E-Government in Malaysia: Its Implementation so Far and Citizen's Adoprtion Strategies

In general, E-government is an abbreviation of the phrase electronic government. It is the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) to improve the activities of public sector organisations. The implementation of e-government begins since the launch of Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) by Malaysia government. It was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. The vision of e-government is to bring the government, businesses and citizens working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens. Its implementation in Malaysia has improved tremendously and has achieved a greater result.


E-government is one of the seven flagship applications introduced in MSC. Under this flagship, seven main projects were identified to be the core of e-government applications.



The e-government projects are

1) Project Monitoring System (PMS)
It is an online system created to monitor the implementation of government project, such as the entire lifecycle of national program (i.e: from the project application to approval to implementation, mid-term review and completion).

2) Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
This is an integrated, technological Human Resource Management Information System for the Malaysia Public Service, incorporating Global Best practices in human resource that can deal with the challenges of the K-Economy. In other words, it standardizes all human processes for federal, state, statutory body, and local authority services.

3) Generic Office Environment (GOE)
This is a powerful document and office management solution that enables users to effectively and efficiently manage their office environment. It introduces a fully integrated, distributed and scalable office environment that leverages use of multimedia technology which in term allows efficient communication.

4) Electronic Procurement (EP)
It is a system which enables suppliers to sell goods and services to the Government through the internet. Suppliers market their goods, present their pricing, process orders and deliveries by “opening a shop” on the World Wide Web.

5) Electronic Service (E-Services)
This is a project that allows citizens of Malaysia to engage in the transactions with government and utilises payment such as telephone and electricity bills, police summons and etc. This is accessed via multi channel service delivery like the Internet and kiosk machines.

6)Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX)
This project is a stop-centre for labor market information that will be accessible to public.

7)E- Syariah
This seventh project, E-Syariah is a case management syaytem that integrates the processes related to managing cases for the Syariah courts. This system application consists of Syariah Court Management System, Office Automation System, E-Syariah Portal, Syarie Lawyers Registration System and Library Management System.


Citizen's adoption Strategies


In order to encourage citizens to adopt e- government, the government must build citizen's trust in government, in the Internet, and also in the compatibility of the e- government system.

The government should also create awareness among citizens about e- government. This can be done through giving seminars, putting advertisement in television, published in newspapers, or advertisement through radios.

In addition, government should inform citizens about the advantages of e- government. For example, government could encourage the adoption of online license renewal by emphasizing its convenience and speed compared to the traditional method of visiting the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) office. Online license renewal can be completed from the home or office at anytime. It can be done anywhere that is convenient to the citizens. The online service is also quicker than the traditional method since citizens do not have to travel to a physical branch of the DMV and then wait in line.

Reference:

• http://www.mait.com/admin/enews_images/MAIT%20Country%20Intelligence%20eNews96_37.pdf
  

• http://www.intanbk.intan.my/psimr/articles/Article1%20-%20Full.pdf
  

• http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-e-government.htm
  

• http://www.egov4dev.org/success/definitions.shtml

• http://www.ejeg.com/volume-2/volume2-issue-1/v2-i1-art2-carter.pdf

• http://www.dcc.ufla.br/infocomp/artigos/v7.2/art01.pdf

A Review on a Post on Legal from My E-Commerce blog

I have read a post entitled “New Rules for Cyber Cafes Soon” on Legal from My E-Commerce blog. It is stated in the post that Malaysian government is setting up new guidelines to be enforced on Internet and cyber cafes in order to control these businesses and prevent them from causing social ill.


In my opinion, some of these new rules may be inappropriate to be applied and will cause great losses to those businesses. One of the guidelines is that those cyber cafes have to be closed by midnight. In my opinion, this is quite inapplicable because most of the youngsters visit cyber cafes late at night and stay there for a long time, even after midnight. One of the reasons for them to visit cyber cafes is their long operating hours which extend to late midnight, and some even operate for 24hours. This is the main feature of cyber cafes and it is hard for it to be changed. If the rule is applied, they may experience great losses.

On the other hand, the rule of having a book log to record the entry and departure time of the patrons is inappropriate and unnecessary. Most of the patrons might end up filling up false details, such as false names, false identification card numbers, or even false signatures. It may end up be a useless recording and it is a waste of time doing it.

Therefore, the government should revise those guidelines to ensure its usefulness and that it brings more pros than cons to the society.



