Month: May 2010

The advancement in the field of information technology has really shaped up the lives of people. The skills and hard work of IT professionals have really brought in tremendous changes and businesses are really enjoying the privileges, which they get to avail from the work, done by IT professionals. You will see that countless software are being sold in the market, which have made the lives of businessmen, easier than ever before. Among all other kinds of software, medical software is one of the most prominent and efficient ones. This software has really helped in improving the work efficiency and functionality of medical institutions including clinics and hospitals. This software has eliminated many malfunctions, which used to disturb the work efficiency of doctors and of those people, who are involved in the medical activities, in one way or another.

Medical software can bring in significant and prominent changes in consistent work of doctors and the staff, working in hospitals and clinics. The benefits of this software can be equally provided to the patients. It can bring peace in the lives of doctors and patients and there will be fairly less chances of any kind of problem, in the working of hospitals and clinics. Doctors are living busy and hectic lives. They do not have much time to keep the record of their patients and to record the history of the patients is a time consuming job. If you will hire an employee for keeping the record of the patients, even then it would be a time consuming and pricey job. Instead of paying to an employee, solely for this job, you should need to understand the importance of installing medical software. It will not only help you in maintaining the details of the patients, but it will also help in maintaining the billing of your hospital or clinic.

Medical software will be one of the most helpful tools, for the doctors, as they will not have to record their appointments. It will keep the doctors updated on their upcoming appointments, as the complete information of the patients’ appointments will be recorded in the server computer, from where the information can be accessed from any of the computers, over intranet. On getting automatic reminders by this software, the doctors are never going to miss any of their appointments with their patients.

Apart from the benefits, which can be availed by the doctors and medical staff, there are many benefits, which patients can avail from it. Medical software will facilitate the patients, by allowing them to get their appointments, over Internet and they will not even have to visit your clinic or hospital, in order to get the appointment. If you are running your private clinic, or are an owner of a hospital, then you should instantly install this software. It can easily be installed in your existing system and you will not have to purchase a new hardware, for its operation and functionality. You can easily download medical software from Internet and then you can start enjoying its countless benefits.

Today plastic is the convenient, easy and fashionable alternative to wads of paper. With one swipe, credit cards have changed the way we live. Unfortunately, along with the convenience has come related crime. Thus, the primary objective of this article is analysing this problem in a global as well as Indian perspective. An attempt has also been made to enlist the various legal provisions available as remedies if a person suffers from such fraud.

 Credit card fraud involves withdrawal of funds and obtaining of goods and services by using an unauthorized account. Otherwise inaccessible personal information stored on computers is stolen in order to use a card. Due to the virtual explosion of credit card business throughout the world, security has become critical in the entire process. There were about 60 million credit card holders in the sixties and according to an estimate, the number has gone up to more than a trillion now.

In India, credit card companies make a provision in their contract with the client that they, the company, would not be liable for the fraudulent transaction unless the client loses his/her card and reports the loss immediately. Sometimes the banks and credit card companies try to save their skin by inserting a clause in the relevant contract. This is purported to absolve the company in case a fraud occurs on the stolen card and the client fails to notify the loss in time. This unilateral provision however has not stood the test of legal scrutiny. The courts have placed the burden of loss on the issuers.

In India, the Mail Order Telephone Order (MOTO) type account for the bulk of credit card frauds. This occurs when the card is not actually presented, but the details are given on the application form to buy goods or services or when the transaction is done on the telephone.

Fraud through fake cards is not as rampant in India as in the USA. Techniques have been developed whereby the number and other information on the magnetic strip is erased and a new number is embossed. When the card does not work on the swiping machine, the merchant manually processes the details of the card to complete the sale. This procedure is called skimming of the cards.

In the USA, identity theft is also quite prevalent and is supposed to be one of the fastest growing offences in America. The fraudsters adopt another person’s identity to gain access to their monetary sources. In the case of online transactions, ‘site cloning’ is resorted to where the site clone created is made to look like the original site in order to obtain the credit card details of unsuspecting customers. Similarly, false merchant sites are also created where cheap goods lure customers into giving their card details.

Scared by the ever increasing cases of credit card fraud, the affected companies and banks have taken various steps to minimize it. Manual reviews of the transactions on the card are undertaken, but this requires a high level of human intervention and increases costs. In the USA, Address Verification System (AVS) has been developed for use in the ‘card not present’ scenario. The system is designed to check whether the address given by the buyer matches with the one on record.

