Cybercrime and its impact on International Business

Cyber crime can be referred to any illegal activity that is executed with the help of a computer. Such kinds of crimes have always been executed ever since the computer technology was introduced (Cross, F 2007). With the advent of Internet, these crimes have gained an even faster pace. These thefts are not limited to enclosed vicinity. Accessing to data of an organization while sitting in another part of the world through internet has now become extremely effortless. This has drastic affects on organizations.Stealing sensitive information such as data of the stock exchange, profits of a financial institution and even identities of individuals (Cross, F 2007) to access into their personal accounts are crimes that are increasing rapidly. This has led to many connotations for businesses worldwide; taking better security measures. Cyber crimes committed are unique in such a way that no physical existence of material or equipment is needed. Everything is done through the use of a computer (Nag, D & Bajaj, K 2005). This has made these crimes even more dangerous and difficult to control. Opportunities for cyber criminalsThe increasing globalization has led to the merger of activities all over the world. Banks, stock markets, multi nationals all have become connected with each other and technology has become the life and blood for all organizations. Used for various purposes such as enhanced communication mediums and information sharing, technological advancements have also made businesses worldwide more susceptible to frauds and misuse of information (Grabosky, P 2005). Amongst all technological developments of the 20th century the internet is a widely used instrument for information sharing all over the world.Between the year 2001 and 2002 there has been an increase of $6501 billion revenue being generated from business executed online (Grabosky, P2005). This means there are greater chances for individuals to commit cyber crimes that are both dangerous and risky to t he business and also illegal in nature (ibid). Businesses worldwide make use of electronic communication means particularly those in the Western World and hence computer and cyber crimes have exploded after the 1990’s (Chamely, H 2003).The use of internet has fuelled the globalization process and hence the world has become smaller. People across the globe can now connect to each other easily though electronic means. However this advantage also carries perils to security. Issues such as fraud over the internet and piracy have been facilitated with the internet development (ibid). Multinationals have offices all over the world that are connected providing cyber criminals with the opportunity to act. It could be someone from within the employees or even a third party criminal.With the pace of technological development, e-commerce has come into existence and businesses are shifting not only their single operations online but transferring their complete business processes online ( Edin, M 2002). Bank for instances have started to offer international fund transfers from branches in two different parts of the worlds through internet which provides criminal opportunity for fund embezzlement which could mean loss of huge amounts of money for the banks. Online businesses such as Amazon. com deal in online shopping and purchasing of goods without dealing in any brick and mortar business.All such organizations function globally and hence are at a greater chance of cyber fraud then a business that only has one office in a single country and hence a smaller network and system. Impact of cyber crimes on business activities All businesses internationally have started to rely on electronic means of doing work and hence dependence on internet and technological sources has gained immense importance. Break down or illegal access to business information system and data base can have severe repercussions:†¢ Hindrance in day to day operations of a business like communicat ion with employees across the borders. Some companies function internationally with employees connected through means of video conferencing or emails etc (Grabosky, P 2005). †¢ A complete shutdown of business for instance organizations such as Wal-Mart function on a real time inventory management system and illegal access gained by a competitor means sharing of sensitive inventory data and customer preferences. †¢ E commerce business entails developing of relation online with suppliers as well.This affect is multiplied when cyber crimes not only gives access to financial data of the targeted organization but even its suppliers who may be functioning in another part of the world (Grabosky, P 2005). †¢ Another great loss that the company might face is the declining confidence level of customers. Consumer have less trust in the business functions especially online retailing like online shopping, purchases and electronic banking. And with the increasing rate of such crime s companies might lose on their customers.Thus companies must ensure that they do not loose on any important customers due lack of trust in the company’s system (Smith, A 2004). †¢ Economic losses to business resultant of frauds have also increased. These