Commerce Cafe

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

2009-07-12T22:47:00.004+08:00

What is E-Learning?

E-learning is the online delivery of information for the purposes of education, training, or knowledge management. From the education perspective, it allows student to acquire new knowledge through the internet without personally being present at school or campus.

Malaysian Universities Offering E-Leaning

In our country, E-learning has become more and more popular nowadays. Some of the Malaysian Universities have in fact started to offer E-learning since it is another way of learning. Among the universities providing such service are Universiti Teknology Malaysia (UTM), Universiti Tun Abdul Razak (UNITAR), Open University Malaysia (OUM), and Multimedia University (MMU).

However, nothing in this world is perfect; everything comes with its advantages as well as disadvantages. So let us look into what are the pros and cons of E-learning from a student’s perspective.

Pros

• Save Time and Costs

Since E-learning allows students to learn through the internet anywhere, it helps save up lots of time for students especially for those who actually have to travel to the campus from their house. Besides, it also helps save up expenses such as the cost of rental, petrol and so on.

• Flexibility

E-learning provides more flexible learning time for students, so that they can adjust their time of learning based on their own personal schedule. Apart from that, it benefits for those students who have financial difficulties and are taking up part-time jobs in order to cover the tuition fees.

• Learning with self-paced

In the traditional teaching method, lecturers and tutors would not change their ways of teaching or teaching pace just because you cannot understand or follow-up. This might affect the students’ result. However, through E-learning, students can learn at the speed which they can afford, therefore, results in a better way of study for them.

Cons

• Lack of Face-to-Face Communication

E-learning is an online learning without face-to-face communication. The lack of face-to-face communication might cause the students to be not able to solve some problems they might face during the study process. There might be a solution to their problems whereby the lecturers or tutors reply through the e-mail, however sometimes what written in words does not help much. A realistic assistance from the lecturers or tutors will give a better understanding for students to solve their problems on the study.

• Low Motivation

Motivation is an important tool to engage someone to perform better. As we know, E-learning works on the basis of self-learning, thus students might feel demotivated when they are learning alone. Lack of motivation might cause the student to not put in 100% of effort in achieving good results.

In conclusion, there are advantages as well as disadvantages for E-learning. Therefore, students who are choosing E-learning as the way of their learning must overcome the disadvantages in order to achieve success in E-learning.

E-Government in Malaysia: Its Implementation so far and Citizen’s Adoption Strategies

2009-07-11T17:51:00.013+08:00

E-government
It is an e-commerce model which a government efficiently and effectively provides goods, services and information to citizens and businesses. It brings together all the three parties (goods, services and information) together in a network of information, knowledge and commerce.

Implementation of E-government in Malaysia
E-government was implemented in Malaysia since the introduction of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) in 1996. It aims at improving government’s responsiveness to the needs of citizens and businesses through upgrading the convenience, accessibility and quality of interactions with citizens and businesses.

E-government is among the flagship applications launched by MSC. It consists of seven main projects which are currently under implementation. They are:

Government to Government
1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II) – an online system that supervises the complete lifecycle of national projects.
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS) – an information system enabling the government to successfully deal with its knowledge resources.
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE) – document and office management solution that helps users deal with their office environment effectively and efficiently.

Government to Business
1. Electronic Procurement (EP) – a system where suppliers sells goods and services online to the Government.

Government to Citizen
1. Electronic Services (E-Services) – it enables an individual Malaysian to conduct transactions with Government agencies.
2. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX) – it provides information on labour markets
3. E-Syariah – a system that manages cases for the Syariah Courts.

For further information, please refer to Implementation of Electronic Government in Malaysia: The Status and Potential for Better Service to the Public

Citizen’s Adoption Strategies
It is undeniable that e-Government does bring lots of benefits as it is convenient and time-saving. However, a lot of Malaysian citizens still prefer interacting with the Government through the traditional method. It could be due to the lack of awareness and confidence in citizens, lack of guidance from Government, language barriers, outdated information, and so on.

Therefore, the Government should constantly find ways that are able to lead the citizens into the Information Age. The followings are some strategies that could be implemented by the Government:

• Educating and informing the public about the various services offered by government agencies.
• Increasing citizens’ confidence by improving the security of doing transactions online and keeping their personal information confidential.
• Improving the quality of services provided. For example, the information provided on the websites and speed of responding citizens enquiries.
• Paying attention to the feedback of the users and improve constantly.
• Providing websites in multiple languages.

Please visit www.malaysia.gov.com for further information on e-Government in Malaysia.

Review On a Local, Transactional Site: AirAsia

2009-07-09T21:59:00.016+08:00

AirAsia is one of the very popular low-cost airlines that have been expanding rapidly during the years. It operates for domestic and international flights and is Asia’s leading low fare, hassle free and no frills airlines. In fact, they operate with the world’s lowest unit cost with promotional fares as low as RM1. Also, AirAsia has abolished fuel surcharges on 2008 and in doing so, they are claimed to be the first airline in the world to abolish fuel surcharges.

AirAsia’s Ticketless System

AirAsia is the first airline in the region to introduce the implementation of fully ticketless travel. Through this ticketless feature, customers can purchase flight tickets through reservations made through telephone services, online booking and also GPRS, which is the latest made available.

