Review on a post on Legal - Online Beauty Product Fraud

The post basically is about the fraud or problem of making purchases of beauty product online. Over the years, internet has enabled many great buys through online. Besides, there are price comparison companies that help us drill down to the best prices, shipping and tax advantages, and the convenience of no need to leave home.

However, sometimes the deal that looks great falls short of what has been advertised. Communicating dissatisfaction can be difficult through online if compare to face-to-face. In addition, it often takes enormous patience and tenacity to achieve satisfaction.

In the post, it stated that The Star has reported 66 people that were cheated almost RM 73,445 when they performed online purchases of skincare products. Nowadays, because of the improvement of technology, people tend to buy the beauty products through internet. As claimed by them, buying the products through online can help them save the time to go out. Moreover, the price is usually cheaper than buying in shop. Besides, there are some people who do not like to be followed by the salesgirl when they make purchases. Hence, they prefer to buy the products online. And they can also choose the product carefully and take as many times as they want.

Convenience appears to be the main reason women buy online. Of those online beauty product shoppers, 74% say “it saves time” and 70% agree that “it’s easier/quicker to shop online than a store.”

Just because the businessman knows what the consumers are thinking, they can easily attract the consumers by illegal ways, when promoting their products online.

As reported in The Star, the salesman was lured by the advertisement which displayed the price of the items that cheaper than those off the shelf. Businessman may display a very low price in their advertisement, but they may charge many others additional fees (delivery fees) when the items delivered to the customers. While these additional fees may not know by the consumers before they made their purchases.

Improvement in the technology is not necessarily a good thing, especially shopping online. Some of the disadvantages of the shopping online are:

- Inabilities to check out the items physically when you are purchasing. Especially for the low price items, the website might send the products which quality might not achieved the standard.

- Items ordered online are sometimes on backorder but consumer is not always informed until weeks after the purchase is made.

- Consumer not always knowing if a site is a legitimate and safe site to shop.

- Have to pay for shipping costs that far exceed the true shipping rate. They may charge lower price for the items, but charge higher in the shipping costs.

- If there are dissatisfaction, return and exchanges can sometimes be difficult because of lack of face-to-face negotiations. Some websites might even restrict the return or exchange of items. If not, when the items’ quality does not reach the standard, consumer may request for return and make them suffer loss.

- No claim back of money when the product didn’t arrive. Most of the online shopping website is requiring the consumers to make payment using credit card. But, after they received the money, they might never deliver the items to customers, since they already have the money on hand.

Therefore, in my opinion, it is better to buy the products (no matter beauty products or others) at shop. Then we can check out the items physically, no matter the quality or its price. If you are still instead to shopping online, please bear in mind, it is important to make sure that the website can be trusted and it is a legal site.

Example of website that provide shopping online:

http://www.adorebeauty.com.au/adorebeauty/index.asp

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

http://my.88db.com/my/Services/Post_Detail.page/Beauty/Face_Skin_Care/?PostID=241848

Discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysian unversities:

Pros and Cons from student perspective

E-learning systems are a great alternative to traditional way of learning. Due to the advanced technologies, we can bring everything we need in our daily life to our homes: books, libraries, news, clothes and even food! Today, e-learning has been getting more and more popular. Like anything else, there are many pros to e-learning as well as cons.
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Pros of e-learning
The greatest advantage of e-learning is student no need to travel long distances to attend classes at a particular location as eLearning can be conducted anywhere in the world. The courses are carried out over the internet, through online learning management systems, internet char, real-time lectures, webinars etc. This will save student travel cost and time to and from school.
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One of the advantages of e-learning is the flexibility of time. There is no specified time for classes to be executed, such as a particular lecture on a specific day and time. E-learning classes are recorded and post on the websites. Students can download and watch or listen them during their free time. However, there are deadlines for submitting in assignments and reports. Students have to make sure that they submit their assignments and reports by the deadline, in order to get full credit.
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Another advantage would be the students’ ability to study at their own pace. This helps people who may need a little extra time understanding the subject that is being studied. Student can go back and repeat the subject that is having trouble understanding. Besides, some students are faster at learning than others, so this e-learning allows them to be ahead. Projects with a deadline will be assigned and students can finish their projects at whatever time they find feasible within that particular deadline.
Cons of e-learning
First of all, the disadvantage to online learning is that, not all students have self-motivated and discipline to progress through the program in a timely manner. Student can simply being lazy and fall behind the program for week. This makes learning even harder when trying to get caught up with the progress. Students have to make a set plan and stick to it. This is sometimes very hard for student to follow it.
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There is the downside of there being no face-to-face interaction between the student and the instructors. Lack of face-to-face communication with instructors will contribute lack of understanding between student and instructor. Instructors cannot easily understand student’s demands and interests. Besides, instructor may not always be available if student need help. This can be very frustrating if you are not able to understand the subject being studied.
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Another disadvantage of e-learning is problem of proper accreditation. It is importance for those who are seeking employment upon graduation. However, not all e-learning system of Malaysian universities are accredited. Hence, e-learning students need to make sure that university student enrolled is properly accredited and widely recognized.
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In short, there are many pros of e-learning, but there are many cons too, which may require the students to over come it and become a self-organized student.

