Corporate Blogging

Do you have bloggers within your company? In today’s economy, you can have incredible marketing for your company for free rather than spending an enormous marketing budget.
How is this possible? Corporate blogging. Google does it. Microsoft does it. Why aren’t you doing it? Some of the most influential CEOs in the world blog because they know how powerful it is. Let’s unlock this secret.
A corporate weblog is published and used by an organization to reach its organizational goals. The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads.
Although there are many different types of corporate blogs, most can be categorized as either external or internal.

Internal Blogs
An internal blog, generally accessed through the corporation's Intranet, is a weblog that any employee can view. Many blogs are also communal, allowing anyone to post to them. The informal nature of blogs may encourage:
1.employee participation
2.free discussion of issues
3.collective intelligence
4.direct communication between various layers of an organization
5.a sense of community

Internal blogs may be used in lieu of meetings and e-mail discussions, and can be especially useful when the people involved are in different locations, or have conflicting schedules. Blogs may also allow individuals who otherwise would not have been aware of or invited to participate in a discussion to contribute their expertise.

External Blogs
An external blog is a publicly available weblog where company employees, teams, or spokespersons share their views. It is often used to announce new products and services (or the end of old products), to explain and clarify policies, or to react on public criticism on certain issues. It also allows a window to the company culture and is often treated more informally than traditional press releases, though a corporate blog often tries to accomplish similar goals as press releases do. In some corporate blogs, all posts go through a review before they're posted. Some corporate blogs, but not all, allow comments to be made to the posts.

Marketers might expect to have product evangelists or influencers among the audience of an external blog. Once they find them, they may treat them like VIPs, asking them for feedback on exclusive previews, product testing, marketing plans, customer services audits.
The business blog can provide additional value by adding a level of credibility that is often unobtainable from a standard corporate site. The informality and increased timeliness of information posted to blogs assists with increasing transparency and accessibility in the corporate image. Business blogs can interact with a target market on a more personal level while building link credibility that can ultimately be tied back to the corporate site.
A list of externally available corporate blogs is available at The NewPR/Wiki..

CEO Blogs
Although there are debates on whether CEOs should blog or not,blogging among CEOs is becoming popular.
Whether external or internal, blogs are not new to the corporate world. More than 5% of the Fortune 500 companies blog externally.
Market research done in the first half of 2006 indicated that 34% of large companies had established weblogs. Another 35% planned to do so by the end of 2006, thus bringing the total to nearly 70%.

Review a local e-commerce site

Hwa Thong was founded in 1948 with the inspiration and desire to fill a niche market in the school bag industry. As Hwa Thong began to garner a rapidly growing market share, an in house brand, Swan, was born to personify the commitment of the founder to quality, value-added attributes and contemporary styling.

Today, Swan has grown to be a household name in the bag industry. From small family business, Hwa Thong has evolved over the years to become a leading manufacturer and distributor of school bags, knapsacks, travelling bags, trolley case, computer case, document bags, camping bags, pouch bags, sling bags, shoe bags, wallets, leather bags, pilot case, seminar bags, cabin size travelling bags, cabin size trolley case, customised corporate bags and so on. Hwa Thong Group - the bag specialist with 55 years experience.

They are in-house brand, Swan, focuses on every aspects of a good school bag - from quality, style and even the safety of the school children. Swan has been the pioneer of the school bags industry thought the years. We treasure the feedback from our customers and we try our best to find a resolution to satisfy the needs of our customers.

Their urge of producing high quality school bags can be proven through the evolutions of our school bags. For example, the latest Swan school bags featuring air cushion to reduce sweat, reflector to ensure the visibility of the school children in dark areas and rubber handle for a better grip.

Besides Swan, Hwa Thong Group has registered the following trademarks/ brands for products lines such as trolley case, traveling bags, knapsack, computer case and other accessories.

Their school bags are currently available online. They provide free delivery service for areas located in Peninsular Malaysia (except trolley school bags).

Thing to take note to prevent e-auction fraud when a consumer participating in an e-auction

Become familiar with the auction website. Look into the websites protection policies. Never assume you are protected from auction fraud.

