Recently the topic of "Business" and "Employment" have been brought up recently; and on the Guardian theres an interesting story about how an employee stole and sold personal account details to rival firms. Now, this is major as some person just working in a company immediately takes your information and decides to sell it without permission! This has actually effected the business as a result of many angry customers losing their trust in what they thought was a secure firm. However, this would be no ITGS Blogpost without the triangle of doom death evil involved. So, lets have  a look shall we?

Main Article:

"Personal details of thousands of mobile phone customers have been stolen and sold to rival firms in the biggest data breach of its kind, the government's privacy watchdog said today. An employee of phone operator T-Mobile sold the customer records, including details of when contracts expired. The millions of items of information were sold on for "substantial sums", the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) said. Rival networks and mobile phone retailers then tried to lure away T-Mobile customers by "cold calling"."

For more, click here!

Social Ethical Schtuff:

Privacy- This employee has taken the accounts of thousands of people who use phones for their own personal lives, how is their privacy invaded.
Security: How good is the security of T-Mobile?
People and Machines: How has this employee used this data base to his advantage?
Reliability: How reliable is T-Mobile at protecting its information?
Control: How do we choose who is in charge of our information? How do we know they may control the information wisely?
Policies & Standards: Are standards good enough at T-Mobile to stop other employees from behaving like this?

AOI (Areas Of Impact):

Socially, people will be paranoid about protecting their phone as well as their information.
Business wise, this effects T-Mobiles reputation as a telecoms company.

Stakeholders:

T-Mobile
T-Mobile Users
Spam Companies.

Visit our Diggo space because you know you want to. and it may improve your internet skills. and you know you want to =D

I'll be bock.

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The writer of a worm that can enter jailbroken iPhones has accepted a job to be a hacker full time. Although he will be doing his work for good, are iPhone owners so happy about the situation? For more information, visit this link. I believe that this article will be a good choice for my portfolio, so let the wonderful ITGS triangle explain!

News Event

Well, I already explained this part. No need to repeat myself. Next!

Social and Ethical Aspects

Control: If the hacker and his company are allowed to control worms, will they still use them for good?

Intellectual property: Should somebody's iPhone be hacked by somebody, even if they know the risks of jailbreaking?

Privacy: How much information can the hacker collect from targeted iPhones?

Reliability: Will the hacker remain a reliable employee?

Security: Is it ethical to breach past the security of an iPhone, no matter how weak it is?

Business and Employment: Of course, somebody is getting employed here.

Information Technology Systems

Jailbroken iPhones and the worms that can hack into them.

Specific Areas of Impact

The privacy of many iPhone users, along with the consequences of jailbreaking an iPhone in the first place.

Stakeholders

The hacker, his new employers and iPhone users. Apple might also be involved.

To view more bookmarks about technology and business & employment, visit our Diigo space, because that is totally where you want to be. Or where Dr Tech wants you to be, but...

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Grade 11's now your Video assignment is over as announced it is time to begin your first Internal Assessment portfolio. The essential element of any good portfolio is the choice of the article - and the best wasy to choose an article is to read and organise as many as possible so that you make the right choice. There are a number of ways to organise individually as you find articles - but it is much better if we share and organise as a group using a social bookmarking tool.

The best tool that I have found is called Diigo - so first of all you will need to do the following:-

1. Go to the website and join Diigo.
2. I would recommend using Firefox as you can also install their Diigo toolbar which makes things really easy to use - if not you can install a bookmarklet for Safari.
3. Watch the video below or go to these tutorials to find out how to use Diigo.
4. Make sure you join the ITGSonline group.

Okay once you are familiar with Diigo then here is what you have to do to share suitable articles for your Business and Employment portfolios: -

1. Search and find at least 5 articles that fulfill the ITGS portfolio criteria.
2. For each one you find - you must Diigo bookmark it including a snapshot.
3. For each bookmark - you must make sure you save it to the following group ITGSonline and make sure you tag it correctly using the correct social and ethical issue - along with your own tags that are relevant.
4. For each bookmarked page - you must then annotate the following points - IT System, social and ethical issue, solution, statistics and whether you believe this the perfect portfolio article or not-  and other relevant factors.
5. Finally check out other students bookmarks and add your own comments.

You thought it was all over - but not quite - finally by  23rd from the articles bookmarked choose one you consider the most interesting and then write a full blogpost using the ITGS triangle to analyse the article - with links and most importantly a description of the IT System.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Diigo Social Bookmarking Receives A Major 4.0 Upgrade (shegeeks.net)
• Back to School: 15 Essential Web Tools for Students (mashable.com)
• Diigo v4 is the Best Social Bookmarking Tool Ever! (newcommbiz.com)

 YouTube: Play Now | Play in Popup | Direct Link

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One major social ethical issue that has appeared in the last 9 years is "How far will we go to protect our society?"

Socially, the country I am in seems to have some issues (in the sense that there are marauding teenagers or drunks who decide to tear up a street whether they seems to be aware of their actions or not). Yes, I have seen these type of situations in first person, but I digress, but it seems like the government's answer to it is CCTV.

