E-CoM WoRLd

E-Government In Malaysia: Its Implementation So Far And Citizen's Adoption Strategies

2009-07-09T11:30:00.000-07:00

The Electronic Government initiative in Malaysia was launched to lead the country into the Information Age. It has improved both how the government operates internally as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. It seeks to improve the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses; simultaneously, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement.
Current applications of e-Governement in Malaysia such as
i. E-filling
ii. MYEG
iii. KWSP i-Akaun
iv. E-perolehan

E-filling
E-filling is a method of filling of all income documents of tax payer in Malaysia that uses an electronic format rather than a traditional paper format. To use these services, taxpayers need to make a tax registration. Malaysia’s Inland Revenue Board (IRB) will send the PIN for online tax registration through mail to the taxpayer.

MY E.G.
MY E.G. services Bhd (MYEG) was incorporated in Malaysia as private limited company on 2000 as Marvel Sdn Bhd. On 2005, the company changed its status to a public company as My E.G. Services Berhad. MYEG focuses on delivering improvement in the Government Internal operation and in the delivery of services to the consumer. Those services provided my MYEG are:
- Driving License Renewal
- Auto Insurance Renewal
- Road tax Renewal
- LDL Application

KWSP I-Akaun
Akaun is a member’s or an employer’s personal account to be used on the Internet, specifically on myEPF portal. By having this account, user are able to access EPF services that are being offered online. Through i-Akaun, members can use the internet as another channel to gain access to number of EFP’s services online. Members need to register and activities their online account to be able to use i-Akaun services. There services provided by i-Akaun include:
- Check statement of account
- Check withdrawal status and history;
- Update addresses and other contact details; and
- Calculate the amount eligible for withdrawal for various withdrawal schemes.

ePerolehan
ePerolehan is an online procurement system that allows local entrepreneurs to register as suppliers for government offices or renew their registration, besides that it also allows the government offices and agencies to procure product and services through a fast, web-based electronic application. ePerolehan was establish in 1999 as part of the MSC initiatives, and developed by Commerce Dot Com, a company partly owned by the government.

However, there are some problems faced in e-government implementation:
• Technological barrier - Lack of technical infrastructure.
• Online behaviour - Malaysians remain sceptical on being distrust on electronic transaction especially on online banking buying from an Internet store.
• Lack of public awareness - Public are not aware of the services offered.

Ways to encourage more citizens to use the e-government applications:
• Provide consultation services on how to use those services.
• Simplify procedures needed to access to the e-government services.
• Increase awareness through TV and radio advertisements, and organising workshops at shopping malls.

Reference:
http://www.myeg.com.my/history.htm
http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=p2iakn&pg=en_p2iakn_about&ac=1558
http://www.kwsp.gov.my/index.php?ch=p2members&pg=en_p2members_iakaun&ac=52
http://www.google.com.my/url?q=http://skorcareer.com.my/blog/what-is-eperolehan/2008/04/10/&ei=bmFVSqDTHIuEswO-u7H0AQ&sa=X&oi=spellmeleon_result&resnum=1&ct=result&usg=AFQjCNEVRG7gLksAaRo6uJIlmu5pCEQuyA
http://www.google.com.my/url?q=http://www.uniteperolehan.gov.my/soalanLazim_bi.php&ei=bmFVSqDTHIuEswO-u7H0AQ&sa=X&oi=spellmeleon_result&resnum=2&ct=result&usg=AFQjCNGlyEylld0yyu0jsVt13RgOtJvDxA

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

2009-07-09T08:33:00.000-07:00

Today e-learning has been gaining more and more power and it is learning or education program that provided by electronic. E-learning involves the use of a computer or electronic device (e.g. a mobile phone) in some way to provide educational or learning material. (Derek Stockley 2003)

E-learning offered in Malaysian universities such as University of Malaya, University Teknologic Malaysia, University Teknologi PETRONAS and so on. However, there are still many questions about pros and cons of getting higher education online, the details as below:

Pros of e-learning

Flexibility and convenience

Learners can study wherever they have access to a computer and Internet. They can access instruction at their convenience, no matter where they live or travel because e-learning courses are primarily independent of time and place. Furthermore, they are flexibility to join discussions in the bulletin board threaded discussion areas at any hour, or visit with classmates and instructors remotely in chat rooms. Learner’s class work can be scheduled around work and family also one of the factors that convince learners who is working as full-timer.

Cost and time reduction

E-learning has been becoming more and more popular among learners living in developing and undeveloped countries. They can afford getting higher education degrees at respectable universities by saving extra expenses for traveling, accommodations, food and high fees for tutors. Furthermore, learners can reduce cost of buying paper or photostat if learners can get online resources, send a query and write term paper at any time they can get access to the Internet.

Reduce conflict among classmates

As we know that different people has different learning style and behavior. This situation can create conflict among classmates with different age, level of experience, gender, race or background who study in a class if our lack of communication skill in face to face communication. Therefore the learners can avoid this happen in their learning life if implement e-learning. Beside that, the learners can refer back to previous lectures without affecting the learning pace of other students.

Cons of e-learning

Lack of face to face communication

Lack of face to face communication allows learners to reduce conflict among classmates. However, this was indirectly to eliminate opportunity of learner to face to face communication with tutors or lecturers when learners need help in education. While lecturers cannot easily feel a student's demands, interests and motivations, a student can simply be lazy being non-motivated enough and bad study habits may fall behind. Next, online classes, conferences and discussions are limited in time and totally exclude emotional interactivity, lack of gesture and so on.

Computer literacy

For the learners who are beginner-level computer skills, managing computer files and online learning software can sometimes seem complex. Therefore, it can become one of the factors that affect process of learning. Furthermore, slow internet connections or older computers may make accessing course materials frustrating will affect the learners who have financial problem and unable to buy a new computer.

