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

"E-Government" refers to the use by government agencies of information technologies (such as Wide Area Networks, the Internet, and mobile computing) that have the ability to transform relations with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government It will improve how the government operates internally, as well as how it delivers services to the people of Malaysia. At the same time, it will improve information flows and processes within government to improve the speed and quality of policy development, coordination and enforcement Malaysian Government has its own official portal now:
http://www.gov.my/

The vision of Electronic Government is a vision for government, businesses and citizenry working together for the benefit of Malaysia and all of its citizens. The vision focuses on effectively and efficiently delivering services from the government to the people of Malaysia, enabling the government to become more responsive to the needs of its citizens.
The 7 pilot projects of the Electronic Government Flagship Application are as follows;
1. Project Monitoring System (SPP II)
2. Human Resource Management Information System (HRMIS)
3. Generic Office Environment (GOE)
4. Electronic Procurement (EP)
5. Electronic Services (E-Services)
6. Electronic Labour Exchange (ELX)
7. E-Syariah

Citizens can now submit their tax details to Inland Revenue Board via e-filing without worrying about making mistakes by making use of TaxSaya, a tax tool (http://www.taxsaya.com/). It is developed by EA-Link System Sdn Bhd, the software comes in three languages, Bahasa Malaysia, English and Mandarin to help taxpayers in understanding the e-filing procedures. After the users fill up sections of the form, it will automatically calculate the amount of tax payable, including offering e-Filing template without having to go through the problems of calculating the tax.

For further information, visit http://e.hasil.org.my/ or call the customer service centre: 1300-88-3010

THINGS TO TAKE NOTE TO PREVENT E-AUCTION FRAUD WHEN CONSUMER PARTICIPATING IN AN E-AUCTION

Auction is a market mechanism whereby buyers make bids and sellers place their offers on goods. In auctions, a competitive atmosphere established where the process continue until a final price was reached. E-auctions refer to the auction activities through internet. It has an advantage that is lower cost of providing infrastructure for the auctions. It is a rapidly growing commerce activity which involves all level of people and is far more convenient than traditional auction. Since e-auction fraud is growing epidemic worldwide, effective steps have to be taken out to overcome them.

Below are some tips to keep e-auction fraud to minimum level when purchasing items from e-auction.

To be familiar with the auction website. Read through and understand all the websites protection policies. Never assume you are protected from auction fraud.
Escrow services. Whenever there is any expensive bidding, you should use escrow services. The services are commonly offered by the auction website and it will hold your money until you are certain that the item you purchased is genuine.
User identity verification. Before transaction user information such as IC number, driver license number or date of birth, verified eBay user and so on. With this done, the level of verification will be higher.
Always check on Feedback forum for a particular seller information– e Bay had established its own feedback forum that allows registered buyers or sellers to build up their online trading reputations thus provides users with the ability to give comments on their experiences of using the service.
Always keep 100% of the transaction information. This is necessary to be work as a prove or evidence of transaction between two parties.
Contact empowerment parties. If after the sale you feel the item or payment should have been delivered already, try to work it out with the seller or buyer. If at that point you feel that fraud is involved, immediately contact consumer protection parties.
Do not simply disclose your personal data. If you receive e-mail messages from someone you do not know asking you for personal data for examples, credit card number, account number, or password, do not disclose them without further investigation.
Warranty policy. Ask for the warranty policy if there is any warranty or the exchange policy, if there is a problem on the item purchased.

A review on a post on Legal from My E-Commerce blog

After read the E-commerce web site at http://ecommerze.blogspot.com/search/label/Legal with the title “New rules for cyber cafes soon”, I’m here to give some comment about the government that try to set out some rules to those cyber cafes in Malaysia.

The first guideline is cyber cafes have to close by midnight daily. After review to the cyber cafes in my area which in Bandar Sg Long. I don’t think that is effective because they operate 24 hour per day without close.