With the ticketless system, customers do not need a ticket to board on a plane. All they need to do is to just remember their booking number and show their identification card or passport for identification and check-in purposes upon arrival at the airport. No tickets, just make your reservations and you’ll be on your way to board on the plane! Besides, your flight itinerary with your travel details will be emailed or handed to you after payment has been made.

Booking & Payments

There are basically 5 ways to book your flight:
• Online
• Mobile
• AirAsia Call Centre
• Sales Office
• Airport Sales Station
• Authorized Travel Agents

Following are the steps in booking your flight online:
1. Go to www.airasia.com
2. Select your trip type to be either a return trip or one way.
3. Select the departing and arriving cities of your trip from the scroll box.
4. Select the departure and return date of your trip from the scroll box.
5. Select the number of guest and any infants from the scroll box. (max 9 adults & 4 infants)
6. Then click “Search”.
7. Select your departing flight and returning flight displayed on the screen with the fares & travel time.
8. Accept the Terms & Conditions of Carriage & Fares Rules if the selected flight, fare rules & pricing information are acceptable.
9. Enter guest’s information and fill in the contact person form.
10. Click “Pick My Seat” to choose your seat and your guest’s seat.
11. Verify the total price of your flight and then select your payment method. Your payment can be made via credit card, direct debit and e-gift voucher.
12. Once your payment has been processed, your Flight Itinerary will be displayed on the screen and sent to your email.

For more information regarding booking and payment, please click
http://www.airasia.com/site/my/en/page.jsp?name=How+To+Book&id=4ebb40b0-c0a8c85d-1410a850-53721771&nav=0-0

The ticketless system makes travelling much easier and more convenient. More importantly, it helps us save time and money through their super-low fares.

With this new and improved system implemented, now everybody can fly!!

Corporate Blogging

2009-07-08T23:11:00.002+08:00

Corporate blogging is a form of advertising for companies. It has become a new marketing communication tool for them. Corporate blogging helps organization to reach their goal. With the easy access to the internet, customers seek corporate information from corporate blogs from time to time. Thus this leads to the increase in corporate blogging since it serves as a new marketing communication tool for companies.

Among the reasons to start a corporate blog would include; Branding, Product Launch, Public Relations, Marketing Campaigns, and many others.

Benefits to have a Corporate Blog:

Adds Value to Business
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 assist with increasing transparency and accessibility in the corporate image.

Instant Feedback for New Products or Ideas
Asking customers for feedback on exclusive previews, product testing, marketing plans and customer services can help improve the marketing strategies of the company and improve the market share of the company for a certain product and improve innovations as well. Finally, the corporate blogging can serve as a success communication tool because companies will be able to obtain feedback from customers and make certain amendments on the products and thus, increase customer satisfaction.

Lower Cost to Reach Customers
The advantage of blogs is that posts and comments are easy to reach and follow due to the centralized hosting and generally structured conversation threads. Blogging has become a new, less time consuming and less expensive way to reach potential and current customers.

Amplify Marketing
Blogs can be used to amplify marketing messages compared to traditional channels. They allow companies to present accurate information without the filter of the media or advertising. The use of a blog allows a company to provide a destination of information for consumers, from commercials to promotional coupons, to directions on how to use products. Therefore, a successful marketing through blog creates a reader’s area of interest about the products or services known to them.

10 Most Popular Corporate Blogs
1. Google
2. Twitter
3. Adobe
4. Zillow
5. Yahoo! Search
6. Facebook
7. Dell
8. Yahoo!
9. LinkedIn

10. Southwest Airlines

The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers.

2009-07-08T14:16:00.004+08:00

Basically, there are 3 types of cards, namely the pre-paid cash cards, credit cards and debit cards, which all of them provide almost the same functionality. The main difference between them is the method of paying.

For the pre-paid cash cards, you have to top up its balances before you use them, and it does not allow you to spend more than the amount you have pre-deposited into the account. Unlike credit cards, it allows consumers to spend money in the sense of credit terms, which means you are actually borrowing the money from the bank and paying it back later with the interest charges as well. On the other hand, debit cards deduct the amount spent from the consumers’ deposit account which is similar with the pre-paid cash cards, but the difference is that many debit cards offer an overdraft, which is credit, and you will be charged a small fee on that.

In short, pre-paid cash cards are cards that allow users to make a payment without the carrying of tangible cash, provided there’s an amount of balance in the pre-deposited account.

Following are examples of Pre-paid Cash Cards in Malaysia:

Touch 'n GO

AmBank NexG PrePaid MasterCard

The Application of Pre-paid Cash Cards

• Use for Daily Life

Consumers can use the pre-paid cash cards anywhere as long as the pre-paid cash card is accepted for use. For instance, the consumers can use the pre-paid cash cards for their daily life activities such as purchasing groceries at a supermarket, having dinner at the restaurant, paying for the transportation, toll, or parking fees, and so on.

• Online Transactions

We tend to get busy with our work or study sometimes. It is therefore very convenient for consumers to use the pre-paid cash cards to purchase or book something through online websites such as Amazon.com, Lelong.com, TGV.com, Redbox.com, and etc. Furthermore, they can also use the pre-paid cash card to make a payment of their utility bill, phone bill, student bill and other bills through the internet as well.

• Substitution of Travelers’ Cash

Usually, prepaid cash cards such as “AmBank NexG PrePaid MasterCard” are accepted worldwide. Therefore, rather than carrying a large amount of cash while travelling, it is safer for consumers to just hold on to a pre-paid cash card.

