Blog 7.1: Threats and Security

Threats to our information network or site are viruses, outside intruders, employees/consultants, natural disasters, and links to outside business contacts.  Viruses are programs that are for malicious intent and it could slow down our site or create harm to it.  Outside intruders/hackers are people that could alter our information such as prices, they could create something that would make our cabins cheaper for them, and so on.  Employees/consultants could unintentionally make errors of our information or they could use that for malicious intent.  Natural disasters/accidents are things that we cannot predict such as animals eating our cables, something from the ceiling falling and destroying our computers, and fire damage.  Finally, links to outside business contacts is a threat to us because they could try to find out how we make our money(family secret) and they could rip-off our business plan.

Before you get worried, we have technological safeguards for the things described above.  Physical access restrictions takes care of hackers and other people by authentication of use of a password, photo ID, and so on.  Firewalls were designed to detect intrusion and prevent unauthorized access.  Encryption takes care of links to business contacts by coding our messages and allowing only our employees to encrypt and decrypt information.  Virus monitor and protection takes care of viruses by detecting viruses before they do serious damage to our site.  Finally, Audit-control software such as time restriction access and accesses only files required for work.

Blog 6.1 Pillars of 2.0

The four pillars of Web 2.0 are Utilizing the Web as a platform, Harnessing Collective Intelligence, Leveraging the Data, and Implementing Innovative Web Capabilities.

Utilizing the Web as a platform standardizes the Web for any person to be able to use the Web through a browser and an Internet connection.  Our company needs this so people will be to access our site as easily as possible.

Harnessing Collective Intelligence enables users to contribute on a site, thus improving the content of a site.  Our company would use this by creating a site that displays a review of our cabins and allows people to post comments and ask questions which would be answered by us or our other customers.

Leveraging the Data is using powerful databases to make decisions.  Our company would use this by using our special database to extract information to determine which cabins sell better and what needs to be improved.

Implementing Innovative Web Capabilities is key to having a competitive edge over our competitors.  Our company would incorporate this by introducing widgets (programs with usually a single purpose) such as registering for a new deal with a countdown, mash-ups, and so on.