Cybercrime

With our society progressively depending on the internet for everyday tasks such as internet banking, shopping, and even dating, I guess it shouldn’t come as a surprise that our criminals have followed suit. Cybercrime is the newest kid on the block and is becoming increasingly popular. The news has constantly been reporting cases of A-List celebrities having their cell phones and computers hacked with various pieces of (often intimate) information being released on the internet for all to have. Long gone are the days when looking over ones shoulder and locking ones doors was all it took to feel safe, now we must also be wary of questionable internet sites and we must be consistent with updating our security software.

British investigator, Jameson Berkow, gave an interesting interview in today’s National Post about his new book “Dark Market: Cyberthieves, Cybercops, and You”.

You can find the article at: http://business.financialpost.com/2011/10/31/inside-cybercrime/

Coldplay takes a stand against downloading services

In recent class discussions we have talked about music and technology and the affects downloading music has on record labels and artists. I found an interesting article in the Globe and Mail titled “Coldplay’s new album off-limits for online music streaming services”. Coldplay has always taken a stand against downloading music online services such as Spotify and Rhapsody that pay artists a fraction of a penny every time someone listens to a song. The British band’s newest album “Mylo Xyloto” will be one of the top-selling albums of the year. Downloading services like Rhapsody rely on hot-selling albums available for their subscribers to buy to keep their consumers interested. Artists are paid royalties as low as 0.91cents per play on Rhapsody which is extremely low in comparison to the 70% that artists and recorder labels share of the $1.29 per track when music is bought on Itunes from consumers.

The group who recently presented discussed some of the benefits of purchasing music from Itunes vs. other downloading services, due to its creditability and worldwide reputation. This article verifies Itunes has one of the best deals available for consumers and the artists behind the music.

Do you think more artists should take a stand against downloading services?

For full article:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/tech-news/coldplays-new-album-off-limits-for-online-music-streaming-services/article2216963/ 

OCCUPY EVERYTHING

Occupy Wall Street, September 17th, 2011

Occupy Wall Street
Occupy Montreal
Occupy Berlin
Occupy Hong Kong
Occupy Moscow
Occupy Rome

And the list goes on, for 952 cities in 82 countries.

The protest started September 17th and has spread across the world in a matter of a month. The basic idea behind the protest is the so called 99% who are protesting and fighting against the 'greed and corruption,' of the world's wealthiest 1%. The protesters were called to action as a response to the Canadian anti-consumerism campaign Adbusters.

The Occupy Together Campaign has a section on their website on "how to occupy,"which is stated below:

From: How to Occupy Website

"HowToCamp / HowToOccupy is designed in order to promote the methods, techniques and knowledges on taking the square. This is the place to all of those who are keen on researching about how to starting by him/herself a pro-democratic and non-violent uprising in its region. We are opened to the whole world, we are an open community of sapience, we believe in the power of synergy applied to information, creative commons, copyleft. We want to establish a global network which could be able to offer to worldwide community the necessary tools of rising up. We are in the beginning and our project will depend of everybody. We plan to install more features to this platform soon, as we develop and unite. Be welcome, let's make it together!"

Given how fast this campaign has spread, how great a role has social media played in its evolution, and furthermore, as discussed in class- will this turn into another violent 'London Protest'?

Who Would have Thought..?

Over the weekend, Samsung sales surpass Apple's phone sales due to the numerous customers waiting for the new 4S iphone. Who would have thought this would happen out of all possible situations? And where does RIM stand in this situation?

Samsung sales have passed Apple's sales and are supposed to continue increasing at a strong pace compared to its rivals. Apple sales shrank by 16% which enabled Samsung to be 9% higher then Apple. Samsung's competitive advantage is selling the same quality phone as Apple, with similar apps, messaging system, but at a lower cost and better functionality then Apple which is appealing to customers as many consumers today have a low disposable income.

