Review : Internet Security From My E-commerce blog(week 4)

Review : Internet Security From My E-commerce blog (http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Internet%20Security)


Internet nowadays, people are using them not only for chatting, web-surfing, information searching and sending/receiving e-mails. The Internet today plays important roles too in dealing with many important activities such as bankings, payments, and even sending/receiving private and confidential information between individuals or companies for various purposes.

All these activities need to be highly secured or else, the information might fall into hands of anonymous that will misuse them, causing huge losses to ourselves. However, all such activities such as e-mail accessing or online banking require password which is only known to individuals that own them to access. But, people are not aware that their accounts can be easily hacked if they used simple passwords to protect their accounts.

According to a research done by Information Week on an analysis of 28,000 passwords from a popular website, many people use their own name as their passwords, numbers such as 1234, and even the word "password" itself as the password to access the accounts. Such passwords are too easy to be hacked and people who use such passwords are exposing themselves to extreme risks of letting their private information stolen

Thus, it is important to have a strong password, I mean a password that is not made up of simple words that can be easily guessed or hacked. The best way will be using a combination of letters and numbers to make up your password. so that it will not be easily hacked. The longer the password, the better strength it has and of course, do remember the password yourself too.

It is not so safe to write down a long password in a note and keep it in your wallet or notebook as just in case, you will lose and reveal your password to whoever that got your wallet and combined with other confidential information that contain in your wallet, such as banking account number, sorry is the only word I can say to you. Don't worry as online service provider will always have an insurance policy in case you forgot your password.

(For example, this is the homepage of Facebook. The circled words above the blank for filling in the username's password is used for requesting the password to send to your email just in case you forgot your password to access the website, but of course don't forgot your password for accesing your e-mail too.

Another way to increase the security is add another question upon accessing to the website after completing entering the correct password The purpose is to increase the strenght of the security, not only relying only on password to protect your privacy. The question must be matched with the correct answer for you to gain access to the website or else, entry will be denied.

It is important to protect the privacy of our personal information from being leaked to outsiders that might misuse them for their own advantages and causes losses to ourselves. Thus, prevention steps need to be taken seriously, especially when determining a password to entering your online banking account for example.

how to safeguard personal and financial data(week 4)

Every business should develop a written information security plan that describes its program to protect individuals’ personal information. Every business has the flexibility to implement policies, procedures, and technologies that are appropriate to their unique circumstances.
Even companies take every step to secure our financial and personal data but still can let people hack our computer to violate personal information.

Several steps to secure our personal information data:

1) Protect your passwords and pins- do not share our passwords and pins with each others. We also should not store our passwords and pins on our own computer. If we need to write down our own passwords and pins after that need to store in a secure private place. The perfect passwords and pins should contain letter and symbol. Passwords and pins should change regularly and different passwords and pins in each accounts.

2) Maintain our own computer security- personal firewalls and security software packages with anti-virus, anti-spam and spyware detection features are must for those who engage in online financial transaction. Users must have up-to-date security software, including security patches, that the software is configured for automatic updates, and that the software must always turned on.


3) Use our own computer- avoid using public computers to access our personal accounts. Those places are cyber café, lab and friend’ computer. Why we cannot use our own personal account? This is because public computers may contain software that captures passwords and pins.

4) Log out completely- this step cannot miss must do it every time. Always click the “log out” button when we want close the firm’s web site. If we accidentally miss out this step, other users of the computer might be able to re-enter the site and access you personal account.

5) Check for secure web site-must ensure web site we log in is a secure web site. Secure web site address must starts with “http”. For example, in Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, look for the address bar turn to green color to identify of the site you are visiting is secure.

If we think our personal information has been stolen by other people, immediately contact your brokerage firm and financial institutions.

Reference:
http://www.finra.org/Investors/ProtectYourself/InvestorAlerts/FraudsAndScams/P037886

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

Nowadays, many things is go through online and people sometimes rely too much on internet, such as to get information, online banking, online payment and so on. Everyone think that online has becomes a trend for now or even coming decade but how many people had actually thought of how safe is our data? It is actually important for every one of us to have awareness about the threat of online security. As we know, there are infinity viruses, spywares, worms, hackers, information theft and even hackers around the world, if we don’t concern or learn how to protect our data or information, sure we will become one of the victim.

From year to year, ours development of technology has been enhanced and this actually increased the risk of online security. Since most of the people around the world have their own computer and connect to internet, I believe that everyone will have the chance to face the online threat. Nowadays, many people prefer to online and download information, music and movie through internet but they are not aware that those kinds of sources might contain viruses and spywares. Sometimes, we even received a lot of pop-up (to attract online user to get in) which contains virus and those who don’t realize it will get infected by viruses or even serious.