Related Links:

1. http://ezinearticles.com/?Distance-Learning-Advantages-and-Disadvantages---Not-Everyone-is-Suited-for-E-Learning-Success&id=320610
2. http://www.articlesbase.com/e-learning-articles/pros-and-cons-of-elearning-685765.html

Posted by Qiao Ling

E-Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen's adoption stragies

E-Government

E-Government was one of the seven Flagship application introduced by the government with the Establishment of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC). It was a combination of Information and Communication Technology working together to enhance the communication linkage between the government and the citizens striving a better accessibility and quality of interactions, making information flows and processes within government, the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement effectively being carried out in the correct time manner.

The seven Flagship Application are:

1.E-Government
2.Multipurpose card
3.Smart School
4.Telehealth
5.R&D Cluster
6.E-Business
7.Technopreneur Development


In acceleration to Vision 2020, the E-Government is being carried out in order to enable team-working with the citizens and Malaysia. The purpose of this project is to ensure information flows and services being delivered to the public in the correct time manner and thus help to improve the responsiveness of government towards citizen's needs and wants.

There are seven sub-projects being carried out under this Main objects and there are :

1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

Implementation of E-Government:

1.Project Monitoring System (SPP II)

This is a platform of exchanging ideas, suggesting best alternatives for information management and communication services between the government and citizens to comes out with an efficient and effective system.

2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)

Helps to standardize the Human Resource Management of the government employees. This is also a platform for recruitment of new freshmen.

3.Generic Office Environment (GOE)

By incorporating a fully integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that maximizes the usage of Information Technology to enable full collaboration between workers, aiming no information delays occur.

4. Electronic Procurement (EP)

Aiming to save the time and cost of purchasing materials and making the whole transaction is being carried out transparent to the public. It also encourages suppliers to go electronic and join the K-economy.

5.Electronic Services (E-Services)

A services provided by the government to enable the citizens to make payment thru Internet services, reducing the time and increase the efficiency of the entire progress. One of the successful services introduced is e-filling provided by Malaysia's Inland Revenue Board (IRB).

6.Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)

Enabling the utilization of workforce, helping the peoples to search for job opportunity. Using a systematic managing system to match the job vacancies ensuring everyone gets their desired.

7. E-Syariah

E-Syariah is a government ICT products with helps the Islamic courts involving 111 courts to settle dispute through electronic means.

Citizens Adoption Strategies

There are no doubt that the fast growing of E-Government is getting much more attention form the public. There are fields that government should takes serious focus which might affects its adoption strategies. These fields include the following:

1.Ease of use

The designed websites should be made user-friendly. Everyone who uses it will find it easy to learn and sooner or later the importance of this services can be popular to the public. This can also enhance the customer's satisfactory and the government gain advantages to launch the project as it becomes well-known among the users.

2.Website Designs

The designed websites should contain interesting data or info for the public. Making the website become useful and attractive should be the priority of the government implementation as if the customers who used it found out it to be useful and easy to learn will eventually come back to use the services provided too...

3.User's characteristic

Such characteristics are perceived risk, perceived control, and Internet experience. Experience leads to the continuance usage of the services, the users who are satisfied with the services would likely to return to use the services provided. Perceived risk refers to security and privacy issues of the Internet while perceived control is to ensure that citizens can transact online securely and their personal information will be kept confidential.

However there are barriers such as language barriers, lack of public awareness and online behaviour but these are the barriers that can be improved from time being . Lastly, for some extra information, Malaysia ranking in the 5th Waseda University E-Government ranking improve from year 2008 ,from 25th to 22th in year 2009. Viva, Malaysia !


Related Links:

1.http://www1.american.edu/initeb/ym6974a/egovernment.htm

2.http://ecomworld.wordpress.com/2008/07/08/e-government-in-malaysia-2/

3.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-government

4.www.elx.gov.my

5.http://www.giti.waseda.ac.jp/GITS/news/download/e-Government_Ranking2009_en.pdf - page 9










Posted by Chee Liat Long

The Application of Pre-paid cash card for consumers

What is Pre-paid cash card ?


Well, it is a card where we can deposit our money into the card and tend to use it when we need it. The concept lies within this was just as the same as our mobile phone card, when we top-up then only we can use the phone to make calls.... the same theory applied here, we need to deposit money to gain usage of this card too... One of the best selling point of this card is that the users don't need to bound to debts problems, because you can only spend how much you have in the card.