Samsung's smartphone devices operate under the Android system of Google and has shown considerable growth under this system. Samsung is a fierce competitor and as mentioned before is expected to continue dominating the phone service market. This is a new and interesting climb for Samsung, but do you think that Samsung will be able to hold its current power among competitors like Apple?

View Article:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/technology/mobile-technology/samsung-smart-phone-sales-pass-apples-in-q3-as-customers-waited-for-4s/article2216922/

Lawsuits for RIM

Last week, millions of blackberry users were affected by a service outage that began with a failure in RIM's European data centre and spread across the world for days. Frustrated users around the world started exploring possible consumer lawsuits against RIM. Discussions about breach-of-contract are being talked about due to the fact that the company failed to provide services, and also consumer- fraud claims because the customers were mislead about the reliability of RIM's networks. Consumers could have a difficult time winning these claims because it is very difficult to prove damages that occurred because of the outage other than failed service.

RIM was on damage control this past week, and are giving customers free premium apps. If consumers are looking to be compensated financially, they may be waiting a while. In this article in the Toronto Star it said that if RIM wanted to pay back all affected customers it could cost the company anywhere from $15million to $26million.

Do you think Blackberry users have a right to sue?

For more info: http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1073081--rim-could-face-lawsuits-for-blackberry-problems

Roles Reversed: Outsourcing

Today's class talked about what types of business processes we can outsource to help decrease costs. We discussed how Nike outsources their product manufacturing elsewhere (perhaps to China or India) to save costs and increase

overall profits.

I was on the daily mail website where I found this article regarding a potential future process: Indian firms outsourcing their processes to the United States! The US's struggling economy will lead to fewer jobs resulting in lower wages which might be beneficial for Indian firms to take advantage of. For example, many Indian firms using Manhattan's high unemployment rate to employ low skilled workers to work in various call centers.

Aegis Communications, a Mumbai based communications firm has began to open several centers in the US to take advantage of their high unemployment rate. Currently in the US, they have 5000 employees but is expected to increase three times within a few years.

India and China are the two emerging markets that will dominate the global market over the next 10-15 years. So does it seem logical that the Indian market will be outsourcing in the United States for many of their business processes?

VIEW ARTICLE:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1389963/Indian-firms-look-U-S-cheap-labour-outsourcing-goes-circle.html

Media Language Taking Over

In today’s society social media is used on a daily basis by the majority of the world’s population. It has been used so much, that social language is slowly being added the DICTIONARY! People talk all things social networking and media on a 24/7 basis, and is one of the primary sources for instant information. Social Media terms are becoming more and more popular within the english language. They are simple words that are used to best describe the action - this causes people to not only use them for social networking needs but also in their day-to-day lives. With the frequent use of media language it is slowly starting to be used more often then traditional phrases.

Are Traditional words on the way out?

The Digital Book Age

After our discussion in class about Blockbuster vs. Netflix, and bookstores like Chapters vs. Amazon, I wanted to follow up by looking into the effects of the digital media age. To break it down and focus on a specific aspect of the digital media age, I'm going to discuss the 'Digital Book Age.'

The beginning of the Digital Book Age can be traced back to the founding of Amazon.com. At first, Amazon solely offered books online for sale, but this was the first mainstream introduction of published works interacting in an e-commerce environment. Individuals no longer needed to search aisles of the bookstore for a specific title, but instead, they could easily go on amazon.com to locate and ship the book directly to their homes within minutes. However, the first revolutionary development in digital media didn't come into effect until the technological software was developed which allowed published works to be purchased, read, and delivered entirely in a digital process. As the digital delivery of reading material became more commercialized, other players in addition to Amazon started to capitalize on the new trend. Google, the dot com giant, introduced 'Google Books,' and the trend continues to snowball as more and more big and small players emerge in the digital book market. 

Technology and innovation have allowed the entire book buying and reading process to be facilitated digitally, but the story doesn't stop there. A few years ago amazon took the digital process to the next level by introducing a technological platform for reading books digitally on a tablet, called the Kindle. The idea of reading a book online was already an adjustment, but carrying multiple books in the form of a slim digital table was truly remarkable.

