ID Theft in the World of Internet Technology

Identity theft has been more prevalent in recent years primarily because transactions done over electronic platforms have been growing exponentially. Several reasons can be pointed out as to why identity theft can be done with relative ease with electronically-stored information.

First, the volatile nature of electronic information makes it virtually impossible to identify someone who has already made copies of a piece of information that has been stored in an electronic network. Modern security software makers have tried to address this but experienced identity thieves can still develop and/or employ software that can delete any traces of unauthorized access to such information.

Secondly, physical evidence of stealing identity information is minimal, thanks to wide area networks such as the Internet itself. Fraudsters who are able to penetrate into the premises of an organization can just as easily log on to a computer and email the information he needs to an untraceable email address that he can access outside, thus rendering standard security procedures such as frisking and document inspection practically useless.

Thirdly, electronic information released through transactions done over the Internet is very prone to identity theft. Keystroke loggers, bogus sites and phishing emails are means that are commonly employed by identity thieves.

Lastly, some thieves do not use software or internet technology at all. Thieves can employ pretexting scams in which they assume false identities to call or email unsuspecting victims and persuade them to reveal private information that can then be used to access personal account information.

Competition is fierce in the web hosting market these days, and that’s good news for those searching for a good solution. But because there are a bunch of questionable and low quality hosting companies on the net, it is important to think about a number of factors that will help determine what is right for your website. When approaching or looking at possible services, you must first decide whether you want to develop the website yourself (or by another third party) and just have it hosted, or have it both built and hosted by one company. If you are considering this question before actually diving in to develop your site, there are real advantages to using the latter option. If the people who build your site also host it on their own servers, then any problems that arise can be troubleshot much more quickly and efficiently, and with less potential for prolonged downtime.

That brings me to the next issue to keep in mind: how much uptime is provided. There is a wide range of quality to found in regard to downtime. All other selling points and features won’t mean much if your website cannot be found by potential viewers because the hosting company’s servers are not well-maintained and operating smoothly and consistently.

After you consider these two questions, what remains to be done is to simply decide what features will be necessary for your particular site or business. The primary elements you will be looking for are: a) amount of storage (MB), b) monthly bandwidth, c) database availability (MySQL), d) scripting languages offered (PHP and Perl at least), e) subdomains or subfolders offered, f) number of POP3 accounts for email, and g) an FTP account. Note regarding bandwidth: pay close attention to how and what the company will charge you for additional bandwidth used in a billing month (some of the less scrupulous out there will stick it to you here).

Before you actually pull the trigger on a service, consider two final issues. Make sure it is easy to reach the company. Consider where in the country or world the company is located (particularly for international hosting companies), and what means they make themselves available. Ask if the host can be reached quickly and easily by email, IM, and/or toll free phone number. Lastly, some web hosting companies will charge additional set-up fees, or use yearly contracts and some will not. So decide what is relevant and important for your business with these things in mind, and you will have no trouble finding the website hosting services you need.

Paul Nelson is an internet safety advocate, and an authority on the subject of web hosting. For immediate answers to your web hosting questions, visit http://www.hostingforeveryneed.com/.

On June 30, 2000 President Clinton signed the “Electronic
Signatures in Global and National Commerce Act” (ESIGN) using
his electronic signature ID, and thereby established the
validity of electronic signatures for interstate and
international commerce.

In the fours year prior to this Act’s passage a dozen states had
passed similar laws and guidance for state specific business
purposes, and in the five years since the Act’s passing every
other state has passed similar laws and legislation. What does
it all mean, and in the end how can it benefit businesses,
individuals and the nation or world as a whole?

The best way to answer a question like this is to take a look at
the origins of the law, and understand the reasoning behind its
passage and the passage of the state specific laws.

The Birth of the Electronic Signature - Faxing

In the 1980’s companies and even some progressive individuals
began using fax machines for high priority or time sensitive
delivery of paper based documents. Today, the fax machine is a
staple of the business world. Most people do not even consider
the original hurdles this new medium created, nor do they
consider its impact on the speed of communication and the
advantages of its use. However in its infancy many of the same
issues surrounding electronic communications and electronic
signatures had to be resolved when utilizing the facsimile.