There are many types of Pre-paid cash card such as Pre-paid Master card, Pre-paid Visa card and also the Malaysia's Touch'n Go Card and etc.... However, the Malaysia's Touch'n Go Card is the most common card that applied in ours daily life.

Advantages of Pre-paid cash card :

1.Availability - No need to worry about your credit history as the card is availble to everyone, identity check performed upon request.

2.Control - It helps users to control their spending, users can make use of the budget to control their spending with the Pre-paid cash card as spending more will only make them exhausted faster. xD

3.No Debts Risk - Is a Pre-paid cash card, users cannot spend more than the amount inside the card. Thus creating no debts risk.

4.The card for travel - The card can be bring outside to any places especially for young travellers.

What is Touch ‘n Go card ?






Touch ‘n Go card is a prepaid smartcard that uses Mifare contactless technology.Information contain in this card can be read and written via magnetic induction using specified radio frequency and smartcard software.It is an electronic wallet that can be used at all highways in Malaysia, major public transports in Klang Valley, selected parking sites and theme park.

How does this card applied in our daily life ?

1.Toll Fee - The Touch ‘n Go card is being used to paid the tolls fee all over the highways in Malaysia with the TnG SmartTAG sign marked on the road. The speed of payment can also be speeded up by combining the Touch ‘n Go card with the SmartTag or known as " Sistem Membayar Automatic Rangkaian Tol ".


2.Transportation Fees - Refering to the bus ticket fares, LRT fares, KTM fares and so on.. The card can help us to pay the transportation fares and reduces the time to purchase ticket especially when it comes to the crowded time ... with all the people standing there to make ticket purchasing.. .this sometimes really piss us off....


3.Ticketless Parking - This however, only applied in some selected areas such as Century Square Cyberjaya , KLIA , LCCT , Sg. Wang Plaza , 1-Utama Shopping Centre and etc... This is an area that can still be improve more.


4.Admission Fees - This only applied in the Bukit Merah Lake Town Resort where customers need not pay money for the admission fees. In fact, they can pay with TnG card instead of money.


5.Retail Outlets: The card can also be used in some fast foods restaurants such as A&W, Convenience stores(Caltex Star Mart ) and so on...


In Conclusion, the application of Pre-paid cash card for consumers is still not yet perfect at all... The public still rather to hold a credit card than a Pre-paid cash card... maybe the name "Pre-Paid" doesn't sounds so nice...



Related Links :

1.http://www.touchngo.com.my/WhatSTAG.html

2.http://www.touchngo.com.my/WhatTNG.html

3.http://www.startecredit.com/creditpages/prepaid-credit-cards-applications-prerpaid-reloadable-credit-cards.htm

4.http://www.creditcards.com/credit-cards/vision-premier-prepaid-visa-card-free-with-direct-deposit.php

5.http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-prepaid-credit-cards.htm

6.http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/prepaid-cards/guide/





Posted by Chee Liat Long

Review on post on e-tailing - Digital music sales increase 50%

This post basically pointed out that there is an increasing trend in digital music sales, which cause decreasing trend in physical music album sales. Nowadays, with those enhanced technology, consumers easily can assess to internet download any music they like. User can purchase according to their preferences on selected songs instead of whole music album. Purchasing digital music is an e-tailing transaction. It allowed people to shop for music from home when they wanted, at their own convenience.
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Consumers have wide music choice at their fingertips as there has many e-tailing sites. With web search capabilities, it is easier to find the types of music a customer is searching for. Thus, as a music lover, users are prefer looking for digital downloads as a means to purchase single tracks, rather than having to purchase an entire album. It is much more cost saving. Especially now is in the middle of economic downturn, consumers kept eye on their wallets. They are more concern on their spending and probably become savvier about what they buy. The post found that users are moving their music budgets towards digital and away from CDs and other physical media.
Besides, purchasing digital music is only by a click. It is more convenient than driving to the music store. Digital music downloaded is in wma or mp3 format, which enable consumer stores music in the computer or any other portable music devices. Thus, consumers can play the song anytime and anywhere. On the other hand, the physical music album bought from store can only played with a CD player and it is not convenient. CD purchased will pile up and take up ones space. Unlike physical music, digital music can be store in the computer or in a tiny device.
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In conclusion, the e-tailing of digital music does provide various benefits to the music lovers. However, e-tailers face the issue of illegally downloading music from internet nowadays. Even with the most innovative business models, the revenue are still totally diluted by free music download. Consumers will wonder WHY they would start paying for music if they know they can download it for free. This is an issue where e-tailer must closely supervise and legitimated to avoid any violation of intellectual property. If not, illegal downloading will never stop. I feel bad if I download illegal music. I personally don't mind spending $0.99 for a song if it helps support an artist who took his time to make the song. Illegal downloading is what's destroying the music industry.

