Credit Card Debts: Causes and Prevention

In Malaysia, the current credit card debt stood at RM24.4 billion on March 2009 itself which was relatively low compared with other regions while countries such as England is facing a credit card debt going into trillions of pounds.(Source:Mmail.com)

The question is what are the major causes of credit card debts? How can we prevent it from falling upon us? The answer to it will be explained next.

Top 5 causes of debt

1) Less income/Same expenses

For instants, the main breadwinner of the household loses his job but monthly expenses are not on par with the reduction in income. This obviously leads to a rise in debt. The family is forced to use their credit cards for groceries, utilities.

2) Poor money management

Not having a monthly spending plan and not keeping track of monthly bills makes you unaware of where your money is going. You might be spending hundreds of dollars every month towards items that are useless and yet you do not realize it.

3) Under-employment

If you are underemployed meaning you are not getting enough working hours at your job, you should also cut down on your lifestyle to match your current income. Live within your means.

4) Hoping to win the lottery

Most people hope to win the lottery but the chances of that happening are 0%. Do not spend tomorrow's saved money today just because you expect a promotion in your job or are expecting an inheritance from a deceased grandfather. We all know things can go wrong more easily than going right.

5) Huge medical expenses

The cost of obtaining cures and medicine is increasing every year. Almost all doctors accept credit cards here in Malaysia. While you need treatment now, you do not have the cash. So what do you do? You use your credit card because you do not have enough savings in the bank.(#point 2)


Credit cards are not evil and in many cases having a credit card is very necessary. Some people just need solid credit card debt management advice in order to keep everything under control. Hence, here are the guidelines.


1) Stop accruing more debt

The more you continue to spend, the longer it will take for you to pay it off. Reduce your spending. If you have high interest credit cards, transfer the balance to ones with a lower APR. That way your debt won’t increase while as you’re paying it off.

2) Increase your income

If your current salary isn’t enough to cover the payments on your debt, get a second job. Even a few hours a week can make a huge difference. Look for flexible freelance work that will fit around the rest of your life.

3) Change your spending philosophy

Are you only buying the things you really need? Those impulse purchases may feel good at the moment, but in the long run, they will only get you further into debt. If you’re going to get out of debt, you will need to change your whole attitude to spending.

4) Make a budget and stick to it

It easy to overspend when you don’t have a budget. Calculate how much you have to spend and stick to that limit. Write down all of your expenses so you know where your money is going.


Video: How to create a Do-able budget



5) Set up an emergency fund

When you’re in debt, it’s hard to think about putting something aside for a rainy day. Every day feels like a downpour. But it’s crucial to have even a small emergency fund. Just make sure you don’t tap into it unless it’s truly an emergency.


Video: How to get out from Under Your Credit Card Debt


(Sources:
www.3debtconsolidation.com
www.ezinearticles.com
www.linkroll.com
www.bankrate.com
www.youtube.com)

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How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

Data, considered as a valuable asset is definitely the thing most wants to get hold to. Data of customers or of the company itself, are able to disclose information that are normally very difficult to be attained. Contact number, address, credit card number and bank account number are such information hidden within the data of a person from the strangers. However by knowing all these data of a person, it is possible to perform illegal activities on that person. For example, hacking into his bank account to withdraw his personal savings. The data can also be used to manipulate the person, that is by knowing things he like, special promotional activities can be used to target him.

With the ever growing potential and usage of the internet, it is crucial to maintain a high level of security to ensure our privacy. How exactly should one protect and keep his personal data, especially financial data from being intruded and exploited?

1. Be sure to keep your personal and sensitive data off your computer. What can a virus or spyware program possible do with your personal data if you don’t store it on your computer? It’s simple and very effective. Try your best to keep bank account numbers, passwords, etc off your computer. If you want to keep it in electronic format for easy access, that’s fine, simply buy a secondary storage (pendrive) and store all the sensitive files there. Keep it in a safe place and if you need to refer to the documents, then just plug in your drive. What can someone steal when there's nothing to be stolen?

2. Try to connect only to secured network. If you have a home wireless network, secure it quickly. Connecting to non-secure wireless networks is asking for trouble. Most people’s computers constantly have spyware on their computers because they connect to lots of insecure hotel wireless networks constantly. Try avoiding sharing network especially public network if possible.