• Withdrawal of Cash from ATM

Not all pre-paid cash cards allow us to withdraw money from the ATM. But, most of the pre-paid cash cards allow their customers in doing so because for certain places, the pre-paid cash cards cannot be used for payment. Therefore, it is important for the pre-paid cash cards to have this function in order to allow their customers to withdraw cash out of the ATM in times of emergency.

In a nutshell, with pre-paid cash cards, customers will have a better control towards the spending rather than the credit and debit cards. In addition, it does not have a debt risk since the user cannot over spend the amount which the cards have. It is also much more secure carrying a pre-paid cash card rather than a huge amount of money. With the reasons mentioned above, that is why these pre-paid cash cards have became so popular today.

Mobile Payment Systems in Malaysia

2009-07-07T23:02:00.014+08:00

With the intense use of technology gadgets nowadays, the mobile phone has become an essential device to people all around the world, from all ages. Today, the mobile phone’s functions have expanded tremendously apart from the basic function of phone calling and text messaging. In fact, it now enables internet surfing, instant messaging, music playing, e-mailling and even for the payment of goods and services which is known as mobile payment.

In specific, mobile payment (M-Payment) is a cashless and cardless payment method using a wireless mobile device, (e.g, handphones, smartphones and PDA), used for the payment of digital or physical goods and services, substituting cash, cheques and credit cards.

In Malaysia

TeleMoney, was Malaysia’s first mobile payment service made available using a GSM cellular phone. Also, we have Mobile Money which integrated their mobile payment method to their e-commerce software.

Recently, Visa launched its first mobile phone contactless payment system in Malaysia. Users can make their payment simply by waving their handset close to a reader. I’m sure some of you might have heard of Nokia 6212, which is among the handsets providing such service. With the collaboration of Visa, Nokia, Maybank, Touch n’ Go and Maxis, point-of-sales readers have been installed at more than 1800 merchant outlets in KL. This service provided by Maxis is known as Maxis Fast Tap.

With the growth of Wi-Fi and 3G, the mobile payment system has definitely a high potential in our country looking at the frequent use of mobile phones by the people. Mobile payment provides convenience, security and is much easier. In fact, many of us are starting to be aware of this and are already using the mobile payment service, for example, for top-ups and bill payments. This might also enhance the e-commerce industry in Malaysia, encouraging online sales to be made. However, there is much improvement to be made in Malaysia in order to further establish the use of mobile payment service.

Here is how you can make use of the mobile payment service:
• You can pay your utilities, assessment, internet, phone, insurance.
• You can pay your credit card bills, hire purchase to banks.
• You can reload your prepaid phone through Digi, Maxis, Celcom, i-talk, U mobile.
• You can also pay your merchant or charity.
• You can even pay remit money overseas to a wide range of countries.

For further details and instruction to the above actions, visit http://www.mobile-money.com/mmatmguide.html

Make your life easier with mobile payment, anytime, anywhere..!

Credit Card Debts: Causes and Preventions

2009-07-05T23:37:00.012+08:00

Credit Card
Credit card allows its users to purchase goods and services on credit. The amount owed is then charged with interest by the card issuer which would normally be banks and financial institutions. Credit card actually brings great convenience to users as there is not a need to carry a huge amount of money everywhere. However, a lot of users tend to misuse the credit card by overspending, and thus engaging themselves in credit card debts, getting themselves into serious troubles.

Causes of Getting into Credit Card Debts
Spending Money You Do Not Have
In reality, all of us are using ‘future’ money everyday. For example, electricity and phone calls. We use the services first, and then only do we pay the bills at the end of the month. Things are worse when we are surrounded with attracting advertisements that tempts us easily, especially when it is as easy as just swiping our cards to get what we want! When the credit card amount stated in the statements cost more than what we can afford, we delay the payment and that is when the debt starts to increase.

Maintaining Expenses on a Reduced Income
Seeing that the country is facing economic crisis currently, this is especially common. Many are experiencing pay-cut or even worse, retrenchment. However, we are too used to our previous purchasing behaviour that we tend to forget about the lesser purchasing power we now have. Credit card debts occur when users do not reduce their expenses to match their new income level, and thus causing the figures on their credit card statements to double up as time goes by.

Saving Too Little or Not Saving At All
Having little or no funds in savings is a common mistake that leads to credit card debts. Savings up to three to six months is important to get prepared for emergencies like illness, job layoff, and divorce. When something urgent happens, you have your savings to back up and therefore needless to swipe your credit card, preventing yourselves from getting into credit card debt.

For further information, please refer to Bankrate’s Guide to Managing Your Debt: Top 10 Causes of Debt.

Prevention of Getting into Credit Card Debts
Setting up a Budget
The first and most important step is to set up a budget. It is essential to manage your income and expenses well in order to be aware of your financial status. With a reasonable budget in hand, you make sure your money is appropriately allocated in expenses and savings. Besides that, discipline yourself to keep track with the budget every month to make your budget successful. It is hard to set up a budget, but it is harder to stick to the budget.

Limit the Credit Card in Your Wallet
Firstly, think of ‘do you really need a card?’. Yes, credit card is necessary for emergencies and traveling. However, you only need one or two at the most for these situations. Cut off unnecessary cards so that you are not tempted to use them. It is much easier and safer to keep track of only one or two cards. Besides, spend some time to understand every credit card available in the market and then opt for the card which has the lowest interest rate. In this case, you reduce the possibility of getting yourself into credit card debts.

