Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Most of the organizations use corporate blog to sell and promote their products. It is because the corporate has a point of view that, advertisement and feedback from customers are the keys leading to successful business. Therefore corporate blogging is a useful tool for communicating the market needs to the companies.

Usually corporate blogs provide up-to-date and latest information about companies’ products, and are ready to handle FAQ of customers in the main area. Nowadays there are more and more companies becoming the new added members in corporate blogging. For instance, Coca-Cola Conversations, Kodak's A Thousand Words Blog, Delta Airlines, Johnson & Johnson, Dell's Direct2Dell in Chinese and Spanish and etc. Corporate blogging brings both positive and negative impacts.

The advantages of corporate blogging:
1. Cost of advertisement can be reduced and helps the corporate to increase its profits or advantage in financial freedom indirectly.
2. Through the forum in the corporate blog, a company is able to respond to the customer feedback or know more about the customer needs and come out with the better services or products to fulfill their demands.

The disadvantages of corporate blogging:
1. Any unwilling consequences may occur if the company failed in concern or discuss the issue which is against the legislation.
2. Poorly written corporate blogs can look fake, or perhaps worse, it may reflect incompetence on the company’s management.

As a new marketing communication tool, the potentials of corporate blogging is unlimited if it is being used wisely. However, the companies may need to bear the risk or the unwilling consequences if corporate blogging misused.

Reference:

Wikipedia
TheNewpr
Direct2dell

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

What is 3rd party certification?

The 3rd party certification is a scientific process by which a product or service is reviewed by a reputable and unbiased 3rd party to verify that a set of criteria, claims or standard are being met. 3rd party certification enables commerce and condition of companies in telecommunication, finance, healthcare, life science, public sector and other industries provide a crucial layer of intelligence and security that protect data and deliver information safety program, which make users feel secured for their personal information such as ID, password, and credit card numbers to protect from phishing and spoofing attacks.

Certificate Authority (CA) is a trusted 3rd party in a public key security system. It’s responsible for vouchsafing the identity of users and issuing with certificates that bind the public key to their identities. In Malaysia, MSC Trustgate.com Sdn. Bhd. and Verisign.com are licensed CA. As a CA, it provides digital certification service, including digital certificates, cryptographic product, and software development.

Whereas Verisign.com is the leading Secure Sockets Level (SSL) Certificate Authority (CA) which is a secure way of transferring information between two computers on the Internet using encryption and this enabling secure e-commerce and communication and interactions for Web sites, intranet, and extranet.

For example,
Maybank2U.com is certified by Verisign.com, which enable users to feel more secured in making online transactions through its internet banking services.

Another example of financial institute is Public e-bank.com. It has been certified by MSC Trustgate.com as to provide trusted and encryption technology that secure its online communication and protect users’ vital information from prying eyes. MSC Trustgate.com is the 1st Malaysian Internet trust solution company which is authorized to offer 128-bit SSL server ID. It also offers Digital ID for Mykad (Malaysian National Identity Card) that is used in online tax filing, e-procurement and others.

SSL have a variety of security measures:

• The client may use the certificate authority's (CA's) public key to validate the CA's digital signature on the server certificate. If the digital signature can be verified, the client accepts the server certificate as a valid certificate issued by a trusted CA.
  
• The client verifies that the issuing CA is on its list of trusted CAs.
  
• The client checks the server's certificate validity period. The authentication process stops if the current date and time fall outside of the validity period.
  
• Protection against a downgrade of the protocol to a previous (less secure) version or a weaker cipher suite.
  
• Numbering all the Application records with a sequence number, and using this sequence number in the message authentication codes (MACs).
  
• By using digital certificates users’ trust on online transaction can be increased. However users must be a smart when making any transaction via internet to avoid disclosure of customers’ confidential information. Finally with CA, the development of internet based activities can be
  stimulated.
  

Related links:
Maybank2u
Pbebank

A review on a post on Legal from My E-commerce blog

A review is based on “UK to get tough with illegal downloader” from My E-commerce blog. There are estimated around 6 million people are downloading files illegally in UK. These illegal downloading of music and movies are costing the industry to lose million of pounds in revenue every year.

In Malaysia, we face the same problem. The demand for digitized music is increasing among Malaysians due to growing broadband penetration and the larger storage capabilities of personal computers and music-playing handheld devices, such as cell phones and MP3 players. Unfortunately, much of the demand is being satisfied by illegal download websites.

The Recording Industry Association of Malaysia (RIM) indicated that music sales were plummeting. The sales last year was only RM 87 mil compared with RM 200 mil about 10 years ago. It drops significantly because of illegal download. Nowadays, nobody wants to buy CDs anymore, not even pirated CDs. People prefer to download movies and songs directly from internet because they are free of charge. As time pass by, it might cause the entertainment industry to close down.

To against this illegal download of music and movies, the government is urged to create a new law to against the user of the internet to download music and movie. In Canada, for example, downloading copyright music from peer-to-peer networks is legal, but uploading those files is not. Additionally Canada has imposed fees on recording mediums like blank CDs and similar items. These levies are used to fund musicians and songwriters for revenues lost due to consumer copying. Canada has initially charged this tax on MP3 players, but a recent Supreme Court decision ruled that the law was written in such a way that these players were exempt from the tax.

