How to Safeguard Our Personal and Financial Data

Try to imagine this illustration: You love to do online shopping. Usually you will log in as member and use credit card for payment of the product. Recently you heard your friend said the website that you usually log in as member to do online shopping is being hacked by online hackers. You are so worried that your personal data would be stolen, especially your password that you use for logging in. This illustration fully described the importance of safeguarding for computer users nowadays. There are more and more people using computers to carry out their daily work, even companies make use of computers to do their ordinary business transactions. Therefore, online security is crucial in today's world to safeguard our personal and financial data.

There is some suggestions to protect your personal and financial data:

1. Install a firewall
Firewall referred to a system that is responsible to block unauthorized access and allowing authorized communication. Firewall act as a guard in front of our computer to block all unapproved users to log into our computer network.

Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firewall_(networking)



2. Password control
Password has to be created before access into any personal data to ensure no other one else can simply access to our data. However, the password has to be strong enough or complicated to avoid other from guessing your password correctly. Many of the website has enable users to log in using their password, however it seems not secured enough to safeguard our personal and financial data. This is just a preliminary stage in protecting our privacy. It is recommended to change password frequently as to prevent others from hacking into the data.



3. Encryption
Some information that are private and confidential should be encrypted. Encryption enable readable data to convert into unreadable characteristic so that others unable to read the data. It is a useful method to prevent others from stealing private data from the computer.



4. Do not access financial information publicly
Please avoid to access personal financial account when using public wireless or at public computer. Public wireless or computer not like our own personal computer, they are more easier to hacked by others.



5. Install antivirus or antispyware programs

This is the most common way to protect your data. Every personal computer should have one antivirus program to ensure clean file or information saved in computers. Norton, AVG or other antivirus sofware could help you to avoid viruses and attacked by intruders. In an addition, it is important to update your antivirus programs frequently.




6. Do not access to unknown site or download unknown file
It is essential to have knowledge that all unknown site or file might contained viruses. Therefore, please do not simply access to it as once you clicked on it, there will be a chance for the intruders. Besides, any pop-out that appeared on the screen should be ignored.

The Threat of online security: How Safety is our data?

The used of internet has become fundamental in our daily life. It has been widely used in different networks such as education, business and banking as well as government networks. However, organization continuously exposes to the threat of online security. The threat of online security that organizations face was different and it will lead to substantial financial losses for the organization.

Nowadays,people often face with problem that their personal data is being accessed by unauthorized user. Hence,now we have to know that there are two types of attacks which are called non technical and technical. The word non technical attack is defined as an attack that is a collection of techniques to manipulate someone to perform an action or revealing private information that compromise a network or computer. Social engineering is examples of non technical attack whereby the hacker make use of human weaknesses to influence people provide confidential information rather than invest their time to break the access control system. Phishing is an example of social engineering attack whereby email users will receive fraudulent email that requires he or she provide their password or any other private information to update their personal account data. In fact, it is a technique used by social engineer to private information.Those are examples of non technical attack which is one of the threat of online security which will harm personal confidential data.

Below is an example of fraudulent email:

On the other hand, technical attack is defined as attack that using software and system knowledge to gain access to private information. The most common types of technical attack include the virus, worm and Trojan Horse.

Virus is a program that attaches itself to a legitimate program to penetrate the operating system and destroy application program, data files and the operating system itself. Virus has the ability to spread throughout the host system and on the other systems before perpetrating its destructive acts. Personal computer always encounter with virus penetration. This is particularly when connecting in a network where the infected personal computer can upload the virus to the host system. Subsequently, the virus will spread throughout the operating system and to other user. Virus will be spreading via email attachment, downloading free program from the internet and so on.

Besides, Worm is a software program that hides into the computer memory and replicate itself into different area memory. Worms is different from Virus because it can be replicated systematically without transfer as part of host. Other than that , Trojan Horse is also an example of technical attack. It is a program that aims to obtain the IDs and passwords from private users. It able mimic normal log on procedures of the operating system. Trojan Horse will save a copy of those confidential data in a secret file when the users entering their IDs and password. Ultimately, Trojan Horse’s author can access to the system by using those IDs and password. Worm and Trojan horse are also another ways where confidential data will be hacked by the unauthorized user.

As a conclusion, there is substantial number of threat of online security and users’ data has become less safety as a result of advancement in technology. Therefore, proper safeguard like firewall and antivirus software should be used in order to encounter with the risk of online security.

References:

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

Identify and compare the revenue model: Google Vs Amazon.com Vs eBay

Google revenue model

More than 90% of Google yearly income is generated by advertising revenue model. Google revenue model consists of the Google AdWord, Pay per click Advertising, Google AdSense, Google Answer and Froogle.