Most of the cyber cafes they also using tinted glass in their premises and unable to see through from the outside. And most of them are operate at ground floor. For children age under 12 years old. Most of them are not accompany by parents or guardian. And of course there are on children who are under 12 years old is still visit after 10pm.

For prohibited from providing gaming activities, gambling, pornography, music and publications with negative element, there is getter lesser and lesser now a day because there is strict control by government. There are no cigarettes and alcohol being sold in cyber cafes. And there are no book logs to record the entry and departure time of the patrons.

According to the Housing and Local Government Deputy Minister that are aim to prevent the Internet and cyber cafes from turning into the possible source of social ills, I think there are less effective maybe due to not strictly enough to prevent it. For example, one of the cyber cafes in my area that they still operates after midnight. Although they close the main entrance, still running their business by enter to the cyber cafes by back door.

I think that there is harder to survive for the cyber cafes business due to a lot of rules to follow. And in my area, there are one cyber cafes is bankrupt and others they are trying to contract their cafes.

Corporate Blogging: A new marketing communication tool for companies

Blogging means a communication tool, a marketing technique, a listening device and a way to interact directly with customers one-to-one on a global scale. The business world is undergoing profound changes, redefining marketing, public relations, and customer communications. Traditional marketing tools like focus groups or CRM is no longer adequate enough to get real feedback from customers in the fast-changing complex and competitive market place.

The reasons for corporate blogging becomes a new marketing communication tool for companies.

1)Customers nowadays do not want to be talked at, they want to be talked with.

2)For big businesses to talk one-to-one with customers, and small businesses to gain visibility by using what they know to create big-business style opportunities and growth.

3)Experiences, relationships, and trust-all tangible assets- are the single largest source of value for business brand

4)It is the potential customers that cannot be reached that are best target for future growth, and dynamic, engaging, and informative business blogs are an amazing avenue for reaching them in a way that has never been possible with other channels. This can be done by passionate message, constant follow up to gain trust and culture of valuing blogs.

5)The challenge that today’s companies face is one of mindshare. Mindshare is all about how many people are aware of product. Creating spaces where customers can consistently engage in dialogue with and places that are meaningful to customers, only then will the mindshare grow.

Some successful companies are using blogs to extend their brands, interact directly with customers, and get real feedback on their company and products. They are as follow:
1) GM runs new concepts by customers and invites feedback on their popular FastLane blog—one of today’s top 500 blogs.
2) The Disney Channel uses blogs to streamline internal communication and increase their engineering team’s efficiency.
3) Microsoft product development teams look for blog feedback before making significant changes to applications.
4) Boeing used blogs to gather customer feedback while developing the new 787 Dream liner.

Considering Boeing, a leading aircraft and aerospace manufacturer, which began ramping up the production and marketing of its new plane, the 787 Dream liner. The company used the traditional transmission-style marketing: press release, launch parties, media tours, interviews with engineers, and the like. However, Boeing also allowed Randy Baseler, Vice president of marketing, to blog(www.boeing.com/randy). Through his blog, Baseler was able to extend the message into a dialogue that included information about a Boeing competitor’s offering, the Airbus A380.Baseler responds to posts on other blogs, discusses what other blogs are talking about, and reads a vast cross-section of flight and aviation blogs. This blog allows Boeing to use a transmission-style message, which is great for getting the cold hard facts out to the world, as well as personal dialogue, which is great for communication passion, having a conversation, and listening to what customers and aviation enthusiasts think.

¨ The application of pre-paid cash card for consumers

Prepaid card is a portable size card that gives users the ability to purchase product and services without paying by cash with more convenient, faster and safe. It contain concept of “pay now, spend later”. Which means user must reload money first before spend it.

So, here are some example of prepaid cash card would like be introduced:


Touch ‘n GO smart card is used by Malaysian toll expressway and highway operators as the sole electronic payment system (EPS). Touch ‘n Go enhances the speed of paying for low value but high frequency transactions. Apart from the speed, it is also very convenient because user no longer need to prepare for small change or wait in queue at the cash lane to complete the transaction. User can reload the card at toll plazas, train stations, Automated Teller Machines, Cash Deposit Machines, Petrol kiosks and at authorised third party outlets. Reload denomination is ranging from RM20 to RM500.

