Do we really have to eliminate all ecommerce security risks?

The top five security threats in terms of costs per attack to an organization are financial fraud $21 million, viruses $8.3 million, theft of customer/employee data $7.8 million, system penetrations $6.8 million, and laptop/mobile device thefts $3.8 million, according to CSI (Richardson, 2007).

Couple these kinds of attacks with generous press coverage, and the results can be significantly damaging to an organizations reputation, brand, investors, and customers.

Turban, Lee, King, McKay and Marshall recommend a sensible approach/model called enterprise-wide security which is based on four pillars: Senior management commitment and support, Security policies and training, Security procedures and enforcement, and Hardware/Software Security tools (2008).

Senior manager commitment and support ensures that security programs are established and maintained. Security policies and training provide guidance on acceptable use of computing assets, access control, enforcement, roles and responsibilities.

Security procedures and enforcement focus on the evaluation of the assets at risk and the costs/value to the organization, customers, and criminals. The hardware/software security tools are implemented to support and enforce the policies and procedures that were put in place (Turban et al. 2008).

The enterprise-wide approach focuses on managing prioritized security risks versus addressing all security risks which can stretch scare resources.

References
Richardson, R. (2007). 2007 CSI Computer crime and security survey. Retrieved November 25, 2007 from http://i.cmpnet.com/v2.gocsi.com/pdf/CSISurvey2007.pdf

Turban, E., Lee, J., King, D., McKay, J. & Marshall, P. (2008). Electronic Commerce 2008. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Can Jerry Wang turn Yahoo around?

Since the Microsoft/Yahoo deal collapsed we have seen Jerry Wang and team under siege. In early June Carl Icahn claimed that Yahoo sabotaged the deal, and that he would push to remove the entire board at Yahoo’s August 1 shareholder meeting (BBC). Mr. Icahn now has had to scale back the number of members he wants to un-seat because of a lack of support from large institutional investors (Doran, 2008).

Will Jerry survive and can he turn things around?

Yahoo’s stock price dropped to around $19.05 Jan 30 of 2008, then surged to $28.38 February 1 after Microsoft announced their acquisition intent (2008) reaching $30 a share by February 14 (Yahoo Finance, n.d.)

In terms of fundamentals, Yahoo top line revenue has been growing at a modest 2.3% the past four quarters while recording over half a billion in net income this past quarter (Yahoo Finance, 2008). In the past four quarters Yahoo net income averaged a growth rate of 68% indicating some internal efficiencies to squeeze costs out of internal operations.

Wall Street and investors want to know what is Yahoo’s clear strategy/vision going to be in order to grow and increase value, and is Jerry Wang the guy that can deliver that vision (Yen, 2008). I say give Jerry and team one more quarter to optimize and communicate their strategy coupled with two more quarters of positive financial results. If the opportunity is fumbled then we are sure to see a shake-up or perhaps another acquisition episode.


References
BBC (2008, June 4). Yahoo 'sabotaged' Microsoft deal. Retrieved June 20, 2008 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7436856.stm

Doran, J. (2008, June 22). Icahn to soften his approach to Yahoo! as investors get nervous. Retrieved June 24, 2008 from http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jun/22/yahootakeover.yahoo

Microsoft. (2008, February 1). Microsoft proposes acquisition of Yahoo for $31 per share. Retrieved June 21, 2008 from
http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/feb08/02-01CorpNewsPR.mspx

Yahoo Finance. (2008). Quarterly income statement. Retrieved June 21, 2008 from http://finance.yahoo.com/q/is?s=YHOO

Yahoo Finance (n.d.) Interactive stock chart: Yahoo. Retrieved June 21, 2008 from http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=YHOO#chart10:symbol=yhoo;range=20070924,20080620;indicator=volume;charttype=line;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=on

Yen, Y. (2008, June 20). Yahoo exodus adds to Yang's burdens. Retrieved June 21, 2008 from http://money.cnn.com/2008/06/20/technology/yahoo_yang.fortune/index.htm?section=money_latest

Is Yahoo having to defend its other flank?

Christine Holahan suggests that Yahoo is out of one battle—Microsoft’s recent failed takeover bid—, and poised to enter another battle with social networking traffic leader, MySpace.com (2008). On June 18, 2008 MySpace is launching new design changes and five new features that are portal-like and Yahooesque.

The new changes and features are items such as news stories, local weather, links to MySpace entertainment areas, top MySpace blogger images, and a MySpace TV player

Forrester analyst Shar VanBoskirk mentions that Yahoo and AOL have already been losing some traffic to social media outlets that utilize digital message walls for friends to communicate with each other versus using e-mail (Holahan, 2008).

Yahoo and e-commerce analyst will be watching web traffic over the next few months to see what kind of impact the MySpace changes will have.


Reference
Holahan, C. (2008, June 15). MySpace: My Portal? Retrieved June 16, 2008 from http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/63404.html