The application of third party cerification programme in Malaysia

What is Third Party Certification?

Third Party Certification is act as a certificate authorities (CAs), who issue digital certificate to provide verification that your website does indeed represent your company.It used to provide the trust on your web pages and provide security measurement purpose. Data is restricted only to authorized individuals in conformity with its disclosed security

Malaysia also have it own third party certification company,which is MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd.MSC Trustgate was incorporated in 1999 to meet the growing need for secure open network communications and become the catalyst for the growth of e-commerce, both locally and across the ASEAN region.

Trustgate is licensed under the Digital Signature Act 1997 (DSA),which it was required by Malaysia Law .Trustgate’s core business is to provide digital certification services, including digital certificates, cryptographic products, and software development.This services is mention for individuals, organizations, government, and e-commerce service providers.

The product that also been offered by MSC Trustgate is SSL Certificate,Managed PKI, Personal ID,My TRUST,MyKAD ID,SSL VPN,Managed Security Services VeriSign Certified Training and Application Development.

Why the Third Party Certificate is needed?
The reason behind of it is, there are threats of internet security happen each day. Example for the biggest threat is happen in Y2K. It been affected the computer database from around the world, and reported cost the effected company Millon of Dollars in businesses.With the exist of this certificate user will be able to make transaction online without worried feared that their particular such as ID, Password, and private imformation been will been stolen by other unresponsible party.

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

Phishing is e-mail or instant messages that look like they're from reputable company to get you to click on a link. For example, its just like a lure might be dangled in front of a fish to trick it into thinking there's is a real worm in the end of the hook. These messages can look like the real thing, right down to a spoofed e-mail address (faking someone else e-mail is known as 'spoofing').

The messages may look quite authentic, featuring corporate logos and formats similar to the one used for legitimate messages. Typically, they ask for verification of certain information, such as account numbers and passwords, allegedly for auditing purpose.

Let's use Citibank for example:

1. The "From Field" appears to be from the legitimate company mentioned in the e-mail. It is

important to note, however, that it is very simple to change the "from" information in any

e-mail client.

2. The e-mail will usually contain logos or images that have been taken from the Web site of the

company mentioned in the scam e-mail.

3. The e-mail will contain a clickable link with text suggesting you use the inserted link to

validate your information. In the image you will see that once the hyperlink is highlighted, th

bottom left of the screen shows the real Web site address to which you will go. Note that the

hyperlink does NOT point to the legitimate Citibank Web site URL.

In this instance, the text you click is "here". However, this may also state something like "Log-in to Citibank" or "www.citibank.com/secure" to be even more misleading. This clickable area is only text and can be changed to anything the sender wants it to read.

Additionally, you may spot some of these elements that did not appear in this particular scam:

Logos that are not an exact match to the company's logo, spelling errors, percentage signs followed by numbers or @ signs within the hyperlink, random names or e-mail addresses in the body of the text, or even e-mail headers which have nothing to do with the company mentioned in the e-mail.

The golden rule to avoid being phished is to never ever click the links within the text of the e-mail. Always delete the e-mail immediately. Once you have deleted the e-mail then empty the trash box in your e-mail client as well. This will prevent "accidental" clicks from happening as well. If, for some really odd reason you have this nagging feeling that this could just possibly be a legitimate e-mail and nothing can convince you otherwise, you still need to adhere to the golden rule and not click the link in the message.

Beside that, e-mail is not a secure method of transmitting personal information. If you initiate a transaction and want to provide your personal or financial information through an organization's website, look for indicators that the site is secure.

Generally speaking, people become victims of phishing scams simply because they do not know how such scams operate. You can help by ensuring that friends and colleagues are aware of such scams and what to do about them. The power of such "word-of-mouth" education is substantial. You CAN make a difference by sharing your knowledge of phishing scams with other Internet users.

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

Nowsaday, computer has become an important tool for many people. People rely on computers to create, store and manage critical information. Some companies already use the internet to do their business transaction or sharing the important information. Consequently, it is important for users to aware that computer security plays a major role in protecting their data from loss, damage, and misuse. Similarly, online security has been online trader's main concern in protecting their websites from potential threats, such as phishing, security hacking, information theft, virus, worms and etc.

However, the increasingly developed technologies sarcastically increase the risk every computer user faced. Everyone who owns a computer with internet connection is able to equip themselves with "hacking" knowledge by making some research online. Internet provides the opportunities for users to share the knowledge without filtering the content. therefore, everyone can learn skills that may jeopardize online security via internet and therefore increase the online security risk.

Nowadays, computer users are facing the threats of cybercrime, phishing, internet and network attacks such as computer viruses, worms and Trojan horses and back doors.

Cybercrime is defined as online or internet-based illegal acts. Hackers, crackers and corporate spies who have advanced computer and network skills access computers and networks illegally with the intent of destroying data, stealing proprietary data and information.
Phishing is a scam in which a perpetrator sends an official looking e-mail that attempts to obtain your personal information and financial information. For example, some phishing e-mail messages ask you to reply with your information, or a pop up window that looks like a website, that collects the information. The damages caused by phishing can be crucial.