EZ-Link card is a contactless smart card based on Sony’s FeliCa smartcard technology, used for payment in Singapore especially for transportation in Singapore. It established in 2001, it was promoted as a means for faster travel due to speedier boarding times on buses. Both the card and the reader ensure secure, fast and reliable transmission of data between them. The strong encryption techniques prevent eavesdropping and fraudulent use. This helps to ensure the integrity of transaction information captured.

Credit Card Debts: Causes & Preventions

Credit Card is a bank-issued card that allows consumers to purchase goods or services from a merchant on credit. It is made of plastic card, with a magnetic strip or an embedded microchip, connected to a credit account to make purchases. Credit card debt is an example of unsecured consumer debt, accessed through ISO 7810 plastic credit cards. The credit card debts will accumulate and increases through interest and penalties when we do not pay the company for the money we spent on. How to tell if you are in too deep of credit card debt?

Below are some signs to be determined:
1. You find that you can't make your minimum payments on your credit cards.
2. You realize you've been borrowing money from family members or friends to cover your payments.
3. You've gone to a lender you wouldn't normally use -- like a payday lender that loans you money at really high rates against your next paycheck.
4. When 15% of more of your monthly income goes to pay the credit card bills

These are the warning signs which imply that the usage of credit card is out of control.

Causes for credit card debts:

1. Poor money management: One without a proper financial plan in life will tend to spend their money unwisely and spend money on unnecessary matters. This kind of people will buy whatever they like without thinking whether they afford them or not. All in their mind is credit card can buy anything and they do not have to pay now.
2. Gambling: This is a typical cause that leads to massive amount of credit card debts. One who are addictive to gambling will not care about where they get the money and the consequences if losing money, thus lead to a financial disaster when borrow money through credit card method.
3. Excessive medical expenses: Credit card will probably become one of the sources of funds to pay off the medical expenses if health insurance is not adequate to cover the medical bills if one of your family members suffers serious illness.
4. Financial illiteracy: This refers to those people who take money for granted without consider how money comes from and how credit card really functions. This group of people usually is youngster with parent’s financial support and they spend money in improper way.

Prevention:

1. Develop a budget: Budget is needed to guide us on spending money wisely and only when needed. Develop a budget with listing the income you get monthly and states all the necessary expenses in a month (eg. Water bills, electric bills, rental, food, car loan and car fuel). This is a helpful way to track your spending patterns and identify necessary expenses.
2. Keep your credit limit low: High credit limit will make us purchase more and lead to more debts to be paid. When the bank inform you that your credit limit has been increased, try to contact them and reject the offer. The lower credit limit the lower risk we get into high debts.
3. Self control and self-disciplined: It is often said that the gun don’t kill people! It is the people who kill people. The point is that we are the one who cause high credit card debts and all we need to do is control our spending on credit card. Only use credit card when urgent. If we feel that we cannot control our will to purchase using credit cards, cut up the cards.

Mobile payment systems in Malaysia: its potentials and consumers' adoption strategies