Hacking of data have become one of the most serious case to be concerned if compare with others because our data will be stole without any alert or there will be no filtering of data (all data will be stole and hacker will know everything about us). Nowadays, hackers is all around the world and as user, we must know the basic to protect our system and information from being stole.

After e-commerce class, we learned that virus is actually a piece of code that is secretly introduced into our computer system in order to corrupt and destroy our data. If our computer system attacked by virus, it will be able to damage the operating system and causing the loss of our data or even destroyed our whole computer system. While a worm is a program which is able to duplicate itself and it is repeatedly. The repeatedly duplicated files use up the available space and slow down a computer operating speed. Last but not least, a Trojan horse is a program that hides within or looks like a legitimate program.

In conclusion, as computer users, we must actually have the knowledge about latest internet security because this can be useful for us in order to prevent those online threats. Therefore, we must always make sure that our computer security guards, such as firewall and antivirus is on so that it can defense against threats from external or even internal.

References:
1. http://www.bsagovernment.com/downloads/MajorOnlineThreats.pdf

2. http://www.adl.org/PresRele/Education_01/5217_01.htm

An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes(week 3)

eBay- which is founded by Pierre Omidyar, is an auction house that never sleeps and it connects both buyers and sellers. eBay is operating on a basic business model, which combined the elements of yard sales, newspaper classified ads, and auctions, that contributes to its success. eBay's role is simply bringing the buyers and sellers together and facilitates commerce. It does not carry and ship inventories. It's exactly like a medium that joined the online buyers and sellers. To become a buyer or seller, we just have to go through a few steps and this only takes few minutes. In addition, eBay also provides us with the user guides.Nevertheless, eBay is not only about getting an item sold, but it also strives to establish trust among buyers and sellers. Its core interest is to build an online community so that everyone can get the most out of what they have. eBay even provides a chatting room for its users to talk and exchange information and opinions. This can establish a relationship among users and can also improve the buying process which reduces the cognitive dissonance of post-purchase. Another cause of success is, people are enjoying the process of bidding. Most of the people like a bargain, they like to negotiate over a price and they feel really satisfied when they are able to get a lower price.

Google is changing everything (Week 3)

Nowadays, it is no doubt that Google is well known for its search engine and it has grown faster (even faster than other well known internet company, such as Yahoo). Since Google is now well known, many people has access on it and tried its functions. Some of my friends told me that their life has been changed by using Google, so I believe that Google has actually changing everything and becomes part of our life.

We can find everything through Google and whatever we search (information, entertainment, video, etc) for, it will be there. Google has organized its structure very well and it has combined all information around the world. Now, Google has become universal and we can find our preferred things and information just through one click on it. Google arranged its information well and make sure everything is easy for everyone to understand. Since everything in Google easy to search for, it makes our life easier.

Through Google map, we can actually determine our location and it is very accurate and equipped with latest technology. Through it, we can actually know information and location all around the world. By using Google, we can access to everything just by click on it and we don’t have to pay anything, even single amount of money (can you imagine how good it is, everything is there for you and FREE, just depends on whether you have the intention to find it out).

Nowadays, Google has become a guideline for everyone and whoever is using it, sure they will admit that it is worth and the best. Google has guide every one of us to find out what is important in our life and what we want for our life. We can link from server to server through Google and many companies put their advertising on Google because they knew that Google can help them to change everything (advertise through Google sure will get respond from many people).

Since Google is now changing everything, I am sure that people will switch their lifestyle towards it and adapt with the new culture, which is “Google World”.

History and Evolution of E-commerce(week 3)

In 15th century, the scope of the commodity trade was drastically extended to the whole world and also involved in the global trading network. At the end of the 20th century, the invention of the Internet announced the arrival of the global trade era, Electronic businesses.

E-commerce is popular for conducting business by using electronic to making transaction. It has to do with selling and buying goods and services using computer telecommunications networks.

Amazon is first Internet Company to allow electronic transactions. It was founded in 1994 by Jeff Bezos and was the first American ecommerce companies to sell products over the Internet

Evolution of E-commerce

Year 1960
The first step came from the development of the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). EDI is a set of standards to exchange business information and do electronic transactions. It was standardized through ASC X12, this guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliably.

Year1984
the ASC X12 standard became stable and reliable in transferring large amounts of transactions, and was adapted quickly by those institutions who wanted to do business electronically.

