yOuThGenEraTion @ BAC 5

Nowadays, credit card becomes a common instruments where many peoples now use it to pay for their bill in their daily use. Actually, the procedures and terms for applying credit card in nowadays is much simplier if compare to the past time. This may due to the competition between financial institutions where they try to attract more customers by lower down their interest rates and conditions. It is not surprising if you can found out that a person can hold 5 credit cards at the same time. However, everything in this world is double sided which are the application of credit card become easier now but it is not easy for the card holders to settle their debts. So, this week let me hare with you all the causes and preventions of credit cards debts.

CAUSES:

Income vs Expenses

A person must spend their income according to their expenses. Peoples alway think that they are able to pay for the bills when they want to buy something that is more expensive which the things is not really a "NEED" but a "WANTS". Many such cases happen in Taiwan where STUDENTS are too follow blindly nowadays fashion causing them to be in the red. They bought a lot of branded goods to satisfy their vanity. Some even owe RM100K to the bank.

Little saving

Many people nowadays do not save money for their future needs. They think that they can obtain short term loan from the bank easily if they need any financial assistance. Due to this thinking, they will always spend first without considering they are able to pay for the debts in the future. Besides, because of the little savings, they will not have enough money to deal with emergency. Again, credit card become the fatest way to loan money.

Unemployment

Unemployed person normally will depend on their credit cards to pay for their spending as this is the only way for them to survive. If they still spend extravagantly for a long time then they will have accumulated too much debt which they do not have ability to pay for it. Lastly, they will end up by declared bankruptcy.

Pay only the minimum

Some credit card holders will choose to pay part of their debts. This normally will step up their debts because of the interest that imposed on the late payment. Thus, that money paid by them actually is paying for the interest but not for the principal. If thing keep going for long time, then the debt will increase more and more.

PREVENTIONS:

Have a good money management

A person will need to have a good spending plan to keep track of their bills. This will help them to identify where is their money is going. Actually, it is good to form this habit because it can control their expenses where they only buy thing that they need.

Save money

Always save money...This is because cash is the most liquidity asset which it can be used when there is an emergency and future needs. Having enough saving for a rainy day is always a worthwhile investment.You will be more thankful if you have enough money on hand in case of emergency.

Pay on time

Never made late payment to any debt whether is your credit card debts or your car and housing loan. This is because the interest is calculated based on the daily balances. Pay on time will help you to save money on interest. Do not look down on the interest because it may be the main killer in settling your debts.

Self-control

Do not be a shopaholic!!! Buy whenever you needs but not useless things. Limit the "plastic" in your wallet or purse. This will restrain you from being overspend. Spend according to your income but not the fashion.

Choose the right card

Customers must read the terms and conditions carefully especially the fine print before they apply for the credit cards. This is because some financial institutions will imposed extra charges which you would not realized of it. You must understand everything from your interest rates and fees to how to earn rewards from your credit card. This can let you prevent from being charge more for your credit cards.More on this topic: http://www.cardratings.com/howtochoosetherightcreditcard.html

Reference:

1. http://www.3debtconsolidation.com/top10-causes.html

2. http://www.cardratings.com/howtoavoidcreditcarddebt.html

Third parties refer to Certificate Authority (CA) who issue digital certificates to verify that a particular website is representing its company. One of the famous application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia is provided by the MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd. MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd was incorporated in 1999 as a licensed Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia under Digital Signature Act 1997. It aims at catalyzing the growth of e-commerce by creating a trusted e-environment that helps businesses to expand in the new economy. It provides security solutions and trusted services to help companies build a secure network application infrastructure for their electronic transactions and communications over the network. The services that provides by Trustgate are SSL Certificate, Managed PKI, Digital ID, MyTRUST, MyKAD PKI, SSL VPN, Managed Security Services, VeriSign Certified Training.

