Berlin, Germany — 1st September, 2006 — Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. President Gee Sung Choi delivered the opening keynote address at IFA 2006, the world’s largest consumer electronics exhibition. The speech, entitled “The Next Step in the Digital Renaissance – Creating Rich Digital Experiences,” comes at a time when Samsung is experiencing strong growth worldwide, with particular success in the European market.

 

 

2. “Samsung Electronics Launches Plasma TV with Clear Imagery in Any Environment”  

3. “Samsung Heralds New Era of Entertainment; The World’s First Mass-Market Blu-Ray Discâ„¢ Player BD-P 1000″

4. “In a Class of its Own – Samsung Receives the EISA Award for its Trendy Home Theatre System”

 

5. “Samsung Releases 10 inch Mobile TV”

 

6. “Samsung Unveils the K5, a New MP3 Player with Slide-out Speaker”

 

7. “Be a Photo Designer with the Samsung SDC-MS61″

 

 

8. “Samsung Releases Premium LCD Monitor with Iconic Design”

 

9. “Samsung Proposes New Concept of Digital Home Interior at IFA 2006″

Via Akihabara

Internet is fast becoming a major selling channel for the retail sector. It provides a great opportunity for merchants to expand their business. However, with great opportunity comes great risk. It also exposes merchants to a much greater risk of losses due to credit card related fraud, if the orders are not being handled with extra care.

Statistics gather by ACNielsen shows that about 59% of the payments for online purchases are made using credit cards. If you don’t accept credit card payment, you practically turn away half of your would-be customer. But if you do, you are susceptible to the fraud risk due to its Card Not Present (CNP) Transaction Nature. Nothing is perfect, in this article we look at 9 ways you can minimize the fraud risk to protect your business profitability.

Are you at risk?

Merchants with high-volume transactions.

Merchants selling High Resell Value items such as Mobile Phones, PDA, Laptops etc.

Merchants selling Digital Goods (E-books, Software, etc) – (Neowave is falling under this category)

1. Accept Only Valid ISP Email
You may want to consider not accepting any registration using a Free web-based email services such as Yahoo, Hotmail and Gmail since they are untraceable. Best practice is to obtain an ISP (Internet Service Provider) email (e.g. users@streamyx.com indicates this user has registered with TM Net for their broadband service). Besides, for every order received, you should send an email receipt to the email address supplied, and most importantly, have someone monitor bounced and returned email receipts. If the email is bounced, please check the order with extra care and follow up with phone calls.

2. Get a Fixed Line Number – Both Home and Work
Just like free web-based emails, the majority of mobile phones are not easy to trace, especially the prepaid plan, which requires no user registration to activate the service. (Countries like Malaysia has started requiring the registration to be carried out for prepaid mobile users). For the sake of security, always insist on a fixed line contact from customer. If the order is new or suspicious, always call the phone number supplied to confirm the order details. This is one of the most effective ways to authenticate a legitimate buyer (but can be nuisance to the honest customers too). With VOIP services like SKYPE providing cheap voice calls today, there’s no reason for you not to contact your customers to verify their details. After authenticating their identities, you can always add them to Positive List to provide better and faster service for their repeat orders.

3. Manually Reviewing Orders
Manual reviews take time. But a little precaution goes a long way, it works especially well for smaller sized merchants if you process less than 100 orders per day. Asking some of the questions below can help identifying the possible fraudulent orders:

1. Are the goods of high value or easily resalable?
2. Is the sale too easy for a new customer?
3. Is the sale excessively high in comparison with your usual orders?
4. Is the customer ordering many different items?
5. Is the customer reluctant to provide a fixed line number?
6. Does the address provided seem suspicious?
7. Has the delivery address been used before with different customer details?
8. Is it a repeat order shortly after the initial one?
9. Is it an international order that originated from High Risk Country?
10. Is ship-to address same as the billing address?

4. Keep a Positive & Negative Lists
Fraudsters always look at ways to maximize their “Return on Frauds”. It is not hard to understand why fraudsters will pick on easy targets and will continue to attack businesses until the window of opportunity is closed. Thus, you are encouraged to keep a Negative List which keeps the record of known fraudulent orders, chargeback, refunds, problem customers etc where you can compare the suspicious new order to it to find the matching characteristics. It is a time consuming process but nevertheless an effective way to predict early possibilities of fraud to prevent further losses. On contrary, you should also keep a Positive List as well to authenticate known and trusted customer to speed up the order processing. Else you would run a risk of losing your sales to your competitors who’s always just a click away.