are measured in terms of declining profits or fraudulent transactions. An example could be the Russian TOC efforts to steal $10 million dollars from Citi Bank in the USA through forty unlawful fund usage (Jones, DM 2004). Another institution which has had to face the impact of cyber crimes in terms of economic losses is the stock market where traders trade online.Company information (functioning in L. A. ) available to individuals has been misused where wrong information was posted onto the internet leading to stock price increase and hence investors all over the world were affected (ibid). Types of cyber crimes and their impacts According to David Carter’s research (Grabosky, P 2005), there are three acts which can be labeled as cyber crime; entering into some one’s computer through illegal means and mishandling or damaging data, doing something illegal through means of the net or computer like piracy and thirdly, usage of computers to store some illegal information.Cyber crimes that generally take place within an organization take place through emails, viruses transferred through email or through software being used by the company, access to company database for employee or customer information (Nag, D & Bajaj, K 2005). Further detailed classifications of cyber crimes and how they affect organizations is explained below: Fraud in telecom services: Such a crime is committed by gaining access to the organizations switchboard and making use of call time.Not only does this cause the organization to be expensed with the bill worth the talk time used, is also a hassle for the individual subscribers using that particular service for instance an engineer in India was caught thieving hundre d Internet hours from a particular customer (Grabosky, P 2005). Criminals of such sort also gain access to calling card data for customers and hence they can make their calls on the expense of the customers who then have to pay larger bills and in return blame the company for poor device (ibid).Hacking into computers to gain access to data: Hacking into company data which is password protected is another form of cyber crime that is very common. This has caused the most extensive damage to organizations especially organizations which mostly deal in financial data example banks. For instance, the accountant of a bank who is computer literate can gain access to finances of the bank and transfer funds in his name causing economic losses to the his organization (Cross, F 2007)Cyber Terrorists: There work is very much similar to the terrorists that are a threat to national and international security of an individual nation and global relations. Cyber terrorists pose a threat to the nation al security of organizations by accessing into the central processing system (Cross, F 2007). This is particularly useful for business competitors to gain access to their competitors’ financial or future plans and monitor their activities to gain competitive edge (ibid).Piracy issues and counterfeiting: Reproducing products or services of various businesses without legal rights is another classic case of cyber crime. This is most extensively found in the media industry where movies are pirated without any legal rights and sold at even lower prices This has served as a problem for media producers example the movie â€Å"The world is not enough† starring James Bond was distributed over the internet even before it was available for public by the officials (Grabosky, P 2005). Implications for businesses: what businesses need to do?Cyber crime activities have caused losses of millions of dollars for companies however many companies do not prefer to report such incidents due to protection of their reputation and hence the data on cyber crimes is still incomplete (Grabosky, P 2005). The massive exploitation of these crimes has led businesses to take action. Global organization are making use of further technology to strengthen their systems of information sharing such as their data bases which contains customer information and financial data.Focus is now on IT itself to develop such products, services and solutions that do not promote the risk of cyber thefts and frauds (Edin, M 2002) Along with the governments of various nations coupled with investments from individual organizations in the corporate world, efforts are being made create more secure systems that could prevent cyber crimes (ibid). Venture in IT infrastructure and security According to a report of the Internet association Industry in Australia, on an average thirty five different cyber crime attempts are made on an individual organization’s system (Grabosky, P 2005).One of the great est actions that companies have now started to take is focus on their IT teams in order to build a strong and secure network and data base. This team must not only focus on building an internal secure system but also focus on cross border security as most businesses now function globally (ibid). Investing money in infrastructure and training related to IT development against cybercrime protection is becoming a necessity for all organizations and this investment is no longer considered to be an expense (Edin, M 2002).Such work was once and still is considered by some organizations