Before placing a bid, learn as much as you can about the seller. If you can’t find anything out about the seller, than avoid doing business with them. Never fall for promises of better deals by moving away from the original auction website.

If the seller wants you to use an escrow service you’ve never heard of, look into it. Check out the website. Call up customer support. Contact us to digg up data on the business in question. If you can’t confirm the legitimacy, don’t use it.

Never ever give out your social security number, drivers license number, credit card number, or bank account information until you have thoroughly checked out the seller and the escrow service.

Always save 100% of the transaction information. You’ll be glad you did in the event your case makes it to court.

If after the sale you feel the item/payment should have been delivered already, try to work it out with the seller/buyer. If at that point you feel that fraud is involved, immediately contact your state attorney general’s office and the FTC at www.ftc.gov or call toll-free 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).

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

THE IMPLEMENTATION OF E-GOVERNMENT OF MALAYSIA

In 1997, the Malaysian government launched the Electronic Government initiative, generally known as e-Government to lead the country into the Information Age. Malaysia has so far implemented systems known as seven main projects such as Electronic Procurement (eP), Project Monitoring System (PMS), Electronic Services System (E-services), Human Resource Management Information System(HRIMS), Generic Office Environment (GOE), E-Syariah and Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX). Besides these seven main projects, an online service was introduced to increase the ease and efficiency of public service to people. Among others were Public Service Portal (myGovernment), e-Tanah, e-Consent, e-Filing, e-Local Government (e-PBT), e-Kehakiman, Custom Information System (SMK), Pensions Online Workflow Environment (POWER), and Training Information System (e-SILA).

THE CITIZEN’S ADOPTION STRATEGIES

E-Government form an emerging field, which is rapidly gaining attention and importance. Citizens expect and demand governmental services with a high degree of quality, quantity, and availability in a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week, and year-round fashion. Governments all over the world are developing information systems and electronic services that have the capacity to meet these emerging service needs and demands of citizens and other clients. Results show that perceived ease of use, compatibility, and trustworthiness are significant predictors of citizens’ intention to use e-Services and that perceived reactive advantage, perceived image, perceived compatibility, perceived usefulness, and relative advantage are significant elements of e-Government adoption. The government must also concern about information quality and system quality. Besides that, accuracy, relevancy and completeness are also important and were more significant than timeliness and precision. Efficiency was the most significant factor.

Electronic Currency

• Electronic currency (also known as e-money, electronic cash, electronic money, 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
• E-currency is precious metal-backed Internet currency. To open an account, an individual "deposits" money with an online e-currency company that then converts the amount into gold bullion. Via the Internet, the account holder can transfer ownership of some or all of that gold into someone else's e-currency account. Ownership can be repeatedly transferred.
• E-currency is a sort of online version of "warehouse banks," which similarly converted account holders' deposits into gold or silver bullion stored in the bank. These institutions became popular in the 1980s among domestic right-wing extremists, who used them to launder money, hide assets and to commit other financial abuses.
• While the records of e-currency companies may be obtainable by court order, and all transactions involving $10,000 or more in cash must be reported, some economists and Secret Service officials have expressed concern about the potential for money laundering using e-currency channels.
• E-currency has been widely used by perpetrators of pyramid scams. Swindlers demand payment in e-currency because, unlike with checks or credits cards, the charges clear instantly and cannot be cancelled. Experts estimate that about half of e-currency transactions are related to scams or online games.
• The most popular e-currency service is e-gold, operated by Gold & Silver Reserve, a Florida-based company. It claims more than 200,000 accounts and more than $14 million in currency. A January 2002 account reported that its clients made 8,600 transactions daily. About half of the e-gold system's physical reserves are located in Dubai, apparently for financial reasons, but also to help in the marketing of e-dinar, which was launched in September 2000
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Prepaid Cash Card for Consumer...

Prepaid credit cards offer a convenient way to control credit card debt while still enjoying the flexibility of plastic.

Example of Prepaid Cash Card in Malaysia.

