Prevention of e-auction fraud(week6)

E-auction website such as e-bay provides us chance and exciting experience to bid for the things we like onlines.We can do the biding easily and without going through all the hassle. But, in the mean times, its also cause issue such as e-auction fraud. So, we have to have some security knowledge when conducting an e-auction to prevent us from becoming an e-auction fraud victim.

Website like e-bay has provide lots of tips for the user when conducting a bid .There even has a tutorial in teaching the user to be security savvy when biding in an e-auction.
There are tutorial in teaching the user to understand the e-auction security and take notes when bidding online to prevent from becoming an e-auction fraud victim, such as :
Account Protection Tutorial
Reporting Phishing & Spoof
Deterring Identity Theft
Reporting Account Theft

Each of this tutorial provide a comprehensive understanding on the security measurement to be taken when biding online.This tutorial are useful for people that are first time in biding and also enhance the security knowledge on existing online bider.Beside that, some website such as e-bay also providing rules & policies to its user when biding, and also enforce rules and regulation to govern and control the e-auction process, hence provide a safe and sound e-auction to the internet bidder

Mobile Payment(week5)

Mobile payment also calls as mobile web payment or WAP billing. Is the collection of money from a consumer via a mobile device such as their mobile phone, Smartphone, personal digital assistant (PDA). Under mobile payment there are two primary models, which is Premium SMS based transaction payments and Mobile web payment (WAP). Premium SMS based transaction payments is where the consumer sends a payment request via SMS text message to a shortcode and a premium charge is applied to their phone bill. The merchant involved is informed of the payment success and can then release the paid for the goods. Whereas, Mobile wed payment is where the consumer uses web pages displayed on their mobile phone to make a payment.

Nokia and visa have teamed up to provide credit card users in Malaysia a chance to buy items using mobile phone. Using visa’s wave reader, a system that deducts a payment from a credit card when an NFC (near- field communication) mobile is pressed against it, the companies will test out the service in Kuala Lumpur where 200 users will try the technology.
The principal behind this is that customer has the cost of their calls or messages added to their mobile phone bill at an agreed tariff. This process is commonly known as Premium Billing or Reverse Billing. Any value-adding service can be offered to customers on a premium rate SMS basis. SMS costs are capped to an agreed cost per SMS MT and revenue is shared between the network operator and advertiser.
Mobile payment services are developing fast in the Europe and recently in Malaysia. Mobile payment service is also an effective means of providing customers with admission or money off vouchers which can be unique coded or designed to allow viral spread.
MobileExec currently provides premium rate SMS messaging across the all major Malaysian carriers - Celcom, DiGi, Maxis and TMtouch. Such services are currently utilised by many mobile content providers to receive requests and send ring tone, logo and picture messages.
MobileExec has successfully completed numerous such projects for Malaysian clients and more happy to share the experience with you.

Apart from convenience, security and savings, Mobile Money has much more benefits to offer to the Mobile Money Members. MM offer you Mobile Money Corporate call plan. With this plan, can make phone calls at a flat low rate to anybody on any network, and also enjoy 45 hours of free talk time within the Mobile Money Corporate Call Plan Community.
With this program, we provide an avenue for merchants to advertise their new products /services and allow our members and our mobile consumers to purchase the vouchers at a discount, and instantly gets a e Voucher.

Electronic currency (week5)

Electronic currency or electronic money refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Example of e-currency is e-micropayment which is the equivalent of paper currency and coins which enable secure and anonymous purchase of low priced products, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit.

With the use of electronic currency, one can be benefits by it. It provide the individual with lots of convenience, and it also increase the process of transactions to be more efficiency by having a lower transaction fees, No less than that , it also provide more business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities by using Internet.

Although, electronic currency provide lots of benefit, but there are many potential issues with the use of this digital cash. The transfer of digital currencies raises many issues such as how to levy taxes and the possible ease of money laundering. There are also potential macroeconomic effects such as exchange rate instabilities and shortage of money supplies (total amount of digital cash versus total amount of real cash available, basically the possibility that digital cash could exceed the real cash available). To prevent all this issue, proper cyberspace regulations or laws has to be addressable to regulate and monitor the transactions of electronic currency.