However, some new rules are beneficial to the society. For example, cyber cafes are not allowed to use tinted glasses. Some youngsters may skip their tuition classes or run out of schools to go to these places secretly without the knowledge of their families. Therefore, non- tinted glasses may make them feel uncomfortable and reduce the chances for them to do so.



The rule saying that those under 12 years old must be accompanied by parents or guardian and only allowed to stay up to 10 pm is also advantageous. Young children should be discouraged to go to these places, especially without parents’ consents. They should also avoid hanging around at outside til late night.

In addition, the rules which prohibit cyber cafes from selling cigarettes and alcohols, providing gambling, pornography, music and publications with negative element is good for the society. These harmful items and unconstructive elements should be eliminated to avoid those naïve youngsters from being contaminated. It is an important step to be taken in order to build a healthy society.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to achieve its organizational goals. Corporations are looking for opportunities to make them more outstanding and competitive. There are two main corporate blogs which are internal blog and external blog.

Internal blog is accessed through the corporation’s intranet. It is a weblog that any employee can view. Through the internal blogs employees can participate and discuss corporate issues. It encourages direct communication between various layers of an organization and shows a sense of community.


External blogs is a publicly available weblog where employees, teams or spokespersons can share their views. It is used to announce new products and services, to explain and clarify policies or to react on public criticism on certain issues.

Corporate weblog shows a company's culture and is less formal than traditional press releases. Corporate weblog is a representation of the company’s values, beliefs, philosophy and direction. It helps the company to achieve transparency. It allows companies to communicate their products and affairs with their customers in a more casual environment.

Corporate blogging let customers know that the company cares about their opinions. Customers are able to interact with the company by leaving comments and providing valuable feedbacks or insights that can be brought back into the business. Through these communications, companies can find better ways to satisfy customers' needs and wants, thus facilitating goodwill in the community.

Corporate weblog is also a form of advertising for companies because it allows everyone to access to it and it is the best way to reach to many readers. Thus, company's brand can stay fresh in customers' mind. For those customers who are interested in a particular company, they will constantly access to the website to know more about their products and new promotions offered. For that reason, corporate weblog builds brand awareness and loyalty and increase brand visibility.


This website is about benefit of corporate weblog, if you are interested u can refer to it.
http://www.scoutblogging.com/2006/04/what_are_the_benefits_of_corpo.html

The website below is about 15 companies that really get corporate blogging. If you are interesting you can view it as extra information.

http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2008/08/08/15-companies-that-really-get-corporate-blogging/

A discussion on E-learning offered in Malaysia universities: Pros and Cons from the students Perspective

In this new era, the traditional teaching method applied by Universities has evolved into a technological method through the introduction of e-learning. Well, e-learning is the modem process of education where part of the learning experience takes place without face to face communication between the teacher and his students. This is a method where tutors or lecturers post up several course modules on the university intranet, and students will have the access to these sources. However, there are some pros and cons in adopting these technologies.

The pros of e-learning include reduction of travelling cost and time. With e-learning, students can access to the internet and get the resource that are needed in seconds without the need to travel all the way to the college to get those resources. This helps students to save the transport costs, which then can be used for other necessary areas. Besides that, it allows students to get resources anywhere they want as long as they have the access to a computer and internet.

Another advantage of e-learning is that it provides wider learning options for students, where it is not restricted to the geographic location. In other words, it means that a student studying in Malaysia can still access to the resources uploaded by foreign University. This makes the life of a student easier in his process of study and learn more about foreign knowledge. This also builds a link between local and foreign students from all over the world. Furthermore, more information or opinions can be exchanged among them.


Although e-learning provides benefits, there are also some inevitable cons. One of the cons of using e-learning is that it might be a bit costly. In order to use e-learning, certain installation costs are needed, such as high-speed internet costs and software applications. Therefore, it requires some costs to implement e-learning.

Besides that, unmotivated learners or students with poor study habits might find it difficult to follow e-learning as they are not familiar with the structure and routine of the process. They may require much more time to understand it.

E-learning sometimes might not be working successfully due to the slow or unreliable internet connections. This may cause inability to access to the resources or inability to upload the resources in time.

Problem with developing relationship with classmates might also occur. With the reliance on e-learning, face-to-face interaction is lesser leading to lack of social relationship development in the society.

