Adverse Consequences of IT Innovations - Essay Example

Do all inventions equate to progress? What are some of the adverse consequences of IT innovations? Provide examples of ‘technology’ to illustrate your response? Introduction Before the arrival of Information Technology, the world was driven forward manually and there were lot of emphasis on the concept of team working. Unless and until a team gel together for a project, there were less chances for the project to be finished and the project to get delayed .The processing of orders in case of manufacturing companies were done in a manual state with the data for shipments being maintained manually. There were lot of paper works involved and lot of journals and reports being kept. The latest technology used was typewriters and cash registers and tabulating machines were also used. There was long range planning as the companies were worried about losing time, as the work done was manual. The world today is driven forward by technology and the social effects of the technology have become the biggest debate. There are lots of people running behind the latest innovations of technology without even understanding what it is for. Electronic or computer automation has come in very sphere of life and the idea of functioning without computer has been unimaginable and the process has been speeded up by the arrival of computers. The tasks have become less laborious and the works has become easier to complete. There were two drawbacks to this issue as the social interaction between people has come down as more and more people tend to sit before the computer and do the work and the second draw back has been the absence of long range planning. The companies has come to a stage where everything will come to a stand still once the computer is turned of either by along power failure or any other conditions. But there were lot of technical innovations in the field of It that has changed the world and there are two sides to it; positive and negative. The aim of the essay is to highlight the negative effects of IT innovations in context of technology and people. E-commerce Frauds The positive side of E-commerce The concept of market selling was changed the moment E-commerce arrived. The traditional form of buyers and sellers meeting together in one place to decide what to sell and buy got changed into a virtual market where by which consumers all over the world can meet together and decide to buy from a buyer operating from remote place. This was made possible thanks to the revolution of Information technology in the form of e-commerce. The growth of e-commerce sites was fuelled by the fact that low cost of Internet has changed the making of sites. E-commerce sites made sure that the buyer has got lot of options as the role of middlemen were eliminated and the bargaining power also increased from the perspective of the buyer. (Mukhopadhay, Subarta (2002)).Various researches and studies has also proved that e-commerce has benefited the common man. (Liebowitz, 2003) The negative angle of E-commerce The arrival of people to websites or e-commerce sites has been to register their name or have a free tour and deciding on what to buy. The growth of e-commerce sites has meant that the frauds in e-commerce sites also grew. That as the adverse effects of growth in information technology. There were reports that more than 2.8 billion US dollars were taken out of e-commerce revenue in the year 2005 and it wan 8% increase when compared with the year 2004.( Susan Kuchinskas,2005) The first negative effect was the quality of the goods sold or shipped. There were wide spread complaints that the goods shipped were not of high quality in some cases and that has dropped the brand value of e-commerce sites.( “E-commerce-Factor of Economic Growth) The second was that the highly confidential information like the credit card no was getting stolen and the unaware consumer’s money was getting stolen from the bank. It is a case of identity theft (“What is identity theft”), the crime can be completed in seconds as all is needed is just numbers and there is no need for verifying the real identity of the person. There are various methods of hacking the personal information, the popular being getting into database of the company that stores these data and that is possible in e-commerce sites as vital information like credit card no need to be store before dispatching the item.( “E-commerce-Factor of Economic Growth) The third method that the E-commerce frauds use is the spoof websites or the duplicate websites. It will have all the features of the original website except that it is not the original’s the personal information passed on through these methods will land in the hands of scamsters and they will be ready to take note of it.( “E-commerce-Factor of Economic Growth) The reverse fraud is also taking place in case of e-commerce frauds like the consumers defrauding the merchants. The orders should be verified manually to find whether the information passed is real or not. The best way for the merchants to get away from this type of frauds is to share information as fast with other type of merchants. The Credit Issuing Bank should be contacted to verify whether the address and the name given are true or not.( "E-commerce frauds") E-mails Positive side of E-mails The e-mails have been the greatest contributor to the technology revolution in Information Technology. The global gap has been bought down thanks to these and the communication process has seen the biggest revolution. The negative angle of E-mails The growth of e-mails has seen the growth of various forms of scams. Virus The growth of computer virus can be attributed to e-mails ( “How do computer viruses spread”). The virus files are normally sent as attached and the unaware user may open it without thinking and the virus will be spread leading to crashing of system. There are some viruses that uses the names given in the address books and replicate by sending letters with the name of user infected. There are some viruses that use the photo of the user and attach along with it so that the message appears legal. This type of virus spreading was in recent use in the face book scam.( Michael Arrington , 2008) The breaking through of social networking walls by using e-mails has been a cause of big concern. The antivirus systems tend to fail to check the latest series of viruses and that has been a big drawback. The other type of the scam that has to be discussed is the Phising Scam The world famous social networking site Face book was hit by a phising scam on April 29,2009 and the scam was followed in such a way that the users of Facebook received e-mails that was titled hello. The text of the mail contains a sentence that the fiend of the user has sent a link and if followed by the user, will be taken to a fake site called floaction.net and the page has been initiating the page of Facebook.The objective was to take the login details of the user.