Online Banking

Online Banking

Online banking is a new way to check out about your account without having to leave your house. A lot of banks have now got an online banking system. The system allows people to look at their online details and make payments using cyber-money over the Internet. 

An example of an online bank is Lloyds TSB. Like any online bank, you can perform a transaction online at any time, anywhere on various devices. The site gives you a personal log in number, with a password and memorable information that you will make yourself. Online banks also offer the added security of using ‘https’ instead of the genuine ‘http’ for other websites. This is just an added safety device used to prove that the information being given is safe to do so. It will often appear with a padlock, along browser bar.

An exception of High Street banks, also online is ‘EGG’. The website allows costumers to save their money, borrow money and insure their money. EGG is similar to any high street bank however, they just don’t have a solid location and it is just done via cyber.  

Scams have been becoming growingly common since online banking was introduced. A good example of a scam is the Trojan. Trojans take their name from the term 'Trojan Horse' and are a type of computer virus which can be installed on your computer without you realising. Trojans can be capable of installing a "keystroke logger", which captures all of the keystrokes entered into a computer keyboard. Some specifically seek to capture passwords entered at certain web sites, by capturing keystrokes or taking screen shots of sites you visit. This information is then sent to the fraudsters over the Internet.
Typically the fraudsters send out emails at random to get people to click on a link from the email and visit a malicious web site where vulnerabilities in the web browser are exploited to install the Trojan. The emails are not normally related to Internet banking and try and dupe people into visiting clicking on the link to the malicious web site with a variety of excuses.

An easy way to stop this from happening would be to have installed on your computer recommended antivirus software, for example Norton.

The most dangerous and problem with online banking is ‘Phishing’. Phishing is where emails are sent pretending to be part of a genuine company operating on the internet in an attempt to trick customers of that company into disclosing information at a bogus website operated by fraudsters. These emails usually claim that it is necessary to "update" or "verify" your customer account information and they urge people to click on a link from the email which takes them to the bogus website. Any information entered on the bogus website will be captured by the criminals for their own fraudulent purposes.

Advantages

1.    Online banks are open 24/7

2.    Check balance at home

3.    Make payments whenever

Disadvantages

1.    Risk of becoming victim of fraud

2.    Cyber money

3.    Personal data is involved

 

Communication

SMS Alerts
Moblie phones have grown in popularity over the years, hugely. Texting/ Messaging is used more often than phone calls to contact someone as takes less time and can catch up just as easily, some may argue.

I feel that the use by children has grown and is making them more lazy but it is also getting them more familiar with the language. Predictive text will create lazyness but at least it prevents typing errors. In a way, it could and studies have proved that it has helped teenagers spelling.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6005772/Mobile-phone-text-messaging-is-making-children-more-impulsive-claim-researchers.html

Instant messaging
Instant messaging, a new and quicker way to get in touch with people, slowly replacing email. It started off informal between friends, but it is increasing and populating offices now as well. Instant messaging improves communication throughout the world. Instant messaging was fun for a while, but more friends and some businesses as well have switched to Facebook instead.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8698174.stm

Facebook
Facebook is argueable the most popular social network site around now, but only in the past year. Like any social network site however, there are some dangers about Facebook, such as paedophiles. There are certain things that Facebook could do to help but it is mainly down to the users, and how private they want their profile.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10796584

The overall safety has improved on Internet services and no doubt the popularity has increased enormously. These are new forms of technology that everyone is excited about and are replacements for phone calls and emails.

E- Commerce

An E-commerce site is any web site offering pre-sale support, products for sale or after sales service and backup. Examples of popular online shopping sites that display this are:

eBay
Amazon
Argos Online
Topman Clothing Online

Features of E-commerce sites

Online Payment
Easy to use homepage and navigation options with links 
A page providing help for customers 
An link providing store information, including how to find local stores 
A bold search facility  
Contact information 
Images of the products on offer  
Review of the products
An alternative to the product
Checkout
Shopping basket
Secure password, verify identification
Delivery options input
Tabs providing links to other pages of the site 


PayPal

     A good example of an E-commerce business is PayPal, this operates to help people make payments online in a secure manner. It is a new way to pay for products and payments, instead of cheques and always typing in card details. Paypal is free to create and to buy products, but they take a small percentage commission when selling. Paypal is involved with lots of various website as an optional purchase choice, but it is heavily linked with ‘Ebay’.

     
Security

Website security is vitally important, the customers have got to have trust in the website otherwise they wont purchase. An unprotected website could be liable to hackers, viruses and identity theft. Most websites are genuine and can be trusted though, but the most risk is found throughout online banking sites.

Real Time Information

Real-time Information is a service that allows us to keep up to date with information as it happens, being usefully available all over the world. This form of information is submitted almost instantly after an event has happened, therefore being available to people wishing to know the content as quick as possible. This is most commonly found when gathering details on the weather, travel updates, and the news.

Examples: Booking a journey
By using a website, you can find out about easiest form of transport, and how long it will take. It also gives you direct instructions of how to get there and what lines are and aren't running for that specific week/day. It also supplies maps, to make it more clear to you. It also clearly outlines when you are taking the underground and when to start 
walking.


 







When planning a journey, a useful website is http://www.theaa.com/route-planner/. This enables you to plan your route, so you can add a via to your journey and avoid motorways or tolls if you want to. It gives a detailed outline of where to go with  step by step instructions. 

Another source of real time would be to check the current weather forecast in certain areas of the country. It shows a live webcam of the current weather, or if you choose you can watch the recent weather updates on the webcam. 
It also comes with actual written data telling you how much cloud, temperature, wind, speed, rain and type of weather is forecast for the week ahead.



The varying devices that this information can be displayed on has increased dramatically, ranging from websites and sat-navs, to interactive timetables and mobile phones.