Group items tagged

"The German government has warned web users to find an alternative browser to Internet Explorer to protect security."

This news article specifies the considerations of using a cellphone to make secure payments. In order to make secure transactions using one's cellphone, a certain procedure must take place. Of course, the mobile phone must have access to the internet, and will go to any website of their choice in which they find something they want to buy, or to simply pay a bill. Also, this can be done using an "application" such as PayPal. PayPal is technically more secure considering that a consumer would only have to write they're credit card information in one place. But with so many people using it, it becomes easier for hackers to access this data, especially with vast quantities of money in the savings. Afterwards, no matter which way you started a transaction, encryptions are always used to transform the that so that only the consumer and business company can read the transaction with the decryption. One possible stakeholder is the consumer whom is indeed effected by making payments using their mobile devices. It's only been recently that they began trusting the internet using a computer, but using the internet via cellphone is a new change that must take time to adjust to. But they are effected since hackers can easily take their money. Plus a third party, can occur during the process of the transaction while the consumer is using another window, and might not notice that they're information is not only going to the business itself. These are all issues of security.

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.

This article deals with how telemedicine was used following the earthquake that occurred in Haiti in order to provide medical care to patents and individuals. The stakeholders in this scenario include the patients and doctors in Haiti and the doctors/hospitals in the U.S. They are able to use satellite technology and wireless internet, in order to bridge the gap between both areas and provide people with access to medical care. Satellite technology is used to communicate between doctors in the U.S with clinics in Haiti. This provides real time service to patients, where the doctor is providing a consultation and diagnosis immediately to the patient. This technology also allows doctors in the U.S to perform surgeries since the satellite technology is able to support telemedicine because it provides a high amount of bandwidth. Additionally, in Haiti they are using high speed wireless internet throughout certain regions. The radio system is used in extreme cases where more advanced technology is not available, but still allows doctors from two areas to communicate with one another. Images and messages during consultations are sent through a secured network, so the data of the patients is kept private. Obvious benefits of using this technology include that people are able to get access to medical care and this decreases the digital divide and globalization. This is because people are able to get more care and consultation through using this IT technology, which would not have been available without telemedicine. However, some issues still arise despite these benefits in medical care. This includes the security of information and privacy of the patients. In this case, the article states that the internet messages are secured so that there is not privacy breach. This must be done using encryption technology so that people are not discouraged from using telemedicine and so that no private patient information is leaked or seen by unwanted users.

Good BBC podcast on internet addiction look down the list.

The main stake holders in this articles are the Military, FBI, the government and all foreign surveillance. The technology involved is the military database. It has many important details and high level data that would be harmful if in wrong hands. The government needs to secure the data base to avoid in foreign invasion on their database hence this would pose a serious threat to the nations security. The first step in securing the government database is to take it off the main internet and hence there would be no way to access it unless if an individual or an organization had authorization to it.

There are many benefits to the usage of social networks towards a society, but more specifically to an individual itself. Becoming a member allows users to interact with others they do not yet know personally, but allows them to "keep track" of what others are doing. One gets to interact with businesses, giving themselves more business opportunities. It also allows people to develop skills where they give feedback to others and vise versa, creating trust over the internet.

In the most recent Iranian elections, the government censored many websites on the Internet in order to prevent news and other information from leaking the country/"classified governmental issues within the election". The Iranian people started using social networks (mainly Twitter) to spread the information of governmental oppression around both nationally and through out the world. After Twitter started blocking such sites, Iranians started using their cellphones as the method of sending out information on the injustices occurring during the election.

This is a very interesting article. I find it interesting that Iran is afraid of the word of their government is getting out, so they block one of the most used wrbsites on the internet, I feel as though you could have argued the point that the tweets were not neccesarily the most reliable. As said in the article, "The vast body of information about current events in Iran that circulates on Twitter is chaotic, subjective and totally unverifiable. It's impossible to authenticate sources. It's also not clear who exactly is using Twitter within Iran, especially in English. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the bulk of tweets are coming from "hyphenated" Iranians not actually in the country who are getting the word out to Western observers, rather than from the protesters themselves, who favor other, less public media."

"We're talking about 100 megabits, which is a big step forward for this country. It means you can have interactive teaching over the Internet at home; you can have telemedicine; "

"At his wits' end, the doctor in Baghdad dispatched his plea for help - an email detailing a patient with a particularly difficult case of uterine cancer. More than two thousand miles away, in the study of her Kent home, Pat Swinfen swiftly forwarded the request on to a British specialist. The man who received that email, Dr Philip Savage, replied: "Don't give up on this woman. Her life can be saved." And that, with the help of continued advice from the eminent oncologist from Imperial College, is exactly what the Iraqi doctor did. "

"EVEN the most curmudgeonly critic would have to admit the one great benefit of e-government: it comes twinned with i-government, where i stands for information. As readers under the age of 30 may be only dimly aware, before the internet age simply getting hold of information on any aspect of government was often far from straightforward. "

"To study what brains look like when people are searching the Internet"

"People who post intimate details about their lives on the internet undermine everybody else's right to privacy, claims an academic."

"The collapse of traditional channels of communication in Haiti has again highlighted the role of social media and the internet in disasters. Twitter is being used as a prime channel for communications, while sites such as Ushahidi are providing maps detailing aid and damage. "

""It really is quite a program to seize control of all the new forms of media, one by one," said Jeremy Goldkorn, editor and publisher of Danwei.org, an English-language Web site about the Chinese media and Internet that is currently blocked in China. "It has been a bad half year for censorship.""

"The recent completion of the first of several planned undersea cables connecting East Africa to broadband Internet has raised hopes that high-speed Web access will increase here. "

Not relevant directly for medicine, but very good overview of growing mobile phone use in East Africa

"The African Medical Research and Education Foundation, is putting Computer Aid International PCs, together with scanners and digital cameras, into rural health clinics in some of the most isolated communities in Africa. From there, nurses and newly qualified doctors can email pictures via the internet to clinical specialists for instant expert diagnosis. By this mechanism people living in rural areas can have access to the best clinical diagnosis available and medical conditions can be treated promptly and accurately with life-saving consequences. "

Layton creates a step by step structured article to show just how webcams work and how and why they connect to the Internet.

"Two studies released this week shed some light on the issue of bullying and, by implication, cyberbullying. One found that bullying is actually on the decline while the other determined that talking with an adult or a friend was most likely to "make things better." Both of these studies were about physical bullying, but there is a very strong link between bullying in the "real world" and cyberbullying. Though there are cases of teens using the Internet or cell phones to harass or bully people they've never met, most cyberbullying cases involve kids who know each from the real world, typically from school."

"African entrepreneurs have successfully capitalised on cascading prices of digital technologies and brought widespread use of mobile phones, internet applications and media products to the doorsteps of many Africans. Local entrepreneurs have built services and infrastructure based on ordinary people's ability to pay. Productivity gains and higher incomes resulting from these services mean that people can afford them. The profitability of these companies invites competition, which lowers costs for consumers and leads to even greater innovations as competitors try to outdo one another. And competition prevents abuses."