How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

Every minute of the day, millions of people are using the computers to surf the internet, to create, store and manage information. Data or information are sent and received through various networks which then have a higher degree of security risk. There’s a probability that data might be hacked or stolen during the transfer or transaction and used for unlawful purposes.
Although there is a lot of websites are providing privacy and security, such as Secure Socket Layer, we still can see theft cases are increasing. Hence, there’s a need for us to protect our private information on our own rather than just depending on the security provided to the users.
There are a few approaches or measures that we can take to help us to safeguard our personal and financial information.
I. Password Protection- For the protection, we need to create a very strong password to protect our data. A strong password would mean that the password contains both alphabetical and numerical, so that it’s not easy to be guessed by others. Besides, it’s strongly advised not o disclose the password to anyone.



II. Install and Update Antispyware and Antivirus Programs- It is a must for us to install at least an antivirus program, eg. Avira, Norton Antivirus and etc. to protect our PC from various kinds of viruses. Eg. Trojan horse. The program will alert us if such virus appears and we have to decide whether to ignore it, to send it to virus vault or heal.


III. Activate Firewall- Firewall is a kind of security measure that is designed to prevent unauthorized electronic access to a networked computer system. It is also a device configured to permit, deny, encrypt, decrypt, or proxy all computer traffic between different security domains based upon a set of rules and other criteria.
IV. Scan the PC frequently- To maintain the best performance of PC, we need to scan it frequently or at a certain period. Using the anti spyware program like Lavasoft will help to remove any spyware or infected files that are hidden in the PC.
V. Try to avoid accessing financial information in public- As we know, the security measures might not be good or safe enough if we use outside’s network. As a matter fact, we have to try to avoid of logging to our e-banking in public in order to keep the information secure.
Others:
• Don’t simply click on the pop ups.
• Keep the anti virus as well as the anti spyware program up to date.
• Try not to use free wireless connections, as we don’t know how secure it is.

The history and Evolution of E-commerce

The first thing that we can think of E-commerce is buying things online, going as far as just sitting at home and using online transaction.
In the past when technologies weren’t so advance, business information and electronic transactions were being transferred by Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). As the technology carries on, business companies and organizations to send commercial documentation electronically. However it is not publicly used as the security protocols weren’t very safe.

As the internet or World Wide Web(WWW) began to hit the public in 1994, internet protocols such as HTTP and DSL needed around four years to develop its security protocols so online transaction will be safer. In the early 20th century, more advance countries such as the Unite States and Western Europe, there were a lot of business companies represented their services over the World Wide Web. As such, the term of ecommerce changed into the process of buying available goods and services over the Internet using secure connections and electronic payment services.

Amazon and Ebay are the first among internet companies to have electronic transactions. They are famous for trading things online and the advantage of selling goods over the World Wide Web with no retail outlets and no middlemen has been admired by a lot of customers and imitated by a great number of ecommerce businesses.

Identify and compare the revenue model for Google,Amazon,com and eBay

Hello there again readers. Today, i am going to talk about the various revenue growth models for the 3 most famous online sites which are Google, Amazon.com and eBay. Google's revenue model aims at increasing the visibility and traffic of its small business partners, streamlining their marketing costs, qualifying their leads and helping track returns on investment. Google's revenue model includes Google AdWords, Pay per Click Advertising, Google AdSense, Froogle, GoogleAnswers and their latest advertising program which is Cost per Click model. It earns most of its revenue by allowing other website owners to advertise on their search result pages or by placing these same text ads (AdSense) on other sites based on relevance.

90% of Google's revenue is generated by Google AdWords. Google AdWords is a pay per click advertising program that is designed to allow the advertisers to present advertisements to people at the instant the people are looking for information related to what the advertiser has to offer. As such, the role of AdWords in Google’s growth is very important.
Pay per Click Advertising (PPC) is an online advertising payment model in which payment is based on qualifying click-through. An advertiser has to pay every time his advertisement receives a click. This function is a very useful function and will continue to bring about an increase in income especially if the number of people clicking on these ads increase

AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Revenue is generated on a per-click or per-thousand-ads-displayed basis and the ads are administered by Google. The advertisers are required to pay Google a fee each time a user clicks on one of their ads displayed on Google Network members’ web sites.

