Information is a stimulus that has meaning in some perspective for its receiver. Generally, when information is entered into and stored in a computer, it is referred to as data. After the data when through processing such as formatting and printing, the output data can again be perceived as information.
There are many different kinds of information such as identity information, company information, background information and many more. Information can be use in different ways depends on the intention of the user and it may bring benefits or harms to the people around. For example, the school uses the student's identity information to create student profiles. Information theft might also be one of the people working in the company. Many of them considered their workplace secure but they never expect the theft was the person that they work together with in the company.
Every computer is exposed to the hackers. There are several thieves around you just to wait for your mistake or carelessness to steal your information for their benefit, but now they have become even more professional as they can even steal company information. Information theft is when someone fraudulently uses the company's information for their own purposes whether it is to get credit, getting a loan from the bank or even opening a credit card or bank account. Businesses will tend to discover that they are the victims of information theft after finding out that their credit is bad when they are applying for credit, grants or loans.
If the company becomes a victim of information theft, they may face severe damages to their finances and the company's reputation. The company may be even accused of a crime that they did not commit because the information theft uses the company information to perpetrate the crime in the company's name.
Information theft usually gets the information through subordinates or representatives of a company. The most frequent and common methods used by information thefts are finding personal information that other people share over the internet. They will also go through trash looking for unwanted information. Information of a company can be obtain by the thefts through accessing of employee's e-mail, stealing their wallet and credit card numbers through skimming which is by using a data device to seize the information at an ATM or during their actual purchase.
Company information can also be stolen through phishing which are a scam that information theft sends a fraud e-mail saying that they are from a valid organization, government agency or bank to tempt the victim into surrendering the company information. Often the e-mail will direct the victims to a website that looks exactly just like the real business or government agency which only an expert can spot the difference. Sometimes the theft will bribe an employee or hack and access into electronic files at a business or even going through the trash of a business to get register receipts, customer information, and employee records.
Nowadays, information theft is more advance in stealing information from a company. The biggest advance and threat in eavesdropping technology has been used in the area of Global System for Mobile Communications also known as GSM devices. These devices use the mobile phone technology and infrastructure to relay room audio to an eavesdropper in a remote location. These eavesdropping devices can be planted in a boardroom which then can be monitored from any location around the world with a cell phone, telephone connection either landline or Skype.
Pinging the IP address of network systems is also one of the technique information theft steal information. They can just simply perform a Google search to discover share lists of weak IP addresses. A Trojan Horse virus has already been loaded in these IP address to make use of the information.
Pop-ups might also cause company information to be leaked. Although most of the pop-ups are harmless to the computer, but some pop-ups may contain virus which can exposed their information if the user clicks it. These may cause the user's computer to be attacked by viruses.
Besides that, information theft also uses spyware to get company's information. Information theft will attach the spyware to free programs or software the users usually download which allows the theft to spy on their habits when the users surf the internet. The theft can even redirect the user to another dangerous webpage.
Lastly, telephone eavesdropping is also common. The theft will use a radio bugging device to listen whatever is said on the phone from the management authorities of the company. Information can be received in real time by using radio bugging device. These devices are so advanced that it could even pick up the slightest sound within a room up to a range of 7 meters away from the bugging device.
Unscrupulous companies have been increasingly using these unclean methods to gain important business information from their competitors. Availability of these kinds of devices can be found anywhere at street shops, ordering through mail and suppliers from the internet which are offering to the majority of consumers in the market because vital business information costs organizations millions or even billions to acquire and it is also a primary target for those who may wish to compete and be better than their competitors.
How a company can ensure the company information is secured from the information theft?
Recently, information theft has been considered a major risk to most companies. The theft go dumpster diving just to get grasp of all the employee's information, financial records, payroll records, loan applications and approval, the list of customer's names and personal information, project proposals, supplier invoices, contracts, research & development reports, marketing material and even medical files to be used in various scams. If a company is a victim of information theft, it might take them months or even years to recover and deal with the problems faced by them. The ideal way to protect the company's information is to prevent information theft from happening.
There are several preventive methods to prevent company information from being stolen by the information theft. First, to prevent information from being stolen by information theft, the company needs to secure their business premises with durable locks and equipped with an alarm system to prevent the thefts from breaking into their premises to steal business information. They have to make sure that the external doors are secure enough and have sufficient locks. Exposed windows should also equip with window grills and the glass should be tinted with security film to avoid seeing through easily from the outside or change to shatter-proof glass to improve security.