Pay on Time
Do not delay your payments. Making late payments allows the interests to accumulate which in turns get you involved in larger debts. Some people today apply an electronic funds transfer as a solution. It automatically pays your credit card purchases to card issuer at the end of the month by crediting your bank account. In such a way, you can avoid paying late and also avoid acquiring credit card debts.

For further information, please refer to How to Avoid Credit Card Debt.

Electronic Currency

2009-07-02T18:00:00.001+08:00

With the tremendous development of the internet, many transactions have been made available online. These online transactions involve the exchange of goods and services with payment made through the internet, in an electronic form. When this takes place, there is then an electronic currency transaction. In other words, electronic currency refers to money which is exchanged only electronically, typically thru the use of computer networks like the internet.

For example, with online banking, banks are now able to offer services whereby a customer may transfer funds, purchase stocks, and a variety of other services without having to handle physical cash anymore.

As an implication to the above and with the emergence of e-commerce, the use of tangible cash is reducing from day to day as a result of the increasing usage of money in the electronic form.

In our country, the implementation of the “Touch N’ Go” card is among one of the success for the cashless environment that engages in electronic currency. “Touch N’ Go” is a contactless stored value smart card used to transfer electronic payments online for public transportation such as the LRT and KTM.

Advantages

Convenience and Privacy
Transfer of funds from an individual's personal account to a business's account is made without any actual paper transfer of money. This clearly provides convenience and a lower-hassle environment to many people and businesses alike.

Increased Efficiency of Transactions
Through the electronic currency, complicated calculations and large figures are computed with the help of computer. Also, there is no need to handle paper currency and thus, this reduces the possibility of you losing your money from carelessness or theft.

Lower Transaction Fees
Lower cost can be achieved because electronic currency eliminates the use of man power which could be costly. This result in lower transaction fees compared to fees charged to a walk-in customer.

New Business Opportunities
With the expansion of economic activities on the Internet, there is the emergence of new business opportunities. For instance, Paypal deals with electronic currency transactions by engaging in service of securing and transfer of funds.

Disadvantages

Fraud
Fraud over electronic currency has been one of the major concerns. With the lack of security and monitoring of the internet transactions, hacking into bank accounts and illegal retrieval of banking records has led to a widespread invasion of privacy and has promoted identity theft.

Failure of Technology
There is also a crucial issue regarding the technology involved in electronic currency such as power failures, loss of records and undependable software which could often cause a major setback in promoting the technology.

Risk of Global Exchanging Electronic Currency
There are also potential macroeconomic effects such as exchange rate instabilities. Besides, there is the possibility that digital cash would exceed the real cash available and this might lead to unfavorable consequences such as the shortage of money supplies.

Loss of Human Interactions
Transactions are made online, through the internet. Any necessary interaction needed might not be attained. In addition, some people still prefer to deal with humans rather than computers.

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

2009-06-29T20:49:00.024+08:00

With the massive use of internet in today’s world, we often upload personal details, information, pictures, and other relevant data through internet activities such as blogging, online purchasing, as well as with online banking. But, have you ever think about the safety and security of uploading these data? How safe is it to do so? What are the potential threats we might face?

Basically, there are two types of threats which are the Technical Threats and Nontechnical Threats.

Technical Threats

Technical threats are threats that arise with the use of software and systems knowledge. Among the common technical threats encountered are:

• Denial of Service (DoS) attack or Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack

Denial of Service (DoS) attack is an attack on a website in which an attacker uses specialized software to send a flood of data packets to the target computer with the aim of overloading its resources. On February 2000, a teenager managed to cripple the web sites of Amazon, Yahoo and other companies by using simple DoS tools (see this CNN article). Similar to DoS, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is an attack in which the attackers gain illegal administrative access to as many computers on the internet as possible to send a flood of data packets to the target, but by using multiple computers. Both of the threats attempt to make the computer resources unavailable to its intended users.

• Virus

Virus is a computer program that can inserts itself without the permission or knowledge of the host. But, in order to propagate and harm the user’s computer, it requires the owner to activate or run the program. For instance, “I LOVE YOU” virus appears in the form of an e-mail with an attachment, which will be forwarded to everyone in the address book after downloading and opening the attachment. Subsequently, it damages the victims' computer such as deleting files or corrupting the hard drives (see this BBC article).

• Worm

A worm is a type of virus. However, unlike the virus, it is a computer program that can replicates itself across a network without any human intervention. For example, the “MSN Messenger worm” is a message and link which is sent by friends who are being infected with the computer worm. Once clicking on the link, it will take you to a web site and then automatically downloads the worm and infect your computer. Whether you are online or offline, the worm will automatically send the message and link to everyone in your address book. Besides that, worms can also damage your computer by installing other malicious code that copies information from your computer and use it for other online crimes.

• Trojan Horse

Although Trojan horse programs are classified as viruses, but they are not a virus since Trojan horse do not replicate itself. Trojan horse is a program that appears to have a useful function but that contains a hidden function that presents a security risk. It is designed to allow a hacker to gain access into a user’s computer, enabling the hacker to destroy information stored in the computer such as client’s or customer’s information, credit card details, bank account number and so on.

