CyberSecurity

With the vast amount of sensitive data now stored in the digital universe -- everything from social security numbers to financial records and matters of national security -- it is critical that we secure and protect our data from malicious interests. For vital computer networks and electronic infrastructures, cybersecurity experts stand as the last and most effective line of defense against such attacks.

Information systems are under constant threats from hackers, viruses, and worms. Nothing could be more important than protecting the digital world our very lives depend upon.

Cybersecurity will help you become an indispensable industry leader, someone who applies sound security policies to business and government entities, providing protection and disaster recovery to critical control systems. These workers educate users about computer security, install security software, monitor networks for security breaches, respond to cyber attacks, and, in some cases, gather data and evidence to be used in prosecuting cyber crime. The responsibilities of computer security specialists have increased in recent years as cyber attacks have become more sophisticated"

Securing cyberspace and the national information infrastructure is critical and can be achieved only when qualified workers are available.

Monitor use of security systems including firewalls and intrusion detection systems.

·         Create, implement and oversee security policies.

·         Plan disaster recovery for operating systems, databases, networks, servers, and software applications.

·         Conduct research on emerging products, services, protocols, and standards in support of security enhancement and development efforts.

·         Test new security software and/or technologies.

·         Conduct regular compliance audits utilizing cross divisional information security team.

·         Prepare to take the CISSP certification exam

·         Conduct research in information security related fields towards a doctoral program

·         Devise a mitigation plan against both external and internal vulnerabilities to enterprise computer infrastructures and sensitive digital assets.

·         Support multiple risk assessment strategies and processes to maximize effectiveness and minimize costs of CSIA in a high assurance information system.

·         Integrate systems-level-infrastructure thinking into CSIA problem identification and resolution, and effectively communicate the solution.

·         Differentiate among the models, architectures, challenges and global legal constraints of secure electronic commerce technologies used to ensure transmission, processing and storage of sensitive information.

·         Prescribe how to provide message privacy, integrity, authentication and non-repudiation using network security practices and infrastructure hardening techniques.

·         Evaluate and contrast the impact of diverse ethical perspectives, cultural customs and organizational political dynamics on CSIA.

·         Assess, from both a national and global perspective, the relative demands of Internet-openness, legislation and law-enforcement, and individual right-to-privacy.

·         Forecast the impact of continually advancing technology and national and international cyber-legislation on CSIA.

·         Conduct in-depth research into a specific CSIA topic, including finding and integrating relevant research results of others.

·         Generate critical thinking in analysis and synthesis of enterprise and global CSIA issues through effective individual and team graduate-level written and oral assignments.

Produce a successful project using project development skills.

Payment Gateway

Payment Gateway refers to an e-commerce service that authorizes payments for e-businesses & online retailers. In a way, it represents a physical POS (Point-of-sale) terminal located at most retail outlets. Payment gateways encrypt sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, to ensure that information passes securely between the customer and the merchant.

Types of Payment Gateways

The Payment Gateway is needed to be acquired by the owner of the site and the integration of the same in to the website is performed by us. There exists various types of Payment Gateways, some of which are mentioned below & since it requires varying amount of effort in integrating; so cost for integration of each Payment Gateway varies accordingly, starting from the minimum amount of Rs 5000/- 

Payment Gateway Process

Working of Payment Gateway

Though it may sound simple but actually the entire working of a payment gateway comprises of multiple complex steps; a brief of which is given below: -

·         Visitor places the order on the website and it is sent to the merchant's web server in encrypted format. This is usually done via SSL (Secure Socket Layer) encryption.

·         The transactions details are then forwarded to the concerned Payment Gateway.

·         The transaction information is then passed on to the merchants acquiring bank by the Payment Gateway.

·         Merchants acquiring bank then forwards the transaction information to the issuing bank (one that issued the credit card to the customer).

·         Then the card issuing bank sends a response back to the Payment Gateway. The response includes information that whether the payment has been approved or declined. In case of declination the reason is also sent in the response.

·         The response is then forwarded by the Payment Gateway to the merchant's server.

·         At merchants server the response is encrypted again and is relayed back to the customer. This allows the customer to know that whether the order has been placed successfully or not.

·         The entire process typically takes less than 5 seconds. At the end of the bank day (or settlement period), the acquiring bank (or card issuing bank) deposits the total of the approved funds in to the merchant's nominated account.

Why is Payment Gateway needed?

Payment Gateway holds the essence of any e-commerce site. One cannot think of making or receiving on-line payments without a Payment Gateway. Payment Gateway basically refers to an e-commerce service that authorizes payments for e-businesses & online retailers. It, in a way, represents a physical POS (Point-of-sale) terminal located in most retail outlets. Payment gateways encrypt sensitive information, such as credit card numbers to ensure that information passes securely between the customer and the merchant.

