Due to a massive identity theft case tried in the US, the spotlight is firmly on the safety of our credit card system and our identity.
Although this is a simple enough problem, the answer may be far from simple. A number of security companies dealing in the e-commerce, told recently in press conferences that card information for both credit and debit cards is vulnerable but that they are putting massive amounts of time and money into rectifying this.
In what was see..
In what was seen by many as a shock statement Perry Tancredi of VeriSign told a BBC reporter that credit and debit card information is just not incredibly secure, Perry is senior product manager for fraud detection this to me is one hell of a statement and scares me to death.
Now if that scares the pants of you here is his next statement. But it is counterbalanced by the amount of fraud losses due to cheque fraud and direct debit fraud which is much greater than credit card fraud. So I bet your much happier now. The long and short of that is spend money online and you will be ripped off, but do not go down the high street or you will be ripped of worse.
Mr Tancredi said regardless of how strong the security measures, and how vigilant, the weak part of the chain is there is always a human who is responsible and who has overall control over the information.
So then he appears to be saying that they are attempting to make the systems as safe as possible but you whilst you can trust the technology those pesky humans just cannot be trusted. So I guess what we all should do is expect to have somebody attempting to constantly beak into our accounts and make plans to stop them or at worse insure against them.
How about another point of view?
A totally different point of view comes from IDP, a company assesses online businesses for security or the lack of it. He maintains that after all of the recent publicity regarding security attacks, that the measures companies now have in place we are all a lot safer than we were before. There are safety procedures available but many retailers do not implement them in their business and therefore leave your data open to attack. Wireless access has been blamed for many breaches but top level encryption properly configured will keep attackers at bay. In the recent case it is sited that many of the breaches were in fact due to gaps in wireless technology and lack of encryption.
So the answer it would appear lies with the retail industry making sure that they take the correct precautions both in their online and their bricks and mortar businesses. However and this is the really big question for me, in the past 2 years in the UK we have had a major banking/building society and several government departments lose literally millions of peoples records on lap tops which have been lost or stolen. This data later to be found being sold on internet sites. So you can tighten up all you like on digital security at transaction level but if someone in charge allows millions of people's data to be stored on a lap top that can be taken home by a relatively junior employee then we just might as well set up a web page and sell our own data to the highest bidder. At least we will earn something for it.
Read More...
Summary only...
Be honest to yourself, answer Yes or NO to these questions:-
1.) You spend too much money on some things unnecessary and your partner complains about it?
2 .) Do you have more clothes and shoes in your closet than you could ever possibly need?
3.) You are shocked every month when your credit card bill arrives at how much you spend than you thought you had?
4.) Do you own every new ga
4.) Do you own every new gadget before it has time to collect dust on a retailer's shelf?
5.) Do you notice things you didn't need until you saw them collecting dust in your store?
6.) Are you struggling to pay your credit card debt and your bills keep filling up?
If you answered "yes" to any two of the above questions, you are an impulse spender and indulge yourself in self destructive attitude to financial disaster.
In the long run, this habit will cost you dearly and is bad for your financial health. It will deny you from saving for the important necessities like a house, vacation, a new car and a saving for your retirement.
You must set some financial goals and discipline yourself in not spending money on stuffs really don't affect your life in the long run.
Temptation to have many things in life is human instinct. The trick is to differentiate what you really needs before you buy anything that you have not planned for. Impulse spending will not only put a strain on your finances but your relationships, as well.
Set yourself a goal like " I will never buy things I never plan to buy". Set your budget every month and never spend beyond it.
Take only enough cash when you go shopping to pay for what you have planned to buy. Do not bring your credit cards with you.
By following this simple solution, you will do yourself a big favor in building better relationships with your partner/spouse and a better financial standing in the long run.
Read More...
Summary only...
The method is selling option premium on currencies. Option buyers have a 10% success rate, so the option seller who grants the option has a 90% success rate. Many forex traders never consider selling options and this article is all about selling option premium...
So if you can have ....
So if you can have a 90% chance of success selling forex options, why don't more traders do it?
The answer is - most traders prefer the idea of buying an option with unlimited gains and limited risk, and a low chance of success, to being on the other side of the option which offers a capped small gain and unlimited risk, with high odds of success.
If you want to be an option seller you have great odds - but you must be mindful of the risk and the way to control it is as follows.
- Sell option premium on high volatility up or down against the prevailing trend
- Spread your risk across several positions
- Use time decay to your advantage and sell near expiry when time is decay is killing value
Selling option premium is not for traders who are not confident, have a small account or don't like risk - it's a game for people who know what their doing. An option may have 90% odds of expiring worthless - but that's at expiry and prices can of course move "in the money" for the buyer in that period, or move against you.
If however, you don't mind trading tops and bottoms and can calculate over bought and oversold scenarios, you are confident in, it's one of the best ways to make money long term. Sure, you have a capped small gain but these mount up over time and can build serious wealth long term.
There are not many opportunities to trade with 90% odds of success - but that's what selling option premium gives you and for traders who are confident in their marketing timing, the rewards long term are huge.
Read More...
Summary only...