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Saturday, June 28, 2008

Electronic Currency

Electronic money (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic currency, digital money, digital cash or digital currency) refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. Typically, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. Also, it is a collective term for financial cryptography and technologies enabling it.

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Advantages and disadvantages of electronic money

Advantages.

  • Issuer advantages:Electronic currency works in a much simpler and cheaper way,which makes it ideal for micro-payments and thus much more attractive for credit companies. The low cost of electronic currency is that it does not require the huge amount of expensive infrastructure that other systems do, in particular credit cards,because the value in a card can be transferred into a reader without need to contact a network facility to corroborate the payment, the transaction can be performed locally and the money will stay in the reader until later download.

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  • Consumer convenience: Electronic currency could prove very convenient for consumers. Because it involves advanced charge of money from the owner’s bank account, almost anybody can be supplied with a smart card, as there is no risk to the issuer. Consumers will also find it useful to have to do without carrying cash for small transactions, such as bus fares.
  • Increased consumer confidence: Because a smart card only holds the amount of money that the bearer has placed on it, consumers will be more willing to use it to purchase over the Internet without fear of somebody else misusing the payment information, as happens with credit card fraud. Some of the schemes are also being issued with a built in locking code, which will allow users to lock the cash on a card, making sure that if the card gets lost or stolen another person will not be able to use the money.
  • Payer anonymity: The payer can remain anonymous, as is the case with paying in cash.

Disadvantages.


Although the potential advantages for electronic money are
considerable, there are still several problems that should provide a healthy dose of skepticism for this payment system.
  • Consumer confusion: With three schemes competing to become the electronic currency standard, there is a real possibility of the whole system becoming too complicated for users. One of the main problems with too many schemes would be that the user may not be able to use the card everywhere, which is what would be expected of a system that is meant to replace physical currency.
  • Regulatory maze: The regulation for electronic currency is still unclear in some vital points, which must be answered before the system is made more widely available.
  • Security: The main concern that must exist in the minds of those interested in the implementation of electronic cash must be security. As happens with physical cash, widespread counterfeiting of electronic currency could have huge implications for the economy.

Information above are obtained and refined from:

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: Its Potentials and Consumer Adoption Strategies

Humans are born creative. With rapid improvement in technology and communication systems, humans created a new way of performing sale and purchase process. The new way is known as mobile payment. Mobile Payment is where consumers could make payment through thier mobile phones. In Malaysia, Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd is providing this service.


Mobile Money have the potential to grow as it works almost the same as the ATM cards but with no cash involved. In the view of security, consumers are protected by the PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution where consumers are required to enter a 6-digit pin to confirm transactions through their mobile phones.

Mobile Money also reduce the problem of consumers having to que for long hours to make a payment such as telephone bills and electricity bills. With Mobile Money, payments of the bills can be done anywhere and anytime with just a single SMS made through the mobile phone. Consumers are also provided a Refund and Reversal Feature where consumers are allowed to do reversal (within same business day) and refund (within 10 days from transaction date). This is to ensure that the consumers are protected if the are any wrong in making a transactions.

Consumers are also adopting the mobile payment system. In Malaysia, consumers frequently use the system to pay for donations. Payment for ringtones and wallpapers are also a common transaction seen in the mobile payment system. For advanced consumers, they use the mobile payment system to pay credit card debts, electricity bills, telephone bills and even summons.

With this, I could predict that soon all transcations will be changed to mobile transactions as it is more convinient. For more details on the mobile payment system, kindly visit the Mobile Money website by clicking the image below:


All information above are adopted from www.mobile-money.com

The application prepaid cash card for consumer



With a debit card, the money for a purchased item comes directly out of the holder’s checking account (called demand deposit account). The actual transfer of funds from the holder’s account to the merchant’s takes place within 1 to 2 days. Master card, Visa, and EuroPay are the predominant debit cards.

Traditional debit cards are associated with bank checking accounts held by bankable people Visa/ MasterCard and member banks cannot issue normal debit cards to “Un-banked” people without checking accounts.
In the recent years, the “Prepaid Debit Cards” came into existence and popularity. The biggest distinction with “Prepaid Debit Cards” is that no checks are associated with Prepaid Debit Card accounts.