Year 1992
the first point and click web browser called Mosaic. The Mosaic browser was quickly adapted into a downloadable browser, Netscape, which allowed easier access to electronic commerce.

Year 1995
Two of the biggest companies are launched using e-commerce concept are Amazon.com and eBay.com.

Year 1998
Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) provides high-speed Internet. Let more users take advantage of e commerce with more convenience.

Year 2000
In February 2000 hackers attacked some major players of e-commerce, including Yahoo, ebay and Amazon.





Web 2.0 perceived as a second generation of web development and web design. It is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, and collaboration on the World Wide Web. It includes social-networking sites, video-sharing sites and blogs.

Web 2.0 websites allow users to do more than just retrieve information. It can build on the interactive facilitates of “Web 1.0” to provide “ Network as platform” computing.


References:
http://realonlinemoneymaking.com/131
http://www.flysyk02.netfirms.com/Ecommerce/History.htm
http://ecommercesite.wordpress.com/2008/06/11/the-history-evolution-of-e-commerce/
www.wikipedia.com

Revenue models for Google, Amazon.com and eBay(week 3)

We are surfing the internet daily visiting various websites for different purposes. But well, all the websites need money to sustain and maintain themselves, such as server maintenance, employees' salaries, but how do they generate incomes?

From our studies we have known that E-commerce companies can generate revenues using methods in the revenue models which are:-

1. Sales - where revenue is generated from sales of goods or services
2. Transaction fees - where commissions are paid based on volume of transactions
3. Subscription fees - monthly or yearly fixed amount fees that have to be paid for some services
4. Affiliate fees - payments from advertisers for placing their advertisements on a website

Google

I believe that Google is one of the most well known and often used search engine in the world. Google provides Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, social networking and video sharing services. Some brief history about Google; Google was founded Larry Page and Sergey Brin in January 1996 when they carry out it as a research in Stanford University, California. The domain google.com was registered on 15 September 1997 and incorporated as a company in 1998. Google was listed in the public in August 2004 and continue to grow until today. As of March 31 2009, Google has 20,164 full-time employees.

Google is used mainly as a search engine(also most popular services, with 53.6% marketshare on the web), thus, 99% of their revenue is from advertising fees. Google AdWords(cost-per-click or cost-per-view advertising scheme advertising text and banners) allows web advertisers to place their ads alongside the search results when users are using the search engine.

Another Google's advertisement application is the Google AdSense, that allows web owners to display their ads on their own sites to generate revenue(pay-per-click or per-impression basis). Web owners that are enrolled can enable text, image, video advertisements on their websites and these advertisements are administered by Google.

amazon.com

Amazon.com, well, is a total different thing from Google. Amazon.com, being the U.S. largest online retailer, was founded in 1994 and went online in 1995. It was founded by Jeff Bezos and name the website after the world's biggest river. Amazon.com initially started as an online bookstore but the business started to diversify to selling products such as DVD, music CD, MP3s, computer softwares, video games, apparels, electronics, furniture, toys and even food!! It provides international shipping to certain countries.

Amazon.com is a classic example of an E-commerce website that generate revenue through sales. Being one of the few companies that started and popularized online shopping, Amazon.com attracted at least 615 million visitor yearly by 2008, 50 millions U.S. consumers monthly(sources: Compete.com) and generates revenue by selling books, DVD, CD, MP3s, electronics, etc.

Amazon.com also generate revenue from affiliate fees as well by gaining commissions for referring customers to third party sellers that list and sell their products on Amazon website. In the other way, these affiliates also place links to Amazon in their own websites linking to Amazon.com, and if referral sales occured, these affiliates will receive commissions in return from Amazon. It was estimated that Amazon has 900,000 members in its affiliates programs.

http://www.amazon.com/

eBay

eBay eBay, is a very common word that we can listen today. From what we have already known, Ebay as an online auction website, also functioning as an online shopping website too where people and businesses can buy and sell variety of goods and services worldwide from this website. There are millions of items that you can find from eBay ranging from collectible items to vehicles, either new or second hand items that are open for bidding.

This online auction website was founded in September 3, 1995 by Pierre Omidyar, a French-born Iranian computer programmer. eBay was listed publicly on September 21, 1998 and the founder became instant billionaire!! eBay also owns Paypal and Skype and has established localized websites in thirty countries.

eBay homepage

Unlike the main revenue models that Amazon.com and Google are using, eBay is using a totally different revenue model. eBay generates revenue from a number of fees:-

• Insertion Fee - Fees that are needed to pay when registered users want to list their items on the website for sales which are not refundable.
• Final Value Fees - Fees that are charged to sellers as commissions when sales occured.

