Blog 7.1 - IS Security

   Our company (Ferrum Cinema) can face five main IS threats to our security system. Accidents and natural disasters cannot be prevented. A flood might completely wipe out our systems or a drink might fall onto the keyboard of the computer thus causing a malfunction with the system. The best way to protect ourselves from this kind of threat is to have a back-up on hand. Another threat to the security system is an employee or a consultant. An employee or consultant might want to change how much they are getting on their next paycheck or they might want to get even with their boss by altering the current shows and showtimes. A way to prevent this is to implement physical access restrictions using biometrics and/or access control software. Links to outside business contacts can hurt a company severely. One way this could hurt our company is if we use a wireless LAN with Pepsi Company, someone could intercept our messages and possibly cause harm to our company. To prevent this act from happening, we would implement encryption codes and passwords on the VPN. Another way links to an outside business contact can hurt a company is a rival company could erase important information on the Ferrum Cinema system or even change financial documents stored on the system, thus shutting us down. Firewalls, authentications and encryption codes are good ways to protect the company from outside business contacts. The same goes for hackers and crackers also known as outside intruders. They might want to snoop around the system with malicious intent. Firewalls, authentications and encryption codes are ways to keep intruders out. Computer viruses can shut a company's system down in a heartbeat. So, a way to protect the Ferrum Cinema systems from this is by implementing encryption codes, authentications and having a strong firewall.

Blog 6.1 - Web 2.0

   There are four Pillars of Web 2.0. The first Pillar is utilizing the web as a platform. A simple definition of this is making use of the capabilities of the Internet and putting everyone on the same platform to perform operations the same. The second is harnessing collective intelligence. The definition for that is improving web content as a whole by contributing thoughts and ideas together. Pillar number three is leveraging the data which is storing data records on powerful databases for outside uses such as making decisions. Finally the fourth Pillar is implementing web capabilities which is implementing online services (web services, widgets, mash-ups).
   Ferrum Cinema can use each of these Pillars of Web 2.0 to its advantage. Ferrum Cinema can implement peer-to-peer software on its Web site to improve the download performance. This would reduce the load on the Ferrum Cinema server which would make the site faster than before. Implementing this would utilize the web as a platform. To harness collective intelligence, Ferrum Cinema put aside space on its Web site for visitors to type a blog for suggestions and comments about the Web site and cinema. The blogs will help the staff know what they need to improve on. The cinema could add a space for a Google or Yahoo search bar to leverage data. A search bar could help the visitors to the site find out where a particular movie is showing if Ferrum Cinema is not showing it at that time. On the Web site that Ferrum Cinema offers, we could implement innovative web capabilities by allowing our customers to access the site from a mobile device. The content would be minute compared to the actual Web site, but all of the essential information, like which movies are showing and at what times, would still be displayed for the customer.