Prepaid Debit Cards are much safer for the banks to issue because:
  • All transactions for these new debit cards are authorized online against account balances
  • There are no “Floats” from written checks that can cause overdrafts

One of the examples of prepaid debit card is Visa card. Visa card is a stored value card designed to handle small purchases or micropayments. This chip-based card can be used in the physical (off-line) world or on the internet. When a purchase is made, the cost of the purchase is deducted from the cash loaded on the card. Visa Cash can be used only at vendors having special terminals displaying the visa cash logo.

The prepaid debit card applications are:

  • General Spending Debit Card
  • Payroll and commission payout Card
  • Remittance - Funds Transfer within and across borders
  • Affinity Group Card
  • Travel Card
  • Student Card
  • Gift CardElectronic Benefits Payment Card – Government benefits

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Credit Card debts: Causes and Prevention

Credit card is represented an account that extends to consumer, allowing consumers to purchase items while deferring payment, and allow consumer to make payment to multiple vendors at the same time. Holders are charged high interest on unpaid balance. For example, visa or master card.

Credit card debt is like gaining weight - easy to get; hard to lose. But losing weight is not impossible; neither is getting out of debt. In the same way that you can shed those extra pounds, you can get yourself out from underneath all that debt and avoid bankruptcy. It takes hard work, discipline, and getting the right kind of help. Credit card debts occur when he or she unable to pay that money they have been spent. The consumer did not settle the bill on time, it will charge as late payment and cause credit card debts increasing.



Causes of Credit Card Debts:

1)Unlimited spending

Poor for manage the money or unavoidable spending money will cause the larger debts. Especially, it is happening for woman. The woman who likes to spend at the fashion such as buy new branded shoes, handbag and shirt. At the ended of the month, they only realized that they spend more than their budget. The sum that accumulated month by month due to payment due and interest has been charged. There must be a proper spending plan to avoid over budget and money gone.


2) Saving too little or not at all

The simplest way to avoid unwanted debt is to prepare for unexpected expenditures by saving three to six months of living expenses. With a savings cushion in place, a job layoff, illness or divorce will not cause immediate financial strain and increase debt. You always hear, "Pay yourself first." Do it and it will grow and be there when you need it. No one has ever regretted having a savings cushion.


3) No money communication skills

It is important to communicate with your spouse or significant other and your children about finances. Keep the lines of communication open and discuss financial goals and spending styles. If you are married to a spender and you are a saver, you will want to map out a strategy for you both to get what you want. Know what credit accounts you each have and promise each other to be honest about what each other spends. Many people find out that their spouses have racked up thousands of dollars in credit card debt and they had no idea that the accounts even existed. This often leads to number 2 above.

4)Medical expenses

Gaps in coverage, lapsed policies and increasingly costly alternatives make this a popular category. Just about every doctor I know now takes credit cards. If you think it's for convenience, think again. The medical industry wants to get paid at the time service is rendered. They know that if they don't, the chances of their getting paid drops. This means more debt for you, less for them. To be fair, they are not in the lending business, but this only masks a bigger problem

Prevention of Credit Card Debts:

1)Think before you act

To avoid falling into that trap, take a hard look at your finances and determine how much you can realistically afford to pay each month. Rhode suggests that people track their spending every day for a month to get a firm handle on where their money is actually going.
"People will save 20 percent just writing down where their money goes," he says. "Because they will start cutting back."
After tracking their spending, people can better decide how much they can afford to pay toward credit card debt. Experts point out that just $50 more a month can make a big difference.
If logging expenses for a month doesn't turn up additional money try these tips for saving $50 a month from Consumer Credit Counseling Service:


· Brown bag 10 lunches per month.
· Have movies and popcorn at home instead of going out.
· Use coupons for groceries and buy store brands.
· Make pizza at home instead of ordering out.
· Buy in bulk and freeze dinner entrees.
· Give handmade cards and gifts.
· Shop at consignment, thrift and discount stores.


2)Pay more than the minimum

Once you start paying more than the minimum, the debts start to disappear. Paying just the $60 minimum payment on a $3,000 credit card balance would take eight years to pay off and cost a person a whopping $2,780 in interest. By paying an additional $50 a month, the debt would be paid off in three years and they would be spared $1,800 in interest charges. Use Bankrate.com's credit card minimum payment calculator to see how increasing your payments will cut your time in debt.

