Internet credit card transactions
Lot of
sites accept internet credit card transactions. Don’t just go on
spending with your credit card on the internet. As the online scams are
increasing, you have to be careful. Transact secure online payments use
credit cards for Secure & Reliable E-Commerce transactions but
before that read this article carefully.
Did you
ever wonder that the jazzy Mexican restaurant you took lunch or the
mall you visited a few months back has charged you more than it did on
the bill? The bank statement you just received from your bank has
charged you for air tickets you never traveled. Then you are just
another victim of cyber crime without your consent. Here the question
of the credibility of the travel agent, the mall cashier or the waiter
of the restaurant arises, who used your credit card number for an
online payment services or transactions.
Beware of cyber crime
Did any of
these happen to you or to your friends? Some examples of frauds are
spamming, E-threats, online frauds, Email bombers, Nigerian scams,
cyber-stalking, spoofing on your banks website, sale of the credit card
numbers on the net and the misuse of your credit card number the list
is unlimited. If you face all or any one of these incidents then this
is the warning bell for you and be prepared for not being a victim.
A cyber crime is the criminal activity, which uses an internet as medium for the crimes. A cyber crime may target an individual for harassment, defamation, fraud, pornography, spoofing, stalking or fraud.
It may target organizations for intellectual property crime, financial
crime, hacking, cracking codes, illegal music downloads, unleashing
computer viruses or distribution of pirated softwares.
Protect your confidential data
E-commerce
is the hottest topic in recent years. E-transaction is the most popular
way for transaction now a day and the vulnerability of the information
that goes through has to be kept in mind. The networking and the
interconnectivity between corporate sites, customers and vendors has
become unavoidable. In such circumstances, financial and personal data,
which is most confidential, must be protected.
Never
provide your personal information, ID or passwords on suspicious sites.
Do not send your photographs to strangers on chat. Use the latest
antivirus software and upgrade it. Always use the security program that
gives you control over the cookies.
The host
based intrusion detection devices should be always used on servers by
the website owners. Web servers running public sites must be physically
separate from the internal corporate network and always remember to
halt the transaction, which doesn't seem to be genuine.
Many times
customers from other financial institutions or individuals receive
deceptive emails linking to fake bank websites. These customers have
then entered their IDs and confidential security codes, believing the
site belongs to a genuine financial institution or bank where as the
site is fraudulent. The customer's details are then captured by an
unauthorized person, who makes misuse of this information for his
personal benefits thus leading to the fraud.
Spyware the latest threat
E-commerce
is the hottest topic in recent years. E-transaction is the most popular
way for transaction now a day and the vulnerability of the information
that goes through has to be kept in mind. The networking and the
interconnectivity between corporate sites, customers and vendors has
become unavoidable. In such circumstances, financial and personal data,
which is most confidential, must be protected.
Never
provide your personal information, ID or passwords on suspicious sites.
Do not send your photographs to strangers on chat. Use the latest
antivirus software and upgrade it. Always use the security program that
gives you control over the cookies.
The host
based intrusion detection devices should be always used on servers by
the website owners. Web servers running public sites must be physically
separate from the internal corporate network and always remember to
halt the transaction, which doesn't seem to be genuine.
Many times
customers from other financial institutions or individuals receive
deceptive emails linking to fake bank websites. These customers have
then entered their IDs and confidential security codes, believing the
site belongs to a genuine financial institution or bank where as the
site is fraudulent. The customer's details are then captured by an
unauthorized person, who makes misuse of this information for his
personal benefits thus leading to the fraud.
Spyware or Keystroke Logging Worms
are yet another latest threats. The purpose of these threats is to
place an unauthorized program on to your PC. Usually this is sent to
you by email. Spyware as name suggests is a spy(small program) who
records and analyzes all your keyboard activities as you type. Then all
these captured information is sent to an unauthorized person, who then
scans the information for details of online banking security IDs,
passwords or credit card details, in order to gather sufficient
information to commit a fraud.
Back-Door Trojans
are also one of the threats. The purpose of these threats is to place
an unauthorized program to your PC received by E-mail that will enable
a remote user to obtain unauthorized access to your computer. The
unauthorized person then has the ability to monitor everything you do
via your computer as long as it remains infected.
The most
common and the oldest security threat is Shoulder Surfing. This is the
simplest and most accepted practice, which allows an unauthorized
person watching over your shoulder as you conduct your online banking
session. If this person can view your keyboard then he can easily see
the IDs and passwords you use to access your bank account. Which tempts
to misuse the information gathered by him for his personal benefits,
which leads to fraud.
Cyber
criminals who carry out online fraud require payment recipients. They
trap the innocent people by requesting them to provide the bank account
details and credit card details through which they can direct funds and
launder their money, where the people have been approached via email or
chat rooms where they have been asked to facilitate international funds
transfers, due to costs or restrictions on doing these transactions
overseas, and in return receive a percentage of these funds. Never reply to such Emails and do not furnish your personal details and financial details. It is also well known as Nigerian scams.
Various
security controls and systems are available to monitor online
transactions, which include SSL and 128bit encryption. This security
control assures a secure connection for your online transactions Which
scrambles all data traveling from your PC. This scrambled data is
useless for any hacker and difficult to hack. This way your valuable
data will be protected.
A session
timeout facility is very useful to protect customers from the risk of
unauthorized access of their bank accounts by hackers. Here the system
will automatically end your secure session if you leave your computer
for more than stipulated period.
Money laundering
is the cyber crime and very serious online financial offence and it is
also punishable. Never allow the hackers to play with your personal
information, which turns into money laundering and ultimately hurts
your financial health.
Subscribe
to "COMPTECH" ezine to get the latest news and updates on Windows
Vista.