The Touch 'n Go TnG smart card is used by Malaysian toll expessway and highway operators as the sole electronic payment system (EPS). The credit card sized smart card made of plastic with Philips MIFAREwhhich is known as Oyster card. microchip technology embedded in it. It is the same technology used as electronic payment of Transport for London

The Touch 'n Go systems are designed to process up to 800 vehicles per hour to ease the queue congestion at toll plazas and if use together with smart tag (a non-stop electronic toll collection system), will be able to process up to 1,200 vehicles per hour.

Touch ‘n Go not only used for passing toll but also for a purchase purpose. For example, we can used it in A&W, BURGER KING, CALTEX, 7-11 and also CATHAY CINEMA.

Example of Prepaid Cash Card in Hong Kong.

The Octopus card is a rechargeable contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payment in online or offline systems in Hong Kong. It 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 station and vending machines.

Children aged between 3 and 11

The standard version of Octopus Card

Elder used card

eZ-link in Singapore

The EZ-Link card is a contactless smartcard based on Sony's FeliCa smartcard technology, used for payments in Singapore especially for transportation in Singapore.

The card is commonly used in Singapore as a smartcard for paying transportation fees in the city-state's (MRT), (LRT) and public bus services. The card also serves as a supplementary identification and concession card for student in mationally recognised educational institutes, full-time national service personnel serving in the Singapore Amed Forces, Singapore Civil Defence Foce anf Singapore Police Force or Senior citizen who are over sixty years old.

Mobile Payment System in Malaysia....^0^

Three billion people are expected to own mobile phones in the globe by 2010. Mobile commerce is a natural successor to electronic commerce. A mobile payment or m-payment may be defined, for our purposes, as any payment where a mobile device is used to initiate, authorize and confirm an exchange of financial value in return for goods and services. Mobile devices may include mobile phones, PDAs, wireless tablets and any other device that connect to mobile telecommunication network and make it possible for payments to be made. Mobile payments can become a complement to cash, cheques, credit cards and debit cards. It can also be used for payment of bills (especially utilities and insurance premiums) with access to account-based payment instruments such as electronic funds transfer, Internet banking payments, direct debit and electronic bill presentment.

In Malaysia, Mobile Money (MM Wallet) is one of the examples of mobile payment system. It is 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. This gives the freedom to shoppers to buy products online and pay the merchant using his/her mobile phone without being physically present at the store. Mobile Money will encourage more consumers to shop online. This will definitely be a great boon to the e-commerce industry in Malaysia. It will surely encourage more merchants to adopt online selling as an extra sales channel which complement perfectly with their offline sales channel to help them sell more of their goods and services. Realizing these needs of merchants in Malaysia, we are the 1'st shopping cart software provider who has integrated Mobile Money as a payment method in our webShaper e-commerce software. This feature allows merchants to accept payment via Mobile Money and process the payment in real time within clicks!

There are a lot of Mobile Merchant Benefits such as it can sell to anyone, anywhere at anytime. No Minimum Monthly Transaction, No Rental Fee, No Merchant Account Required, it only required little sign up fee, but get paid in shorten period. Besides, it can provided Multi Methods to Request for Payment, such as though SMS, Mobile Money Website, or even real time Mobile Money Weblink API weblink that can be integrated with your POS (Point of Sales) System or online storefront system.


Mobile Payment Process

Credit Card Debts : Causes and Prevention

The Credit Card Debts

Credit card debts are major cause of bankruptcies each year. It is because many people have never realized of its consequences from financial and non financial perspectives when get a new credit card or not enough safety net when there is an incident happen.

Causes of consumer overspent

1. Poor money management is one of the best reasons that why so many families have accumulated many credit card debts. It is because people are unaware to conduct a monthly spending plan and do not keep track of monthly bills. People have never realized their spending on the items that are useless and do not have any value in their life. Thus, it has lead to a rise in debts by using credit cards.

2. Credit card will probably become one of the sources of funds to pay off the medical expenses if health insurance is not adequate to cover the medical bills if one of your family members suffers serious illness. In United States, almost everyone pays their medical expenses by credit cards to get treatment.

3. Today, gambling has become part of entertainments in our life. It is hard to stop when it becomes addictive. Thus, it will surely lead to a financial disaster if borrowing money through credit card for gambling.