References:
http://www.about-elearning.com/e-learning-advantages-and-disadvantages.html
http://www.elearners.com/resources/elearning-faq5.asp

The Application of Prepaid Cash Cards for Consumers

Are you worry that you will get yourself into debts for using credit cards? That will not be a problem now because there are two good alternatives for credit cards, which are debit cards and prepaid cash cards. Both of these cards offer the same ability as credit cards to purchase products and services.

Many people might think that prepaid cash card is the same as debit card. However, there is a major difference between them. Prepaid cash cards can be loaded with money and used as a debit card, but it is not linked to a bank account with an overdraft facility. We cannot borrow money with a prepaid card; we can only spend the money we have loaded onto it.


Therefore, by using prepaid cash card, there is no risk of running into debt as it has no credit or overdraft facility. Money can be loaded onto a prepaid card by cash at a bank, Post Office, at Payzone or PayPoint terminals or via a bank transfer. However, not all prepaid providers offer all of these loading options, and users need to find out when choosing a prepaid cash card.


Prepaid cash cards can be used for the following purposes:

1) Shopping

It can be used to shop and purchase items as long as the card is accepted at the retail shop. It can also be used for internet shopping and telephone purchases. Prepaid cash card is safer to be used compared to carrying cash around. It also enables us to spend according to our budget.




2) Bill payment

It can be used to pay for our rental, utilities expenses, insurance payment, car payment, and mobile phone’s bill. shop & pay bills online, make hotel & car rental reservations, and purchase goods & services wherever Visa or MasterCard is accepted. Besides that, it is more secure to use prepaid cash card rather than carrying cash around and it enables the person to start spending according to a budget as well.

3) Cash withdrawal from ATMs

Prepaid cash card can be used to withdraw cash from ATM at anytime.



4) Transfer of Money

Some prepaid cash cards provide the service of sending or receiving money via bank wire transfers, between two cards.

5) Toll payment

For example, Touch and Go card can be used at all highways in Malaysia, major public transports in Klang Valley, selected parking sites and theme park.


6) Replacement for travellers’ cash

Carrying prepaid cash card as we travel is much safer than carrying around large amounts of cash.


Here are the websites relevant to prepaid cash cards:

• Advantages of Prepaid Cash Cards

• MasterCard Gift, Travel and General Purpose Prepaid cards

Electronic Currency

What is electronic currency?

Electronic currency can be known as e-money, electronic cash, digital cash, digital currency and digital money. In other words, electronic currency is referring to money or scrip which is exchanged electronically with the use of computer network, the internet and digital stored value systems. Examples of the systems used to transfer electronic currency are Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT).

Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT)
This is a computer-based systems used to perform financial transaction electronically. It is a system that transfers money from one bank account directly to another without any paper transaction being done. The most common program that use electronic funds transfer is direct deposit where the payroll of an employee’s is deposited straight into their bank accounts. Besides that, the transfer of funds is done through an electronic terminal, including credit card, ATM, Fedwire and point-of-sales (POS).

Advantages of electronic currency:

Convenience

With the development of E-currency, it makes customers' life more convenient as there is no need for cash to be drawn out for any payment. Now, it is convenient to load the cash into a credit card size like “smart card” which is easy to be carried anywhere. Besides that, it also provides privacy for customer to shop online using credit card rather than original bank account. Banking industry has now adapted this program, which offers customers the ability to transfer funds, purchase stocks, contribute to their retirement plans ( for Canadian) and various services without the need to hand over physical cash or checks. It also makes it more convenient for the customers where they do not need to wait in line for hours and hours.

Security

With the use of E-currency, it makes it safer in this unpretictable world. As mentioned previously, users do not need to bare the risk of being robbed for carrying physical cash. With highly developed technologies such as security codes, the users' personal information is protected. As the E-currency is transfered in the internet, it is impossible to crack the digital sign with those developed technologies. Besides that, the electronic currency information is encrypted so it is impossible for the digital data to be read by unauthorised people.

Disadvantages of electronic currency:








Fraud

Although digital cash have some benefits, yet; it have disadvantages too. One of the disadvantages is fraud, such as incidents like bank accounts being hacked and illegal retrieval of banking records which can lead to a widespread invasion of privacy and identify theft.

Technology failure

Technologies may be very advance but they will definitely have some weakness. Reliance on technologies may lead to loss of record due to the power failure or incompetent software. All these problems may cause a major setback in the introduction of e-currency.