Nontechnical Threats

Nontechnical threats is an attack that use some form of trickery or persuasion to trick people into revealing information or performing actions that can compromise the security of a network. Social engineering is a type of nontechnical threats. It is a collection of techniques used to manipulate people into performing actions or exposing confidential information. One of the examples of social engineering is phishing. (If you are interested to know more about phishing can refer HERE).

Phishing: Examples & It's Prevention Methods

2009-06-28T19:04:00.019+08:00

What is Phishing?

Phishing, a term used in computer security, is a fraudulent attempt to scam internet users into giving out their personal and private information such as credit card details, social security number, PIN number, account username and password. Usually, phishing attempts appear through a look-alike of an established and legitimate organization, mimicking a trustworthy popular website. It is actually a fake website having a similar outlook as the valid site engaging in identity theft. Phishing is usually done through e-mails and can appear to be from any bank, credit card companies or an online store.

These are among the examples of common excuses given by phishers in an e-mail:

• They are about to undergo system update and maintenance, and so, you are required to give them your password in order for them to update your webmail.

• They are about to delete all accounts to create more spaces (for messaging service). To maintain your account, you are then required to fill in information such as username and password or else there is the threat of deactivation and losing of your account permanently!

• There are also false scam alerts that ask you to cooperate with them in fighting these scams. What they do is they require you to provide important information as an excuse to install a scam alert in your e-mail which is totally fake!

• Some (those mimicking banks and credit card authorities) require you to click on their links to verify your e-mail and access your bank account which is said to be done for protection purpose.

• Some claimed that your e-mail has been used to send spam mails and therefore your account is to be suspended. You are then required to confirm your ownership by replying their message with your personal information.

• Some even claimed that you have won some rewards such as a cruise or a lottery and you are asked to click on their link for more information regarding your prize.

• Others might con you through a disaster relief fund or perhaps a money scheme sham.

Examples of phishing e-mails:

eBay phishing mail

Maybank phishing mail

Skype phishing mail

Phishing is a common threat to all of us using the internet, and so, the best way to protect yourself from being phished is to learn how to prevent it.

Here are few tips on how to do it:

• NEVER click on links in an e-mail that request you to provide personal information no matter how trustworthy they may seem to look. With all the necessary credibility elements present, it can still be a scam. Remember!! A legitimate organization would never request such important information from you via the e-mail.

• Use an anti-virus software and update it on a regular basis. An anti-virus software might help in detecting phishing e-mails. Besides that, perhaps you could also do a regular scan of your computer from time to time.

• Install a personal firewall as well as the latest security update for your web browser and operating system. It is advisable to use a web browser that has a phishing filter, preferably Internet Explorer and Morzilla Firefox.

Always be careful and be alert to phishing mails!
Don’t let yourself be a victim of phishing!

A Review on a post on Internet Security from My E-commerce blog

2009-06-28T11:05:00.010+08:00

After reading the post ‘Favourite Passwords Used Online’ from ‘My E-commerce’ blog, I totally agree with the list of most common passwords. To my surprise, I realized that even my passwords are within the list as well! And so, provided below are some important information regarding password which is crucial to the protection of our private information. Hope it does bring you great help!

What is Password?
First of all, password is a series of characters that enables a user to access a computer system. From another angle, it helps secure the computer system from unauthorized access. Password is made up of at least four to six characters, including letters, numbers and symbols, but never spaces. Often, it is used in combination with some form of identification, such as username or e-mail address.

Reason People Love to Use Common Passwords
Okay, so why people are fond of using these few passwords? The main reason would be people like passwords that are easily remembered, in case they themselves could not recall and thus being unable to log in to their computer systems. However, these passwords can be easily guessed, which therefore could allow others to break into your computer systems without much difficulty.

Risks of Using Common Passwords
The convenience of using passwords that could be easily remembered, however, turns out to be painful and costly when it is exposed to malicious users. For individuals, it could be exposure of financial information, health data and private documents that we strongly do not want others to find out. Hackers could even use your identity to open new credit card accounts, apply for a mortgage, or engage in online transactions. For organizations, it could be leak of trade secrets, financial data, intellectual property, customer lists, etc.

How to Create Strong Passwords?
Make it lengthy
A strong password should contain at least 8 or more characters. The lengthier it is, the more protective it is. Otherwise, think of a phrase or sentence that is easy to remember. It should be not only long in length, but hard to be guessed as well.

Combine letters, numbers and symbols
Make use of the entire keyboard if you can! Fully utilize the “Shift” so that you have small and capital letters, numbers, as well as symbols at the upper row. For example, substituting an ‘e’ with a ‘3’, or ‘s’ with ‘$’. The more complex your password is, the harder the hackers could guess your passwords.

Avoid using names and words from dictionary
Any of your and your loved one’s names, birthdays, or similar information should first be eliminated out of your consideration for forming any password. These are easily obtained and would be the first thing the hackers would try on. Besides, there are effective password cracking tools, which could be easily downloaded for free from the Internet, that help guess passwords based on words in dictionaries.

Change your passwords regularly
It helps keep hackers unaware. How often this should be done depends on the strength of your password. A short and weak password is recommended to be changed every week; a long and strong password can last for years.

Use different passwords for different accounts
This is to avoid all of the information to be stolen at once. If the same password is used for all the accounts, the hacker can have access to all the accounts and steal all the information once he gets your compromised password.

With the given information above, I believe that many of you are going to change your passwords immediately!