References:

http://derekstockley.com.au/elearning-definition.html

http://elearning.perdana.um.edu.my/login.php

http://elearning.utp.edu.my/

http://elearning.utm.my/

http://www.ecsd.net/online_courses/pros_cons.html

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_Pros_and_cons_of_e_learning

http://www.articlesbase.com/e-learning-articles/pros-and-cons-of-elearning-685765.html

http://www.dso.iastate.edu/asc/academic/elearner/advantage.html

http://writingandsnacks.blogspot.com/2006/08/pros-and-cons-of-e-learning.html

Review a local e-commerce site

2009-07-08T02:49:00.000-07:00

Nowadays,many companies start using e-commerce for their business. This phenomenal not just within the services or banking areas but it also include the food industry.When you feel hungry and would like to order pizza, usually you will order by phone but now there are an alternative method for you to order pizza. Now you can order pizza through online with Domino's Pizza because it was the first fast food industry that offer online services in Malaysia.

The local e-commerce site that i have review is www.dominos.com.my

Domino's Pizza was one of the food industry in Malaysia.It is a franchise company that own by Dommal Food Services Sdn Bhd. Their commitment is “30 minutes to customer's doorstep” and this is still applies even you order through online. Beside that, they are also totally free for deliver.

When you first visit the home page, there is an advertisement that promote their new product or any promotion that are available. They were using yellow colour for this advertisement and it make attractive to customers. Beside that, all the information about Domino's Pizza such as menu, promotion, combo meals will be at the left hand side of the home page. This is clear and easy for those first visitors. Other than that, there is a loyalty program for those loyal customers. They can register as a member and get more benefit or discount.

Otherwise, one of the services that provide by Domino's Pizza is favourite order. This is the most services that i like and feel that Domino's Pizza was really care about customers. The reason is when you register as a member, they will save your past order record and they will show you what is your favourite order. Therefore, it will be easily for me to order.

The speed and navigation of the web site is fast and smoothly. Customers can easily turn from one page to another page or link to other information. Order pizza through online is convenience but there are still have some people will worry about the payment. This is because not everyone would have credit card. However,customers don't have to worry about it because the term of payment for Domino's Pizza is Cash On Deliver. This have been clearly stated in the ordering policies.

As a conclusion, Domino's Pizza's web site is clear and easy to understand. Inside the web site, it has provide many sufficient information and it is easy to understand .

References:

http://ok-lah.blogspot.com/2005/11/top-5-ecommerce-companies.html

http://www.dominos.com.my/

Corporate blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies.

2009-07-07T01:01:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, more and more organizations use corporate blog as a new marketing communication tool.

First and for most, what is corporate blog???

Well, Corporate blog is actually a web blog used and published by an organisation to achieve its organisational goals. Corporate blogs usually classified into external or internal corporate blog. Internal blogs are accessed through corporation’s intranet that only employees can view. External blogs are publicly available weblog where employees, teams, spokespersons and others people can share their views. It is often use to announce their new products and services.

However, corporate blog are new but powerful marketing communication tools for the organization. No matter what kind of organization you are: large or small, domestic company or international company, primary or public company can create your own corporate blog. Besides helping strengthen the relationship with your customers, a good corporate blog can also help to attract more potential customers!

An example of corporate blog is Dell's Direct2Dell. This team is extremely plugged in to the blogosphere and social media in general. The statement is right in the banner: "A blog about Dell products, services, and customers".

Corporate blog brings a lot of benefit to the customers and organization.

For customers:
-It provides the latest news and information about company and its product.
-It allows customers express their personal opinion, suggestion and complaint here.
-Customers are easier to search their products by using blog.

For organizations:
-Easy to publish and set up.
-Free customer feedbacks and suggestions about your products.
-Providing more detail or accurate information to your customers.
-Building better relationship with your customers.

Disadvantages of corporate blog:

It’s easy to start a blog but it is hard to be maintained. Writing coherently is one of the most difficult and time-consuming tasks for a human being to undertake.
Could be harmful for company if some employees use to write negatively comments about the company, thus leading to bad publicity.

Reference:

http://www.scottmonty.com/2008/03/corporate-blogging-how-pros-do-it.html

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2007/05/01/13147.aspx

http://www.helium.com/items/254062-the-pros-and-cons-of-corporate-blogging

http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging/advantages

http://www.enterpriseblogs.info/corporate-blogging/disadvantages

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporate_blog

The application of pre-paid cash for consumers

2009-07-03T03:55:00.000-07:00

What is prepaid cash card?
A prepaid cash card is a plastic card which provides an alternative payment method to cash when making purchases. The payment time frame of prepaid cash card is different with debit card and credit card. The payment of debit card is make during transactions whereas credit card is make a payment after transactions. However, prepaid cash card should pre-loaded cash into card before make any transactions.

Benefits of using prepaid cash card

No debt risk-The users can only spend the balance that has been preloaded onto the card and unlike credit cards the funds are transferred from the bearer's bank account instead of having the bearer to pay back on a later date. Therefore, the users can avoid falling into debt and never have to worry about finance charges, late charges, or over-the-limit fees.

Convenience-It can be use to shop & pay bills online, purchase goods & services, withdraw cash at virtually any ATM, topping up mobile phone, the replacement of travellers' cheques and so on.

Safety- It is more safety instead of carrying large sum of cash when shop in supermarket because the users need to enter a PIN number on electronic keypad and sign a receipt to ensure that user who is authorize to using the prepaid cash card. However, the user will find the item they want to buy and click on to the websites "checkout" page before filling in they details and those of their prepaid card when internet shopping. Then, the transaction will be completed as long as have enough cash loaded onto cash.

Applications and examples of prepaid cash card

Touch 'n Go for e-tailing
E-tailing or electronic retailing refers to the practice of selling goods and services over an electronic medium like the internet. Touch 'n Go is an electronic purse that can be used by Malaysian toll expressway and highway operators as the sole Electronic Payment System (EPS). Furthermore, cardholders can also pay for purchases made over the Internet using a smart card reader and the NETS E-Wallet.