Privacy

Users may fear to use electronic currency such as debit card. This might be due to the reason where they are afraid that their privacy will be interfered and their private information will be widely spreaded.

Examples of those websites that allow people to do e-currency tradings are MG E-currency and JT GOLD.com.

Reference:

http://www.businesspme.com/uk/articles/trade/90/Electronic-money---advantages-and-disadvantages.html

http://www.iit.edu/~peacjen/cs485/ecash2.htm

Credit Card debts : Causes and Prevention

Credit card is a plastic card with a magnetic strip or embedded microchip that is connected to a credit accout and can be used to buy goods or services. It provides extra financial freedom. If it is used properly, it is a convenient and great budgeting tool. If credit card is being used inappropriately, it can be a start of your nightmare and cause stress in your daily life.


Causes of Credit Card debts

1. Unemployment
High credit card debts can happen when main breadwinner of household losses his job but monthly expenses are not being cut down. The family will be forced to use credit card to pay utilities, groceries, and etc.It then leads to a rise in debt.

2. No saving cushion
We often hear the phrase of “having enough savings for a rainy day is always a worthwhile investment”. People should save at least 4-6 months of living expenses to use it when unfortunate tragedy happens. For example, if you lose your job on 1st June, you shall have enough money to maintain your current lifestyle until 1st December of that year. Therefore, during these unfortunate events, people without any saving need to use credit card to pay for their daily expenses.

3. Poor money management
A poor money management plan causes many people to accumulate lots of debt. They may not have monthly spending plan or do not keep track of their monthly expenses. Thus, they are unaware of where their money has been spent. They may spend hundreds of dollar to buy unnecessary items but they do not realise it, thus leading to high credit card debts.

4. High medical expenses
When family members suffer serious illness, credit card may be the only source of fund to pay off the unpaid balance of medical expenses when health insurance cannot cover the whole medical bill.

Prevention of Credit Cards debts

1. Manage your finance
Credit card users should determine their monthly income and needed expenses. As part of these monthly expenses, they should figure in 5%-10% of their income for emergencies. They can save this money in short term saving. Having some saving can avoid using credit card for emergency payments.

2. Always pay on time
Paying on time is one of the best solutions to avoid debt. People who can control their finance, their money and manage their card payment schedules are rarely to incur high credit card debt.

3. Cut your cards
Credit card users should cut their extra cards so that they are not tempted to use them. They should only keep the one with lowest interest rate for emergency usage.

4. Shop for the right card
This is an important initial step regarding credit card use. We should choose the credit card with no or very low fees and low interest charge.

5. Self control and discipline
People who use credit card should have good self control and self-discipline in spending. They should control themselves by limiting their credit card amount to avoid overspending.

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies

Mobile payment (M-payment) is a point-of-sale payment made through a mobile device, such as cellular telephone, smartphone and personal digital assistant (PDA). The mobile payment can be used to purchase digital goods and physical goods.
There are four primary models for mobile payments:
• Premium SMS based transactional payments
• Direct Mobile Billing
• Mobile web Payment (WAP)
• Contactless NFC (Near Field Communication)

For more explaination about these four models of mobile payments, you can visit the website below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment

The use of mobile payment in Malaysia has been increasing. This is because it provides convenience to users such as reducing the need of coins and cash in small transactions.
For Premium SMS based transactional payment, users use premium SMS to download wallpaper, music, ring tones and mobile games. Each SMS sent is being charged. It is a convenient way to make payment.

Nokia and Visa have teamed up to provide credit card users in Malaysia a chance to buy items using mobile phones. The system allows consumers to swipe a phone accross a credit card scanner, which then read the credit card information on a microchip that is embedded in the handset. Consumers then authorise the purchase by pressing a butoon on the handset. Adoption of mobile payment system helps users to save their time queuing up for bill payment at the counter .

For more information about mobile payment, you can refer the website below:
http://www.mobile-money.com/index.html



Mobile Money is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution to address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. It allows registered users to pay for goods and services at anytime, anywhere using only a mobile phone with 6-digit security PIN via SMS. In order to pay using Mobile Money, a shopper must have either a saving, current or credit card account with participating banks. It functions like a credit card if shoppers apply for a “Pay by Mobile Phone” credit card account. For example, Hong Leong Mobile Credit Card. Shopper will receive the bill from bank by end of the month.