UK government is working on a new law to have this illegal downloader's internet connection to be cut off. If you like to download illegal music or movies online, you may have to take note of this new development. Among the contents of the new proposed law are ISP who failed to enforce the rules could be prosecuted and details of customers suspected in illegal downloading can be made available to the courts.

Learn more on When Is Downloading Music on the Internet Illegal?

Here is a video and audio news on Why a clampdown on illegal downloading is needed.

Source from:
BBC News
The Star Online

Things to Take Note to Prevent E-auction Fraud When A Consumer Participating In An E-auction

E-Auction Fraud
Millions of people take part in Internet auctions everyday, bidding on items from around the world. Buyers and sellers both benefit from the great opportunities that e-auctions provide, but these auctions also give criminals the opportunity to perpetrate fraud.

How E-auctions Works
E-auctions work when prospective buyers examine the descriptions and photos of items and decide whether to place bids. The highest bidder wins. Upon winning, the buyer sends payment for the auction item, possibly to an online escrow service that holds payment until the buyer receives the goods.

How Auction Fraud Happens to Buyers
* Failure to deliver goods after the buyer purchases it.

* Misrepresentation of merchandise in an attempt to deceive the buyers concerning its true value.

* Hidden or separate charges such as fees for postage, handling, and shipping container.

* Fake bidding by seller in an attempt to drive up the price.

* Credit card fraud where seller uses the buyer's name and credit card number for fraudulent purposes.

* Black market goods such as stolen and reproduced goods.

Prevention of E-auction Fraud for Buyers
1. Learn how an e-auction runs, what your obligations are as a buyer, and what the seller's obligations are before placing a bid.

2. Find out what actions the web site/company takes if a problem occurs and consider insuring the transaction and shipment.

3. Investigate the seller as much as possible. Call the seller to see if the phone number is working, or send an email to see if the email address is active.

4. Examine the feedback rating on the seller.

5. Evaluate your payment options. Paying with credit card ensures the most protection if buyer can dispute the charges when the merchandise does not arrive or was misrepresented.

6. Consider using an escrow service if purchases on credit card are not disputable or the goods are not covered by insurance.

7. Examine whether escrow service is licensed and bonded.

8. Find out if shipping and delivery are included in the auction price or are additional costs so there are no unexpected costs.

9. Do not give out any personal information such as identification card number, driving license number, or bank account numbers to the seller to protect yourself from identity theft.

10. Most importantly, DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Be sure you understand what you’re bidding on, its relative value, the seller’s identity and return policies, and all terms and conditions of the sale.

With a better understanding concerning e-auction fraud and its prevention, buyers could keep these risks at a minimum when participating in an e-auction and enjoy the benefits of e-auction.

E- Government in Malaysia: Its implementation so far and citizen’s adoption strategies

Implementation of E-government in Malaysia is initiated by Multimedia Super Corridoor (MSC) and also guided by Vision 2020. Basically, e-government is the use of multimedia technologies and telecommunication to ease the communication between government and other stakeholders such as citizens, employees and businesses.

In myGovernment Web site, it provides e-transaction center which allows people to enjoy online services and download various types of application e-forms. It also provides links to other e-government Web sites, for example Public Complaints Bureau. Moreover, citizens could voice out their opinions and provide feedbacks wisely through myGovernment instead of protesting in the public.

However, based on the polling result from myGovernment in 2005, there were 53.19% of citizens voted for “poor” myGorevnment public services portal. And, there was result showing that majority of citizens complaint about the problems of accessing to the services provided and lacking of internet access.
As compared to polling result in 2008, 27.66% of citizens voted for “good” services provided by myGovernment portal. In contrast, there are still 24.29% of citizens voted for “poor” e-services provided.

In a nutshell, the implementation of e-gorvernment and citizens' adoption in Malaysia are improving from years to years based on the myGovernment polling results.

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit card can be considered as plastic money which replaces the hazards of cash in making payments and purchasing transactions. Having this advantage, credit cards are now being misused by the consumers, and even causing bankruptcies.
According to a survey conducted by New Straits Times, 1,397 of credit card holders in 2004 and 1,497 credit card holders in 2005 were declared bankrupt, representing an increase of 34 per cent over the 1,117 credit card defaulters in 2002. The numbers of declared bankrupt keep on growing year by year and this unhealthy trend is becoming “worrying”.

The causes of debt may be due to:
1. Free application. Nowadays, credit card no longer holds by the rich or higher income status. The most attractive are free for application and excluded any annual fees and even free for life. It causes more people now are able to hold a credit card, such as students, operators or fresh graduates.

2. Poor financial management. Based on the survey conducted, a credit card holder who loss of financial control in using credit card may spend over 5 times of his/her monthly salary. The over spending cased the financial burden.

3. Credit card interest rates. Banking institution may charge higher interest on the debts. If a credit card holder is unable to pay the debts within a stipulated period, he/she will face a large number of debts when interest is included.

4. Misusing credit card. Among the credit card holders, most of them are using not only one credit card, with each credit card for a small amount. This is because they perceived that the small amount will not cause any consequences. In fact the sum of these small amounts is usually the financial killer.

Suggested preventions:
1. As a smart consumer, we should consider twice before applying for a credit card. Is that a need to apply or just blindly follow the trend? Especially those fresh graduates, they should weight their ability for repaying debts on a credit card.

