The application of 3rd party certification programme in Malaysia.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Security of data in transit over the Internet becomes increasingly necessary because of steadily growing data volume and importance. Nowadays, every user of a public network sends various types of data, from email to credit card details daily, and he would therefore like them to be protected when in transit over a public network. Third party certification has been adopted for protection of data in transit that encompasses all network services that use to support typical application tasks of communication between servers and clients.

Secure sockets layer (SSL) is a protocol developed by Netscape to ensure security of data transported and routed through HTTP, LDAP or POP3 application layers. SSL is designed to make use of TCP as a communication layer to provide a reliable end-to-end secure and authenticated connection between two points over a network.

VeriSign is a leading Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) Certificate Authority and is the trusted provider of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world. Billions of times each day, their SSL, identity and authentication, and domain name services allow companies and consumers all over the world to engage in trusted communications and commerce. VeriSign offers strongest SSL encryption and makes it easy to keep track of all your SSL Certificates and maintain the security of your online services with VeriSign® Certificate Center.

MSC Trustgate.com Sdn Bhd is a licensed Certification Authority (CA) and was incorporated in 1999 to meet the growing need for secure open network communications. MSC Trustgate to provide digital certification services, including digital certificates, cryptographic products, and software development. They also provide the finest Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to assist all types of companies and institutions conducting their business over the Internet. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) enables encryption, digital signature and certificate authentication capabilities to be consistently and transparently applied across a broad range of applications and platforms. Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) providing key and certificate management services that enable encryption and digital signature capabilities across applications in a way that is transparent and easy to use.

The reasons that E-commerce online store would need SSL certificate is because E-commerce websites typically require buyers to sign up on the website before they can buy online. Your website gathers customer personal data and hence it should have an SSL certificate to guarantee the safety of your customers' details and information. SSL Certificates help you secure online payments. Most of your visitors now expect security as part of e-commerce website so that they can safely make a purchase and provide their personal details and credit card number, they anticipate all the details provided by them over the Internet should be confidential and secured.

How to safeguard our personal and financial data?

As Internet criminals grow smarter and sneakier, it's increasingly difficult to keep your personal and financial information safely. If you don't take basic steps to protect your information, you may find yourself a victim of fraud or identity theft. However, maintaining as much control as possible over your personal information can go a long way toward protecting your privacy.

There are some practical tips on how you can protect your personal information yourself::

1. Protect Your Personal Data
Evaluate the sites you visit, and don’t give away personal information on sites that are not secure. Read privacy policies to find out what a site will do with any personal information you divulge.



2. Managing Your Access ID/PIN/User ID, Password and Security Codes
Create passwords and PINs that provide grater security. Change your Password regularly and use combinations of letters, numbers, and "special characters". Memories your User ID and Password and do not record it anywhere.

3. Avoid Sharing Personal Computers
Avoid using shared personal computer such as those in cyber cafes to access financial or sensitive personal information. If you really need to do so, make sure that the computer is free of viruses.

4. Install computer’s security software
keeping your personal computer up-to-date with security software is the primary step in protecting your personal information and maintaining online security. The following security features are recommended for every personal computer:
• Up-to-date anti-virus software
• Up-to-date anti-spyware software
• A personal firewall
• Security updates, installed regularly



5. Clear your cache
It is strongly advice that you clear your cache after each financial and personal data transaction you made. Clearing it occasionally or regularly can protect your privacy and this is a secure ways to protect your data from stolen by others

Phishing: Examples and its prevention methods.

What is Phishing

Phishing is a con game that scammers use to collect personal or financial information such as username, password and credit cards detail from unsuspecting users. They send out e-mail or instant message that looks like they are from respectively company to request for update or confirm account information. However, even if you visit the false website and just enter your username and password, the phisher may be able to gain access to more information by just logging in to you account.

Signs of Phishing:

1.Unsolicited request for personal information
Most of the company will not further request on your personal or financial details especially like bank or credit card company because they should have this information on file. If they have some questions about your account they will call you on phone and not to get your information online.

2.Alarmist warnings
Something else to watch out for is emails that tell you that if you don't respond in a certain period of time then your account will be closed. Phishers often attempt to get people to respond without thinking and a message that conveys a sense of urgency, this is trying to got your respond quickly.

3. Mistakes
The little things can often reveal the biggest clues. Some mistakes that is a sign of phishing such as formatting errors, typos and grammar mistakes, you can search by looking closely to the layout of the page.

4. Email Address and links
Users need to pay close attention to the addresses that are being included in the email. Mostly, the email address that is being used to send the email to you is from an unidentifiable source. Sometimes the links that you are urged to click may contain all or part of a real company's name, but the link you see is actually taking you to a phony Web site.

Phishing Prevention

There are some phishing prevention method which should hopefully help you in the future when you receive an email which you are unsure of where it has originated from.
=> It is important that you learn to recognize all types of phishing emails.
=> Never send any kind of sensitive personal information using an email.
=> Always ensure that you are using a secure website
=> Do not click on suspicious website

eBay Phishing Examples
(http://www.bustathief.com/what-is-phishing-ebay-phishing-examples/)


Re-entering account information

Message from eBay member



Update Credit Card information

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

Nowadays, online security threats are one of the biggest challenges on the Internet. As internet users display their personal information on website and upload some sensitive data to online software programs, they are most probably at risk. Some users exploit the internet through the criminal behaviors and other harmful practices. These users are called hackers or internet intruders, they uses their stealth tactics to attack on the online computer users.
There are number of potential threats on the internet such as:

1. Viruses
A computer virus is a dangerous computer program with the characteristic feature of being able to generate copies of itself, and thereby spreading. Viruses exist on local disk drives and spread from one computer to another through sharing of "infected" files.

2. Spyware
Spyware is a form of malicious software designed to interrupt or to steal the personal and confidential without the consent of that computer’s user. Spyware can be delivered in a variety of ways including being attached with the legitimate software.

3. Trojans Horse
A trojan horse is a self-contained malicious program that does not replicate nor infect other files. Trojans are most often used to gain backdoor access remote, surreptitious access to the computer. The examples of Trojans are Remote Access Trojan (RAT), Backdoor Trojans (backdoors), IRC Trojans (IRCbots), and Keyloggers.

4. Pharming
Pharming refers to a technique of changing Domain Name System (DNS) servers that hackers get into Domain Name Servers to redirect visitors to a look alike site or change the host files inside your computer that take you to a sight that is designed to steal your identity.

5. Spam mail
Spam is flooding the Internet with many copies of the same message and most spam is commercial advertising. Spam by e-mail is a type of spam that involves sending identical or nearly identical messages to thousands of recipients without the permission of the recipients.

Security vulnerabilities and threats are file sharing applications, instant messaging, week passwords and outdated antivirus or anti spyware programs. The solutions to protect personal data, privacy and identity on internet is to install an up-to-dated antivirus program on your computer, install anti spyware program, update your operating system regularly by installing latest security program, never download a software program from the websites who has no integrity, never open an email attachment from the unauthorized source and encryption your data while transmitting over the internet.