Amazon.com provides a wide range of advertising channels to reach the most demographic availability. It generates revenue mainly by selling books, videos, electronics, and kitchen equipment on its Amazon Marketplace. Amazon Marketplace is an online marketplace that allows sellers to offer their goods and for buyers to purchase new and used items sold directly by a third party by using Amazon Marketplace. The sales strategy has been profitable for Amazon.com. It charges a commission rate based on the sale price, a transaction fee, and a variable closing fee. Moreover, Amazon.com also generates revenue by Affiliate revenue model. Amazon was one of the first online businesses to set up an affiliate marketing program. AStore is an Amazon.com affiliate product which website owners can use to create an online store on their site. Website owners pick products from Amazon’s store and earn referral fees on the products purchased by their readers

EBay's reaches out to people of all ages and walks of life providing nearly everything that can be sold. EBay’s main source of revenue is charging fees to list an item up. EBay also obtains its revenue by charging a picture service fee. The first picture uploaded in its site is free but the subsequent pictures incur fees. Besides, it provides various services to help its users to enhance their advertising or promotion of products but for a fee of course. They also charge final value fees. It is charged when there is a closing bid. Reservation fees are only charged if the item listed is not sold.

Example of an E-Commerce Failure

An example of an E-Commerce failure is boo.com. Boo.com was a British Internet company and selling products like clothing and cosmetics.

Why will boo.com failed in their online business? The causes were Boo.com’s sales did not match expectations, due partly to the very high number of products returned by customers. Poor management and a lack of communication between departments resulted in costs spiraling unchecked—the effectiveness of an eye-catching (and expensive) ad campaign was limited because the website wasn't ready in time, resulting in curious visitors being greeted with a holding page.

Beside, boo.com website was widely criticized as poorly designed for its target audience, going against many usability conventions. The site relied heavily on JavaScript and Flash technology to display pseudo-3D views of wares as well as Miss Boo, a sales-assistant-style avatar. The first publicly released version of the site was fairly hefty—the home page alone was several hundred kilobytes which meant that the vast majority of users had to wait minutes for the site to load.

Furthermore, complicated design required the site to be displayed in a fixed size window, which limited the space available to display product information to the customer. Navigation techniques changed as the customer moved around the site, which appealed to those who were visiting to see the website but frustrated those who simply wanted to buy clothes.

Lastly, its interface was also complex with a hierarchical system that required the user to answer four or five different questions before revealing that there were no products in stock in a particular sub-section. The same basic questions then had to be answered again until results were found.

An example of an E commerce success and its causes

I would suggest that eBay is an example of E commerce’s success. eBay.com is an online auction site, a global online market where everyone can trade anything. eBay.com is founded in San Jose, California on 3rd September 1995and it’s managed by the eBay Inc.
eBay is the largest online community of buyers and sellers in the wide world. It has 38 markets worldwide and over 241 million registered users in the world. eBay also offers many boundless opportunities for people to buy from and sell to the world. Sellers are permitted to list items for sale and buyers are allowed to bid on the items they are interested in. Users can browse through the listed items in the arrangement by topics, where each type of auction has its own category. This makes the online trading more convenient.
The main cause of eBay success is that it involves managerial decisions regarding strategic, operational and technical issues which under direct control of decision makers. Hence, they possess the best plans in managerial decisions.
Another cause that drives eBay success would be the people enjoy the experience of the shopping bazaar. Buyers might enjoy the competition of the bidding process. eBay auction format also allow users to bargain and negotiate over the price of a certain item.
Besides, people like to do transactions at eBay as the majority of people who trade in the site are warm, honest and trustworthy. eBay also becomes the e commerce site where people are exchanging information other than the goods, services and merchandise.

Hi^.^

Hi,im Gan Siow Kim,u can call me kim kim =P This is the 1st time i write blog.I sit in front the computer for almost 1 hour.Im thinking how to start this...haiz...hungry now...my brain cant think properly already.Let me eat some pizza 1st.mmmmm...OK!My name is Gan Siow Kim,i came from Sabak Bernam.(eh, not SABAH ya=])It is somewhere in Selangor.Many people never heard about the place.So,i have to tell them it is near to Teluk Intan,Kuala Selangor, Sekinchan. Then only they'll say ooooooooooooo....=.= I had my primary school in my hometown---SJK(C)Nan Hwa , secondary school at Sitiawan which is Nan Hwa High School.My university should be named Nan Hwa University, right?Haha=P No such school...then i chose University Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR)for my further education.^^I'm studying Accounting in UTAR.This year is 3rd year in Utar which also the last year...woooo..=D erm...My hobby is watching movie.I can watch the drama for the whole day and doesn't need to eat ,bath and rest.haha=O The websites that i often visit are friendster.com, youtube.com and i will chit chat with my friend or family via msn and skype.Lastly,thank you for reading my blog,please forgive me for my poor english ya...OK!Now i want to have my 2nd piece of pizza...88