as a function of purely IT engineers however this is not the case. As discussed how threatening the consequences of cyber frauds can be for any business, whether functioning online in a physical environment, it is important that a collaborative effort of all members of the organization is made to avoid these risks (Edin, M 2002).With this, development of a new concept has emerged; â€Å"cyber space securit y† (Smith, A 2004) which focuses on protecting not only business systems but also consumer information. Access to consumer information like their pin number and account information in a bank means risk of losing their money if their personal information is lost. Assessing financial impact of cyber frauds Another important analysis being conducted by companies across the world is the cost of security frauds being carried out within their organizations (Cashell, B et.Al. 2004). Such an analysis provides the companies with the facts of how risky such crime attacks can be for them in terms of risks of information sharing with competitors, risk of alteration of consumer perceptions (Smith, A 2004) and risk of economic losses (Miller, R 2007) being incurred by the firm I case of the system being damaged and information extracted. The fact that these frauds and thefts have led to losses in monetary terms has generated the focus of the organizations in this regard.According to survey conducted by a computer science institute, there has been an increase in financial losses reported by organizations due to cyber fraud in US in the past three consecutive years. Every year the percentage increase in frauds rises. According to that survey, corporations are not able to comprehend the danger that such frauds expose the organizations to and hence they misjudge the consequences (â€Å"Cyber crime bleeds US corporations: Financial losses from attacks climb for three years in a row† as reported in Koletar, J 2003).The increase in such acts has not only forced businesses but also government of individual nations to act to promote business especially that of e-commerce. The IT Act introduced in India in the year 2000, also incorporated certain activities related to cyber crime in e-commerce business and activities such as hacking into computer systems, affecting privacy of consumer information and disrupting computer system encryptions and codes (Nag, D & Bajaj, K 200 5). The basic reason was to instill trust amongst customers of e-commerce.The use of Internet is a two way tunnel for organizations. They must it to enhance relations with business partners, suppliers and customers. At the same time, it has given a chance to hackers for committing crimes of mass scale that require the attention of policymakers in the organization and individual employees too (Salifu, A 2008). Thus internet frauds have become a problem not only for the developing nations who face a shortage of technological skills but en the developed world (ibid). ConclusionSumming up the former discussion leads us to a conclusion that cyber frauds and risks have increased with the level of globalization and thus pose major threats to international business in the form of information loss, access of grave information by the wrong hands, threats to intellectual property right and to business operations, financial losses and wrong information being leaked out regarding a certain compa ny (Edin, M 2002). With the development of global business, more data is transferred and shared online through electronic means and hence cyber fraud has been motivated to a dangerous level.The threat of such risks has lead businesses and even governments to develop solutions ensuring that customer and company information I not leaked out and does not reach the wrong hands. Companies are focusing on developing risk management solutions and are â€Å"digitizing† (Edin, M, 2002, p. 17) their systems introducing stronger security checks and encryptions to protect the company against cyber frauds. Bibliography Cashell, B, Jackson, WD & Jickling, M, Webel, B 2004, Economic Impact of Cyber attacks, Congressional Research Service, Retrieved from scholar.google. com, Retrieved on 8th April 2010 Chamely, H 2003, Cybercrime and Society, Geo-Sciences, Environment and Man, Retrieved from books. google. com, Retrieved on 8th April 2010 Cross, F & Miller, R 2007, West’s legal enviro nment of business, 6th edition, Cengage Learning, Thomson West, USA Edin, M, Smith, B & Chiozza, E 2002, Challenges and Achievements in E-business and E-work, IOS Press, Netherlands Gobrasky, P & Broadhurst, R 2005 (eds), Cyber Crime: The challenge in Asia, Hong Kong University Press Jones, DM 2004 (ed.), Globalization and the new terror, Edward Elgar Publishing Limited, UK Koletar, J 2003, Fraud exposed, John Wiley and Sons Inc , New Jersey. Miller, R and Jentz, G 2007, Fundamentals of business law, 2nd edition, South Western Cengage Learning, USA Nag, D & Kamlesh, B 2005, E-commerce, the cutting edge of business, Tata McGraw Hill, India Salifu, A, 2008, The impact of internet crime on development, Journal of Financial Crime, Vol. 15, No. 4, pp. 432-443. Smith, A 2004, Cybercriminal impacts on online business and consumer confidence, Online Information Review, Vol. 28, No. 3, pp. 224-234.