(i)Google AdWord – Most percentage Google revenue is generated from here. It is a pay per click advertising program of google which is designed to allocate the advertisers to present advertisement to people. At the moments, people can view the related information that have been made by advertiser through the advertisement. In addition, you can easily let people know about your services and products when people visiting the web pages.


(ii) Pay per Click Advertising (PPC) – PPC enables an advertiser easily sign up and manage an account online. Beside, it is an online advertising payment model and the payment is counted based of the number of people clicking and looking your products and services.



(iii) Google AdSense – Website users can sign up this program to allow text, image, and video advertisements in their sites. Revenue is generated from per-click or per- thousand-ads-displayed basis and the ads are administered by Google.



(iv) Google Answers – It is an Internet search and research service offered for a fee by Google. Every question asked by customers, customers can offer the price for answer and researcher will answer them. The researcher was not the Google members. Prices for each question range $2 to $200. After the researcher answer the question, 25% of the payment will keep by Google and the less for the researcher.


(v) Froogle- It is one of the services in Google. It helps to get the products and services information online. Froogle is a price engine website launched by Google. Inc. It is different from the most normal price engine in which it is neither charges for any fee for listings, nor accept the payment for product show up. The company can submit their product information (via a “data feed”) and included on it. The product advertising will be displayed in Froogle in the form of an AdWords ad.




Amazon

Next to eBay, Amazon is the best online website for businesses. Amazon has “Earth’s biggest selection”, there are 16 million items has been sold on it website. It has added music, video, gifts, and greeting cards to the books it offers to 8.4 million customers. Beside, Amazon allows customers to submit reviews to the web page of each product and do rating on each product.

Other than that , Amazon generates revenue from Affiliate fees. Amazon was the first online businesses that set up an affiliate marketing program. Example of the affiliate marketing program is AStore. It allows users to create an online store in their site. The website owners will pick products from Amazon’s store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by their readers.

Amazon also generates revenue by sales revenue model and transaction fee revenue model. Amazon earns the revenue through the Amazon Marketplace by the sales. Amazon Marketplace allows buyer to buy a new or used items which sold directly by a sellers in the Amazon.com. Therefore, Amazon can charge a commission based on the sale price and transaction fee and a variable closing fee.








eBay is an online auction and shopping website which people having businesses buy and sell a broad variety goods and services worldwide. Nowadays, eBay has more than 2 million items for auction daily and 3.8 million registered members. EBay generates revenue from a number of fees such as insertion fees, promotional fees, and final value fees.

Insertion fees: When an item is published in eBay, this nonrefundable fee is charged.

Promotional fees: Fee 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.

In addition, people can bid their products and buy their products any place and anytime. Bidding on ebay’s auction-style listing is called proxy bidding. The winning bidder will pay the second-highest bid plus one bid increment amount, instead of simply the second-highest bid. However, since the bid increment amount is relatively insignificant compared to the bid size and they are not considered from a strategical standpoint. The highest amount who bid by bidders will become the winner in the auction.





Reference:
Different google, amazon and ebay

Google Revenue Model

ebay Vs Amazon

An Example of an E-commerce Failure and its Causes

Kozmo.com was established in 1997 by Joseph Park and Yong Kang in US. It is a grocery shop and with a mission that deliver product within an hour when customer need it. Kozmo.com offered four major product categories: entertainment, food, basics, and specialty. At first, delivery fees were free of charge and as a result that Kozmo was growing more popular followed by large business expansion, yet this free delivery service was actually caused Kozmo losing money in every single order. Kozmo expand quickly in year 2000 from six locations to 11 cities, included Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, New York, Los Angeles, Portland (Ore.), San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego, and Washington, D.C.. But, a dot.com crash happened and in year 2001, Kozmo.com announced to shut down its operation and lay off its 1100 employees. For more information please visit News.CNET.

Causes:

Free Delivery Services

Free delivery services contribute part of its failure as the costs of delivery were high. For example, it is too costly while the order is just a CD which has low profit margin. It caused the company to lost money in such a situation, maybe there is a profit, but it won’t be high.

Ambitious Expansion

Kozmo aimed to deliver product to customer within an hour when customer need it. As Kozmo expand its business in more and more cities, the employees became incapability to deliver product on time.

Slow Reaction

Kozmo react too slow when NASDAQ stock market had a sharp fall and dried up the public market. At that time, Kozmo seem not profitable enough and it didn’t change its business approach as quickly before the market condition change.

Shift of Target Market

They shift their target market from middle class college-students to upscale clients who would be able to afford more expensive product.

Withdrawn of Investors' Fund

The withdrawn of investors’ fund caused a merger with PDQuick, a Los Angeles company failed. If this merger would had happen, it gives Kozmo more resources to continue stay in operation.