4. Fees that must spend for divorce such as attorney, division of assets between husband and wife, proceeds given to children are the way to rack up huge debts by using credit card if it is the gap between the expenses and income. Moreover, it will lead to reduction in income because divorce may force some people to quit their job and to have a walk in other countries.

5. Households are forced to use credit card for groceries, utilities and some expenses purposes to maintain current lifestyle when the main breadwinner of the household has loss his job and could not find a new job during short periods. This may lead to a rise in debt when expenses are not cut down in line with the reduction in income.

How to control credit card debts

1. People have to create clear budget and stick on it that includes monthly bills, food, clothes, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses will prevent from overspending and fall under deeper debt load.

2. Address the problem to creditors instantly to investigate whether they could give revised payment arrangement when having trouble to pay off debts because running away is not a good solution. If not, may refer to Fair Debt Collection Practices Act if the collection of money from creditors is not fair enough. Creditors may approve proposal and accept modified payment plan when hiring a good credit card debt consolidation companies.

• One of the best practices is to have a direct set up so that able to pay back the full amount each month and use in emergencies. Thus, self control and discipline to keep these cards in wallet and would not overspend.

Phishing^O^

In computing, phishing is the criminally fraudulent process of attempting to acquire sensitive information such as user names,passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. Communications purporting to be from Paypal, eBay or online banks are commonly used to lure the unsuspecting. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail or instant messaging, and it often directs users to enter details at a website. Phishing is an example of social engineering techniques used to fool users.

A phishing technique was described in detail in 1987, and the first recorded use of the term "phishing" was made in 1996. The term is a variant of fishing, probably influenced by phreaking, and alludes to baits used to "catch" financial information and passwords.

PayPal phishing example

An example of a phishing e-mail targeted at PayPal users.

In an example Paypal phish (right), spelling mistakes in the e-mail and the presence of an IP address in the link (visible in the tool tip under the yellow box) are both clues that this is a phishing attempt. Another giveaway is the lack of a personal greeting, although the presence of personal details would not be a guarantee of legitimacy. A legitimate Paypal communication will always greet the user with his or her real name, not just with a generic greeting like, "Dear Account holder." Other signs that the message is a fraud are misspellings of simple words, bad grammar and the threat of consequences such as account suspension if the recipient fails to comply with the message's requests.

Note that many phishing emails will include, as a real email from PayPal would, large warnings about never giving out your password in case of a phishing attack. Warning users of the possibility of phishing attacks, as well as providing links to sites explaining how to avoid or spot such attacks are part of what makes the phishing email so deceptive. In this example, the phishing email warns the user that emails from PayPal will never ask for sensitive information. True to its word, it instead invites the user to follow a link to "Verify" their account; this will take them to a further phishing website, engineered to look like PayPal's website, and will there ask for their sensitive information.

Methods to prevent….

There are several different techniques to combat phishing, including legislation and technology created specifically to protect against phishing.

Social responses

One strategy for combating phishing is to train people to recognize phishing attempts, and to deal with them. Education can be effective, especially where training provides direct feedback. One newer phishing tactic, which uses phishing e-mails targeted at a specific company, known as spear phishing, has been harnessed to train individuals at various locations, including West Point Military Academy.

People can take steps to avoid phishing attempts by slightly modifying their browsing habits. When contacted about an account needing to be "verified" (or any other topic used by phishers), it is a sensible precaution to contact the company from which the e-mail apparently originates to check that the e-mail is legitimate.

Some companies, for example PayPal, always address their customers by their username in e-mails, so if an e-mail addresses the recipient in a generic fashion ("Dear PayPal customer") it is likely to be an attempt at phishing. E-mails from banks and credit card companies often include partial account numbers.

Technical responses

Anti-phishing measures have been implemented as features embedded in browsers, as extensions or toolbars for browsers, and as part of website login procedures. The following are some of the main approaches to the problem.