SSL Certificate
Trusgate provides two SSL Certificates due to the increase of phishing attacks on the Internet. It helps the customers to ensure that they are dealing with trusted parties and their information traveled over the Internet was reaches at intended recipients. The two certificates are Global Server ID and Secure Server ID. Global Server ID adopts today's strongest encryption commercially available for secure communications via Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) technology while Secure Server ID protect the transfer of sensitive data on network using a minimum of 40-bit and up to 256-bit encryption. It includes VeriSign that provides security solutions to protect the network and consumers of the organization.

Managed Public Key Infrastructure (MPKI)
MPKI service is a fully integrated enterprise platform designed to secure intranet, extranet, and Internet applications by combining maximum flexibility, performance, and scalability with high availability and security. The service allow enterprise to quickly and cost-effectively establish a robust PKI and Certification Authority (CA) system with complete control over security policies, PKI hierarchies, authentication models, and certificate lifecycle management.

Digital ID
The use of Digital ID to sign and encrypt the transactions can ensure that the confidential information is secured. Digital ID is an electronic credentials that uses private key and public key to facilitate the following operations:

Authentication – you are who you claim you are
Privacy – your confidential data remains private
Authorization – control user access rights to important data
Integrity – be sure data is not altered behind your back
Non-repudiation – have the evidence in the event of a dispute

MyTRUST
SIM card can turns into a Mobile Digital Identity for secure mobile banking and other financial services with MyTRUST. Mobile digital signature provides non-repudiation on transactions under the Digital Signature Act, 1997. It runs on Wireless PKI platform and Mobile Operator infrastructure. PKI-enabled SIM cards are preloaded with MyTrust application and a digital certificate from a licensed Certification Authority. Therefore, users are able to digitally sign any transaction easily and conveniently via their mobile phone.

MyKad PKI (MyKey)
MyKey is the MSC Trustgate.com Sdn. Bhd.’s Digital Certificate which is loaded into MyKad. It is governed by Malaysia’s Digital Signature Act 1997 and is accepted by the Malaysian government. Mykey allows its users signed document digitally. The document is treated as a legal binding document as it is with a handwritten signature.

SSL Virtual Private Network (SSL VPN)
SSL VPN provides secure remote access based on the web security standard SSL (Secure Socket Layer). SSL VPN can be configured to access multiple intranet sites with single sign-on. Users can get access to intranet, e-mail and business system from wherever they are and whatever device they choose. Besides, it provides an advanced policy management component to authenticate users and type of device they are using.

Managed Security Services
Valuable business resources that are accessible over the network need to be protected against misuse to ensure the business runs smoothly. Trustgate provides full set of security solutions to help companies build a secure and reliable environment for their organization. Trustgate’s consultants have extensive experience in implementing IT security and conform to SAS 70 standard. They are committed to deliver effective security infrastructure to protect organization’s network from attacks.

Verisign Certified Training
Trustgate has been appointed as Asia's first VeriSign Authorised Training Centre. Under the partnership, Trustgate and APIIT (Asia Pacific Institute of Information Technology) jointly facilitate the delivery of VeriSign’s high-end Security and E-Commerce programmes.

The projects that have been implemented by Trustgate in Malaysia included:
~E-banking Security Deployment
~E-procurement Integration
~User Authentication and Customer Clearance Approval System
~PKI for Online Transaction Payment System
~PKI Development & Integration for Malaysia’s National Identification Card “MyKad”
~PKI Infrastructure for E-government and E-business Transactions
~Secure Document Storage System
~Project Management and Application System Development
~Security Consultancy & Outsourcing Services

Reference:
http://www.mykey.com.my/Website/home.php
http://www.trademal.com/global/index.php/id/17463/key/trustgate/MSC_Trustgate_com_Sdn_Bhd/index.html http://www.msctrustgate.com/

It’s cool of storing a lot of music, movie, photo, working paper, and some secret inside our computer. However, we will feel shock when we suddenly notice our personal things being uploaded in some website, or lost of data inside the computer. How it actually happened???