( Phishing Scam Hit World Famous Facebook) The term “Phishing” are used to denote the other form of dangerous e-mail fraud and the messages are supposed to come from legitimate company or reputed institution and the normal procedure is to update or verify the personal information and the scammers may be using these information for identity theft.( "General information about e-mail fraud") . Junk Chain Mail("General information about e-mail fraud") Mails containing sentences like the following mails should be sent to so many people within this much time are sent to large no of users using the valuable time and space of the system. Proper care should be taken to avoid sending any kind of login details using this method. Prize scams("General information about e-mail fraud") There will be e-mails send to large number of users having the sentence that the user has won this much money by a lottery .the sentences may be like this “Congratulations, This email is to inform you that you have been Awarded the sum of 500,000.00 Pounds for the 2009 Microsoft Award and Grant Allivation Programme for international communities further information’s on claims Send the required information to: COMPLETE NAME :PRESENT CONTACT ADDRESS :PHONE NUMBER :” The sending of personal information will be turning disadvantageous to the user as the information can be turned bad. As the next mail may ask for sensitive personal information like credit card and the user may send the information leading to more trouble. Nigerian Bank Scams(“E-mail Scams and Spam”) This is the name given to very common e-mail fraud and this is type of advance fee fraud schemes. The other name of the fraud is the 4-1-9 frauds after the section of the Nigerian Penal code that addresses fraud schemes. The e-mail that will be sent will belike an official government letter and it will be e-mailed to wide range of individuals and business men in US and globally. The e-mail will state that a reputable foreign individual is needed so that deposit of an overpayment in a procurement contract can be made. There are variations in the form of murdered persons daughter or son asking for some help and may ask for personal bank details. The social identifier numbers and bank account numbers are the most commonly sought after data and the revealing of data may mean that the victim’s bank accounts are emptied. The real money loss in these type of scams are hard to be pinpointed as the victims rarely say to law agents. The possible look of the e-mail will be like this (“Mr. Song Li le “)“My name is Mr. Song Li le I work with the Hang Seng Bank.There is the sum of $19,500,000.00 in my bank"Hang Seng Bank",Hong kong.I wish to make a transfer involving a huge amount of money worth $19,500,000.00 .I do solicit for you assistance in effecting this transaction. I intend to give 30% of the total funds as compensation for your assistance. Email:  lile_song49@yahoo.com.hk Kind Regards, Mr. Song Lile” Web Camera The positive side of Web Camera Web camera has helped millions of people to see and talk with each other through internet. Web camera has helped taking of photos and that has helped in making photo taking more fun and easy. Web camera has helped the process of chatting easy. The negative angle of Web Camera There were reports that four cyber criminals were arrested in Spain for committing a series of online crimes like malware creation, credit card fraud, data theft and web camera black mailing.( "Spanish police nab webcam blackmailers") The basic idea of a web camera is that it is a digital camera attached to computer and that will be done through the USB port.(“How web camera works”) The persons arrested were charged of taking control of web cameras used in the universities and they were able to take compromising pictures and blackmail the victims and take large amount of money. The information on credit card were also sought and once got, the purchases worth 60,000 $ was conducted. Spying on others web cameras has been going on for long time and using web cameras as base e-mail information has been also sought.( "Spanish police nab webcam blackmailers") Conclusions Technological advancements have meant the world has improved and the processes are made speedier. Thanks to the revolution in Information Technology, the global economy has picked up the pace. But as in very case fraudulent use of technology has been on rise and fraudsters are also open to the new technological advancements just like the business are open to technological advancements. There have been an increase in awareness of the negative effects of the advancements in technology and understanding the different types of fraud as listed above will give glimpse of how technology can be used adversely. There are advancements in technology to prevent scams and frauds committed by technology and there are solutions like anti Spam and anti virus programs being updated and kept with latest technological advancements. All for the negative effects to come down should understand the latest technological adaancements and fraud or adverse effects of the technology. References "E-commerce frauds",viewed on May 9,2009,http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters39.html “E-mail scams and spams”,viewed on May 9,2009, http://www.gardencitybank.com/email_scams.html "General information about e-mail fraud",viewed on May 9,2009,http://kb.iu.edu/data/afvn.html Michael Arrington , 2008 ,"Elaborate Facebook Worm Virus Spreading", viewed on May 9,2009,http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/08/07/elaborate-facebook-worm-virus-spreading "Phishing Scam Hit World Famous Facebook" ,viewed on May 9,2009, http://www.spamfighter.com/News-12334-Phishing-Scam-Hit-World-Famous-Facebook.htm Robert Jaques,2006,"Spanish police nab webcam blackmailers",viewed on May,9,2009,http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2168823/police-nab-spanish-webcam-spies Susan Kuchinskas,2005,Fraud Chewing E-Commerce Profits,viewed on May 9,2009,http://www.ecommerce-guide.com/solutions/secure_pay/article.php/3563526 “How do computer viruses spread”, Viewed on May 9,2009, http://www.allbusiness.com/technology/computer-software-antivirus/1329-1.html "How web camera works",viewed on May 9,2009,http://computer.howstuffworks.com/webcam1.htm "What is identity theft", viewed on May 9,2009,http://www.identitytheftcreditfraud.com/ Liebowitz, S. (2003), ‘Rethinking of Network Economy’, The True Force Driving the Digital Marketplace,pp.257-279. .“E-commerce-Factor of Economic Growth;” viewed on May 9,2009,available from http://www.eicc.co.yu/newspro/viewnews.cgi?newsstart3end5 Mukhopadhay, Subarta (2002), "E-Commerce: Prospects, Problems and Policy Issues", Vaanijya, pp. 9-12 (“Mr. Song Li le “),“Viewed on May 10,2009 ,available from http://website.lineone.net/~farrago/cia/2007b/aa/2138sl.htm Read More