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"The Information Commissioner's Office will be able to issue fines of up to £500,000 for serious data security breaches. The new rule is expected to come into force in the UK on 6 April 2010. It has been approved by Jack Straw MP, Secretary of State for Justice. "

This article talks about Data security regarding information kept in a computer. The stakeholders in this case are the employee and the customer. The IT system is, like previously mentioned, a computer. The issue regarding the system is reliability. If you have a customers information such as credit card numbers and other personal data, then security and reliability definitely come up as an issue. Computers are prone to get viruses which could wipe out all the information stored on your hardrive. Hackers and other spyware can also be another concern. Your customer is trusting you with their information. The article also proposes a solution. The solution would be to have two separate computers, one for personal uses and the other for work. That way, eliminating visiting websites that might have viruses.

Cipheroptics give data security and network encryption solutions to security enterprises, financial institutions, health care, and government agencies. NAEA (North American Energy Alliance) utilized Cipheropitics to protect their data, using encryption. Dominick Birolin, the network engineer for NAEA, states that the company was "looking for a solution that could protect our critical cyber assets and meet our unique deployment requirements when we found CipherOptics." They chose this over others because CipherOptics offers security solutions for high performance networks. In addition to that, "the company's wire-speed encryption appliances are able to secure any network without changing the underlying infrastructure or application performance." Encryption works: initially by the business putting the sensitive data in plaintext. Plaintext is the normal, readable digital text. The business, using Cipheroptics, then converts the text into ciphertext. This text is made in a way that it can only be read by someone who has the key to put it back into plaintext and make it readable. The business holds the private key, which enables them to encrypt, and keep private, the data while still managing to access it when necessary.

Purchasing songs, apps, movies, and etc on ITunes requires each user to have an ITunes account. Upon signing up for the account, a valid credit or paypal account must be entered to pay for any purchased items. These purchases are made using a SSL (secure socket layer) connection so that when the user sends their information to ITunes to set up an account, log in, or purchase an item, the information they are sending is encrypted.The sender is given a public key to show that he or she was the one sending the message and ITunes will get the private key. The data is encrypted using a code that will translate the data into a message incomprehensible to others if not decrypted using a private key. Once it has reached the ITunes database after being sent over the network, the private key will decode the message and proceed with the transaction.  However, the problem lies within the process of setting up an account. Many customers' itunes accounts are being hacked into and sold online to other people in China. Hackers are still able to find and intercept customers' information, such as their passwords or credit card number, and use it to sell to other people. Passwords may be too weak in some cases or authentication by the itunes store may be too weak. The issue of security is therefore involved as sensitive information can be accessed by others. The customers are affected since they are being charged for items that they are not purchasing. The company, Apple, is also affected negatively since their customers may not feel safe buying from them anymore and therefore losing business. Then there are the hackers who are benefiting in such a situation, profiting off of other people illegally.

After the January earthquake in Haiti, many people were left under extremely bad health conditions, with little or no health care being at their service. Haiti is a poor country, and with a natural disaster like that occurring, medical treatment for those that required it to the minimal extent was rare, let alone for the people that needed to be operated upon (such as surgical patients). The solution that some United States officials found after attempting to help Haiti with this issue was telehealth, better known as telemedicine; telemedicine was initially used for space astronauts back in the 1960s. In the situation with Haiti however (better known as "real-time"), it essentially involves a video-conference between a patient and a health professional and/or doctor in a different location (often times in hospitals or offices). Also during certain operations however, a doctor at the scene will be conferencing with a specialist at a different geographical location through the uses and benefits of telemedicine. The main IT system involved in this situation with telemedicine is satellite connections. A satellite communication system requires a satellite to function. Thus, a satellite is in high orbit over the Earth (stationary or geosynchronous, which means that the speed of the satellite is complementary to the speed of the rotaion of the Earth, thus it will always remain above the same spot). A satellite dish on Earth is then directed at the satellite, and all the signals (voice & data information, television signals, etc.) are transmitted on an uplink. The satellite itself (while still in orbit outer space) has a receiving antenna mechanism which is able to capture the incoming signals towards it and is able to diverge them through an amplifying network.