How data lost?
When a normal people like us having our first computer, first of all, we will think of applying for internet connection. This makes the opening, and our human’s action continues the tragedy. When opening internet browser, we will go search for something that we want. However, if you ever typed in “word unscrambler, lyrics, myspace, free music downloads, phelps, game cheats, printable fill-in puzzles, free ringtones and solitaire”, any of these term will probably carried the chance for your computer to get hit by “malware”, that might steal away your computer data.

Impact of data lost
Lost of data might cause losses either in physical or reputation. If our financial data being stolen, it is possible that our money will be just used by anonymous for their own transaction. For businessman, every customer data that had lost might cause an uncountable loss in business.

If personal data get stolen, it is just like the incident happened in November 2006. A Hong Kong male artist, Edison Koon-Hei Chen was involved in sex photo scandal of his with 6 others females. Although this incident brings him the hottest search result in Google search engine for year 2008, however, his reputation had already become a bad one.

Common methods to safeguard personal and financial data
The most common ways to safeguard our data are through encryption, password or PIN. With a password, we can protect from letting others access our computer and account. A further protection is installing antivirus to prohibit viruses attacking. To protect home network from offensive website and hacker, it is recommended that enable the Window Firewall.

The latest technology to protect data is through biometric, which will recognize owner’s fingerprint, optical, facial structure, voice, signature, or keystroke. Everyone in this world had his own unique physiological and behavioral characteristic, therefore, using biometric for identify and verify purpose can be a higher secure than password and PIN.

Other methods to safeguard personal and financial data
We always said that, there’s better prevent than cure. For me, I more prefer take precaution rather than take action. For a normal user for you and me, here, I’m willing to share the way I safeguard my data.

First time when sign in to MSN messenger, it warns that “Never give out your password or credit card number in an instant message conversation”. We should follow this instruction, because it was trying to protect us from financial aspect. If you using a shared computer, it is recommend that do not save your message as MSN history, so that other won’t know what you had chatted about.

In a MSN conversation, sometimes, your friend might send some file for you. For your benefit, it is recommend that you should ask your friend what is that file. A small tip for you, if you able to close the chat window when there’s a file in pending status, that file usually not a file from your friend, but a virus link. Sometimes, when your friend sends you a link (e.g.: http://SweetStufff.com :D, click here www.mebeholdgo.in), NEVER CLICK THAT! Unless you’d get the confirmation from your friend to do so.
P.S: DO NOT CLICK on that 2 links, any damages or losses is not liable.

It’s enjoying when you can access Wi-Fi in hotspot. However, when connected to these shared connection, you should bear in mind that you might get the chance to let other access to your network and personal information. So, it’s better for you not to online in the hotspot.
(Refer to http://www.cnn.com/2009/TRAVEL/business.travel/05/28/computer.security/)

When surfing website, we should aware of any pop-up advertisement. Any careless action will just cause the tragedy, think before you do. For credit card user, you are advised that make a routine review on the transaction made, so that can discover any unusual transaction at once.

Remember to set a schedule for your antivirus to update its database to the latest version. Although there is some free antivirus in open-source, it is recommended that spend some money to purchase original version antivirus. You will shock of the scan result after scanning it.

Too much I can write for it, however, too little I can think out right now. So, if there is any problem, you are most welcome to leave your comment here. I’ll reply whenever I read it…

Extra Informations:
1) US is started to concern on this issue, further information can refer to:
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/29/cyber.czar.obama/index.html#cnnSTCText
Video
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/05/29/cyber.czar.obama/index.html#cnnSTCVideo


2) How to Safeguard Your Personal Data – Before, During and After a Breach
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/How-to-Safeguard-Your-Personal-Data-Before-During-and-After-a-Breach/

3) Digital Shredder Premium (Easily, Securely & Permanently Erase Confidential Data)
http://www.dtransfer.com/products/data-deletion/digital-shredder-premium/

4) Safeguarding Your Data
http://www.msisac.org/awareness/news/2007-03.cfm

Hi…everyone! Welcome to our blog AGAIN... This week, I am going to tell you all about the threat and attack that the e-commerce will face in this modern day. Even though, E-commerce has let our life more convenience nowadays, however, it also bring some problem to us where many deceivers actually make use of it on their self benefits. Thus, many users nowadays complaint that they have been cheated when they made any transaction through the internet.

