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WikiLeaks has led to several problems related to privacy and security of government data. The legal debate weighs whether the posting of this data is against Constitutional laws, but many others in the Government fear the magnitude of this problem. Some people ask, what would the founding fathers have done....but the world of the internet is a whole other ball field. The latest on the WikiLeaks threats claim that Assange still has more documents which were uploaded onto the website. However, the files are encrypted. Many people have access to these files, but because they are in cipher text, they cannot be read. As soon as Assange, or anyone who has access to the information publishes the Public Key, the encrypted documents will be decoded, using the same software that Assange used to encrypt it. If these documents have material in them that could threaten national security, then the USFG will have a stronger case against Assange on the basis of a privacy breach. Because of the high security, and the reliability of the encryption software, these documents have little value at the moment. The Obama Administration is clearly keeping an eye on the situation, because they wish to protect the privacy of the documents, but also because they want to find a way to take down the documents before they create damage. However, there is an extreme level of difficulty in decrypting the data, which is protected by a mathematical algorithm specific to the software that Assange initially used. The intersection of the privacy of the Government and the reliable security that Assange used comes to show that the IT world is constantly expanding, beyond the prediction of one business, or even the Government. But these Assange and the USFG aren't the only ones involved. Many people around the world are trying to attain access to these documents, primarily in the US in order to understand national secrets that have been held back from the public. The internet as a form of media has transfo

continued.....transformed the notion of what is private and what isn't, and clearly now more than ever privacy needs to be secured. Maybe the USFG should look into some high security protocols such as encryption, and their data files wouldn't be intercepted and posted on the internet.

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.

"Surveys of consumer use of wi-fi routers suggest that a maximum of 40% of the machines use encryption to limit who can use them. In addition, most people do not change the default password the device ships with making it easy for attackers to get access. "

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.

"In a statement the ICO said the Trust reported the loss of an unencrypted memory stick containing treatment details "after a member of staff left it in an unattended vehicle" towards the end of last year. Other ICO cases revealed Central Lancashire Trust lost an encrypted memory stick with details of 6,360 prison patients of HMP Preston The North West London Hospitals Trust reported the theft of computers containing the details of test results of 361 patients. Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals Trust reported the loss and theft of computers containing details of 2,300 patients. The memory stick, which was privately owned, was discovered by a car wash attendant who was able to access the contents to establish ownership and returned it to the Trust. Three other health trusts have also been found to have breached the Data Protection Act: Central Lancashire Primary Care Trust, North West London Hospitals NHS Trust and Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust. All four have all signed formal undertakings outlining that they will process personal information in line with the Data Protection Act. "

"n one incident computers containing the names, addresses and medical diagnoses of 2,500 patients were left next to a skip in St Pancras Hospital, in north-west London. The computers, which were not encrypted, went missing and have never been recovered. "

This article deals with the use of electronic health records in order to record medical information of patients. Congress wishes to pass a bill to enforce the use of electronic health records, however issues regarding the privacy of patients and information stored on these databases have arose. Electronic health records are used to record personal patient information such as name, age, address along with health sicknesses and symptoms. This also allows doctors to send e-prescriptions to the patient. However the computerization of health records triggers obvious privacy issues which prevent many hospitals to completely switch to using these electronic databases. Stakeholders of this technology include the patients whose medical information is being stored and sent on the databases, the hospitals and doctors that use the databases to track and send prescriptions to their patients, along with policy makers such as Congress and President Obama who promote the use of electronic health databases. The major stakeholder is the patient, whose private information is at risk by using these databases. Doctors can also use the electronic databases to send prescriptions to their patients for medicines or further appointments. Patient databases include sensitive personal information that may be at risk of being hacked or seen by an unauthorized user. In the article, solutions to these privacy issues have been proposed such as increased spending and investments in order to create solutions to privacy issues. Measures can be taken to safeguard medical information such as using encryption technology to secure private information that is sent online or kept on the hospital's computer database. This encryption would prevent unauthorized users from accessing and using patient information. However, in cases where this encryption technology fails to protect patient information, policies have been created that the patient must be notified if their personal information has been h

continued: have been created that the patient must be notified if their personal information has been hacked or seen by an outsider. Other policies have been enforced that give patients the ability to control and prevent hospitals from sending private information for research without their permission. These policies help prevent private patient information from being seen by unwanted individuals.