Touch ‘n Go uses contactless smart card technology and it looks similar to a credit card. User can continue using the card as long as it is pre-loaded with electronic cash. User can reload the card at toll plazas, train stations, Automated Teller Machines, Cash Deposit Machines, Petrol kiosks and at authorised third party outlets.

Cardholders can pay charges and purchases made at retail outlets, vending machines, public pay phones, car parks, fast food restaurant and so on. It is very convenient because cardholders no longer need to prepare for small change or wait in queue at the cash lane to complete the transaction.

Octopus card application in Hong Kong

The Octopus card is an electronic fare card that used to transfer electronic
payment in online or offline system in Hong Kong. It was launched in September 1997. Furthermore, it is easy and convenience to use, saves time and eliminates need for small change.

It is simply waved over a sensor and the correct amount is either deducted or added to cardholder balance immediately. The cardholders can add money to it when they need. The Octopus card is also used for payment at convenience stores, supermarkets, fast food restaurants, on-street parking meters, car parks and other point-of-sale applications such as service stations and vending machines. However, the primary used of Octopus card is for public transport.

On the other hand, it was further classified into Child, Adult, Elder, and Personalised categories and different amounts of fare concession. For instance, the Octopus card for adult is sold for HK$150 with an initial value of HK$100. Furthermore, Octopus card's standard transaction time for readers used for public transport is 0.3 seconds, while that of readers used for retailers is 1 second. This is one of the reason Hong Kong residents like to use the Octopus card.

The other special-purpose card, the MTR Airport Staff Octopus, is available for the staff of Hong Kong International Airport and Asia World-Expo. Staff who apply for the card may use it for a discount of up to 64 percent for Airport Express single journey fares.

Related links:
http://www.bnm.gov.my/index.php?ch=17&pg=671&ac=581 http://www.moneysupermarket.com/c/prepaid-cards/guide/
http://forum.picantoclub.com/index.php?showtopic=941
http://www.discoverhongkong.com/eng/trip-planner/transport.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octopus_card#Card_usage
http://www.hong-kong-travel.org/Octopus.asp

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

2009-07-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, mobile payment system was very famous especially in Europe and Asia. It also can be known as M-payment. It is a new and rapidly-adopting alternative payment method. Consumer can use mobile device such as mobile phone, smart phone or personal digital assistant (PDA) to pay their bills, or buy digital or hard goods such as music, online game, ringtones, books, and movie ticket. Usually for purchase ringtones and wallpapers will use sms text message and it will deliver by Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS). Nowadays, mobile web payment (WAP) and Direct Mobile Billing are more famous.

Nowadays, mobile payment system was start using by Malaysian and become popular in Malaysia. This is due to mobile payment system is convenience in this fast growing market and it will make our busy life to become more simple and easy. By using mobile payment system consumers can pay their bills or transfer money by using their mobile phone at anywhere or anytime. This will help the consumer save their time for queuing up for bill payment at the counter. Beside that, consumers also no need to carry money to make the transaction because it can be paid by using the mobile wallet.

Mobile payment system does not require minimum monthly transaction, rental fee and merchant account. Therefore, consumers do not need to hit the minimum monthly transaction to waive the rental fee. Mobile payment is safe and secure because consumers do not have to worry about the cash, cheque, and credit card handling problems or fraud. It also secured by a strong pin fraud protection, therefore consumers does not need to worry about their date will hack or steal by other.

For the consumer’s adoption strategies, most of the Malaysian use mobile payment system to pay the credit card debt and bills. Therefore, we can know that Malaysian still not familiar with the mobile payment system even though it’s become more popular. Therefore, we need to educate consumers about the mobile payment system, the usefulness and its function. Besides that, we also need to enhance consumer’s confidence and the system’s security.

There are many mobile systems in Malaysia such as mCheck, Telemoney and Mobile Money (MM Wallet). Mobile Money is a PIN-based Mobile Payment Solution designed by Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd to address the limitations and bottlenecks created by cash, cheques and credit cards. Mobile Money allow users make payments and registered users to pay for goods and services at anywhere and anytime by using a mobile phone with a 6-digit security PIN (Personal Identification Number) via SMS (Short Messaging Service). This will encourage more consumers to shop online.

Related link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_payment

http://www.neowave.com.my/mobilemoney_overview.asp

Credit card debt: Causes and Prevention.

2009-07-02T09:30:00.000-07:00

Credit card debt results when a client of a credit card company purchases an item or service through the card system. In another ways, credit card can be defined as debt accumulates and raises via interest and penalties when the consumer does not pay the company for the money he or she has spent. In spite of the fact that goverment has organized so much financial planning seminar to reduce the credit card debts impact, but the amount of the people are still increasing in credit card debt significantly.

1.Lack of financial planning. People does not have a desire to make a well financial planning and basic money managemnet skills for their expenses and income. They usually dont make planning first to decide which things are wanted and unwanted , before they make a purchase decision.

2.Poor money management skills. Obviusly,most of the people cannot well manage or handle equilibrium between expenses and income. They do not have an income and spending budget, so they will spend over their income unwisely.

3. Reduced or lost of income. Serious debt may caused by divorce or unemployement. If there is a enormous gap between income and expenses, the alternative way to fill the gap is with credit card debt.

4. Saving too little or not at all. The feasible way to avoid unwanted debt is to prepare for unexpected expenditures by saving three to six months of living expenses. Apparently, a savings cushion in planing, a job layoff, illness or divorce will not cause immediate financial strain and increase debt.

5. No money communication skills. The most important things is to communicate with your spouse or significant other and your children about finances. Keep the lines of communication wide open and discuss financial goals and spending styles. If you are married to a spender and you are a saver, you will need to figure out a strategy for you both to get what you want. Knowing what credit accounts you each have and promise each other to be honest about what each other spends.

Although there are many causes of Credit card debts, there are also have some preventions and safety tips.

1.Photocopy the credit card offer which include the interest rate and terms. Then, form a letter to your credit card competitor companies mentioning that you are thinking of switching to their competitior because they are contributing a quite reasonable interest rate. As a result, credit card companies do not want to lose your business so they will offer a lower rate than the competitor company has offered.