2. For the card holders who always loss of financial control after using credit card, they should get a related education or concept regarding financial control and wisely plan their monthly budgets for expenses. Alternatively, they can also seek for financial consultation to solve their credit card debts problem.

3. Card holders should make sure they are able to pay the credit card statement on time and avoid any over spending which may lead to huge debts.

4. For card holders who hold more than a credit card, they should not bring along the cards when go for shopping, but only keep them as for emergency use. Bear in mind, only let a single credit card in active use; otherwise it may cause misusing of credit cards.

The Application of Prepaid Cash Card for Consumers

What is a prepaid cash card?

A prepaid cash card is similar to a credit card and debit card, which gives cardholders the ability to purchase products and services on-line and off-line. The greatest feature of prepaid cash cards is that they do not get cardholders into debt, as only transactions up to the balance preloaded onto the prepaid account will be authorized. Therefore, cardholders can only spend what have paid in. Most prepaid card providers enable cardholders to manage their accounts online or via an interactive Voice Response telephone service. This provides convenience to the cardholders so that they are always within easy reach of their balance.

How does it work?

First of all, load a prepaid cash card with an amount of money by cash at a bank, Post Office, bank transfer, or even by another credit card.

Prepaid cash cards work the same way as a credit card, which includes the 3 steps: swap, enter/sign and collect. When purchasing a cardholder needs to swap his card on the electronic machine, enter personal identification number or sign a payment slip, and lastly collect a copy of receipt. The total amount will be subtracted from the card balance once the transaction is complete successfully.

What are the benefits of using a prepaid cash card?

No charges
There are no interest charges, late payment or over limit fees as this is cardholder’s money instead of credit. In fact prepaid cash cards are useful especially for teenagers as a cardholder needs not to be 18 to apply for one.

Convenience
Prepaid cash card can be used anytime and anywhere to buy groceries, to fill petrol, and to withdraw cash from an ATM. It can even be used to make online payment such as paying bills, buying movie tickets and airline tickets, and online shopping as it is widely accepted across the internet. Prepaid cash cards are issued under a MasterCard, Visa Electron, Maestro or Amex badge, and therefore having the same acceptance as credit and debit cards.

Cardholders can also use prepaid cash cards to register for services such as Ebay or Paypal to grab better deals pay via Internet immediately. This replaces the need to send cash, cheques or postal orders, which can add another 7-10 days before goods are received.

Safer than cash
Cardholders do not need to carry around large sums of cash. In most cases, if the card gets stolen or lost, the remaining balance will be transferred across to a new account to protect from unauthorized transactions, and cardholder will receive a replacement card.

Better financial planning
Prepaid cash cards allow cardholders to have better financial planning by limiting their spending and avoiding over spending as they are in complete control of their funds. They can only spend up to the maximum amount of money that has preloaded in onto the card. In UK, some of the card issuers enable cardholders to store some emergency funds by setting up pay as they go prepaid accounts.

Security
Prepaid cash cards would be the better choice if consumers are still uncomfortable on giving the numbers of credit card on the Internet. Since prepaid cash cards can be charged only up to the value of the pre-loaded fund, the thieves cannot make an excessive charge using the cards.

How to choose a right card?

It makes sense to look for a prepaid card with low sign-up, annual, monthly and top-up fees. However, there are other things to consider when deciding on the right card:

What are the reload options - can you pop into a local bank, can you reload online, etc?
Can you manage the card online - can you see transactions, etc?
Is there a 24 hour service to reload money on to the card when necessary?
Is there a free additional card?
What level of protection does the card provider offer?

As with a credit card, shopping around is the key to getting the best deal for consumrs. At the moment the prepaid card market has relatively few providers compared to the credit card market but competition is beginning to intensify which will in turn drive down costs and increase service.

Electronic Currency

Electronic currency is also known as electronic money, e-money, electronic cash, digital money, digital cash or digital currency. It refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves the use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems.
E-currency provides the Internet user with a safer and more convenient way in dealing with online transaction as they can make the payment by just a simply click on the confirm button and the deal is then completed. It minimizes the risk of using the credit card where the users’ personal financial information might be explored or being stolen.

Future evolution
The main focuses of electronic currency development are:
1) Being able to use it through a wider range of hardware such as secured credit cards; and
2) Linked bank accounts that would generally be used over an Internet means, for exchange with a secure micropayment system such as in large corporations (PayPal).

Furthering network evolution in terms of the use of digital cash, a company named DigiCash is at the focus of creating an e-cash system that would allow issuers to sell electronic coins at some value. When they are purchased they come under someone’s own name and are stored on his computer or under his online identity. At all times, the e-cash is linked to the e-cash company and all transactions go through it, so the e-cash company secures anything that is purchased. Only the company knows your information and will properly direct purchases to your location.

Drawback of electronic currency
Although digital cash can provide many benefits such as convenience and privacy, increased efficiency of transactions, lower transaction fees, and new business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities on the Internet, there are many potential issues with the use of digital cash. The transfer of digital currencies raises local issues such as how to levy taxes or the possible ease of money laundering. There are also potential macroeconomic effects such as exchange rate instabilities and shortage of money supplies (total amount of digital cash versus total amount of real cash available, basically the possibility that digital cash could exceed the real cash available). These issues may only be addressable by some type of cyberspace regulations or laws that regulate the transactions and watch for signs of trouble.