Safeguard on Personal and Financial Data

2009-06-22T17:57:00.005+08:00

With the advancements of technology, a lot of internet services such as Facebook and PBeBank enables and provides sharing of personal details and financial transactions. Without a proper safeguard on these data, it can lead to internet fraud and scam that will cause financial loss and inconvenience to the internet users.

Here are some suggestions available in the prevention of it:

Strong Password Protections
Choose strong passwords that are barely predictable and hardly expected by others. This can include using a combination of numbers and letters like w4t3r (water). Although most users would usually choose something that can be easily remembered, however this might not be a wise decision as to be easily remembered also implies that it has a higher chance of being easily predicted. Therefore never ever use personal information that can be easily accessed or predictable such as your birth date as your password.

Use and Update Anti-Virus Software and Firewall
Use an anti-virus software and a firewall to protect yourself against viruses and Trojan horses that may cause your data to be stolen or modified. With the help of a firewall, you can protect your computer against improper access from unauthorized person. A firewall blocks and filters some of the illegal access from hackers. Besides that, by having the antivirus software installed and frequently updated, new threats such as viruses, worms and other malware may be eliminated and thus safeguarding your personal and financial data as it should be.

Avoid Accessing Financial Information in Public
Prevent yourself from logging in to check and make financial transactions when you are using a public network such as in a coffee shop that offers wireless access or through public computers. For example, Starbucks and cyber cafes. Although this might seem convenient to users, but the strength of their safeguard such as firewall is unknown. Besides, the open environment might allow the public to observe and perhaps see the private and confidential data you are working with.

Avoid Access to Unknown Sites
Avoid giving your personal information to other unknown parties online, whether it is via e-mail or publish of personal data in blogs or websites. Besides that, also remember to make sure you are in the right legitimate website before entering personal information or making a financial transaction, not a phishing website.

Avoid Granting the Use of Personal Computer to a 3rd Party
Remember that your own computer contains a lot of private and confidential information such as passwords saved, history and cookies that will retain the data from the web page that have been accessed. Thus, if your computer is being stolen or being used by a 3rd party, private information may be easily retrieved and duplicated. Therefore, avoid putting sensitive information in the computer and if there is any lock, it is advisable to impose them to the folder.

The History and Evolution of E-commerce

2009-06-16T18:53:00.019+08:00

E-commerce

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce, refers to the trading of products and services electronically. In other words, e-commerce allows people to buy and sell over the Internet. It covers a wide range of different types of businesses, from household products to machines used in corporations. You name it, they have it!

History and Evolution of E-commerce

• 1970s

The emergence of e-commerce started in the 1970s when Electronic Fund Transfer (EFT) and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) were introduced. Dated back in the early 1970s, EFT had two functions: enabling banks and financial institutions to do electronic transactions among themselves or with associated businesses, as well as, payment of salaries to employees by employers. When it came to the late 1970s, EDI helped producers and distributors in cutting costs by allowing exchanges of information and documents between companies electronically.

• 1990s
During the 1990s, the Internet has been opened for commercial use. The development of Mosaic, the first point-and-click web browser, and Netscape, the first downloadable browser, had made a remarkable growth to the global Internet community technology. This was when the Internet became popular and users started to participate in the World Wide Web (WWW). This in turn resulted in the rapid growth of the use of personal computers (PCs).

Below is the summary of the evolution of e-commerce:

• 1984 – EDI was standardized so that companies could complete transactions with one another reliably.
• 1990 – The first web browser, WWW, was written by Tim Berners-Lee.
• 1992 – People first bought things over the Internet when CompuServe offered online retail products to its customers.
• 1994 – Netscape, a simple browser to surf the Internet and a protected online transaction technology called Secure Sockets Layer was introduced.
• 1995 – Amazon.com and eBay.com were launched.
• 1998 – Fast and always-on Internet service was provided to subscribers across California by using DSL, or Digital Subscriber Line.
• 1999 – Business.com published that retail spending over the Internet has reached $20 billion.
• 2000 – The dot-com bust.
• 2003 – Amazon.com posted first yearly profit.
• 2008 – US eCommerce and Online Retail sales projected to reach $204 billion, an increase of 17 percent over 2007.

In our opinion, the emergence of e-commerce indicates a significant advancement of mankind. It benefits all parties along the supply chain management from manufacturers to customers, in various ways. As the e-commerce continues to be improved, we believe that it is possible that there will be a day where everything will be just a click away and all we need to do is just sit back and click. It may not overtake the traditional method of commerce entirely, considering some limitations of the Internet; however, it would surely affect the concept of commerce significantly.

Revenue Model for Google, Amazon.com & eBay

2009-06-15T20:12:00.002+08:00

Google is known to be one of the most informative, user friendly, fastest and most trafficked website in the world of internet. In fact, Google has become one of the global technology leaders which is widely recognized.

Google generates most of its revenue (more than 90%) through online advertising. With the volume of their site traffic, they focus on delivering relevant and cost effective advertising. They offer targeted advertising solutions and global Internet search solutions.

One of Google’s advertising program is Google AdWords which is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising tool. Ads are displayed as sponsored link with regards to the information searched for. For every ad clicked, Google earned a fee from their advertisers. Google recognizes most of their advertising fee from Google AdWords.

Another advertising program run by Google is AdSense. AdSense allows the display of ads on websites and blogs which can be on a per-click or a per-thousand-ads-displayed basis. Google generates affiliate fees from the site owners whenever user clicks on the ads displayed on the websites.

