Opportunities of the Internet - Essay Example

?The Internet Internet is a remarkable achievement of human kind. It is the technology who has eliminated almost every obstacle in terms of voice communication and data communication from anywhere around the planet. The Internet has significantly created new trends in terms of modes of communication, online banking, online education, researching online, buying / selling online, telecommuting, worldwide media accessibility and much more. As the world progresses, in terms of information technology, the Internet has also introduced a new term, which is called Web 2.0. The term web 2.0 has demonstrated its rich features and popularity with over 9.5 million citations in Google. It is defined as “Web 2.0 is the business revolution in the computer industry caused by the move to the internet as platform, and an attempt to understand the rules for success on that new platform. Chief among those rules is this: Build applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them” (Pang 2009). Unfortunately, there is still no exact definition available for this technology. In order to understand the concept of Web 2.0, one needs to be an information technology expert. The innovative web 2.0 has aid users to explore Internet in different ways. Similarly, this comes with the idea of collaboration and communication with users, people and organizations of analogous interest (Wang, Ching-Huang Wang et al. 2010). Moreover, many people discuss Web 2.0 by indicating YouTube, face book, twitter etc. These websites support features of Web2.0, as is composed of Rich Internet Application (RIA), Ajax, flash, web services, Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), iterative language and social web. The technologies associated with RIA are AJAX, Java FX, Microsoft Silverlight and Flex.The idea is to integrate desktop computing experience to the browser by integrating more than one application on the web browser. On the other hand another key component called as SOA provides a flexible platform for organizations to add services. As organizations expand businesses, SOA provides room to include innovative services and products. The primary objective of SOA is to add services as the business expands. Furthermore, Web 2.0 has introduced new social networking websites including improved interactions with employees, customers, suppliers etc. Issues Internet has blossomed vast opportunities for developers, programmers, businesses to operate a business. On the other hand, new threats keep on effecting Internet and services associated with it. Organizations are extremely cautious regarding the Internet security because Web 2.0 allows the involvement of core systems directly from the web sites. Moreover, almost everyone bank is now offering ‘online banking’ services, which needs security with strict compliance. Most of the issues related to Internet, fall’s in the domain of operational problems. Web users tend to give correct personal information online to websites and a forum, which is, unsafe. Likewise, when the user access websites, chat with friends, and download software for various purposes, a hidden file known as Trojans creates a hidden remote connection, providing all the information to the hacker. For instance, if a web user conducts an online transaction via a credit card, the Trojan will extract the credit card number as the user types it from the keyboard, and sends it to the hacker. Consequently, the hacker may use credit card, resulting in financial loss. In corporate business environments, the impact is even more as compared to the home user. Hackers may breach in databases, file servers, and data warehouses, to extract classified information related to future-plans, milestones etc. and denting the organization with substantial business loss. Pornography on the web is another debatable issue, when considering children. As numerous pornographic websites are providing high quality pictures and videos, that can be accessed easily. Pornographic statistics from ‘www.healthymind.com’ demonstrate as: “25% of total search engine requests are porn-related. (Top three searches: sex, mp3 and hotmail.) 8% of total emails are porn-related. Average daily pornographic emails are 4.5 per internet user 12% of total websites are pornographic. Affecting Children 100,000 websites offer illegal child pornography Child pornography generates $3 billion annually 90% of 8-16 year olds have viewed porn online (most while doing homework) Average age of first internet exposure to pornography is 11 years old Largest consumer of internet pornography 12-17 age group” Pornography is a high revenue business as earning annually $3 billion is a significant amount. Largest consumer on internet pornography is the teenager groups from twelve to seventeen age group. Moreover, a recent study has demonstrated the disadvantages of pornography, as it may cause children to be sexually addicted, along with sexual illness, and may result in unplanned pregnancies. Besides, watching pornography online also disturbs children’s health and mentality. The most significant threats related to Internet with high impact are cyber attacks. A complete definition is available on network dictionary, which defines it as “Cyber Attack refers to the attack on the world’s networks, or “cyberspace”, by terrorists, radical groups, narcotics traffickers, and organized crime, etc. Cyber attacks may cause network down, information compromizing, wrong insutructions to trigger other events and much more. Cyber attacks can supplement or replace traditional military attacks, greatly complicating and expanding the vulnerabilities we must anticipate and counter. The resources at risk include not only information stored on or traversing cyberspace, but all of the components of our national infrastructure that depend upon information technology and the timely availability of accurate data.” Thousands of new cyber attacks categorized with ‘Major’ and ‘Minor’ are penetrated on the Internet daily. The focus is the power sector of the United States including websites of Poland, South Korea and United Kingdom. They all have witnessed cyber attacks in past few months. Different schools in various states of America have lost millions of fraudulent wire transfers (Shackelford 2010). Cyber attacks are intelligent as well as organized. Once the network is hacked, they install small lop holes or software intruders for giving hackers access whenever they want to access the network again. In simple words, one can say that, it is a computer-to-computer attack to steal the confidential information, integrity or the data presently available on the network. The attack adopts a calculated approach to modify action against data, software, and hardware in both computers and networks (Denning, Denning 2010). It is essential to define a solid network defense for handling cyber attacks. In terms of online education, Internet is up to the task, but few challenges are standing as an obstacle. The demand for instant video and voice communication is rising as Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 are integrating core processes, supporting video and voice communication. IP telephony, which is “also known as Voice over IP (VOIP), refers to transmission of voice and fax phone calls over the data network that uses the Internet Protocol (IP) (IP Telephony. 