2. Pay off smaller balances first. It is common for a person to try to focus on their cards with larger balances first. Pay off the smaller ones. It will take less time and you will feel a sense of satisfaction when you have actually completed your goal. This will boost your confidence and make it easier to tackle the higher balances.

3. Another alternative is to cut up your cards so that you are not tempted to use them. Save one card for emergencies.

4 If you have equity in your home, look into paying off credit card debt with a refinance or fixed-rate home equity loan. Do not use a home equity line of credit, the rates will rise as the prime rises and suddenly you may find it impossible to keep up with your bills.
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References:

http://www.mozdex.com/prevent-credit-card-debt/

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debt_manage_2004/top-10-causes.asp

Electornic Currency

2009-07-02T09:18:00.000-07:00

Electronic currency is also known as e-money, electronic cash, digital money or digital currency. It refers to money or script exchanged electronically through computer network, internet or digital stored valued system. The examples of electronic currency are Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit. Besides that, also have some system involved the electronic currency system, which are:

1. ClickandBuy
ClickandBuy system is a full-service solution for e-payment and billing system. In 1999s, Norbert Stangl founded FIRSTGATE Internet AG which is the Internet payment system ClickandBuy and was launched in 2000. Nowadays, the ClickandBuy is available all over Europe, US and Asia, which include 126 different currencies and 46 different payment methods. ClickandBuy is used by Apple iTunes, Skype, msn, Playboy and so forth.

2. PayLoadz
The server host of PayLoadz.com is located in New York, United States. PayLoadz provided a secure Digital Goods E-Commerce service for everyone to sell downloadable good online. Such as Software, eBook, music, movies, articles, files, forms, and anything else that can be downloaded.

3. Paystone Technologies
Paystone Technologies is an online money transfer company that provided secure, convenient and quick money transfer and payments for its customers around the world. Paystone Technologies have offering 3 distinct services which are:
a) International money remittance and email money from North America to any bank account in 15 counties.
b) Payment gateway linking North American e-commerce merchant to Chinese online buyers.
c) GroupPay, is a mass payments system that allows you to pay many people at one time internationally via email.

4. Peppercoin
Peppercoin is a cryptographic system for processing micropayments and was developed by Silvio Micali and Ron Rivest. Peppercoin is a small payments technology company transforming routine card transactions into new revenue opportunities. Peppercoin provides a loyalty-ready PCI-complaint small payments suite for all payment models, including pre-paid, subscription and pay-as-you-go with Intelligent Aggregation.

5. DigiCash
DigiCash Inc. was a pioneering electronic currency corporation founded by David Chuam in 1990. DigiCash transactions were unique in that they were anonymous due to a number cryptographic protocols develop by its founder and it was declared bankruptcy in year 1998. Nowadays, DigiCash Inc provide the Digicash Wallet, which can gives merchants a revolutionary new approach for initiating real-time, value-creating coupons and promotion in increase sales, margin, and customers loyalty.

6. Beenz.com
Beenz.com was founded by Charles Cohen, from UK. Beenz.com was a website allowed consumers to earn beenz (is a type of online currency) for performing activities and the beenz e-currency could be spent with participating Web merchants around the world. Since Beenz illegally launching a new currency in many countries, therefore the finance ministers across Europe assure them that Beenz would be categorized as virtual points. After 9/11, Carlson’s business was struggled and the beenz concept was shelved. Therefore, the beenz.com was closed.

7. Flooz.com
Flooz.com was founded by Robert Levitan and promoted by comic actress Whoopi Goldberg in a series of television advertisements in February 1999. Flooz.com was a dot-com venture. The name of “flooz” means “money” in Arabic word. The company establishes a currency unique to internet merchants. Users can accumulate floodz credits to redeem for merchandise at a variety of participating online stores. The company was close on August 26, 2001.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_money
http://clickandbuy.com/US/en/
https://www.payloadz.com/
http://www.techvibes.com/company-directory/paystone-technologies-corp
http://boston.bizjournals.com/gen/company.html?gcode=FF52DE71940147CC86BA8F120810453A
http://www.answers.com/topic/peppercoin
http://www.digicash.com/
http://www.answers.com/topic/beenz-com
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/12892.html?wlc=1246385546
http://www.answers.com/topic/flooz-com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DigiCash

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

2009-06-26T03:02:00.000-07:00

Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks. It allows everyone to exchange information and data with other users who are staying at different countries. But, how safe is our data?

In year 2007, the University of California server was hacked into and the confidential information such as names, social security numbers and bank account details of 46,000 students, faculties and staffs were disclosed. The reason for the amount of cybercrimes is rapidly increasing because the cyber criminals know that successful attack is very profitable.

Hence, the users need to be aware the threat of online security and it can improve user's knowledge about methods to prevent the data to be disclosed. Types of threats and attacks can be divided into two categories:

Nontechnical attack which is an attack that uses techniques to trick people into revealing sensitive information or performing actions that compromise the security of a network. For example:

Social engineering which uses social pressures such as human weaknesses (scare, no confident) to trick computer users into comprising computer networks to which those individuals have access. This method is usefulness for cyber criminals to trick computer users rather than waste times and cost to break control system.

Phishing is one example of social engineering and it is a technique used to gain personal information such as account number and passwords by sending fraudulent e-mail messages to e-mail users.

2. Technical attack is using programming skills and knowledge to inappropriate use of data.
For example:

Virus which is a program that attaches itself to other program. For example: I love you virus

Worm which is a program that copy themselves until it interrupts the operation of network or computer system. This program is automatic attack other computers through network if one of the computers is attacked by worm eventhough already stop the operation network.

Denial of service (DOS) is hackers flood a network server with thousands of false request to crash networks.Like constantly dialing tel no so no one can get through. For example, February 6, 2000:DOS on e-commerce cause 3 hours slow performance in Yahoo.

In conclusion, the threat of online security cannot eliminate regardless the strongest of internet security such as passwords, change of file permissions, back up of computer's data and so on. However, those threats can be reduced through internet securities.

