Cyber criminals are now targeting twitter users, but Panda Security is on to them. Panda Security is a Spain based antivirus maker, and the cyber criminals are using malware for their crime. Malware is malicious software that is used by tagging hot topics so when people click on the news link the virus is loaded. Cyber crimes cost companies and consumers more than $100 billion worldwide. Oddly enough cyber crime is one of the few industries benefiting from the financial crisis. In the last year there has been a 500 percent increase malware types, and the FBI has reported a 33 percent increase in internet crime last year. There is a new virus every two and half seconds. Also, unfortunately companies have lost $4.6 million due to these crimes. And since cyber crime increase also the need for antivirus also increase, McAfee had a 21 percent higher profit in their first quarter than same time last year.
These criminals don’t stop there. They create website to share the way they do such crimes for other to learn. There is also software you can purchase for $500 but for the first callers they get a $400 discount. Another thing you find on sale on line is the information that is stolen after the crime has been made. There is thousands of credit card and social security numbers waiting to be bought from cyber criminals.
This crime is hard to stop, business are afraid to speak out because they are afraid that there companies will loose its prestige. It is easier to prosecute child pornography than viruses since at least pornography leaves evidence behind and when it comes to cyber crime there is so many jurisdictions most criminals are safe.
This article is related to chapter 5 since it deals with the virtual world and the dangerous that it has. Cyber crimes are growing and the best targets are businesses due to the large amount of personal information they are able to store.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/06/21/cyber.crime.internet/index.html?iref=newssearch
Going to the virtual office in Second Life
Remote conferencing is becoming more and more necessary in businesses today. Since travel budgets are squeezed due to the recession, companies can no longer afford to have employees fly across the country as often as they actually need.
Second life has been used for some years now in video games but now they it is being incorporated into the business world. With second life you can have virtual meetings on their own computer networks. Second life will have extra security since the meetings will be set in the company’s network, rather than the public networks used in standard Second life.
Now more than 1,400 organizations use Second life including large companies, educational institutions, government agencies, and even the U.S military. Some organizations use this just for basic meetings some even use it for training. IBM is selling its own virtual meeting tool, Sametime 3D, which allows businesses to share ideas and collaborate in a 3D world. It is still on the testing stage but this technology is growing very fast. One organization told CNN that they did not only save traveling expense and time but they also where able to come up with better ideas during their virtual meeting since the environment is very engaging. At the same time Surinder Kahai a professor at Binghamton University said that people mess up because they think that what works in a face-to-face environment also works in a virtual environment.
Even with Second Life human interaction is highly recommended. As it might seem more convenient it is not always the proper way to do meetings. It would be recommended to catch up on a projects progress but maybe not to plan out a project that has been chosen.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/11/05/second.life.virtual.collaboration/
China Solar Panel Maker Sets First U.S. Plant
The largest solar panel installation is at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. It was produced by China’s Suntech Power, and it accounts for about a third of the 15 megawatt solar farm. Suntech is part of the largest, fast-growing global solar market due to its price and scale. It now has a manufacturing plant in the Phoenix area, and began production in October. Suntech has now become the first major Chinese cleantech player to bring factory jobs to the U.S. By doing so it strengthens the collaboration between Chinese and American leaders in the renewable-energy industry.
When Suntech’s first U.S. facility opened it was very modest. It had a capacity to make 30 megawatts of solar panels per year, enough to outfit around 7,500 homes (Aston). And eventually it will grow to boost output of about 200 megawatts per year. Suntech could not have picked a better place to build its plant. Arizona has very strong encouragement of solar energy and research and the sun’s resources are highly available.
Another benefit of Suntech is shorter delivery but have a lower cost. Even though they started with 75 workers the fact that they are now located in the U.S. will lower delivery time and cost, as well as reduce the overall carbon footprint of getting finished panels to the U.S. Also, the cost of finished panels has collapsed by about 50% in the past year, this was great news for customers, but it hurt the solar stock prices.
The way this article relates to chapter 12 is by the subject of going green. This article shows how the world is coming together to make this a greener world since it is a social responsibility.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2009/tc20091115_970512.htm
How Green Is Apple: Cleaning the Supply Chain
Apple like many companies, outsources part of their manufacturing to other countries. By doing so, it makes it harder for apple to keep track of how their products might be harming the environment. What apple does is designs the systems but outsourcing the assembly to contract manufacturers. Their original design manufacturers are located in the mainland of China; where it is cheaper to produce do to cheaper labor. About 95% of all laptops are manufactured in China, and 85% of those are produced by a handful of companies many have never heard of.
In order for apple to be in compliance with their supplier code of conduct, apple audits all of its suppliers and then provided this information to its customers on their website. Even though Apple strived to clean up its supply, chain it ranked 10th on “Guide to Greener Electronics”, among major electronics manufacturers. It earned 4.7 points out of a possible 10, a dramatically lower than major competitors.
Many companies do not audit their outsourcing company but Apple does, and even though they do not have such a good score they are still peruse greener technology. They do not have a timeline of when this will occur but as being one of the top fortune 500 companies, we know they will.
