Common Network Faults: Network Management

            According to Clemm (2006), network management is defined as those activities, methods, procedures and tools used in operating, administering and maintaining the entire networked system. The two most common network faults are playback attacks and unauthorized access.

1.  Playback attack – a thief observes, investigates and replays a prior transmitted message (Jurgen, 1999). As the term implies, the attackers record or keep a communication, then play it back afterwards (Zwicky and Cooper, 2000).

2.  Unauthorized Access – the attacker, who is not authorized to access the network, retrieve data or information within.

References

Clemm, A 2006, Network Management Fundamentals, Cisco Press

Jurger, R 1999, Automotive Electronics Handbook, McGraw-Hill Professional

Zwicky, E, Cooper, S & Chapman, B 2000, Building Internet Firewalls, O’Reilly

Network Management Fundamentals

Advanced Encryption Standard (AES)

The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is defined as a symmetric-key encryption standard adopted by the U.S. government.

Assuming that you have access to 10,000 up-to-date PCs and stating any other reasonable assumptions you need to make, calculate how long it will take, on average, to derive an AES key using a key space search (sometimes referred to as a brute force attack).

Solution:

·         1 Gigahertz (GHz) = 1,000,000,000 cycles per second

·         AES can support 128 bits, 192 bits and 256 bits key sizes

·         Using brute-force approach = 3.4 x 10³⁸

·         Each PC can process 2,600,000 cycles per second

·         10 = 10 cycles

Then:

1 PC:              2,600,000,000/10 = 260,000,000

10 PCs:          260,000,000(10,000) = 2.6x10¹²

AES key:                    (3.4 x 10³⁸) / (2.6 x 10¹²) = 1.3 x 10²⁶ seconds

                                                            = 3.6 x 10²² hours

Algebraic Aspects of the Advanced Encryption StandardAdvanced Encryption Standard - AES: 4th International Conference, AES 2004, Bonn, Germany, May 10-12, 2004, Revised Selected and Invited Papers

Individual Differences in Second or Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

According to Oxford (1999), “an understanding of individual differences is very important to successful instruction in a second or foreign language.” Different studies and literatures of the past showed that the main reason why many of the second language learners do not succeed, while some leaders do well, without exerting too much effort, is because of the different characteristics of learners, such as personal traits, motivation or language aptitudes – or known as the individual differences (IDs) (Doughty and Long, 2003). Thus, with IDs, it shows that every individual or human are unique, therefore, their reactions and interests of a specific learning instruction will be different from one another. As a result, explaining and describing the pattern of IDs is considered as important in second language acquisition.

IDs in resource availability and the patterns of cognitive abilities contribute to are important in order to: (a) elucidate differences between learners in the efficiency of second language (L2); (b) illustrate differences in understood, supplementary and unambiguous L2 learning process; and (c) give details about child-adult differences in the process of acquisition and any general theory of SLA (Robinson, 2001).

In connection to IDs, it is important to focus on the different learning styles. Learning is defined as the interactive process between activities of student and teacher in the given learning environment (Keefe, 1987). With the IDs, it also follow that students learn in different way (Price, 1977). Caplan (1981) explained that the brain structure can influence the acquisition of language structure, while Schwartz, Davidson and Maer (1975) supported that the hemispheres of the brain have perceptions avenues, which the study of Stronck (1980) showed that some types of cells found in some brains cannot be found in others.

            As a result, Oxford (1990) developed and proposed a Strategy Inventory for Language Learning, which include 6 major groups.

Strategies	Description
1. Cognitive Strategies	Enable the learner to control and influence the language material directly   (via reasoning, analysis, note-taking and synthesis)
2. Metacognitive Strategies	Apply to manage the learning process in general (via recognizing own preferences and needs of an individual, planning, monitoring mistakes and evaluating result )
3. Memory-related Strategies	Enables the learners to connect one L2 item or aspect with another but do not entail deep understanding
4. Affective Strategies	Enables the leaner to manage and control the level of their motivations and emotions.
5. Social Strategies	Helps the leaner to learn through interaction and connection with others, at the same time understand the target culture (via asking questions and clarification, exploring, talking with native speaking partner and focusing on social and cultural norms)

References

Price, G, Dunn, R. & Dunn, K. (1977). A summary of research on learning style. New York, NY: American Educational Research Association.

