Resources, Tips, Tricks, and Tutorials For The Entrepreneur

The late 1990’s were a time when people thought the internet would eventually cook their meals for them. I’m exaggerating, but you get the point. This irrational exuberance (to coin a phrase from Federal Reserve Chair Allen Greenspan) led to what would be called the new economy. Ten driving principles of the new economy were proposed by DR. Pierre Balthazard. We will contrast each one to the modern day economy.

1. Matter
2. Space
3. Time
4. People
5. Growth
6. Value
7. Efficiency
8. Markets
9. Transactions
10. Impulse

Matter, the claim was that just processing information was more powerful and cost effective than moving physical products. This is true as the cost of oil and transport has gone up moving products around can weigh heavily on a company, for example the now debunked Furniture.com. The cost this company incurred in delivering their product took them to bankruptcy. However, the claim that value of a company is in the intangibles as opposed to the tangibles has not completely played out to be true. Many companies with great ideas but no tangibles such as cash flow have gone by the wayside.

Space, is correctly identified as distanced vanished. The world can be your customer, but also a competitor. This principle has played out accurately since e-commerce has taken off. Dr. Pierre Balthazard, got this one right.

Time, it’s more important than ever. It has been referred to in other writings as “mcdonaldization.” We want it now and we want it good, this seems to be the case for most markets and products. Also companies that are willing to move with the times, benefit from that culture of change. This formula rings true in any economy, new or old.

A person, the most important aspect in any business, in the new economy people’s idea’s trumped sound business practices. Ignoring many of the fundamentals of business was what eventually led to the technology bubble burst in the year 2000. In the years leading up to this time, many people thought that a good idea and investor money was all that was needed to make something work. However, we now realize that there has to be a solid foundation to the business plan of any company.

Growth, to be fueled by the internet. The internet has become a very important aspect of the economy. The internet is used in different capacities for different companies. Not all companies can sell their products or services on the internet. Many companies simply use the internet as an extension of their public relations and advertising campaign. However, there are also many businesses which are exclusively on the internet. Many of the names we regard as household today are in fact business that operate strictly from the internet. Ebay.com and Amazon.com are just two examples of companies that have been very successful using the internet as their sole platform.

Value is in the trendsetters of the internet and such companies reap bigger rewards because of this. Contrary to the old economy, value in the new economy is not strictly in the product for sale. For many companies, true value and market share domination has risen from the services linked to the product, after the product has been given away. For example, many software companies give away their software; however when it comes time for technical support that is where they make their money.

Efficiency, many middle men have gone by the wayside in the new economy and it still holds true today. Many of the traditional sectors have had serious hurdles to overcome in their ability to stay competitive in the new economy and even now. A major industry that comes to mind is the travel industry, specifically the traditional brick and mortar travel agencies. This industry has had to adjust to the influx of online discounters, which are more convenient and usually better priced for customers.

Markets, buyers have new power and sellers have new opportunities. As the internet expands these words remain true. No where else are competitors so close and bargain shopping made so easy. The internet has become the place to find deals and also the place for many startups that want to offer unique or super discount services to be seen. With the new economy have come new markets and widening sectors which are to this still growing.

Transactions for the most part have become easier. Information is easily customizable and a few companies have really used it to their advantage. For example, Amazon.com customizes your page and welcomes you back every time you visit. They even have a “gold box” with special offers tailored to your likes. In essence, transactions have become a very personal experience as well as convenient.

Impulse, the need to encourage it has made transactions easier and easier. Again, I will use Amazon.com as an example. They offer their registered customers what’s called one click purchase. In this, all you have to do is click once to buy and you are done. Nothing else fosters impulse purchasing like this. Not long ago, venues like home shopping network were capitalizing big on impulse buyers. They would offer the products and all you had to do was pick up the phone and order. The internet and the new economy continue to be very impulse-purchasing oriented. Companies that can offer a simple, convenient, and effective way for customers to purchase on impulse, will continue to do well and maintain an advantage over their competitors. An excellent example of this would be for xyz.com to accept credit card payments, very convenient. On the other hand abc.com only accepts checks; not very convenient. Looking at these two, xyz.com would have a serious advantage over abc.com?

We have looked into each of the 10 driving principles of the new economy and have made comparisons as to their viability in today’s economy. Many of the principles talked about here have not changed from the 10 traditional principles of the old economy that still apply. Really, what has happened is that many of the old principles have evolved to accommodate the new economy. Going forward, companies that will survive and flourish will be companies that stay competitive by being effective in their technology, creative or practical in their products, and most importantly, provide excellent customer service.

This paper was turned in 6-11-04
***DO NOT COPY, Use this only for ideas or reference***

{ 0 comments }

The modern day internet as we know it, is no longer a text based system used for sharing files among universities as it used to be many years ago. In today’s internet there are all types of multimedia, graphics, animation and so forth. People are now able to hold databases online, conduct blogs, forums, chat, and use many other forms of communication. As technology advances in favor of more potent and efficient means of transferring data and as the internet becomes more elaborate, so do the hackers.

Common day non-technical people now have to deal with constantly upgrading, patching, and employing anti-virus software in order to protect themselves from attacks and vulnerabilities. The issue I will be addressing has to do with website security, specifically website defacement. Website defacement might not get as much publicity as the other forms of attacks on the web, but that is not to say it is not as prevalent. Here I will address three facets of web defacement; the vulnerabilities that allow a hacker inside your website, how the hacker defaces the website, and how to prevent website defacement.

