ITGS News

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.

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.

This article is about a man who received spreadsheets and documents from a newspaper company that was not supposed to be sent to him but to an employee who had a similar name. The typo problem had caused a security issue to arise. The stakeholders include: the employee who sent the message, the man who received them and the company. The employee might have to be repremanded if the writer of the article were to use this information against them. In the same respect, the company would be in trouble if this information was very private and it we released to the general public. The fact is that the security of using googledocs is questionable if users are not careful.

This article starts off with the actions of a small travel site. This article speaks of the price they had to pay to upgrade the security. This company has to make big changes to their security in order to do business with larger companies. In this situation there are both positive and negative impacts. One big negative impact is the price to pay for this upgrade in security. In order to be on par with the security of higher level businesses smaller businesses have to pay large amounts of money to gain this security. This would require a lot of faith in the big businesses from the smaller business. As said in the article "The connection, and everything transmitted over it - financial, customer and product data - has to be secure and out of the reach of hackers, cyber thieves and even disgruntled employees." This shows how secure the website has to be. This is so that bigger companies can trust the smaller companies to handle business. However, through this impact can come a positive one. By having security equal to those of bigger businesses customers will have an easier time trusting the company. Another issue that comes up is reliability. A question that can be asked is whether or not the security is strong enough against hackers? This would give customers right to question whether or not this website would be trustworthy or not. In this situation the important stakeholders would be the bigger businesses and the smaller businesses. In order to do business both companies need to have the same level security. This would require one or both companies to upgrade their systems greatly to be on par with each other. Another important stakeholder would be the customer. The customer would need to know whether or not they could use the website without worrying too much about being hacked. If the customer knew the security was stable it would make them more comfortable about using it.

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.

In this article it talks about how the organization known as "The Youth Olympic Games" were hosting their games in August. But they have done something different this year. Unlike what they have done every year, purchasing their items all the time and selling them or giving them away for free; they have now would have an third-world country who has the equipment do their job if they were to buy it. By that I mean they would used a system called "cloud services", and the group in charge of working would be Asia and they would have the data of everyone who is watching, performing and workers of the organization. Therefore these are the stakeholders in with this program that because they are having someone else from a different country; without knowing if they are someone who wants to steal their identity has full access. The IT system in this "cloud services" would be cloud computing since someone that may be from home, or sitting in an office has control over the organization and the data. The issue in this would be security, that because the people that are using "cloud services" are in Asia; therefore they are in a different having control in the U.S. The scenarios in this would be the fact that everyone identity would be stolen since the controls would be in Asia and they wouldn't be tracked since they are in a different country. They also couldn't be charged since they were given permission to have access to the data.

In this article it indicates how an expensive equipment can be used to make sure that someone is not trying to seal the item but just look at it. The way that it can be preventd is by RIFD

In this article it gives information of how a "Liberal" would have a benefit if they are using facebook, which is a social networking website. The article states that if they were to write a speech then it would be posted to facebook, and it would spread out faster.

I wonder how many students at BSGE think the privacy is dead.

This article is about the United States outsourcing manufacturing jobs to Mexico. Some companies in El Paso are also thinking of outsourcing to Juarez. At the same time, there have been more than 2500 killings due to drug issues, forcing thousands of residents to flee and businesses to close. The stakeholders are the retail businesses and the residents forced to find safety somewhere else. Assembly line workers, being paid $1.60-$2.00 an hour are also stakeholders in this situation. The system of outsourcing jobs, has created violence as well as low standards of living for the assembly-line workers. The issue at hand is how globalization and cultural diversity changed the way business is done. By outsourcing jobs, businesses are willing to accept higher profits, even with bad working atmospheres and internal tension.

