a virus that send data to others. If discover this problem, disconnect the device immediately and install anti- virus software to remove Malware.

related to article :

http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/internet%20security http://www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/white_papers/threat_center/wp_malware7a_en.pdf

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods.

Phishing is the new 21st century crime. It is the practice of sending out fake emails, or spam, written to appear as if they have been sent by banks or others organisations, with the intent of luring the recipient into revealing sensitive information such as usernames, passwords, account number, ATM pins or credit card details.

Examples:

Charlotte's Bank of America example

PayPal example

eBay example

Tagged.com example

Prevention methods

Following are some good practices to follow in order to avoid being a victim of phishing.
1. Always be wary of any email requesting personal information. Don't reply to
any suspicious looking emails or click on any links that you are not sure. You
can never be too cautious.

2. Always ensure that you are on a secure connection to a web server when
submitting personal information across the internet. Seeing an https://
appear in the URL instead of http:// and also seeing a picture of a locked
padlock in the lower right-hand corner of the browser window, not the
page itself.

3. Do not use your personal email address on online forms or any public forum
such as such as newsgroups and mailing lists. Doing so may cause you be
flooded with spam.

4. Avoid emails with urgent requests for financial, account, or email
information. Such as emails that ask for usernames and passwords, credit
card numbers, or other personal information.

5. Use antivirus and firewall software and keep them up to date using their
update features. Anti-virus software can detect and delete virus files
before they can attack a computer and firewall can protect computer from
being hacked into. Software can be use are such as AVG Antivirus, Avast
Home Edition, Sygate Personal firewall and Kerio Personal firewall.

6. Install Spyware removal software such as AdAware. Spyware are files that
can be installed on your computer, even if you don't want them, without your
knowing. They allow companies to monitor your internet browsing patterns.

7. Never buy anything from a company that sends you spam. Don't even visit
their sites or ask for more information.

8. Make sure to carefully review your bank statements to check for
unauthorized transactions. Many credit card companies have identity
protection features that will reimburse you for charges made by an
attacker, so long as they are promptly identified.