Today technology has gotten to a level where the Internet of Things (IoT) is an unavoidable reality. Now, an average person has at least three devices connected to the internet, including a smartphone and a personal computer. These already collect significant information about individuals which are used by different systems to make their lives better. As such, with more devices, it will be possible to improve the quality of life for different people, especially when these devices are interconnected. However, what is supposed to be beneficial has the challenges that make it a risky venture. Although the Internet of Things is expected to change things for the better, it is marred with many challenges which might eventually make it disadvantageous. About the Internet of Things (IoT) The Internet of Things (IoT) refers to a network of physical objects with the ability to identify each other and interact with other devices Continue reading
Information Systems Management
Ethical, Security, Legal and Privacy Concerns of Data Mining
Data mining is a powerful new technology with great potential to help companies focus on the most important information in the data they have collected about the behavior of their customers and potential customers. It discovers information within the data that queries and reports can’t effectively reveal. The amount of raw data stored in corporate databases is exploding. From trillions of point-of-sale transactions and credit card purchases to pixel-by-pixel images of galaxies, databases are now measured in gigabytes and terabytes. Raw data by itself, however, does not provide much information. In today’s fiercely competitive business environment, companies need to rapidly turn these terabytes of raw data into significant insights into their customers and markets to guide their marketing, investment. Data mining, or knowledge discovery, is the computer-assisted process of digging through and analyzing enormous sets of data and then extracting the meaning of the data. Data mining tools predict behaviors Continue reading
Virtual Currency – An Overview
Virtual Money is defined as a digital representation of value that is issued and controlled by its creators. It is used and recognized by members of a specific virtual community. Virtual money relies on an organization that completely works on trust and unlike regular money, it is not issued by central bank or any other banking authorities. A virtual currency permits to transfer money without having to use any sort of intermediary like banks. It uses a cryptographic technology called blockchain that forms a collective and publicly demonstrable file of transactions to stop fraud. This builds trust between sellers and buyers, thus eradicating the want banks to get involved to authenticate the procedure. Globalization, virtualization, active customer participation, cost of reduction and networking are indications of altering reality, persuading also the financial amenities. Operating payments services currently regulated by entities of economic trust, which is based on money that is Continue reading
Extreme Programming (XP) Methodology
Extreme Programming (XP) is a software engineering methodology that has been formulated in 1996 by Kent Beck. It is a lightweight development methodology, XP is one of several popular agile processes. Extreme Programming has received fair media attention, and is most renowned for its practices that are sometimes regarded as controversial, such as pair programming and test-driven development. It has already been proven to be very successful because it reaches to the customer satisfaction. Instead of delivering everything at the same time the XP focus on some date far in the future, this process delivers the software you need as you need it, in other words Extreme Programming empowers the developers to confidently respond to changing customer requirements, even late in the project development life cycle. The philosophy of Extreme Programming is teamwork, in other words Managers, Customers and Developers are all equal partners in a collaborative team. The implement Continue reading
An Introduction to Cryptography and Digital Signatures
Cryptography The Greek words “krypt ´os” standing for “hidden” and the word “l ´ogos” that means “word”, are in essence the base from where the word cryptology was derived. As these words denote, cryptology can be best explained by the meaning “hidden word”. In this context, the original purpose behind cryptology is hiding the meaning of some specific combination of words which in turn would insure secrecy and confidentiality. This is a very limited viewpoint in today’s perspective and a wide range of security applications and issues now come under the term of cryptology (rest of the portion of this section will clarify this point of view). As field of mathematical science, Cryptology includes the study of both cryptanalysis as well as cryptography. On one hand, cryptography is a very broad term and represents any process used for data protection. On the other hand, the study of security related issues Continue reading
Applications and Benefits of Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP)
Voice communication will certainly remain a basic from of interaction for all of us. The public switched telephone network simply cannot be replaced, or even dramatically changed, in the short term (this may not apply to provide voice networks, however). The immediate goal for voice over internet protocol service providers is to reproduce existing telephone capabilities at a significantly lower “total cost of operation “and to offer a technically competitive alternative to the public switched telephone network. It is the combination of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) with point-of-service applications that shows great promise for the longer term. The first measure of success for voice over internet protocol will be cost saving for long distance calls as long as there are no additional constraints imposed on the end user. For example, callers should not be required to use a microphone on a pc. voice over internet protocol provides a competitive Continue reading