Electronic Currency

In 1982, Dr. Chaum founded the International Association for Cryptologic Research (IACR), which currently organizes some of the most important academic conferences in cryptography research. He has contributed to the industry advancement of electronic cash, partially in his role a founder of DigiCash is an electronic cash company, in 1990.


Electronic currency is essentially a system that allows a person to pay for goods or services by transmitting a number from one computer to another. These transactions are carried out electronically, transferring funds from one party to another, by either a debit or credit.These funds are instantly cleared and secured by using strong encryption, thus eliminating the payment risk to the consumer. It is only a matter of time before electronic currency will replace the present monetary systems. Thus, electronic currency is the digital representation of money, or more accurately, the digital representation of currency. Electronic currency provides a secure means of conducting transactions in electronic commerce. Electronic Funds Transfer(EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic currency.

The Basle Committee(BC) was formed to examine these new electronic payment systems such as stored-value payment products, and as a result, identified two models of electronic coin payment systems: (1) the single-issuer model; and (2) the multiple-issuer model.
In the single-issuer model, the issuer creates and distributes electronic coins to banks. The bank then issues the electronic coins to their customers by loading them onto stored value cards or computer hard drives. Using this model, consumers can also transfer electronic coins between themselves using electronic wallets. In the multiple-issuer model, consumers are able to receive electronic coins from a number of different issuers. A merchant is the party in the electronic transaction that receives coins as payment, deposits them with other issuers and then contacts the system operator.The system operator then consolidates these claims and transmits this information to the issuers

The Mondex smart card is an electronic wallet that holds five different currencies and is used to transmit electronic cash over the Internet. Using this system, a consumer can browse any online service that accepts Mondex. In order to purchase, a consumer inserts his Mondex card into the card reader attached to his personal computer.Once the consumer confirms that another valid Mondex device is present on the other end of the transaction, the customer's card transfers value to the vendor's card.

The electronic currency's unique feature is provided blinded coins so consumer can avoid the coin's redemption links its original holder to the transaction when the issuer's digital signature authenticates the serial number on each electronic coin.

There are some advantages of electronic currency like Confidentiality/Privacy. Current electronic currency systems vary in their effects on privacy from total anonymity, in which personally identifiable records are not created (blinded coins), to audited systems that collect and store every aspect of each transaction. Another advantages is Security, the security of electronic currency is provided by the use of encryption. Some experts are weary about the security of online transactions

Credit card debts: Causes and prevention

Nowadays, credit card is a very common tool for everyone and which is no longer the symbolize of wealth. With the credit card, we can spend our "future money" 1st which mean we can spend more than the money we earn now so it is one of the reasons that credit card can become so popular.

The causes of credit card debts:

1. It is very easy to get credit cards, multiple credit cards in fact. Issuers of credit cards make it easy for you, if you have had no debt problems in the past. If they seem to take it lightly, it is understandable that their customers do too.
2. Your friends, neighbours and work colleagues will probably all have multiple credit cards, talk about them and flash them around from time to time. That can all influence your own attitude to credit card debt.
3. Bank's promotion of credit card is very attractive such as 0% interest, lucky draw to get a new car, etc..
4. Poor money management will make you into very big trouble. A monthly spending plan is essential. Without planning, the debts will become more and more as the time passed.

Prevention of credit card debts:

1. A credit card should only be used as a convenience to pay if you have no cash on you, knowing that you can pay off the balance before interest charges kick in
2. Do not use the debt to pay off debt. You're just shuffling your debt around and incurring more debt each time you do so.
3. Planning all your borrowing, write down a monthly budget, and then compare to your total income.
   
4. Do not using any credit card at all. This is the most efficient way to prevent all the credit card debts.
   

Comment for John.cow being hacked.

JohnCow was hacked by some hackers and some message is send by the hackers which shows that if Johncow din't pay $100 in 24 hours, their blog will be hack but this is just a joke which create by johncow himself. This shows that they missuse the blogging purposes.

There should be some lines of ethics or code of conducts that each blogger should adopt in this blogsphere.This could shows that the every blogger must have same attitude and ethics so that less and less website being hack.

There are few steps that the blogger can take into the consideration to prevent their blog being hack.For example, in the case of JohnCow there are few methods that can be use such as keep your personal information private. The blogger must not disclose their telephone number, Ic number, bank account number because the hacker might use this information for other purposes.Besides that is use alpha-numeric password because of the combination this two the hacker will be more difficult to get your password and it is high security. The most important thing is avoid using public computers because this could easy for the hacker through public server.Other than this there are few more prevention method such as do not use a password that can be found on your blog,set your brower according to your preferred security level and use Anti-virus software n your computer.

Here are some photo regarding how computer was hack.