Internet and network attack that jeopardize security include virus, worm, and Trojan horse. Virus is a piece of code that is secretly introduced into a system in order to corrupt it or destroy data. Virus attack can damage the operating system, causing the loss of data and other possible losses. A worm is a program that copies itself repeatedly. The repeatedly copied files use up the available space and slow down a computer operating speed. On the other hand, a Trojan horse is a program that hides within or looks like a legitimate program. Although they seem to be harmless, they may however be triggered if certain condition is certified.

A back door is a set of instructions in a program that allow users to bypass security control when accessing a program, computer, or network. Once perpetrators gain access to unsecure computers, they often install a back door or modify an existing program to include a back door, enabling them to continue to access the computers remotely without the user’s knowledge.

In conclusion, risk exposed by computer users is increasing with the increasing developed technology. Therefore, safeguards developed must be always up to date to enhance the defenses against online security threats. In the same time, users must be educated and informed about the crucial damages and loss caused by imposing online security threats.

We can also install the anti-virus software to help us to prevent those threats.
Follwing is a very useful anti-virus software I would like to introduce to all my friends and all visitors of this blog.

NOD32 anti-virus software

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

How do we safeguard our personal and financial data?
Nowadays, computer and internet are very common to everyone. We rely on computer to save our personal data and using online financial services to do financial transactions such as online banking in order to safe time. Therefore, do you think the safeguards that you make are sufficient enough to protect your confidential data?

Below will be some suggestion ways for you to safeguard your data:

1. Password protect

-use a strong password or pass-phrase to protect your access data.

2. Install and update antispyware and antivirus programs

-install an antivirus program such as Symantec and Norton antivirus, AVG antivirus or other more in order to protect yourself against viruses and Trojan horses that may steal or modify the data on your own computer . In order for the well protection, you must must sure to keep your virus definitions up to date.

3. Install a firewall

-a firewall is a software program designed to allow good people in and keep bad people out. Most new computers come with firewalls integrated into their operating systems. If you have an older computer or using dial-up, you may need to buy a firewall separately and install it yourself.

4. Regularly scan your computer for spyware

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

5. Avoid accessing financial information in public

-prevent form logging on to check your bank balance when working from a coffee shop that offers wireless access. Although the systems are convenient but we do not know how powerful their firewalls are.

An example of an E-Commerce success and its causes

eBay is a global online marketplace where practically anyone can trade practically anything. It was founded in Pierre Omidyar's San Jose living room back in September 1995. it was from the start meant to be a marketplace for the sales of goods and services for individuals.

In 1998, Pierre and his cofounder Jeff Skoll brought in Meg Whitmen to sustain the success. Meg had studied at the Harvard Bisiness School and had learned the importance of branding at companies such as Hasbro.

Meg culled her senior staff from companies such as Pepsico and Disney, created an experienced management team with an average of 20 years of business of connecting people, not selling them thing.

eBay has built an online person-to-person trading community on the internet, using the World Wide Web. Buyers and sellers are brough together in a manner where sellers are permitted to list items for sales, buyers to bid on items of interest and all eBay users to browse through listed items in a fully automated way. The items are arranged by topics, where each type of auction has its own category.

eBay has both streamlined and globalized traditional person-to-person trading, which has traditionally been conducted through such forms as garage sales, collectibles shows, flea markets and more, with their web interface. This facilitates easy exploration for buyer and enables the sellers to immediately list an item for sales within minutes of registering.Today, eBay is the world's largest online community of buyers and sellers. With a global presence in 38 markets, including the US, and over 241 million registered users worldwide, eBay offer boundless opportunity to come together in one internet site and be able to buy and trade a wide range of items, including fine collectibles. It allows people pursue their interests and their passions in the areas of their hobbies and their collectibles.

To help eBay move into other markets, Whitman also negotiated the purchase of Kruse International, a Collectible car house, and Alando de AG, the largest online-auction house in Europe. By the end of the third quarter 1999, eBay reported sales of more than $741 million, up from just $195 million the year before. The company had also virtually cornered the online-auction business, accounting for 90 percent of all online-auction sales. Even though its earnings fell short of projections, the company managed to accomplish what many other high-profile Internet companies such as amazon.com could not : eBay made a profit.

eBay has done a regular basis to promote eBay, they have had isolated campaigns through radio and print, and they've also done some tradeoffs and some banner ads on other sites. But the really unique thing about eBay is that when compare theirs to traditional businesses or other e-commerce sites, they have done very little external promotion to build memberships.

Another cause has helped to make eBay as successful as it has been, is that people really enjoy the experience of the shopping bazzaar. They enjoy looking around the merchandise. The other component is they really enjoy the competition of the building process. Everybody likes to get a bargain, and in someway, shape of form, likes to hanggle a little bit over the price, eBay's auction format allows user to do that.

Obviously, people are becoming more and more comfortable with shopping online and they're getting more and more accustomed to doing that. That's another factor why eBay is greateful.