Importance of Selection of Sales People Essay

Sales people are the front line of many businesses in the sales division. If a business has a shop front where customers come and have to inquire about potential purchases, current purchases or prior purchases then more often than not a salesperson is their first port of call. While it may appear that technology and self service are up and coming replacements for salespeople there is still definitely reason to employ qualified staff. It is for this reason that the recruitment and selection process is an important part of any business when hiring sales people. Selecting the wrong people for the job can result in problems such as staff turnover issues, customer complaints, costs associated with rehiring and even longer term issues such as a company suffering from disrepute. Recruitment can be defined as the process of finding potential job applicants, telling them about the company and getting them to apply (Hair et al. 2009). Essentially this process should not just narrow applicants down to potential employees, but be narrowing the applicants down to potentially good employees. Hair et al. 2009) also notes that the entire sales division ultimately depends on a successful recruiting approach. In essence there are five steps in the recruitment process: 1. Conduct a job analysis * A process identifying the duties, requirements, responsibilities, and conditions a job. 2. Prepare a job description * Explains to job applicants and current sales personnel what the duties and responsibilities of the sales position are. 3. Identify sales job qualifications * Characteristics recruits should have to perform a sales job satisfactorily. . Attract a pool of sales recruits 5. (Hair et al. 2009) (Hair et al. 2009) Select the best recruits A particular field where recruitment and selection of salespeople is of exacting importance is that of minority consumers. The article Advertising and recruiting: Marketing to minorities (Perkins, Thomas, and Taylor 2000) did research in America with specific reference to college males of mixed race and their perceptions of specific recruitment techniques when entering into a sales role. The article makes particular reference to the fact that as a response to growing diversity, increasing multiculturalism, and a need to understand minority consumers means that minority professionals in the recruitment sections of workplace is of exceeding importance (Perkins, Thomas, and Taylor 2000). By the introduction of minority professionals, it means that there can be a focus particularly on directing sales at minority consumers as the professionals are specifically selected for their experience. As a result this mitigates further problems for a business as they have gone through particular selection criteria ensuring that they aren’t the wrong person for the job. In particular for marketing to minorities by making the mistake of picking the wrong sales person could mean that a business potentially loses a whole minority market segment. With the rise in companies turning to the internet to make sales and it means that the customers they do have in store they want to also have an easy and worthwhile experience. In this regard it makes sense that recruiting more experienced or â€Å"the right† people for the job is of great concern to a business. Burke (2002) talks about how there has come to be certain expectations from consumers as to what they want to experience in store as well as online when shopping. The article goes on to say while consumers have become quite content to use online services, it is quite often the quality of service in store and lack of information that drives them towards other technology based alternatives, most often the internet (Burke 2002). Therefore it makes sense that during the recruitment process that employers seek to employ the best sales people they can. If a business wishes to retain in-store customers they would want to have employees that they are confident that customers can turn to and seek advice without having the employee themselves having to go and ask someone else. Another major reason for having recruitment processes based on employing the best sales people is in regard to the older generations. As much as companies are insistent on ensuring consumers that their technological advancements are making it easier, it is often the older generations which are less willing to adapt these innovations (Berry 2011). This means that these generations are more reliant on in store sales methods and dealing with sales people face to face. In an article by Peter Schulman also talks about how employing the â€Å"best† people is not always the result of how talented an individual may be, but often a result of how optimistic an employee chooses to be (Schulman 1999). The article goes on to specify how when recruiters go through the selection process the applicants being chosen for a sales position are applicants that have the desire to succeed. The reason being that while 20 percent of the sales force were garnering 80 percent of sales in 1999 (Schulman 1999) is because a sales persons belief that being persistent is the best way to overcome obstacles and setbacks. The side of this that can be more detrimental to a company is by selecting the wrong person in regard to their own personal morale and self motivation. A sales person who, for example, is unsuccessful in making a sale and instead of taking it in their stride and moving forward can almost result in a snowball type effect. Schulman’s (1999) explanation of this is that as a sales person becomes ever so slightly self-depreciating it can adversely affect their subsequent sales as they start to lose motivation almost in an exponential fashion. In the recruitment process then it is imperative that recruiters are able to distinguish between optimistic and pessimistic applicants. It is vital that a company has solid selection criteria. While it has been established that the best employees can often be selected based on how talented they are, the recruitment process is ultimately designed to establish what constitutes an employee as being a desirable candidate. By managing to select the sales people that recruiters feel are most suited for a job can result in a more productive sales division. As mentioned minority groups being marketed to require very specific selection to be successful as this is a field where incorrect recruitment can mean the loss of an entire segment. The elderly generation again is a segment that can require a specific skill set of the sales person. By making sure employees are actively engaging with customers and willing to help it can be a much more effective sales technique which can result in increased sales and recurring customers. Finally these two factors held in conjunction with selecting applicants that can be regarded to be optimistic rather than pessimistic can effectively result in a powerful work force in the regard to sales people. Going against such factors and resultantly hiring an applicant that can be considered the wrong person for the job would undoubtedly result in not only short term effects for the sales of a business but also has the potential to have long term effects further down the line which may be harder to resolve.

