Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Credit card debt: Causes and prevention


Nowadays, credit cards are quite popular and most people having several credit cards with them. The credit card is really good for those people who like to purchase things when they may not have enough cash at that time. However, credit card debt results when the card user does not pay money that they have spent to the company. Therefore, debt accumulates and increases via interest and penalties.



Causes
Poor money management is one of the reasons why so many people accumulate lots of debt. Card user is not having a monthly spending plan and makes them unaware of where the money is going. They do not realize spending hundreds of dollars every month towards items that are useless and have no value in their life. This might force them to pay interest on these purchases every month.

Many people believe having too many credit cards in the wallet is representing sign of wealth. In fact having too many credit cards is one of the factors that drive a person towards credit card debt. Many people do not realize that every single money used from credit card has to be repaid and that too with interest. To avoid credit card debt the first thing to keep in mind is to have only those credit cards which are absolutely essential.

When the people know the knowledge for the causes of credit card debt, this will help a person stay away from it.


Prevention

Some of the people might be overspend or no control on spending, it is a need to start changes such behaviors. Firstly, card user needs to stop using credit cards, unless it is an urgent situation. The smart card user only uses the card in place of cash, or to obtain a purchase they can afford. Once card user has reduced credit card debt, they can stop worrying about falling deeper into debt.

Besides that, card user needs to make sure that paying bills on time each month. If they can’t pay the whole balance each month, then try to pay the highest amount possible. Otherwise the credit card debt will grow so much and they will find that unable to pay the minimum in a short time.


There are a lot of things to consider when trying reducing credit card debt. Make sure that card user takes the time to figure out what is benefit for them.

For further information please refers to:
Eliminating Credit Card Debt - 10 Easy Steps
http://www.articlesphere.com/Article/Eliminating-Credit-Card-Debt---10-Easy-Steps/121447

"Can I Get Out of Credit Card Debt?"
http://www.debtfirms.com/credit-card-debt.html

Monday, June 23, 2008

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

Do you know what phishing is? Phishing is pronouncing as fishing. It is not the fishing that uses a rod of wood, steel, or fiberglass with a line for catching fish. Phishing is an attempt to criminally and fraudulently acquire sensitive information. It creates a replica of an existing webpage to fool a user into submitting personal, financial, or passwords, such as credit card details. Usually, it sends an email that will direct the user to visit a website where they are asked to update personal information. However, this website that where asked to visit is a fake and set up only website to steal the user’s information.

Examples
There are a lot of examples of phishing in the internet. The most common target would be the Paypal, eBay, and online banks.

In 2003, many people received emails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user’s account was about to be suspended unless they clicked on the provided link and updated their credit card information where the genuine eBay already had their credit card information. This link that lead to the eBay website is a website that look like the genuine eBay website but actually it is a fake website where the HTML code being imitated closely by criminal or beguiler or so called “phisher”.

The second example is Paypal. In Paypal, there is a spelling mistake in the email and the presence of an IP address in the link is different from the link appear in the tooltip under the yellow box. These give you the clues of a phishing attempt.

Besides that, there are some examples for phishing in online bank, such as CitiBank and Citizens Bank. For online bank, usually they will use psychological tricks, known as social engineering, to trick the users. They usually trick on users’ fears. The fake email looks very real compare with the real Citicorp email. Moreover, the link in the email contains the name “Citibank” that users believe that it is an email from Citibank but actually it has nothing to do with Citibank. In fact, the link that appears in the text of the message is likely to have little relation to the actual link contained in the underlying HTML code.


Prevention Methods
There are several techniques can allow users to fight with phishing. The techniques are as following:-

1. Strengthen the Security
IT experts have created some features embedded in browsers to prevent phishing, such as extension or toolbars for browsers. For example, Mozilla Firefox uses Google anti-phishing software. Besides, some specialized spam filter can reduce the number of phishing emails that reach their addressees’ inboxes. Enhances personal firewalls and security software package and make sure that the security is the latest or up-to-date.

2. Do Not Respond to Emails Request of Personal or Financial Information
The “phisher” uses the psychological tricks to scare the users. They users can call the correlative party to do phone verification. It is safer to do so.


3. Do Not Directly Click on the Provided Link
It is better to do your own typing for the URL into your web browser yourself. Some of the URL may look alike to the real URL where it’s the fraudsters only mask the true destination.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

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

Nowadays, internet is uncontrolled and uncensored. There are some damage threats that can cause our identity and personal information unsafe via internet access such as viruses, worms, hacking, phishing, trojan horse and so on. Many users are unrealized and become the victim of this problem.


