Is it possible to make an unhackable mobile phone?

23

October

2016

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The mobile security market increasingly becomes a more important issue in our society.
Some providers say that the can deliver an unhackable mobile phone. But is it even possible to develop an unhackable mobile phone?

The smart phone of today is far more powerful than the fastest supercomputers of twenty years ago. There are millions of lines of software in mobile devices. The apps on your phone are written by many developers, some of whom are hackers. And in most of the times these developers don’t even have the right skills when it comes to mobile security.
Cybercriminals are increasing and they often targeting mobile phones through malicious apps and phishing schemes. Malicious apps are difficult to detect before it’s published on an app store and even if one of those malicious apps are detected and fixed it may already affected hundreds of thousands of people. These Cybercriminals are infiltrating phones to steal data and spy on our communication they simply sent users a text message with a malicious link and what about the WI-FI network on hotels and airports? Be vigilant about which networks you connect while traveling otherwise you’re an easy target for hackers.

Each year more than 100 security bugs are discovered and needs to be fixed. In august 2016 alone, there were 42 security vulnerabilities detected on the android operating system most of these vulnerabilities are not on the phone’s operating system itself, but in the operating system and software that run the chips inside the mobile device. These security vulnerabilities have impact on the phone modems like: WI-FI, sound, USB, camera and more. There are no signs of slowing in this number because the mobile devices will become even smarter with more software and capabilities this will gives hackers new opportunities to exploit more bugs. Furthermore, it is good to point out that more than 65 percent of the android users still use old versions of software with hundreds of bugs that are already known.

All of these issues mentioned above make it impossible to secure a device completely. Organizations must use mobile threat defense tools to secure data of users and make them aware of curtain threats and bugs. Also consumers need to be more vigilant before they download apps or connect to different networks, this seems the only way to secure your phone and make it ‘’unhackable’’.

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Introducing Artificial Intelligence to Company X (group 23)

14

October

2016

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We have analysed the information strategy of Company X. They are a venture capital firm based in The Hague.  The firm invests mainly in companies within the early to mid-growth stages and they are not focused on a specific industry.
To get a better view of the environment of Company X, we conducted a SWOT analysis, where we analysed the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. One of the strengths of Company X is that due to internal funding, they do not depend on any investment partners. A weakness, however, is the time to reach confirmed deals with ventures takes 4 – 12 months, which implies a too slow. An opportunity is that they could invest in other markets such as China and India, as they currently only have investments across Europe and Southeast Asia. The largest threat to Company X is the intensity of competitive rivalry in the venture capital market, as this is growing rapidly.
After analysing the current use of information technology in Company X, we found that they are using three kinds of information technologies. They are using Microsoft Office 365 for the day-to-day operations and tasks, social media to raise their company’s presence and awareness and Exact Online for their financial operations, such as preparing the balance sheet. These are all very basic technologies.
The problem Company X faces is the processing time to evaluate and select business plans needs to be optimized. Our solution to this problem is artificial intelligence (AI). AI is about developing search algorithms, machine learning algorithms, data mining and using statistical analysis in daily business operations. Company X is now using subjective and intuitive methods to review business plans, when data science could make a huge difference in their decision making.
We propose an expert system based on machine learning, algorithms, databases and available industry data, to automate the business plan evaluation and selection process. For a successful implementation and usage of AI, we have identified several of the most important recommendations. First, we assume that the user is not an expert in the AI technology, but rather an expert in the decision making field. Therefore, it is important that the employees of Company X learn to use the technology. Secondly, Company X needs to change how they make decisions into a more data driven way. Lastly, they have to expand the current team with an IT specialist who can support and maintain the AI technology, and can respond immediately to problems that occur within the system.
To conclude, when we evaluate how AI could have a positive impact on the daily business, we believe that it will contribute to the further growth of Company X, as it will reduce the business plan evaluation and selection process time. It also gives Company X the opportunity to actively look for interesting companies in which they can invest, instead of only reviewing business plans they receive.
Group: 23
Jack Erkelens 360249
Nadia Karina Wijaya 365694
Faustina Nisha Theodore 382600
Riemer Bovet 363760

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Kids should reclaim the ownership of their digital lives.

22

September

2016

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Another school year has started. Many kids are connecting with new friends and develop themselves intellectually. This school year also means a new cycle of data collection. At many schools students are using school-provided tablets or laptops and this seems to show great educational benefits for students but also raises some serious questions about privacy and long-term security of this generation.
Schools have insights in everything what kids do on their school devices. They can see all files ever downloaded and see their web-browsing activity. This kind of data can give schools a good picture of students their behavioural patterns, intellectual interest and learning disabilities. We all know that schools have the best interest with protecting their students. However, when schools and districts are not run or advised by information security experts it gives unknown third parties access to kids digital lives. Because schools don’t have the right resources, the monitoring functions are mostly outsourced to third parties with vague content. The consequence of this phenomenon is that third parties whose data protection policies are often unknown to the parents may have access to similar information and data as the school administration does.
Neither kids or parents know where the collected user data is stored, who has access to it and how it is secured. Kids now a days don’t read long privacy policies and terms of written when downloading of singing up for the newest applications.
Because this lack of security, schools, parents and tech companies need to consider what kind of student data should be collected, who owns it and how it is secured. Resulting from this security problem, data from this generation can easily be exploited and exposed. Besides kids being easy targets for identity theft they also can be in contact with cyber risks that’s everyone facing today.
In my opinion the first step is that the parents should begin to ask questions and call for transparency about the school and corporate access to their kids data and how it is secured.

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