Urban Planning and decision-making in Dubai Essay

Urban Planning and decision-making in Dubai - Essay Example n of this paper that the biggest concerns Dubai seems to have at this point are: 1) sustainability 2) cultural considerations 3) labor relations and 4) traffic. Sustainability is an issue that can best be judged from a future point. The cultural considerations are also elements that are being worked out in many ways. So labor and transport issues become the central themes of this paper. The biggest complaint to date is traffic problems. The planning of roads seems to have lost its way. This, in contrast to the other planning elements, seems a small problem but it is becoming more and more of an issue as Dubai becomes popular and established as an international city. What role does the public play in the decision-making process during the development of Dubai? To what extent did the government maintain a monopoly over these decisions? How active of a role did the private sector play in the urbanization of the city? How has globalization affected the decision-making process? A review of Leonie Sandercock’s â€Å"Toward Cosmopolis† shows that Sandercock writes about the cultural pluralism of planning theory in a way that is highly idealistic (Blanco 1998). She is said to discuss her social project in a political and economic vacuum, failing to address the underlying causes of the social problems. Cosmopolis is, for Sandercock, â€Å"a common civic culture which has embraced the social project of tolerance, alterity, and inclusion† (Blanco 1998). Sandercock states that there are three forces that create the major cultural politics of difference: migration and multiculturalism, postcolonialism, and the age of women and minorities. She believes that the history of planning has supported segregation and discrimination. These are major forces at work in Dubai’s planning. A perceived threat of marginalization (Aarts 1999) by less developed countries has often led to their full interaction with the world economy, before they may be ready. Aart feels that

Business Analytics Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Business Analytics - Assignment Example - Data driven processes often create issues (noise) which are not relevant to the goals of the project. In this respect, logic-driven analytics processes will result in more clear and concise solutions. This depends on the project and the maturity of the audience/stakeholders. In an environment where the KPIs are not already established and the data is not well known, it might be appropriate to start with a logic driven process to focus the process on the most impactful issues. This keeps the noise to a minimum and keeps a project smaller in scope while not creating distractions. A data-driven approach can be added as a second step in this case. In a more sophisticated environment where basic KPIs are established, there is an opportunity to find the hidden levers in a process by using a data-driven process to provide deeper insight. Again, these choices are not universal and depend on the maturity of the audience and company, the quality, availability and knowledge of the data and the appetite of the organization for a complex project - The choice of an analytic model to use does indeed depend on many factors, including the nature of the project and the environment. It is worth noting that both logic driven and data driven models can co-exist and complement each other. In my opinion, a data driven approach is more suited to a situation where the data is not known, since a logic driven approach requires an intimate understanding and anticipation of the data before a model can be constructed. What would an effect hybrid first analytics project look like for an organization that has not approached true analytics in the past and what elements from each methodology would you apply? Assume the organization is relatively mature (in life cycle) but novice in deep analytics and has relatively clean and accessible data as well as well educated users. The main advantage I can see using a logic driven analytics (as one of the requirement) is

HISTORY of western civilization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

