~welcome to e-commerce world~

Post by Ching Wen, 7 July 09 @ 5:50 pm

From the Legal post in E-Commerze blog, there is an interesting topic which captured my attention. The title is “identity theft: cases on stolen laptops, hacking and lost CD”. The blogger shares seven cases on stolen laptops and hacking systems which are mostly in the United States from the month of August 2006 to May 2007. There are four cases involving laptops stolen from cars and house break-ins, 2 other cases from hacking the systems server and one involving the lost of CD.

Stolen laptops have been a great issue for UTAR students when they experience break-ins in at their Sg.Long rented apartments and housing areas. The information stored inside the laptop will be violated as the laptop is stolen and any personal and confidential data kept can be used to carry out fraud or blackmail.

For example, recently, one of the Hong Kong actors’s lost his laptop and all his private information had been disclosed to the public, which had cause a lot of controversy and inconvenience towards him. The poor guy was even blackmailed for money as exchange for his valuable information. To avoid this scenario from happening, the public should always ensure that their laptops are password-oriented, recommended alpha-numeric type. Furthermore, they should ensure that the information or data kept in their laptops are encrypted. One of the main reasons for laptop theft is due to the user’s lack of awareness as they leave their laptops in their car booths and unattended while they perform other tasks.

Another legal consideration is due to system hacking. This is a popular strategy used to access private data of an organization. For example, when a hacker hacks the organization’s system, it will cause their server to break down for several hours. This will cause the organization to be unable to continue their operation as normal and the business of the organization can only continue when the server has recovered from the hacking. In order to prevent a system hacking action, an organization has to ensure their server is password-protected and is regularly updated.

Theft of CDs is an important issue in the business environment, just as it is in the universities. Information placed on a CD can contribute to plagiarism of others work. In one of the cases mentioned by the writer of the blog, information on a CD can consists of the names, social security number, and member identification, which can provide outsiders with the ability to use the information stored on the CD. This will cause identity theft and abuse.
If the government implements legal laws on system hacking, theft of laptops and lost of CDs, we believe the percentage of the crime can and will be reduced.

Post by Jaeme, 7 July 09 @ 5:50 pm

• E learners can easily access to the learning programme at anytime through internet access. E learners are not required to physically attend the classes and they can learn when they are at home or work. Reading materials are online which enables e learners to download it for their own reading.

2. More reflection and higher retention

• E learning encourages students to practice and improve their learning performance. Besides that, students can focus on what they need to learn and they can do this in a variety of learning styles, as retention is frequently better than in a traditional classroom.

3. Time and cost savings.

• Due to the fact that all learning materials are available over the internet, there are fewer materials to print. Therefore, this results in a paperless environment. Reading materials can be shared and reused in a more efficient way. Students can download reading materials from internet and it only requires a few minutes to download.

4. Enhanced learning.

• More practice and features developed in e Learning, e learning offer learners more exciting ways to engage with the course. Besides that, e learning provides lecturers a flexible ways to deliver the knowledge to their students and results in a greater interaction and collaboration.

5. Greater Collaboration.

• E learning provides opportunities for the groups to work together. It creates shared electronic conversations that can be thoughtful and more permanent than voice conversations.

Although e learning brings benefit to people, but there are still some disadvantages in e learning.

1. Misuse and abuse of technology.

• Since rules and codes are all in digital forms, students may break the rules and cheat their way to success. Students in Malaysian universities have the tendency to break the intranet security set by the university and even try to modify their results or to get preview of the final examination questions.

2. Lack of human interaction.

• Since learning is done through the internet, students do not need to attend the classes nor meet their lecturers. Therefore, some students may not able to understand certain information if there are no lecturers to explain to them. Due to this problem, e learning will not be effective if students are unable to understand the online notes given to them.

3. Lack of motivation and effort among students.

• One of the biggest problems of e-learning is that it makes students lazy and ineffective. Because of e-learning provides educational task that can be done either by the tutor or some sophisticated software, students can do this simple task by just downloading the notes.

References:

http://www.campus.manchester.ac.uk/elearning/uomelearning/ebenefits/

http://www.charm.au.edu/SCPaper/UniversityLevel%20eLearning%20in%20ASEAN.pdf

E government has improved how the government operates internally as well as how it delivers services to the Malaysian citizen. It seeks to improve convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses. Besides that, it also improves information flows and process within the government to help improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.

E government’s vision is to focus on effectively and efficiently delivering services from the government to Malaysian citizens. This enables the government to be more responsible towards the citizens.

There are 7 e government projects implementation:

1. Generic Office Environment (GOE).

• A powerful document and office management solution that allows users to effectively and efficiently manage their office environment. It provides efficient preparation and storage of documents, fast search and retrieval of documents, effective of information, and secure and traceable access to the documents.