To learn more about eBay sellers' fees in details, click here .

With a large base of users worldwide that sell their items and products on eBay, eBay generates a large pool of revenue from the fees that are charged to the sellers.

Other than that, Paypal (online payment and money transfer) that is owned by eBay, its payment system also has its own fees that contribute to eBay revenue.

Last but not least, eBay also has its own affiliates program that contribute to its revenue by earning the commissions from the affiliates's transaction fees.

From here I have listed down the three major E-commerce websites and contrasted their revenue models while included some brief history about the websites. Google.com, the world most popular search engine that rely on advertising fees to generate revenue. Amazon.com, the U.S. largest online retail shopping website that generate revenue through sales and affilates fee. Finally, eBay that generate revenue from the incurred sellers' fee, affiliates programs and acquired businesses such as Skype and Paypal. We cannot determine which can be the best revenue model but we can see from here E-commerce has proven to be successful if the right market is targeted and the right way is done.

Related websites and reference links:-

http://www.ebay.com/

http://www.amazon.com/

http://www.google.com/

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

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon.com

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

1st post.. Introduction..

Ehem.. well welcome to en2en.blogspot.com.. The 1st posting is mainly about brief intro about our group members in this assignment group(briefly intro lor as tutor wanted us to do so..

blog editor #1 : Chen Chun Pin a.k.a CCP

Hi everybody.
It's nice "to be forced" to start blogging for this subject.
WHY???
Because i will be able to know more about my classmates especially my group mates.
Know what's happened to them, their experiences, their thought, their life yet their stories.
It's a good and perhaps a last chance to really get to know each other as we are going to graduate very soon (If we are all so lucky lah..hahaha..)
Perhaps some might think :" Har?!Graduate?? Stil got a long journey to go, now only Year 3 Sem 1.....But for me, started from last sem, I already felt that the campus life is almost ends. I think it's good to have that kind of feeling cause...It let me feel more appreciate of the time spending with my dear classmates, though just having a lunch with them. Time is passing, everyone is changing However, may all the memories be with us forever.
Well, basically i'm an ordinary girl that hoping for an extraordinary life. For me, life should be wonderful as everyone only live once. Extraordinary life does not necessary mean rich in $$$$(though no $$$, no talk.haha..) but I want a life that is rich with knowledge,experiences and happiness for sure. However, life is incomplete without sadness,negativity,frustration and failure. So, become an optimist is the only positive option to deal with all these unwanted situation........
During free time, i like reading, playing puzzle and assembling gadget. Other than that, surfing is also my favourite hobby. The top 5 websites i visit most frequently are:-

1) Google (http://www.google.com.my/)- Google is GREAT!!! You can feel the same especially when you are doing assignments. Just by typing keywords, it will direct us to the relevant website. It's a powerful search engine. We can find any information even like "How to Make a Bomb"!!!hahaha...

2) 8tv (http://www.8tv.com.my/)- View my favourite TV-Show and news online.

3) Sogua (http://www.sogua.com/)- Download songs, lyrics, mtv, and movies. It's also updated us with the latest news of the artists.

4) eBay (http://www.ebay.com/)- Never buy anything from eBay so far. Simply want to know the best price to become a smart consumer. Hahaha.

5) Haha365 (http://www.haha365.com/)- It's a website that contains a lots jokes. It brights my days.

The five online activities that i involving are reading books, watching TV broadcast, downloading movies and softwares, online ordering, and searching information.

Here are some of the photos to be shared. Cheers.

blog editor#2 : Choo Kah Wai a.k.a CKW

CKW here, 22 of age, currently living in Bandar Sungai Long, a simple normal ordinary UTAR student in BEN course Tutorial Group 2 with not much special interest. Well, I survived all the way to Year 3 in BEN course since May 2007. By the way i am into photography and gadgets, and have a bunch of collections of GUNPLA models(if u are curious what is this, feel free to ask..)

For the top 5 websites that i frequently visit are:-

1)facebook(http://www.facebook.com/) - to check out updates about friends and people I know in my social networks

2)Soccernet(http://www.soccernet.com/) - forgot to mention but I am a football fan as well.. Favourite club definitely will be Liverpool FC. This website is one website for me to check out what's happening in the football world

3)TheStar(http://www.thestar.com.my/) - Reading newspaper is good.Daily. Why spend RM1.20 when you can read it online everyday for free?