Related Links:

• http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/2007/07/digital-music-sales-increase-50.html


• http://www.bizreport.com/2009/03/the_npd_group_marked_increase_in_digital_music_sales.html

Posted by Qiao Ling

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit card is a type of payment card which provides holder with credit to make purchases up to a limit fixed by card issuer (e.g. Visa, master card). It permitting the card holder to purchase items or services while deferring payment, and allow them to make payments to multiple vendors at one time. That is the reason why the credit card debt problem exists. A debt occurred would accumulate and increases via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay for the money he/she has spent.

There are several causes of credit card debts:

Medical Expenses
- Currently, there are almost all hospitals accept credit cards in Malaysia. This enable people to go for medical treatment even they have no cash on their hand. As an assumption, you have a serious disease now and you need treatment immediately. Unfortunately, you do not have the cash or any savings, but you do have credit cards, what will you do? For sure you will use credit card right?

Sales/ Offer
- When there are mega sales or offer in shopping centre, people tend to use credit card to make payment or purchase items. This is because they want to make a huge purchase but they didn’t have enough money with them. At the end, they might realize that they are unable to repay for the money used.

Credit Card “Point-to-Gift” Redemption
- Credit cards provide return to the card holder by allow them to exchange the points accumulated with gifts, voucher, etc. For example, Jusco encourage its member to use “Jusco card” to make payment. Members can accumulate points every time they use the credit card and they can exchange those points with gifts/voucher. Human are easily to get attracted when there is benefits. With the benefits given, they preferred to use credit card instead of using cash. By this way, the accumulating of points also caused the credit card debt accumulated.

Sub-credit Card

- Parents nowadays are more likely to sub their credit card to their children. If their children are good in management of money, then should be no problem. But, most of them do not know how to control their expenses. With credit card, they buy whatever they want and don’t even look at the price of the items. Some parents did check for their children’s expenses, but some do not. In such a way, after a long period, they might aware that their credit card debt has reached the limit while it is too late.

Thus, prevention is needed to avoid the credit card debt. Here is some of the prevention:

Savings
- It is better we do savings usually, so that we would not run out of cash when there is emergency. With savings, people can make payment by using cash and they will know the amount of money that they have in hand.

Self-control
- Card holder needs self-discipline to keep these cards in their wallet and not over spend on them. One of the best practices or habits that can get into is to have a direct debit set up so that card holder have to pay back the full amount each month. This means that while they have the convenience of using the card in emergencies or while abroad, they have a strong incentive not to let their lending get out of hand.

Therefore, before you apply for credit card, ask yourself why you want those credit cards for. Do you just want them so that you have a source of payment in emergencies, to shop occasionally online, or when you travel abroad? Or do you plan on going on a shopping spree and spending the rest of the year struggling to clear the balance? Most people do not intend to ever use up their credit limits and max out their credit cards, but it is surprisingly easy to do, and can be very difficult to undo.

Posted by : Shu Hui

Eletronic Currency

Electronic currency (e-currency) is wide spread all over the world in these day and time. Internet users even more often choose this way to pay for municipal services or to buy something in internet shops. In several countries, there is e-currency equal to real paper money. This kind of currency is very easy in use and it does not need any bills, checks, other bank documents in term of paper. E-currency also known as e-money, e-cash, digital money, digital cash, or digital currency which referred to money or scrip that is exchanged only electronically.

For the operation of e-currency, only computer networks, internet and digital stored value system are needed. The examples of e-currency are Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit. EFT refers to the computer based system used to perform financial transaction electronically while direct deposit is a banking term used to refer to certain syatems used to transfer money.

The reasons causes e-currency has been accepted widely are as following:

• Anyone can learn currency trading
• Users can learn to trade in a couple of week
• Users can trade for big profits in less than 30 minutes a day
• Users no need much money and they just need a computer and internet connection
• Users have the opportunity to trade for profits everyday
• Users can leverage to increase their risk reward
• Users have low transaction costs which means they keep more of the profits
• There is a never recession because one currency rises another must fall

Users online trading account is a powerful tool to build wealth if they want to trade currencies and of course users need to use it wisely. But just as online trading has created an opportunity, do not think that it is a 'walk in the park'.

There are something users have a must to taken into account before open an online trading account. Trading requires not just a simple method, but the understanding of ownself and the discipline to appply a plan. Users should keep in mind if they decide to do e-currency trading, users have to choose abrokerage firm to work with. It will mean evaluating what is the available in order to make the right choice. Although users can leverage up to 200 brokers, but the more brokers the higher risk they are facing. Thus, 10 to 20 brokers are enough for the currency traders. When choosing brokers, there are 3 important factors need to be concern about.