Second, the company should lock their business information, records, and other important data on paper in filing cabinets. The supervisors have to make sure that the cabinets are locked during the night or at times during the day when the staff are out for lunch where there is no one supervising. Besides, the company can also store things such as copies of system and database backups in a safe if they think that locking the files in the cabinet is not secure enough.
Third, records of business in any form should not just be thrown into the waste paper basket or recycling bin because they can be some of your important business documents which are wanted by the information theft. In other words, unwanted business documents or records that the company no longer wants should be shredded with a paper shredder. Moreover, people who own a small office or shop should also get themselves an inexpensive shredder which can be purchase at any office supply stores. Management authorities must also pay attention to the mail that they receive which is one of the favourite source for information theft. Any mail which has their name and address on it must be shredded for example old bank documents, electricity bills, water bills and phone bills.
Fourth, the authorized person of the company should be more cautious on the phone because it is easy for a person to pretend and become someone else and talk on the phone. Besides that, do not give out information over the phone such as personal information of customer or personal account details even though they claim that there is a problem with the account unless the identity of the caller is confirmed because the details and information given will let them have the chance to obtain personal information. Moreover, if internet users are on the internet and directed to a page in a website asking the users to fill in I.D number and password, they should not fill in because it is also one of the way information theft use to gain access to their information.
Fifth, organisation can install a card access system at the entrance of the office. Each key card has a unique number associated with it and this allows for management to authorize when and where this electronic key card will unlock a specific door. Unlike the key, losing the key card is not a complete breach of security as the card number can be immediately removed from the list of authorized cards. The card reader is installed at or near a secured door and when the card is placed within proximity of the reader, the reader detects and decodes the card number which is then communicated to the controller. When the card number is communicated to the controller, the number is compared against a list of authorized users based on 3 main factors: the time, the day, and the door. If the controller decides that the card is valid based on the 3 criteria, a pulse is sent to the lock to release and allow entry to the secured area.
Sixth, all computers within the organisation should be protected with a password to login. In this way, unauthorized person who wanders through the office will not be able to access the computer and network within the organisation. Besides that, sensitive issues or information should also be kept away from the employees to prevent leakage of information to outsiders. On another hand, the company can also ban or block up USB ports so that no external hard drive is able to connect to the computer to copy information. But most important of all, each computer must be secured with an antivirus, antispyware and also firewall which can prevent the hackers from accessing the company server to obtain confidential documentations.
Last but not least, organisations can install surveillance system such as CCTV, which is also known as closed circuit television around the organisation premises. Surveillance is an essential part of every business and small interval in surveillance may cause insecure situations. CCTV surveillance system can provide 24-hour observation which uses cameras that catch and send their signals back to as specific location. These video images caught by the cameras can be monitored live, or kept for viewing later. Any information theft that wishes to enter the organisation's premises without getting caught by the CCTV is impossible if the CCTV is used and installed at the correct location or place.
Question 2
Do you happy with your current internet connection? Is the Malaysia trying to boost up the internet connectivity here?
As an Internet user in Malaysia, I feel that our internet connection is slow and unstable. Although TM (Telekom Malaysia) have been trying boost up internet connection by replacing old underground phone cables, but there are still some areas using old cables which will lead to low and unstable internet connection.
From the news, we know that Malaysia's TM and Japan's NTT Communication will invest in a sixth undersea cable worth US$500 million which is equivalent to RM1.53 billion to expand the internet traffic capacity between Southeast Asia and Japan. The new cable is also known as terabit cable, which was originally named under the Asia Submarine Express. The new cable will be about 8000km long. This cable was told that it will improve the internet connection in Malaysia.
From the Internet information, we know that TM is trying to change all standard cables to fiber optic cables. Fiber optic cable has lower attenuation and interference. It has large advantages over existing copper wire in long distance and high demand applications. Nowadays, fiber optic cable is very popular compared to some old areas which are still using standard cable. Compared with those standard cables, this cable gives more benefits because it is able to offer rates of low attenuation and safety.
The first advantage offered by this cable is security. It is very resistant to radio frequency interception and interference. The second advantage is it's cheap and allows transmitting data over a large distance. The third advantage is that the fiber optic cable has low attenuation. It means that by using this cable, it does not loss much of the data during long distance transferring.