5. Be cautious on Overnight Shipping Orders
When it comes to online shopping, price is always an issue. Most legitimate shoppers are very sensitive to shipping costs. You shouldn’t wonder why “FREE SHIPPING” is so popular with the online shoppers. So, PLEASE be particularly wary of the customer who demands next day delivery and shows no regard for any additional costs involved. Fraudsters want their items to arrive as soon as possible for the quickest possible resale, and mostly aren’t concerned about extra delivery charges. On top of it, couriers should be instructed to:

Return the goods if they are unable to deliver to the shipping address

Always deliver the goods to the specified addressee

Not deliver goods to a vacant property

Get signed proof of delivery

Only send goods by registered or recorded post or by a reputable carrier (UPS, Fedex etc), and insist on a signed and dated delivery note

6. Scrutinize the Country of Origin
One of the key indicators of a fraudulent order is the country of origin. Realizing that, one feature in our webShaper e-commerce software is to let you filter out the countries you would not ship to. If you don’t feel comfortable taking orders from that country, don’t be afraid to refuse any orders from them. It’s your right as a merchant not to sell to certain countries, but make sure it’s clearly stated in your policies.

7. Bank Identification Number (BIN) Check
The first 6 digits of the credit card are called the Bank Identification Number (BIN). Since many international credit cards don’t support address verification, You can utilize BIN to determine if the credit card holder and the issuing bank for the credit card are located in the same country. If it’s not, you probably need to handle the order with extra care. Note that legitimate users sometimes do use a credit card from another country.

There are 2 ways to check a BIN, you can either download a software program called Mars Banks Base at http://www.mars-soft.net/banksbase.htm. Just install it on your computer so you can do cross reference anytime without the need to connect to the Internet. Alternatively, you can enter the BIN (First Six Digit of your Credit Card Number) of a credit card number at http://all-nettools.com/toolbox,financial. The tools will return the bank name, card type, country and phone contact for the BIN.

8. CHECK FOR ANONYMOUS AND OPEN PROXY IP ADDRESSES:
Even though we actually logged the IP address and the matching country inside our webShaper e-commerce software, it’s not sufficient. The reality is, IP addresses can also be forged to hide the true location of the fraudster. Organized credit card fraud rings often use anonymous Open Proxies to “cover their track”. To find out whether the IP logged by particular customer is originating from an open proxy, please use the tools provided by http://www.all-nettools.com or http://www.openrbl.org. If the IP is listed as an open proxy, be extra careful with the order. However, take note that some legitimate customer (relatively small percentage) does use proxy server when surfing the Internet to protect their privacy online.

9. Card Security Code (CSC) & Address Verification Services (AVS)
The combination of CSC and AVS provide an extra safeguard against fraudulent activity and could save your business the cost of many expensive chargeback. However, unlike a PIN or Signature, neither CSC nor AVS is a full confirmation of the cardholder’s identity. It’s only meant as a cost effective way to alert merchant of the possibility of fraudulent orders.

So, how does it work?

AVS – When a user makes an online purchase with a credit card their billing address is required. The house number portion and postal code of the billing address they enter is compared to the billing address (where the credit card statement is sent) of the credit card holder with the Issuing Bank.

CSC – Credit Security Code is a credit card verification number. It allows the merchant to ascertain that the shopper does have the credit card. Known as CVV2 for Visa, CVC2 for MasterCard, CID for American Express.

Unfortunately, not all countries has an AVS system in place. The ability to confirm an address via AVS is ONLY available in the U.S., U.K. and Canada. If you are a merchant from the supported countries, you should choose for a payment solution that supports CSC and AVS. Bottom line is, combination of both will serve as your first wall of defense against fraudulent orders.

Paypal Protection for Sellers
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/protections-outside

Spooked by the risk you are exposed to as an online merchant? You should be. Fraud is a serious problem that affecting almost everyone from every corner in the world. It can only be minimized if every party (Government, Banks, Merchants, Payment Systems Provider and End-Users) is playing their role right.