When the first contract was signed and faxed it created the
basis for the discussion of electronic signature validity. After
all it was the first time someone could sign something, place it
in a machine, send it from one phone line to another and deliver
a digitally reproduced signature. The path this signature took
was not controllable or traceable, and in most cases it
traversed miles of wire before reaching its destination, so how
could it be considered a valid signature? The intentions of the
signature were clear to everyone, but businesses wanted to know
they could count on the validity of the signature, and if no one
actually witnessed the action of one individual or of a
corporation how could a business put any faith in it? This of
course caused quite a stir and in rapid fashion the courts ruled
this signature carried the same validity as if the parties were
standing in the room together. With this, the fax became
standard operating procedure world-wide.

The courts found validity in this method of signature capturing
and businesses also felt secure in this method. Quite a leap of
faith considering the complications caused by fax machines early
on. Many people didn’t realize that the original fax paper’s ink
would vanish after a period of time and you had to make another
copy of the fax using a copier if you wanted to store it
permanently. Also many times the quality of the image was poor
or barely legible, but businesses understood the intention and
would consider it signed even if there was only a partially
legible signature. So in essence you had a copy of a copy of a
digital image, and even with so many loopholes for alteration
and criminal malfeasance the fax still worked and business
flourished.

The business logic behind this thinking was easily justifiable.
Before the fax machine, the contract could have been signed
verbally between the sales person and the client, and then
somewhere down the road a paper copy would have been signed and
mailed. Many sales before the fax machine were consummated with
a simple “OK let’s do it” comment over the phone. This drive to
get business and make the wheels turn demonstrates the most
vital point in an electronic communications based world, or for
that matter in a digital world with no physical or direct
contact, is most businesses can operate on trust. They provide a
service to a customer and the customer trusts they will provide
that service in a satisfactory manner, while the service
provider trusts that the customer will pay for services
rendered.

Trust is not a new thing in business; it was often indicated by
a hand-shake or “You have a deal”, and that was all you needed
to get a deal done. Has that changed today? I believe the answer
is no, but what about the courts, and their opinion on the
validity of the electronic signature? After all the courts’ goal
is not just to keep the wheels turning and generate revenue, so
why did they trust this type of signature and what was the legal
question this signature answered? This line of thinking brings
us back to Electronic Signatures in Global and National Commerce
Act or as it is more commonly known, the (”ESIGN”) Act.

Electronic Signatures, the Courts and the Government

The Government Paperwork Elimination Act (”GPEA”), Uniform
Electronic Transactions Act (”UETA”), Electronic Code of Federal
Regulations (”e-CFR”), as well as the Electronic Signatures in
Global and National Commerce Act (”ESIGN”) are all attempts by
Congress, federal departments and the states to define the
liability and validity of an electronic signature, and help the
courts answer the questions about enforceability. These efforts
all center around three primary concepts authentication,
integrity and non-repudiation.

Authentication

Authentication is the reasonable basis on which to believe that
the entity electronically signing the file is who they say they
are. This can be accomplished in many ways. In the traditional
world it might be done by checking a driver’s license or other
form of identification, but in the electronic world this is not
always an option, so other methods must be used.

The most common and popular way of accomplishing this identity
check is to use an e-mail based identifier. This is a process
most people have experienced at some point while using the
Internet. If you signup for a web based service you generally
need to create a user name and password. When you create this
account many systems will send a verification e-mail to the
e-mail address you entered for your record, thus proving that
you own this e-mail address. You then copy and paste this
verification information into the confirmation system provided
by the web site and you become a verified member. That process
and most processes that use your e-mail address are known as
e-mail based ID systems.

Another way to verify an identity is to use a known third party
validation mechanism. In other words, use something that
presumably has already verified the entity in question. There
are several common methods for achieving this type of
authentication. You may have experienced it with a web site
requiring you enter in your home zip code, an account number or
in some cases a credit card number. Many web sites will have you
enter your credit card information into a form, allowing them to
cross reference the information you provide them with a credit
card merchant. Presumably if you told the credit card company
the truth about you, then it will match with the information you
provided the website.

The methods available and in use for identifying and
authenticating individuals are countless, and presumably the
higher the value of the transaction the more authentication
methods should be implemented.

