Week Five - Ethics and Security

Chapter Four Questions

1. Explain the ethical issues surrounding information technology.

Ethical issues surrounding I.T. include the following:

· Intellectual property- the collection of rights that protect creative and intellectual effort. Advances in technology make it easier for people to copy everything such as music and pictures.

· Copyright – the exclusive right to do, or omit to do, certain acts with intangible property such as a song, video game etc.

· Pirated software – the unauthorized use, duplication, distribution or sale of copyrighted software.

· Counterfeit software- software that is manufactured to look like the real thing and sold as such.

· Fair use doctrine- to use someone else’s property no to make a profit

2. Describe the relationship between an ‘email privacy policy’ and an ‘Internet use .policy’

Email privacy policy are details the extent to which email messages may be read by others while an internet use policy contains general principles to guide the proper use of the internet. The policy:

1. Describes available Internet services

2. Defines the purpose and restriction of Internet access

3. Complements the ethical computer use policy

4. Describes user responsibilities

5. States the ramification for violations

The relationship between the two policies is that email privacy policy is a branch of internet use policy.

3. Summarise the five steps to creating an information security plan

1. Develop the information security policies: must identify who is accountable and in charge of designing and implementing the organizations information security policies.

2. Communicate the information security policies: educate and train all employees on the policies and establish their expectations.

3. Identify critical information assets and risks: necessitate the use of passwords and anti-virus software and technical protections such as firewall.

4. Test and re-evaluate risks: continually performs security checks, audits and assessments

5. Obtain stakeholder support: gain the approval and support of the information security polices from the board of directors and stakeholders.

4. What do the terms; authentication and authorization mean, how do they differ, provide some examples of each term.

Authentication: is a method for confirming users’’ identities.

Authorisation: is the process of giving someone permission to do or have something.

The most secure type of authentication involves:

1. Something the user knows e.g. password

2. Something the user has e.g. smart card

3. Something that is part of the user e.g. fingerprint

5. What the Five main types of Security Risks, suggest one method to prevent the severity of risk?

1. Human error- incorrect training’

2. Natural disasters- earthquakes and floods, disaster recovery needed

3. Technical failures- robust systems, hardware crashes

4. Deliberate acts- sabotages and white collar crimes

5. Management failure- lack of procedure and documentation

They look for-

¡ Known Viruses

¡ Suspicious looking code

However, these must be updated regularly

Week Four Questions - eBusiness

Week Four Questions - eBusiness
Chapter 3 Questions:

1. What is an IP Address? What is its main function?
   An IP Address is a protocol for communication between computers, used as a standard for transmitting data over networks and as the basis for standard Internet protocols. Therefore it provides a unique address for each device on the network.



2. What is Web 2.0, how does it differ from 1.0?
   Web 2.0 is a set of economic, social and technology trends that collectively form the basis for the next generation of the internet. It entails web services and applications with an increasing emphasis on human collaboration. Web 2.0 is much more community based compared to web 1.0 as that was strongly aimed for employees of companies. Web 1.0 was mainly homepages such as personal websites but now web 2.0 has a larger focus of blogging. Many viewed web 1.0 as a tool but now web 2.0 is widely viewed as a pure lifestyle.

http://digiredo.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/web20.jpg

3. What is Web 3.0?
Web 3.0 is a term that describes the evolution of web usage and interaction among several separate paths. These include transforming the web into major database, an evolutionary path to artificial intelligence, search for information using different medias and evolution towards 3D. Web 3.0 relies on the concept of Tagging to build information about you, your devices talk to each other and build intelligence about you. (Business information driven systems, Baltzan).

A weblink to help explain web 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIm5txBm1YA&feature=related

4. Describe the different methods an organisation can use to access information:
Four common methods of accessing information include:
1. Intranet: an internalised portion of the internet, protected from outside access, that allows an organisation to provide access to information and application software to only its employees.
2. Extranet: is an intranet that is available to strategic allies’ e.g. customers.

3. Portal: is a website that offers a broad array of resources and services, such as email, online discussion groups and search engines

4. Kiosk: is a publicly accessible computer system that has been set up to allow interactive information browsing. (Business information driven systems, Baltzan).