Now, CCTV is probably the biggest double-edged sword in England more then the rest of the world? Why? Because we seem to have the most in the world. It has become so recognizable that it can be suggested to be an icon of some sort; and despite the billions of pounds used to develop it, it seems to not have completely payed off. But the idea of it still remains, and though that article indicates that CCTV hasn't , it still remains, CCTV can reduce crime and add to our security. However, it goes one step further.

Modern CCTV now has the ability to communicate with people on the street. The fact that they are able to see people dropping litter on the street is insane; it seems out of a movie no? The government is watching your every move in their city and how far they'll go to make sure you don't do something (V For Vendetta? Anyone?); The fact that the police does this to 'keep the city secure and safe in a healthy environment to make sure citizens stay okay' but they seem to be bordering on privacy. Its almost a marytr, where people see these things and feel terror in their eyes. Might seem like a slight exaggeration, but consider for one moment, with the direction they've headed in with CCTV and being on the borderline of privacy and security, one must consider, once they eliminate crime, are they going to extend that on to more minor incidents?

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It is worrying that google saves web history without informing you. Like many other sites, google saves your private search information, this only applies when you have a Gmail account. Google hide this quite well, although it is possible to be informed about this service it is kept quite secretive. One might not think that alot of information is given away from the web history but you can tell alot of information from the person just by viewing thier search history. This information can potentially be sold on and harm you. It is possible to delete the stored history but google does not state if they keep a copy of the history even though it is not visible to you.

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There has been plenty of news about the link between employment and having a Social Networking account. If a person is applying for a job, many businesses will search for that person's MySpace or Facebook page, giving them an insight into their personal life. Depending on the content of your pictures, this can make the final decision for many companies before they accept or decline your application. If your account is filled with pictures of you having a lovely time in peaceful settings, you should be fine. If your photos often show you getting drunk on the weekend, you have lowered your chances of employment. Even if you are employed, you still have to be careful about what you type. Is this a good procedure for businesses to take? For the companies, it is an effective way to view applicants without suspicion, making sure their workers will actually work. In terms of privacy, problems then begin.

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In case you are unsure of how to screencast here are some links that might help you out. Remember a screencast should be short and to the point - otherwise simply viewers get bored and stop watching!

• Jon Udell explains the basics of professional screencasting over at O'reilly.
• I knew it existed Screen-Castomatic allows you to record screencasting on the fly through the use of a Web 2.0 tool - of course it has its limitations but might be worth a try.
• Mashable's - How to Master series continues with their views on screencasting.
• NEW - Check this website out for a some alternatives to the screencasting tools I have mentioned  - http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2009/05/four-free-tools-for-creating.html

And below an example maybe of not how to do it - but shows you how easy it is now to hack WEP encryption - some major social and ethical issues there I believe!

[display_podcast]

 WEP Hacking: Play Now | Play in Popup | Direct Link

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Okay Grade 11's you can breathe a sigh of relief your exams are over, so time to relax and see how and what you spend doing most of the time when you are pottering around on the computer? And Grade 12's you do not get out of this either, as it will be interesting to see if your computer habits are much different.

So how do you do this well, first of all go to the SLIFE website and simply download the application called SLIFE following the instructions on there main page here.

After a couple of days start looking at your usage stats - and see if  there are any patterns...

More to follow, next week,

Dr T

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Identity theft is an issue that affects millions presently. The soar of Internet usage and other technologies has both good and bad outcomes. Incompetent users of the Internet (ie. "digital immigrants") are actually at a great risk, opening pathways to personal information and becoming vulnerable to identity thieves.

The book I'm reading, as you may have guessed, is based on Identity Theft. The author of the book is actually a retired thief writing to warn others against such risks by simply telling his story. He remains anonymous because he was actually never caught or charged for the crimes he committed. The book is written as a series of events identical to the author's experiences when he committed these crimes; he simply uses different names and some different settings to suit. This realistic representation of a criminal series of events that actually happened (in addition to the story being from the criminal's point of view) teaches the reader what can lead to a stolen identity, what identity thieves look for to find personal information and, in result, how to avoid being vulnerable to identity theft.

Personally, I have found this book extremely interesting so far. The way it is written makes it an easy, flowing read and the lesson within it is priceless. The context makes you feel that you are actually experiencing the series of events; by doing so you also learn how to avoid such things happening to you. The story is written with the first chapter being the ending of the story and the second chapter returning to the beginning to tell what led up to the ending. Every detail is realistic and I am finding many parts that I can relate to; I have already begun finding my own vulnerabilities to identity theft.

Identity Theft Inc. (link to Amazon)

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The article that I found most appropriate for my father's biggest fear in technology describes the various concepts of Biometric Face Recognition. As a general overview, Biometric Face Recognition is a technique used in modern tracking technology currently under government control. The United Kingdom, as an example, uses this software with the CCTV cameras in airports, train stations and streets of London. Computers are able to rapidly analyse images produced by these cameras and identify people in view. This process is used to locate criminals and protect citizens, residents and tourists...