One of the most popular threats nowadays is called PHISHING. The pronunciation of Phising is same as fishing. It is an act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to deceive the user into disclosing their private information that will be used for theft purposes. The e-mail usually will contain a link that direct the user to visit a website where they are asked to update their personal information, such as passwords, credit card numbers, and bank account numbers.

Phishing not only happen by sending email messages, but it actually exists in many ways. The other examples are:

a) On a social networking website.
b) On a fake website that accept donations for charity.
c) On a website that imitate your familiar website that you would not be realized of it.
d) In your instant message program
e) On your cell phone or mobile device.

Now, even has a new type of phishing which is spear phising. It focuses on a single user or a department within an organization. The e-mail message appears to be legitimately addressed from someone within the organization normally in a position of trust such as head of human resources or IT. From there, the employees are being requested for their login IDs and passwords. Once data is gained, the hackers can entry into secured networks and steal the data. Another type of spear phishing attack will ask users to click on a link, which deploys spyware that can steal their data as well.

So, to prevent this attack happen on ourselves, we need to learn how to spot a phishing scam. Normally, phishing scam will contain several elements:

a) The "From Field" shows the e-mail is send by the legitimate companies which normally appear as your bank or financial institution or a company you regularly to deal with such as e-bay, Paypal or Microsoft. User need to be very careful in looking out the senders as those deceivers can make use of the company name easily.


b) The e-mail will usually contain logos or images that have been taken directly from the legitimate Web site of the company. So, the existence of logo does not necessarily means that the e-mail is send by legitimate company. However, there will be some logos that are not an exact match to the company's logo or contain spelling errors. In such case, user should be alert that this a fake e-mail.


c) The e-mail will contain a clickable link which suggests you to use the inserted link to validate your information. When you rest your mouse on the link, it will show the real website address to which you will go. Note that the hyperlink usually does NOT point to the URL of the legitimate company. Somehow, the link will contain percentage signs followed by numbers or “@” signs, or random names. Besides, the deceivers will use web addresses that resemble the name of the legitimate company but slightly altered by adding or omitting letters. For example, the address "www.microsoft.com" could appear as, www.micosoft.com , www.mircosoft.com



d) It contains several phrases such as:
I) verify your account
II) You have won the lottery
III) If you don't respond within XX hours, your account will be closed

So, you all know what phishing mail look like. Now, it is the time to learn the prevention method.

a) We should always be alert to any email with urgent requests for personal financial information. Normally, a bank or other organization would not request your personal information through e-mail. However, there is digitally signed e-mail [more on: http://www.antiphishing.org/smim-dig-sig.html] which send by bank. These e-mails normally are more reliable and certified by third party which shown in the picture. However, it is more safety if you can contact the bank or related authority and confirm with them.

Since last week I explain about those revenue models of website transaction, I think now all of you will feel whether online transaction is it reliable and furthermore data that we insert to the net is it protected. According to the research I had made, there will not be 100 percent protected of our data and it show that actually there are still a lot of security issue to the net access and data storage by using computer. It is not only unsafe of our personal data, business data and private information, it also cause government data being hack by hacker. As an example, in June year 2006, US Pentagon faced theft of amazing amount of government data which causes by spoof e-mailing. Sensitive data housed on Defense systems was accessed, copied and sent back to the intruder. It took 3 weeks time for them to recover to normal operation and cost 4 million for reset the security. For further information about this case, you can refer to below link.

http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?filepath=/dailyfed/0308/030508j1.htm&oref=search

From the example show above, even the world most advance country in technology which is US also being hack for their government data, it show that actually our data is not that safe due to a lot threat of online security. Even we set password for our data, but it have two-pronged problem by using password, because they offer a false sense of security and are actually easy to bypass, guess or steal. Security issue and threat is a very sensitive issue to the company which doing business online. Now, I will like to share with all of you about few threat that will causes of lost of data and some ways we can use to protect data and minimize the chance of losing important data.