Causes and Prevention of Credit Card Debts(week5)

Credit card debts are resulted when a consumer of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system without paying off the debts by accumulating the debts. As a result, the penalties for not settling the payment as well as interest go up.

The main cause of credit card debts is people cannot reasonably measure how much he or she has spent. The reason is due to they cannot physically foresee the money is flowing out from their hands. They perceive that they are not paying the money from the moment and they will keep on buying. As a consequence, the money they spent will end up in credit card debts.

People pile up credit card debt by increasing their spending without considering their income for a host of good reasons. With the advancements in every walk of life in today's world, every piece of electronic equipment or a household item or a fashion update has an increase in cost making the average monthly expense go sky high. The salaries don't increase the sameway and people with less income purchase more on their credit account and get hold of credit card debt.
Gambling is America's new entertainment. Everyone likes to gamble with the money they have. How many come back home with a bag full of cash, very few. The guarantee in this game of chance is that you will be definitely paying to the house. Gambling loans are also available which lead to debt

The prevention of credit card debts is simple, just set up a Direct Debit for the minimum amount and pay off as much of the remaining balance as possible to keep the debt low.
Besides, the smart card user only uses the card in place of cash, or to obtain a purchase they can afford, if they can pay off the cost over time. In other words, the smart card holder only spends what they can afford.

The user should never ever hold more than eight cards at any one time, as this will adversely affect credit ratings. Clear any outstanding balances and cancel cards that are no longer used. Police advise shoppers to only carry one card at a time to reduce the risk should their card be stolen.

Develop a monthly spending plan. It is important to know where your money is going. Hundreds of dollars are spent on unnecessary things and when there isa need of purchasing a required commodity you just don't have any cash left and use a credit card frequently ending up in debt. In case of debt, debt management must be adopted.A monthly plan is no more difficult then writing down your income and expenses. You are in control of your money when you make thoughtful decisions about where and when to spend your money.

If debt is growing, there are four things card holders can do immediately:
1.Move debts to the lowest interest rate available. Remember, a card holder with a good credit rating can always ring and ask the credit card company for a lower rate at any time.
2.Prioritize paying off the most expensive debt first, so interest is kept to the minimum.
3.Assess their situation fully, work out their income and expenditure, and total their debts and assets.
4.Take this information to a professional body offering free debt advice.
5.If a card holder is having major difficulties making repayments, say after losing their job, their first port of call should be the credit card company. Companies would far rather help at this stage than when the situation has escalated. Card holders can discuss freezing the card and paying off the debt at an agreed amount each month, for example. Card companies are surprisingly willing to help in cases of genuine difficulty, but this will involve major budgeting and belt-tightening by the card holder. Then they should consult a professional.

There are plenty of debt consolidation firms offering to help, but do bear in mind these companies ultimately make money from a card holder’s debt. There are four main agencies that offer free, impartial advice for those in debt: the Citizen Advice Bureau, the Consumer Credit Counselling Service, National Debtline, and Payplan. These are non-profit making organizations that guide those in debt through the options available to them.

When debt has got out of control, the two major options are an individual voluntary arrangement (IVA), and bankruptcy. Never consider these without consulting the free debt agencies and/or a professional insolvency practitioner first. These are serious actions with wide-reaching consequences for future credit applications of any sort.

With the introduction of bankruptcy, the credit card companies are concerned regarding this issue where the consumer purchases as many things as possible without even considering the debts they accumulate by declaring bankruptcy. With the declaration of bankruptcy, the credit card companies are required to forgive all or much of the debt, unless such discharge of debt is successfully challenged by one or more creditors, or blocked by a bankruptcy judge on legal grounds irrespective of creditors' challenges. Due to the forgiveness of debts reduce the likelihood of making profit and continue its business, the credit companies are willing to offer another deal to the consumers which is in the border of bankruptcy. This deal consists of removal of past late fees and penalty charges, and re-aging the accounts so that the credit agencies see them as late accounts to enable clients to offset their debts.

The threat of online security: How safe is our data? (Week 4)

With the evolution of the Internet, e-commerce is very popular in the consumer behaviour. From the Internet, we can learn how to do the e-transaction and purchase from the net. Human tend to depend more on online convenience and along came another revolution of crime and security issue where some unethical users commit acts of crime on the World Wide Web. Every unprotected online computer can be affected with the viruses, malware, adware, hackers’ attacks and Trojans. There are several online security risks that can lead the users to serious monetary loss, information thievery and the attack on their computer.