3. If you have to do any online transaction, clear your browser’s cache after each transaction. Sometimes your browser will save certain information you typed into forms or blanks when you are online, so it’s always good to clear that after you’re done. Also, if you get that message sometimes from your browser asking you whether you want it to automatically save your passwords, click no. If you do, someone else using your computer will have access to it without having to login because you've SAVED the password!

4. Make sure anti-virus and anti-spyware are installed and up-to-date. You can either buy excellent anti-virus programs like Kaspersky Anti-Virus or free programs like AVG, which is pretty good too. Either way, make sure you have something installed. Make sure you have a strong firewall too, to block unauthorized access as well as to fend off annoying pop-ups. Don't forget to constantly scan your hard drive for viruses too, in case any sneaked in.

5. Make sure the URL has an HTTPS instead of HTTP. The S makes all the difference because it stands for secure. When you buy something from Amazon or another big site, once you being to checkout, the URL always starts with a HTTPS. This means that the communication between your computer and their server is secure and encrypted. If someone tries to read the data as it travels across the Internet, they won’t be able to understand or decipher it. If you’re buying something from a smaller site and they don’t have HTTPS, and its more risky.

6. Try to "lock" your computer when you're not using it. This is another one of those tips that most people don’t think about, especially at your office. If you leave for lunch and your computer is just on without a password-protected screen saver, what will stop a snoopy co-worker to get onto your computer and look through your personal information? It may not seem likely, but it can very well happen and it’s better to press CNTRL-ALT-DELTE and press Lock Computer or put a password on your screen saver or simply use an extra program like Lock My PC.

7. Be careful who you give your computer to when it needs fixing. Sad to have so many unethical people around. People simply trust technical support people too much. If someone is going to fix your computer, have them come over to your house and just watch as they do it. When you’re off in another room while they fix your computer, they can also be copying your entire hard drive for themselves. Its just as easy as 1,2,3 for them to copy your whole hard drive for them to slowly explore after that to dig up your personal data.

8. If you really have to send or save very important data in your computer, use advanced techniques like encryption, anonymous browsing, virtualization software to hide them. You can encrypt your data, browse the Internet anonymously, or run IE or Firefox in a virtual environment. The advantage of the latter is that you can actually catch a virus or spyware program in the virtual environment and it won’t affect your operating system at all.

If your personal information is really that important, or if you simply like to keep your personal information personal, put more effort into precaution. Fend of attacks before you get attacked. Offensive is always better than defensive. It is better to prevent than to cure.

(Sources:
http://www.online-tech-tips.com
http://images.google.com)

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

Nowadays, people rely on computers to create, store and manage critical information. Consequently, it is important for users to aware that computer security plays a major role in protecting their data from loss, damage, and misuse. Similarly, online security has been online trader’s main concern in protecting their websites from potential threats.

Since the Internet is a public system in which every transaction can be tracked, logged, monitored and stored in many locations, it is important for businesses to understand possible security threats to their business.

Confidentiality, integrity, and availability are the three main concepts of security. First, confidentiality allows only authorized parties to read protected information. Second is integrity that ensures data remains as is from the sender to the receiver. Lastly is availability which is ensures you have access and are authorized to resources.

Evidence from variety of security surveys provides a mixed picture of cyber attacks and crimes in e-commerce. Some of the trends which had been collected by Computer Security Institute (CSI) and the San Francisco Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Computer Intrusion Squad through surveys include the following:

- Most of the organizations conduct security audits and employ a variety of technologies and procedures like antivirus software and firewalls to defend against cyber attacks. Between 65%-70% use access control lists, intrusion detection, and data encryption.

- Organizations still are reserved to report computer intrusions to legal authorities because they feared negative publicity or were worried that their competitors would use it against them.


There are many threats to e-commerce that may come from sources within an organization or individual. Followings are some of the potential security threats that can be found such as:

1. Sniffing the network - Here, the attacker monitors the data between the shopper’s computer and the server. He collects data about the shopper or steals personal information, such as credit card numbers.

2. Snooping the shopper’s computer - Most users’ knowledge of security vulnerabilities of their systems is vague at best. Additionally, software and hardware vendors, in their quest to ensure that their products are easy to install, will ship products with security features disabled. In most cases, enabling security features requires a non-technical user to read manuals written for the technologist. The confused user does not attempt to enable the security features. This creates a treasure trove for attackers.