Integrity

Integrity simply means providing a reasonable belief that any
file electronically signed on a system cannot and has not been
tampered with by anyone or anything. The concept is easy to
understand and the requirement for it is certainly justified.
When you are dealing with paper it is easy to give everyone a
copy, and any discrepancies are easily found, but with
electronic records it can be difficult to manually or even
visually tell if the file has been altered. To demonstrate
integrity electronic signature capture services generally use an
encryption algorithm to lock a file once it has been signed.
Even better services will continually validate a file all the
way through the signature process and then create a final
version once all signatures are finalized. Most technology used
today for identification purposes can be more accurate than
human DNA.

Non-repudiation

Think back to the Fax machine illustration. Someone can always
say, “That is not my signature” and claim that the signature was
forged. After all, someone could have placed an image of a
signature on to a document, and faxed it back to you. The point
is, under most circumstances you can never be 100% certain the
person you are doing business with is who they say they are.
Even in-person transactions can be at risk. Identity theft is
the fastest-growing crime and criminals are not just buying and
signing things online, they are going into banks, opening credit
cards and walking into retail establishments. So what can be
done to help protect businesses against fraud and abuse if they
use electronic signatures?

Just as a notary verifies the intent of the signatory,
electronic signatures can use verification methods to insure the
signatory understood the purpose and the intent of the signature
process. However, the road to a successful electronic signature
implementation lies in the careful understanding that the
electronic signature super highway has a minimum of three lanes.
Each of the signatories has a lane of relationship “traffic”
between them and the electronic signature service provider. The
lane dedicated to the relationship between the sender and the
recipient is just as relevant and important. It is this
relationship that will help to legally define the intent of the
signatories in various legal matters. Therefore, combining good
business practices with a solid electronic signature capturing
service will make non-repudiation less of an issue.

How Electronic Signatures Can Help You

In order to fully understand how electronic signatures can help
you and your business we need to take a look at why we want to
use them in the first place. Electronic signatures offer a wide
variety of benefits to everyone involved in a transaction. They
reduce costs associated with signing files by cutting overhead.
Electronic signatures allow us to cut hard costs like paper,
ink, printer wear, staples, pens, shipping and handling, but
they also allow us to cut soft costs like storage, copying,
filing, retrieval, auditing and tracking. Overall electronic
signatures can save hundreds of dollars on a single contract for
small contracts and thousands or tens of thousands for large
contracts.

Let’s demonstrate how the savings can be realized. A business
sends out 100 proposals per year that are approximately 150
pages long. It is primarily black and white ink. The client
prints the 150 page proposal on regular stock paper 1 and binds
it 2. The proposal is then placed in an overnight delivery
envelope and shipped next day air, with a return envelope
provided, which is also next day air 3. Once the client receives
the proposal, reads it and signs their acceptance, the proposal
is then shipped back to the business 4 in the provided overnight
envelope. Once the proposal arrives at the business, the sales
team and managers need to be notified, so they can engage the
client. The proposal then needs to be filed and stored in a safe
place. The person working at receiving desk will make three
copies of the proposal 5, and distribute them to the required
personnel, and subsequently file the original proposal in a
filing cabinet 6. So what are the costs?

Total Cost of Using Paper = ($112.50) x (100) = $11,250

(1) 150 + Ink + Paper + Wear and Tear on printer = $3.

(2) Binding = $1.50

(3) Outbound Overnight Shipping = $20

(4) Inbound Overnight Shipping = $20

(5) 3 x 150 + Ink + Paper + Wear and Tear on printer = $9

(6) 150 Pages Storage Using Government Estimate = $19

Labor @ 2 Hours for Total Process = $40

2 Days Opportunity Time for Best Delivery Option = $Unknown

Total Cost of a Paperless Transaction = ($10) x (100) =
$1,000

Labor @ 15 Minutes for Total Process = $5

Sending File Electronically = $5

Delivery Is Immediate = No Lost Opportunity Costs

—————————————————————–
—————————-

Total Savings Using Electronic Signature Service vs. Paper =
$10,250 Per Year

Having a technology available to your business that will reduce
overhead on a single expense by 90% is attractive for any
business, especially one that will benefit other areas as well.

Give Electronic Signatures a Chance to Save Your Business Money
Businesses today should look at the logistic benefits of
electronic signature technology and contemplate how they might
benefit their organization. If you have a fax machine then you
should certainly have an electronic signature service as well.
Electronic signature services provide unparalleled speed to
users. They are faster and more versatile than fax machines,
less expensive than overnight shipping options and the soft and
hard cost savings are extraordinary. Electronic signature
services can be used on any file type, including audio, video,
photos, and all text documents. Electronic signatures are also
easy to store, track and audit.