HISTORY of western civilization - Essay Example There were activists, propagandists and scientists in the Enlighteners who wanted to understand the world in a new insight and change it. The Enlightenment had its impact in France, Britain, Germany, Spain, Portugal, America, Italy and the Netherlands and resulted in great historical developments like the establishment of the United States of America and French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. The Enlightenment was not a single movement nor was it carried out by a unified group of individuals. Instead, it happened piecemeal and to have a clear idea of its impact on human life, one has to assess the history from the second half of seventeenth century to the beginning of eighteenth century. The beginning of Enlightenment is visible in the thinking of Francis Bacon who lived during the Renaissance period as he strongly supported pragmatic thought which was the basis of enlightenment. There was Benjamin Franklin who was an efficient statesman, scientist and political philosopher. He made two crucial scientific inventions; bifocal spectacles and lightning conductors as a scientist and also played a crucial role in the development of the new American Republic (Porter, 3). Another eminent Enlightener was the French philosopher and writer Denis Diderot who is famous as the editor of Encyclopedie. Giving up Roman Catholicism, he started philosophical materialism. Yet another prominent figure was Condorcet who argued that social ills take place not due to human nature, but due to ignorance and mistake. Another very important Enlightener is Voltaire who fought against the religious dogma of the time and vehemently supported social reform. Some others who had their role in this great revolution are Thomas Hobbes, Spinoza, Kant and Hegel. Montesquieu, d’Alembert, Turgot, the Britons, Locke, Hume and Gibbon, The Genevan, Rousseau, d’Holbach and Herder too were prominent influences in the movement. In the simplest possible terms, the aim of E nlightenment thinkers was to fight ignorance, superstition and despotism for the creation of a better world. As it was in eighteenth century, the main culprits that suppressed the free thinking of man, according to Enlighteners, were the Catholic Church and the hereditary aristocracy that existed all over Europe. An understanding of the social situation prevailed in Europe will show how urgent a social change was for them. The 17th century Europe was totally restless by wars in the name of religion and also in the name of imperial invasion. Both the church and the state were hand in hand in torturing people in the name of religion and state. Even the scriptures were twisted and used for the advantages of the church and the state. Those who tried anything against the state or religion were imprisoned or executed. From the above, it is clear that Enlightenment was the need of the time, which freed human mind from the dogmas of religion, which insisted that logic is the way to truth. I nstead, Enlighteners claimed that logic should be accompanied by reason, and that experience and experiment are the way to real truth. It is seen that Enlighteners were mainly against the dogmatism and irrationality present in Christianity. Enlightenment thinkers aimed mainly at the religion as it was the Catholic Church that chained the brain of people from thinking rationally. One of the earliest critics was Thomas Hobbes.

Themes of Crhistian Faith Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

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Behavioral Tools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Behavioral Tools - Essay Example On the contrary, plastic or unrelated humor also generates laughter but fails to signal anything about their connection. According to Parisi and Smith (p.217), ‘laughter between sincere friends is open, unreserved, and joyful. Laughter provides the bonding gains of increased mutual trust that permit parties to exploit profitable opportunities.’ Exemplifying this statement is one of my friends who is known to have the best sense of humor in our group. We consider this friend as lively, bubbly, and full of enthusiasm. He is also extremely smart and a go-getter. He knows the knack of converting any kind of situation or moment, whether serious, dull, tiring, and anxiety, to a lively atmosphere filled with laughter. Applying Freud’s postulation that pleasure attached to humor makes one think like a child and thereby escape the constraints of rationality and logic on cognitive functioning (Levine, 9). This is precisely my friend does most of the times, either to convince people unto doing something that they do not intend, to divert attention of individuals or groups or even to drive home the point he wants to make. Instances of potential disruption between friends and within families were also regulated through his humor by a simple distraction of thought processes and emotions of the people involved in such situations. Laughter is said to reduce tensions and naturally arising hostilities in relationships. Although the intention behind cracking jokes is to induce laughter and distract people from usual boredom or impending emotional disturbances, it may also lead to serious consequences. One such instance can be traced to the day our final results were announced. All except one of our group members had cleared the examination, and this certainly was a sad moment for all of us. In an attempt to lighten everyone’s