This has to do with chapter 8 because it talks about the Apples supply chain and how they strive to maintain it as green as possible. Even though they are a very strong company it is still difficult for them to maintain the chain green and still have competitive prices.
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/163608/how_green_is_apple_cleaning_the_supply_chain.html%20on%20Oct.%2015th,%202009.
To Do More With Less, Governments Go Digital
The economic crisis is forcing the government to work more efficiently. Not only will they have to come up with new strategies to work better but they will also have to find new way to provide there services. I.B.M has sponsored a conference in New York called “Smarter Cities”. I.B.M argued that technology can help government tackle issues such as traffic management, energy use, public health, education and social services. Another issue that government has that I.B.M can help is by using the data they collect. Government agencies must collect data from hundred different topics. The collection of data is not the issue; the issue is how to use that data efficiently.
A technology that New York adopted and later was used in other cities was CompStat. CompStat system maps, predicts, and identifies crimes. In 2002 the city began using “311” a phone number used if you have a question about a government service or a complaint. They were receiving 50,000 calls a day and now they are also doing the 311 on line.
The most crucial is the linking of government databases. Firefighters will be able to call up building information on hand held wireless computers on their way to the fire. This will also help firefighters avoid some dangerous.
This technology of linking and making cities smarter is only in its infant stage and has a lot of room to grow. In Iowa the City’s can control the usage of water and traffic. This has great potential not only to save money but also to make cities safer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/11/business/11unboxed.html?_r=2&scp=3&sq=business%20intelligence&st=cse
Outsourcing in Costa Rica has become a great asset to business. When comparing call centers from the Middle East and Asia to one in Central America such as Costa Rica you can notice that the language and accent barrier is not as bad when the primary language is Spanish. Another asset is the time zones; taking these things into consideration it is almost a no brainer to decide where your call centers should be located. In the government aspect the US can take advantage of the international tax laws granted to international companies that invest in Costa Rica and its local economy. The savings will make this a very wise decision. Call center software is as important to an outsourced campaign as telemarketing training since they must both try to out perform any other option you might have.
Another asset of outsourcing to Costa Rica is that this country has a very solid infrastructure and a stable democratic government. Also, Call Center jobs are very well paid and there for competition for these jobs are infove of the client looking to outsource. There for the turnover rate is much lower in Costa Rica than what you would find in any other country. To be more specific the turn over rate would be 5-10 times grater in other countries than in Costa Rica.
This article relates to chapter 11 since it has to do with outsourcing. It also talks about the benefits for outsourcing in Central America more specific in Costa Rica.
“Voice Chat Coming to Facebook!” In the next few weeks Facebook users will be able to have high quality voice conversations on line. The new technology is being offered by Vivox not by Facebook; therefore the Facebook app. can be applied to almost any website and have conversations while shopping on line. Vivox voice service is already used by more than 15 million users around the world, making this service reliable even after the large volume of users begin using the technology on Facebook. All the user has to do is download a plug-in and you are set. Now businesses can use this to have business meetings or in schools as part of a project discussion. Another very interesting point is that you don’t have to have a Facebook account to use this voice chat, Vivox will have a free dial-in number that will allow you to join any conversation. Soon almost any game or website will be able to have voice chat include. The companies don’t have to manually load the chat software; they will only have to add Facebook to their websites. As of for games, many games used within Facebook will be able to adapt the chat feature to it. Vivox is also applying this technology to other video games as well. In the mean time Facebook is not promoting the voice chats and Vivox has no idea how many people will be using the feature, but it seems to be very promising. It will allow people form all over the world have real time voice conversations free (other than paying for internet connection). Personally I might use this new technology since my boyfriend moved out of town for College. It might not be Skype but it will be another way to keep in contact while he is gone.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/15/cnet.facebook.voice.chat/index.html
Paper record filing might be a thing of the past very soon. A new database for doctors and hospitals will be implemented and maybe mandatory by the government. The new database will allow for hospitals like the VA’s to have patient’s records immediately. Medical records will not be available only within the health facility or even within the state; records will be available through a national database. The “big deal” about this is that patients no longer will have to wait hours or even days to be able to have proper care. Currently many health clinics would either have to have the information faxed or even mailed which could take a few days to receive. In order for facilities to receive part of the $17 billion in stimulus funding they will have to share records within the database. The government has even said that they might begin penalizing providers who are not using this database by 2014. In the mean time providers will have to adapt to a universal language in order to be able to communicate with different providers. What I mean by language is that many providers have adapted different abbreviations or codes that other providers would not recognize. The Database would be useless if the language used is not understood. Personally I have seen how difficult it is to receive quick health care when a new doctor does not have my medical records. It is frustrating for both the patient and the doctor and it might even lead to a life or death situation. I believe a database for medical records would be a great idea, but penalizing providers for not using might also be a bad idea. If providers begin to use it with out the proper training or language, miss communication may occur and that would be dangerous.