The issue of globalization and cultural diversity is raised in this article which deals with the realm of business. Steel Maker ArcelorMittal is planning to outsource certain IT infrastructure to India and smaller European countries such as Poland in order to be able to save money and reduce costs. The stakeholders in this situation are the CEO's of ArcelorMittal, the local IT companies in India and the small European countries being outsourced to, as well as the governments of India and the small European countries, the current IT workers of ArcelorMittal, the IT workers in India and the small European Countries, and the people who buy steel from ArcelorMittal. The IT systems involved in this scenario are PCs, servers, data centers, and networks. IT workers in India and small European countries such as Poland will be working with ensuring privacy on these systems as well as taking care of their maintenance. A positive issue that results from the outsourcing of ArcelorMittal is that the company will be able to save money by paying its workers less. This would lead to a decrease in steel prices as well, which would be beneficial for the consumer. Also, outsourcing gives good job opportunities to people in the countries being outsourced to. However, through outsourcing many current IT workers of the company will most likely loose their jobs. Indian workers are also being exploited due to the fact that they are being payed less than a worker in a more developed nation would be payed. Lastly, local IT companies need to compete for workers.

In this article, the author talks about how companies are relying on outsourcing to hire employees. Its odd because the companies think it is better for US mainly because they are able to keep their workers and not that they are able to provide Americans with cheaper service. It also made me realize the small percentage that Americans make up of the workforce. This means that there is huge competition between American and Indian workers because they are both competing for the same jobs. But Indian workers have an advantage because they have lower wages. Companies want to choose Indians because they get to save money even though its putting Americans out of work. This is a disadvantage because then Americans won't have money to pay for the services or products.

I chose this article because I found that it especially related to the field that we are currently studying in. It is that of ITGS, Information Technology. IT jobs are more and more frequently being offshored to nations like India. There is an obvious issue relating to Business and Employment, or in this case, a rising unemployment. The main stakeholders are the IT workers, who, with the hopes of entering a strong workforce, are having their jobs offshored by multinational companies like IBM and HP (these companies are also primary stakeholders). The primary social and ethical issue involved is that of equality of access. This is due to the fact that access is becoming more widespread - access to technology, computers, databases, servers - all throughout the world. There is no longer "the need to be local", as the article states. People's jobs can be moved to a cheaper place, where it won't be so expensive for the company to keep its workers. Offshoring is not only creating higher levels of unemployment, but helps worsen the U.S. economy while it strengthens foreign economies.

This article is about how companies use outsourcing and offshoring as a way to reduce costs and as a method for cheap labor. One of the articles' main points about outsourcing is that the decision to outsource is often in the interest of the company to reduce costs, divert or energy-saving measures aimed at making the skills of a particular company or for the more efficient use of labor, capital, technologies and resources. One problem that arises from outsourcing is that it takes much-needed jobs from the U.S. economy. It is not too different from offshoring, because both are beneficial for companies and used to cut costs. When a company chooses to offshore, it means that it does its business in another country. This 'other' country is usually a developing country because rates tend to be much cheaper there, which is exactly how businesses save money. One of the main issues, again, lies within the U.S. economy. Since US businesses are leaving to do business in other countries, the US economy is suffering quite a blow because less companies are becoming dependent on it. This is a big problem and could lead to an even bigger one for the business because third world countries cannot always be trusted. Even though they are saving so much more money by offshoring, the business they now perform is unreliable and could possibly be affected my many more problems. The main stakeholders in this issue are the businesses who are offshoring and outsourcing, the US government, and the countries the businesses now rely on. Also, depending on the company, people in America tend to suffer as well because since the main issue that arises is reliability, the users or owners of the product may not have the same service. For example, if Time Warner decides to station in India, the workers there may be inexperienced and the company will not be able to do anything about it. This means that when the users of Time Warner call their main number, someone in India will pick up. The probl

This article is about how people are fearing that they will lose their jobs to people in other countries like many have before them. Big companies are choosing to hire those in places like India and China because it turns out cheaper for them. A report says that 2-3% of jobs in IT would go offshore annually over the next 10 years or so. This report is also trying to calm workers by saying that more jobs will arise from this. For people losing their jobs and those in the field of information technology, this news is not comforting. The president of the Association for Computing Machinery, David A. Patterson, noted that not many people are interested in majoring in computer science in the US so it makes things harder for there to be jobs for them. If more were to take an interest in the computer sciences then there might not be a big issue about offshoring jobs.