Again, the fraud indicator may be quite different from merchant to merchant, depending on the type of business, order type, volume and fraud schemes. A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing. As an online merchant, you will be the most vulnerable if you don’t keep updated with the latest know-how and technologies in combating fraud.

Via bizpartner

A Microsoft Windows PC that has not been updated for security vulnerabilities will be compromised by some from of malware within minutes of connecting to the Internet. Take steps to protect yourself before you start Web surfing.

It is only natural, when you get a brand new PC, especially one with broadband capabilities built-in, you want to connect to the Internet and see it action. For many, the browser and the World Wide Web are the “killer-apps” of the modern PC—the Internet is what you have a PC for, everything else is just extra fluff. However, connecting to the Internet with a new unprotected and unpatched PC is practically inviting the nefarious and malicious to infect your PC. According to research published by Sophos in July 2005, there is about a 50 percent chance that an unpatched PC will be infected with malicious software within 12 minutes of connecting to the Internet. Once infected, it is almost impossible to get a PC clean again without completely re-installing the operating system. (We are restricting this conversation to Windows PCs for the moment.)

To prevent the frustration that comes with re-installing Windows, you should take the necessary steps to update, configure, and patch your new PC. Keep in mind that no matter how new your PC is, it will most likely need patching and it will definitely need to be properly configured. Here are 10 basic things you should do before attaching the Internet to a new PC.

1. Make a starter CD-ROM

Before you disconnect your old computer, take a few minutes to burn a starter CD-ROM that contains the latest version of your favorite anti-virus software. I prefer to keep this simple and inexpensive by using AVG from Grisoft, but if you like Norton or McAfee those will work just as well.

To save time later, you should put other security applications on this disk like Spybot Search & Destroy, AdAware, etc. It would also be a good idea to include any updated drivers you might need—drivers for your video card for example. Just like Windows, your video card drivers are likely to be a little old also. You should also put drivers on this disk for peripherals that you will be connecting to your new PC, like cameras, scanners, printers, and game interface devices. Having all of these device drivers residing on a single CD-ROM means you will not have to go to the Internet to retrieve them as you set up your new PC.

2. Remove the promotional apps

After going through the initial setup process where Windows identifies devices you may be asked to register and/or activate your copy of the Windows operating system—hold off on that for now, you can always do that later. This first thing to do is to clean up the mess that shipped in your PC. You should remove all of the promotional and trial software that you do not intend to use from your new PC. This is usually the first thing I do, because invariably one of those apps will ask if I want to activate it or register it—a process that usually involves accessing the Internet. (Some times they don’t ask—they just assume I want them on my pristine PC). At this point you should have no connection to the Internet at all, wireless or not. The applications to be deleted are usually ISPs advertisements like AOL and Earthlink, an antivirus app from a competitor of your current application (something you should already have ready on your CD-ROM), trial versions of Money or Quickbooks, etc. If you are not going to use these, go to the Add/Remove Programs applet in the Control Panel and remove them completely.

3. Install antivirus software

Install the antivirus software that you burned onto a CD-ROM in step 1.The assumption is that any PC purchased after this document is published will have Windows XP SP2 installed, but if SP2 is not installed, you could have that update ready on your disk too. In fact, if you know how, you could have some of the more important Windows patches and updates on your disk also. This would be a good time to install anti-spyware software too.

4. Turn on a software firewall

Windows XP SP2 comes with a modest but still useful software firewall. Before you start surfing the Internet you should turn it on—or you can install an alternative third-party software firewall like Zone Alarm. Any alternative firewalls should have been included on the startup CD-ROM you made in Step 1.

5. Install printers and other peripherals

Before you connect to the Internet it is a good idea to install your other peripherals to your new PC. Performing this step means that when you do connect to the Windows update page, it will see your devices and make suggestions for new Microsoft-tested (WHQL) drivers if they are available.

6. Establish a password for the administrator account

One of the most glaring security vulnerabilities in any new Windows-based PC is that it ships with a wide open administrator access to the root directory. You never want anyone but you to have unfettered access to the admin settings on your PC. And while a password could easily be bypassed by a skilled cracker, it will deter the less determined intruder.