2. Electronic Procurement Project

• It is a system that allows suppliers to sell goods and services to the Government through the Internet. Suppliers on the World Wide Web can advertise their goods; show their pricing, process orders and deliveries. It creates a more skillful and knowledgeable workforce and equips the workforce with the new technology at minimum cost.

• It is an integrated technology system that enables HRMIS for the Malaysian Public Service. This will allow the Public Service to successfully deal with the Challenges of the K-Economy.


• It provides effective staffing and right-sizing of civil service, improving paperless HRM capabilities, an open and flexible system and better communication.

• It is a type of service where agencies such as Tenaga Nasional Bhd and Telekom Malaysia Bhd conducting transactions through various convenient channels such as internet.

5. Electronic Labor Exchange (ELX).

• It enables employers and job seekers to communicate in the same platform. It helps to provide an effective center of labor market information and references. Besides that, it improves mobilization of the nation’s human resource and ensures that manpower is fully utilized.

6. E Syariah.

• A management system that integrates the process related to management for Syariah Courts cases. It helps to improve the quality service of Syariah Courts in coordinating and supervising related agencies under its jurisdiction. It also improves the productivity and efficiency of the management of the Syariah Courts throughout the country.

7. Project Monitoring System.

• It is an online system that monitors the entire lifecycle of national programs. It supports and monitors the entire lifecycle of Malaysia’s 5 years of development program. It provides a platform for exchanging ideas and demonstrating best practice models in project implementation and effective decision making based on the forecast project information.

However, there are some difficulties faced while implementing e government. These difficulties are:-

1. Legislative and regulatory barriers.

• To make e government services to be successful and widely accepted, it has to be as good as the traditional paper process and has to have a good security system.

2. Budgetary framework.

• Government needs to know the potential benefits of adopting e government services and treat Information Communication Technology (ICT) expenses as a future investment which will benefit the nation.

3. Lag behind technological change.

• Government faced the challenge of the uncertainty of technological change and negative impact while developing e government. It is difficult to anticipate future impact because technology is changing very fast.

4. Digital divide impedes the benefits of government.

• E government will not be effective if the online access is not being improved. If people are unable to access to the e government services, they will lose the e government’s benefits. Besides that, not many people have the IT knowledge; therefore there might be some of them which are unable to obtain the services online provided by e government.
  

E government implementation was successful due to the good citizen’s adoption strategies provided by e government.

E government is convenient because the services provided are made through the internet. People need not go to a particular store and wait in a line for an hour and spend time to get things done. The services are provided online so you can save time and get the services done through the internet during working hours. Your tasks can be done anytime and anywhere you want.

Besides that, e government provides better customer services which allows agencies to focus on things that you usually need help in routine transaction. The agency provides services such as translating English to those people who can’t speak well and explains to them the complex policies. Besides that, they even provide assistance for disabled people.

Furthermore, E government allows citizen to access to the information 24 hours. New and improved search functions provided by government allow users to search for information that is relevant to what you want to know.

Lastly, the e government service is efficient as online transactions are faster than face to face transactions. Since the services are done online, the paper processing is automated, reducing time and risk of clerical errors.

References:

http://www.das.state.or.us/DAS/EISPD/EGOV/benefits.shtml

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

Post by Jackie, 7 July 09 @ 5:49pm

Blogs is a short form for weblogs. A blog is a site on the internet where a writer can present his thoughts about a particular topic. Visitors to a blog can post their comments and views of what they feel towards the writer’s blog. The blogging trend is not limited to individuals alone. In fact, many organizations are starting to create their own blogs. This is known as corporate blogging. Corporate blogging is where executives, stakeholders, vendors, and employees post their thoughts and opinions on certain subjects.

There are two main types of corporate blogs which are internal blogs and external blogs.

• An internal blog is accessed through the organization’s intranet and can be viewed only by the employees of that organization. This allows for employee participation by presenting their discussions of issues and also provides direct communication between upper and lower layers of an organization. It gives the employees in the organization a sense of belonging.

2. External Blogs.

• An external blog is accessible to the public to share their views and opinions. Organizations usually use external blogs to introduce new products and services offered by their company. Furthermore, it gives an opportunity the public to give critic on the organization if they are not satisfied with the products and services offered. However, certain corporate blogs do not allow any comments to be made on the posts.

Corporate blogging entered into the mainstream in May 2005, when the front cover of Business Week boldly stated that 'Blogs will change your business'. Meaning that, traditional marketing techniques no longer appropriate for today’s markets and skeptical customers. This is because blogs can help corporate communication’s strategy achieve company’s overall objective by clearly communicating the organization’s message. Furthermore, some organizations have created blogs for external marketing and Public relations.