This article is about the issues that India is now facing because they are the world leader in IT outsourcing. The IT system in this article is the call centers that are located in India. The area of impact is Business and Employment. Outsourcing provides jobs for the citizens of India. Their employment is at risk because of the fact that India now has to compete against other countries for the same outsourcing jobs. The stakeholders are the Indian workers, global customers, competitors, and the companies who are outsourcing. The Indian workers now need to work even harder to keep their jobs because there are other countries who are trying to step up their people so that they could be capable of doing the same work. For example, Africa is starting to become well-known in the world of outsourcing because they have the same amount of talent and can also speak English. India is no longer the first country that comes to mind when companies are thinking about outsourcing. Other countries are willing to do the same job for less money, leading for companies to choose them over India. There have also been cases where the customers are not satisfied by the calls that they make offshore. This would play into the decision of the company of whether they want to move their outsourcing site or not. One issue mentioned in the article is security. There have been instances in which a customer's financial information has been sold by unscrupulous employees. By outsourcing, the head company is putting a lot of trust in the company they hire to do the job. They are risking their customers' satisfaction by allowing foreign countries manage their operations. Although a call center may not seem really important in the company, the workers are still dealing with customers of the company and should make sure to keep them satisfied. If the customers are not satisfied, they would probably take their money and invest in another company who would give them a more secure experience.

This article is about HSBC's pplans to keep outsorucing clerical jobs in diferent countries. This has many owrkers upset because they feel this is eliminating their jobs and putting caps on their wages. THe social and ethical issues involved are Equality of Access and Policies and Standards. There are impacts on the Bank as well. There is the economic impact, they are saving alot of money for setting up call centers they save about $20,000 - $30,000 per job it moved into the call center. There is a psycological impact the bank has to deal with and that is of their unhappy workeres in their base country. Finally there is a global impact, with more call centers the bank may be able to gain new customers in those countries. THe relevant stakeholders besides the banks are, the workers of HSBC bank, customers of the bank, politicians and media, other countries where centers are set up. This includes, India, China, Malaysia, Phillipines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam. The primary IT System are the call centers. This involves the use of WANs and LANs. There are also vairous ways in which call centers can be set up. They can use cloud computing or even be created virtually through the development of software as a service. The employee would only have to susbscirbe to a software that would allow them to work in the center, this makes it easier to receive updates as well.

This article is about the outsourcing of lawyers in India as the title says. By "draws western lawyers", its says how the cost has become cheaper for many lawyers to use Indians to do the small tasks that require a lot of time. The Western lawyers can use the Indians to save their own time and money and gain access to a larger work force, however for a certain price. With all these benefits from outsourcing the issue of globalization is involved. Western lawyers are using Indians across the world to get the work done at a lower price. Money is what these firms are tackling but also the efficacy of the work and the experience many Indians have (or the Indians learn through training). Jobs are available to them and this helps the economy of India but not the economy of America. The stakeholders thus are the Indian employees and the Western lawyers.

This article is primarily concerned with the announcement of two companies, Tieto and Siemens, joining in an outsourcing contract. According to the article this is done in order to increase the business benefits. In the perspective of business, the move is more profitable, and allows both companies to expand globally in term of the audience. The two companies are well known, especially for certain groups of people, so by joining some aspects of their business, they will be able to join their individual audiences. By the companies working together and using employers from both businesses then they will be able to generate a larger acceptance and recognition. Globalization makes this possible, and optimizes the profit and efficiency of both companies. However, it can lead to problems involving the jobs of the people who work at either of the two companies. Tieto, specifically, is using forty of the workers from Nokia Siemens. This means that jobs will be lost from the people who work at the original company. Instead of giving the jobs to people at the headquarters, the jobs will go to the people off site. This will benefit the companies, as it is the most beneficial business scenario, but will take a toll on the lives of the unemployed. However, the amount of jobs that are being added in one company and taken away in the other company is very small in comparison to a much larger company that needs to expand greatly. The use of VOIP and the internet itself allows the smooth interaction between the two companies and with the growth of IT, more and more methods will be introduced for the companies to interact without leaving their respective office. Because Nokia and Tieto have been partners for several years, they have been utlizing these methods of communication that are different from having everything on site and going to meetings in person. Yet, they have decided that the partnership, using outsourcing, is the best possible way for both companies to grow. Thus, outs