continued.... After this process, it then re-transmits the signals to the designated receivers (these signals are waves that go upon a certain frequency). Depending on what the frequencies are, when it comes to telemedicine, the frequencies are repudicated for an instance, and the digital data is then linked to set receivers. These data packets are routed through satellite, which makes the end (whether it is a phone call or the merging of voice and data transmission such as video-conferencing) come along. The satellite may be compared to a ground-based signal, in which the signal points upward and it is later reflected down back at the user/client. Therefore, with sufficient bandwidth, Haiti is running on high-speed Internet access. As a result of this IT system involved (as well as the use of telemedicine), social and ethical issues emerge. The use of such IT devices and systems such as satellite linkage and telemedicine through video-conferencing was not present in Haiti even before the earthquake. However, with the aid of other countries, more advanced form of health care came into view. This is a breakthrough from the digital divide, where Haiti was not able to provide proper medical care for its citizens. Another issue that comes into play (vexing from the digital divide) is globalization. Doctors on the seen are able to provide their patients with the best care by either consulting a specialist from a remote area far away, or the patients who require health care have video-conferences with doctors in order to discuss health related issues. This breaks down the barrier in which Haitians were facing with little or no medical support.

This article is regarding the use of Electronic Health Records, and digitalizing medical documents for the "betterment" of the medical staff, and the ease of use that databases provide as a solution to the IT issues that these facilities face. Many health care policy makers within the government, including President Obama, are advocating for the major shift in the use of electronic health records, and digitalizing patient information. However, only a small percentage of medical treatment offices have done so (approximately 17%). Basically, electronic health records document personal information of the patients, for example name, address, age, and medical issues that they face, making it much more easier for doctors and medical staff members to get into the use of e-prescriptions, providing treatment electronically. However, as information becomes digitalized, often times, major issues such as reliability of the IT equipment becomes and important aspect of the scenario. Major companies such as Dell and IBM are in the run to provide electronic health record databases for medical facilities to use. To these major stakeholders, these databases, when set-up properly, are basically a tool for health care providers to use; they can reduce costs and improve the type of care that is provided for patients. They also have the patient's entire medical history, and other medications, along with lab tests that if properly connected to databases, can ease the treatment guidelines. Thus the benefits include less trivial tests, reduced health related errors, and better care with less costs for patients. The IT systems that are provided, including faster networks with improved wireless connections and more financially affordable computers are what will basically be used within the medical facilities running on electronic health records with digitalized information. Also, there will be more space for these new machines to be placed in, since all

continued... the paper documents are now going to be taking no physical space; entirely stored digitally. However these devices do not provide the solution of reliability that staff members may face when on the wireless networks and/or dealing with digital data. One solution that the article provides is the new Internet-based service model, known as cloud computing, in which much of the computing firepower and data reside in remote data centers, which doctors, nurses and staff would use via the Web browsers on their personal computers. Through cloud-computing, there is a more reliable and efficient way for medical staff members to document data without having system failures, and also if they ever plan on outsourcing, they can easily work with the database online.

Through mobile technology, the millions of people in developing countries who had been left behind by the digital divide are now able to access health information and healthcare services at their fingertips. Mobile phones are being used as low-cost tools for HIV testing, data collection, epidemic tracking, and training of health workers, HIV prevention and treatment support.

Through mobile technology, the millions of people in developing countries who had been left behind by the digital divide are now able to access health information and healthcare services at their fingertips. Mobile phones are being used as low-cost tools for HIV testing, data collection, epidemic tracking, and training of health workers, HIV prevention and treatment support.

Shifting from paper to electronic medical records has long been cited as a way to improve access to information in the health system. Both Google and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) have unveiled online medical records platforms, but the health industry has been slow to change.