Please use this bookmark to post your reflections. Using a Paper 2 style approach, CRITERION A) identify the IT system and describe the issues. Identify the relationship of the major stakeholders to the issues. CRITERION B) Describe step-by-step how the system works and describe how the system is related to the issue(s). CRITERION C) Evaluate the impacts on society -- both positive and negative or from differing stakeholder's P.O.V. CRITERION D) Evaluate the efficacy of a solution to the problem.

There is another issue along with this involving the ability of researchers to have full access to the information about anyone. Many people want to maintain their right to privacy, but others argue that this could lead to new knowledge about diseases, and the development of new medicines. For those who are afraid of risking their privacy, there are standards developed in order to protect them. Their information, such as SSNs are encoded for security reasons and the DNA part of the project is voluntary, and not imposed. However, ethicists are still afraid of this database. They claim that the future of DNA is a valuable thing because it can predict the probability of diseases, life expectancies, etc. But all copies can be made available to the FBI, schools, etc. at the time of birth. For the Biotech Industry, this is seen as a huge advantage because people an be tested for hundreds of diseases. The awareness of the disease is a great thing, because it could lead to early prevention. However, the system is faulty because it sometimes doesn't provide certainty of a disease and it limits a person's privacy. Other times, there is no cure for the disease, so the patient cannot do anything even if they know. In relation to this, there also will arise severe psychological impacts of a person knowing that they have the possibility for getting a life threatening disease. If this is a disease that will affect them later on in life, it would be detrimental for a person to live their life without the hope of a prosperous future. A solution to this problem could be giving patients the choice of knowing or not.

Criterion A - The IT system is the DNA database containing information about the genetic past, present, and future of the patients. The primary issues associated with this database are of privacy and anonymity. These issues arise when patients, who are one of the major stakeholders, feel that that the information in these databases shouldn't be accessible to others, or anyone for that matter. While some believe this is private information, others believe that the information should not be known by anyone because of the ethical issues associated with knowing what will come in the future. Criterion B - The medical database is a relational database meaning that it establishes relationships between different tables in the database. The smallest building blocks of a relational database are items. Items are individual pieces of information in tables. These items are organized into fields and records. Fields are columns in a table that that represent different categories of information. Records are rows that represent all the information for a specific patient. At the cross-section of a particular record and field lies the item associated with a specific piece of information related to the specified patient. These tables are related to each other through links which are established by unique primary keys assigned to each patient. This system is related to the issue of privacy because the information contained within it is considered by many to be privileged and access to it should be very limited or altogether eliminated. Criterion C - The impacts of such a database on society are varied. Some people are very against the entire idea of a genetic database because of its ethical concerns. When people have their blood analyzed for DNA, they are giving up their genetic make-up. The information that can be obtained from such tests is considered by many to be privileged, and by others to be completely unethical in every way. Often people are against very private medical

After the professor of computer science and technical director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University and his students broke the encryption of a popular RFID system in car keys, it was apparent that there is a security issue when it comes to the use of RFIDs. The stakeholders are consumers who use products that have radio frequency identification systems embedded in them. As seen from the experiment done by the professor and his students, people can have their cars broken if the encryption of this identification is broken. The area of impact is business because this identification is on items sold in stores. The IT system is RFIDs, which are radio frequency identification. These forms of identification are similar to bar codes because when scanned can show people the price of items. However, being more advanced, RFIDs also show what the item is, the trends in sales and much more.

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.