A review on a post on e-tailing from My E-Commerce blog

Most of the people sell products via Internet, how about services?
Offering services thru Internet might not be popular in Malaysia, but getting online services is a trend in overseas. For instance, online restaurant reservation services have been launched since 2007 in New York and San Francisco.
There are approximately 7,000 high-end restaurants around the world are using OpenTable.com, a Web site which allows customers to go for online restaurant reservation. In OpenTable.com, it takes 10 seconds by only few "clicking", which is far better than making reservation thru telephone. Having this service helps to improve the efficiency and profitability of the restaurants, save time and even reduce the error risk.

Based on the current trend, I believe there will be more online services popping up in the Internet, perhaps in the future people can even do a hair cut without physically present to the saloon. (Haha…this is merely my imagination!)

Wish to know more about OpenTable? Here is a news reporting about OpenTable.com.

The Treat of Online Security: How safe is our data?

Technology is wonderful as it keeps bringing more convenience to our lives. Traditionally people rely on computers to work for simple electronic tasks. With the advancement of technology, we can perform more than that by using the Internet, such as e-transactions. However data security is always an issue and it grows largely as more and more malicious attacks are developed.

Malicious Threats
Malicious threats can be categorized into technical and non-technical attack. Technical attack is an attack perpetrated using software and systems knowledge or expertise. The most common example is Malware. Malware is a compound from malicious and software. It is used to describe all types of malicious software, including worm, virus, Trojan horse, Spyware, Adware, Rookit etc.

A perpetrator is likely to use Trojan program to capture one’s personal and sensitive data. Trojan is a program which appears to perform a certain useful action but in fact performs hidden action such as transmitting a computer virus. For example, Girlfriend Trojan is a server program that arrives in the form of file that looks like an interesting game. When the unsuspected runs the program, the Trojan installed. The server will execute commands, sent by the client, on the victim’s computer such as to send back the information captured (user Ids and passwords) to the client. The Trojan program also enables the perpetrator to erase or overwrite data on a computer, corrupt files in a subtle way, upload and download files, show fake downloads of software movies, games, porn videos and porn websites that victim did not download, and so on.

Similar to Trojan, a Spyware existed to collect personal information without the user's knowledge or informed consent and send it to third parties. It is being installed surreptitiously on a personal computer. The spyware program can collect various types of personal information, such as Internet surfing habit, sites that have been visited, but can also interfere with user control of the computer in other ways, such as installing additional software, redirecting Web browser activity, accessing websites blindly that will cause more harmful viruses, or diverting advertising revenue to a third party. Spyware can even change computer settings, resulting in slow connection speeds, different home pages, and loss of Internet or other programs.

Besides this, our data is also exposed to non-technical attack, which is an attack that uses trickery to trick people into revealing sensitive information. Phishing is an example of this attack. It becomes a popular method to collect information by masquerading or creating fake Web sites that look identical to real Web sites. Commonly an email will be sent to customers requesting them to provide or update their information on the fake Web sites.

There are still other threats of data security. By taking necessary steps to safeguard our personal information, it could reduce information leaks.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

Traditionally, by locking up all the important documents and files is considered safe. Due to the advance in technology, it however does not work that way anymore.

You might wonder, how secure is considered as secure in network system?
Have you ever purchased any item from the Internet? Or have you experienced making any transaction through e-banking? Performing Internet activities which involve personal data could be risky, because the chances of leaking or theft these information is higher.
Therefore I’m here to share with you some tips regarding how to safeguard your personal and financial data.

1. Setting the passwords character as long as possible. The log in passwords of financial transaction should be more than 6 characters, and the characters should exclude the IC number or date of birthday to prevent anyone to trace your personal and financial confidential data. Bear in mind; do not divulge your account access passwords to other.

2. You should be able to verify the security web site, especially the web site which is financial-based. A secure financial web site should have the certificate of ‘Veri Sign Secure Site’ and also certified by ‘Web Trust’. The purpose of getting ‘Veri Sign Secure Site’ certificate is to ensure data confidentiality and integrity, and all information transmitted over the Internet is encrypted using the 128-bit Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol from Verisign Certificate Authority. SSL is a secure way of transferring information between two computers on the Internet using encryption. Whereas ‘Web Trust’ is to certify that the web site complies with the international web security standard. For example Maybank2u.com is reliable because it has been certified by both of these.

3. Antivirus. Top 5 Online Scanners which recommended by Mary Landesman are Trend Micro's Housecall, Kaspersky Online Scanner, Kaspersky File Scanner, Virustotal Jotti Online, and Malware Scan. By scanning the computer with any of these antivirus softwares before performing any financial transaction, it helps you to ensure there is no spyware in your computer.

The last but not the least, you should avoid accessing financial information in public, such as the outdoor wi-fi access. The financial transaction data seem to be open to the public and anyone who is IT expertise can easily trace the information.

Wish to know more?
http://www.verisign.com/
http://antivirus.about.com/od/freeantivirussoftware/tp/aaonline.htm

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

After reading a post about new spamming tactics on Internet Security from My E-Commerce blog, I learn more about spam and would like to share some information here.