Corporate blogging is a new effective marketing communication tool because it is most helpful when people are in located in two different locations or have different schedules and need to discuss on urgent matters. Beside that, as compared to the traditional form of marketing, blogs offer a more honest and open communication channel. This is great when organizations want to evaluate customer’s feedback on products and services. It is also a good communication tool due to the fact that Howard Dean, an American politician, was the first to person to use weblog to run for his presidential campaign. In addition, corporate blogging is less costly as compared to thousands of dollars spent on television and radio commercial, and newspaper and magazine advertising. Weblogs are also effective as the messages posted up will not be wrongly interpreted and is assured that there is no misunderstanding among readers.

References:

http://twoday.net/static/maximus/files/seminarpaper.pdf

http://kathleenkenney.com/images/sample_writing/pr_writing/StrategicBlogsInCorpCom.pdf

http://www.nirf.org/_upl/effective_corporate_blogging1.pdf

Post by Jackie, 3 July 09 @ 10:08 pm

• This card represents talk time that users acquire in advance. For instance, if you purchase a prepaid phone card for RM 10, you can use up to RM10 of talk time depending on the call rates per minute to the destination that you make. People like to use prepaid phone cards because they don’t have to carry coins or notes around, and furthermore, calls can be made from payphones, mobile phones, and landlines. The cards are mostly used for overseas calls as the rate per-minute is cheaper as compared to other telecommunications provider. Besides that, prepaid phone cards can purchase from any grocery stores, phone shops, and even newsstands.

2. Prepaid Debit Card.

• This card is very frequently used all over the world because; it can be used to make international payments without the fuss of waiting for neither bank’s approval for clearance and only a minimal fees is charged for bank transfers. All one needs to do is to ensure the card is loaded with cash and transactions can be carried out. Alternatively, if there is insufficient cash on the card, the users need to reload their cards with money from their bank accounts. The purchase amount will then be directly deducted from amount loaded onto the card. This card is most practical for e commerce transactions.

3. Prepaid Smart Card.

• It uses Mifare contactless technology, which is an internationally recognized standard for contactless smartcard. In Malaysia, the Touch ‘n Go card uses this technology for payments made on highways, public transports, selected parking and theme parks. Each time a user touches their card on the electronic reader, the precise fee imposed will be deducted automatically. As you can see from the picture below, as of this moment, Touch ‘n Go cards can even be used at fast food outlets.

4. Prepaid Gift Card

• Instead of giving someone gift vouchers as a present, why not give them a prepaid gift card instead? MasterCard offers customers an easier gift solution as this gift card can be used at millions of stores located worldwide and the person receiving the card can spend a maximum of the amount that is on the card.

References:

http://www.mastercard.com/uk/personal/en/findacard/prepaidcard/prepaid_gift.html
http://www.mastercard.com/uk/personal/en/findacard/prepaidcard/about_prepaid.html
http://www.therichcom.com/phoneCardsguide.asp
http://www.touchngo.com.my/WhatTNG_card_TNG_1a.html
http://blog.saimatkong.com/index.php/2008/04/13/you-can-use-touch-%e2%80%99n-go-card-to-buy-burgers-by-next-saturday/

Post by Jackie, 3 July 09 @ 10:07 pm

Electronic currency is a digital symbol of physical money. It allows consumers to pay for goods or services by sending a number from one computer to another. It is done by transferring funds electronically, from one party to another, where it is cleared and protected by a strong encryption. This benefits the users as it offers more safety and less risk to them.

Furthermore, as E-commerce is evolving to be used widely, electronic currency is making it simpler for consumers to spend online. Usually, a user can purchase electronic currency by connecting to the Internet and certifying ownership of their account. This is followed by the user withdrawing the required amount and the bank issues a unique random number in an electronic coin format. The electronic coin has a serial number whereby the bank signs with their private key. The user will then store the electronic coins on their hard drive.

A unique type of electronic currency is E-Gold. E-Gold is an electronic currency issued by e-gold Ltd., a Nevis corporation. It is done by integrating an account system that allows the consumers to use gold as money. When one consumer carries out the e-gold payment, only the rights over it changes to the other party. The gold however, is still kept in the treasury vault.

1. Mondex.

• Electronic currency can be transferred by a system called Mondex. Mondex is a type of smart card that keeps 5 different types of currencies and transmits cash on the internet. A consumer can make a purchase from any online vendors that accept Mondex by inserting their Mondex card into the card reader and validating with the vendor’s Mondex device, the value of the transaction will be transferred onto the vendor’s card.
  