5. What is eBusiness, how does it differ from eCommerce?
Ebusiness is the conducting of business on the Internet including, not only buying and selling, but also serving customers and collaborating with business partners. While ecommerce only refers to online transactions. Therefore the primary difference is that e-business also refers to online exchanges of information.

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg06J2xQkFtUp4_uwOt6EEwHbWOn4EFtgb7CO1Hz2Mu6izi9Xs4PKifLiANrZX2xP-3LxvcnOMrJKKZRSeIPpn-ZkCuhf444XU2wdVLH7H51VEG15G4mA_LXAra9ZC6ZBBmSYq5rnzzRMA/s320/ebusiness.jpg

6. List and describe the various eBusiness models? (Hint: B2B)
An e-business model is an approach to conducting electronic business on the internet.
Business to business (B2B) - applies to business buying and selling to each other over the internet.
Business to Consumer (B2C)- applies to any business that sells its products or services to consumers over the internet.
Consumer to Business (C2B)- applies to any consumer that sells a product or service to a business over the internet
Consumer to Consumer (C2C) – applies to sites primarily offering goods and services to assist consumers interacting with each other over the internet.

7. List 3 metrics would you use if you were hired to assess the effectiveness and the efficiency of an eBusiness web site?

Exposure metrics- both page and site exposure.
Visit metrics – raw visit
Hit metrics – both qualified hits and hits

8. Outline 2 opportunities and 2 challenges faced by companies doing business online?
2 major opportunities include the ability to global reach, business both small and large can reach new markets both domestically and internationally. Another opportunity is that the business can be highly accessible and can operate 24/7.
2 challenges faced by business include, the increase liability that they face. This involves the different commerce laws in place and issues such as theft. Another challenge is security; companies must protect their assets against accidental or malicious misuse.

Week 3 Questions - Strategic Decision Making (chapter 2)

Weekly Questions - Strategic Decision Making
Chapter Two Questions:

1. Define TPS & DSS, and explain how an organisation can use these systems to make decisions and gain competitive advantages
A transaction processing system (TPS) is the essential business system that serves the operational level (analysts) in an organization. These systems involve elementary business activities, such as sales, receipts, cash deposits, payroll, credit decisions and flow of materials (Business driven information systems, Baltzan.) A TPS differs to a decision support system (DSS) as a DSS models information to support managers and business professionals during the decision-making process. A business can uses TPS to help them make decisions by focusing more on meaningful aggregations of information which will help the business make broader decisions. An organisation can adopt OLAP to create business intelligence in support of strategic decision making which will help them gain a competitive advantage in comparison to the market. DSS also help businesses make critical decisions by undertaking some quantitative models; these include sensitivity analysis which studies the impact of changes in models, also a what-if analysis which assess the impacts of assumptions and lastly, a goal seeking analysis which finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal. Whilst undertaking these analysis’s the business can gain a competitive advantage by being able to make critical decisions and cut costs and avoid costly decisions.

geoinfo.sdsu.edu/reason/images/flow_high.jpg

2. Describe the three quantitative models typically used by decision support systems.

Three quantitative models usually used by DSS include the following:
1. Sensitivity analysis: The study of the impact that changes in one or more parts of the model have on other parts of the model. It is basically used to determine how sensitive a model is to changes in the structure of the model.
2. What-if analysis: the impact of a change in assumption on the proposed solution. Therefore this analysis tests the direct effects of adopting a business strategy (http://www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/run/financecashflow/tool/Pages/whatif.aspx)
3. Goal-seeking analysis: Finds the inputs necessary to achieve a goal such as a desired level of output. it provides an evaluation of the changes you are considering to achieve a higher level of business performance. (http://www.smallbiz.nsw.gov.au/run/financecashflow/tool/Pages/goalseekanalysis.aspx)

3. Describe a business processes and their importance to an organisation.

A business process is a standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, such as processing a specific task. It is based on the manner of which work is organised, coordinated and focused to produce a valuable good or service. By understanding their business processes an organization can satisfy customers and increase their profits. This is important so businesses can remain competitive and continue to optimize and automate their business processes. Organisations are only as effective as their business processes. Example of business processes include, human resources processes, environmental business processes and accounting/finance processes.