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

2009-06-25T00:25:00.000-07:00

Third party can known as certificate authority or certification authority (CA). It is an entity that issues digital certificates for use by other parties. The digital certificates contain a public key and the identity of the owner.A CA can be a remote third party, such as VeriSign, or it can be a CA that you create for use by your organization by installing Windows 2000 Certificate Services. Certification authorities help verify transactions on the Internet. A certificate does not prove that the website that you visit is legitimate. This is due to any website also can create certificate by their own. Therefore, certification authorities is needed. One of the application of third party certification programme in Malaysia is MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd.

MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd was established in 1999. Trustgate is a licensed Certification Authority(CA) under the Digital Signature Act 1997 (DSA), Malaysia. They have 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. MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd had provide many service such as SSL Certificate, Managed PKI, Personal ID, MyTRUST, MyKAD ID, SSL VPN, Managed Security Services, VeriSign Certified Training and Application Development. MSC Trustgate has been appointed as Asia's first VeriSign Authorised Training Centre.Since year 2000, MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd has been an affiliate of VeriSign. They focus on reselling VeriSign's Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) and Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services to businesses and government, incorporating digital certificates, digital signatures and encryption.

The SSL Certificates that the MSC Trustgate offer to the sever security are Global Server ID (GSID) and Secure Server ID(SSID). GSID using the strongest encryption commercially available for secure communications via Server Gated Cryptography (SGC) technology. It verify your website and enables 128- or 256-bit encryption to secure communications and transactions between the site and its visitors. For the SSID, it protect the transfer of sensitive data on Web sites, intranets, and extranets using a minimum of 40-bit and up to 256-bit encryption.

VeriSign is the leading Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Authority enabling secure e-commerce, communications, and interactions for Web sites, intranets, and extranets. VeriSign is well known for the VeriSign Secured Seal, which is an outward expression of a Web site's authentication and encryption commonly posted to VeriSign SSL Certificate customers' Web sites. The VeriSign Secured Seal was part of the VeriSign's SSL service. It can help the owner
deliver a secure and convenient way to interact with the customer over the internet. This will help the owner increase the customer's confidence to complete the transaction.

Phishing- Example and Prevention Method

2009-06-24T11:04:00.000-07:00

What is " phishing"????

Phishing which also known as “Fishing”. In other words, it is an online fraud technique used by criminals to entice you to disclose your personal information. Phishing is the fastest rising online crime method used for stealing personal finances and perpetrating identity theft.

Phishers use many different tactics to lure you, including e-mail and Web sites that mimic well-known, trusted brands. A common phishing practice involves "spamming" recipients with fake messages that resemble a valid message from a well-known Web site or a company that the recipients might trust, such as a credit card company, bank, charity, or e-commerce online shopping site.

How will a phishing email/website look like?

Here are provided some example of phishing email and website:

What to look for in a phishing email ?

Generic greeting. Phishing emails are usually sent in large batches. Moreover, the internet criminal will use generic names like "Dear sir/madam" or like "First Generic Bank Customer", so they don't have to type all recipients' names out and send emails one-by-one in order to save time. Therefore, be aware if you do not see your name.

Forged link. Be aware of the forged link which is provided in email. Usually, it will appear in the email with a link that require you to update the personal information. Furthermore, even if a link has a name you recognize somewhere in it, it doesn't mean it links to the real organization. Also, websites where it is safe to enter personal information begin with "https" — the "s" stands for secure. If you don't see "https" then do not proceed.

Requests personal information. Usually, some email will request for personal information. Therefore, if you receive an email requesting your personal information, it is probably a phishing attempt.

What to look for in a phishing website ?

Poor resolution. Phishing websites are often poor in quality, since they are created with urgency and have a short lifespan. If the resolution on a logo or in text strikes you as poor, be suspicious.

Below are some of the recommendation about the prevention method of "Phishing":

Keep antivirus up to date – The most important things you can do to avoid phishing attacks is keeping your antivirus software up-to-date。This is because most of the antivirus vendors have signatures that protect against some common technology exploits. Thus, can prevent things such as a Trojan disguising your Web address bar or mimicking an https secure link. If your antivirus software is not keep up-to-date, you are usually more vulnerable to attack which can seize your Web browser and put you at risk.

Do not click on hyperlinks in e-mails – Never! Never! Never click on any hyperlink in an e-mail, especially from unknown sources. You never know where the link is going to really take you or whether it will trigger malicious code. Moroever, some hyperlinks can take you to a replicate HTML page that may try to scam you into typing private information. If you really want to check out the link, manually retype it into a Web browser.

Take advantage of anti-spam software – Anti-spam software can help keep phishing attacks at a minimum. A lot of attacks come in the form of spam. By using anti-spam software such a Qurb, the phishing attacks can be reduced because the messages will never end up in the mailboxes of end users.

Pay attention to your billing cycle. If credit card or utility bills fail to arrive, contact the companies to ensure that they have not been illicitly redirected.

Use anti-spyware software –Keep spyware down to a minimum by installing an active spyware solution such as Microsoft Antispyware and also scanning with a passive solution such as Spybot. If for some reason your browser is hijacked, anti-spyware software can often detect the problem and provide a solution..

References:

http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/ss/phishing.htm

http://www.phishtank.com/what_is_phishing.php?view=website

http://mcobit.business.nd.edu/phishing.cfm

How to safeguard personal and financial data?

2009-06-23T06:05:00.001-07:00

Nowadays, most people rely on computers to save our personal data and using online financial services to do financial transactions such as online banking. Information transmitted over the Internet is more vulnerable and has a higher degree of security risk, the information will easily stolen or hacked by others. Therefore, every user must know some ways to safeguard their personal or financial data.

Below will be some suggestion ways for users to safeguard their data:

1. Usernames and passwords
The longer passwords will provide greater security than shorter passwords. If can, try to change the password frequently and do not disclose to anyone.