Firewall DMZ

The De-Militarized Zone, or DMZ, is an expression that comes from the Korean War. There, it meant a strip of land forcibly kept clear of enemy soldiers. The idea was to accomplish this without risking your own soldiers' lives, thus mines were scattered throughout the DMZ like grated Romano on a plate of fettuccine :) The term has been assimilated into networking, without the cheese.
Network geeks use it to mean: "a portion of your network which, although under your control, is outside your heaviest security." Compared to the rest of your network, machines you place in the DMZ are less protected, or flat-out unprotected, from the Internet.
Once a machine has entered the DMZ, it should not be brought back inside the network again. Assuming that it has been compromised in some way, bringing it back into the network is a big security hazard.
Use of the DMZ
If you decide to build one, what do you do with it? Machines placed in the DMZ usually offer services to the general public, like Web services, domain name services (DNS), mail relaying and FTP services (all these buzzwords will be explained next). Proxy servers can also go in the DMZ. If you decide to allow your users Web access only via a proxy server, you can put the proxy in the firewall and set your firewall rules to permit outgoing access only to the proxy server.

As long as you've attended to the following points, your DMZ should be ok:
If you put a machine in the DMZ, it must be for a good reason. Sometimes, companies will set up a few workstations with full Internet access within the DMZ. Employees can use these machines for games and other insecure activities. This is a good reason if the internal machines have no Internet access, or extremely limited access. If your policy is to let employees have moderate access from their desktops, then creating workstations like this sends the wrong message. Think about it: The only reason why they would use a DMZ machine is if they were doing something inappropriate for the workplace!
It should be an isolated island, not a stepping stone. It must not be directly connected to the internal network. Furthermore, it shouldn't contain information that could help hackers compromise other parts of the network. This includes user names, passwords, network hardware configuration information etc.
It must not contain anything you can't bear to lose. Any important files placed on the DMZ should be read-only copies of originals located within the network. Files created in the DMZ should not be able to migrate into the network unless an administrator has examined them. If you're running a news server and would like to archive news, make sure the DMZ has its own archival system.
What sort of things shouldn't you do? Example: If you're running an FTP server in the DMZ, don't let users put confidential information on there so they can get it from home later.
It must be as secure a host as you can make it. Just because you're assuming it's secure doesn't guarantee that it is. Don't make it any easier for a hacker than absolutely necessary. A hacker may not be able to compromise your internal network from your DMZ, but they may decide to use it to compromise somebody else's network. Give serious thought to not running Windows on your DMZ machines; it's inherently insecure and many types of intrusions can't be detected on Windows. Linux or open bsd can provide most, if not all, the needed functionality along with a more secure environment.

Importance of Usability Testing in Website Designing

Testing before the actual launch of the product is indeed very important. Testing, if properly carried out ensures the success of the product to much extent.

What is Usability testing:

 It is a technique of evaluating the product features and its functionality by testing it on the users. The products which can be highly benefited from the usability testing can be the food or consumer products or websites and other web applications. As they allow the instant response from the users and the required changes or modifications can be done in less time.

Generally we spend so much of time in testing the website design after it is completely finished working on. Our objective is to provide error free and amazing experience to our users. The few things which you check for sure is cross browser compatibility, navigation functionality, proper functioning of call to action buttons and submissions of forms, queries, comments etc. The testing becomes even more indispensable for e-commerce websites.

Goals for Usability Testing

There are some goals which we keep in the mind while conducting usability testing.

a) Performance: How much time or steps taken up to perform the basic task like creating up the account or order something etc.

b) Memorability: If the users come back to a website after a certain period time of not using it, so does he finds everything easy to do or he has to start all over again to proceed through.

c) Mistakes: To know how many mistakes a user commits and how does he recover from it.

d) User Satisfaction and Interaction: To know where user interacted with the website. What is his satisfaction level or user experience? Did he enjoy visiting the site? Did he get what he was actual looking for? Did the web design make him to perform the task for which the website was supposed to be built up?

Market Research is not Usability testing

Simply gathering of opinions and ideas on a product is not usability testing rather it is a market research. Usability testing has a wider scope than it. It involves close observation when a user is working on the website while under controlled conditions in order to understand how well the user could handle the product and what are the outcomes of that.

Usability Testing at different Stages

1. Pre Development – Users can help even before the prototype is made. But then they can only give directions and they may not able to comprehend the site
2. During Development -  Users can well identify problem areas and can save time and efforts of design and development team
3. Post Development - The main role of users come in this stage where they actually comprehend well with the finished product.

See if you thinking that after the launch of website, when you will be receiving user feedback, then you will make changes or modifications in your website. Then my friend, you are completely wrong. Users once having poor experience with your website are never going to return back.  Now it is the time to be proactive.