7. Create a new user account with password

This is almost as equally important as password protecting your administrator account. For general day-to-day activities, you do not want to be using your admin account. Instead, you should be using a user account that is also password protected (a password that is different than the one you are using for the admin account, please). This adds another layer of protection for your new PC because a user account does not have the same all-access permissions as an admin account. In some cases, malicious software will be thwarted by this level of permissions restriction alone.

8. Turn off unnecessary Windows services

Microsoft has been doing a better job of this with the release of SP2, but there are still numerous unnecessary Windows services and processes running by default on most PCs. If you’d like to see how many there are just perform the three finger salute (CTRL-ALT-Delete) click Task Manager and then the Processes tab. All of those applications, services, processes, etc. are operating in the background on your PC. The problem is that many can actually open access to your PC to the outside world without your knowledge or active consent. That access is usually justified for what the process is supposed to be doing, it is just that many times your PC doesn’t need that process at all—Web servers, network messengers, debuggers—are all processes you probably don’t need on your personal PC. (Check out this TechRepublic download for an in-depth examination of these services and for some suggestions for which can be deactivated.)

9. Establish a system restore point

Now that you have performed the first eight steps you should take a moment to establish a system restore point. To manually create a Restore Point, you launch the System Restore utility by clicking Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore and then follow the steps in the wizard. This step will establish a fall back point if something happens to go haywire later.

10.Install and configure a router

This last step may seem like an unnecessary added expense to some, but in this age of viruses, worms, and other nasty Internet infections, a router standing between you and the outside world coming at you at broadband speeds offers another significant layer of protection. Connecting a PC directly to the Internet means that PC gets its own IP address, which means it can be seen by every sleazebag with malicious intent. By adding a router to your broadband setup, the router gets the visible IP address and gives your new PC an internal address. In addition, routers have hardware firewalls and other features that help block the bad guys before they get to your new PC.

This is especially helpful because the first thing you should do when you do actually connect to the Internet is head directly for Windows Update. This is the most important tip in this guide—the only place you should be heading on the Web when you first connect your PC to the Internet is the Windows Update page. You will not have time to check movie times or football scores. The 12 minute countdown to possible infection starts as soon as connect.

Tech Republic

Windows Vista provides a host of new features, but the first thing that jumps out is the slick, sleek Aero interface. Here’s a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the new interface and what’s required to get the most out of it.

Windows Vista offers computer users all kinds of new functionality, such as better search capabilities, improved file system navigation, and new built-in applications. But the first thing you notice about the new operating system is its new look–the slick, sleek Aero interface with its translucent title bars, rounded edges, and sophisticated color scheme reminiscent of (dare we say it?) Macintosh OS X.>

Lots of folks, including me, have been wanting that look on a Windows machine for a long time and love it. Others, especially diehard Classic Windows buffs who think every operating system should look just like NT, hate it. Hardly anyone is indifferent to it. In this article, we’ll take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of the new interface and what you’ll have to do to be able to get the most out of it.

Aero Basic vs. Aero Glass

First, let’s explain the nomenclature. Aero is the default interface for Vista; Glass is the high end “eye candy” version that requires the right video card. The Glass interface is shown in Figure A.

Figure A

The Glass interface features a slick, sleek translucent look.

Lots of subtle enhancements adorn the Glass interface. For example, if you hover over the Minimize, Maximize, or Close button in the top-right corner of a window, it glows. And when you minimize or maximize a window, it shrinks into or grows out from the taskbar. Not quite as cool as OS X’s “genie” effect, but close.

Another subtle change is the new default desktop font, Segoe UI. The default font size for desktop icons is 9 points instead of 8, which helps with readability, especially at high resolutions. You can change the font and/or font size if you like through the Advanced button in the Classic Appearance Settings dialog box.

Glass system requirements

To enable Glass, you need a 3D card that supports DirectX 9, and it must have a Longhorn Display Driver Model (LDDM) driver. NVidia and ATI both make LDDM drivers available for a number of their video card models. The video card also needs at least 64 MB of RAM, but 128 MB is recommended and 256 MB works even better. My ATI Radeon X600 PCI Express dual head graphics adapter displays Glass nicely on both monitors. The Matrox 450G on my other system won’t run Glass. If you have an integrated graphics card (built into the motherboard), you’ll probably need to install a “real” video card to run Glass.

