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

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.

An Example of an E-commerce Failure and its Causes

Pets.Com (1998-2000)

There are many professionals that predicted the E-Commerce will have its own success. However, there is still some hidden E-Commerce that facing failures. One of the top 10 examples is the Pets.com. The Pets.com was started by Greg McLemore in November 1998. This company was purchased in early 1999 by a venture capitalist. Below are the main causes that lead to failure of Pets.com:-

i)Unstructured capital
The usage of the company’s capital for pets.com was not well organized. This is due to poor business planning on the advertising campaign alone, Pets.com already spent more than $100 millions in supporting it. Besides that, they had spent a lot in the marketing and sales. The loss had increased from since the company start business until in year 1999, it had reached loss of $61,778,000.

ii)Customer dissatisfaction
Most of the Pets.com customers are unhappy with this company’s delivery system. The company promised the customer on delivery of 3 days or less but they did not manage to do it. Furthermore, some of the customers needed to wait several days just to get their pet’s food.

iii)Poor management on costs
The company has a poor management on setting up the cost for the products and usually they will charge the products below the required cost. Thus, it makes the company to gain loss rather than profits. Moreover, the company had undercharge for shipping costs just to attract the customers but it actually facing loss on most of the items it sold.

The idea of pets.com was inadequate and there are a lot of problems that face by this company. Thus, it had taken over by the petsmart.com.

An example of an E-commerce success and its causes

One of the most successful examples of e-commerce is eBay. eBay is the world's largest online retail commerce which offering customers an opportunity to come together in one marketplace and be able to buy and sell a wide range of items. Items on eBay are listed by categories and anyone with an eBay account can bid on the item of their choice. Customers can find about anything on eBay, including collectibles, car, real estate, CDs, clothing, concert tickets and so on. Besides that, eBay also have Paypal, Skype, Stubhub, and other businesses which allow payment and money transfers to be made through internet.

There are few reasons eBay become success and this is the critical issue which people want to know. eBay become so popular because of their good strategic in the internet which provide user-friendly website to all people. eBay offers some free tutorials, fun video clips and free online courses to the beginners who are new to eBay.




For further information about the free tutorials and video clips, please refer to:
New to eBay: http://pages.ebay.com/education/new.html
How to buy: http://pages.ebay.com/education/buying.html
How to sell: http://pages.ebay.com/education/selling.html

Besides that, eBay provides various online help features, including e-mail contact forms, help topic, "Live Help" which allow customer to chat with customer service representatives via instant messaging or email. This shows that eBay serve customer in a more efficient and effective ways where eBay can quickly response to the customer problem through internet to make the customer satisfy with their service.

In addition, users in the eBay can easily shift from being a buyer to a seller on the website. Being a seller doesn’t necessarily have to go out and get a business license where there may be a limited number of buyers. One can easily sell products and services through eBay by registering with the website authority. On the other hand, eBay has made buyers more convenient and comfortable with online shopping at home. Some of the users enjoy looking around for merchandise and competition of the bidding process which is online auction. Therefore, eBay become online marketplaces which allow people to enjoy the experience of the online shopping. Furthermore, the majority of people who are selling on eBay are warm, trustworthy and honest. eBay is creating a friendly environment which allows users to come to their website and feel comfortable shopping there as well as getting reasonable price and a bargain.

In the conclusion, eBay provide a series of strategies to keep customer and seller in their website. Thus, there aren't many websites on the Internet that can claim the success that eBay has enjoyed. Despite those challenges and failure faced by eBay, the future of eBay looks bright, as eBay growth continues to be strong.