1. The security of funds.
   
2. The transaction costs
   
3. The ease of use and reliability of the trading problem.

The rise of e-currency trading has increase the volability and this had made the markets herder to trade. Today, we can trade by just click on the mouse and get all the latest information in a split second and this hasdefinitely increased volability. The low transaction costs of e-currency cause small transactions where usual cashless funds not comfortable.

In my point, e-currency trading is a challenge and an opportunity if you have the right mindset, want to learn, and accept the challenge, you will win and earn a great second or even life changing income. But before you trade, makesure you have a through understanding of volability and standard deviation of price, as dealing with volability is the biggest challenge you will face in achieving currency trading success. If not, advantages can soon turn to disadvantages. You need to be aware of this and use the services your brokers can offer you wisely and then you can seek a big profit.

Related links:

1. http://www.learncurrencytradingonline.com/electronic-currency-trading.html
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_money
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_funds_transfer

-Mun Yee-

The Application of 3rd Party Certification Programme In Malaysia

Third Party Certification (TPS) is an assessment carried out to ensure satisfaction and confidence of customers. The increasing phishing and spoofing attacks on the internet has boost the implementation of TPC programme to ensure the information traveled over the internet reaches to the recipient safely. The TPC programme requires the posting of a website privacy statement to inform a visitor about what peronal information a web site may collect from them and how it will be used and disclosed amont other features.

Security is the primary concern of entering into a new internet economy. The ever-changing paradigm of e-commerce requires a well-mandated security infrastructure.

MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is the most famous application of third party certification programme in Malaysia. It is a licensed Certificate Authority (CA) operating within the Multimedia Super Corridor. MSC Trustgate was incorperated in 1999 to meet the growing need for secure open network communications and become the catalyst for the growth of e-commerce, both locally and across the ASEAN region. The vision of Trustgate is to enable organizations to conduct their business securely over the Internet, as much as what they have been enjoying in the physical world due to the issue above.

Trustgate's core business is to provide digital certification services which including digital certificates,cryptograhic products, and software development. There are several products provided by Trustgate, such as SSL Certificate, PKI, Personal ID, MyTRUST, MyKad ID, SSL VPN, and etc.

MyKad PKI

Malaysia Government has put in place a smart National Identity Card (MyKad) for every citizen. My Kad with PKI capability allows its holder to conduct online transaction with governement agencies private sectors.

MyKey is the MyKad PKI solution that works with the physically MyKad which allowing to authenticate users online and to digitally sign documents or transactions and is accepted by the Malaysian Government.

MyTRUST
For Mobile Signature
Users can turn a SIM Card into Mobile Digital Identity for secure banking and other financial services with MyTRUST. Users are able to digitally sign any transaction with ease and convenient via their mobile phone.

For Government


For Banks & Enterprise

SSL Certificate
SSL is the short for Secure Sockets Layer. It is a protocol developed by Netscape for transmitting private documents via the Internet.

VeriSign is the leading SSL Certificate Authority that enabling secure e-commerce, communications, and interactions for web sites, intranets, and extranets. It choose the most trusted mark on the internet and enable the strongest SSL encryption available to every site visitor.

When we see the VeriSign logo on the website, we can click on the seal to find out more about the security of the site.

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)
Trustgate provide PKI to assist all the companies in conducting their business over the internet.
Organizations are helped by PKI technologies to enhance the security of the data and manage identification credentials from the users and organizations. It helped to secure by based on the exchange of digital certificates between authenticated users and trusted resources.

Last but not least, TPC can enhance customer trust because of its efficient management of digital certificates. It also have a complete control over digital certificate issuance, usage, and certificate content. Besides, it is easy to use and manage with web-based user and administrative services. Scalability of TPC also provide customers a better solution if there are any treats happen toward the computer system.

Related links:

1. http://www.msctrustgate.com/
2. http://www.verisign.com/
3. http://www.trademal.com/global/index.php/id/17463/target/about/MSC_Trustgate_com_Sdn_Bhd/index.html

-Mun Yee-

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

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

Online security threats are one of the biggest challenges for most of the organizations today. Organizations continue to experience cyber attacks from inside and outside of the organization. In addition, the types of cyber attacks that organizations experience were varied. These made organizations started to worry that the user's break into the server purposely is to alter the pages and content at the site. Besides, they would also worried about the disruption of server by user, because by doing that would possibly made it unavailable to other.

Cyber attacks fall under several general categories:
(i) accidental actions
- A large number of computer security risks are contributed by accidental actions. Most of the users nowadays are lack of knowledge about online security concepts, these includes poor password choices, accidental disclosure, erroneous or even using a outdated software. For example, many people are using facebook, friendster, ebay and others. All of these are actually need user to enter their user name and password to log in. The problem is people are tend to use their IC number, birthday, or even an "easy memorize number" like "1234"as their password. This make it easy for people to figure out their password and break into their account. However, this form of cyber vulnerability is avoidable if education and prudence are being considered.