4. Compare business process improvement and business process re-engineering.

Business process improvement attempts to understand and measure the current process and make performance improvements accordingly. Improving business processes is effective in obtaining steady incremental improvement. Many organizations begin process improvement with a continuous improvement model. However, this differs to Business process reengineering as it assumes it current process is irrelevant, does not work or is completely broken and must be overhauled from scratch. BPR concerns itself with improving the experience for the company and sets new standards throughout the industry. Therefore, BPR is the analysis and redesign of workflow within and between enterprises.

5. Describe the importance of business process modeling (or mapping) and business process models.
Business process modeling is the activity of creating a detailed flowchart or process map of work process, showing its inputs, tasks and activities in a structured sequence. The purpose of a process model is to:
· Expose process detail steadily and in a controlled approach
· Encourage conciseness and accuracy in describing the process model
· Focus attention on the process model interfaces
· Provide a powerful process analysis and consistent design vocabulary.

Example of a process model:

www.ibm.com/.../library/ws-ref5/process1.gif

Therefore the above purposes and aim stress the importance of such models, as they provide for accuracy and minimal mistakes that are costly to the business. Therefore the models allow the business to gain a competitive advantage.

weekly questions 1

Weekly Questions:

1. Explain information technology’s role in business and describe how you measure success?
Information technology is worldwide, in every household and organisation from a small corner shop to a large corporation, such as Commonwealth Bank Australia. I.T not only has an effect on business, but also has the potential to transform it. (Business information driven systems, Baltzan). I.T has a differing role in each and very single department within an organization, for example, the marketing sector will use and widely undertake I.T much differently to others functional areas such as, collecting and recording data. Effectively implementing I.T within a business can decrease their liability by reducing the cost of expected failures which in turn, may increase flexibility by reducing the cost of change.
I.T has encouraged globalization which for most large companies has brought about a lot of change and success. With the help of I.T, communication has become a lot faster, cheaper and much more efficient. Therefore, it can be seen that the role of I.T is broad within each and every business and can impact on organisations quite heavily. Implementing I.T has been used as a major strategy to gain a competitive advantage and therefore increase profits. I.T is very complicated to measure however managers must design metrics that feed certain key performance indicators (KPI’s). Efficiency and effectiveness I.T metrics must be used to measure both the impact and performance of I.T within the business as well as effectively undertaking and comparing benchmarks. However, it must be clear that success in one area doesn’t lead to success in another area. (Business information driven systems, Baltzan).

2. List and describe each of the forces in Porter’s Five Forces Model.
Porters Five Forces Model believes that there are five vital forces that determine competitive power in a particular situation. The five forces include the following:
Buyer Power- how strong is the company’s buyer power and how powerful their dictation of prices is. E.g. decrease prices
Supplier Power- how influential is the company’s supplier by dominating a certain industry and dictating for higher prices and limiting quality.
Threat of substitutes- if a company’s product or service is easy to substitute then there may be too many alternatives to choose from.
Threat of new entrants- if a company has strong and durable entry barriers then they can lessen their threat of new competitors and remain with a competitive advantage.
Rivalry among existing competitors- a very competitive market means fighting for more market share and customers this therefore increase rivalry between competitors.

3. Compare Porter’s three generic strategies.

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The companies that are low-cost producers fall into the category of cost leadership. Low costs usually lead to higher profits when a product is competing with a similar product in the same marketplace at the same selling price.

If a company differentiates its products or services it often tries to sell them at a maximum price, especially if it is ahead of its competitors. A product can be differentiated by its advertising, image or service.

Finally, Porter suggests that when a company concentrates on either cost leadership or differentiation it has a focused strategy.

4.Describe the relationship between business processes and value chains.
A business process is standardized set of activities that accomplish a specific task, e.g. processing a customer order. (Business information driven systems, Baltzan).
The relationship between businesses processes and value chains is evident when a company is evaluating the effectiveness of its business processes, an organization can use Porters’ value chain approach. The value chain approach examines an organization as a sequence of processes, each of which continues to add value to the product and or service for each customer. A company examines each stage of the value chain separately such as, making of the product to marketing and selling to the actual product. Therefore, by examining each stage the business is evaluating the effectiveness of its overall business processes.

By Christine Kilzi