2. Mark Twain.

• Another type of electronic currency system is Mark Twain. Firstly, a consumer must open a World Currency Access (WCA) account. The WCA is a money market deposit account that bears interest and is accessible to customers free of the electronic currency program. To use electronic currency from their WCA account, a consumer must make transfer of funds by telephone, facsimile, mail or e-mail, from the WCA account to an individual "electronic currency mint" non-interest-bearing account. Following this, the electronic currency amount is downloaded from the electronic currency mint to the consumer’s computer via the internet. The funds are then transferred again to a pooled account at Mark Twain’s. Vendors who are paid by electronic currency can then cash in the amount received.
  

Electronic currency provides some of the benefits as follow:

1. Confidentiality

• Electronic currency is known to be anonymous. For instance, when a consumer sends electronic currencies to a vendor, the vendor will have no idea who the consumer is. This is a completely different feature as compared to credit cards. Furthermore, using electronic currencies can protect the confidentiality of the consumer as banks are also unable to obtain consumer’s personal information.
  

2. Security.

• Electronic currency is protected by encryption of RSA cryptography which makes it difficult to crack the code. Cryptograph is created by using digital signature. Digital signatures require an electronic private key on the sender’s part and a public key on the recipient’s part. Thus, even though people have doubts about internet safety, consumers carrying out electronic currency transactions are probably more secured while carrying out transactions online as compared to conventional way of doing business.
  

There are still some of the disadvantages of electronic currency:

1. Fraud.

• When a consumer misplaces their private key and funds are withdrawn by an unknown party, the bank will not know about it. The consumer will then be liable for any transaction carried out. Furthermore, if the security code is hacked and message interrupted, the unknown party can commit fraud on the intended recipient of the message.

2. Peer-to-peer double spending.

• This only occurs when consumer decides not to have the bank as an intermediary. This is because if the consumer includes the bank as an intermediary, the bank will check for double spending on behalf of the consumer and stop it immediately. However, if the consumer chooses a peer-to-peer transaction, nothing can be done if there is double spending on a transaction.

Post by Jaeme, 3 July 09 @ 10:07 pm

According to the statistics of credit card debts in Malaysia, the number of Malaysians declaring bankruptcy due to credit card debts has been increasing. However, as of May 2009, the number of people declaring bankruptcy has reduced.

There are a few causes of credit card debts:

1. Less income, more expenses.

• Most of the people have lesser income as compared to the expenses they incur. When their income is unable to cover their expenses, they will conduct payments using their credit cards. At this time, they do not think about the ability of paying back the installments of the debts.
  
  

2. Saving little or none at all

• You should save at least 4 months of living expenses in case of a rainy day. For instance, if you lose your job in June, you will have enough money to maintain your current lifestyle up until September. After these 4 months, you may be able to find a new employment. Therefore, having enough savings for a rainy day is always a worthwhile investment.

3. Poor money management.

• Many families accumulate lots of debts. This is due to them not having a monthly spending plan and keeping their monthly bills properly which makes them unaware of the amount of bills they have to settle. Hundreds of ringgit is charged each month on items which they don’t actually need, at the same time, incurring higher interest.

4. Big medical expenses.

• Unfortunately, medical expenses are quite high, especially on serious diseases. Almost all the hospitals receive credit card payment. When you need treatment and you do not have enough money, you will usually use your credit card to pay, although you may not be able to repay the expenses.

References:

http://www.3debtconsolidation.com/top10-causes.html

How to prevent your credit card debts?

1. Spending plan.

• Spending plan can help you to deal in controlling your monthly expenses. For instance, by having the spending plan, you expenses will not exceed your income.

2. Adjust your shopping habits to reduce credit card debt.

• Some people have a habit of shopping and usually they will spent too much of money that they can’t afford to pay. To reduce credit card debts, consumers need to adjust their shopping habits to may help to reduce your debt.

3. Pay card with higher interest rate first.

• A higher interest rate will always cost more money in the long run. To prevent this situation from happening, paying off the credit card debt with the highest interest rates may save a lot of money.

4. Debt consolidation.

• If you consider to switching your debt from one credit card to another, check the fine print before you start transferring the balance. Usually credit card companies try to sweeten the deal by advertising a zero or a very low interest payment on the balance transfers for a certain period. But then, after the time period is up, the amount of debt left is charged a much higher interest rate. This would only benefit credit card customers who can pay the amount of the debt in full at this low rate, otherwise they will run the risk of incurring higher interest rate on the debt.
  

References:

http://consumereducation.suite101.com/article.cfm/credit_card_debt_solutions#ixzz0K6vny9ST&D

http://consumereducation.suite101.com/article.cfm/credit_card_debt_solutions

http://www.rebuild.org/news-article/top-four-techniques-to-get-credit-card-debt-under-control/