Steps you can take to make online system safe for customers - Research Paper Example

The sectors which were highly benefitted with the advancement of technology include healthcare, education, communication and retail business. In spite of having so many positive elements, technology still suffers from certain flaw which involves too much dependency on technology which in turn lessens the value of human labors. However, the biggest disadvantage of technology that has become a topic of discussion these days refers to the security threats faced by the users of the advanced technologies.

We shall discuss further how to overcome these threats from the viewpoint of an IT manager of an organization. Steps to ensure secured online transaction for the customers According to the Computer Crime and Security Survey of 2009- 2010, Malware infection was regarded as the most common type of security attack, with almost 67.1% people reporting it. Also around 45.6% of the people reported that they had been the target of at least one security threat. Many had faced financial losses due to poor security system and therefore they didn’t mention the amount of loss they had suffered.

These incidents however make the general people aware as well as lose confidence in the benefits of online business opportunities. The various business organizations are continuously making efforts to make the customers feel secured from the potential threats that might arise from cyber crimes. For this purpose, the organizations have taken several steps which are inevitably influenced by the guidelines of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The steps include- 1. Accountability- The first and foremost step towards a secured technology structure would involve the accountability of the providers, owners and customers towards the security of the system.

Anything doubtful should be immediately communicated. 2. Awareness- In order to encourage increased and safe usage of technology, its expected from the owners, customers and service providers that they should be informed and aware about the existence and limit of security measures available in an organization. They should be alert while using their accounts and should not forget to sign out each time after their work is done. 3. Ethics- The owners of the organizations as well as the service providers should follow an ethical code of conduct in which, if a customer is found unaware of the technology threats, they should be taken proper care of by guiding them throughout the entire procedure. 4. Multidisciplinary- The security measures should be formed keeping in consideration the fields of law, society, technology, education, administration and politics, so that the system becomes safe in all terms letting the customers to trust the organization with confidence.

(Loader and Thomas, 1) 5. Timeliness- When the customer finds anything suspicious, then, their issues need to be addressed instantly. Delay and negligence might cause the cyber crime to take place and then the customer would never trust online transaction any more. 6. Antivirus software- The system of the organization should be secured with the implementation of software that detects potential threats including virus, spam and firewall. 7. Encryption of software- Encryption is the process of specially encoding the data in a system which is impossible to access without the exact key or code.

This can be done with the appointment of expert software professionals. An encrypted