Helping to identify legitimate sites

Since phishing is based on impersonation, preventing it depends on some reliable way to determine a website's real identity. For example, some anti-phishing toolbars display the domain name for the visited website. The petname extension for Firefox lets users type in their own labels for websites, so they can later recognize when they have returned to the site. If the site is suspect, then the software may either warn the user or block the site outright

Eliminating phishing mail

Specialized spam filters can reduce the number of phishing e-mails that reach their addressees' inboxes. These approaches rely on machine learning and natural language processing approaches to classify phishing e-mails.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data

Here are the ways you can take either when making online transactions or simply in your day-to-day computing life to make sure your data is safeguard.

Avoid saving credit card info, etc on shopping sites
Many web sites today, such as Orbitz, Amazon, eBay, give you the option to save your credit card info so that you don’t have to type in all the information each time you want to buy something. That’s great for them, easy money and more sales, but what about you? What if someone eventually does hack into their database (and don’t worry many people are trying everyday) and downloads thousands of credit card numbers, bank account numbers, etc? It might take an extra minute, but it’s better to not save your info on any shopping site.

Do not use the same password for every last thing on the Internet
Yes we all hate passwords, but hackers love people who don’t use passwords or who use passwords like “john” or “joe”. You don’t have to keep a different password for EVERY site, that would be crazy, but definitely not just one. These days just about everyone has an eBay, Amazon, Orbitz, etc account and so if a hacker figures out one password, they’ll go ahead and try to see if it works on any other site. Make sure passwords are different a more complicated. Just throwing in a number or symbol at the end will make it hundreds of times hard for a person to crack your password!

Always think before providing information when solicited
If you ever get an email that has a link in it that requires ANY personal information, make sure you go to the web site yourself manually by typing in the address. Half the time links in emails point to fake addresses with very close names. Also, if you post items on sites like eBay or Craigslist, you will always be bombarded by scams from Nigeria, etc that sound way too good to be true (like someone would actually pay more for your item than what you listed it at)!!! And just because a web site exists does not mean it it legitimate! If you’ve never heard of the site before, just type it into Google once and see if anything like “XXX IS A SCAM” pops up!

Clear your browser’s cache after an online transaction
Sometimes your browser will save certain information you typed into forms, etc when you are online, so it’s always good to clear that after you’re done. Here’s an article I wrote previously on how to clear your browser history. Also, if you get that message sometimes from your browser asking you whether you want it to automatically save your passwords, etc, click NO. It’s another small pain, but it might help you one day!

Make sure the URL has an HTTPS instead of HTTP
The S makes all the difference! You’ll notice that when you buy something from Amazon or another big site, once you being to checkout, the URL always starts with a HTTPS. This means that the communication between your computer and their server is secure and encrypted. If someone tries to read the data as it travels across the Internet, they won’t be able to understand or decipher it. If you’re buying something from a smaller site and they don’t have HTTPS, just call them and buy it. Not worth risking data passing unencrypted over the net.

Use a secure Internet browser when you are online
Firefox is considered more secure than IE and that’s what a number of sites also have tested. Personally, I use Firefox and you should consider it if you’re using IE 7. IE 7 has more security features than ever before, but it still has lots of holes also. Using a more secure browser can help protect against browser hijacking, etc. Anyway, most viruses are written for IE since it’s more common, so it’s more likely to be hacked.

A review on a post on internet security from E-blog

DIGITAL SIGNATURE LEGISLATION IN EUROPE

1. Introduction

Many legislatures in the world are trying to decide whether they should regulate or not digital signatures, and some countries have decided that some type of regulation is desirable and have either issued or are about to issue appropriate legislation. The legal issues posed by digital signatures are quite a few and not easy to address, also considering the speed at which the digital world moves and the inherent interplay between legislation and technology developments.

2. Handwritten Signatures v. Digital Signatures

Handwritten signatures are handwriting our name at the bottom of a contract we accept the terms of the document and also indicate that the document is produced by whoever signed it, with all legal implication attributed to such an act by applicable law. Our signature can be used for many other purposes such as issuing an order, to file a request, to sign a love letter, etc. and the legal implications of each signature is rather different, however the concept of signature is basically the same. We can have different handwritten signatures for various purposes, we may initial certain documents and use full signature in other documents, however the process and the result is not different. In the paper world we basically have one definition of signature, which attributes the document to the signing party, and whose effect depends on the type of document, applicable law, etc. As soon as writing became common, handwritten signatures became the main method of attributing a document to an individual. Signing in writing a contract has become the primary procedure to evidence that each party to a contract was in agreement with it. A special set of rules has been developed in every country to deal with issues such as authentication of signatures. We have to identify what is the best method for attributing the digital document to a person. For example, I normally type my name when sending an e-mail, however this is not sufficient to prove undoubtedly that the e-mail comes from me, as anybody else may type in my name.