3. Using known server bugs - The attacker analyzes the site to find what types of software are used on the site. He then proceeds to find what patches were issued for the software. Additionally, he searches on how to exploit a system without the patch. He proceeds to try each of the exploits. The sophisticated attacker finds a weakness in a similar type of software, and tries to use that to exploit the system. This is a simple, but effective attack.

4. Tricking the shopper - It is one of the easiest and most profitable attacks, also known as social engineering techniques. These attacks involve surveillance of the shopper’s behavior, gathering information to use against the shopper. For example, a mother’s maiden name is a common challenge question used by numerous sites. If one of these sites is tricked into giving away a password once the challenge question is provided, then not only has this site been compromised, but it is also likely that the shopper used the same logon ID and password on other sites.



Our advice is check your computers frequently for possible conficker infection as well as other vulnerabilities and take the appropriate action. Use protective security sofeware (antivirus, firewalls, and antiphishing tools) and keep up to date.

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The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

Certification Authority (CA) is a trusted third-party organization that issues digital certificates used to create digital signatures and public-private key pairs.It contains your name, a serial number, expiration dates, a copy of the certificate holder's public key used for encrypting messages and digital signatures and the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority so that a recipient can verify that the certificate is real. Digital certificates can be kept in registries so that authenticating users can look up other users' public keys.

The role of the CA in this process is to guarantee that the individual granted the unique certificate is, in fact, who he or she claims to be. CAs are a critical component in data security and e-commerce because they guarantee that the two parties exchanging information are really who they claim to be.
Retrieve from :http://www.neowave.com.my/ecommerce_glossary.asp


The most famous application of 3rd party certification program in Malaysia is provided by

MSC Trustgate.com Sdn. Bhd

MSC Trustgate.com was established in 1999 as a licensed Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia under the Digital Signature Act 1997. This company provide security solutions and trusted services to help companies build a secure network and application infrastructure for their electronic transactions and communications over the network. It commitment in delivering high quality services has brought us recognitions with the enterprises, government, and many leading e-commerce sites, both locally and internationally.

Among the projects that MSC Trustgate.com Sdn.Bhd. have implemented are:

• E-banking Security Deployment
  




• E-procurement Integration
  




• User Authentication and Customer Clearance Approval System
  




• PKI for Online Transaction Payment System
  




• PKI Development & Integration for Malaysia’sNational Identification Card “MyKad”.
  




• PKI Iinfrastructure for E-government and E-business Transactions
  




• Secure Document Storage System
  




• Project Management and Application System Development




• Security Consultancy & Outsourcing Services

Example of application of third party certification programme in Malaysia:

In Malaysia, MyKad (national identity card) with PKI capability allows the holder as the Malaysian to conduct online transaction with government agencies and private sectors.

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Phishing: Examples and Its Prevention Method

What is Phishing?

Phishing or brand spoofing is the illegal act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.

Most people associate phishing with e-mail messages that mimic banks, credit card companies or other business like Amazon and eBay but some scammer also seek out victims through SMS,chat rooms, message boards and fake job search sites. Phishing is one of an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users.

Below are the examples of phishing

via E-mail



via Online Banking



via Ebay Subcription



and also via Government Link



Phone Phishing



In addition, vishing (voice phishing) which is often facilitated by Voice over IP (VoIP) also uses fake caller-ID data to give the appearance that calls come from a trusted organization. According to Phrenzie.com, phone phishing has been on the rise due to difficulties in tracing and monitoring by legal authorities.

How to prevent Phishing Scams?

1) Avoid filling out forms in email messages that ask for personal financial information. You should only communicate information such as credit card numbers or account information via a secure website or the telephone.

2) Don't use the links in an email, instant message, or chat to get to any web page if you suspect the message might not be authentic or you don't know the sender or user's handle instead, call the company on the telephone, or log onto the website directly by typing in the Web adress in your browser.

3) Ensure that your browser is up to date and security patches applied.

4) Consider installing a Web browser tool bar to help protect you from known fraudulent websites. These toolbars match where you are going with lists of known phisher Web sites and will alert you.
(EarthLink ScamBlocker is part of a browser toolbar that is free to all Internet users - download at http://www.earthlink.net/earthlinktoolbar)

5) Use a strong or different password for each of your accounts & change them frequently.