2. Install and update antivirus software and firewall.
Install the antivirus software and firewall in order to protect yourself against viruses and Trojan horses that may steal or modify the data on your own computer. In order to well protection, you must make sure to keep your antivirus up to date.

3. Regularly scan your computer for spyware
Spyware or adware hidden in software programs may affect the performance of your computer and give attackers access to your data. Use a legitimate anti-spyware program to scan your computer and remove any of the infected files.

4. Encrypt any sensitive files
Encryption is a process of converting readable data into unreadable characteristic to prevent unauthorized access. By encrypting files, you can ensure that unauthorized people can’t view data even if they can physical access it. When you use encryption, it is important to remember your passwords, if you forget the passwords, you may lose your data.

5. Avoid accessing financial information in public
Resist to logging on your bank account or others important data when working from a coffee shop that offers wireless access, Although the systems are convenient, it also easy for hacker the your information though the public wireless access.

References:
http://finance.yahoo.com/banking-budgeting/article/103893/Six-Ways-to-Safeguard-Your-Online-Assets
http://www.us-cert.gov/cas/tips/ST06-008.html

Revenue model for Google, eBay, Amazon.com

2009-06-19T05:23:00.000-07:00

Revenue model are the technique, method or model can be use by all e-commerce company to generate profit. However, various e-commerce companies will use different method to generate profit.

Revenue model for Google
Google's revenue for the year ended 31 March 2009 is $ 5.5 billion. Advertising fees is the main sources for Google generate profit because it was made up 97% of revenue. Google has provided a few advertising model for advertiser to choose it, for example:

Google AdWord offers pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. The advertisers are paid Google for clicks to their site when their advertisements are shown in Google searches or on sites that display Google advertisements relevant to their content. The AdWords program includes local, national, and international distribution.

Google AdSense was another advertising model. This advertising model is similar to Google Adword. However, it is advertisement serving program run by Google and website owner display advertiser’s Google AdWord advertisements on their site and share in the revenue when AdWord advertisement was click by visitors and an Adwords customer pays Google. Furthermore, website owners can enroll in the program to enable text and video advertisements on their website.

Google Answer is an Internet search and research service offered for a fee by Google. Researchers are answer customer question and Google keeps 25% of the payment, sends the rest to the Researchers. However, Google Answer will offer a price for an answer before the answer is provide by researcher.

Froogle, also known as Google product search which is a service from Google that makes it easy to find information about products for sale online. Froogle is a price engine website launched by Google Inc. Furthermore, Google also sells advertising through AdWord to be displayed in Froogle.

The following table presents Google revenue for the year ended 31 March 2009:


Revenue model            $(in thousands) Percentage 
Advertising revenue:
Google web sites              3692,8      67
Google Network web sites      1638,1      30
Total advertising revenues    5330,9      97

Licensing and other revenues   178,1       3

Revenue                       5509,0      100

Revenue model for eBay

eBay is an online aution and shopping website in which people and businesses buy and sell a broad variety goods and services worldwide. In year 2009’s first quarter, net revenue of eBay is $2.02 billion. In addition, eBay generates revenue from a number of fees such as transaction fees, subscription fees and so on. For example:

Transaction fees
Insertion fee- amount of money eBay charges to the seller for listing an item for sale. It is vary depending on the starting price of the item and the category the seller chooses to list. Furthermore, it is nonrefundable.

Final Value Fee (FVF) - amount of money eBay charges the seller when an item sells. FVF based on the final selling price of an item at the close of the listing whereas there is no charged when an item does not sell.

Subscription fees
As an eBay Store owner, they can to list their items at a set price, so buyers can purchase items immediately without bidding. However, it was include monthly subscription fees and the amount of fees payment is base on store level (basic, premium and anchor).

Beside that, eBay now owns the PalPay payment system which has fees of its own. PayPal is how individuals and businesses send and receive money online. To sell on eBay, Personal Paypal accounts cannot receive credit card payments except sellers have Premier or Business Account upon receipt of a credit-card-funded payment because eBay is accept many form of payment such as credit card or debit card. PayPal will charge seller’s Premier and Business accounts fees to receive buyer payments. Furthermore, Paypal charged on receive payment is depend on monthly sale volume and total payment volume via PayPal increased 61 percent in year 2008 in eBay auction site.

On the other hand, eBay generate the revenue from getting the commission for every complete sale made by subsidiary company, Half .com. eBay purchased Half.com in 2000 for roughly $350 million and sellers offer items at fixed prices in Half.com. The ratios of commission depend to different selling price.

The following table presents eBay revenue for the year ended 31 March 2009:


Revenue model
                      $(In thousands)Percentage
Marketplaces                 1,033,827      51
Payments                       604,833      30
Communication                  143,238       8
Total marketing services and   238,688      11
other revenue

Total Revenue                2,020,588     100

Revenue model for Amazon.com

Amazon is a first major company selling goods through internet, also known as e-commerce. It was generate US $177 million as net profit for year 2009' s first quarter. Amazon is using various ways to generate profit. For example:

Sales
Amazon.com getting a revenue from sales of goods such as selling music CDs, videotapes and DVDs, kitchen items, lawn and garden items, toys & games, baby products, sporting goods, jewelry and so on.

Transaction fees
In year 2001, Amazon.com was launched Amazon Marketplace where is fixed-price online marketplace that allows sellers or third party to offer their goods alongside Amazon's offerings. Therefore, Amazon can receive commission via Amazon Marketplace by charges commission rate based on different category of items, per-transaction fee and variable closing fee.

However, the charged only allow after the item sold. The items from Amazon Marketplace can be more satisfy customer need than item sell directly from Amazon. For example, book has author signature that sell via Amazon Marketplace but it do not has selling via Amazon. Therefore, Amazon Marketplace is one of the sales strategies and program has been very profitable for Amazon.com.

Affiliate fees
aStore is an Amazon.com affiliate product which website owners can use to create a professional online store, in minutes and without the need for programming skills, that can be embedded within or linked to from website owner website. Website owners pick products from Amazon's store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by their readers. However, the store does not allow website owners to sell their own products directly. The affiliate fees normally in ranges from 4% to 10% of the product price.