What is spam?
Spamming is the abuse of electronic messaging systems to indiscriminately send unsolicited bulk messages and it is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message on people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. Most spam is commercial advertising, while the most widely recognized form of spam is e-mail spam, the term is applied to similar abuses in other media: instant messaging spam, Usenet newsgroup spam, Web search engine spam, spam in blogs, wiki spam, mobile phone messaging spam , Internet forum spam and junk fax transmissions.

Spam can be used to spread computer viruses, trojan horses or other malicious software. The objective may be identity theft, or worse (e.g., Advance fee fraud ). Some spam attempts to capitalize on human greed whilst other attempts to use the victims' inexperience with computer technology to trick them (e.g., Phishing ).

Anti-spam software can prevent all unwanted spam and junk email and filters for preventing spam. This is evidenced in the Web-based e-mails services providers such as Yahoo, Google and Hotmail, where spam mails are easily filter out and diverted to the spam folders.
Email and Internet content security provider, Marshal warned of the emergence of three new forms of spam.

· The first is a new run of greeting card spam targeting major holidays;
· The second is disguised as an Adobe Picture Document Format (PDF) attachment.
· Lastly, is a new form of spam labelled as Piggyback Spam.
These three forms of new spam are discussed in the new spamming tactics on Internet Security. To learn more on these please click here

Besides the solutions that are discussed in the post, here are some tactics you can use to greatly reduce the amount of spam you receive. Combining these tactics can help you read your e-mail in peace, without being accosted by continual spam.

1. Remove email links from your Web site.
Spam "robots" are continually scouring the Internet in search of new e-mail addresses. To reduce your current amount of spam, u can remove actual links to your e-mail and replacing them with a spelled-out e-mail address or create graphics that display your e-mail address because Spam robots can't read the text in graphic form.

2. Do not give out your business e-mail address.
If you must provide an e-mail address for a purchase, subscription, or registration, use a non-company account with a free webmail provider, such as Hotmail or Gmail.

3. Do not ask to be removed.
Many people make the mistake of replying to spam e-mail messages and asking to be removed from the list. However, attempting to remove yourself may result in even more junk e-mail.

4. Never buy and never reply.
Don't respond to spam solicitations. Buying products that are advertised in spam messages encourages spammers to continue. If you truly need what's being offered, find it from a reputable business.

5. Block spam at the server level.
Many hosting companies allow you to employ a spam blocker, such as Spam Assassin, at the server level. This means that your spam will be shuttled to a particular junk folder before you ever see it. However, these e-mail messages will remain on your server until you delete them.

6. Purchase a spam filter.
You can purchase a spam filter. There are many products out there, including SpamCop, which can filter out even cloaked spam messages. SpamCop also provides a free service to report spammers who are targeting your e-mail address.

Phishing:Examples and Its Prevention Methods

Let me share with you what phishing is all about. Phishing is basically a method of collecting(stealing) information through fake Web sites which seem as real Web sites. In United States, approximately 1.2 million computer users suffered losses of $ 929 million USD which caused by phishing.

One of the examples of phishing is Adwords. It is a Google’s flagship advertising product. Google offers pay-per-click advertising which seems attractive to marketing salesperson to deal with their business. In fact, “phishers” have taken up this opportunity to steal information by creating a fake Web site.

Here is the example of a faking URL:


Other indicators of phishing such as:
1. The email address of a user in a generic fashion which may lead to a high probability of phishing. Eg: Dear valued eBay member….
2. As mentioned above, the fake URL like http://www.google.com@members.thinkbank.com/ may trick the user to log in by clicking a link provided in the site, such as http://www.google.com/. In fact, the link actually directs the browser to phishers on members.thinkbank.com.
3. The other common trick used by phishers is requesting the user to “verify” their account or “update” their information.

Increase in the public awareness of phishing by identifying the real URL of a Web site helps to solve the problem. Here is a video that I downloaded from youtube. I would like to share with you on how to identify a fake URL and a real URL.






Users also can use software programs to identify phishing contents on Web sites and emails. There are some anti-phishing software available in the market such as Phishing-Sweeper-Enterprise, Phishing Detector, Phishing Zapper, etc. Click here to look for more anti-phishing software.

Besides, the use of spam filter also helps in protecting a computer users from phishers. Kindly visit to Cloudmark to look for various types of anti-phishing spam filters.

For organizations, Cloudmark introduced some unique verification tools such as challenging questions and secret images which serve the purpose of verifying a passwords. Or, users could look for the digital certificate to ensure the particular site is being certified and reliable before proceeding with any transaction. A good example would be Maybank2u.com

An example of an E-commerce failure and its causes

The internet creates new connectivity with customers and offers the opportunity to expend markets. However, it also has the potential to expose a retailer to more source of risk. There are some extremely successful virtual Ecommerce companies such as eBay, Google, Yahoo! and etc. But, there are also a large number of Ecommerce companies began to fail. Pets.com is one among many other online retailers that failed as a business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce entity.

Pets.com was a San Francisco-based online business that offered pet products, information, and resources to consumers over World Wide Web. The site was launched in November, 1998 founded by web company developer Greg McLemore. Julie Wainwright, previously CEO of Reel.com, was appointed CEO of Pets.com. The company received over $50 million in funding from backers including Hummer Winbald, Bowman Capital, Discovery Communications, Walt Disney, and Amazon.com.