M-payment (mobile payment) is a point-of-sale payment made through a mobile device, There are various types of mobile payment systems, such as .
Banks / Credit Card Companies / Dedicated Payment Processors :
~ Mobile Credit Card Payments
~ Migrating Internet Payment Systems
Mobile Network Operators :
~ Utilization of existing Billing Mechanisms (Prepaid and contract based)
Multi-Payment Method Frameworks :
~ Mobile Network Operators
~ Dedicated Payment Processors
~ Shopping Malls, Large Shops
Other Mobile Payment Systems
~ Mobile Home Banking, Internet Payments, Mobile Retailer Support
Using m-payment, a person with a wireless device could pay for items in a store or settle a restaurant bill without interacting with any staff member. So, for example, if a restaurant patron wanted to pay quickly and leave the restaurant on time to get to an appointment, the bill could be paid directly from the table - without waiting for a server to bring the check. The patron would simply connect to the cash register with a wireless device, punch in the table number and bank personal identification number (PIN), and authorize payment.
The earliest m-payment trials were based on the wide area network (WAN) used for cellular phones. That meant, however, that users had to pay cell phone charges to make a payment, and also had to punch in long sequences of digits each time. Other technologies tested enable less cumbersome procedures. Palm and Verifone will use infrared (IR) data transmission for their initial trials. Among the other technologies being used are Bluetooth, WiFi, and RFID, a short-range transmission system. Public key infrastructure (PKI) encryption - considered to be necessary for secure m-commerce in general - is currently being incorporated into digital wireless networks and into an increasing number of wireless devices, a trend that is likely to increase consumer confidence in m-payment's security.
Bank Negara Malaysia sees tremendous promise in mobile telecommunication networks as an electronic payment channel since mobile phones are already in the hands of most Malaysians, with 88% of the Malaysian population subscribing to mobile phone services.

The high penetration rate affirms mobile phone networks as an increasingly popular channel for Malaysians to perform a plethora of activities beyond voice communication, encompassing all forms of digital communication, commerce, banking and payments. Indeed, payments via text messaging has the potential to grow in importance.

Electronic currency

Electronic currency which is also known as electronic money, e-money, electronic cash, digital money, digital cash or digital currency refers to money or scrip which is exchanged only electronically. In general, this involves use of computer networks, the internet and digital stored value systems. Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) and direct deposit are examples of electronic money. EFT systems range from the now-familiar automated teller machines (ATM) to “virtual banking” on the Internet. However, use of digital cash has been relatively low-scale. One of the success examples has been Hong Kong’s Octopus card system, which started as a transit payment system and has grown into a widely used electronic cash system. Furthermore, Singapore also has an electronic money implementation for its public transportation system such as commuter trains, bus and etc which based on the same type of card called FeliCa. Chipknip is a very successful implementation is in the Netherlands.

Digital cash development concentrates on:
1) being able to use it through a wider range of hardware such as secured credit cards
2) linked bank accounts that would generally be used over an internet means, for exchange with a secure micropayment system such as in large corporations (PayPal).
Systems of accounting such as Altruistic Economics are emerging that are entirely electronic, and can be more efficient and more realistic because they do not assume a zero-sum transaction model.

There are many potential issues with the use of digital cash although digital cash can provide many benefits such as convenience and privacy, increased efficiency of transactions, lower transaction fees, new business opportunities with the expansion of economic activities on the Internet. The transfer of digital currencies raises local issues such as how to levy taxes or the possible ease of money laundering. In addition, there are also potential macroeconomic effects such as exchange rate stabilities and shortage of money supplies. Some type of cyberspace regulations or laws that regulate the transactions and watch for signs of trouble may address the issues mentioned above.

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

There are still a lot of threat via internet which is not a safe place for you to keep the data unless you really have sufficient protection software, such as anti-virus,kaspersky to against the varieties of threats until right now. There many types of threats, for example, spyware, Trojan, Malware, worms, viruses.

Spyware is any technology that aids in gathering information about a person or organization without their knowledge. On the Internet (where it is sometimes called a spybot or tracking software), spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties. Spyware can get in a computer as a software viruses or as the result of installing a new program.

A virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs. For example, a virus might attach itself to a program such as a spreadsheet program. Each time the spreadsheet program runs, the virus runs, too, and it has the chance to reproduce (by attaching to other programs) or wreak havoc. A virus might corrupt or delete data on your computer, use your e-mail program to spread itself to other computers, or even erase everything on your hard disk. Viruses are most easily spread by attachments in e-mail messages or instant messaging messages. That is why it is essential that you never open e-mail attachments unless you know who it's from and you are expecting it.Viruses can be disguised as attachments of funny images, greeting cards, or audio and video files.