2007), and VoIP is relatively complex to deploy and operate. A comprehensive functionality of VoIP is illustrated as “Voice over IP (VOIP) refers to a group of technologies that use the Internet Protocol (IP) to transmit voice as packets over an IP network. Using VOIP protocols, voice communications can be achieved on any IP network regardless it is Internet, Intranets or Local Area Networks (LAN). In a VOIP enabled network, the voice signal is digitized, compressed and converted to IP packets and then transmitted over the IP network” (Voice over IP. 2007). The high bandwidth requirement for video and voice communication must be eliminated, and at the same time cost effective. Solutions In order to eliminate authentication issues, various computing technologies are deployed with improved functionality and restructured frequently. Secure Socket Layers (SSL) is integrated within the websites to ensure authenticity.SSL is a security protocol invented by Netscape in order to secure electronic transactions from the user’s computer to the server. It is recognized as “an open specification that includes encryption software based on the rsa algorithm, and it is widely used by websites to prevent credit-card or other personal information being intercepted by snoopers. Although it is in itself extremely secure, ssl secures only the link between a user’s computer and a server” (Ssl. 2003). Moreover, the transaction between the server and the client is monitored constantly, until the end of the session. For preventing pornography, parents must restrict Internet access with a firewall or a router with integrated software for blocking specific pornographic websites with keywords or wild cards. Moreover, Parents should also monitor the usage of their children on the Internet. Furthermore, the monitoring of Internet usage should continue in the schools, where teachers should monitor and give lessons to the students related to Internet security. In addition, parents should also be aware of their role while browsing Internet, as children tends to follow the same approach as their parents do. Cyber security is avoided, by installing the appropriate antivirus software on the computer with latest virus definition updates. However, in corporate organizations, intrusion detection system is the best choice for eliminating cyber security threats. In general, users should avoid downloading unidentified emails and files attached to it. Likewise, it is not a good approach to conduct any online transaction from a cyber cafe or from a friend’s computer. Rapid evolution of technology advancements made this technology on the top. New inventions and technological developments with Internet as a carrier have made such a huge impact in such a shot time. Moreover, Internet has dramatically changed the way of Living, Business, Communication, Work, and Entertainment. In terms of online education, online business, online support, online voice communication, online sales, video conferencing etc. seamless connectivity is required. At a professional level, it is vital, to consistently deliver high performance video and voice communication. Likewise, requirements for video communication are relatively high as compared to voice communication. Video communications are longer in duration and required greater bandwidth at a committed information rate. Furthermore, it requires media flows with video, voice and frequency. In order to overcome these challenges, organizations are implementing ‘session border control technology’ (SBC). The SBC impose Quality of Service (QoS) based routing for supporting both video and voice communication along with traffic and bandwidth control. QoS is defined as “Quality of Service, a term used to describe the reliability (or otherwise) of a network, based on an underlying assumption that it can always be improved” (QoS. 2003). Moreover, during an established session, SBC can detect the failures and re creates a video conferencing session along with rerouting the traffic. Furthermore, the SCO also encompasses security challenges and protect from denial of service (DOS) attacks. It also implements access and registration control policies, signaling encryption, hiding topology and preventing from malicious attacks, which can occur any time. If any organization wants to implement seamless video and voice communication functionality, they should ask the vendors for SBC compatible devices or purchase them separately to add quality and protection to this feature. However, corporate organizations with a presence in all over the world might prefer stand-alone SBC devices (, Videoconferencing: Opportunities, Challenges and Solutions - Unified Communications Strategies). References PANG, L., 2009. A Survey of Web 2.0 Technologies for Classroom Learning. International Journal of Learning, 16(9), pp. 743-759. WANG, J., CHING-HUANG WANG, YUEH-CHIU FANG and CHUN-FU LIN, 2010. Benefits of Web 2.0 in the College Writing Classroom. International Journal of Learning, 17(2), pp. 439-450. , Internet Pornography Statistics . Available: http://www.healthymind.com/s-porn-stats.html [3/19/2011, 2011]. DENNING, P.J. and DENNING, D.E., 2010. Discussing cyber attack Communications of the ACM, 53(9), pp. 29. Cyber Attack. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 129-130. SHACKELFORD, S.J., 2010. Estonia Three Years Later: a Progress Report on Combating Cyber Attacks. Journal of Internet Law, 13(8), pp. 22-29. Ssl. 2003. Essential Internet, , pp. 189-190. , Videoconferencing: Opportunities, Challenges and Solutions - Unified Communications Strategies . Available: http://www.ucstrategies.com/unified-communications-expert-views/videoconferencing-opportunities-challenges-and-solutions.aspx [3/19/2011, 2011]. IP Telephony. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 260-260. Voice over IP. 2007. Network Dictionary, , pp. 519-519. QoS. 2003. Essential Internet, , pp. 172-172. Read More