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

There are more and more threats in the society prosper that produce millions of high technology productions such as computer, handphone, PDA, i-pod and so on. So, there are happen a lots of cases that relevant to the threat of online security which mentioned how and where our data being stolen:



Symantec Internet Security Threat Report: Trends for July-07

The Symantec Internet Security Threat Report provides a six-month update of worldwide internet threat activity. It includes analysis of network-based attacks, a review of known vulnerabilities, and highlights of malicious code. It also assesses trends in phishing and spam activity. This summary of the Internet Security Threat Report will alert readers to current trends and impending threats that Symantec has observed for the six-month period from July 1 to December 31, 2007



Protecting Agency Data from Loss or Theft- Vendor Podcast

In recent years, the US federal government has suffered a slew number of high-profile security breaches that have exposed the flaws in traditional data protection strategies. To help agencies safeguard proprietary information, the federal government has issued various requirements, including DCID 6/3 and OMB 06-16. But enforcing compliance with these and other policies requires the right tools and processes.



Tangled Web: Uncover Threats, Invisible Enemies

Long gone are the "good old bad old days" when threats generally had an instant and obvious effect - when many businesses simply warned employees not to click on dubious looking email attachments in case their computers became infected with a virus or some other unwelcome visitor. Today we are seeing a rising tide of dangers that are more cunning, harder to pin down and much more difficult to defend against.
Examining recent developments in the threat landscape, this white paper focuses on the emergence of the web and covert information-gathering as key battlegrounds in the ongoing war against malware propagators and the criminal gangs increasingly active in this field.



As we can see the cases above, i encourage the users of the media electronic production should always put more protections such as antivirus software, firewall system, password and much more to avoid hacker enter into your program.

How to safeguard our personal data and financial data.

A world largerly depent on computer and most of the transaction are using internet therefore to prevent the data being stole by others; there are few ways to safeguard our personal and financial data.


To ensure that you don't fall prey to cyber fraud, there are few ways to follow:

1. Install a firewall. A firewall is a software program designed to allow good people in and keep bad people out.

2.Install and update antispyware and antivirus programs. Microsoft and numerous application vendors offer users regular updates to existing antispyware programs, so be on the lookout. As for antivirus protection, Symantec and Norton antivirus are popular choices.

3.Avoid accessing financial information in public. Resist logging on to check your bank balance when working from a coffee shop that offers wireless access. These systems are convenient, but also unknown. Casual users have no way of assessing how sturdy their firewalls are.

4.Update your browser. Updating your browser on a regular basis can help plug up security holes.

5.Look for "locks." which is look for small lock icon in the lower-right corner of the browser window.

6.Don't open mystery attachments. Never open an attachment or click on a link sent to you by an unknown party. Attachments can contain viruses and links can lead unsuspecting users to dummy sites where they are asked to input financial information.

Besides that, to comply with safeguarding confidential financial records and related personal information all the related party need to :

1.Designate one or more employees to coordinate the safeguards.

2.Being informed on the data that is being processed.

3.Informed of the entities or categories of entity to whom or which the personal data
may be communicated.

4.Being informed that updating, rectification or, where interested therein, integration of the data has been obtained.

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods

Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to ba an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrending private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passsword and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user's information.

For example, 2003 saw the proliferation of a phishing scam in which users received e-mails supposedly from eBay claiming that the user's account was about to be suspended unless he clicked on the provided link and updates the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Beacause it is relatively simple to make a Web site look like a legitimate organization site by mimicking the HTML code, the scam counted on people being tricked into thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay's site to update their account information. By spamming large groups of people, the “phisher” counted on the e-mail being read by a percentage of people who actually had listed credit card numbers with eBay legitimately.

In order to prevent phishing, be suspicious of all unsolicited or unexpected emails you receive, even if they appear to originate from a reliable source. More over, legitimate companies generally address the customers by their user name and do not divulge personal information through an email nor do they request some confidential data through mail. If the mail starts with "Dear Customer" or something like that, it is most likely a Phishing mail, aimed to rob you.

Some toolbars enable the customer to see the main domain name of the site, and hence help them in recognizing legitimate site. Another very popular method of prevent phishing is by maintaining a list of known Phishing sites and blocking them. This feature is available in Internet Explorer 7, Mozilla Firefox and Opera 9.1.

Another method to prevent online Phishing is by asking the users to enter password only if they display the correct personal image. Email spam filters provided by many mail clients also have filters against Phishing sites. Any victim of Phishing can help prevention of Phishing by reporting his experience to the financial institution. They can pursue and can even lead to recovery of your losses.

How E-commerce can reduce cycle time, improve employees' empowerment and faciliate customer support??

Nowadays, most of the services can be offered in electronic form. Those services are available anytime, anywhere and anyone who are needed.

With E-commerce, the cycle time can be reduction. It shortening the time it takes for a business to complete a productive activity from its beginning to end. Customers can directly access to the services through the extranet instead of physically appearing to the stores. It is more efficient, more convenience, and even saving the cost and time for the consumers as well as seller.

Beside that, giving employees the authority to act and make decision on their own is a strategy used by many arganization as part of productivity improvement program. Management delegates the authority to individuals or team who can execute the work faster and within fewer days. Empowered salespeople and customer service employees are given the authority to make customers happy and do it quickly, helping to increase customer loyalty too.

E-commerce can allow the customers to access to their services to get the relevant information and customers support in anytime. Other than that, customers also can send an e-mail to the customer service address to obtain the necessary information or making any complaint.

Through the powerful e-commerce, everybody can get, can sell, can buy anythings at anytime anyplace..