3)Cancel Credit Card
Many people have been close their credit card account when they are awared that they are unable to pay anymore. They are just stick to one credit card rather than 2 or 3 credit cards. The reason is they do not want to be debtors that owing money to the financial institutions.

4)credit counseling and debt management agency

Bank Negara Malaysia (National Bank of Malaysia) has establish the Credit Counseling and Debt Management Agencyto provide counseling and advice on financial management, debts management programs and financial education for free of charge such as:-

  • Financial education on the responsible use of credit and basic money management skills
  • Counselling and advice on financial management, including financial budgeting to manage expenses
  • Debt management programme to assist financial consumers to regain financial control

As a conclusion, i hope that all people realise what is the way to prevent card credit debt in order to avoid such debt occur.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

The Application of Third Party Certification Programme In Malaysia : TRUSTGATE


TRUSTGATE is a licensed Certification Authority (CA) in Malaysia since 1999. They offer complete security solutions and leading trust services that are needed by individuals, enterprises, government, and e-commerce service providers using digital certificates, digital signatures, encryption and decryption.

One of the services provided by the company is SSL Certificate for Internet, Intranet and Server Security where the server of your business will be secured by the programme. The increasing phishing and spoofing attacks on the internet makes customers wants to make sure they are dealing with trusted parties when they are dealing business online and ensure that their information traveled over the Internet reaches the intended recipients and is safe from intruders.

There are seven reasons why to choose this service provided by the company:
  1. Authentication: An SSL certificate securely authenticates your web site to your customers - they can be confident that the site they are dealing with is genuine and not a forged or "spoof" site. MSC Trustgate authentication procedures are recognized as the most thorough in the industry. A VeriSign certificate gives confidence that your web site, intranet, or extranet is one that can be trusted.
  2. Encryption: When a Digital Certificate is correctly installed on your web server, your customers can communicate with your website over an encrypted HTTPS connection - all data (such as credit card details) sent to or from your customers will be secured against interception or eavesdropping. Seeing HTTPS in the URL reassures your clients that they can deal safely with your site.
  3. High Grade Security: Choose a VeriSign Global Certificate, and you'll receive 128bit SSL encryption - the strongest grade of encryption available. Compare features of our Global and Secure certificates.
  4. One Year or Two: Our SSL comes with a choice of one or two year validity periods. Two year certificates bring significant cost savings and means fewer certificate renewals.
  5. Local Support: MSC Trustgate, affiliate of VeriSign in Southeast Asia, prides itself on the quality of our local based support that we offer on our certificates. Get the help you need to enroll, install, use and renew your certificates.

  6. VeriSign Secured Seal: Included with your digital certificate is the VeriSign Secured Seal the Web's most recognized trust mark. The seal allows your customers to quickly and easily verify your site's credentials and that their personal data is secure.
  7. Protection Plan: For your peace of mind a warranty cover of up to RM 400,000 is included with every SSL Certificate. This protects you should you experience any economic loss resulting from corruption, identity theft, or loss of use of your web server certificate.

The services are also divided into:

  • Global Server ID that adopts today's strongest encryption commercially available for secure communications via Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) technology. GSID authenticates your web sites and enables 128- or 256-bit encryption to secure communications and transactions between the site and its visitors.

AND

  • Secure Server ID which is Secure Site SSL Certificates protect the transfer of sensitive data on Web sites, intranets, and extranets using a minimum of 40-bit and up to 256-bit encryption. It includes the VeriSign Secured Seal.

By having this security in your business website, customers would be more confident in dealing business with you and they will feel more secured. Thus, this increases the success of your business one step further.

All information above are obtained from:

Phishing:Examples and Prevention Method

In computing, phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has.

EXAMPLE:

In the year 2003 the users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user’s account was about to be suspended unless he clicked on the provided link and updated the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Because it is relatively simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organizations site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay’s site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the “phisher” counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately.