For more information about the PIN-based Mobile Payment, you can visit the websites below:
http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp
http://www.hlb.com.my/mm/ptrans1.html

Maybank and Maxis launched a Mobile Money to allow shopper to transfer money and pay bills by using mobile phone. The services that they offer include electronic cash transfer to other Maxis users, purchase downloads form myzone, pay for Maxis bills, top up Maxis prepaid card and purchase products and services such as cinema tickets and pizzas.

This website is about M2uMobile which was launched by Maybank and Maxis.
http://www.maxis.com.my/personal/mobile/vas/m2u/m2u.asp

In order to encourage consumers to use mobile payment system, there are several strategic ways can be implemented:

1. Educate consumers about mobile payments, how to use it and introduce its functions ( e.g bill payment, mobile purchase)

2. Provide more security collaborate solutions for mobile payment to increase consumers' confidence and satisfaction in using mobile payment.

3. Collaborate with more banks and companies to widen the ability to pay via mobile. It can also increase customers' loyalty and satisfaction.

4. Companies reward the consumers by giving gifts at certain level of purchase or by points redemption. For example, Hotlink gives extra credit and redemption points to active customers who made certain amount of calls. Customers can also accumulate the points to redeem free air time or SMS.

A review on a post on Internet Security from My E-commerce blog

Choosing a Good Password and Keep Your Passward Secret!

I have been reading a lot about the issue of password no longer is a good security. However, we still need passwords for many applications. It is the common method that we use to keep our data confidential. Therefore, we have to choose a good password to keep our computer data safe and secure.

The most serious threat related to password is offline password guessing. As computers have become faster, the guessers also being able to test hundreds of thousands of passwords per second. Based on some findings, most of the people form their password by common dictionary words that we commonly used such as nouns (“apple” or “orange”) rather than complex words. Some of the people form their passwords with person‘s first name, pet name, numerical password such as IC number and birth of date). Besides that, many people use same password for every account that they own. These are the reasons why password has become insecure and hackers can break their users account easily.

In my opinion, password should be the combination of words, numbers, and symbols to promise a good security. This kind of password can be easy to remember. A good password might be “H#appy$life” or “g$reatda$y”. Besides that, password can also be created by using the first letter from each word in a phrase. For example, 'e commerce is an interesting subject' become “eciais”. For more creative password, we can create a password from parts of words pasted together, such as “doworbhap” for don’t worry be happy or “rewh&blu” for red, white and blue. Adding numbers and keyboard symbols like asterisks to passwords makes them even more secure. For example, “3ciai$” would be a better password than “eciais”.

We can create password by using certain characters to represent a letter. For instance “hueyjing”. Change the letter 'u' to '^'; letter 'e' to '3'; letter 'i' to '!'; and letter 'g' to '9'; and we will get the password as “h^3yj!n9”. We also can combine uppercase and lower case letters to make our password more unique.

For security purpose, we must keep our password as secret. Password should never be written down. If really need to do so, do not keep password list in computer or any obvious place. Be cautious when you are entering you password, as there may be someone looking at you. To be more secure, we should change our passwords at least once a month.

In conclusion, password is a traditional way to make sure our data was protected. We still have to use password to safeguard our data although there are other security methods such as biometric identification. Although biometric identification is more efficient than password, it is more expensive. Therefore, keep in mind that unique,secrecy password will help protect our data!

For more information, you can review the website below:
http://www.darkreading.com/blog/archives/2009/02/phpbb_password.html

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

In this new century, many people are relying on computer and Internet to do their chores, including their working tasks. More advance online technology is being developed from time to time to make our daily life more convenient, such as e- banking, e- commerce, and so on. However, since data is sent back and forth through various servers where personal and information and financial data are housed, data that is moving from one server to another server may be intercepted and recorded. Besides that, such personal and financial information that are stored in our computer are also vulnerable to exposure and may be illegally used by people. Therefore, certain safeguards should be used to protect your personal and financial information.

One of the safeguard will be using and maintaining antivirus software and firewall. Antivirus softwares can protect our computers against viruses, worms, and Trojan Horses from stealing or modifying your data on your computer. It is important to always keep our antivirus up to date, and if possible to turn on the automatic update option For example, Norton antivirus and AVG antivirus. Firewall can protect our computers and data from unauthorized intrusions.

