European Union telecoms ministers agreed on Thursday to extend the life of the bloc’s Internet security watchdog by three years as threats to the Web increase. The European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA), a small body set up in 2004, was due to be closed down next year. But rising cyber-crime and attacks such as one suffered by EU member Estonia last year has triggered a rethink. The bloc’s 27 telecoms industry ministers, meeting in Luxembourg, agreed a three-year reprieve until 2012 to give time to decide how to take Greek-based ENISA forward. The European Parliament is set to formally endorse the move next week. ENISA’s executive director, Andrea Pirotti, said network security was crucial for the European economy, which increasingly depends on a trouble-free Internet. “The need for secure networks, systems and services will certainly not suddenly disappear in 2012,” Pirotti said in a statement. “Network and information security touches business and the daily lives of citizens in Europe. It consequently needs constant reinforcement to keep up with the evolving threats landscape,” Pirotti said. With an annual budget of 8 million euros and fewer than 50 staff, ENISA had no remit or resources to deal with cyber attacks like that experienced by Estonia last year, when the Baltic state accused Russia of causing government websites to crash.

Hackers have breached security at a clothing company’s website and stolen the credit card details of an estimated 38,000 customers.

Cotton Traders said industry experts were called in as soon as the breach was discovered and insisted its website met appropriate security standards.

The company could not confirm how many of its customers were targeted in the January attack, but said the figure of 38,000 was “widely inaccurate”.

In a statement, it said: “In January 2008 we identified a security issue.

“We immediately brought in industry security experts to resolve the problem.

“We can confirm that our customer credit card data is encrypted on our website but if any of our customers have been a victim of fraud, they should contact their card issuer.”

Cotton Traders was founded in 1987 by two former England rugby union captains, Fran Cotton and Steve Smith.

It began by selling rugby shirts from a single room in Altrincham and grew into a £50 million business with more than 700 employees in the UK, sending out over 100,000 parcels a month.

There are now more than two million customers on the company’s database.

The statement continued: “We can confirm that the figure of 38,000 as reported by BBC is widely inaccurate and we would like to reassure all our customers that their data is secure and that the Cotton Traders website meets all leading industry security standards

Paypal Customer Service

Designing websites for online sales? Are you using Paypal as a merchant account to receive payments for selling online?

It may well suprise you that Paypal are not an authorised credit agency, thats to say they are not covered by any of the credit or banking regulatory conditions imposed on the banking industry. That means you have absolutely no recourse through third party regulators set up in major industrial countries.

So, you get a problem, double payments debited, money not released - what do you do?Not much apart from become part of Paypal customer service experience. Whereas with a bank you get recourse through the Ombudsman to resolve any type of these situations.

Its quite worrying. I received this email from Statcounter, a company I use to gather website statistics. Read on….

We at StatCounter are having ongoing, critical problems with Paypal. In view of the complete lack of assistance from Paypal in this regard and the gravity of the problems, we have decided that we have no option but to inform you, our members, about the facts of the situation. This will allow you to make an informed decision about whether to use (or whether to continue to use) Paypal.

Please note that these problems have been ongoing since 15 May and may arise not only in relation to payments made to StatCounter but in relation to ANY Paypal payments that you make.

We hope that our communications will equip you with the information necessary to make sure that YOU do not become another victim of this ongoing Paypal saga.

The two major issues affecting StatCounter Paypal subscribers are: - Delayed issuing of invoices - Instances of double billing.

 At StatCounter we have tried phoning, emailing, posting on the Paypal forums… Many of our contacts are ignored, but even when we do get an answer all we are told is that “Upon review of your account, unfortunately we do not have a time frame for a resolution to your issue we are currently actively investigating your issue with subscriptions.”

Folks - we sincerely regret any problems you are experiencing and assure you that we are doing our best to get all of these issues resolved for you. We strive to offer a high level of customer service and pride ourselves on being responsive to the needs and suggestions of our members. To have our hands “tied” in this way as a result of Paypals inaction is frustrating to say the least. We would be very grateful for your patience at this time as we wait for Paypal to resolve these issues.

I suggest you visit Paypal Sucks and read a few of the critcisms of the Paypal system.

Here is a taster……

“According to PayPal accepting their ToS (Terms of Service) in effect means you waive your rights to credit card consumer protection laws if you want to use their service, and that you may not issue a chargeback for unauthorized use of your credit card and PayPal account, or if you do, then they have the right to limit your account. Is this legal? We don’t know. But it’s how Paypal operates`”

 
I strongly recommend that you should set up a merchant account with your bank if selling online through an ecommerce website. Else, the consequences of using Paypal could end up breaking your company cashflow.