Causes and Prevention of Credit Card Debts

Causes of Credit Card Debts

Reduced income/same expenses. Too often we delay bringing expenses in line with a reduction in income for a host of good reasons and let debt fill the gap. The sooner you adjust to your new reality, whether it be temporary or permanent, the better off you'll be.

Poor money management. A monthly spending plan is essential. Without one you have no idea where your money is going. You may be spending hundreds of dollars unnecessarily each month and end up having to charge purchases on which you should have spent that money.

Underemployment. A close cousin to No. 1, people who experience under employment may continue to think of it as only temporary or if they are coming off unemployment feel a false sense of relief. Yes, you deserve a break, but this is not the time. Get those expenses in line with your current income.

Saving too little or not at all. The simplest way to avoid unwanted debt is to prepare for unexpected expenditures by saving three to six months of living expenses. With a savings cushion in place, a job layoff, illness or divorce will not cause immediate financial strain and increase debt.

Banking on a windfall. Spending tomorrow's money today is very tempting. Especially if you believe that tomorrow will come no matter what. A planned job bonus may not be a sure thing. The inheritance that you believe will come your way may not.

Financial illiteracy. Many people don't understand how money works and grows, how to save and invest for a rainy day, or even why they should balance their checkbook. The schools don't teach it, your parents may not have sat you down and explained it. It doesn't matter. You are responsible for your life and your money anyway.

Prevention of credit card debts

1. Photocopy the credit card offer, including the interest rate and terms. Create a letter to your credit card company/companies stating that you are thinking of switching to their competition because they are offering a far more reasonable interest rate. Credit card companies do not want to lose your business. Nine times out of ten they will match or even offer a lower rate than the competition has offered.

2. If you can afford it, pay double the minimum payment. The minimum payment usually pays just enough to cover the interest and a little more that pays down the balance. Paying extra will pay your balance more quickly.

3. Pay off smaller balances first. It is common for a person to try to focus on their cards with larger balances first. Pay off the smaller ones. It will take less time and you will feel a sense of satisfaction when you have actually completed your goal. This will boost your confidence and make it easier to tackle the higher balances.

4. Cut up your cards so that you are not tempted to use them. Save one card for emergencies.

5. If you have equity in your home, look into paying off credit card debt with a refinance or fixed-rate home equity loan. Do not use a home equity line of credit, the rates will rise as the prime rises and suddenly you may find it impossible to keep up with your bills.

Related links :

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/debt/debt_manage_2004/top-10-causes.asp

http://www.free-financial-advice.net/credit-card-debt.html

The application of 3rd Party certification program in Malaysia

One way to control threats from active content is to use digital certificates. A digital certificate is an attachment to an e-mail message or a program embedded in a Web page that verifies that the sender or web site is who or what it claims to be. In addition, the digital certificate contains a means to send an encrypted message (encoded so other can’t read it) to the entity that sent the original web page or e-mail message. In a case of a downloaded program containing a digital certificate, the encrypted message identifies the software publisher and indicates whether the certificate has expired or is still valid. The digital certificate is a signed message or code. Signed code or messages provide proof that the holder is the person identified by the certificate. The idea behind certificates is like that if the user trusts the software developer, signed software can be trusted because, as proven by the certificate, it came from that trusted developer.

Digital certificates are used for many different types of online transactions, including e-commerce, e-mail, and e-funds transfers. A digital ID verifies a Web site to shopper and optionally, identifies a shopper to a Web site. Web browsers or e-mail programs exchange digital certificates automatically and invisibly when requested to validate the identity of each party involved in a transaction.

Digital certificate for software is an assurance that the software was created by a specific company. Digital certificates are issued by a certification authority (C.A). A CA can issue digital certificates to organizations or individuals. A Ca requires entities applying for digital certificates to supply appropriate proof of identity. Once the CA is satisfied, it issues a certificate.

Certificates are classified as low, medium, or high assurance, based largely on the identification requirements imposed on the certificate seekers. The fees charged by CAs vary with the level of assurance provided; higher levels of assurance are more expensive.

Two of the most commonly used CAs are Thawte and VeriSign, but other companies such as Entrust and Equifax secure also offer CA services. The digital certificate for Amozon.com was issued by VeriSign.

VeriSign is an American company based in Mountain View, California that operates a diverse array of network infrastructure, including two of the Internet’s thirteen root nameservers, the generic top-level domains for .com and .net, one of the largest SS7 signaling networks in North America, and the RFID directory for EPCGlobal. VeriSign also provides a variety of security and telecom services ranging from digital certificates, payments processing, and managed firewalls to mobile call roaming, toll-free call database queries and downloadable digital content for mobile devices. The company groups all of these functions under the banner of 'intelligent infrastructure' services.