The following table presents Amazon.com revenue for the year ended 31 March 2009:


North America        $ (in million)     Percentage

Net sale                  2,578            26
Media                     1,305            13
Electronic and other      1,172            12
general merchandise
Other                       101             1

International
Net sale                  2,311            24
Media                     1,418            15
Electronic and other        874             9
general merchandise
Other                        19          0.002

Total revenue              9778           100

The History and evolution of E-commerce

2009-06-18T01:05:00.000-07:00

Electronic Commerce is also known as e-commerce, it consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic system such as the Internet and other computer networks. E-commerce was began soon after Samuel Morse sent his first telegraph message in 1844s,after that it expanded across the sea when they used for exchanged information from the New York market, linked Europe and North American in 1858s.

In 1970s, they using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) for businesses to sent commercial documents like purchase orders or invoices electronically. The growth of the environment, the e-commerce having credit cards, automated teller machines (ATM), telephone banking services and auto manufacturers. Besides that, Sabre was form the airline reservation system and Michael Aldrich form the online shopping in UK in the 1980s.

From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data warehousing. In 1990s, Tim Berners-Lee writes the first web browser and WorldWideWeb (WWW). In 1994s, Netscape release the Navigator browser under the code name “Mozilla”. Therefore, the first online bank opens and Pizza Hut offers pizza ordering on its Web page. Adult materials also become commercially available such as do cars and bike. Netscape 1.0 is introduced the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) encryption that made transaction secure. In 1995s, Jeff Bezos launches Amazon.com and the first commerce-free 24 hours, internet-only radio stations. Beside that, Dell and Cisco begin to aggressively use Internet for commercial transaction and Pierre Omidyar form the eBay as auction web. In 1998, the electronic postal stamps can be purchased ans downloaded for printing from the web.

In 1999s, Darcy DiNucci was coined “Web 2.0”, Web 2.0 refer to a second generation of the web development and design, it is characterized as facilitating communication, information sharing, interoperability, user-centered design and collaboration on the “WWW”.

In 2000, there was the bottom fell out the dot-com industry and hundreds of dot-com companies went bankrupt. In 2001, the e-commerce was growing back. In 2007, Bussiness.com acquired R.H.Donnelley , who is a telephonedirectory publisher. In last year, US e-commerce and Online Retial sales projected to reach $204 million and an increase of 17% over 2007.

Reference source:
http://www.answers.com/topic/electronic-commerce#Dictionary_ans
http://www.answers.com/topic/web-2-0#Blogs_ans
http://www.timetoast.com/timelines/5448

Failure of Boo.com and its causes

2009-06-17T23:05:00.000-07:00

Nowadays there are a lot of people using e-commerce to do their business. This is due to its convenience for those people who are working or prefer to start their own business and does not have enough capital. E-commerce also knows as electronic commerce. There are a lot of successful in e-commerce companies such as eBay, Amazon, yahoo and Google. However, on the opposite side there are also have companies that are failure such as webvan.com, pets.com, etoys.com and etc.

Therefore, at here we will discuss about the failure of Boo.com and its causes.
Boo.com was a European company founded in 1998 and operating out of a London head office. The founded of Boo.com are three Swedish entrepreneurs, Ernst Malmsten, Kajsa Leander and Patrik Hedelin. The main business of Boo.com was selling branded fashion over the internet and as an online fashion store. The customer range that they target was from 18 to 24 year olds.

Boo.com wills failure because they did not carefully plan their business by considers the 4 P’s (Price, Product, Place and Promotion) and the environmental factors. Boo.com was surrounding by many problem and they mismanage it. Many of the customer criticized that the website was too complicated and the design was very poor. This is due to the site was heavily relied on the JavaScript and Flash. Therefore, the home page will require several hundred kilobytes to load it but at that time many people used dial up internet and broadband technologies were still not widely been use. Therefore, the users will have to wait for long time to load the page. Otherwise, the website also not usability because the user difficult to get where they want to go. Other than that, the complicated design required the site to be displayed in a fixed size window. This will limit the space that available to display product information to the customer.

Boo.com had a policy of “limiting the amount of transaction they made to three per twenty minute” which will discourage customer to shop at Boo.com again. They had spent 125 million in just 6 month to market itself globally but had issues with different language, prices, and tax. If there are return items from customer, the company will help them to pay the postage. This had proved that, they did not manage their capital effectively. Finally, the end of boo.com came on May 18th 2000.

References:

http://www.witiger.com/ecommerce/dotcomfailures.htm

http://www.bookrags.com/wiki/Boo.com

http://www.cnet.com/1990-11136_1-6278387-1.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boo.com

Ebay success and its causes

2009-06-14T07:21:00.000-07:00

On the Sept 5 1995, E-bay was founded by Pierre Omidyar. He is French –born Iranian computer programmer. E-bay as the world’s largest online trading offers a wide range of opportunity that user can come together in one internet site to trade and buy. The item such as collectibles décor, appliances computers furnishings equipment vehicles and even the service can be sold too. As long as the item is not illegal and does not breach the e-bay policy, sellers are permitted to list items for sale. For the buyers are allowed to bid which things they are interested.

In order to become e-Bay users,, they need to register first by filling their information, E-bay web site enables users browse through listed items in a fully convenient and automated way.

According to Kevin Pursglove who is spokesperson of e-Bay, the success of e-Bay is allowing people to often times connect with some very fond and special early childhood memories. Example such as collecting baseball cards to toy soldiers to Barbie dolls to doll houses and so forth.

Next, he thinks that people really enjoy the experience of the shopping bazaar by going through the process of looking around the merchandise. Besides that, he believes that people really enjoy the competition of the bidding process. With the auction format of e-Bay, user can get a bargain price and negotiate a little bit over the price. Another reason of e-Bay success is e-Bay have cooperate with America online that the company have a number of arrangements with smaller sites that go back several years as an exchange to persuade people surf e-Bay website.

