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Monday, January 28, 2019

Information Privacy

When working with private information it is highly necessary to keep the clients at top priority.  You are so correct in the thought that the clients are what make the company. I too would refuse the first offer, making the contingency of follow through being that the clients are kept high priority. And I love the opt-in thought. I agree. I feel it would be in the best interest of the clients if the Mortgage company was to understand it is totally up to the clients. The company would need to understand that though there are many clients in this company, it would be possible to see less information than thought. I have seen this many times, and letters were sent out and emails letting those on the receiving end make their own choice. I would ask the Mortgage company to explain the benefits that the clients would receive and then pass that information on.

 Limited information would be ok if it was not identifying. But who are we to steal information that was given in confidence and giving it to someone else. I worked the medical field and studied laws on information sharing. I half agree with you, as yes it would be highly beneficial. But on the other hand the possibility of loosing clients could bring the actual value of the company down. Yes, the money being offered would help sustain for a short time, but when the word gets out you sold information, there will be more than just a loss of clients, it could also mean loosing face with future potential clients. There are ethical values here that could collapse. It is a fine line to tread, continuous transparency is vital.

Sunday, January 27, 2019


There are numerous advantages of pay-per-click over other concepts like impressions, as impressions alone do not guarantee anyone actually saw the ad, only that it displayed. A click is an indication that there was some level of interest, and verification someone actually saw the ad. Once the ad has been clicked you can at times glean a decent amount of information about this potential customer, how they came to see the ad in the first place, what they did once they clicked the ad, and other various location, demographic, and user agent data that is being tracked for the user. A pay-per-click campaign can have an average budget per day that can be adjusted and the ad can be retargeted as desired. A negative to the PPC model would be the need to maintain the parameters, as if left unchecked you might end up paying lots of $$$ for irrelevant clicks derived from similar but unrelated search terms. These have to be culled from the phrases that display the ad. Another downside to PPC ads is that consumers are ignoring ads, and advertisers need to find other ways to influence us (Dodson, 2016).
When it comes to promoted search ads, I will sometimes click the links of companies I do not care for, though I do pay attention to the ads and will click them if relevant. While marketing is not my department, I get involved in all aspects of the business I work at, and as such, I have set up several AdWords campaigns and get great results and when combined with the analytics data from the website you can see what users are doing once they click your ad which can be quite insightful.  I also promote open position ads on which are pay per click, with the cost per click being tied to the number of other employers I am competing with to get my listing highlighted based on the position type and location. 
Dodson, I. (2016). The Art of Digital Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Creating Strategic, Targeted, and Measurable Online Campaigns, 1st Edition.

Saturday, January 26, 2019

Making Business Decisions

First thought to accepting the partnership is the money that will be accumulated. Yes, it is a lot of money, but how much of that money is going to be used to pay settlements later. While reading the article by Woods you can see how just a small leak of information can be detrimental. What will it do to the lives of the clients?  One must think on how hard it is on them and the information being leaked, is it going to embarrass the client or cause more harm than good. Therefore, there was the creation of the HIPAA law. (Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act). This stands for all private information. I see this everyday in the organization that I am in. Though this is not about health it is about privacy. It is about what we do with that information that is being given and how we are going to protect it. As an organization that is merging with another company it is our responsibility to make sure that information given is not put into the wrong hands. Woods explains it well when he states, “nonprofits engender high levels of trust from the public; they are insulated from many short-term pressures; and they have generally avoided scandals of data abuse. Civil society may also have a special ethical duty regarding the data it collects — a duty that presumably warrants distinct ethical guidelines from the ones that are being developed for the other sectors.” (2016) We have to be very careful of what information gets out and how we share this information.
When developing a statement rules should be implemented. Remember we have the right and the responsibility to keep information private. We do not have the right to sell someone else’s information or share it with anyone without the consent of the person of interest. Bernholtz,, states it quite clearly the rules of ethics used in business and organizations that have control of personal information. “RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES: The rights of individuals and communities whose data are being collected by civil society are unclear. Conversely, the responsibilities of groups collecting individual and community data are defined as well.”
The value is the integrity of those involved. The value is understated and can cause harm to those it involves. When one works with others information it is very important it stays private to the terms of the person whom it belongs to.  If the client gives permission it should have a signed release of information. This is basic ethics that everyone should be aware of. The value of the information is too high for the organization to just sign those rights away.
100% DISCLOSURE to clients- they should know every aspect of this situation before making a final decision. If there is not full disclosure or pure transparency, there should be no deal. That would most defiantly be a deal breaker in the organization that I run. As a leader you are building trust with those who work for you and those who work under you. Under no circumstances should this trust be broken over money. No money is worth the value you instill in your people, clients and yourself.  It is more than just ethics. It is worth and value of morals and competency. Unless my clients are in full understanding, which I would ask for the time to inform my clients, and again if not granted this I would not comply, no money is worth the value of a client’s information. And if they could not understand that then that would not be the company for this organization.
Woods, A. (2016) Do Civil Society Practices Call for New ethical Guidelilnes retrieved from:
Bernholtz, L. (2018). The Ethics of Data in Civil Society. retrieved from:
Ethics, Big Data, and analytics: A model for Application retrieved from