6) Always report "phishing" or “spoofed” e-mails to the following group:
forward the email to reportphishing@antiphishing.org. This can helped to reduce phishing troubles.


"Phishing Facts"

-> 13,776 phishing attacks linked to 5,259 Web sites took place in August of 2005.
-> They targeted 84 different businesses, but three businesses received 80 percent of the attacks.
-> 85 percent of the attacks targeted banks and other financial institutions.
-> Phishers succeed in getting personal information from up to five percent of their intended victims.
-> 57 million U.S. Internet users have received at least one phishing e-mail, and as many as 1.7 million have given personal information to the attacker

(Source: HowStuffWorks,2006)

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History and Evolution of E-Commerce

The origin of commerce by exchanging goods occurred before recorded history, barter system, as you all know are one of the traditional ways where goods are traded in everyday life. Now, entering into the electronic era, the way individuals and organizations do business and undertake commercial transactions have been changed. This indicates the movement towards electronic commerce. This means there is no paper work and physical interaction is limited, if at all.

E-commerce has grown; it's estimated that 72 million users shopped online on "CyberMonday," on November 26, 2007.


Amazon and eBay are the main pioneers when it comes to selling online. The history of e-commerce owes a great debt to Amazon and eBay. These companies revolutionized the face of the Internet, as well as the way we buy things. Today, the history of ecommerce moves forward. There are a number of payment options and abilities, from PayPal to e-Checks to credit cards as well.

Amazon provided one of the first full-scale e-commerce business models.


Now, lets have a deeper insight on the evolution of e-commerce.

As far back as the 1960s, businesses were using primitive computer networks to conduct electronic transactions. Using something called Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), it helps to extend interbusiness transactions such as order forms, invoices from financial institution to other types of business and also provides transactions and information exchange from suppliers to end customers. This type of exchange became increasingly important as credit cards became a part of the commerce landscape.

Eventually, EDI was replaced by ASC X12 due to limitation to special networks where EDI are costly and complex to administer for small businesses. ASC X12 is a universal protocol developed by the American National Standards Institute in 1979, designed for sharing business documents and information electronically.

Prior to that, in the late 1960s, ARPAnet was being developed by the military for communications purposes. Back then, ARPAnet was the source of the “dial up” mode of accessing a computer system.

The greatest networking evolution came in 1982, when ARPAnet switched over to Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), the same packet-switched technology that powers the modern Internet. Instead of sending signals individually along one route, TCP/IP uses packets, sending information along different routes.

During the 1990s, the internet was open for commercial use; it was also the period that users started to participate in World Wide Web (WWW). Due to rapid expansion of the WWW network, e-commerce software; and the peer business competitions, large number of dot-coms and Internet start-ups appeared.

One of the first examples of e-commerce is Compuserve, providing tools such as e-mail, message boards, chat rooms and an added service call Electronic Mall, where users could purchase items directly from 110 online merchants.

Here is a chart of e-commerce growth from 1999-2006(in billions)


And here's a video about the evolution of e-commerce




(Sources:
www.wikipedia.org
www.howstuffworks.com
www.bestshoppingcartsreview.com
www.youtube.com)

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E-Commerce Success & Its Causes

Nowadays, the usage of technology have been adapt into human's life. Mostly, computer user will search information through the internet to increase their knowledge and awareness as well as fulfill their personal requirement. Besides that, the "money-creater" such as business man will involve in e-commerce [ the marketing, buying and selling of products and services on the internet.(Awars,2004)] as a short path to expand their business to gain profit and increase its organization reputation. One of the E-Commerce success is "GOOGLE".

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. Google Inc. is an American public corporation and involve in internet and computer software industry. It earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. The Google Inc. gain net income , US$4.227 billion and its total capital is US$31.768 billion in year 2008.
(Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google)

David Drummond, Google's General Counsel pointed to 4 factors as the key to Google's success:

1. 
   
   Technology. Along with its innovative approach to page ranking, Google is a purpose-built hardware company, building all its own servers from components it buys directly for their manufacturers. According to Drummond, Google now operates the world's largest distributed computer system.


2. 
   
   Business Model Innovation. By perfecting the nature of targeted ads, Google not only has created a highly effective revenue generator, it has produced what it hopes to be a better experience for its users. It is Google's goal to make their targeted ads at least as relevant and useful to users as the search results themselves.