Prevention Methods:

Downloads

  • Establish a download policy for your household or workplace. This is especially important if young people share the computer as game and file sharing sites are major sources of spyware.
  • Banish peer-to-peer file sharing completely. Or, if that will cause a revolution in your household, banish it to a non-networked, standalone computer which contains no financial or other personal information. Do not use this computer to access financial Web sites or other sites which require a log-in or store account details. Treat this computer as a pariah.
  • Before downloading, read the software licence (EULA) in its entirety.

Email

  • Never click links in spam.
  • Never buy spam-advertised products.
  • Never click links to financial institutions or log-in sites; instead, open your browser manually and type the address in directly, or use a previously saved bookmark for the site.
  • Establish a Web-based email account and use it for all non-critical email. Do not download this mail to your local machine, view it online.
  • Never open attachments from unknown sources.
  • Scan attachments from known sources for viruses before you open them.

Browsers

  • Always read links and dialog boxes carefully before you click online.
  • Never click the Close or Cancel link in a pop-up. Often these links are coded to install spyware.
  • Close pop-ups using the X in the top right-hand corner, or click the window's title-bar and press Alt+F4.
  • If a pop-up has no apparent way to close it, use Ctrl+Alt+Del to terminate your browser. If you're using Internet Explorer, this will have the unfortunate side effect of restarting the Windows Explorer as well (another reason for not using Explorer).
  • Watch how questions are phrased online. Frequently, they are phrased in a way which makes it hard to work out how to avoid signing up for something, or a series of No, No, No responses will precede a question which requires a Yes to avoid accidental sign up.
  • Set your browser to kill pop-ups. Most browsers display a notice when they block a pop-up, so you can always allow a specific pop-up if it's on a trusted site.
  • Check for updates to your browser each week.
  • Regularly check security settings of your browser, to ensure they have not been changed. For example, check that IE's Trusted Sites list contains only those sites you have added.
  • Look for the https:// prefix (note the 's' on the end) in the Web address, indicating a secure site, before entering sensitive information online.
  • Watch for subtle changes in the way a site appears. If it doesn't look right, close your browser.
  • Patch all browsers on your system, not just the one you use as the default. One recent attack used a flaw in Firefox's Java plug-in to worm its way into Internet Explorer and from there to launch pop-ups. Remember that Internet Explorer is integrated into Windows in all sorts of ways, so you must patch it even if you don't use it. IE is used by Messenger, Outlook Express, Digital Imaging Studio and many other programs even if you have chosen another browser as your default.
  • Use Microsoft Update to keep Windows patched.

Information above are obtained and refined from:


How to safeguard our personal and financial data...

Computer and network security attacks are on the rise. Data collected by the computer security institute (CSI), the FBI, and the Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) indicate that the number of security incidents has skyrocketed since 1998, that the overwhelming majority of firms have experienced computer security breaches from inside and outside the organisation, that the financial losses from these breaches have been substantial, and that it takes a concerted effort to guard against cyber attack. So we have to know how to safeguard our financial and personal data.

First, we need to concern with a variety of security issues:
1) Authorization – The process that ensures that person has the right to access certain recourses.
2) Auditing – The process of collecting information about attempts to access particular resources, use particular privileges, or perform other security actions.
3) Confidentiality – Keeping private or sensitive information from being disclosed to unauthorized individuals, entities, or processes.
4) Integrity – As applied to data, the ability to protect data from being altered or destroyed in an unauthorized or accidental manner.
5) Nonrepudiation – The ability to limit parties from refuting that a legitimate transaction took place, usually by means of a signature.

Several technologies exist that ensure that an organisation’s network boundaries are secure from cyber attack or intrusion and that if the organisation’s boundaries are compromised that the intrusion is detected:
1) Firewall – A network node consisting of both hardware and software that isolates a private network from a public network. Firewall that filter data and requests moving from the public Internet to a private network based on the network addresses of the computer sending or receiving the request. These firewall called Packet-filtering Routers.
2) Personal firewall – A network node designed to protect an individual user’s desktop system from the public network by monitoring all the traffic that passes through the computer’s network interface card.
3) Virtual Private Network – A network that uses the public internet to carry information but remains private by using encryption to scramble the communication, authentication to ensure that information has not been tampered with, and access control to verify the identity of anyone using the network.
4) Intrusion detection systems – A special category of software that can monitor activity across a network or on a host computer, watch for suspicious activity, and take automated action based on what it sees.