Besides that, we should also regulary scan our computer for spyware an adware.These hidden files enable attackers to gain access to your data. Thus, it is necessary to have a legitimate anti-spyware program to scan and remove those files.

We should also consider creating separate user accounts. If your computer is being used by many users, it may be chances that other users may accidentally access, modify, or delete your files. By having separate user accounts, it gives you additional protection.

Next, it is better to always use usernames and passwords. We should create passwords that would be hard for others to guess. If possible, use a combination of numbers and letters. We should avoid using passwords such as identity card number and date of birth. It is also important not to write the password down and carry it in wallet or briefcase. We should also not reveal those passwords to anyone.

When we want to send data to others, it is better to use encryption technique. Encryption is a process of converting readable data into unreadable characters. By encrypting files, unauthorized people will not able to view the data even if they can physically access it.

In addition, we should dispose off sensitive information properly. We should not dispose our ATM or credit card receipts in a public place. We should also ensure that we erase unwanted files in our computer completely and not just simply deleting them. For credit card and bank statements, we should shred, rather than toss those documents.

Other safeguards include:

• avoid clicking on pop-up ads or downloading information from unknown sites
• use your own computer instead of a workplace or public computer to access financial and other sensitive personal information.
• Log out any website’s account rather than just simply closing the account window

We should always follow good security to protect our personal and financial data. For more security tips, you may refer to this website:

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/

References:
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/103893/Six-Ways-to-Safeguard-Your-Online-Assets

http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST06-008.html

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

As the world has become so dependent on the Internet, it gives chances for crimes to exist such as data being hacked by unauthorized people. Well, phishing is only one of the crime that happen in the worldwide.

What is phishing?

Phishing is a crimeware technique used by unauthorized party to steal the identity of a target company to its customers. Phishing can be an act of sending an e-email to users, falsely claiming to be an established authorized companies with the effort to scam the user into giving freely their private information. It is also known as identity theft. Phishing created a hard challenges for the existing e-commerce enterprises and those enterprises entering e-commerce network.

The most common target for phishing is Paypal, eBay and online banks. For example, a recent phishing happened in Canada, where a loss amounting to $ 10 million occured. U.S. banks, a credit and debit card distribution company and a payment processor had been hack by an Israeli hacker, Ehud Tenenbaum.

How phishing work ?

For the first step of phishing, the phishers will decide which business to be their target and determine how to steal its customers' e-mail addresses. The technique usually used by those phishers as spammers are mass-mailing and address collection.

For the second step, phishers will then create method for delivering the message and collecting the data. The methods which are mostly used are through e-mail address and a web page.

The third step will be the action of sending the false message that appears to be from a
established legitimate enterprise.

Finally, the phishers will be able to access and record the data of the victims once they enter into the web pages or popup windows. With the information that they obtained, various illegal activity can be done by them.

Example of phishing:

1)

2)

3)
4)

How to prevent phishing?

In order to prevent phishing from occuring, the following prevention can be taken:
1) Understand how phishing work. By understanding how it works, users will be more alert in safeguarding their private information or data. You may refer to the article of 'How to defeat phishers relating to the e-mail sent from ebay".

2) Use the outlook 2003 to filter out phishing email. This outlook 2003 is designed with a built-in Junk E-mail folder that does a good job by removing out spam. Therefore, this can help to prevent phisher from getting a chance to hack users' private information.

3) Users must always be aware of the emails and certain internet message received. In other words, they must not simply trust any information that appears in the website.

4) Users might also acquire anti-phishing service that helps in detecting and blocking phishing site to safeguard their confidencial information and date. An example of anti-phishing services is PowerShark Anti-phishing solution

5) Another prevention that users can apply is to do business or any transaction with the companies that you trust. This will reduce the risk of becoming another victim of phishers.

Reference:

Turban, E., King, D., Mckay, J., Marshall, P., Lee, J., & Viehland, D. (2008). Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective 2008 (International Edition). Upper saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Education International.

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

Nowadays, the implementation of technologies is becoming more and more advance as years passed. Businesses are evolving in the e-commerce world and everything has become more conveniet and effective. In addition, computer has become a necessary component for users to manage their personal data and daily tasks. Yet; with this high reliability on technologies, it creates chances for threats to occur. One of the hottest issues for companies and users is the safety of data in the Internet.