4)Lowyat.net(http://www.lowyat.net/) - To check updates about gadgets and latest technologies so that I don't fall behind in this 'advance world'... and there is a discussion forum too where I can read and do discussion in an open forum.(www.lowyat.net/forum)

5)Youtube(http://www.youtube.com/) - Entertainment, songs, drama, a good website to kill time!

I think I oso briefly intro d hor..?
chill guys.. what a hazy and hot weather out there.. here some cool(cold) stuffs to chill you guys.. enjoy(the pics i mean..^^)

(hi, i am Choc-blended, i m cool)

(hi, honeydew sago here, i m cool~)

(hi, mixed-fruits sago here, i am cool too)

(traditional Malaysia ais kacang, cool~)

blog editor#3 : Hoo Lun Hoong a.k.a HLH

Hey guys, HLH here, going 21 soon. People who know my name will sure link me with "HL milk", if I'm really the milk, for sure the whole world will know me d (haha, nice to be popular sometime, as we know 'life is short' wat).

I really feel good with my current class (EN2) because everyone looks nice. Some of them are "nice to see, nice to talk but once you hurt our boss (theresa's gang), considered gone (haha, just have fun ^^, don't take it serious lo)." Well, once a while, I will play badminton and futsal with my friends at Phoenix there. Sometimes, the whole class of mine will go Sungai Long Golf Club to enjoy its facilities and play games.

Since I'm in (UTAR), BDD has becomes one of my "mission" (always with one slogan, which is "blood donation, donate blood, save life"), my friends and I always repeat the same thing for 3 years, over and over but we still prefer to say it because it is worth to be said.

More to says is I'm a football fan (Manchester United & England). Although some of my friends not the same as me but we are still enjoying football match together (I think so, haha ^^). For me, football match really helps in reduce stress and tention (of course when the team you support win la ^^).

Since unit plan states that we need to list out our five most visited websites, then I will show it out lo... Here are "them" :-

1) Soccernet (http://www.soccernet.com/) - it has becomes my home page (Internet) and one of my "important reference" to get me updated with latest news of football.

2) Golden Screen Cinema (http://www.gsc.com.my/) - almost view it once a week to get me updated with latest movies' info & download some movies' wallpaper from here (of course I'm not that rich la, always go watch movie, haha)

3) Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/) - visit this website frequently because it does brings a lot of funny videos. guys, you all can also get some drama and movie through it, not bad & worth to try it.

4) Hdzone (http://www.hdzone.org/) - one of my favourite because it contains a lot of entertainment. Guys, just try it and you all will get the latest songs, drama and movie. Besides, we can also found article and a lot of daily knowledge, world news and something even "weird" through it.

5) China Press (http://www.chinapress.com.my/) - getting most of the latest news from here, easy to access and save money (back home only buy sin chew jit poh).

Thanks a lot to everyone who accompany me all the ways (gone through my EN2 life). I believe that I had wrote something here and friends of mine will complete it nicely ^^

blog editor#4 : Kan Pui Fong a.k.a KPF

I am pui fong, studying at UTAR sg long. I am the eldest daughter in my family.My hobbies are shopping, traveling and reading. Honestly, I do not like to read books that are outside our syllabus previously. But, i affected by my friends "unconsciouly" and started to read other types of books to absorp extra knowledge. Actually I like to socialize but i do not know how to interact with friends, foreigners and strangers. Recently my friend, Christine helps me to overcome it and she introduced some Nigeria and China friends to me. Gradually, i realised that communicate with them is only an easy job. Thank you Christine for helping me to know foreign friends and i'm not only can improve my English but also get to know others'culture.

1) Friendster(http://www.friendster.com/)- In my feeling, i feel friendster is like local friendster. Why i say like that? because when u login to friendster got alot Malaysia people. So if you want to know more Malaysian, you can login to friendster and search.

2) Facebook(http://www.facebook.com/)- When you wan your friend list expand to the whole world, you can try to play facebook. Have more different country people will play facebook. Facebook will more interesting compared than friendster. Because inside facebook not only can send the message also can play some childish game. So, i prefer play facebook.

3) 1ting(http://www.1ting.com/)- this website is let us search our love song but cannot download it la....it just can let u try to listen through online.

4) China Press(http://www.chinapress.com/)- visit this website to see anything happened around us. Another way to learn extra knowledge too.

5) Google(http://www.google.com/)- very convenience to us when our need to search some information.Anything we want to know just find from here sure you will get the answer you know.