Varies Information Systems Used

In this we have been studying different case studies and identifying the information systems used. Both companies that were brought up in class, both a significant advantage due to the way they engineered their companies. Also, how they executed their information system to work best for them and better for their customers. Which is one of many conventions needed to have a successful company.

In the Wine company, they went a different route to sell and advertise their product using IS. They decided to throw parties for prospective customers and provide the Wine. By doing that, they company gained advertisement and more first hand ratings. To get more customers, the company used Flickr.com to upload pics of the party. That drew more prospects to the company also. It accumulated 4,500 people. In a sense, it's more of the use of Social Engineering. In addition, they used Blogs, Wikis, and Web Video.

Lastly, J&R electronics used E-Commerce to maximize their retail. User participation was key to their success. Also, they had a online loyalty program. It was designed to motivate customers to come directly to its website, rather than arrive via another site. J&R is one of the top 50 E-Tailer in the nation.

http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Mid-Market/Web-20-Turning-Browsers-into-Buyers/1/

http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Mid-Market/MidMarket-Case-JR-Electronics-Pumps-Up-the-Volume/

Social Engineering

Last week in class, we talked a lot about social engineering. It is amazing to me that people lie to other people who trust them and believe that what they are saying is true. It really made me interested in how many times this happens to everyday people who are unsuspecting, not only in a work environment, but in everyday life. Some people, while searching through their e-mail or looking through their mail, don't know the risks of social engineering, so when something good comes along, they don't realize that it could be fake and a trick.

In a work environment, like stated in class, it is very easy to trick someone into giving you the information that you need. Pretending to be someone else over the phone really isn't that difficult. If a person were just to observe the company and the people in it for a week, they could probably find out something that would help them to trick other people who work there into getting passwords, codes, or anything else needed to break in the systems and steal all of the company's information. To me, that is terrifying.

In class, we also talked about Kevin Mitnick. I found his story so interesting. He was able to trick so many people in some many different companies to freely give him all of the information he needed. It is so scary that all a computer hacker could need in order to get what they wanted would be a good personality. All Kevin Mitnick used to get what he wanted was social engineering. If he can do it, who's to say that there aren't many more people out there doing this also.