Hacker attacks have been a serious threat to our modern technology. A hacker is someone who intends to obtain unauthorized access to computer systems. For instance, they create dangerous software by insert malware into a computer. By doing so, hacker can easily look through and edit files that are inside a website or the computer of a user. Besides that, hacker can broke into credit card systems and attempted to steal information that could potentially be used to gain money.


Another security threats is spyware which defined as software that secretly tracks on a personal computer to capture or take partial control over the user's interaction with the computer, without the user's informed consent. Spyware can track online purchase, credit card number and bank account number. In addition, it also may install program without user knowledge and can cause damage to important files on the computer.


Trojan horse attacks are one of the most serious threats to computer security. It is a virus that hidden in legitimate software and user can install a Trojan without knowing it. Users are infected with a Trojan program is spreading through emails (eg.nudegirls.jpg) that make user curious and open the file. Another way is spread through instant messenger programs such as Yahoo Messenger, MSN messenger, and so on. Trojan horse has ability to completely take over system and not give user access to any of their files. It also possibly search user computer and monitor their usernames and passwords to various sites and even has the chances of getting credit card numbers.

As a conclusion, we might not know there are how many threats of online security that are available in the internet. Therefore, users need to take necessary care and precautions to protect their data safe. Users can try to safeguard their personal information by having virus protection software and firewalls to prevent become victim of threat of online security.

For further information please refer to:
Major Online Security Threats:
http://www.bsagovernment.com/downloads/MajorOnlineThreats.pdf
Threats to you and your PC:
http://www.mrbcfelixstowe.org.uk/security.html


Thursday, June 19, 2008

Third Party Certification Programme

Third-party certification is a scientific process by which a product, process or service is reviewed by a reputable and unbiased third party to verify that a set of criteria, claims or standards are being met. Besides that, third-party certification can reduce the time and expense needed for identifying, selecting and purchasing products and services. However, third-party certification is not the final word and the consumer has the final say. Third-party certification programme is a programme that enhances the credibility and trustworthiness of a service and product when they are being certified and recognized by an independent third party.

One of the popular companies in Malaysia that offer third-party certification programme is MSC Trustgate and they have been offering such services since 1999. MSC Trustgate offers complete security solutions and leading trust services that are needed by individuals, enterprises, government, and e-commerce service providers using digital certificates, digital signatures, encryption and decryption. This company is established to meet the growing need for secure open network and provide enterprises with a state of the art e-security environment, whether secure VPN or trusted web based office solutions, creating a secure, stable foundation tailored to enterprises' unique business needs. In addition, MSC Trustgate develops PKI signing and verification modules around web server security of their clients.

In conclusion, third-party certification has made customer feel safe to consume goods and services and able to maintain the organization
reputation and uphold the organization integrity.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data

Nowaday, most people prefer doing everything by using the computer. Unfortunately, some people do not put in place the necessary stringent policies and procedures in order to ensure their personal and financial data to be safeguarded .Those data can be bank statement, payroll data, identification card number, address, telephone number and so on.

Use more complex password and change the password frequently-Make sure passwords are different a more complicated. People should set up the password in those important documents by using
different number or symbol so that it will make it hundreds of times hard for a person to crack their password and access to the data. Avoid using the password that is easy to be hack by other such as password which is base on the birthday and identification card number. In addition, people should change their password frequently as it is create more difficulties for someone who wants to hack your password and steal your financial and personal data.

Encryption-In order to ensure your personal data and financial data such as picture and accounting record which you have been save in your computer, you can use encryption to make it unreadable by someone. Encryption is the process of transforming information by using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge. Therefore, it can help people to save their personal information and financial data.
For further information about encryption please refer to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encryption

Lock your computer and document - This is another one of those tips that most people don’t think about, especially at their own office. For example, if a person is leave for lunch and his computer is just on without a password-protected screen saver, it is easy for a co-worker to get onto his computer and look through his private and confidence documents and may steal or manipulate the information for their own benefit. Therefore, it is better to lock computer or put a password on your screen saver.

Moreover, some importance document such as bank account book, bank statement, lease agreement are necessary to keep and lock in the proper and safety place such as cabinet. So that people will not have the change to view it and use it for the improper purpose.

In conclusion, it is importance for a person to know how to safeguard their importance data, which are either financial or personal data so that they will not suffer the
loss.