Amazon.com is an e-commerce company and is known as one of the world’s leading online retailers.

Starting off as an online bookstore, it expanded into a variety of products categories online store. With the various wide range of products sold, it is obvious that Amazon generates most of its revenue through sales. Amazon attracts millions of customers worldwide.

Also, Amazon generates around 40% of its sales from affiliates from their “associates affiliate program”. Associates receive a commission for referring customers to Amazon through links. Amazon then generates revenue from the sales of these customers.

eBay is one of the world’s largest online marketplace. It engages in online auction and shopping of a variety of goods and services globally. eBay generates most of their revenue through sales of their products and also through transactions fees. For every successful transaction, eBay earns a transaction fee made by the bidders.

Besides that, eBay also earns part of their revenue through PayPal (online payment) and Skype (communications) which are owned by eBay too.

PayPall earns their revenue through online payments. Using the world’s most advanced fraud prevention system and with their safe payment solution, PayPall has gained users trust worldwide and has become a global leader in online payment solutions.
PayPall’s payment volume accounted for nearly 9% of the worldwide e-commerce.

Skype engages in internet communication whereby it allows users worldwide to talk online unlimitedly. Skype earns their revenue through calls made to and from landline and mobile phones, voicemails, call forwarding and ringtones.

Other acquisitions by eBay include shopping.com, Kijiji, Stubhub, rent.com and StumbleUpon

An E-Commerce Success: Amazon.com

2009-06-15T18:06:00.005+08:00

With the advancement of information technology, the use of e-commerce has improved tremendously in the past few years and has in fact become very popular nowadays. Many businesses have successfully gained an awesome profit by selling their products online. The examples of these businesses are Amazon.com, Ebay.com, Lelong.com, Dell, and so on.
Among those examples, the company I want to highlight here is Amazon.com. Amazon.com was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994, and launched in 1995. It is a pure dot-com company whereby they only operate their business through the internet. Amazon.com started out with selling books online and then quickly diversified by adding other items. It has become the first best known online retailer in the internet world.

Causes of Success

• Customer Orientation

Amazon.com is a customer oriented based company. The customer-centricity has been part of its mission since the day of its operation. They start with the customer and work backwards in considering matters such as whether the boxes are easy to open, what packaging material they use, how much packing material is in the box, and etc. Due to the efficiency in dealing with the customer and continuous focus on their needs, Amazon.com has successfully become the top among other entire online retailers.

• Continuous Innovation

As we know, if a company does not listen to their customers, they will fail. But if the company only listens to their customers, they will also fail. The ideas to investigate might come from customers who are a really important source of information. However, it is also important for the company to innovate and create something new or improved through research and development. Amazon.com runs a lot of test in its usability lab almost continuously. The project teams of the company can request usability testing, and the usability team also goes out and tests stuff of interest for the purpose of coming out with new products.

• Customer Loyalty Enhancing

Amazon.com maintains its customer loyalty by providing user friendly interface with convenience and easy to use features. For example, easy to search, useful information related to product, customize options, e-mail confirmation, and also convenient and reliable payment system to their customers. In addition, Amazon.com also provides guarantees and adopts return policy.

• Variety of Products

In the beginning, Amazon.com did not sell other things but books online. Due to the changing environment and meeting with the customer needs, it started to offer a variety of products which are suitable for different groups of people. The range of products includes videos, music, cell phones, hardware, software, video games, electronics, health care products, clothing, furniture, toys and even food items.

An E-Commerce Failure: Pets.com

2009-06-13T13:20:00.029+08:00

In this era of modern technology, many businesses are turning to e-commerce in selling their products and services online. From e-commerce, many companies have successfully achieved a good profit in marketing their products. Among the success companies are Amazon.com, Ebay.com and so on. However, there are also companies which did not do well in selling their products via e-commerce. The examples are Webvan, Kozmo.com, eToys.com and so on.

The company that I am going to illustrate here is Pets.com. Pets.com was engaging in an online business that sold pet accessories and supplies directly to consumers over the World Wide Web. It was launched in February 1999 but unfortunately it folded in November 2000. Pets.com was well-known for its widely popular sock puppet spokesdog.

Causes of Failure

• Excessive Advertising Cost

Pets.com made significant investments in infrastructures such as warehousing which needed critical mass of customers to break even. Acquiring customers in volume they needed to break even requires a period of time which was not an easy task. In addition, Pets.com did not have independent market research preceded the launch of their website. Pets.com only offered products that could be more easily obtained at a nearby mall. There wasn’t much distinctiveness in the products sold which therefore reduced the intention of customers buying from them through online.

• Excessive Advertising Cost

Despite its success in building brand recognition, it is uncertain whether a substantial market niche existed for Pets.com. Pets.com earned revenues of $619,000, yet they spent $11.8 million on advertising. This excessive advertising did not benefit Pets.com, rather it helped the entire online pet industry to increase sales. Hence, making their products even more competitive.

• Lack of Workable Business Plan

Pets.com also decided to compete with low prices just like its competitors. This led to the selling of merchandise at prices below cost for the duration of its operations. Pets.com also built a customer base by offering discounts and free shipping, but it was impossible to turn these sales into a profit because the shipment cost has ate to its profits.