"THE internet, argues Kim Cameron, who works as "Identity Architect" at Microsoft, "was built without a way to know who and what you are connecting to". That is bad enough in the private sector, where the only thing at stake is money. For dealing with government, it is potentially catastrophic. Technology can-just about-tell how an internet user got online. It can check the authenticity of passwords and logins, and validate smart cards or biometric checks. But such data, even if encrypted, can be stolen, borrowed, guessed or intercepted."

This is a news report that RIM(research in motion ) I denying claims that India is now able to access the messages that many send through RIM secure network. This access includes company messages. However RIM refutes these claims and states they don't have access to any of this information. This is one part of a greater story India's government is not the only government that had problems with RIM due to lack of equality of service and the fact that RIM has the best encryption on their messages. There are many stakeholders such as RIM who are running a business that desires to make a profit and realize on their reputation on security, any company that uses blackberry service. The government that wants to have access to the messages to protect their national security, and finally the average consumer that loves using blackberry for their everyday lives. for the primary stakeholder which is RIM social and ethical issues are security, and reliability and integrity. Security refers to the protection of the blackberries encrypted network. The reliability and security concerns RIM's reputation for their secure networks. the primary scenario in this case is business and employment from various points of view, and the IT system is the blackberry cell phones.

This article is about privacy issues within the Internet. As web services have improved, aspects such as spreadsheets, e-mail services and photography applications, the topic of privacy has now been "removed". The internet has been the leading factor in many issues with privacy. One of the main examples mentioned is the site WikiLeaks, which is entirely based upon a hacker who exposes the truth about everything and anything. Julian Assange is one of the leading activists who promotes free speech within the world to expose privacy. The IT system involved within this scenario is basically the data transfer through networks and servers online. The people who are being affected by this issue are those who's personal information is leaked (in any way, whether through WikiLeaks due to a political scandal or through hackers obtaining their information). Thus certain security measures are to be taken to prevent unwelcome access to personal and private information. For example, encryption is now one of the most famous and useful methods of preventing hackers from entering databases and other online servers. An encryption key allows for the safe keeping of personal information.

During 2005, political organizations advocated for strict laws implementing data security enforcement, as rising concerns stemmed out of alarming statistical studies and research, revealing identity theft, credit card frauds and hacking as emerging and terrorizing practices overtaking much of the internet realm. This article introduces the beginning of the rise in public awareness, as technology strongly began to redirect the business world into another more digital phase. It was during that year, the primary stakeholders, also known as the businesses ( participants of e-commerce that stored, verified and utilized private consumer data), vocalized their needs clarifying their desire for the creation of constraints in regards to the consequences or negative implications of passing certain bills (for data security). The past exemplifies the various influences the introduction of data security measures, passed by the government legislatures, had upon newly initiated businesses; among the most significant implications discussed were: the need to build a secure database for reliable storage of clientele digital data with the utilization of particular software as well as improving business organizational structure in order to maximize the rate of security notifications towards consumers based on a foundation of rigid security standards. Far from the adaptation to such implications, the political crisis of establishing solid ground for a new set of security data policies and standards became an overwhelming process for politicians, congress members in conjunction with consumer and data privacy groups that rivaled in attaining the responsibilities of passing the needed laws. The politicians (stakeholders, holding the role of administering governmental legislation to stabilize data security breaches), came into opposition with the concerns of many members of advocacy groups (stakeholders, holding the responsibility of supervising and publicly navigating the direction of th

continuation: the adjusted standards enforced by politicians). The problem of adhering to the instruction of newly created laws motioning businesses to appoint data security officers, draft policies, to comply with policies and procedures involving giving access to files in business databases for the Federal Trade Commission to check comes into collision with what most online businesses want to go through the process of doing. However, with the issue of security surfacing future consumer problems, as security breaches become major forces threatening the safe entering of digitally encrypted information (such as credit card codes), many companies become increasingly aware of the needed adherence to the strict security data laws, in order to continue profiting financially in order to keep the rate of consumer trust and payment increasing.