A destructive program that masquerades as a benign applocation. Unlike viruses, Trojan horses do not replicate themselves but they can be just as destructive. One of the most insidious types of Trojan horse is a program that claims to rid your computer of viruses but instead introduces viruses onto your computer.


Also, the ‘private’ information of the user can also being track back notwithstanding the file has been deleted at the ‘recycle bin’. These facts show us that the data are actually available publicly for the ‘hacker’ once the data have been store in the computer.. Hackers were visionaries who could see new ways to use computers, creating programs that no one else could conceive. They were the pioneers of the computer industry, building everything from small applications to operating system

Phishing: Examples and Prevention Method

Nowadays people are relying more and more on the usage of internet for business, investment, and personal trading; internet fraud becomes increasingly a threat or harm for users. There are various types of fraud on internet, one interesting and fast-growing is phishing. This method attacks user by sending email or creating website that falsely claimed to be an established legitimate organization in order to scam the particular user into disclosing personal, financial, or computer account information.

One example of famous and the very first phising case reported on March 9, 2004 is the attack to ebay customers. The perpetrator sends emails to targeted customers stating that the customers’ information was invalid and correction is necessary to prevent interruption of services and keep their ebay account active. The other page requires user to key in their credit card number, contact information, social security number and ebay username and password. The perpetrator had formed a mental model in user mind that is: ebay is requesting for information update.

Phising can be appear in many forms. Besides in email, it can be appear in your social networking Web sites, on a fake Web site that accepts donations for charity, on a website with almost the same web site name hoping you would not notice it, in your instant messaging programs- Msn and yahoo messenger. There are many types of scam too. Below are some examples:
a. Verify your account- usually happen when involving banks and trading websites asking you to update your credit card information.
b. You have won a lottery- I believe most of us had received this kind of mail or messages before. In order to bait the user to believe the message, the perpetrator will usually use big companies like Microsoft or oversea countries celebrating their 30th year of establishment and had randomly picked your hand phone numbers as the winner!
c. Your account will be closed if you do not response within 24 hour- this message conveys a sense of urgency to get user in no time to think properly.


Some of the method to prevent phising:

1. detecting the fake registered domain names- perpetrator have to set up a website name that is similar to the original organization’s name to get users fooled. If we are careful enough to see the website name it usually got extra words or less. For example, www.publicbanks.com or www.yahooo.com . This method of detection is not always useful because of different reasons. First - Even though it is easy to track new registrations of GLTD-generic top-level-domain like .com and .net, it is not true for CCTLD -country specific top-level-domains like .cn(China) or .kr(Korea) where many phishing sites are registered. Second - attackers may choose not to register a domain name and operate the website using just IP address.

2. Detecting looked-alike webpage- when creating a false website, the perpetrator might just copy and paste some image or logo from the original website. If we insert something like JavaScript into the original website (which alerts us when run under any URL other than the authentic) we can get alerted of any of those phishing attacks.

3. Detecting the email sent to users- Once the phishing site is set up, perpetrator sends emails to hundreds of users, who are the potential victims. As expected, many of these emails would bounce as the TO: address is incorrect. To increase credibility of the mail perpetrator would keep the “From: address of the mail” as something like admin@xyzbank.com. This user id will be non-existent on the real xyzbank.com email server. Otherwise the mails which bounce will get into the mailbox of a user, if the admin@xyzbank.com is a valid email id. If this is a valid email address, attackers would keep the “from address” as something like admin1@xyzbank.com.
The mails with wrong “To: addresses” will be all returned to the xyzbank.com SMTP server. The SMTP server looks at the “From: address admin1@xyzbank.com “and finds whether it exist or not. If “From: address” and “To: address” are both wrong, this is called a double-bounce mail.
Bounced mails are common but double bounced mails are not. It is highly likely that double bounce mails are phishing mails targeting abcbank.com.

4. Always use email verification- with this double confirmation phishing is less likely to occur since email address and password is only known to one person. PayPal, a world welknown business website is now having “iconix eMail ID” function to offer extra measure of phishing protection.