1. Hacker

- Person who breaks into computers, usually by gaining access to administrative controls.

- Mostly is for hacking data of political issue and also for criminal purposes.

- Further explanation of different type of hacker is available at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_%28computer_security%29

- Example of famous hacker in the world

1. Kevin Mitnick - http://www.takedown.com/bio/mitnick.html

2. Jonathan James - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_James

2. Virus and Worm

- Can infect desktop computers, laptops and network servers and reach our PCs from email, web sites, downloaded files and loadable media

- It will disable our computer, add, modify and delete files or reformat the hard disk, steal addresses and etc.

3. Trojan Horse

- installed on a computer and allow remote attacker via “backdoor” when the computer user online and access or destroy any information stored. Alternatively, the Trojan can be programmed to automatically send any information on our PCs back to the attacker. Information that might be stolen is states in the website I provide below:

http://www.guard-privacy-and-online-security.com/how-do-you-stay-safe-on-the-internet.html

4. Spyware

- can scan our hard drive and search programs for sensitive information like credit card, bank information and personal details.

5. Natural Disaster

- other than those hacker and viruses, data also will lost due to fire, lightning strike, floods, hurricane, earthquake, tornados and solar flares.

Even though our data is prove to be unsafe but there still some way to prevent lost of data:

1. Antivirus software

- Example like Mc Afee, Norton Antivirus, Kaspersky, Grisoft AVG, and etc.

- But MAKE SURE it is UPDATED!!!

2. Online Backup or Database Center

3. Firewalls (normally come with window)

- Example: Norton Personal Firewall (part of Norton Internet Security), Zone Labs ZoneAlarm (a free version is available), McAfee, Sygate and Tiny.

4. Adware and Spyware Protection

- Example: Lavasoft AdAware and SpyBot Search and Destroy.

5. Management Effort

- Place the database in higher floor in the building to avoid disaster and also set security access to avoid unauthorized person go in the database. Furthermore, CCTV is set at database room and password encryption be use to protect data being access or hack.

Refences:

http://www.remotedatabackups.com/why/disaster_prevention.htm (way of prevention)

http://www.remotedatabackups.com/why/risks_natural.htm (natural disaster)

http://www.guard-privacy-and-online-security.com/how-do-you-stay-safe-on-the-internet.html (Viruses, Worm, Spyware, Trojan horse)

http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/31171.html?welcome=1213803356&wlc=1245069883 (password problem)

When talking about E-commerce, first thing that come to our mind is to run a trading through online via internet. However, if you asking me an example of an E-commerce success, there will be no doubt for me to say that, Amazon.com!

Why Amazon would be one of the successful E-commerce? According to a study by Matt Pace, except the auction site (eBay), Amazon is the top online retailer in the year 2008!


Other than that, there is too a diagram to support on why Amazon able to be the top retailer in E-commerce, which is the session share and the visits per person that conducted in December 2008.

We had known that Amazon is one of the successes E-commerce, now, let's find out why it deserves such a victory.





I wonder if you ever tried to make your surf in Amazon.com, however, it will not be a big issue of not surfing it before. First of all, I like the way Amazon categorized its products in 12 main departments. Inside these departments, we can easily find the product we wished to purchase. There are a lot of product available, such as books, movies, MP3, computers, electronic devices, home accessories, grocery, toys, motor vehicles, and some other which will out of your expectation. All these can be found out in Amazon!