The company's former payment processing service was sold to eBay in 2005.

Related Links:
1.http://www.verisign.com/
2.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VeriSign
3.http://registrar.verisign-grs.com/whois/

A review on a post on Internet Security from my E-Commerce Blog

This review is for the e-commerze blog post titled “Organisations Not Doing Enough to Secure Data” It can be noticed from the e-commerze blog post that supposedly a new survey shows organizations are not doing enough to prevent data breaches related to IT and the loss of “sensitive” data. It is true indeed that organizations hold a steadfast responsibility in safeguarding data. However, they cannot be blamed outright for the lack of data breaches prevention. It must be noted that to prevent data breaches is not an organization’s duty alone. Every other users are also responsible for this.

We must take into consideration that hackers nowadays are getting smarter and are finding more ways than other to hack and steal valuable data. It is not an easy task to step up the data breaches prevention because it involves a huge amount of money to be carried out effectively. Everyone’s cooperation is a valuable contribution towards fighting these cyber criminals and combat data breaches.

The figures shown in the post might be shocking for some but that is the truth and we have to accept the fact sooner or later. For example, a total of 94 percent of respondents reported having no visibility into how many e-mail messages containing confidential or private information were leaving their organization each month or believed that some leaks were occurring. This ignorance causes hackers to act more bravely and take their chance when no one is lurking around.

How To Safeguard Our Personal And Financial Data

Password-protect your access - Use a strong password or pass-phrase to protect access to your data.

Limit transportation and transmission of data - Refrain from transporting or transmitting sensitive/confidential data if you don't need to do so. For example, don't allow your sensitive/confidential data to be sent via email or removed on a USB stick unless there is a clear need. When you do transport or transmit it, ensure that it has an appropriate level of security.

Limit physical access - Whenever possible, store sensitive/confidential data on devices that are physically secured. Allow only authorized individuals access to those devices, and monitor access to those devices whenever possible.

Temporary data storage - If you need to store sensitive/confidential data temporarily on a memory stick, laptop, or other device, remove that data from the device when you have finished. Ensure that data has been completely erased and not just deleted. Be sure to only use the method or tool your organization has approved.

Use and maintain anti-virus software and a firewall - Protect yourself against viruses and Trojan horses that may steal or modify the data on your own computer and leave you vulnerable by using anti-virus software and a firewall. Make sure to keep your virus definitions up to date.

Regularly scan your computer for spyware - Spyware or adware hidden in software programs may affect the performance of your computer and give attackers access to your data. Use a legitimate anti-spyware program to scan your computer and remove any of these files.

Related links :

http://www.msisac.org/awareness/news/2007-03.cfm

Phishing: Examples and its preventation methods

Phishing is the process of attemptingto criminally and fraudulently obtain sensitive information, by acting as a trustworthy entity in an electronic communication. PayPal, eBay and online banks are common targets. Phishing is typically carried out by e-mail and often directs the user to visit a Web sitea where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is falsified and set up only to steal the user’s information.

For example, 2003 the increasingly in a phishing that 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 updated the credit card information that the genuine eBay already had. Unfortunately, up to 20% of unsuspecting recipients may respond to them and thinking they were actually being contacted by eBay and were subsequently going to eBay’s site to update their account information. This is because the e-mail looks official, and finally users being cheated and resulting in financial losses.

There are several different techniques to prevent or protect against phishing. One strategy to prevent phishing is to train users to recognize phishing attempts, and to deal with them. Users can be trained to have their suspicion aroused if the message does not contain any specific personal information. In addition, users can take steps to avoid phishing attempts by slightly modifying their browsing habits. When contacted about an account needing to be "verified" (or any other topic used by phishers), it is a sensible precaution to contact the company from which the e-mail apparently originates to check that the e-mail is legitimate. Alternatively, the address that the individual knows is the company's genuine website can be typed into the address bar of the browser, rather than trusting any hyperlinks in the suspected phishing message.

Another popular strategy to prevent phishing is to maintain a list of known phishing sites and to check websites against the list. Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 brower, Mozilla Firefox 2.0 and Opera all contain this type of anti-phishing measure. Firefox 2 uses Google uses anti-phishing software. Opera 9.1 uses live blacklists from Phish Tank and GeoTrust, as well as live whitelists from GeoTrust. Some implementations of this approach send the visited URLs to a central service to be checked, which has raised concerns about privacy. According to a report by Mozilla in late 2006, Firefox 2 was found to be more effective than Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 at detecting fraudulent sites in a study by an independent software testing company.

Related Link:
1.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing
2.http://www.antiphishing.org/
3.http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/p/phishing.html
4.http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14_gci916037,00.html