Friday, January 25, 2019

Students and their Abilities

The discussion about differing students and their abilities has been going on for many years.   And it starts before college:  See Vanderbilt Journal

The concept of having one standard for every subject is something the Federal Government has tried to do for elementary and high school education.  This will then push the question on children's pre-school preparations by families.  This then leads to issues of socio-economics and parenting differences.

Basically - we will have students with diverse incoming abilities.  And yet, many believe we should have standard outcomes. 
What this means - we have differing input - but expect similar output.

This means - the "Processing of Students" - must be different if the output is to be standardized.  

This begs the question - what is the expected "Standardized Output?"
And since we use a gradient system to evaluate student performance. - Should the Standard Output mean students with an "A" meet the standard?

Thus, the alternative is then:
If student input is different, and student output is different - then students with an "A" in one system would be meeting a minimum level of standardization.  Does this mean an "A" from a University equate to a "C" standard at another institution?

In today's social norms environment - students expect to receive an "A" in something the put forth an effort (Participation, which is driven by social norms of equality).  If this is the case - then what does an "A" represent?

If the "A" represents a minimum standard or a "D" level at other schools - then is this inappropriate? 

The real questions is - what are the expectations of employers who hire  different students?   Does an employer who hires a graduate from a University (with an "A" grade) perceive the student to be at a higher level than a student from another school who received a "C" grade?

What is the "Scope & Scale" of the learned KSA - Knowledge Skills and Abilities that each student receives within the different schools?

Here inlies the problem - Many schools want to be perceived as equal so they may attract students within a competitive environment.  They will promote they are a "University for Education" and yet they use LOW entrance requirements - this means they are accepting many students with much lower levels of preparation for learning. 

The total input is lower.  Thus to reach standardized output - the processing (Pedagogy) must be different than other schools in order to achieve similar output standards.

This is no different than the dichotomy of Standardized Industrialization vs Entrepreneurship or Republicanism vs Communism or even Democracy.

Even in Leadership studies there is a divide between those who believe there are specific standard competencies that make a leader - rather than the individual.

Overall - the question is not us asking if a a University student has the same abilities as a student from another school - the question should be - do companies want to hire university graduates - and for what reason?

Is a University producing workers with specific KSAs that a large portion of the General Business World want to hire.   And does this employment meet the expectations (type of work and compensation) of the Students when they enter the PG program? 

I will NOT fall prey to the idea that all of my students are going to lead companies - that is just not going to happen.  But I will provide a level of learning (KSAs) that will allow my students to participate in the employment process with confidence that they are able to compete with many other applicants.

We are not pushing out robots of equal ability.  We are working with individuals who have different backgrounds, efficacy, and self-efficacy.  If we provide a foundation for our subjects, and encourage self-efficacy - we are adding value to the process.

But, this does require an understanding of time and effort.  Processing 30+ students in 6-10 weeks - online - is not the same process as 15+ students in 14-16 weeks - face to face.   These are different processing methodologies.   

Use a Microwave to cook compared to a BBQ pit, Stove, or Oven.
There will be similarities in the outcome - but they will not be exactly the same.   

And - if standardized output is the Objective - then why are other Research University Faculty paid 2-3 times more than a State University?  Are they doing more work? - Do they perform better?  If a Research University Faculty were to teach University students - would the output go up? If PG Faculty were to teach Research University students would their KSAs go down?