An important and often overlooked aspect of web design is web security, securing your website is an extremely important step in maintaining data integrity and availability of resources. Availability issues are raised along side security issues because if the hacker fails to deface your site, he might then proceed to attack it with a DOS (Denial of Service) attack, thus rendering the site inaccessible. Some of the vulnerabilities websites have are simple to patch or prevent. For example, when coding HTML do not try to hide your passwords in the HTML code. This sounds like a reasonable first step to protecting your website, but many web developers out of laziness do this. Also, don’t try to hide anything within your comments or documentation that might reveal too much in the way of your schema or design of elements such as a database.

XSS as in cross-site scripting is another vulnerability in websites. The most common form of this style of attack is done in message boards and forms. It essentially exploits improper validation of forms and malicious code not being detected in message boards (Sharma, 2004).
Error handling can also cause unwanted consequences on a website. If a web application does not know how to handle certain errors, hackers can then exploit these errors to their advantage.

All of the above mentioned vulnerabilities can be taken advantage of by hackers, but how? Hackers can gain access through a variety of methods. For the first vulnerability mentioned; passwords embedded in the site’s HTML code. The method to hack this vulnerability or find them is rather simple. Hackers perform a tightly written query in a search engine such as Google, including the specific parameters they are looking for. Hackers know that the search engine parses through the HTML of a website and in the process points them to potential victims. Search engine company’s can not do much about this since restricting the parsing of HTML would also restrict the vast majority of the legitimate searching that goes on.

Cross-site scripting is a little bit harder for the hacker to perform. In this scenario the hacker writes a malicious script, in any of the scripting languages, such as, JavaScript, VB script, and others. The hacker then goes to a site with a message board and in the message board he will put a script as a link along side a seemingly normal message. Users of the board might then click on it and then be affected. Another form of this is done by pasting a script into a form field and causing certain errors which then gives the hacker a back door to get in by.

Web sites that handle errors incorrectly are also at risk. One form of hack is to cause errors which then give the hacker an opportunity to get inside and do what he wants to do such as web defacement. When a hacker finds a site that has inappropriate error handling, the hacker seizes the opportunity and causes continual errors until he finds a door in.

Web site defacement is usually regarded as internet graffiti. However, many times there is a political statement to be made. To make matters worse, hackers usually target sites that will get them the publicity they are seeking. For example, this site belonging to

Figure 1 Hong Kong official government website.

the Hong Kong official government was hacked by Chinese hackers making a political statement by embarrassing the prime minister and his wife. This is a perfect example of why web defacement should be paid attention to more closely and be protected against. To protect a website against such attacks there are various methods. First, do not write any code, passwords, or schemas within the HTML of your website that will give hackers clues searching for victims something they can work with. Secondly, create proper and strict form validation, allowing too many value types can open a backdoor for the hacker. Lastly, beware of the security in your message boards. Script kiddies are known to use widely available malware and code to get in through message boards.

Another more expensive and perhaps viable option is buying software designed specifically to protect your website. For example, www.catbird.com offers software specifically made to ensure content integrity on your site. The way it works is rather simple, but powerful; every two minutes it checks the pre-approved content authorized by you against any changes made and will promptly warn you. No price is mentioned for this software. Another Web application designed to protect sites is WebAgain by Lockstep. Here is what Jim Rapoza of eweek had to say;
WebAgain is a simple application that sits as a kind of staging server where site authors send their content. The tool uses FTP or a network share to send new content to any Web server and to check if pages have been changed on the site. Checks can be made as often as required

For the price of $995 this software not only checks multiple sites for content change or malware being added but it will also reinstate the site to its original state if defaced.
In recent years there has been a sharp increase in web defacements; the catalyst for this is unknown. One event in particular that did spur many website defacements was the Iraq war, specifically at the onset of the war. Below there is a graph obtained from www.f-secure.com, a website focused on security and cataloging many of the defaced sites. This graph in particular lists week 10-12 of the Iraq war.

Figure 2 Website defacement during weeks 10-12 of the Iraq war.

Website defacement is an extremely important topic that should warrant as much focus on security as any other area of information Technology. If a hacker is able to deface a website, this essentially means that a serious breach has occurred. Many defacers do it as a form of internet graffiti, but once inside your website a lot of information can get stolen, such as credit card numbers and other personal information.

There is also a seriously more sinister side to web vulnerabilities, cyber war or cyber attacks from terrorist organizations. “Al Qaeda spent more time mapping our vulnerabilities in cyberspace than previously thought” Confirmed Roger Cressey, The chief of staff of the White House critical infrastructure protection board (Trendle, 2003). Highly skilled programmers in groups like Al Qaeda or others in organizations pose a serious threat to websites and the data in them.

Web defacement once considered a joke or a prank pulled off by kids is now considered a major threat to websites. It used to only embarrass the company who had gotten defaced. However we are now seeing it evolve into more sinister and dangerous intentions. Personal information such as credit card numbers or other forms of identity can be picked off by savvy hackers who manage to break into a website. For these reasons, web defacements warrants serious considerations from security experts and should be a top priority for any website owner.

References:

Rapoza, J. (2002, February). A more useful WebAgain app. Eweek, 19(7), p48 Retrieved September 15, 2004 from the Science Direct Database

Sharma, A. K. 2004, February 03 Prevent a cross-site scripting attack. Retrieved September 12, 2004 from http://www-106.ibm.com/developerworks/library/wa-secxss/

Trendle, G. (2003, June). Cyber Threat! Middle East. Issue 335, p38. Retrieved September 12, 2004 from the Science Direct Database

Graphics
http://www.f-secure.com/virrus-info/iraq.shtml

This paper was written on 9/15/04
***DO NOT COPY My Work, This is only to give you ideas***

{ 3 comments }