The following clip advertising the latest 3VR Intelligent Video Management Solution (IVMS) clearly describes the process and purpose of this technology:

This advertisement describes the benefits and advantages of Biometric Face Recognition in CCTV Cameras.

Included is the ability for the system to locate a person and notify a supervisor within 20 seconds. This would enable these cameras to locate criminals or missing children in even large crowds far more efficiently than with the naked eye of an observer. There are, however, many problems with the system.

In relation to Reliability, these face recognition systems are accurate a decent but not perfect 95% of the time. If all the cameras in a city identify 1 million passers by in a day, this would involve 50,000 misidentified people daily. Since these occurrences typically announce the misidentified person as a criminal suspect the output of the system could produce catastrophe.

Privacy is also a major concern with this technology. Innocent passers by would be identified and 'tracked' by these cameras which to many seems intimidating. The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) disagrees with such security methods since they infringe on personal privacy rights. Since these rights are constantly being compromised, however, the technology seems to be prevailing.

Another ethical issue in this article is People and Machines. With the collaboration of police forces and mechanical camera systems, crime should be minimized.

Article at Biometric Face Recognition & Biometric Identification Technologies (2005)

Clip from YouTube: 3VR Intelligent Video Management Solution as seen on KBS

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In a mere thirty years, technology has changed dramatically. We have  gone from computers the size of rooms to ones that will fit on our laps and run incomparably faster. My father feels that his life would be significantly different had he grown up with the technology we have today...

Image from Chilton-Computing.org.uk

More information on the GEC-2050 Minicomputer

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The government is planning on making a database that will contain every phone call that you have made, every email that you have sent to your friends and relatives and also every web page that you have visited during the last 12 months. The government thinks that this is necessary in order to stop terrorism.

In my opinion I think that this is an invasion of privacy. This issue is an invasion of privacy because they meaning the government is looking at the people private emails that they sent to their friends and also family member and the also the fact that they are also looking at the phone calls that we make. This is a invasion of Privacy because the government just can’t look at our email and phone calls that we make since they are really private to us. I have will have to agree with that by doing this whole thing that they, meaning the government will be able to find terrorist.

The Link to the article:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article3979928.ece

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What is a database? A database is a collection of organizing information in a way that the computer program can speedily select the piece of information that you wished to see. You can say that a database is like an electronic filing system. Usually a particular database is organized by fields, records and also files. A field is a separate piece of information; a record is a complete collection of one field; and a file is a set of records. A perfect example of this is a telephone diary, which is also that well organized since it has the letter of the ABC, so that you can put the name of the people in the correct place of the telephone diary.  

On November 1967, a writer named Arthur Miller wrote an article called “The National data center and personal privacy”, which highlighted the issue of the database the government has. In this article Arthur Miller highlights problems that might face in the future, which were that if there is a increase in the number of records there is going to be an increase in the risks of finding errors when the data is reported and also recorded. Arthur Miller also knew that this process would not last that long since there is going to come a time when the machine will malfunction, which will in turn cause the data to be lost. Who actually thought that Arthur Miller’s predications or hypothesis will actually come true?

Looking at his predication and also at the world today, these issues are still the world today as well. An article in the BBC News was published on 3/3/2008, on how the GP are warning the NHS about the easy database access. This is article is basically saying that the database is frequent nowadays that even the NHS has its own database which has data of over 50 million patients records in its database. This article is highlighting the issue that the NHS database is being a personal privacy issue.

The social and ethical that are related to this article are privacy, security and also reliability.

Privacy and security are two is the main issues that are related to that topic of easy access of the NHS database because when your private information is on the database but however the information is on the database is avaliable to the receptionist and also the telephonists, there is a chance that they might be altering some of the data, or they might even try to manually steal the information about that particular person. This will cause the data to be wrong or sometimes even stolen, which caused the issue of reliability to arise from this issue.

Reliability is one of other issue because what if the systems crashes, which is what frequently happens in hospitals. This is just like what Arthur Miller said in his article that there will be a come when this machine will malfunction, since that is what happens to technology when it is out dated, which will cause the data to be lost.

In the end I would like to say that every technology has its end or they are just out dated…and those databases are also like a piece of technology

Here is the Link to the article http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7274773.stm

 "Please comment me with your thoughts and opinions on this matter! I would love to hear from you!"

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Databases and privacy, these two topics are debated about if databases can't protect private info. the article talks about people misusing the info, or inability to process the data. the data is valuable and can be dangerous in the wrong hands. most databases are harmless, but some can be ticking time-bombs, it's important to not to reveal too much about yourself, in the world you have a face, online you are faceless. most of the issues is privacy of info because if not protected or given away, you can be in a lot of trouble. so it's important to not reveal too much that people can identify you or for someone to take your identity. one way to protect your info is to put firewalls around the database so hackers can't get in, as well as passwords. these can protect your private info and you won't have to worry about anyone stealing your information.

http://newcitizenship.net/?p=2394, this is the link to the website, it was made in 1967 in November.

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