Second thing that Amazon can last until now is, it provided the shipping delivery globally. Although its head quarter was located at Seattle, Washington, USA; however, for us Malaysian, we still able to make our purchase there. Amazon provided a couple of country lists for users to check how was the charges per shipment and per item. It too provided the standard shipping days for every different countries. Amazon will get a competitive advantage as it globalizes its business.



Other than that, Amazon itself too provided some features and services. Not just products, even services also can be found in Amazon, such as broadband services, financial services, photo services, and travel services. A variety of services are provided, all you need to do is to move ur cursor and click on the item, further details can be found after you click on it. Not just that, you too can refer some reviews that had been posted by other users in the website too!

There's one important thing that been used in Amazon, as other E-commerce website did so, which is the Shopping Cart. Without a shopping cart, it will be troublesome as we need to complete each single transaction, before we continue on the next item. With the aid of shopping cart, it enables us to do our shopping all at once, and complete the transactions in one shot. Time had just been save with shopping cart~

Headache of don't know what category your item belong? Or you have certain specific item to purchase on? All these will not be a problem, as Amazon too provided a search engine, which enable users to type in their needs, to ease them from searching 1 page by 1 page.

If you had overlooked some items in previous shopping, nevermind, Amazon had inserted a column of your recent history. So, we just browse our history at there rather than click on "Back" button on our Internet Explorer.


Several conveniences can be enjoyed in Amazon, and it too keeps upgrading the server to fulfill every single need of our users. So, without any hesitate, let's type in www.amazon.com and sign up an account for your shop today!! :-D

There are some successful virtual e-commerce companies such as eBay, Amazon.com and so on. However, there are also a large number of failures of e-commerce companies that are failed to continue their business through e-commerce. One of the shinning examples is kozmo.com.

Kozmo.com was a short-lived online store and delivery service that provided fast and friendly service. It was founded by young investment bankers Joseph Park and Yong Kang in 1997 when they wanted goodies from a convenience store delivered to their door. They started the business in March 1998 at New York City. The great idea of this company was that you could order anything at anytime and they will delivered direct to your house within one hour with free of delivery charge for any item.

At the height of its business, the company operated in Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., San Diego, and Los Angeles in July 2007. It was popular with college student and young professionals. However, Kozmo.com ended it services in March 2001. The causes of failures are:

(i) Cost > Revenue
This is the main cause that brings to the failure of Kozmo. Kozmo offered free delivery charge and competitive prices to their customers for every product even the customer only buy a pack of snack. In case, the cost of delivery is more than the revenue that their earned. Kozmo was suffered sustainable financial loss due to the reason. Even though a $10 minimum charge was introduced after this, but that didn't stop it from closing in March 2001. Kozmo is learned too late that its primary attraction of free delivery charge to all customers was also its undoing.

(ii) Target consumers
Kozmo make a worst decision that stop to catering their main client which are middle class college-student due to the thought of target more upscale customer base who could afford expensive products. Indeed, college students were the customers that make up almost 76% of their sales.

(iii) Withdraw of investor
Investors promised to give a private funding of $30million to Kozmo but later on an investor had backed out of a $6million commitment. This has caused the merger deal with Los Angeles-based PDQuick collapsed when the funding that was promised to PDQuick did not materialize.

(iv) Ambitious business plan and lack of planning
The company had overly ambitious plans for expansion and didn't stop them down quickly once capital dried up. Besides, Park and Kang were relatively inexperienced to manage an e-commerce business. They may have overestimated the amount of revenue it could gain from the market. The revenues that Kozmo generated from sales were insufficient to cover all the business expenses.

As a conclusion, in order to success an e-commerce business, only has a creative idea without proper plans is insufficient. The use of business strategies, effectiveness in cost control, strong organizational, and efficiency in customer relationship management to meet the demands of its valuable customers are the key elements contribute to the success of e-commerce.

References:

http://www.thestandard.com/news/2008/05/29/where-are-they-now-kozmo-com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo.com
http://news.cnet.com/2100-1017-255710.html
http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html
http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/apr2001/nf20010416_207.htm