Member Profile 4: Koo Kian Siong (Chris)

2009-06-10T14:44:00.019+08:00

Hi, my name is Koo Kian Siong and I am 21 years old. I come from Kota Tinggi, Johor, a beautiful town I would say. I am taking up a degree course of Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting at University Tunku Abdul Rahman. I am currently a Year 3 semester 1 student. I am quite lazy, and I do things very slowly, and so, some of my friends call me “turtle”.

My hobbies are singing, listening to music, watching drama, surfing the internet, eating and sleeping as well.

The most common websites I visited are www.google.com, www.facebook.com, www.friendster.com, www.hotmail.com, and www.youtube.com. I always use google.com to search information as it is very convenient to me. In addition, facebook.com and friendster.com are the ways for me to update myself on the status of my friends. Normally I will visit hotmail.com to check my e-mail and send e-mail to others as well. When I am looking for some funny video clips or music videos then I will go to youtube.com.

The top 5 internet activities I always do are chatting with my family and friends, playing online games, watching drama, searching information and blogging as well.

Lastly, nice to meet you all here...

Member Profile 3: Chew Fei Ying (Zowie)

2009-06-10T14:25:00.006+08:00

Hi, my name is Chew Fei Ying. My friends call me flying eagle because ‘fei ying’ has the same pronunciation as flying eagle is Chinese! I am petite with a head of curly hair. I come from a family of five members, my parents and two elder brothers. I am lucky enough to be the youngest at home.

Being born is the era of technologies, most of my free time is spent in front of the computer. I like playing computer games, chatting with friends, checking my e-mails, blogging and looking for information for education and learning.

I often visit thestar.com.my for the most recent happenings in Malaysia and around the world. Educationmalaysia.blogspot.com is one of my favourite websites too. I get to know the latest updates on our education systems and various opinions from different people. Then, it is the pyschology.about.com. I have interest in psychology besides accounting. It is fun to get to know more about people around you. The next website would be facebook.com, I like indulging in the gossips among friends there. The last website I would like to squeeze into my top 5 list is the gaming website, shockwave.com. After all, we need to relax ourselves on and off.

Besides that, I love collecting chocolate candy wrappers. Yes, I am more interested in the wrappers than the chocolates! Occasionally, I go to KTV with my friends too. We like to sing, regardless of we could sing well…

Lastly, nice to meet everyone here…

Member Profile 2: Wong Chin Yeen (Eric)

2009-06-10T14:23:00.002+08:00

Hi, I am Wong Chin Yeen, currently studying in Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman Year 3 semester 1. The course I am pursuing is Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting. My hometown is in Ipoh, Perak. One of the subjects that I am studying is e-commerce which one of the tasks in this assignment requires us to set up a blog.

My hobbies are surfing the net, watching movies, listening to music, and sing karaoke.

The top 5 sites that I visit the most is FaceBook which I always gossip on some current news posted by some of my friends, do some questionnaire, and play mini games to occupy my free time when I am bored.

The second site is Google Finance which I always use to check on the market movement and news for the current economy market as well as for a particular company in US.

The third site I visit the most is Wble which I use to download some study materials and check for recent updates that are posted by the lecturers regarding the subjects I am taking this semester.

The fourth site I visit the most is Hotmail which is my main email that I check frequently for updates and forward emails.

The fifth site I visit the most is YouTube which I used to look for funny video clips, news as well as the latest movie trailer available.

The top 5 internet activities that I used to do is searching for something which I don’t understand in life which needs to be further researched and seek for opinion, secondly gossiping on some current news posted by some of my friends, thirdly chatting and keeping contact with my friends using MSN Messengers, fourthly checking email as well as forwarding and replying emails, the last is reading the current news and the market movement available in the internet.

Member Profile 1: Angeline Cheng Siow Pei

2009-06-10T14:19:00.004+08:00

Hello everyone there. My name is Angeline Cheng. I’m 21 years old and am currently taking up my degree course in Universiti Tunku Rahman which is located in Sungai Long, Selangor. I just stepped into my 3rd year in Bachelor of Commerce (Hons) Accounting. I will be graduating by May 2010 if everything goes on smoothly.

Here’s a little something about me:
My hobby is to surf the net. I love music, both listening to them and singing them. My friends and I have a craze for karaoke. Besides that, I have a great passion for food too. I just love to eat, all kinds of food, especially Japanese. Also, I occasionally dream of experiencing the different culture in various countries. Someday I would like to travel around the world.

I love going into Facebook because it is an interactive social network website of all my friends with lots of features. It provides personal profile updates of every one of them. It also allows photo uploading, application games, joining of groups and even online chatting.

The next website I visit the most is Google. I find Google very useful in searching up for information and images from many different sources on almost every topic. It helps me tremendously in doing my assignments.

Also, I visit The Star Online quite often too. Without purchasing for a newspaper, I can update myself on what is happening around the world by just reading up the current news online. It’s just so easy!

Next, I also frequently visit Blogspot. I blog about events regarding my personal life. Besides that, I read up blogs from my friends too. It is also one of the ways for me to keep my friends update and vice versa.

Lastly, one of the most visited sites by me is UTAR’s website, which is my current Uni’s official website. It gives me information about my Uni and updates me with current news and events taking place.

The top 5 internet activities I usually engaged in are chatting online via messenger, checking my mailbox for e-mails, blogging about my personal life, “googling” for information on various subjects and of course, playing online game as a mean of entertainment after a long day’s work.

To any one of you who might have any comments and suggestions regarding e-commerce or our website, please feel free to do so.
Lastly, have a great day!! :)