3. Definition of Digital Signature

EU Directive 1999/93 on digital signature is generically defined as data in electronic form attached to, or logically associated with, other electronic data and which serves as method of authentication. German Digital Signature Law, issued in 1997 , provides meaning for digital signature that is a seal on digital data created with a private signature key, which seal allows, by use of the associated public key to which a signature key certificate of a certifier. Italian legislation defines a digital signature as the result of a digital procedure (certification) based on a system of double asymmetric keys, one being a public key and the other a private key, which allows the signer, by virtue of the private key, and the recipient, by virtue of the public key, respectively to manifest and to ascertain the provenience and integrity of a digital document or of a group of digital documents.

4. Certification Authorities

The use of digital signatures does not require, per se, the existence of certification authorities, as the parties may contractually agree to some type of certification procedure ensuring the authenticity of the document. However, the use of certification authorities makes it possible to rely on digital documents between parties which do not have any prior contractual arrangement or that are not in the position of establishing a standard practice between them. As a consequence, it does not come as a surprise that the role, the duty and the obligations of certification authorities normally constitute a key point in most current legislation on digital signature. The main problem posed by legislation on certification authorities is that, unlike most other activities, it is very difficult to restrict it to one country. It is not by chance that one of the most widely ratified international treaties is The Hague Convention for the abolition of legalization that, through the instrument of Apostille, was able to consent the recognition of documents signed and notarized abroad. It is quite clear that the same path cannot be followed with reference to digital signatures. On the other hand, it is not easy to agree on an international treaty to insure the validity of an electronic signature certified abroad, however the solution of the problem is vital for the success of e-commerce. The problem was almost ignored by the German and Italian legislation which have preceded the issuance of the EU Directive. This issue was immediately apparent, however, as soon as the legislative effort moved to a supranational level, i.e. at the EU level. In practice, however, it may be very difficult for the public to ascertain whether a specified certification service provider meets the minimum standards required by the Directive to issue certificates having the effect of validating the signature as Advanced Electronic Signature, and the Directive therefore provides for a voluntary accreditation scheme and for a supervision system. Regarding the free-across the border circulation of the digital signature (with certification), the Directive establishes the important principle of recognition of certifications issued in another Member State, if in conformity with the provisions of the Directive. It is not possible, however, to limit the digital world to the EU, also considering the large presence of USA companies on the market, and Article 7 of the Directive deals with this issue by providing that the certificates issued by a company established outside the EU are recognized within the EU provided that:

a) the certification service provider fulfills the requirements of the Directive and has been accredited under a voluntary accreditation scheme in any of the EU Member States, or
b) the certificate is counter-guaranteed by an EU service provider; or
c) the certificate or the certification service provider is recognized under a bilateral or multilateral treaty.

Member States shall ensure that by issuing a certificate to the public or by guaranteeing such a certificate the certification service provider is liable for damage caused to any party which relied on such a certificate :
a) as regards the accuracy at the time of issuance of all information contained in the qualified certificate and as regards the fact that the certificate contains all the details prescribed for a qualified certificate;
b) for assurance that at the time of issuance of the certificate, the signatory identified in the qualified certificate held the signature creation data corresponding to the signature verification data given or identified in the certificate;
c) for assurance that the signature creation data and the signature verification data can be used in a complementary manner in cases where the certification service provider generates them both, unless the certification service provider proved that he has not acted negligently;
d) in the event the certification service provider did not promptly register the revocation of the certificate.