(ii) malicious attacks
- Attacks that specifically aim to do harm. It is at root of so-called "crackings" and "hackings"-notable examples of which include computer viruses, denial-of-service (Dos) attacks, and distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attacks.

* computer viruses
- a piece of software code that inserts itself into a host, including the opearating system, to propagate; it requires its host program be run to activate it. A virus will simply infect and spread over the operating system and consequently cause the server system broke down. As an example, the May 2000 "I LOVE YOU" virus. A small piece of code attached to electronic mail (E-mail),and double-clicking on the executable caused it to send an e-mail to everyone in an address book, subsequently damaging victim's machines. The virus caused over $100million in US damages and over $1million in worldwide losses.

* denial-of-service (Dos) attacks
- an attack on a web site in which attacker used 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 to shut down, making it impossible for users to access the site.

* distributed denial-of-service (DDos) attacks
- a denial-of-service attack in which attacker gains illegal administrative access to computers on the Internet and uses them to send a flood of data packets to the target computer. Such attacks were witnessed in a number of large corporate computer shutdown in 2000.

(iii) online fraud
- A broad term covering Internet transactions that involve falsified information. There are 2 major form of online fraud: identity theft and data theft.

* identity theft
- the theft of personal identity on the internet is the newest form of fraud. A person may open a credit card account by using a false identity such as the victim's name, address, or bank account. Besides, since it's impossible to identify the identity of buyer through online, a person can also do online transaction using victim's identity if they can get the victim's personal information.

- Talking about identity theft, I have an experience before. My sister's boyfriend (A) ever used my account to chat in messenger with my friend and my friend didn't aware about it even until they finished the conversation. Sounds so funny! At the moment, I realize that there is "online security threat" in messenger too. "A" using my identity while my friend can't even recognise who is she dealing with. These shown that there is lack of proper security to detect people's identity and thus enable a person to do whatever he/she want using other people's identity.

* data theft
- the theft of information , unauthorized data, or manipulation of private data. Data theft is a problem primarily perpetrated by office workers with access to technology. Since employees often spend a considerable amount of time developing confidential and copyrighted information for the company they work for, they often feel they have some right to the information and are inclined to copy/delete it when they leave the company. Besides, they might also misuse it while they are still in employment.

- In April 2001,2 employees of Cisco System were obtained unauthorized access to Cisco stock and they broke into the computer system that handled stock distribution. They were able to transfer stock shares nearly $6.3million to their private portfolios.

As the conclusion, the financial losses from a cyber attack can be substantial. Except the financial losses, it also bring other effect to users. These shown that the online security still need to be improved. Security requirements such as authentication, authorization, and confidentiality also need to be considered.

Posted by: Shu Hui

How to safeguard our personal and financial data

As Internet criminals grow smarter and sneakier, Internet is no longer a safe place. It is increasingly difficult to keep your financial and personal information safe because hackers have the ability to get that information. Have you done proper safeguards for data? If you don't take basic steps to protect your data, you may find yourself a victim of fraud or identity theft.

Here are a few tips on how to safeguard your personal information:

~ Password protection
While you choose passwords (you'll remember), please make sure that passwords is not be something that are easy for someone else to guess, such as the name of your child's name or your date of birth. A combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols will offer more security. Also, never write this information down and never carry it in your wallet .

~ Do not reveal any personal information or particularly passwords to anyone.
Don't give your personal and financial information to someone or organizations that you don't know or never dealt with before. Even though giving something, such as date of birth and mother's maiden name, can be used to steal personal identity. Therefore, it's important to know that personal information can be just as dangerous as financial information.

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~ Be careful of the merchants which you deal with
If you place orders or shop online, try to make sure it is a legitimate site. Transaction made only with good reputation organization, such as Amazon.com. If in the real world, you're shopping, you're more likely to trust an established store that you know and using normal payment means. Besides, it's essential that you use a password-protected and encrypted wallet, to safeguard your credit card information.

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~ Keep your eye out for scams
Many people have become familiar with common scams. Don’t hesitate, DELETE them. But now there are even more-convincing scam e-mails. You are probably confident you're not getting RM1million from anonymous sources, but if you get an e-mail, where the bank needs you to update your personal information for the security purpose, it looks realistic, Right? People will probably hand over their information and compromise all their financial accounts. If you receive an e-mail from any institution asking for your personal or financial information, even if it appears to come from a place you trust such as eBay, Paypal or Maybank, DO NOT respond. Instead, pick up the phone and call in order to verify. Nowadays, many fake e-mails have been circulating around us. Many people have been a victim of the fake e-mail. PLEASE be cautions! Don’t be one of them.