Visa has devised a Payer Authentication System based on PIN similar to the system used on ATM cards. This is a channel between the bank and the customer used to authorize online transactions. With the increase in cross border ecommerce the issuers in India will have to update their arsenal to combat the forgers on the same lines as their Western counterparts. The Information Technology Act and Rules, passed in 2000, provide penalties for the tampering of computer source documents and hacking of computer systems. No specific mention has, however, been made of Credit cards or financial transactions. The RBI has formed the Credit Information Bureau of India (CIBIL) in collaboration with Dun and Bradstreet who will maintain the records of all individuals who want to avail of finance from banks and credit card companies in India.

The Indian Penal Code contains provisions to check economic crimes such as Bank Fraud, Insurance fraud, Credit card fraud, stock market manipulation, etc. The local police deal with the IPC crimes falling under the broad categories of ‘Cheating’ (Section 415-424), ‘Counterfeiting’ (Coins & Stamps Section 230-263A and Currency Section 489A-489E) and ‘Criminal Breach of Trust’ (Section 405-409).

 

Online Credit Card Offence & Indian Law:

 

So far as Indian legal position is concerned, any offence pertaining to online payment through credit cads will come within the purview of Information Technology Act, 2000 read with relevant provisions of Indian Penal Code, 1860. Section 378 of the Code defines the term “theft” as follows:

 

“Whoever intends to take dishonestly, any property, out of the possession of any person without the consent of that person moves the property in order to such taking, is said to commit theft.”

 

In order to commit theft following elements are required to be satisfied:

(a) The intention must be dishonest.

(b) Such property must be movable in nature.

(c) Such property must be taken out of the possession of its owner.

(d) Such property must be taken without the consent of the owner.

(e) Such property must be removed from its original place to another.

Now we have to examine whether online credit card theft satisfies the abovementioned requirements in order to book the offender to justice. This definition, if interpreted in strict sense, does not include the online theft of credit card information. But, if a merchant dishonestly obtains the blank purchase slip and forges the signature of the cardholder’s signatures on it and thereafter obtains the payment from bank, he can be booked under the offence of forgery.

 

Hacking has become an important tool in the hand of cyber criminals to take away the confidential information relating to credit cards and use it illegally for their personal advantage i.e. purchasing goods or online transaction of money etc.

 

To deal with this menace, our Parliament has been enacted the Information Technology in the year 2000. Following penal provisions of this statute are relevant to mention here.

 

Section 66– This section provides the following penalties for hacking with computer systems:

 

(1) Whoever with the intent to cause or knowing that he is likely to cause wrongful loss or damage to the public or any person destroys or deletes or alters any information residing in a computer resource or diminishes its value or utility or affects it injuriously by any means, commits hack.

(2) Whoever commits hacking shall be punished with imprisonment up to three years, or with fine which may extend up to two lakh rupees, or with both.

The offence under this Section is cognizable and non-bailable.

 

Section 43– Clauses (a), (b) and (g) of Section 43 state that if a person has unauthorized access or secures access to computer, computer system, computer network or downloads copies or extracts any data from such computer, computer system, computer network or even assists another person to facilitate access in the aforesaid manner respectively, he shall be liable to pay damages by way of compensation not exceeding one crore rupees to the person so affected.

It is quite apparent from the above that besides legal protection it is necessary to carefully examine the technological and contractual protection existing within the system because law is not an alternative to other security measures required to be taken by the cardholder while making online payment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

In India, credit card fraud is mostly limited to the physical space. Online con jobs make up just about 1% of the total numbers here, unlike 40% in the developed world.

But, as consumers graduate to the shop-easy internet and pay with their cards, instances of fraud are bound to rise. While we don’t have statistics, as access to the web increases, reported cases of card fraud are estimated to  rise at 20-30 % every year. In online transactions, contracts are one-sided and the customer is always held responsible in case of fraud.

Phishing, where a consumer gets a fictitious email from a fake site or blog seeking sensitive card information, is a commonly-used defrauding mechanism. To top it, people are careless in offering their card details.

Almost all the banks issuing credit cards issue various guidelines and suggestions to the customers from time to time in order to cut short the rate of credit card frauds and misuse to a minimum possible level.

Thus, we can conclude that with the help of the legal remedies available as cited earlier in the Article, penal action can be brought against the offenders who are held liable for credit card frauds and misuse.

 

 

 

 

 

It should come as no surprise to anyone, that people are using Google to look for products and services at an increasing rate.