References:

www.wikipedia.com

My oWn StoRi3s

2009-06-11T08:37:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the e-com world. I’m so happy that I have created a blog that related to the e-commerce. This is because actually I’m not familiar with the e-commerce. Therefore I hope that you all can learn something that useful from this blog. Firstly, I introduce myself to you all. My name is lee hua, female, 20 yrs old and stay at Cheras. Now I’m taking accounting course at UTAR, Sg.long and this year was my final year. Therefore, I’m busy with my thesis and assignment. I have created this blog is because of my e-commerce subject. Actually I feel that is quite interesting because even though I have blog before this but this blog was totally different with the previous. Therefore, I’m so interesting in this assignment.

My hobbies are swimming, listen to music and online. Usually i will listen the radio by online. This was the most favourite activities that i like. Otherwise, i also like to play game or msn with my friends. Sometime i will just hang out with my friends by online. We will talk about our life or any topic for the whole day. Other than that i also like to sleep and eat. Therefore, I'm quite fatty.

The top 5 Website:

www.yahoo.com- at here i will check my mail and search the information that needed for the assignment.

www.hotmail.com- check mail and send mail to friends. Sometime i will get some funny email from my friends.

www.facebook.com- At this website i can play game, upload photo, leave comment, and chit chats with my friends. Otherwise, i also can meet those friends that have lost contact.

www.yahoo.tw- When i need dictionary i will come to this website. This is because there was a dictionary and it's really useful and convenience.

www.tvb.com- At here i can get the latest entertainment information. Otherwise, i can download photo and wallpaper from here.

My StORiEs...

2009-06-11T07:54:00.000-07:00

I am Ng Kee Oon, 21 years old, I was born in Kuala Lumpur and lived in Kuala Lumpur, Setapak, Kampung Lee Kong Chian. My primary school is SRJK(C) Lee Rubber, and my secondary school is SMK Chong Hwa. I finished my diploma in Accounting at Tunku Abdul Rahman College (KTAR). Currently, I am studying in University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR) Year 3 Semester 1 in Bachelor of Accounting (BAC).

My hobbies is play football, it was learned when I was in secondary school at form one. Besides that, play computer is my second hobbies. Once I free, I will online chatting with friend, sometime always will play games together with friend through msn. Watching movie also is my one of the hobbies, especially watch football and action movie. Lastly, the most favorite things that I like to do are EAT. Hehe…I like to eat steamboat, tomyam, curry, asam laksa and so on, all have related the spicy I also like to eat.

The website I most visited:

www.hotmail.com because I like to check my mail and see what my friends sent the mail for me.

www.facebook.com because I can see what my friends written in their blog and so on.

www.google.com This website enables me to search what I want especially to search for some animation’s wallpaper and screen saver, because I like animation movie.

www.goal.com I must have to visit the football website; I will always keep updating any about the football news.

AbOuT ME: Li MEi

2009-06-11T07:29:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone, my name is Li Mei, a student from UTAR at Bandar Sungai Long. Recently, I am pursuing Bachelor of Commerce (HONS) in Accounting.

I like to online searching my favorite songs and movies such as Moulin Rouge! ,one of the musical-romantic films that I liked. Besides, I also like to watch TVB series and TV shows such as Guinness World Records during leisure time. This TV show is very fantastic and amazing because it can let us know the latest world records achiever among the world. I believe that shopping is the one of the hobbies to 99.99% girls in the world, of course including me.

There are so many websites that I frequently surfing and the top five that I visited most are:

http://www.hotmail.com, where allow me to receive and send an e-mail to my tutors and friends.
http://www.google.com.my/, this is one of the most useful searching engines that allow me to search information in order to complete my assignments.
http://www.utar.edu.my/ , where allow me to know undergraduate final exam results, timetables, latest news and activities of UTAR, searching some journals or books inside library OPAC and so on.
http://www.56.com/ , where allow me to search and watch drama, movie .
http://www.lelong.com.my/ , where can let us to search and buy a cheaper merchandise compare with buy through offline. Furthermore, there also have different types of categories such as watchers, jewelry is shown on the webpage and it was very convenience for consumers to choose their favorite merchandise.

AbOuT CaTHeRiNE StOrY....

2009-06-11T07:12:00.001-07:00

Hi, what is mean by blogging? Actually, I don’t know how to write blog and even worst that I don’t know how to set up the blog. Haha… I would like to express my gratitude to Miss Kang because giving me an opportunity to write this blog.

My name is Chua Ser Lee,or u can call me Catherine, year 3 semester 1 accounting student currently study at University Tunku Abdul Rahman. My hometown is Muar, which located at Johor and near to Melaka . I am now staying at Flora Green condominium which opposite Utar .

My hobbies are playing volley ball, badminton and watch movies. The best movie that I had ever seen is Gladiator. The synopsis of this movie is about how the general who becomes a slave, a slave who becomes a gladiator, a gladiator who dares to defy emperor because of the brutality emperor.

The top 5 web site.

1) www.wikipedia.com.my This website has attracted me because its provides me a lot of detail information.
2) www.facebook.com.my Hi, this web site can let me build relationship with my friends and even the best thing that this web site also provides games. This web site is better than Friendster. Hi hi.
3) www.Sinchew.Com.my This is the Chinese newspaper website. By surfing this web site, I can know the current issue and the most important thing is I don’t need to pay for it
4) www.hotmail.com.my With this website, I can email to my friends, and the most interesting is this hotmail provides 5 GB spaces.
5) www.publicmutual.com.my
I always surf this website, because I want to check the price of the mutual fund that I bought. Hehe.. Unfortunately now I still lose my money.

The top 5 activities that I involved are
1) Chatting with my friends through MSN
2) Reading the latest news at newspaper website.
3) Watching funny or weird video clips that have posted on youtube.
4) Playing games.
5) Searching some information that can assist my assignment.

Finally , I hope that all of you can give me comment regardless good or bad.. Hehe