Just a Few of the Many E-Books and Tables Available Today

Today, the Kindle to E-Books is like the walkman to the i-Pod. When the kindle was introduced it was truly revolutionary, but today, digital tablets which include e-Books AND applications, email , music, and other digital benefits are all the rage. It's the Book Age 2.0.

Blackberry Users Rejoice!

The social network world has been swamped these past few days with complaints from frustrated Blackberry users. Once again, Research in Motion Ltd. has experienced several difficulties regarding their service. In a society that relies on their smart phones to communicate across the globe this is an enormous inconvenience; especially for the business world where the sharing of instantaneous information, such as emails and BBM, is fundamental.

However, everyone can take a deep sigh of relief, RIM officials released a statement this morning saying, “BlackBerry service has been restored around the world after the worst service outage in the history of Canada’s largest technology company” (National Post, October 13, 2011).

The networked world as everyone knows it should be back in order. I can’t resist but comment on the unfortunate timing for RIMs service to fail… it’s kind of funny that this should happen mere days before the new iPhone 5 is released, no?

You can read the full article from the National Post @ http://business.financialpost.com/2011/10/13/rim-says-blackberry-service-restored-after-worst-blackout-ever/

Does Twitter Instigate Bullying?

Over the weekend, I was reading The Telegraph UK when I passed over a story regarding a popular social networking site, Twitter. Rob Brydon, an actor, comedian, singer, and impressionist, claimed that he was faced with the 'most incredible abuse.' Among his 550,000 followers, he recently received some harsh and hurtful comments regarding a post he had tweeted. Rob Brydon is not the first celebrity to receive unpleasant and inappropriate comments. Another of many celebrities, Wayne Rooney, a Manchester United soccer player, was threatened by a follower, 'I'll put u asleep with 10 seconds.'

Twitter is an open social media site where individuals can continuously update their followers on where they are, what they are doing, or provide their opinion on current news and topics. Followers can comment on their tweets, but is it ok for them to make offensive and unnecessary comments?

What do you think? Does twitter really lead to bullying?

Rob Brydon Telegraph News Story

Facebook's Small Change that Affects YOUR Privacy

In class we have discussed the issue of privacy in technology, and what you put at risk by having a social network profile, such as Facebook. In an article I found on the Globe and Mail website titled "Facebook's photo-tagging tweaks rig the game against privacy" Facebook's recent interface changes regarding "tagging" procedures were analyzed.

Facebook has changed their simple one click system to untag unflatteringly or inappropriate pictures of yourself that someone has posted into a 3 dialogue box option hassle. Users are able  to one click to hide the photo on their profile but have to go through a three step process to get ride of the tag itself. Now to some, this three step may not seem to be that big of a deal, but in this article it stated "Users follow the path of least resistance." Therefore, by making this process a couple steps harder some people will be deterred away from untagging multiple photos at one time, and are then forced to have photos online of them without prior consent.

If users choose to hide the photo from their profile, Facebook still knows it is you in the picture along with other people who you may or may not know. The issue of privacy on Facebook has been brought up during class discussions, and people debated that they are secure because they choose to have strict privacy settings on their profile. Although, what happens when you have strict privacy settings but your friends who post the pictures do not? Complete strangers are able to view what you look like, what you were doing and who you were with.

Facebook loves tags, and the more internal links, the more people click, the more people spend on the site, the more information they receive about their target groups and the better there are able to advertise to them. Your privacy is not Facebook's main goal, it is to connect people from all over the world, enabling the sharing of information, photos, and day-to-day lives. Facebook has even implemented a "facial-recognition system" in other countries, which recognizes that faces of your friends and does the tagging for you. This has not been implemented in Canada because of the Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, along with other political groups, are concerned about the privacy of the users.