Sound terrible, right? You don't need to be scared, but you need to be cautious and aware that there are people on the Internet that will take advantage if you allow them. If something doesn't seem right, trust your gut and avoid it.

Related Links:

1. http://buckeyesecure.osu.edu/SafeComputing/Passwords
2. http://azlan.anilezfa.com/maybank-fake-email

Posted by Qiao Ling

History&Evolution of E-commerce

E- Commerce (EC) – the process of electronically buying and selling goods, services and information. EC enables users to communicating, collaborating and discovering information by linked computer systems of the vendor, host and buyer. At the same time, it allows them to do online transaction.

The emergence of EC started in the early 1970s with Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), which allows organizations to transfer funds with one another electronically.

In the late 1970s, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was introduced to improve the limitation of EFT, by extend business transactions from financial institutions to other types of business. Different to EFT( only allow for the transfer of funds), EDI also provides transactions and information exchanges. However, EDI was not widely accepted because the system limited to special networks such as large corporations, and it is costly, complex to administer for small business.

Later, the new type of applications which is Electronic Mail (e-mail) was widely adopted in business world in the late 1980s. When it was first introduced, this system was considered a major breakthrough.

Afterward, a strong foundation of prosperous EC continues to be built. During 1990s, the internet was opened for commercial use. At the period as well, users started to participate in World Wide Web (WWW), and the phenomenon of rapid personal computer (PCs) usage growth. Integrated with the commercialization of the internet, web invention and PC networks, these 3 factors have made EC possible and successful.

There is an important phase in the history of EC that I would like to share with you guys. For your information, there was development of Mosaic web-browser in 1992. This web-browser was soon given the form of a browser which could be downloaded and was named as Netscape. The arrival of Netscape provides users a simple browser to surf the internet. It further broadened the scope and possibility of electronic commercial transaction.

In 1994, Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/) and eBay.com (http://www.ebay.com.my/) are examples of internet companies which allows electronic transactions (sell products over the internet). Thanks to their founders! Because of them, we now have the opportunity to enjoy the buying and selling advantages of the internet! In addition, Dell.com (http://www.dell.com.my/) has also contributed much to the process of EC development. It was launched in 1994 and selling goods over the WWW with no retail outlets, no middlemen, and it enables customers to choose the product based on their budget and requirements. With approximately half of the company‘s profit comes from the web sites, the successful of Dell.com has been proven. In that particular year, the internet started to become popular among the general public. However, it took four years to develop the security protocols and DSL, which allowed rapid access and connection to the internet (1998).

What we have discussed above is one of the types of EC – business to consumer (B2C). It was the first and also the most common type which involves e-business providing goods and/or services to end consumers.

In 1999, the emphasis of EC shifted from B2C to business to business (B2B), which is the electronic transaction between multiple businesses, and does not involve common products or consumers.

In 2000, the meaning of the world EC was changed. People began to define the term EC as the process of purchasing of available goods and services over the internet using secure connections and electronic payment services. In the same year as well, the dot com collapse and led to unfortunate results, many EC companies disappeared. But, the “brick and mortar” retailers recognized the advantages of EC and started to add such capabilities to their web sites. At the end of 2001, the largest form of EC, B2B model made $700 billion in transactions.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, and collaboration on the WWW. It has led to the development and evolution of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications. Examples include social-networking sites, video-sharing sites, wikis, and blogs. Web 2.0 websites also considered as the Read/Write web, which allow users to do more than just retrieve information. Users can own the data on a Web 2.0 site and exercise control over that data. For example, they are provided with tools to add a comment or to edit the content.

Today, EC is so much better than any other way of shopping that it has already attracted many EC-lovers. People seem to shop literally everywhere – at their workplaces during lunch time, in rush hour, or when there is nothing else to do; they will just switch on their laptops and start surfing. EC today enable us to have a better understanding of product’s shape, size and texture through online. So, why go somewhere out when all you have to do is make an order, choose the shipping method, put up your feet and wait until the order is delivered right up to your door-step?

Posted by shu hui

Revenue model for Google, Amazon.com and eBay

There are billions of websites on the internet. But among these, how many websites actually make money. There is a revenue model that describes how the organization will generate revenue. The major revenue models are sales, transaction fee, advertising, subscription, affiliate and others revenue model.