5. Conclusions

The complexity of the issues dealt with by the Directive clearly indicates the difficulty of legislating on Digital Signatures. Namely, it is simply impossible to limit the legislative intervention to granting an equivalence between digital and handwritten signatures, given the inherent differences between them. The different approach used in national and EU legislation also indicates the difficulty of dealing with some issues at national level and the importance of the rules for the international recognition of digital signatures.

The threat of online security: How safe is our data

Enterprise businesses and government agencies around the world face the certainty of losing sensitive data from a lost laptop, removable media or other plug-and-play storage device. This drives the need for a complete data protection solution that secures data on all common platforms, deploys easily, scales to any size organization and meets strict compliance requirements related to privacy laws and regulations. As Internet users display more of their personal information on social networking Web sites, and office workers upload more sensitive data to online software programs, computer hackers are employing increasingly sophisticated methods to pry that information loose. In many cases, they're devising small attacks that can fly under the radar of traditional security software, while exploiting the trust users place in popular business and consumer Web sites. In the corporate world, criminals are hunting for more of the valuable information stored on companies' servers. A computer breach at T.J. Maxx (TJX) in 2005 and 2006 may have handed hackers access to credit- and debit-card numbers for up to 94 million of the retailer's customers. Cyber thieves are also attacking corporate databases in search of undisclosed financial data or proprietary design and engineering information that can be sold. Hackers are also unleashing viruses that can recruit armies of consumer PCs into larger networks of remote-controlled machines. These "botnets" can distribute spam, attack database software, or keep a record of users' keystrokes. One of the worst, Storm Worm, has infected tens of millions of PCs this year. Even the messages containing virus payloads are getting slicker. In the past, as compared with the sophistication of the viruses, the e-mails carrying them were rather crude. That made users less likely to follow their instructions. Below are few precautions that will help user in preventing online threats.

• Don't give away any valuable or sensitive personal information on your MySpace or Facebook profile, or within messages to other members of the network. And don't click on any links in social network messages from people you don't know.

• No reputable company will ask for your password, account number, or other log-in information via e-mail or instant message.

• Use one of the many antivirus, antispyware, and firewall programs on the market. Often, vendors offer all three functions in a single package. And many Internet service providers offer them free with your monthly subscription.

• Upgrade your browser to the most current version. From Microsoft, that's Internet Explorer 7. Mozilla's Firefox is on version 2, as is Apple's Safari browser.

• Pay attention to the messages from Windows that pop up on your screen, especially in the new Vista operating system. They often contain helpful security information that many users overlook.

• Turn on Windows' automatic-update function to get Microsoft's regular security patches.

• Take regular back ups of the information on your computer system and keep them in a separate place so that if you lose your computers, you don’t lose the information.

• Don’t dispose of old computers until all the personal information on them has been securely removed (by using technology or destroying the hard disk).

Discuss how E-commerce can reduce cycle time, improve employees' empowerment and facilitiate customer support

Reduce cycle time
Before E-commerce, by using traditional commerce they were spending a good deal of time and money entering these data into their computers, printing paper forms, and then re-entering the data on the other side of the transaction. Although the purchase order, invoice, and bill of lading for each transaction contained much of the same information such as item numbers, descriptions, prices and quantities - each paper form had its own unique format for presenting that information. By creating a set of standard formats for transmitting that information electronically, businesses were able to reduce errors, avoid printing and mailing costs, and eliminate the need to re-enter the data.
Electronic Commerce has brought the solution to this problem and drastically altered the structure and process for business transactions across networks.
Improve employees's empowerment
Employees can defined as an important resource in one organization which especially at the front line because they can bought impact to the performance of personnel and business which can imporove the productivity by provided with computerized decision aids in order to make their own decision by improve empowerment of employees can enable them to manage and edit critical details about e-commerce activities. Employees are given the authority to make customer satisfy, do it quickly, and helping to increase customer loyalty. E-commerce allows the decentralization of decision making and authority via empowerment and distribution system.
Facilitate customer support
E-commerce brings more convenience to customer and facilitates customer support. The common facilitate customer support in a company website is FAQ. customer can write their unsatisfied and complaint through FAQ to the company. In addition, still had few facilitate customer support like technical support, delivery service and so on. It salso allows customers to interact with other customers in electronic communities and exchange ideas as well as compare experiences.