Facebook is a great way to stay connected with friends and family, but it is important to note that just because the law enforcement is not intensely interested in the Facebook's information today, does not mean it wont be tomorrow.

How Important is Privacy to You?

Today in class we were talking about how whether on not online privacy is important to people. If it is important to us, what is the biggest threat? Email? Google search? Social networking? Online shopping? There are so many facets to online privacy and everyone will have different opinions as to what they feel is the biggest threat and why.

Over the summer, I received an email from what looked like Dalhousie Security informing me that my account would be deactivated if I did not update my information or change my password. There was a link at the bottom of the email that I was supposed to click in order to have my account updated, so I automatically clicked the link not knowing that this would have serious consequences. After I clicked the link, I was unable to log back into my email, the Dalhousie website, or even on to my BLS account. A friend of mine told me to check the address from where the email came from, and to my surprise it was a random hotmail account that I had never seen before. I immediately contacted Dalhousie Security.

Dal Security told me that a group of individuals from South America get access to university email addresses, send them all emails pretending to be the University, create a link for the student to click on and immediately they will have access to the email account. Once on student accounts, they go through every email looking for bank info, visa numbers, and family contacts of the student. They will then send out emails to family members saying things like the individual has been kidnapped and the family member must wire so much money over to them within so many hours.

I was on the phone with Dalhousie Security for over 2 hours rebooting my account, checking for viruses or potential ways that they could have implanted any secretive information, and warning me of the possible emails that could be sent to myself, or my family members. I was advised to cancel all my visa and bankcards, and change any passwords that could have been on my email account.

Email accounts can be greatly abused, especially if many of your emails are confidential. Many people don’t realize how much damage can happen with email accounts and how easy it is for people to gain access to your personal information.

What is your biggest threat?

They're Watching You: "Corporate Snooping Goes Digital"

I thought this article was very interesting. It’s about the risks, not only to individuals, but to companies as well, of having so much information available online. These days there’s a sort of information over-share with constant status updates, location check-ins, mobile picture uploads, etc. It has become very common for companies to rely on social media sites to aid companies in background checks and to keep an eye on competitors. This summer, I was involved with the interview process of some brand ambassadors at the company I was working for and once we had narrowed down the candidates based on their resumes, I was asked to see what I could find about them online. The article mentions a survey which estimated that in the last year more than 150 companies monitored social media sites to gather information. Kroll Senior Managing Director Rich Plansky comments, “Social media has become a much more efficient way of getting information that could only be gotten in the past by things like surveillance.” Thoughts?

Check out the article from the National Post online: http://business.financialpost.com/2011/09/20/corporate-snooping-goes-digital/

RIM VS. Apple

The next generation of iphone is just around the corner, while RIM continues to struggle.

With the recent organizational issues in RIM, the new iPhone 5 is sure to make a splash in the networked world, with little rivalry from RIM. The question is, what effect does the release of the iPhone 5 have on the continually plummeting RIM organization.

Apple is continually innovating, and the new iPhone 5 is a result of this continuos innovation. The applications are better and the technology is faster. The iPhone 5 has faster chip processing technology, a new aluminum back-cover, retina display, an 8-megapixel camera, and not to mention; its 33% thinner.

RIM recently launched the new bold, with a touch screen interface, thinner device, HD technology, and the fasted blackberry technology yet, but can it compete with the iPhone5?

Consumers are faced with a tough choice, especially Canadians. Stay loyal to the proudly Canadian RIM organization, or tap into Apple's new innovation.

While most conservative organizations and governments prefer the blackberry and its technology because of its advanced security network, the rest of the world is faced with a tempting choice. The iPhone offers more interactive technology, better applications, better camera, and great social networking capabilities.

RIM VS. Apple

I know as a consumer when my contract with my network provider is finished, I'll be faced to make the choice of whether or not to switch to an iPhone, and it's a switch more and more people are making.

Check out the links below to decide for yourself: RIM OR Apple

Video: iPhone 5

New Bold Touch