References :

Jayson Blair(2001-04-13). "Behind Kozmo's Demise: Thin Profit Margins". Retrieved on 2009-06-15.

Wu, John C.(2001-11-01). "Anatomy of a Dot-Com". Retrieved on 2009-06-15.

An Example of an E-Commerce Success and its causes

About Dell
In year 1984, Dell was established by Michael Dell and began by selling its’ own brands of personal computer. At the beginning, Dell is operated based on the direct order model and taking order through phone as well as producing personal computer based on customer requirement. However, Dell began to change its’ business model to a company that is used E-Commerce to conduct its’ business activities. Dell has expanded its’ business by offering its’ product online and continuous produce innovative product to meet the demand of e-commerce market. Therefore, Dell is now well known as “Virtual Company” that used E-commerce.

Success Factor of Dell


(i) Customer Satisfaction

Dell has become a well known E-commerce company and mainly due to the customer satisfaction. Previously, Dell dealt with its’ customer through phone for receiving their order. However, Dell has offered its’ customer with wide range of products and allowed them to order different component of computer electronically. Therefore, it will lead to cutting down of order processing time as well as ordering time which will subsequently increase the customers’ satisfaction. In addition, Dell has also provided customer support services by sending technician to homes to service personal computer.

(ii) Cost Saving

With the implementation of e-commerce in Dell, it can lead to cost saving as a results of moving its’ customer from phone to internet. The cost of customer services support via internet is faster and cheaper as compared through phone. The cost per call is approximately $ 20 while via internet is about $ 2 per visit. Therefore, Dell has obtained increase in revenue due to the cost saving.

(iii) Customized Product

Dell has provided various choice of product via internet. Customer can choose different combination of component such as size of hard drive and speed of the processor. Besides that, Dell continuously produces new features of personal computer in order to align with the demand in e-commerce market as well as retain the customer loyalty and attract potential customer.

(iv) Innovative Culture

Nowadays, company that desires to operate an e-commerce business globally has become harder and harder due to the increase number of competitors. Competitors progressively create competitive advantage in order to become the best in the e-commerce market. Dell is emphasized on improving their product and services to ensure the sustainability of the company. It has created a team that responsible to develop creative idea. They does not stop their effort to improve their business processes from time to time.

(v) Investment in Information Technology

Dell has been made some investment in Information System. They have done this because of the businesses environment today is growing rapidly and unpredictable. It also lead the company to become more structure and more competitive. Thus, they use the information system for competitive advantage which involved systems that link an organization to suppliers, distribution channels, or customers. In general, Dell uses these systems for the information or processing capabilities in the company in order to improve the company’s performance and to improve relationships among the company.

References:

Sensiz (2008-05-19). "WikiAnswers : Dell Key Success Factors". Retrieved on 2009-06-16.

Michael Dell. " Dell : The Secrets to His Success". Retrieved on 2009-06-16.

The History and Evolution of E-commerce

E-commerce is the acronym that stands for Electronic-Commerce. The term E-Commerce had been created in early 1990s when the internet became more commercialized and more users were involving in World Wide Web. According to the history of E-commerce, the term e-commerce refers to the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies. Such technologies are electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) which was created in the late 1960s to enable the information exchange and business transaction to be done electronically. EDI permits electronically transfer of routine documents, while EFT allows the funds to be routed electronically from one area to another area. With the existence of EDI and EFT, E-Commerce applications were developed in the early 1970s.

In 1979, the concept of online shopping was introduced by UK based on Michael Aldrich. However, some problem arose such as growing of unauthorized hacking. Subsequently, invention of credit cards, automated teller machines and telephonic banking had indirectly brought in ideas to company to improve the E-Commerce. In addition, the development of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) was further encouraging the development of E-commerce. DSL allowed users to access to the internet more efficient and persistent. Furthermore, the implementation of Web 2.0 also contributes to the evolution of the E-Commerce. The term “Web 2.0” was created by O’Reilly Media in 2004. Sometime, it is called “read-write” web. According to Wikipedia, Web 2.0 is refers to a perceived second generation of web development and web design, that facilitates communication, secures information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the World Wide Web. Those internet-based services can be done through social networking sites, wikis, communication tools and folk-sonomies. For example, Web 2.0 allows users to retrieve information, upload and share photos.

In 1995, Amazon.com and eBay.com had been launched. They were the first and biggest E-Commerce which enables electronic transaction during that period. Currently, there are five largest and famous worldwide E-Commerce retailers; they are Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard. Generally, most of the E-commerce companies are selling music, books, computers and other electronics through internet.

E-Commerce activities will grow in the future as users find it convenient to purchase items through internet without physically travel to the shops.

Generally, the history and evolution of E-Commerce can be summarized as follow:

Adapted from E-Commerce as Revenue Stream