Shifting from paper to electronic medical records has long been cited as a way to improve access to information in the health system. Both Google and Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) have unveiled online medical records platforms, but the health industry has been slow to change.

The social/ethical issue in this article is people and machines because doctors are now using medical databases to organize data. A major issue was lack of knowledge and that the information used to be all written. This disabled doctors from looking at medical records, which is why they began to use electronic databases. Clearly the area of impact is health and the IT system is medical data bases. The stake holders/people that are affected are the doctors because they can now locate information easier and patients because they can be helped faster. Using these databases had a huge impact on society because things were changed. Information is now stored differently and doctors can now work better.

In big corporations such as Wal-Mart, the use of RFIDs has increased, but the disadvantages of RFID is now a serious issue. With the use of RFIDs on items, the customer is able to avoid waiting at a register, and the RFID will charge the person's credit-card. Yet the tags embedded in the items bought, such as clothing, can be tracked down by the store management systems, risking customers' security and privacy. Since RFIDs do not require a power supply or batteries to operate, all that is needed is a wireless scanner, which Wal-Mart's managing system uses to keep track of the items. Privacy has now become a major issue within the use of RFIDs for many Wal-Mart customers. Also, in many credit cards and "gas-cards", RFIDs are being used, yet the information on the tags also stays within the system. At airports, many modern passports are now using RFID tags that can be scanned from a range as far as 30 feet. Thus this results in chaos for the passengers, and an issue in being able to control the airport security properly.

Large scale businesses like Wal-mart and government authorities in passport make use of sophisticated RFIDs which make the data stored in them or to be accesses through them safe, which helps them keep their business data or data of the clients(in some cases passport holders) safe, however many corporates make use of cheap RFIDs which have a weak encryption code to protect them. This code can be broken easily and hence the client of that RFID is vulnerable to hackers. Ford for example makes use of RFIDs manufactured by Texas Instruments, in their car keys. These RFIDs are protected by very weak codes, hence it is easy for thieves to break the code and steal cars.

Where your data storage is located has international implications.

European data-protection chief Peter Hustinx talks about how far an IP address can stand as an ID Published: 04 Nov 2008 15:24 GMT

phone apps for tracking health data (cached version of WSJ article)

- In this article, "Data Security Is No Longer an Option," written by Eve Tahmincioglu is stating that the issues that concern Groogle. Groogle is a company which is a small online travel site that can supply the same to others from this site. (Scott Larsen, IT Director for the company, Groogle.) Jon Clay (product marketing manager for Trend Micro) will help get Tokyo based security software that will help this small business result in to a faster growing business. They will require a set of requirements that will be met by 95%. The upgrades made by the security measures have increased sales. Looking on from other companies, they have seen what is known as the virtual private network which sends encrypted data one location to the other without others looking at it. This is possible because of the firewalls and he spyware filtering programs that help keep out unknown individuals. At the end they came down to a decision that says they will upgrade to an intrusion detecting system that will cost around $25,000 to $125,000. Even though they will be enhancing their system there will be one problem which is the idea of making the computer adapt to the changes.

With the growing number of stories about data being lost some institutions have been looking for a new more secure solution. Many are introducing a form of biometrics - a way of recognising something about you that marks you out as unique.

With the growing number of stories about data being lost some institutions have been looking for a new more secure solution. Many are introducing a form of biometrics - a way of recognising something about you that marks you out as unique.

Recent losses of personal data held on discs, laptops and USB keys by governments and companies have highlighted the need for better security. Here Dan Simmons looks to see if biometrics can help.

Recent losses of personal data held on discs, laptops and USB keys by governments and companies have highlighted the need for better security. Here Dan Simmons looks to see if biometrics can help.

"The global economic slump is prompting IT staff to snoop on colleagues, suggests research. A survey of IT workers by Cyber-Ark found that 35% of those questioned had viewed confidential information, such as salaries and redundancy lists. "

Could this be a good lead article?