http://www.businessweek.com/ap/tech/D9B1MNT02.htm
Chapter 4, Ethics and information Security, talks about how downtime can cost businesses money and they should do what ever it takes to prevent this from happening. In an article by Search Engine Journal titled, “Google’s Downtime Affected 5% of the Internet” it stresses how important it is for other business that Google prevent this problems. As we all know Google is a search engine that can help us answer questions, do homework, and even shop for clothes or technology products. Many companies lost sales due to the down time that Google had. Also, many companies use this search engine to help them answer every day questions. Also, many companies have counted on Google due to their great reliability. Other than the downtime that affected millions in 2008 Google has been available 99.9% of the time and only averaging about 10-15 minutes of down time per month. The down time only occurred do to maybe a slow processing but that was within the whole month. As more and more companies courted on Google more companies become affected. Maybe 5% does not seem like a large percent but that small percent can be translated to millions of dollars. When shopping for a new product one might want to research such product before going out and buying it. Personally I have used Google to find websites that not only will help my find what product is best for me but also where should I buy the product. Another way I have used Google at work has been to help me answer any tax questions or even show me how to use specific software. Google has become a big part of the business world and it is difficult to run a business without it. Communication is key in business and Gmail is a large part of my job as well.
http://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-downtime-affected-5-of-the-internet/10463/
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/10/what-we-learned-from-1-million.html
Companies Turn To Twitter While Hiring As the internet evolves to better faster technology our “normal” way of life is changing with it. With the boom of networking sites, and the unemployment crises in the Unites States, companies and job seekers are looking for new ways to put themselves out there. Companies are now seeking potential hires by using Twitter. Twitter will let the company view the potential hire’s interest and be able to have resumes instantly. Other sites such as Monster are flooded with old resumes and it takes time to be able zero in the one good resume the company is looking for. Twitter is instant when a person sees a job opportunity they can send their resume, and the recruiter receives it immediately. This new way of hiring is only beginning. Companies are experimenting with this new hiring process but they will have a better idea of how it will work once the job market becomes more existing. Soon companies will be able to simply log into a Twitter account and look for potential hires, rather than job seekers looking for them. On the flip side, job seekers will be able to instantly send information to companies and have a faster response. This new way of hiring is not for everyone, special when it comes to job seekers. This new way of hiring affects everyone job seeker or not. This technology puts the spot light on the fact that you must be careful with what you are writing or allow others to post on your networking site. Schools and your potential future boss might be reading Tweets.
The future is full of new inventions and new technology; we just need to familiarize ourselves with such ideas. WiTricity has a new idea, wireless electricity. Soon we will no longer need any cords to power our TV’s, laptops, cell phones, etc. The way it works is, power becomes converted into magnetic fields and send it at a certain frequency. Already we are able to do it at a minimal level. We can send low amounts of electricity, such as, to power a light bulb 1.5 miles away (2003), or at higher levels the way some toothbrushes can charge in a charging doc with no cord. The problem today regarding all high power low distance ideas, is that in order to use this technology each item must have its own charging doc or pad. In the near future a larger more reliable pad would be able to charge all appliances and smaller items such as cell phones and remote controls when placed on it. Another great feature of such technology is that their will be no need of disposable batteries and wast of unused electricity. When the product placed on the “charging pad” is fully charged the pad would turn off. Also plug in card would be more attractive to consumers because cars would be able to charge by just parking into a garage, and not have to worry about plugging it in. This technology is pretty cheap, it could cost low as $10 to build a wire free charger for one item. This technology is not yet perfected and some believe can cause some health risks due to magnetic fields. This article was related to chapter two in our text book since it had to do with future technology and the idea of how products must be perfected time and time again. I liked this article because it is a view to the future and how in just a couple of years everything can be so different.
Sutter, John (2009,Sep 2). A cordless future for electricity?. CNN, Retrieved 09/02/2009, from http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/02/wireless.electricity/index.html
The competition to build the next fuel efficient vehicle is on. But the race might be over with the new zero-emission cars. There are three zero or almost zero, emission cars available in the marker. The electric plug-ins, hybrid plug-ins, and the hydrogen fuel cell, but out of these three only one can really win 10 years down the road. The winner will be the one who will truly have a zero-emission, zero payback period for premium technology, and of course a beautiful design. The Nissan leaf is the first electric car, launched in August 2009 as the first affordable ZE, with a cost of under $30,000. Nissan plans to produce 50,000 electric cars by 2010, but like all new technology it is not equally friendly to everyone. You must keep in mind the mileage you drive per day, if you have a garage, or the location you live in. All these questions are related to how you will be able to power your car, whether you purchase a plug in or a fuel cell. “We believe in not being first to market but being best to market, ”says Mary Nickerson. The same ideas was explained in Chapter one of our text book. The competition is tuff and you cannot let your guard down if you want to stay in the market. In my case, I would probably be in the market for a hybrid, it might seem “old school” in a few years but it is what works for me. I live in an apartment with no way to plug in my car, an area with no hydrogen fueling stations, and I also drive over 40 miles and I don’t want to get stuck in the middle of traffic. Time might be running out for some companies like GMC and Chrysler but I guess they have other thing to worry about such as just staying in existence and paying their current bills. They will have much road to travel to catch up with Toyota, Nissan, and Honda but it’s not who gets there first but who can remain in first place the longest.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1919815,00.html?cnn=yes?artId=1919815?contType=article?chn=bizTech