There are many types of threats and attacks in the Internet and it is a challenge to be faced. So far, the potential threats and attacks that had been discovered are as follow:

a) Nontechnical attacks – where a perpetrator uses some form of tricks to persuade
users to reveal their information or performing actions. An example of this type of attack is social engineering attacks.

b) Technical attacks – using software and systems knowledge or expertise to perpetrate an
attack.

c

Denial-of-service (Dos) attack – an attack that happens in website where an attacker uses
specialized software to send a flood of data packets to the
target computer with the plan to overloading its resources.
In other words, it is an attempt to make a computer resource
unavailable to its intended users, as defined by Wikipedia.



d)Virus – it is a computer program that can copy itself and infect the computer without obtaining
the permission or knowledge of the owner.

e) Worm – a software program that runs independently, consuming the resources of its host in
order to maintain itself, and is capable of propagating a complete working version of itself into another machine.

f) Trojon horse – it is a program that appears to be a useful function but it contains a hidden function that will introduce a security risk. An example for this threat is trojon horse virus.

g) Macro virus/ Marco worm – it is a virus or worm that executes when the application object
that contains the marco is opened or a particular procedure is executed.

Therefore, looking at the existence of all these threats and attacks, it is obvious that data that users transfered or presented online is not safeguarded. In order to protect our data and information in the Internet, security on internet should be implemented. Security success can be categorised into three component, which are:

a) Confidentiality – users' private or sensitive information should be kept nicely and avoid their
disclosure to unauthorized individual, entities, or processes.
b) Integrity – it means ensuring that the data uploaded by users is under protection and free from the risk of threat.
c) Availability – this is to ensure that the access of data, the website, or other e-commerce data
service is timely, available, reliable, and restricted to authorized user.

Reference:
Turban, E., King, D., McKay, J., marshall, P., Lee, J., & Viehland, D. (2008). Electronic Commerce: A Managerial Perspective 2008 (International Edition). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson-Education International.

Identify and Compare Revenue Models of Google, Ebay and Amazon

There are a few revenue models for e- commerce, such as:

Sales Model

It is the most well known revenue stream where the website sells products
or services online. Revenues are generated from the sales of products or fees from service performed.

Transaction Fees Model

It generates revenue by receiving commission based on the volume of transaction made. The higher the value of the sale, the higher the total transaction fee. However, transaction fees can also be charged on ‘ per transaction’ basis, regardless of the volume of transaction.

Subscription Fees Model

It generates revenue by charging users a fixed amount periodically, usually monthly, for a type of service consumed. For example, subscription of e-magazine monthly.

Advertising Fees Model

The websites using this model sell advertising space to potential advertisers. The rates are based on number of impressions, clicks or actions. Previously, most of the advertising rates were based on number of impressions delivered. However, due to low click through rates and downturn in the dot.com era, advertisers now choose to apply performance based models.

Affiliate Fees Model

This model generates revenues by referring users to other business or relevant websites. The website itself may not sell any product or service, but helps in promoting the product.

Google

Google’s revenue model is under the Advertising Fees Model. Google generates most of their revenues from Google AdWords.

Google AdWords is a ‘pay per click advertising program’ of Google. This program allows the advertisers to advertise their products or services to people. When a user uses Google’s search engine, advertisements for related search will appear as sponsored links at either right side or above the main search results.

'Pay per Click Advertising' is is an online advertising payment model in which payment is based on qualifying click-throughs. Every time an advertiser’s advertisment is being clicked, a fee will be charged. The advertisers decide the keywords relevant to their offer which induce the display of their advertisements and the maximum amount they are willing to pay per click for that keyword.

Besides that, Google AdSense is also an advertisement serving program. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, video advertisements on their sites. These advertisements can generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis.

The latest revenue model of Google will be Cost-Per-Action Model, where the site owner gets paid whenever a visitor clicks on an advertisement and performs a specific action, such as purchasing a product from the advertiser.

ebay

Ebay is the largest, most recognized online auction facility in the world. Its major advantages compared to other competitors include enormous brand equity, essentially unregulated market, and significant economies of scale.

The revenue model for eBay is transaction fees model. Majority of the eBay’s revenue is from the listing and commission on completed sales. An additional commission fee is charged for the Paypal purchases. Advertising and other non-transaction net revenues represent a relatively small proportion of total net revenues of ebay.