In the end electronic signatures will not change your life, but
they may change how you operate your business day-to-day. Just
like the fax machine did, it will make you more efficient and
help you get the job done faster, and that may just be the
difference that separates you from the competition.

Links are much like referrals in the real world. When you hang out with people smarter than you then this in turn will eventually make you smarter because of your fellowship which in turn will provide you more perceived value. Referrals or links have three very important things in common: more people you know the better, the more quality people you know the better, and not knowing everybody the better.

For example, starting out in business you probably did not know alot people. But as you got more customers, your sphere of influence becomes broader. Thus giving you the ability to refer them to others. With links, it is the same way. Link popularity is contingent upon the number of incoming links you have, thus giving your web site more exposure and higher rankings.

As part of the internet, links work the same fashion. A link ( referral ) from an .gov is considered more trustworthy because of the source, thus giving you a great referral. Do not forget Bad company corrupts good character.Therefore if you start hooking up with fishy people then your website placements will go down.

Also be conscious to the fact that if you get a vast amount of friends over night, then red flags start popping up and your website usually gets punished by the search engines.

At Magnetiks, a Houston search engine optimization company should help you build your links naturally over time thus guaranteeing continued web presence As part of the internet.

Print ads seem to have already used every nooks and turns in the
advertising style to make people stop and stare and get the
message. Every imaginable subject lines had been used in the
banners, catalogs, postcards and even in business cards. One of
the more common and overused tactics are misleading and
otherwise untrue promises with the intention of leading the
readers into something that they will not be too happy about in
the end. Out of naivety or ignorance, people are really falling
into the “traps” that the advertisers have laid out for them.
This is where printing makes works the most.

The one thing that advertisers and printing companies are not
dwelling much on is the actual fact. The truth which would have
been an effective also tool, considering the need of the people
to have a fresh start from the deceptions that are dominating
the advertising world then and now.

Promoting on printed materials gives more possibility that
people will get hold of them compared to those doing the
promotion online. It follows that when you put something into
print, the designs and the kind of writing used are not the only
ones that readers will see. Some of the more observant and
particular ones see the kind of person being reflected by the
printed materials that they are reading. The type of
representation you put into your business cards or posters is
what you want people to see you. When they see misleading ads
about your company or products, they would not think of you as
an honest person, not in a million years. It can even lead to
the loss of credibility on your part. If you think they will get
your services in the future, think again.

There are many marketing “gurus” and innovative tips available
on how to go about your print advertising. They tell you the
techniques to use to be able to get more people to read and gain
more profits. Although their intent are only for your own good
and justifies the need for a good cause, they oftentimes lead to
bad results and not so good impressions about you. It is always
important to remember that the designers or the printers are not
the ones given the focus on, but the person or company having
made the print ads on.

Try some good old-fashioned honest tactics for a change. Besides
honesty being the best policy and all that, it would be a
refreshing change to all the deceptions being done in marketing.
Try to be different in your printing materials by being truthful
and giving your readers real-life facts and information. Might
work too.

For comments and inquiries about the article visit
http://www.uprinting.com

If you are developing your website on a host that charges less that $5 a month, make plenty of backups as you are likely to loose your website files when the webhost goes out of business without notice. Indeed, be extremely wary of any such host. Once your website is attracting getting visitors, get your website hosted with host that does not foolishly try to over sell his server resources. And, expect to pay at least $15 a month or more for the added security and reliability of such a host.

I highly recomend you look for a host that has the latest version of cpanel and fantastico installed. Fantastico is one of the greatest tools for web developers that I have seen in a long time. I can remember the time when installing a script meant that you had to spend an hour or two setting various parameters and permisions in different files everytime you wanted to add a guestbook or shoppping cart to your website. With Fanstastico you have numerous of the latest open source scripts like mambo ( content management ), coppermine( image gallery ), oscommerce ( shopping cart ), phpauction ( ebay style auction ) , and more all just clicks away. All you do is spend a few seconds telling Fantastico the directory that you want the script installed, the admin password, and you’re done. This may not seem that exciting to you if you’ve never spent hours trying to install a script only to find that there was one little line somewhere that was causing the whole thing to fail. What I’m trying to say is that there has never been a more exciting time to create a website of the most stunning quality even if you know nothing about HTML, PHP, or CSS. Look for a web host with Fantastico.