This article is about the idea of putting all existing medical records into electronic form. This would cut the costs needed for storage of such information, this would also increase how fast a medical official can access the records of a sick patient. However, as listed in Strand 1, there are many positive and negative social/ethical issues. One such issue is security. By making the records digitized and put into the hospital database, people without the proper authorization would not be able to gain access to the data. This can also coincide with authenticity. The information that relates to the patient should be accessible by the patient. The patient would need to be able to get through the encryption of the data. Another social/ethical issue would be the equality of access, this would allow only certain people the ability to look at the data. Even with these positive social/ethical issues there are some negative issue. One negative issue would be integrity. There are people who can hack the encryption of this data and tamper with it. This would cause the data to be different in other places and a breach in security. This would be a great help to organizing data. Using a paper file system, the doctor would have to go through a lot of papers and cabinets to find the patient's medical history. By using a paper file cabinet documents are more likely to go missing or get mixed up with another patient's records. However, by using a database this data is much more organized. There is a smaller chance of losing the patient's data, by using back-ups the data could be easily restored. There is also a much smaller change or mixing up multiple patient's data. If the wrong data was use for the wrong person, the person may not have the correct medical treatment they need. With databases the information is much more organized. The patient's data can be found very fast, compared to a paper file system (this could take more than an hour depending on the amount of patients).

Continued...The hardware involved with creating databases in the health industry would be a DBMS Engine. This is also known as a Database Managing System. This takes the logical request from DBMS subsystems and converts them to physical equivalents. This also requires interactive processing. This replaces batch processing. This allows users to interact with data through terminals and view values online in real time. By having real time the doctors can give the patients what they need at the moment the patient needs it. The stakeholders in this specific case would be the hospitals adapting the database managing system and the patients whose information is stored in this database. If the database is tampered and there are not back-ups the patient would not have his/her medical history. This could cause the patient to be on a delay for an operation that is extremely important to their life. This could also place a lawsuit on the hospital.

This article is primarily about setting standards and protocols so that an electronic health records could world easily and securely for many health care providers and suppliers. The reason the introduction of an EHR hasn't worked before, is that there were no data-sharing standards, which would ensure that the data is transmitted securely across the internet. These standards are also in accordance of many of the interests of all of the health providers and stakeholders involved, which was a major problem previously. Without the issue of connecting the EHR from provider to provider, then the records would be a "fancy...way to capture data," and it's full potential would never be recognized. However, these new standards and protocols, filled with secure transactions based on encryptions, have made the introduction of an electronic health record possible. There are many benefits to the use of an EHR, including productivity and financial improvement for the companies and the employees. For example, doctors/nurses no longer need to spend time pulling a patient's file, or writing the details of the visit afterwards. There are also fewer repetitive tasks, and improved communication between doctor and nurse, or doctor and another doctor. Quality of care may also improve because doctors have quick access to a patient's information, there is better monitoring and discovery of chronic illnesses, and doctors can return phone calls/ provide medication refills immediately. Also, in general, the electronic charts allow for a more efficient office, which leads to a less stressful environment and more attention on the patients' care rather than searching for their charts. This can only be done through the introduction of an EHR, leading to easier queries, instant reorganization, and file management that could be transmitted to both the patient and any other doctors. This minimizes the ambiguity of not having tests results from one doctor, and allows all doctors treating a p

patient to see all of the patient's history. This is important in having a correct diagnosis and treatment. However, there are also some drawbacks. Initially, doctors who chose to engage in the implementation of a EHR, see some decreases in productivity. This is because entering information and learning how to use the software takes some time. Some doctors also do not have the money to invest in such software and accompanying hardware to, and others no not want to because they are accustomed to their hand-written charts. There are also some security issues, leading to greater privacy issues. The EHR maintains very personal data about a patient, and if the records are breached, then the privacy of the patient may be put at risk. There is also the issue of interoperability, which was brought up in the article. Many of the companies in different countries wishing to engage in the implementation of EHR have different standards involving the usage. This could harm the usage of an international EHR.