Robinson, P. (2001). ‘Individual differences, cognitive abilities, aptitude complexes and learning conditions in second language acquisition’. Second Language Research. 17(4), 368 – 392.

Keefe, J. W. (1987). Theory and Practice. Reston, VA: National Association of Secondary School Principals.

Doughty, C. & Long, M. (2003). The handbook of second language acquisition. Wiley-Blackwell.          

Second and Foreign Language Learning Through Classroom Interaction

E-Commerce in Malaysia

Introduction

            E-commerce is conducted between different businesses – and varies on how the business is carried out between the business and its respective consumers. Basically, there are 5 types of e-commerce: business to business (B2B); business to consumer (B2C); consumer to business (C2C); consumer to consumer (C2C); and business to government (B2G).

            According to the report of IDC, in 2006, Malaysia had recorded a total of US$2.8 billion B2C e-commerce spending, which shows a great increase of 24% from US$1.9 of the prior year. Overall, the e-commerce spending in Malaysia in 2006 was amounted to US$13.6 billion, a vast growth of 77%. The said increase or growth was attributed to the increased number of Internet users, which had reached to 6 million – 4.7 million of which were unique buyer.

References

IDC 2007, IDC Reports 70% Growth in Malaysia E-Commerce Spending in 2006, IDC, http://www.idc.com.my/PressFiles/IDC%20Malaysia%20-%20eCommerce.asp [Accessed 15 December 2009]

The Prospects of E-commerce for The SMEs in Malaysia: Usage of e-commerce by SMEs in MalaysiaMalaysia Internet and E-Commerce Investment and Business Guide: Regulations and Opportunities (World Strategic and Business Information Library)

Advantages of Outsourcing

According to the Outsourcing Institute (1995) outsourcing had become a fully-fledge business megatrend in USA and Europe's industries. Due to globalization, competition had become intensive, thus companies, particularly those in the global market are focusing or obtaining and maintaining competitive advantage. One of which is through outsourcing (Weston, 1996).

Engelke (1996) defined outsourcing as the process of settling on to get hold of a given or selected products or/and services from the external entities from the firm. Thus, it is the process of making use of the knowledge, skills, capabilities, experiences, technologies and even originalities that were not used before (Kraker, 1995).

The advancement and popularity of Information Technology (IT) and communication technology have helped in order to speed up the organizational change. And because of the changes in both macro- and micro-environment of a business, companies focus on continuous change in order to maintain their edge. As a result, outsourcing showed growth for the past decades. The study of Foster (2006) tackled that the outsourcing data centers from 1995 had increased from $180 billion to $420 in 2000. 

The most popular advantage of outsourcing is cost effectiveness and cost savings. This is because financial savings are expected to be made, because the vendors of outsourcing services can offer similar services, which can help them to offer the benefits of economies of scale (Walker and Weber, 1984). These vendors can offer services in high quality and lower prices, because they just focus on specific specialist and all of their financial resources, together with other important resources will be solely used for the benefit of those services. Thus, it follow that outsourcing help to acquire higher quality of services, due to the specialization of the vendors, which consequently connect it to increase in productivity.

Less cost spent in different operational expenses and higher productivity would mean higher profit. Therefore, in the end, outsourcing can help in order to add values to the firm (Alexander and Young, 1996), at the same time, controlling or preventing risks associated to political, social and technological aspect of a specific business unit or process to be outsourced.

References

Alexander, M and Young, D (1996), ‘Outsourcing: Where’s the value?’, Long Range Planning, vol. 29, pp. 728 – 730.

Engelke, W D (1996), ‘The virtual times’, Outsourcing Perspectives, Retrieved from 31^st August, from HSV website.

Foster, E (1996), ‘Outsource sense’, Info World, vol. 8, no. 37.

Kater, M (1995), ‘An outsourcing primer’, Training and Development, vol. 49, no. 11, pp. 20 – 26.