Even if you don’t want to do anything behind the scenes and you have hired a webmaster to work for you, ask him if he would rather work with a host that has Fantastico. There is nothing more stupid in my opinion than to pay a webmaster tens of thousands of dollars to create a website for you that ends up looking and functioning just like a website that has an open source solution. You’ve just ended up paying to recreate the wheel. Even if you think that you have a new and unique idea for a website, it may only require a modification of a Fantastico script. And, in this may mean an 12 hour job from a webmaster rather than an 12 month job.

There are a few Fantastico scripts in particular that I have found to be outstanding. One is Mambo. Mambo is a content management script. What is a content management script you ask? Well, it’s a script that has an admin interface that you can open with your web browser to do everything from create links to more advanced features like managing articles, blogs, news, and link directories. It’s much more simple than to use Mambo than it is to use an expensive wyswig editor like Dreamweaver or Frontpage. You don’t even need to know the basics of HTML to run a complex happening website with Mambo working for you behind the scenes. Even if you don’t understand the most simple HTML code like a href=… or table rowspan=… you can create a website with Mambo that looks and functions as good or better than the majority of websites out there. For a demonstation of what Mambo looks like please visit GB Web Hosting.

Another script in particular that I like is Open Realty. Open realty can create a website for realtors who wish to list their featured properties online. It has a full admin interface where they can add accounts for all the realtors in their office to add ,edit, and delete their featured property listings. They just fill out the fields that are most commonly used in real estate listings like address, city, square feet, bedrooms, bathrooms, etc and add the rest in a “full details” box. They hit submit and instantly the property appears on the website formated and looking sharp with pictures and captions neatly displayed below. If you are a realtor and are looking for a property listing website make sure your web host uses Fantastico with Open Realty ready to be installed with next to no effort.

It amazes me that more website owners are not catching on and taking advantage of this awesome tool called Fantastico. It has got to be one of the greatest things since sliced bread. Get a web hosting account with Fantastico and you can be sure that you have everything that you need. It’s that simple.

Please feel free to post this article on your website, but you must include this footer and you must not modify or delete the links. Troy Smith is an experienced web developer who owns GB Web Hosting

Since its inception, eBay seemed to be godsend entity to many
especially those who want to find a lucrative way of earning a
living. A lot of people contend that it is only with eBay that
they were able to supplement their finances and extra
necessities.

But the question of the majority still remains. Do people really
need to sell something first before they can profit from eBay?

The answer is, undeniably, yes! Here some facts about eBay to
support the answer:

The nature of eBay is focused on one thing: ONLINE MARKETING.

The concept behind eBay is the fact that it is an auction
website. Therefore, to gain profit in a site like eBay is to
sell something. It involves monetary transactions and deals, a
niche market, and some strategies that can be commonly found in
a typical market site.

Hence, a person that has no intentions of selling something on
eBay does not actually have any business on eBay.

However, others may contend that buying a quality at the same
time affordable product can also be considered as a profit. But
nevertheless, taking a closer look at what profit really means,
all of these boils down to the fact that whoever earns money
benefits more.

Everything is a commodity.

Nowadays, everything seems to be a commodity, from mobile phones
to even ideas. With an increasing rate on financial crisis,
everybody seems to be finding ways how to earn a living. This
goes to show why there are people who sell even the weirdest
thing on eBay.

Some may assert that these things may not be true at all. But
the question is, what if it is, indeed, true? What if there is
really somebody out there who is in dire need of money and that
there is nothing that he or she can trade but his or her own
virginity?

These things may seem like too nuisance and may seem cheaper
than what they had bargain for, but when necessities butts in,
it’s down to a now or never battle in life.

Indeed, the realities of life are clearly manifested on the kind
of transactions that goes on in eBay. In fact, what eBay has on
its context is the same as what goes on in real life. Like eBay,
life is like an auction, there are those who win and there are
those who lose.

With all these facts, the concept of whether a person has to
sell something first just to profit from eBay breaks down to two
realities in life: money, thus, makes the world go round, and
that profit is claimed where there is money.