online | Technology Bloggers

How to be a smart online buyer

28th September 2011 20 Replies Christopher Roberts

When you decide you want to buy something off the internet, how do you go about doing so? I’m not talking about getting your shopping delivered to your door, I am talking about buying something like maybe a laptop, digital camera or a new mobile phone.

Many people just look for the make and model they want and they go straight in for the buy. Do you? If so, you may want to read on, as you could save yourself a lot of money!

Say I wanted to buy a laptop, one of the first things I would do would be to go to a money saving site like Money Saving Expert in order to establish whether there are currently any great offers on laptops that other people on the web have noticed.

If you are still looking for the best type of laptop for you, try review and comparison sites like Test Freaks. These can help you decide what laptop to buy, as they can give you reviews that people who have bought laptops have written. They often also present data in a very easy way, often giving the product a score, based on its price, spec (and therefore value for money) and what peoples reviews are like – i.e. positive or negative.

If/once you have your heart set on a particular laptop, then your next step is to look for discount codes for that sit/product. Sites like My Voucher Codes can often save you 5-10% on your goods, simply because they know the latest discounts for your product. 5-10% might not sound that much, but if you are buying a £350 laptop (lets say $500) 10% is £35/$50 which is enough to buy you a really good travel case as well as a decent wireless laser mouse and a USB hub.

The final bit of advice I would give you is to take your time. When spending a large amount of money over the internet check reviews of the site you are buying off, to see if it is reputable, check that the item is exactly what you want and make sure you get the best price!

Often online sites have deals which change all the time, meaning that tomorrow that perfect laptop may now be 25% cheaper, as it was only higher priced so that they could bring it down and slap a ‘25% off!’ label on it.

Good luck making any online purchases 🙂

Anyone got any other advice/experiences to share?

Is One-Factor Authentication Really Sufficient?

20th August 2011 6 Replies Alan

In the analogue world, we identify ourselves by our national identity card which consists of basic information such as name, address, date of birth, and a unique ID number.

However this cannot be done in the digital world. Whenever you go online, even your name is not commonly used for identification. What commonly used is the username and password and these two are the basic criteria of a one-factor authentication.

The one-factor authentication is also known as ‘something you know’. Today we have more than one factor when it comes to authentication and it is applied by using a software or hardware device as part of your authentication. This make up the second factor and it is known as ‘something you have’. There is also third factor which is still not popularly used is the third factor or also known as ‘something you are’.
The reason of having so many factors in authentication is that the one-factor authentication is not sufficient for a sensitive transaction’s security. It is vulnerable to the traditional ‘Brute-Force’ attack that it is still useful today simply because computers today are extremely fast and it can even be done not only using CPU but also GPU.

The other weakness of one-factor authentication is that it is extremely vulnerable to ‘Password Reuse’ attack. There are not many users who change their password frequently or use different password for different online account. As a result, any username and passwords that are hacked can be possibly used from time to time on different website.

So now, do you perform your online banking transaction with just username and password? Think twice before you put your online banking account at risk.

Even for certain two factor devices, they are vulnerable to phishing attack. With the increasing cybercrime rate, we should focus more in our IT security. Especially for online banking account users, do think of your safety if you are still with one-factor authentication on that.

Could you be a net champion?

11th May 2011 11 Replies Christopher Roberts

Did you know around 9 million people in the UK have never used the internet?

That is why, this week the UK government announced that it has 100,000 people volunteering to be net champions.

What is a net champion?

A net champion is someone who helps someone else get online.

Who are the current net champions?

Many of the current volunteers are Scouts, Post Office workers and librarians.

Why try to help people get online

People in low income households save around £270 per year, just from being online. These savings may come via using tools like Skype, having the ability to shop around more, or by switching to better deals online.

The thing is many people, especially the elderly don’t realise this. Therefore helping and educating them should increase their ability to save money, and will hopefully also enrich their lives via using things like social media.

What if you don’t have a computer?

Some firms, including Microsoft have made available a range of cheap computers. These low-priced ‘recycled’ PCs will be available from about £95.

The UK Prime Minister, David Cameron has backed the campaign. From what I have heard and read about it, it seems like a good idea to me too. What do you think, should we encourage more people onto the net, especially the elderly, or would they make the net a more dangerous place?

Would you consider volunteering?

A range of cheap computers is being made available to further entice them.The low-price recycled PCs will be available from Microsoft, among others, for about £95.

Technology Bloggers

Championing responsible innovation in partnership with the Bassetti Foundation