Chinese people wait in line for each of the new Apple iPhone releases, buy them at premium price of $600, and send it back to where it was made to get it unlocked.

Chinese people wait in line for each of the new Apple iPhone releases, buy them at premium price of $600, and send it back to where it was made to get it unlocked.

This article meets the requirements for an IT article because, to begin with, it discusses one of the main IT systems, the cellphone (a sophisticated phone such as the iPhone however). It is reliable because it comes from a new source such as the New York Times, which has a reputation of giving reliable information to its readers. The time that the article was written is as recent as can be (less than 24 hour news, meaning that it involves one of the main issues and impacts that affect society on a greater scale today). There are stakeholders involved - the people responsible for the social/ethical issue(s), the people being affected by it, and the people becoming involved as a result of the impacts of these issues. Therefore it can be stated that this article meets all the requirements for ITGS. The social and ethical issues that result from this IT situation are significant to what it led to. One of the main issues that revolves around this issue is the digital divide and equality of access. Once the iPhone is "unlocked", the user has access to many digital streams of data; data in which regular iPhone users do not have access too, or they are unable to stream it. Integrity is also one of the main social and ethical issues; the IT device in question (an Apple iPhone) was "tampered with" and has therefore lost most of its value as well as its originality. People and machines, although it is a social and ethical issue that affects almost all IT systems, it can also be said that it is relevant to this situation as well. The people who are unlocking the iPhone are on this "digital treadmill" in which their life revolves around the database and access to digital information. Information that is so immense and updated so quickly that it can be overwhelming sometimes, yet provide the user with an extensive amount of knowledge, which is often put into good use. The specific scenario that this IT system and its impacts are based upon is politics and government. The act

This article Talks about Research in motion, the company of blackberry in talks with India about the services that the phones provide

This article meets the standards of ITGS. From assessing this article through strand 1 we see that their are a number social and ethical conditions to be considered in this story. Security is a major issue here, RIM's encryption is so secure that not even powerful governments can't crack. This brings up the issue of security because countries like India are worried that this secure network can be abused by the terrorists. This brings up the issue of the digital divide and equality of access. This issue is brought up because India was threatening to disrupt Blackberry access because India did not have access to some features that blackberry users from other countries have. This leads to another problem, Reliability and integrity. Since RIM's network is the most secure network that even the most powerful governments can't crack, because of this many Corporations use Blackberry, RIM fears that if they(RIM) allow governments get a little more access, they will lose their reliability of their majority steak holders. This brings up the number of steak holders, the steak holders are RIM. their customers, India, and other middle eastern countries who are threatening to cut off service due to inequality of access. The IT systems that are mentioned are cellphones, and RIM's network. The applications that apply to the article are Business and employment, and governments control and use of information.

Nick originally posted this article, but did not cache it.

RFID is a very valuable and new technology, that promises to bring many advantages to the business world, which is the main area of impact being addressed. RFID is the IT being discussed. It permits people to gain access to goods, data on products, and important financial data. There is, however, the concern over the issue of security and privacy, which go hand in hand. Stakeholders in the issue are normal people, who increasingly are surrounded by RFID tags, especially in their credit cards. Tags can also be used to track a person's movement, which some claim is an invasion of privacy. Defenders claim that most RFID tags are incapable of being read or trasmit data from up to 50 cm. However, this does depend on the tag's antenna and the encryption it may or may not use to protect its data. There is the continual concern however, that RFID tags will handle more sensitive data as its capabilities improve. The fact that RFID tags store information on databases is also a concern for privacy advocates. An RFID tag uploads onto the database information on financial transactions, buying, selling, etc. The location, time, and other information is stored on a log in the database. The RFID is essentially tracking users' movement. The security concern, which is more consequential to users, is what is done when the database that contains all the sensitive information is hacked or damaged, and security is breached. Such concerns and these issues' impacts are obviously paramount when dealing with RFID tags and the issues of privacy and security.