In addition, eBay's transaction fees model is evenly spread out among a number of categories. For example, in 2004, the revenues are as below:

• Clothing and accessories -- $3.3 billion
• Consumer electronics -- $3.2 billion
• Computers -- $2.9 billion
• Home and garden -- $2.5 billion
• Books/Movies/Music -- $2.4 billion
• Sports -- $2.1 billion
• Collectibles -- $2.0 million
• Toys -- $1.6 billion
• Jewelry and watches -- $1.5 billion
• Business and industrial -- $1.5 billion
• Cameras and photos -- $1.3 billion

Amazon

The revenue model of Amazon.com are the sales model and also affiliate fees model. Amazon's revenue are mostly from media categories such as books, music, and videos. Besides that, Amazon also sells a variety of new and used products for which Amazon receives a commission on those products sold, in the form of affiliate fees.

References:

http://www.organicspam.com/google_revenue_model.asp

http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/essentials/ebay/article.php/3522981

http://content.websitegear.com/article/revenue_introduction.htm

History and Evolution of E- commerce

History and evolution of e-commerce

At the early 1960’s, e-commerce was known as the process of execution of commercial transactions electronically with the help of the leading technologies. In other words, users can execute electronic transactions by using Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). EFT is a system of transferring money from one bank account directly to another without any paper money changing hands.




Later in 1970s, e-commerce enabled business companies and organizations send commercial documentation such as invoices and purchase orders electronically through Electronic Date Interchange (EDI). EDI is the transfer of data between different companies using networks, such as VANs or the Internet. Thereafter, other forms of electronic commerce emerged, such as automatic teller machines, credit cards, and telephone banking.

Since the early 1990s, e-commerce has developed into the huge global internet market that exists today. Before 1991, commercial enterprise on the internet was strictly prohibited. However, in 1992, when the Mosaic web-browser was made available, it was quickly adapted into a downloadable browser, Netscape, and allowed an easier access to electronic commerce. The development of DSL was another key element in the development to of e-commerce. DSL allowed quicker access and a persistent connection to the Internet. The development of Red Hat Linux was also another major factor in the growth of electronic commerce. Linux was an open source and reliable. More importantly, it gave users another alternative for Windows. Thus, Microsoft invested more in many things including electronic commerce in order to stay competitive.


In 1994, the internet started to become popular around the world, and by the beginning of the twenty-first century, more and more companies worldwide were offering their services over the internet. In today’s context, e- commerce is known as the ability to purchase a variety of goods and services over the internet using secure protocols and electronic payment systems.

The early adoptors of e-commerce in Malaysia include Pizza Hut and Malaysia Airline Cargo (MASKargo).

Web 2.0

Web 2.o is a term that is used to describe a second- generation of Internet-based services that let people collaborate and share information online in perceived ways. For example, social networking sites, wikis, and communication tools.

It is evolved from the previous generation of Web 1.0.

Web 1.0 ----------------------------> Web 2.0

• Double Click -------------------------> Google Adsense

• Mp3.com -------------------------> Napster

• Personal Web Sites ------------------> Blogging

• Britannica Online --------------------> Wikipedia

• Content management systems ---------> Wikis

Web 2.0 makes the finding of information easier, and uses RSS technology to notify users about the changes of content in a timely manner. A major characteristic of Web 2.0 is the global spread of innovative Web sites, whereby when a good website exists in a country, similar sites will appear around the world.




The six principles in Web 2.0 are:

1. Sell everywhere- Web 2.0 includes various online channels with additional branded websites, various online marketplaces (such as eBay, Amazon.com, Overstock.com, and others), and online shopping comparison engines (such as Shopping.com, PriceGrabber.com, and others).
2. Target Niche Markets- Web 2.0 is able to reach beyond the traditional prospect base and tap the potential of niche markets.
3. Customers Rule- The content buyers create through forums such as product reviews, blogs, and social networks influences other buyers as much or more than any promotion eTailers create. For example, Youtube and MySpace.
4. Personalised Shopping
5. Integrate and Collaborate- Web 2.0 was built upon many interrelated systems and processes that require information to be exchanged dynamically.
6. Data is the King- Web 2.0 allows collection and management of data from all online channels to enable better business decisions.

References:
http://www.ecommerce-land.com/history_ecommerce.html

http://www.flysyk02.netfirms.com/Ecommerce/History.htm

http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/A-Brief-History-of-E-Commerce/634686