Even if your hardware supports it, some programs aren’t compatible with Glass. If you have Glass enabled and you run one of those programs, your display will revert to the standard Vista interface, shown in Figure B, until you close the program. Windows will display a dialog box advising that the program is incompatible with Glass and that Glass will be turned off while you’re running the program.

Figure B

The display reverts to the standard Vista interface if a program is incompatible with Glass.

You won’t run into this often, as many programs, even legacy ones, will take on the Glass interface. For instance, Glass worked fine on my machines with such programs as Corel Draw 10.

Enabling and customizing the Glass interface

If your video card supports Glass, it should be enabled by default, but I found that after upgrading Vista Beta 2 to interim build 5472, Glass was turned off. To turn it on, right-click on the desktop and select Personalize or click the Personalization applet in Control Panel. Select Window Color And Appearance. When Glass is turned off, this will display the Appearance Settings dialog box, shown in Figure C.

Figure C

If Aero is turned off, you can enable it in the Appearance Settings dialog box.

Select Windows Vista Aero from the Color Scheme list box and click OK to enable Aero Glass on computers that support it.

You can customize the look of Glass by going back to the same Personalization window and clicking Window Color And Appearance again. When Aero is turned on, clicking this choice displays the Change Your Color Scheme dialog box, shown in Figure D.

Figure D

You can customize the Aero color scheme and level of transparency.

You can select a preset color, use the color mixer to select a custom color, and adjust the level of transparency from almost completely see-through to almost opaque.

Another neat aspect of the Aero interface is the “flip” implementation of the program switcher invoked by [Alt][Tab]. Now the Window Switcher, or flipper, can be started either with the [Alt][Tab] key combination or by clicking the Window Switcher icon on the Quick Launch toolbar, shown in Figure E.

Figure E

You can use the Window Switcher icon or [Alt][Tab] to invoke the new “flipper” applet.

Whichever way you get to it, the new program switcher is more graphical, as shown in Figure F. You can see actual detailed thumbnails of each running window, rather than just icons.

Figure F

The new program switcher displays a thumbnail of each running Window.

If you want to really get fancy, you can use the 3D flip, which serves the same purpose but looks orders of magnitude cooler while doing it. Just press and hold the Windows key and press the [Tab] key. You’ll see a “stack” of windows of your running programs, as shown in Figure G, which you can flip through using the forward and back arrow keys.

Figure G

The new 3D flip is the coolest way yet to switch between running programs

Off to see the new wizards

Another change in the Aero interface (with or without Glass enabled) is a newly designed look and layout for the many wizards that walk you through various common tasks in Vista. The wizard design has been virtually unchanged since Windows 98, but the redesigned wizards bring some welcome modifications, such as (ironically enough) the elimination of the Welcome screen, which many users considered a waste of time. For example, the Add Printer wizard jumps right in with the screen shown in Figure H.

Figure H

Wizards have a new look and no longer waste your time with a Welcome screen.

The Completion screen has also been done away with, but some wizards contain a useful follow-up screen at the end that provides links to related tasks that a user might logically want to do after finishing the wizard.

Summary

The Aero interface makes Windows look better and, in many cases, makes the user experience a more pleasant one. Is it worth shelling out for a fancy new graphics card (or perhaps even a new system) to run it? That’s a personal decision. The good news is that even if your hardware isn’t Glass-capable, you still get a spiffy new look–just not quite as spiffy. However, if you buy the cheapest version of Vista, called Vista Basic, Glass won’t be available even if you do have hardware that can run it.

One final note: If you’re thinking about running the Glass interface on a pirated copy of Windows, Microsoft has three little words for you: Forget about it. Vista will run a Windows Genuine Advantage check to verify that the OS is legal before it’ll let you run Glass.

Tech Republic

San Jose (CA) – Hitachi today announced its first perpendicular magnetic recording technology (PMR) hard disk. The drive offers 160 GB in a 2.5″ form factor and promises at least as much reliability as its predecessors with substantially less storage density.

Not too long ago, it appeared that the common hard drive finally had closed in on a barrier of a natural storage density limitation that would force manufacturers to transition to completely new technologies within a few years. Perpendicular has been a floating concept for quite a while, and was often described as a transitional technology from the traditional, three-decade old “Winchester” technology to a new generation of hard drives, which are predicted to use lasers make read and write processes more reliable. [TG Daily]

Related articles: Toshiba ships first hard drive with perpendicular recording tech