A United Nations technology summit reached an agreement to leave the United States with ultimate oversight of the main computers that direct the Internet's flow of information. This agreement has overshadowed the summit's original intent of addressing ways to expand communications technologies to poorer parts of the world. Negotiators from more than 100 countries agreed to leave the United States in charge of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers or ICANN. That decision averted a U.S. - EU showdown that threatened to derail the World Summit on the Information Society. The computers under dispute control Internet traffic by acting as its master directories so Web browsers and e-mail can find other computers. David Gross, the U.S. State Department's top official on Internet policy, stated that "despite the U.S. hand in ICANN, Internet governance was not the provenance of one specific country." Mr. Gross is dismissing claims that the U.S. is holding onto its position as the arbiter of the Internet.
Negotiators also agreed to form an open-ended international forum for raising important Internet issues. Officials say that this forum would give nations a stronger say in how the Internet works, including the availability of domain suffixes in Chinese and other languages. Currently, though names partially in another language are possible, the suffix ".com" remains in English. The group could also address issues not currently covered by ICANN, threats like spam and cybercrime.
The new group, the Internet Governance Forum, would start operating next year with its first meeting opened by U.N. secretaryGeneral Kofi Annan. Left unsettled, however, was whether the U.N. would ultimately administer that forum. Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for information society and media, said the agreement paved the way for better Internet governance.
The above information was gathered from www.ecommercetimes.com Airlines continue to upgrade
With high fuel costs, airlines continue to turn to their Websites and other technology to save money and speed up the check-in process. Many airline travelers still buy their tickets over the phone from call centers or at reservation counters, but the airlines are pushing customers to book travel online because it saves the carriers on labor costs.
The Website of American Airlines draws upward of a million visitors a day. According to airline vice president, Bella Goren, total online ticketing accounts for 35 percent of American's total ticket sales. American is also trying to boost sales of hotel rooms and rental cars on its site. This year it began working with a seller of last-minute vacation packages.
The most successful airline Web site, in terms of percentage of an airline's tickets sold online, belongs to Southwest Airlines. The carrier sells more than half its tickets on its Website, which has allowed the company to close some of its ticket-selling call centers. The airline has also looked to technology to reduce the need for labor at the airports. Over the last three years, Southwest has spent $12 million to install technology to issue paper boarding passes. The passes contain a barcode for each passenger. There are about 350 touchscreen ticket readers at airport gates to track each customer who gets on a plane. This information, along with factors such as cargo and fuel, can help to calculate the weight and balance of each plane load.
The above information was gathered from www.crmbuyer.com.
Fraud rising among large e-commerce companies
A new report says that losses tied to fraudulent e-commerce activity will reach $2.8 billion in 2005. Professional scammers are targeting fastgrowing e-tail sites that are too large to manually verify each purchase, but haven't yet implemented sophisticated anti-fraud measures. CyberSource, a payment solutions and fraud detection company, said its seventh annual survey of e-commerce providers finds that fraud will rise eight percent over 2004 levels. The increase comes after several years during which fraud rates were being kept in check.
Fraud-loss rates could reach as high as 1.8 percent of revenue for mid-sized merchants, those with sales of $5 million to $25 million. Companies in this segment are just coming on to the radar of professional fraudsters. Smaller companies can manually verify every purchase but there comes a point in their growth when that's no longer practical. The largest companies are likely to have more sophisticated anti-fraud systems in place, but they may also be at greater risk for fraud because they are more likely to have significant international sales which have the highest rates of fraud. The international fraud rate is about 2.4 percent compared to around one percent for all domestic sales.
There doesn't appear to be any single trend or new approach to fraud that will help explain the eight percent increase. Many large-scale fraudulent purchases from stolen credit cards are tested first and, if successful, it is quickly followed by a flood of additional purchases. There are a lot of programs available to detect that but many medium-size companies have not reached that point. Sensitivity to fraud often varies based on the profit margin and cost of sales at an etailer. Those with thin margins will see their profits hurt by a few fraudulent purchases; those with more room for error can absorb more.
Negotiators also agreed to form an open-ended international forum for raising important Internet issues. Officials say that this forum would give nations a stronger say in how the Internet works, including the availability of domain suffixes in Chinese and other languages. Currently, though names partially in another language are possible, the suffix ".com" remains in English. The group could also address issues not currently covered by ICANN, threats like spam and cybercrime.
The new group, the Internet Governance Forum, would start operating next year with its first meeting opened by U.N. secretaryGeneral Kofi Annan. Left unsettled, however, was whether the U.N. would ultimately administer that forum. Viviane Reding, EU commissioner for information society and media, said the agreement paved the way for better Internet governance.
The above information was gathered from www.ecommercetimes.com Airlines continue to upgrade
With high fuel costs, airlines continue to turn to their Websites and other technology to save money and speed up the check-in process. Many airline travelers still buy their tickets over the phone from call centers or at reservation counters, but the airlines are pushing customers to book travel online because it saves the carriers on labor costs.
The Website of American Airlines draws upward of a million visitors a day. According to airline vice president, Bella Goren, total online ticketing accounts for 35 percent of American's total ticket sales. American is also trying to boost sales of hotel rooms and rental cars on its site. This year it began working with a seller of last-minute vacation packages.
The most successful airline Web site, in terms of percentage of an airline's tickets sold online, belongs to Southwest Airlines. The carrier sells more than half its tickets on its Website, which has allowed the company to close some of its ticket-selling call centers. The airline has also looked to technology to reduce the need for labor at the airports. Over the last three years, Southwest has spent $12 million to install technology to issue paper boarding passes. The passes contain a barcode for each passenger. There are about 350 touchscreen ticket readers at airport gates to track each customer who gets on a plane. This information, along with factors such as cargo and fuel, can help to calculate the weight and balance of each plane load.
The above information was gathered from www.crmbuyer.com.
Fraud rising among large e-commerce companies
A new report says that losses tied to fraudulent e-commerce activity will reach $2.8 billion in 2005. Professional scammers are targeting fastgrowing e-tail sites that are too large to manually verify each purchase, but haven't yet implemented sophisticated anti-fraud measures. CyberSource, a payment solutions and fraud detection company, said its seventh annual survey of e-commerce providers finds that fraud will rise eight percent over 2004 levels. The increase comes after several years during which fraud rates were being kept in check.
Fraud-loss rates could reach as high as 1.8 percent of revenue for mid-sized merchants, those with sales of $5 million to $25 million. Companies in this segment are just coming on to the radar of professional fraudsters. Smaller companies can manually verify every purchase but there comes a point in their growth when that's no longer practical. The largest companies are likely to have more sophisticated anti-fraud systems in place, but they may also be at greater risk for fraud because they are more likely to have significant international sales which have the highest rates of fraud. The international fraud rate is about 2.4 percent compared to around one percent for all domestic sales.
There doesn't appear to be any single trend or new approach to fraud that will help explain the eight percent increase. Many large-scale fraudulent purchases from stolen credit cards are tested first and, if successful, it is quickly followed by a flood of additional purchases. There are a lot of programs available to detect that but many medium-size companies have not reached that point. Sensitivity to fraud often varies based on the profit margin and cost of sales at an etailer. Those with thin margins will see their profits hurt by a few fraudulent purchases; those with more room for error can absorb more.
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