3. 
   
   Brand. According to Drummond, a European study recently determined Google to be the number one most recognized worldwide brand. Indeed, Google has become a verb ("I can't wait to get home and Google him") which poses real challenges to a company seeking to protect the strength of its mark.


4. 
   
   Focus On The User Experience. Product decisions at Google are driven by optimizing for the user experience first and for revenue second. The folks at Google firmly believe that the better the user experience, the more easily money will follow.

Retrieved from:http://ventureblog.com/articles/2003/05/4_keys_to_googl.php

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Revenue model and comparison of Google, Ebay and Amazon

Revenue model outlines how the organizations or e-commerce companies will generate profits. 5 major revenue models nowadays are sales, transaction fees, subscription fees, advertising fees, affiliate fees, and other revenue sources.

Sales revenue model: A company gets the revenue by selling goods, information or services.

Transaction fee revenue model: A company receives a commission for enabling or executing a transaction. It is based on the volume of transactions made.

Subscription revenue model: A company charges a subscription fee for the users that access to the content and services offered.

Advertising revenue model: A company provides a forum for advertisements and receives fees from the companies that advertise their products.

Affiliate revenue model: A company receives commissions for referring customers to others web sites.

Google offers targeted advertising solutions and global Internet search solutions. Its principal products and services include:

Google AdWords: Google AdWords is a pay per click advertising program of Google designed to allow the advertisers to present advertisements to people at the instant the people are looking for information related to what the advertiser has to offer. 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.

Pay per Click Advertising: Pay-Per-Click (PPC) is the best way to send immediate, targeted traffic to your website. It is an online advertising payment model in which payment is based onqualifying click-throughs. An advertiser has to pay every time his ad receives a click.

Google AdSense: AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, video advertisements on their sites. Revenue is generated on a per-click or per-thousand-ads-displayed basis and the ads are administered by Google. AdSense program includes AdSense for search and AdSense for content.

Google’s new revenue model:Google is currently testing a new advertising program that pays site owners based on a Cost-Per-Click model. The program, called Cost-Per-Action, was revealed via an invitation e-mail from the Google AdSense team to Web site owners.

EBay is an online auction and shopping website in which people buy and sell goods and services worldwide. Buyers are allowed to browsing and bidding on items which free of charge, but the sellers will be charged. The charges are based on promotional fees, insertion fees and final value fees which are the main revenue of eBay.

Insertion fees : A nonrefundable fee which will be charged when an item listed on eBay. Where promotional fee will be charged for additional listing options that help attract attention for an item, such as bold listings or highlighted. Final value fee is a commission that charged to the seller at the end of the auction.

Promotional fees: Fees that charged for additional listing options that help attract attention for an item, such as highlighted or bold listings.

Final value fees: Commission that charged to the seller at the end of the auction.

Furthermore, Ebay generate revenue by sales revenue model through its subsidiary, Half.com, offers fixed price, person-to-person selling of goods, including books, CDs, videos and games, charging a 15% commission on completed sales.

Additionally, a portion of Ebay’s revenue also comes from direct advertising on the site, as well as end to end service providers whose services increase the speed of transactions. The acquisition of PayPal, whose products allow the exchange of money over the Internet, brings additional transaction based fee revenue.

Amazon was one of the first major companies to sell goods by Internet. Amazon generates revenue primarily by selling books, videos, electronics, and kitchen equipment on domestic and international Web sites, such as Amazon Marketplace.

Amazon Marketplace is Amazon.com’s fixed price online marketplace that allows sellers to offer their goods alongside Amazon’s offerings. Buyers can buy new and used items sold directly by a third party through Amazon.com using Amazon Marketplace. This sales strategy and program has been very profitable for Amazon.com.

Amazon charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a transaction fee, and a variable closing fee. Which are sales revenue model and transaction fee revenue model.Moreover, Amazon.com also generates revenue by Affiliate revenue model. Amazon was one of the first online businesses to set up an affiliate marketing program. AStore is an Amazon.com affiliate product which website owners can use to create an online store on their site. The store does not allow website owners to sell their own products directly. Website owners pick products from Amazon’s store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by their readers. The fee structure is currently the same as for the other affiliate links and ranges from 4% to 10% of the product price.

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