The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia

The most famous application of 3rd party certification program in Malaysia is provided by the MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd. MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is a licensed Certification Authority (CA) operation within the Multimedia Super Corridor. 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. At present, MSC Trustgate has 12 million in paid up capital.

Trustgate is licensed under the Digital Signature Act 1997 (DSA), a Malaysia law that sets a global precedent for the mandate of a CA. As a CA, Trustgate’s core business is to provide digital certification services, including digital certificates, cryptographic products, and software development.

It provides the finest Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to assist all types of companies and institutions conducting their business over the Internet. The state of the art back-end infrastructure that costs RM 14 million is one of the best in the region.

Trustgate vision are “to enable organizations to conduct their business securely over the Internet, as much as what they have been enjoying in the physical world.” They provide trusted and encryption technology that secure online communication, hence protect vital business information. It’s first Malaysian Internet trust solutions company authorized to offer 128-bit SSL Server ID that is now used in financial institutions, insurance companies, e-government, healthcare organizations and other online trading. They also offer Digital ID for MyKad (Malaysian National Identity Card) that is now used in online tax filing, e-procurements and others.

-The Secure SSL Server ID provides encryption between browser and the Web server. It is ideal for securing intranet, extranet, and Web sites.

-The Global SSL Server ID is the strongest encryption commercially available today. E-commerce players who are serious about their business choose the 128-bit or 256 bit technology to secure the communication between their Web sites and their visitors. Global Server ID is commonly used in financial institutions, insurance companies, e-government, online merchants, and healthcare organizations.

- MyKey is the Digital ID that is stored inside MyKad. It provides encryption technology and digital signature capability so that the Malaysian citizen and conduct online transaction securely. MyKey is governed by Malaysia’s Digital Signature Act 1997 & is accepted by the court of laws in Malaysia. A document digitally signed with MyKey is treated as a legal binding document as it is with a handwritten signature.

www.msctrustgate.com

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

Since there are a lot of cases that information had been stolen by hackers or inadvertently given away by the victim when they are tricked into doing so, some methods as follow may help people in safeguarding their personal and financial data. The information that will be targeted by villain is name, gender, telephone, e-mail address, date of birth, occupation, interests and bank and credit card account numbers.



Some of the useful methods in preventing personal and financial information to be stolen or revealed are as follow:

1)Installing and updating antispyware and antivirus software. Kaspersky, AVG and Norton antivirus are popular and effective antivirus software that are being used by many computer users. It helps to detect threat that can compromise computer system. Furthermore, some antivirus software will monitor instant messaging traffic to detect and block malicious threats.

2)Utilizing Virtual Private Networking (VPN). VPNs are based on encryption. Encryption converts a file or message that is in readable form into unreadable form. This can prevent information stolen by hackers when transferring information. The content of the messages which is in scrambled form will not be understood by others people besides sender and receiver.

3)Firewalls which is a gatekeeper system that protects a company’s intranets and other computer networks from intrusion by providing a filter and safe transfer point for access to and from the Internet and other networks. Besides, it screens all network traffic for proper passwords or other security codes and only allow authorized transmission in and out of network.

4)Creating passwords and PINs that are not easily guessed by other people that including letters and numbers. However, passwords will be stolen if users are not careful. With the present of biometric controls, probability of information to be stolen is minimizing. A biometric control is an automated method of verifying the identity of a person, based on physiological or behavioral characteristics. For example, fingerprint scanning.

5)Logging out the websites whenever finish transactions. That is to prevent other users from reading your personal information and mail. In addition, close the browser window after using it at internet café, public library, school computer labs and etc.

6)Avoid using free wireless connections particularly in cafes, airports and other public places. The information in computer system will be accessed by others without users’ knowledge.

7)Using own computer instead of a work or public machine to access financial and other sensitive personal information.

8)Avoid clicking on pop-up ads or downloading information from unknown sites.