Google is widely recognized as the world's largest search engine. It is an easy-to-use free service that provides ways to access all this information. Google generates most of the revenue from Google AdWords, Pay per Click Advertising, Google AdSense, Froogle, GoogleAnswers and their latest advertising program which is Cost per Click model. Now, we just focus on the most two common function of Google:

• Google AdWords is pay per click advertising program. It designed to allow the advertisers to place targeted text-based and display ads on Google web sites and Google Network members’ web sites to people, who are looking for information related to what the advertiser has to offer. Google’s text ads are short, consisting of one title line and two content text lines. When a user searches Google's search engine, ads for relevant words are shown as "sponsored link" on the right side of the screen, and sometimes above the main search results. AdWords advertisers pay Google either based on cost-per-click basis, or cost-per-impression basis.

• Google AdSense is an online program, where Google distribute advertisers’ AdWords ads for display on the web sites of Google Network members. These ads can generate revenue on either a cost-per-click or cost-per-thousand-impressions basis. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the ads are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the ads is often relevant to the website.

Amazon.com is one of successful website that used e-commerce model, where the website sells products or services online. Amazon.com started as an on-line bookstore, and soon diversified into many product lines. Amazon generates revenue primarily by selling books, music, videos, electronics, apparel, and kitchen equipment on domestic. Amazon.com successfully earned distributed transaction fees which are fixed at price through creating virtual marketplace. Moreover, Amazon.com also generates revenue by Affiliate revenue model.Amazon.com is pioneer in affiliate partnership marketing, where uses affiliations with other websites to generate revenue. An Amazon partner website itself may not sell any product or service, but helps in promoting the product. In turn, website owner earns referral fees (commission) on the products purchased by customers. The fee structure is currently the same as for the other affiliate links and ranges from 4% to 10% of the product price.

Ebay is the world's largest auction online marketplace - where practically anyone can sell and bit for practically anything at any time. Millions of collectibles, appliances, computers, furniture, equipment, vehicles, and other miscellaneous items are listed, bought, and sold daily. Ebay does not actually sell goods that it owns itself. It merely facilitates the process of listing and displaying goods, bidding on items, and paying for them. It acts as a marketplace for individuals and businesses that use the site to auction off goods and services. Ebay generates revenue from a number of fees, such as insertion fees, promotional fees, and final value fees. Insertion fees are charged for any item that is listed on Ebay, the fees is nonrefundable, promotional fees are charged for extra listed options that attract attention for an item, while for final value fees are a commission at the end of the auction that is charged to seller. It also earns transaction fee from paypal (Acquired by eBay Inc. in October 2002), an online paying service system for users to buy items online more conveniently as well as advertising fees.

Google, Amazon, and eBay, are few of the most successful e-commerce model that implement different type of revenue model. As we can see that Google earn advertising fee from their advertiser. Whereas Amazon.com’s revenue come from sales throughout their website and collect affiliate fees for referring customers. As for Ebay charged transaction fee on those products listed on their website as well as commissions on any completed auction transaction.

By Qiao Ling

An example of an E-commerce success and its causes

Michael S. Dell founded PC's Limited with capital of $1000 on November 4, 1984. The company was formed when Michael S. Dell was still studying at University of Texas, Austin. PC's Limited beliefs that they could understand the customer's needs by selling products directly to them.

In year 1985, the company sold its the "Turbo PC" for US$795 — which contained an Intel 8088-compatible processor running at a speed of 8 MHz.

The company later change its name from " PC's Limited " to " Dell Computer Corporation " . Trace back to when the company started its business thru Internet, it all back to year 1996 which the company decided to engage in Internet business in selling its products to meet different customer's preferences.

The reasons which contributed to the successful of Dell in the areas of E-Commerce in selling its products are Dell sells their products directly to customers which you cannot find it in any other stores. They also provides services and maintenance of the product to the customers who encounter problems on the product purchased. This has helped to save precious time of the buyer to have their problems fixed. The more important is the buyer can save MONEY !

Another reasons is the Dell's Culture. Dell has created a highly disciplined culture that focuses on optimizing the operational model , responding to what customer wants and needs. Besides, they also provide door to door services to the buyer of their products. Dell respond quick to the commitment of the public and others. Example: if the information of the web outdated even just for minutes, they will fix it within a range rather than waiting for a overall rearrangement.

Dell also one of the low cost providers. Dell know that by being a low cost provider of their product can unlock the hidden business/market opportunities. That's why their product does comes with the balance between quality and money. Unlike Sony Vaio, the high cost of the product does not constitute to a better comparison in cost with Dell.

Despite Product development is focused by the company, the company can allocate resources to the project undergoing. Dell know what kind of R&D they wanted to differentiate their products, this has made the " Dell " can allocate their fund offensively and not defensively.

The customization tools of Dell's Website has made easier for customer to purchase the laptop or PC and any other products in just few clicks. WoW... it's never been easier for the customer !

The above are the reasons contributed to the success of DELL.

Related Links:

1.http://www.oppapers.com/essays/Dell-Key-Success-Factors/150188

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







Posted by Chee Liat Long