In the beginning of 1999, Pets.com appeared to be on a road to success. The company succeeded wildly in making its mascot, the Pets.com sock puppet. The Pets.com site design was extremely well received, garnering several advertising awards. Pets.com offered consumers a broad product selection, large-scale inventory, competitive prices, and expert advice from a staff of pet-industry experts and veterinarians. It also offered an efficiently designed website that attracted many customers.

Although Pets.com had a first-mover advantage being the first of these virtual pet stores to enter the market but Pets.com was in a crowded field. It operated in a very competitive market, Pets.com, Petopia, PetsMart.com, and Petstore.com all launched within months of each other in 1999. This market competition forced Pets.com to advertise extensively and to sell goods below cost. Noting the high costs of delivering items such as dog food and the thin profit margins involved. Pets.com decided to close down in November, 2000 just two years after its launch.

One problem with Pets.com’s business model was that it was not unique and did not offer consumers anything different from the other online pet supplies retailers. Another problem that Pets.com faced was that it entered a market of selling low-margin food and supplies that are extremely costly to ship to consumers.

The reasons for the closing of Pets.com relate back to an unsustainable business model and unachievable expectations. It acquired large amounts of funding from venture capitalists without considering the consequences. Without any experience, the firm went public only a few months after its initial launch. Pets.com assumed that the market and its revenues would grow quickly enough to allow for a profit before funding money was exhausted. Too strong of a focus on market share instead of on gaining profits led to the downfall of Pets.com. Also, another contributing factor is that this e-tailer may have overestimated the number of online customers it could gain in the pet market.

After collapsing, its assets were sold to Petsmart.com, a click-and-mortar pet supplies retailer. Refer to http://www.petsmart.com/home/index.jsp. There are many reasons why some firms may not want to enter the online selling market, and the experience of Pets.com is just one example of many.

The top ten E-commerce mistake can be refer to:
http://www.e-consultancy.com/news-blog/364700/top-10-most-common-e--commerce-mistakes.html

http://shopping-cart-review.toptenreviews.com/top-ten-mistakes-ecommerce-article.html

E-Commerce Success - Amazon.com

What is Amazon.com?

Amazon.com was launched by Jeff Bezos in 1994. It was initially a small online bookseller that provided customers with access to an extensive selection of books without physical stores and warehouses (Hamilton, 2004). Amazon.com has rapidly grown within years and become a giant superstore company. The success of Amazon.com has opened up the potentials and business opportunities of e-commerce.

Online Shopping - Amazon.com

What are the key factors contribute to the success of Amazon.com?

Jeff Bezos and Amazon.com did not witness the success immediately. In fact it has incurred significant losses and exposed to greater competition and challenges. However Jeff Bezos distinguished Amazon.com from its competitors by unique business strategies and providing customers with outstanding value and a superior shopping experience.

1. Business Strategies
Amazon.com stands head and shoulders above others because it pursues 3 business strategies, including cost-leadership, customer differentiation and focus strategies (Saunders, 2001). Cutting costs and achieving greater profitability is the greatest challenges of Amazon.com. Amazon.com always makes sure that it provides quality products to customers at a lower cost for a more reasonable and affordable price than its competitors.
Amazon.com pursues customer differentiation strategy by providing customers with different design, quality or convenience so that customers could easily recognize and differentiate its products from competitors. Lastly, Amazon.com focuses on outstanding customer service and experience to ensure customer satisfaction by fulfilling customers’ demands and requirements.

2. Amazon.com's Value Proposition
Values play an important role in Amazon.com's succeeding. A value is similar to a goal and often determines the difference between success and failure of the enterprise (Saunders, 2001). Amazon.com is practicing 2 key values in its business – customer satisfaction and operational frugality. Customer satisfaction is what Amazon.com most concerns about; whereas operational frugality helps the company to have more capital to spend on branding and business expansion.

3. Customer Service
Amazon.com always focuses on its customers and it provides admirable customer service. A study by Saunders (2001), shows that more than half of Amazon.com's customers are repeat customers. Impressive customer service of Amazon.com has aided in its success because it strengthens its customer satisfaction, and in turn, results in customer retention and loyalty. Amazon.com serves its customers by performing as promised, such as punctual delivery. Amazon.com also focuses on additional elements that customers want, such as concentration of quality, reliability, security and availability of product. Amazon.com never stops seeking customer service improvements as it believes customers are the support of the business.

Amazon.com as pioneer of e-commerce

Now, customers can buy many items from Amazon.com as Jeff Bezos wants Amazon.com to be the place for consumers to find almost anything they want. In Amazon.com, we can clear see the development and growth of a business in the internet environment. As a pioneer of e-commerce, Amazon.com has established a successful model for future online retailers to follow.

Source: E-commerce - Amazon.com

The History and Evolution of E-commerce

HISTORY
In the traditional way, commerce can be defined as the trading of goods, buying and selling physically. It is a major drive of human survival since the beginning of recorded history and beyond. Now, the trading of goods, buying and selling through computer interaction over the Internet is known as e-commerce.
E-Commerce were first developed in the early 1970s with innovations such as electronic data interchange (EDI) (used to electronically transfer routine documents), and expanded electronic transfers from financial transactions to other types of transaction processing. In 1984, electronic data interchange (EDI) was standardized through ASC X12. This guaranteed that companies would be able to complete transactions with one another reliably.

