Safer E-Transactions

The internet is an unsafe place to be in and there arekeeping my details updated. The imposter asked me
numerous hackers in the internet who are waiting toto pay it to an agent who would come and collect it
get an opportunity to steal data from consumers.at my residence. I paid Rs.3000, and Rs500 extra as
Hacking is an art and a hacker needs to know justservice charges. It was too late when I realized that
one loop hole to enter into any system and stealI was fooled and there was no need for me to pay
data from it. Technology has improved so much thatany money to the department as my records were
consumers can buy any product by the click of aup to date. Though I approached the police station
button. Recently, the income tax department hasand lodged a complaint, the police were not able to
received complaints about emails that ask tax payerstrack the thief. The Income Tax department has
to share information of their accounts and areadvised the consumers to keep their user id and
warned not to exchange their PAN card number withpassword safe and not to reveal it at any cost.
strangers who impose themselves as agents orChanging the password periodically is also a measure
officials from the Income Tax department. Theto protect your account.
recent analysis by the Income Tax department hasNow things have changed and e-transactions are
revealed that a number of people have encounteredsafer. Two Indian scientists have found a way to
fake emails that require the consumers to submitreduce the transaction times in e-deals. The
their PAN card and account number for an identitye-transactions have become an important part of our
verification. The information received from severallives as we make transactions frequently. The
quarters of people is receiving electronic mailssecurity of the data supplied during the e-commerce
informing them of their income tax refunds andthrough the internet is of uttermost importance. The
seeking their credit card details. The Income Taxtechnique used is cryptography that involves
department has declared that it does not sendencryption and decryption techniques. Cryptography
e-mails of refunds and never seeks any informationis the science of keeping the data secure during
regarding the credit cards.transaction. A cryptosystem encrypts the data using
The tax payers are warned not to respond to mailsa key which is sent with the data. The message is
that are sent from strange e-mail addresses.decrypted using the same key and the original
Consumers must be aware that any mail sent by themessage is obtained. When the third party or a
Income Tax department should not be repliedhacker if he gets the information, it does not matter
because the mails are sent by an automated system.as the message will be in decrypted form and that
An incident that occurred a few days ago changedwill be un-intelligible. There are two techniques, one
my life where I also alerted the police department. Iuses an asymmetric key and other uses a symmetric
am a business man who owns a jewellery store. Ikey. The encryption technique used for the banking
got an e-mail regarding my refunds. I was asked toand credit card systems is public key encryption
submit my full bio- data and PAN card details in antechnique. The main advantage of the technique is
email. I submitted all my details as it said it was fromthat, consumers can be sure that their information is
the Income Tax department. The imposter repliedabsolutely safe as the encryption and decryption is
me immediately and asked me to submit my creditbased on two different keys. One of the scientists
card and bank account details as soon as possible, ascompared this system like a lock that can be locked
a second level security check.using a key, but cannot be opened with the same
I had no idea that I was tricked by an imposter, so Ilock. It is believed to be the most secured system of
sent the details that I was asked for. After twoe-transaction.
days, I was asked to pay a fine of Rs.3000 for not