The invention of wireless modem also makes improvement of internet connection. With a wireless modem, users can link more than 2 devices to access to the internet. It also provides a wide area of internet access point. This gives users the mobility to move around within a local coverage area and still be connected to the network. For example, Sunway College gives all students and staffs the wireless facilities to make their work easier. This enables everyone in Sunway College to use the internet access freely without plugging in any cable.
Question 2
Are we paying high cost for poor quality broadband? Examine the statements.
Are we paying high cost for poor quality broadband? Yes, we have to pay high cost for a poor quality broadband. Broadband is a device which allows us to connect through World Wide Web to get information. In other countries, most of the people are satisfied with their fast internet connection but in our country, Malaysia, a lot of users are not satisfied with the internet connection. According to the news from internet, almost 40% of the users are not satisfied with the internet connection, 35% of the users just feel normal and 25% of the users feel satisfied with their internet connection.
Singapore has faster internet connection compared to our country, Malaysia. Most of the users in Singapore are still using cable broadband instead of using older dial-up. In Singapore, only SingNet is still using ADSL and by adopting the latest technology. SingNet can keep up with cable speed and the maximum speed which can be obtained by ADSL is 24Mbps. Therefore, Singapore has better internet connection speed compared to our country, Malaysia. Singapore has better internet connection quality and the cost of the internet is appropriate for the speed they get, but our country have high cost of internet with low speed of internet connection.
The table below shows the Singapore's internet download speed and upload speed on world rank.
In Malaysia, there are a lot of different types of broadband service which includes, Maxis broadband, Digi broadband, Celcom broadband, Unifi broadband, U mobile broadband, YES broadband, P1 Wimax, and Streamyx. These broadband services are able to connect to the internet access but it is not as fast and stable compared to Singapore. Besides that, there are a lot of differences between those broadband.
According to SoyaCincau.com, we found the list of broadband services and its charges in Malaysia. This is the comparison of all broadband service in Malaysia:
Broadband Plan
Quota
Monthly Fee
RM per GB
UniFi VIP20
120GB
RM249
2.08
UniFi VIP10
90GB
RM199
2.21
UniFi VIP5
60GB
RM149
2.28
Maxis FTTH(Maxis subscriber)
40GB
RM118
2.95
Maxis FTTH
40GB
RM158
3.95
P1 WiMAX Home Pro
30GB
Rm139
4.63
P1 WiMAX Home Plus
20GB
RM99
4.95
P1 WiGGY Super
15GB
RM129
8.60
P1 WiMAX Inside 69
8GB
RM69
8.63
P1 WiGGY
10GB
RM89
8.90
P1 Wimax Home Lite
5GB
RM49
9.80
P1 WiGGY Casual
6GB
RM59
9.83
DiGi Explore 16GB
16GB
RM158
9.88
DiGi Explore 10GB
10GB
RM108
10.80
DiGi Discover Day Plan
3GB
RM38
12.67
Maxis iPad Premium
15GB
RM200
13.33
U Mobile UB68
5GB
RM68
13.60
Maxis BB 6GB
6GB
RM90
15.00
Maxis BB 12GB
12GB
RM198
16.50
Maxis Mobile Unlimited (discont.)
6GB
RM99
16.50
Celcom Broadband Advance
5GB
RM98
19.60
Maxis iPad Entry
3.5GB
RM70
20.00
U Mobile UB40
2GB
RM40
20.00
YES 9/sen/3MB (4GB) w Rebate
4GB
RM84
21.00
Yes 9/sen/3MB (3GB) w Rebate
3GB
RM67.50
22.50
Maxis BB 3GB
3GB
RM68
22.67
DiGi Discover
3GB
RM68
22.67
Celcom Broadband Basic
3GB
RM68
22.67
DiGi Smart Plan/ Unlimited 68
3GB
RM68
22.67
P1 WiMAX Inside 49
2GB
RM49
24.50
P1 WiGGY Prepaid
2GB
RM49
25.00
YES 9sen/1MB PAYU (1GB)
NIL
NIL
30.00
Maxis BB 1.5GB
1.5GB
RM48
32.00
Celcom Broadband mBasic
1GB
RM38
38.00
Celcom broadband Entry
1GB
RM48
48.00
TuneTalk 5sen/1MB PAYU (1GB)
NIL
NIL
50.00
Maxis Mobile 1.5GB
1.5GB
RM78
52.00
U Mobile UB20
300MB
RM20
66.67
Celcom Broadband mLite
300MB
RM28
93.33
U Mobile UB10
100MB
RM10
100.00
Maxis Mobile 500MB
500MB
RM58
116.00