EVOLUTION
In 1992 it was the first introducing purchase of goods through computer by CompuServe with an online retail product system. Followed by 1994, one of the companies in US, Netscape provided users a simple browser to surf the Internet and a safe online transaction technology – Secure Sockets Layer.
In 1998, the use of Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) helped the network to work faster. The design of DSL provided fast, always-on Internet service to its subscribers and subsequently prompted people to spend more time and money to online. As a result, retail spending over the Internet reached up to $20 billion in 1999.
Come to the 21st century, online shopping and e-banking transaction become common in use and some of the retailers also started their business through internet. The top 5 most famous retailers are Amazon, Dell, Staples, Office Depot and Hewlett Packard in worldwide internet. Besides, the “brick and mortar” on retailer web side allows the consumers easily search through the large database of products to get the actual price of products and enables them to compare the price before deciding to purchase such goods.
E-commerce has lead companies to be globalization. It is a potential business marketplace. Based on the past surveys conducted, e-commerce sales achieved 3.4 percent of total sales and it will be growing continuously in years.

DISCUSS HOW E-COMMERCE CAN REDUCE CYCLE TIME, IMPROVE EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT AND FACILITATE CUSTOMER SUPPORT

Today, most of the services are offered in electronic form. This is very popular among the travelling agencies and real estate companies in United State. The services are now available anytime and anywhere whenever they are needed.

How does e-commerce reduce cycle time?
It reduces cycle time by providing customers direct access to the services thru extranet with strong securities to protect customers’ confidential information. In this technology era, consumers’ acceptance towards e-commerce is increasing. More consumers now prefer to do online shopping instead of physically appearing to the stores. Besides, by creating an extranet, it enhances customer satisfaction which in turn attributes to a maximizing of company’s profit.

Does it help in improving employees’ empowerment? How does it work?
Understanding your employees is important! Getting involvement of employees is even better for a company’s operation. Thus, most of the companies are moving towards to this target. In an e-commerce world, top managers empower their subordinates by authorizing the lower level management to access to certain applications which enable the top management to monitor the business performance and evaluate the work accomplishment in a more effective way.

Can it facilitate customer support?
Obviously, it can! It establishes a better communication between parties. Customers can easily obtain necessary information by just doing “clicking” on the mouse whereas companies are just required to establish a system to support it! Currently, there are various types of packages offered by NETSUITE to facilitate the companies that are dealing with e-commerce as a way of improving their customer support services. The following are the examples:

Case Assignment, Management & Escalation
- Companies can log and analyze e-mail communications with the clients.
- Companies are able to prioritize the customers’ cases according to the period of waiting, terms in service contracts or any other conditions that set by companies.

Online Customer Center (Self-Service)
- Empower customers by providing security passwords that allow them to access to the information as they needed.
- Customers need only to send an e-mail regarding to the required information to Customer Service address.
To look for more examples, kindly visit to :
http://www.netsuite.com/portal/industries/ecommerce/support/knowledge.shtml

Self Introduction

Welcome to aaa_long and visit our first blog~
Traditionally the very first blog of course is self introduction! Here goes the self introduction of each of us..

Profile 1
Name_ Neo Pei Yee a.k.a Abby
Age_ 21
Gender_ Female
D.O.B_ 30.06.1987
Star Sign_ Cancer
MSN_ lovelytiramisu@hotmail.com

Well, writing a self introduction seems far easier than doing an assignment. In fact, this is the hardest task for me. I’m a student who’s currently pursuing my degree in accountancy in UTAR. But my dream is not being an accountant. Being a psychiatrist is what I’m dreaming of. You may wonder why I’m here now, just simply because of my family. Dream and reality are always different; but I think I’m having the characteristic of an accountant, that is “kiam siap” ! (Haha..)
My greatest hobby is watching Astro, because watching tv helps me to reduce stress and gets my minds relax when I’m tension. I always imagine how good if I could lie on the sofa and watching for a whole day without any pressure and worries. Lol…
I love to shop whenever I’m free to do so. I love the feelings of shopping, because I like to explore the latest goods in the market to get myself updated of the current trend. Normally I will just do window shopping because I’m a poor student. I’ll only buy during Mega Sales! It makes me crazyyy!! XD
Besides all these, listening to songs is what I’m doing everyday. I like all types of songs, as long as it is pleasant to listen to. Mandarin songs are preferable, because of the lyrics and melody. I could spend whole day for just listening to a song repeatedly if I find it meaningful.
Hmm.. I like surfing net and chatting online too. Normally I surf net to check e-mails, search for interesting web sites, free themes for my phone, free online games and songs and etc.

The top 5 websites that I visited the most are:
http://www.yahoo.com/ – To check e-mails, share interesting e-mails with friends, and keep in touch with friends in Yahoo! Group.
http://www.google.com/ – A powerful search engine where I use it to search for information, mostly for assignments.
http://www.gallery9.com/ – The website where I download free mobile phone themes and wallpapers.
http://chinese.cari.com.my/ – A Chinese forum where people share their stories and experiences, and seek for suggestions. I like to read people’s stories and experiences.
http://www.chinapress.com/ – To read electronic news to know what’s happening and save money for buying newspaper.

