Cybercrime

First of all it is important to make clear what cybercrime exactly is. Cybercrime is a form of crime where the Internet or computers are used as a medium to commit crime. Issues surrounding this type of crime have become high-profile, particularly those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement, child pornography and child grooning. There are also problems of privacy when confidential information is lost of intercepted, lawfully or otherwise. Cybercrime has a lot of consequences. One important consequence for companies is the theft of personal datas.



Second, we can notice that at this moment cybercrime is still a treat for a lot of companies. A quarter of these companies does not take any measures to protect them against spam and virusses. Research bureau Ernst & Young did a research about cybercrime. Last year, 42 percent of the examined companies had more troubles with cybercrime than in 2008. A salient detail is that in one of the eight cases the own employees are responsible for the
cybercrime.

Less than a quarter of the companies has already take some measures to prevent the cybercrime. It is important that more companies follow, so they can pretent the cyber crime in their company.

Fingerprints on your passport?

Do you want you fingerprints on your passport?


Since the 21th of September in 2009 the law of the passport is in force. After that day it is obligatory to give your fingerprint to get a new passport or identity card. In the Netherlands the judiciary is going to make a database of all the fingerprints of the people in the Netherlands. This is not an European rule, but a decision of the Netherlands.

Aaron Boudewijn, a 24 years old student is going to the judge for his passport. His own passport is expired, but he doesn't get a new passport. He turns down the request of giving his fingerprints. Without the fingerprints, he will not receive a new passport. He said: 'They are allowed to place my fingerprints in my passport, but I do not want my fingerprints in the database'. When they put all the fingerprints in a database, they infringes the privacy of the citizens. Besides that, fingerprints are easy to copy. Aaron is assisted by an lawyer and the privacy organization 'Vrijbit'.

The judgment of this case is not familiar yet. Aaron thinks that finally the European Court for the Human Rights is going to deal with this case.

I think it is good to have a system for fingerprints, but only as it is a watertight system.
At this way also the police can use it to trace criminals. and that is good for the society.
The problem is that it is easy to copy the fingerprints, and you can never prove, for example by an theft, that it wasn't you that commited the theft. So, that is an disadvantage of the system with the fingerprints.

The use of video camera's in soccer

Do we have to introduce video camera's on the football ground?

The discussion about introducing video camera's is going on for years already. Up till now the system with video camera's is never been introduced in the soccer world. Shall this ever happen ??

A lot of soccer games are influenced by wrong decisions of the arbiter. Is it really offside or not? Did the ball pass the line or not? These questions can only be answered after seeing the offical video recordings during the soccer game self. At this moment only after the game the arbiter takes a look at the video recordings, but then they cannot change their mistake anymore.

Without the video recordings there will always be soccer teams that are harmed by the arbiter. Is that tempering of the competition?

According to the supporters it is. They think it is necessary to introduce the video system. By using the video recordings the results of the games will be justified and the competition becomes honest.

Using video recordings during sport games is not a new phenomenon. In the NBA (basketball) using video recording by the referee is allowed. Also the Hawk-Eye by tennis games is an example of the usability of using video camera's during sport games.

The FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Assocation) on the other hand, was only an opponent of the introducing of video camera's. The FIFA does not want any interruptions of play during the soccer games. But two weeks ago the FIFA-president, Sepp Blatter, changed his mind. He is not longer an opponent of the use of video systems. He sais: "We can only start the experiment when the technology is completely correct working". This all is going to happen after the World Championship 2010 in the South of Africa. In march 2010 the International Board, the British institute of the rules of the game, is going to discuss the implementation of the video system during their meeting.

Personally I think it is good to introduce the video system during soccer games. It is better for the honesty of the competition to do this. After a disputable moment, the arbiter can shut down the game for a while and consult the video system for making a final decision. The only marginal comment I have is the interruption of the game, what increases the rhythm of the game.

We will see what the future brings...

My first blog

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to my blog for the course 'Media Use in Organizations'.

In the first lecture of this course we were told that we have to start a twitter account. I always said that I would never start a Twitter account. I have a Hyves account and I didn't see the benefit of having a Twitter account. Last week I started an Twitter account and I have to admit that I like it.
Besides of starting a Twitter account we have to write a blog every week about information systems and the use of ICT in organizations in every possible way.

Marieke