The best way to overcome those problems is to use one of the many antivirus, antispyware, and firewall programs on the market; beside that also make that no anyone will ask for your password, account number, or other log-in information via e-mail or instant message. Beside this, to protect our data is safe we also can have an antivirus program to scan the entire computer for viruses. Even though most antivirus programs have an auto-protect feature that should, theoretically, prevent the insertion of a virus onto our computer, because it’s still a good idea to scan our computer periodically in the event the automatic protection feature missed something. Moreover, we can scan our computer once per week.

Furthermore, The solution for us how to protects our data for the online security, we need to uses the security issues to help us to protect our data, such as Authentication, Authorization, No repudiation, Confidentiality, Integrity, and Availability.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data (Week 4)

The way to safeguard the personal information and financial data is to establish appropriate standards for the financial institutions subject to the jurisdiction relating to administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to insure the security and confidentiality of user records and information as well as take reasonable precautions to protect data in the system from any anticipated threats or hazards to the security of such records and to protect against unauthorized access to or use of such records or information which could result in substantial harm or inconvenience to the user.

If you do shop, bank or do anything else online that require the user to disclose personal information, make sure that your system is up to date with patches that you are running anti virus software and that you have a firewall turned on.

Check your banking and credit card statement for any unauthorized activity. Besides, notify your banking institution if you see anything suspicious.

Limit the download of execution software onto your personal computer because it might contain spyware or Trojan which will penetrate the computer security and access to the user personal information.

Disclose only the information that is absolutely necessary, and never give out your Social Security number.

Read watch and listen to the news everyday. There’s nary a day that goes by that some data loss or theft isn’t reported. You can never let your guard down when it comes to your personal information, but you need to be especially vigilant when you hear about vulnerability that hits close to home.

If your personal data has been put in jeopardy, contact the credit reporting agencies and put a fraud alert on your account

If your personal data and financial data is already been intrude by hacker, the user should contact the credit card companies, and let them know that the data is at risk. As a result, the bank or credit card companies will put a fraud alert on your account, or, if the user thinks there’s a good chance of your data being abused, close your old accounts and open new ones.

The user should never ever open suspicious emails from unknown people, especially the attachments however tempting it may be. It will be hazardous to your computer. Sometimes you may even get emails with attachments with subject saying "Thank you for your order and the credit card details". Most of them will be sending malicious viruses through those attachments which will destroy your computer data and information.

Apart from that, the most common way is to protect your computer with antivirus soft ware and update it regularly. With the updates, the anti virus can assist you in detecting the virus, Trojan and spyware which will notify to the user.

In order to safeguard the personal data and information, backing up of all your important files and store them in two sets of floppies. In case one floppy fails to open the other one would be of help.

There are more and more ways to help safeguard and improve the security from being loss of data and information. I just pick some of the ways form the internet. If you interested, you can go on the web to surf it. Hope it might be helpful to those who reading this post.^^

Phishing_Examples and its prevention method (week 4)

In this information technology era, internet has provided us lots of benefit. In the same times, it also being abused or misused by other to conduct unethical or criminal activities such hackering, phishing and others. Nowadays,the threat of phishing has become quite common and tends to increase overtime and it is a threat to the internet user. Certain measurement has be conducted to overcome this problem.

Phishing is a social engineering attack which is criminally acquire sensitive information of others by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Normally, the information being acquire are usernames, account number, passwords, mother maiden name and credit card details and else. In other words, it is a technique used to gain or fool the user to disclosure their personal information for the purpose of identity theft.

There is a lot of ways phishing can be carried out such as fake e-mail or instant messaging or phone call from the phisher. No less than that, phisher even willing to create a fake legitimate website to deceive the users to disclosure their personal details to them. Normally, the fake legitimate website being targeted are PayPal, ebay and other online bank.

To combat with this phishing, there is many ways can be done such as educate and train the user awareness on phishing, better policies and procedures by legitimate company on their website, and use of spam filters which can reduce the number of phishing e-mails that reach their addressees' inboxes. Beside that, nowadays, web browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 7 has been provide anti-phishing measurement to the web user.