Alvin Chung Man Leung

An investigation of information sharing and seeking behaviors in online investment communities

Social networks have attracted significant attention in academic research. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of research on simultaneous information seeking and sharing behaviors in online social networks. In this research, we investigate why and how weakly connected members participate in online investment communities. We propose a theoretical model to simultaneously analyze two types of user behavior - information seeking and information sharing. Based on a survey of 502 members of one of the largest online investment communities in South Korea, we validate our model. We find that sense of belonging, entertainment value, and perceived usefulness are significant antecedent factors of both intention to share and intention to seek, which subsequently lead to information sharing and information seeking behaviors. Also, reputation seeking enhances intention to share while perceived knowledge reduces intention to seek. Furthermore, intention to seek is positively related to information seeking behavior; however, negatively related to information sharing behavior, and intention to share is positively related to only information sharing behavior. Our research enriches extant literature on social networks by providing new insights to help understand user participation behaviors in online communities.

Assessing the severity of phishing attacks: A hybrid data mining approach

Phishing is an online crime that increasingly plagues firms and their consumers. We assess the severity of phishing attacks in terms of their risk levels and the potential loss in market value suffered by the targeted firms. We analyze 1030 phishing alerts released on a public database as well as financial data related to the targeted firms using a hybrid method that predicts the severity of the attack with up to 89% accuracy using text phrase extraction and supervised classification. Our research identifies some important textual and financial variables that impact the severity of the attacks and potential financial loss.

Assessing anti-phishing preparedness: A study of online banks in Hong Kong

Phishing has enormous impacts on the financial industry. This research aims to investigate anti-phishing preparedness of banks in Hong Kong. Web sites of registered Hong Kong banks are analyzed. Information related to phishing and anti-phishing measures adopted by banks are gathered and scores are assigned to banks according to a model measuring accessibility, usability, and information content. A combined score is computed for each bank by measuring the average performance of the bank Web site in all three aspects. The analysis revealed that banks in Hong Kong were generally prepared for countering phishing attacks, and separated out into three clusters that differed in terms of accessibility. The research identified that phishing information was easier to access and was richer in content and coverage compared to information related to anti-phishing measures. Although banks attached importance to information related to anti-phishing measures they needed to improve the accessibility of such information on their Web sites and needed to provide anti-phishing measures related information corresponding to all possible types of phishing attacks including malware and phishing e-mail.

The impact of adoption of identity theft countermeasures on firm value

Abstract Identity theft poses a huge threat to the e-commerce community. Although the crime is a growing menace, firms are uncertain about the payoffs obtained from adoption of identity theft countermeasures. As the cost of implementation of relevant countermeasures is high, senior managers are hesitant to make such investments. Using the event study method, we empirically demonstrate that it is worthy for a firm to adopt such countermeasures. We show that the news of such adoption increases the short term market value of the announcing firm by 0.63% on an average. Our research also finds that early adopters, adopters of sophisticated identity theft countermeasures, firms with high growth potential, and firms with high credit rating show a strong and positive return in market value, whereas small firms demonstrate a moderate but positive reaction. As shown in our research findings, the market rewards early adopters of security technology and adopters of sophisticated measures greatly. To reap the market premium, the industrial practitioners should adopt newer identity theft countermeasures at an earlier time. Furthermore, our study shows that investors reward growing firms and small companies more if they adopt the countermeasures. This shows that the market views the investment in anti-identity theft as a tool to enhance competitive advantage. Our research findings should encourage firms to adopt identity theft countermeasures more proactively.

Do phishing alerts impact global corporations? A firm value analysis

Phishing is a form of online identity theft that is increasingly becoming a global menace. In this research, we analyze the impact of phishing alerts released in public databases on the market value of global firms. Using a sample of 1942 phishing alerts related to 259 firms in 32 countries, we show that the release of each phishing alert leads to a statistically significant loss of market capitalization that is at least US

Technical opinion What drives the adoption of antiphishing measures by Hong Kong banks

411million for a firm. We propose a theoretical framework for analyzing the impact of threats on firm value, and determine that the negative investor reaction is strongly significant for alerts released in 2006-2007 and for those targeted to financial holding companies, and weakly significant for firms listed in the US. We derive and validate these results using a combination of event study, subsampling analysis, and cross-sectional regression analysis. Our research makes a contribution by providing a new model for conducting multi-country event studies. We also contribute to the information systems literature by quantifying the loss in market value caused by phishing, and provide compelling evidence to information security administrators of firms that urge them to adopt adequate countermeasures to prevent phishing attacks. We study the impact of release of phishing alerts on firm value.We use a novel asset pricing model for conducting an event study.Phishing alerts negatively impact firm value for global companies.Financial holding companies are strongly affected by release of such alerts.

A comparative study of anti-phishing preparedness of Hong Kong and Singapore banks

Introduction Phishing mongers and posers have taken the world by a storm and it is estimated that the annual financial loss due to phishing scams is at least US

Network Analysis of Search Dynamics: The Case of Stock Habitats

320 million. Hong Kong has been a hotspot of phishing attacks and since majority of phishing incidences occurring in the world are related to the financial services industry, banks in Hong Kong have been frequent targets. We conducted a study of Hong Kong banks in 2005 and 2007 to assess their phishing readiness and to understand the driving forces that shaped their adoption of anti-phishing measures (AM) over time. We searched the security related information available on the Web sites of the Hong Kong banks to determine AM adopted by them. We scored the banks based on the adoption of AM and related it to characteristics of banks and other plausible external factors.

Matching in Proximity Authentication and Mobile Payment EcoSystem: What Are We Missing?

Phishing poses a huge threat to the e-commerce industry. Not only does it shatter the confidence of customers towards e-commerce, but also causes electronic service providers tremendous economic loss. In order to safeguard the interests of customers, both academia and industrial practitioners have proposed various anti-phishing measures and online security policies. In this paper, we investigate the banking industry, which is one of the frequent targets of phishing, of two prominent international financial hubs - Hong Kong and Singapore. Our goal is to assess how well banks are prepared against phishing by analyzing security information available on their official Web sites. The result shows that among the four types of phishing attacks, banks in both places are well prepared to handle bogus Web sites but are inadequately prepared to handle phishing emails. In terms of method of presentation of security information, banks in both regions generally preferred FAQs and demonstrations. Despite some similarities, it is found that some regional factors like government advocacy played a significant role in adoption of the security measures. Through this research, we hope to give insights to both industry practitioners and academic researchers about preparedness of banks against phishing.

When Innovation Meets Evolution: An Extensive Study of Emerging e-Learning Technologies for Higher Education in Hong Kong

There is an increasing attention in IS to be able to predict outcomes using search frequency on popular portals. This growing literature focuses on revealing demand patterns of individual assets (e.g., products, stocks, services). However, users typically search many different assets together (e.g., correlated searches) and leave digital footprint, which can help provide insights on the behaviors of a group of assets. Furthermore, such group behavior can be used to predict outcomes (e.g., demand, stock returns) in the future. We analyze the underlying behavior of distinct sub-networks formed by correlated user searches for multiple items in the stock market and use such information for return prediction. Using co-search data for stocks from Yahoo! Finance, we find 50 to 79 search clusters representing 230 to 349 stocks among Russell 3000 stocks at different time periods. These clusters reveal interesting habitats where the returns of stocks within a cluster tend to comove after controlling for known determinants of comovement. When a stock enters (departs) a cluster, the focal stock return comoves (detaches) with the cluster returns. Thus, search cluster based habitats reveal aggregate investment preferences and are more granular than fundamental-based habitats. We find that search based habitats can also improve return predictability of related stocks.