Profile 2
NAME : Low Shu Yee a.k.a Ashleey
AGE : 21
GENDER : Female
MY FAVORITES : As below…

i. Gardening
Because my mom loves it, so during weekend I would spend some times with my mom on gardening. Am I a good girl?! Speechless…

ii. Reading
I read most of the time just because I want to score in my mid- term tests and examination. What is the motivation for me to study? Of course is MONEY!!! I can apply for scholarship with good results and ensure my career (income) in the future.

iii. Sports… I love Yoga!
I’ve been practicing Yoga for two years, although it doesn’t show a good effect on my body shape! (Laughing…) However, it did help to manage my stress during my university’s life and maintain a healthy lifestyle.

iv. Outdoor activities
I like snorkeling; my first experience was in Redang Island. Whenever there is chance for snorkeling, I’ll never miss it! Of course, if I would like to try on surfing. It’s a challenging activity for me! I hope I can try once in my life…

v. Music
I must listen to songs or music every day, without music my life is MEANINGLESS!!!

Top 5 Favorite Websites:
i. http://www.hotmail.com/ – One of the communication tools that creates a space for everyone to have communication by sending e-mail and online chatting.
ii. http://www.thestar.com.my/ – This website enable people to update themselves to the current issues without buying newspapers!
iii. http://www.google.com/ – A powerful tool for searching relevant information that helps in accomplishing any tasks required.
iv. http://www.flyfm.com.my/ –Through this website, people can listen to the recent songs and news from a local radio station.

Profile 3
N@m3 : lOk kHy3 lOOn a.k.a Alan
G3nD3r : M
D.O.B : 1985.05.26
heigHt : 168 cm
w3IgHt : 57.8 kg
BlOOd type : O+
Horoscope : g3mInI

Sometime I would ask myself what I’ve learned and what I’ve done in my study life.
I’m an ordinary and average year3 semester1 student who’s studying accounting course in UTAR. During my study life, I never gain any outstanding result, but I gain a gang of best friends. They are mostly funny, friendly, and crazy, but always be ready for me whenever I face problems. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them for giving me such meaningful and unforgettable memories. I appreciate them for accommodating me as a vegetarian and making me a great day.
Recently I’m engaged in thesis preparation; the websites I visited the most are emerald and science direct for the purpose to search for relevant journal articles. Other than these 2 websites, I visit to hotmail and download.com too. I use MSN as my communication tools to communicate with friends; and Hotmail to receive e-mails. Whereas download.com is helpful when I need to download some free softwares.
My hobbies are making new friends and making money. If you find my personal details are not sufficient and wish to know more about me, please feel free to visit my friendster account by searching lk_loon@hotmail.com. Friendster.com is also one of the websites which I access frequently.

Profile 4
Name: Long Mei Mei a.k.a Long
Age: 21
Gender: Female

I’m Mei Mei. My hobbies are listening to music, reading, dancing, watching movie, shopping and sleeping. I love to read love stories and comics. During my holiday, I can spend whole day for reading comics and novels but when reading text books, I could easily fall asleep within 30 minutes. I like to listen to music too; whenever I turn on my computer, I will listen to music.
When I was 7 year-old, my mummy sent me for ballet classes. From that time, I started to love dancing. I was a gymnast and representing my secondary school to win a lot of prizes. Because of my passion towards dancing, I dreamt to become a dancer. But now, I end up with being an accounting student waiting to graduate. Besides dancing, I also like to practice yoga, everyday I will spend some time to practice yoga.

The top 5 website that I visit the most are as follow:
http://www.hotmail.com/ – it allows me to communicate and share information with friends and family.
http://www.google.com/ – it is a useful search engine, I always search information in this website.
wble.utar.edu.my – I always download lecture notes and tutorials in this website. It also allows us to share information and communicate with lecturer and schoolmate.
http://www.thestar.com.my/ – I read news from this website and I can save me a lot of money from buying news paper.
http://www.tgv.com.my/ – I visit to this website to know what movie is currently showing and which are coming soon. It also allows me to book ticket online.

We guess that’s all for our self introduction. Please leave us any comment on our first blog~ Thanks for viewing!

Profile 5

Name: Lim Peng Kuan a.k.a Ben

Age: 24

Gender: Male

D.O.B: 18.01.1984

Horoscope: Capricorn

MSN: ah_peng@hotmail.com

Hello I'm Ben. I'm actually a repeat student in this subject. So sorry that i'm joining this group lately but I'm happy to join this group. =) I used to be called as "Ping Guan" as my chinese name, the name of a chinese singer Victor. My friends call me this way is because my name Peng Kuan. In fact my chinese is not to be pronounce that way, but i still take it as my chinese name because i love being a superstar =p

I'm currently working in a foreign bank and i like my job very much. My working life is challenging and i learn a lot from my job.

My greatest hobbies are watching movie and reading comics. I like to surf the Internet too to learn new things and keep in touch with my friends.

The top 5 websites that I visited the most are:

www.google.com >> It is a powerful search engine where to find out what i wanted.
www.hotmail.com >> I visit it to check my emails and share information with my friends and clients.
www.chinese.cari.com.my>> The most popular Chinese forum in Malaysia, I like to share my experience and chat with new fiends.
www.ggyy8.com >> It is an online comics website
www.sinchewdaily.com.my >> I used to read e-news everyday.