While different forms of advertising are certainly not dead yet, look at the decline in paper subscriptions, the closings of city papers; the fall of phone book revenue.  We are on our THIRD generation of kids that have never known life without laptop computers and cellphones; they are ‘wired’ to data as no generation has ever been.  My youngest is 17; she is never without her laptop computer and cellphone; I don’t recollect ever seeing her read the paper, or use the phonebook.

The average Internet user performs 35 searches daily.  I don’t think I’ve used the phone book 35 times THIS YEAR!  Over 90 % of those people do not look past Page 2 on a search result.  The conclusion is obvious:  if you’re not on Page 1 or 2, YOU DON’T EXIST ON THE INTERNET!

When you would advertise in the paper, you would try to get a ‘prime’ placement, at bigger cost, of course, where individuals would be likely to see your ad.  In the phone book, since your advertisement would be grouped with your competitor ads, you would spend as much as you could, in order to get a bigger ad that would draw attention.

But with a Google listing, all of the listings  look the same.  The only deviation would  be in the Titles; that is where your first impression is made, because that is the FIRST thing that searchers will see. But, unless that  title is located on Page 1 or 2, the chances of anyone SEEING your ad, are minute.  You MUST be in one of those 20 spaces.  In fact, think of the advantages to your line of work, if you had MULTIPLE listings on those pages..  Multiple listings are possible with video submission software; and Article Distribution.  In fact, a business can ‘shut out’ their competition with proper use of video and article distribution.   Few people search beyond page 2, and so the more  listings on those pages that a business has, the more likely the business.

GOOGLE-OPOLY.  I’ve talked about this in previous articles. The similarities between these first 20 listings and the game are striking.  In Monopoly, the strategy is to buy up as many properties as you can, before your rival.  By using video submission software, and article marketing, you can attain the same thing on Google:  multiple listings.  Once your listing is there, that denys that listing to your competition. Frequent re-submissions can keep you there…even Raising your listings.

When you use a video submission software, your video is listed to dozens of video sharing sites, such as Revver, Photobucket, Dailymotion, etc.  Each of those submissions are seen separate files, so it it possible that your video can actually appear several times on Google Page 1; once for Dailymotion, once for YouTube, etc.  I have had 6-8, even 10 listings on  Google Page 1.  A properly optimized video can permit you to ‘dominate’ a keyword phrase; giving your business multiple listings, and denying your competition that space.

Microsoft Dynamics GP, especially when ERP software is targeted to be implemented in matured organization with its own IT networking, hardware and legacy software lifecycle – you should pay special attention to the environment, where Dynamics GP Great Plains will be installed: server and workstations.  Hardware and software compatibility question comes from the architecture of Great Plains Dynamics, its GP Dexterity IDE and programming language.  Dexterity is written and supported in C++ programming language (which was designed to resolve OS dependence).  Paradox of hardware incompatibility might be seen in the fact, that some of the newest laser printers may not be compatible with Dynamics GP text reports; but the good news is that you can still likely to deploy the same newest printer for GP graphical reports: Check, SOP Invoice, POP Receipt, SOP Packing Slip.  Let’s look at the software and hardware recommendations:

1.       Server and Workstation Hardware.  You can download from your Microsoft Customer Source or Partner Source the hardware recommendation and printer compatibility list for supported versions of Dynamics GP: 10.0 and 9.0.  If you are setting up Dynamics GP for very small hardware confident organization, then you should be aware that GP Server will work on decent self assembled PC computer, pay attention to put more RAM (if using 32 bit Windows Server, place at least 2GB, if 64 bit – 8GB is good idea for 2009).  SCSI hard drive controller is recommended, but it is not really required – you should be OK with SATA and PATA HD, if you are confident in your backup (and restoring) strategy.  GP Workstation: with the introduction of Vista (and Vista 64 bit) – GP WS minimal requirements became really obsolete, as Vista sort of demands at least 1GB of RAM (where 64 bit Vista typically comes with 4GB of RAM on the hardware)

2.       64 vs 32 bit Windows Server.  If you are planning to deploy current Dynamics GP version 10.0, then feel free to purchase Windows 2003 and 2008 Server 64 bit with Microsoft SQL Server 2005 64 bit edition

3.       Windows 2003 R2 and Windows XP SP3.  Here you may have this problem: you can not install GP from the GP 10.0 installation CD, due to Dexterity components installation failure.  The work around is SkipDotNetCheck.mst and DexSkipDotNetCheck.mst