Method for Securing Online Community Service: A Study of Selected Western Australian Councils

Since the Internet was publicly made available, it has become popular and widely used in a range of services such as Email, News, IRC, World Wide Web around the globe. Progressively other services such as telephony, video conferencing, video on demand, interactive TV, Geospatial Information System (GIS), have emerged and become available on the Internet. Nowadays, Internet broadband communication infrastructure, both wired and wireless, make the concept of a Digital Community possible. The Digital Community has been growing and expanding rapidly around the world. This changes the way we live, work and play. Creating a Digital Community can empower local authorities to carry out more activities with limited resources, yet encourage business growth, provide better services, and enhance security (Intel, 2005b). This research will specifically examine the concept of a secure digital community in terms of Online Services Internet Technologies in selected local councils in Western Australia. However the research is significant to all digital communities

A method for securing online community service: A study of selected Western Australian councils

Since the Internet was made publicly accessible, it has become increasingly popular and its deployment has been broad and global thereby facilitating a range of available online services such as Electronic Mail (email), news or bulletins, Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and World Wide Web (WWW). Progressively, other online services such as telephony, video conference, video on demand, Interactive Television (ITV) and Geographic Information System (GIS) have been integrated with the Internet and become publicly available. Presently, Internet broadband communication services incorporating both wired and wireless network technologies has seen the emergence of the concept of a digital community which has been growing and expanding rapidly around the world. Internet and the ever expanding online services to the wider digital community has raised the issue of security of these services during usage. Most local councils throughout Western Australia have resorted to delivering online services such as library, online payments and email accessibility. The provision and usage of these services have inherent security risks. Consequently, this study investigated the concept of a secure digital community in the secure provision and usage of these online services in selected local councils in Western Australia (WA). After an extensive review of existing literature, information security frameworks were derived from the adaptation of various resources, such as the OSSTMM 2.2 Section C: Internet Technology Security benchmark which was used as the main template. In addition, this template was enhanced into a framework model by incorporating other benchmarks such as NIST, CIS, ISSAF as well as other sources of information. These included information security related books, related ICT network and security websites such as CERT, CheckPoint, Cisco, GFI, Juniper, MS, NESSUS and NMAP together with journals and personal interviews. The proposed information security frameworks were developed to enhance the level of security strength of the email and online web systems as well as to increase the level of confidence in the system security within the selected local councils in WA. All the investigative studies were based upon the available selected local councils’ data and the associated analyses of the results as obtained from the testing software. In addition, the interpretive multiple-case study principles were used during the investigation to achieve or fulfil the purpose of this study. The findings from this study were then abstracted for use in a framework and made available for use as a model for possible adaptation and implementation to other similarly structured councils or organisations. As a result, the study confirmed that the proposed information security frameworks have the capability and potential to improve the level of security strength. In addition, the level of satisfaction and confidence of council staff of the selected local councils in WA in the system security would also be increased due to the application of these frameworks. Although these information security frameworks may be recommended as practical and supporting tools for local councils, the findings from this study were specific only to the selected local councils used in this study. Further research using other councils, may be necessary in order for the information security frameworks to be adopted within a wider range of councils or organisations in WA or elsewhere

A comparative analysis of the security of internet banking in Australia:a customer perspective

Internet has its own inherent security issues in terms of confidentiality, integrity and privacy. The main impact of these kinds of issues is specifically on the banking industry as they have increased their Internet banking facilities in order to reduce costs and provide better services and banking convenience to their Internet banking customers. However, banking customers have not had a choice of Internet banking mainly due to the fact that they are already tied to whatever form of Internet banking that their current bank provides. This paper therefore examined Internet banking security systems in Australian banks by creating the proposed Internet banking security checklist which can benefit both existing and potential Internet banking customers to use as an Internet banking security guideline. Furthermore, the results uncovered were lack of Internet banking security in all the 16 selected Australian banks. These can impact its existing and potential customers’ confidentiality in terms of using Internet banking. Better Internet banking security information, two-factor authentication and stronger encryption in use are some of the example recommendations. In addition, this study can be extended to cover more in-depth details which cover interviewing and auditing from a customer perspective, the design and format of the Internet banking website and mobile banking security

An investigation of internet banking security of selected licensed banks in Vietnam

Currently, most Vietnamese banks provide internet banking services to customers. These services may include internet banking, online trading, and mobile banking. One critical aspect of internet banking is security. Confidentiality, integrity, and privacy are important elements for secure internet banking. This paper makes a comparative study of internet banking security features provided by the 22 selected licensed Vietnamese banks. The objective of the analysis was to improve the existing internet banking information security checklist (Version 1.05) and make it a more realistic and comprehensive international guideline. Results identified a lack of related internet banking security information on internet banking websites of all 22 selected licensed Vietnamese banks. Lack of security information by banks can impact negatively to the provision of confidentiality by the selected banks which may ultimately lead to a general reduction of trust from their current and potential internet banking customers. © 2016, Walailak University. All rights reserved