Outsourcing Institute (1995),  ‘Outsourcing: How industry leaders are reshaping the American corporation’, Fortune.

Walker, G and Weber, D (1984), ‘A transaction cost approach to make or buy decisions’, Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 29, pp. 373 – 391.

Weston, R (1996), ‘Its hard to buck the outsourcing tide’, PC Week, p. 1. 

The Black Book of Outsourcing: How to Manage the Changes, Challenges, and OpportunitiesOutsourcing For DummiesThe Outsourcing Handbook: How to Implement a Successful Outsourcing Process

Impact of the Internet in Tourism Industry

Tourism as a phenomenon is continuously pushing its boundary forward. It's boundary is becoming more and more global. Evidence and studies show that the industry will continue to improve and expand for the next years. From merely 25 million international arrivals registered in 1950s, it had increased to 700 million international travelers by the 21st century and created a vast proportion of GDP in most countries in the globe (Buhalis and Costa, 2006). 

This growth can be attributed greatly towards the improvement of technology. In particularly, Information Technology (IT) helps to manage, monitor and control the increasing number of tourism services, products and its growing demands (Mills and Laws, 2005).

In specific, the Internet had helped to create a new landscape for tourism and travel industry. This is because consumers, travelers or tourists, now have a direct access towards information and access to the basic providers of tourism products and services. 

The Internet created opportunities for all businesses in the world, from small to multinational companies. In particular the Internet offered a new medium for marketing and consumer communication - taking advantage of its cost-effectiveness. In the travel and tourism industry, according to the report of Forrester Research (2002), in 2002 alone, the number of American travelers who purchased their travel packages online had increased to 23.3 million households. 

The study of Zhou and Lin (2000) which focus on the use of the Internet and printed brochure for advertisement, showed that majority of the respondents have Internet access in their homes, offices and libraries, which enables 43% of the respondents to avail travel and tourism services via online. 

As a result, the study of Mathies and Wiemair (2004) showed that the travel and tourism industry is one of the major users of Internet. 

References

Buhalis, D. and Costa, C. (2006). Tourism business frontiers: consumers, products and industry. Elsevier.

Matthies, C. and Weiemair, K. (2004). The tourism and leisure industry: shaping the future. Haworth Press.

Mills, J. and Law, R. (2005). Handbook of consumer behavior, tourism and the Internet. Haworth Press.

Zhou, Z. (2004). E-commerce and information technology in hospitality & tourism. Thomson Delmar Learning. 

101 Ways to Promote Your Tourism Business Web Site: Proven Internet Marketing Tips, Tools, and Techniques to Draw Travelers to Your Site (101 Ways series)Internet Marketing for Your Tourism Business: Proven Techniques for Promoting Tourist-Based Businesses over the Internet

Green Consumerism

The term green consumerism was coined in 1986 by John Elkington - an environmental consultant. Later in 1988, it was launched into the market place via Green Shopping Week and the publication of Green Consumer Guide. The said event created huge impact, which was followed by another promotion in 1989 and other publications which aim on informing and encouraging the consumers to be aware and conscious about the different environmental impact of the products or/and services that they are availing, together with the different manufacturing and production process which are considered as hazardous (Osterhus, 1997). 

The main point of green consumerism is to persuade the consumer to act and pursue political decisions and choices that are connected to their daily consumptions. As time goes by, particularly in the current issues related to global warming, green consumerism had become a vital aspect in social marketing literature, and became and personal ethical orientation, pro-environmental personal values and attitudes which help to form socially conscious and responsible decision-making (Mosainder and Personen, 2002). 

References

Mosainder, J. and Personen, S. (2002). 'Narratives of sustainable ways of living: constructing the self and other as green consumer'. Management Decision. 40(4), 329 - 342.

Osterhus, T. (1997). 'Pro-social consumer influence strategies: When and how do they work?' Journal of Marketing. 61, 16 - 29.

Eco-Standards, Product Labelling and Green Consumerism (Consumption and Public Life)Representation of Green Consumerism: A Constructionist CritiqueGreen Marketing: Opportunity for Innovation, 2nd EditionStella Artois Case Study: tapping into the rise of green and ethical consumerism in alcoholic drinks