Perception of Value and Individual Expectations combined with input abilities require different processing.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Yahoo Cyber Attack Case Study

Yahoo! is a web services provider headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and owned by Verizon Media. The original Yahoo! Company was founded by Jerry Yang and David Filo in January 1994 and was incorporated on March 2, 1995. Yahoo was one of the pioneers of the early Internet era in the 1990s. It provides or provided a Web portal, search engine Yahoo! Search, and related services, including Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping, video sharing, fantasy sports, and its social media website (Trautman & Ormerod, 2017).
In September 2016, Yahoo confirmed a massive security breach in which hackers swiped personal information associated with at least 500 million account that took in place in 2014, disclosed that a different attack in 2013 compromised more than 1 billion accounts (Trautman & Ormerod, 2017). Yahoo later admitted that all of the 3 billion user accounts had been hacked in 2013. This cyber-attack is now considered the largest known breach of its kind on the Internet.
Yahoo! has been taken to task for having a seemingly lax attitude towards security: the company reportedly does not implement new security features as fast as other Internet companies, and after Yahoo! was identified by Edward Snowden as a frequent target for state-sponsored hackers in 2013, it took the company a full year before hiring a dedicated chief information security officer (Trautman & Ormerod, 2017). Even though it is too early to say what impact the breach might have on Yahoo and its users because many questions remain, including the identity of the state-sponsored hackers behind it. But there are already some impact to Yahoo users and stakeholders. As Yahoo confirmed the stolen user information was being used primarily for spamming, i.e., sending spam to the people whose information was stolen (Trautman & Ormerod, 2017).
The breaches have impacted Verizon Communications’ July 2016 plans to acquire Yahoo! for about $4.8 billion, which resulted in a decrease of $350 million in the final price on the deal closed in June 2017 (Trautman & Ormerod, 2017). According to Reuters, In April 2018, the SEC announced that it had reached a deal with Altaba, the company that holds the assets of Yahoo! not purchased by Verizon, for US$35 million for failure to disclose the 2014 breach in a timely manner.
In response to the cyber attach, Yahoo! forced all affected users to change passwords, and to reenter any unencrypted security questions and answers to make them encrypted in the future. Even though Yahoo! has said that it has “revised” procedures for responding to cyber-security incidents, it is not clear currently what else has been done to beef up the security posture (Trautman & Ormerod, 2017).
If organizations are ambitious enough to seek to close the door on common types of cyberattack, they must also be realistic enough to accept that advanced attackers will get in. In which case it is crucial to be able to identify intrusions as quickly as possible — and to have processes that are known to provide the organization with an effective means to deal with the after-breach situation and to kick attackers back out(Gengler, 1999). A Security Operations Center (SOC) that sits at the heart of the organization’s cyber threat detection capability is an excellent starting point, providing a centralized, structured and coordinating hub for all cybersecurity activities (Gengler, 1999). SOCs are becoming increasingly common. This does not mean the SOC has to build capability for every possible aspect of cybersecurity strategy and leading practice. Many organizations choose to outsource some activities, rather than leaving them with the in-house SOC. Identifying and closing off these vulnerabilities in your organization before they are exploited is therefore crucial. Indeed with good cybersecurity hygiene in place, it should be possible to prevent a very sizeable proportion of common attacks. Other steps a business can take to better support the IT (information technology) department’s security efforts are being aware of the most common types of security breaches affecting your type of organisation, undertake a security risk review, develop policies, procedures and plans, Create a culture of cyber-security awareness, designate a person to act as Cyber Security Officer, review contractual agreements, and review intellectual property arrangements (Gengler, 1999).
Gengler, B. (1999). Cyber attacks from outside and inside. Computer Fraud & Security, 1999(5), 6-7. doi:10.1016/S1361-3723(99)90142-2
Trautman, L. J., & Ormerod, P. C. (2017). corporate directors' and officers' cybersecurity standard of care: The yahoo data breach. American University Law Review, 66(5), 1231-1291.
Kastrenakes, Jacob (Feb 6, 2019). "SEC issues $35 million fine over Yahoo failing to disclose data breach". Reuters 

Sunday, January 20, 2019

Databases and Database Technologies

Business organizations are opting for more effective and widespread solutions than ever in order to automate and integrate the data processes, increase their performances, and achieve a significant cost cutting. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is one such system that have been developed in conjunction with new technologies that greatly satisfy database management requirements for companies and individual customers. The fundamental technical skills that you mentioned necessary for business managers are actually such business models that are significantly evolved over the time and comes with variety of modules and functions. Hence, managers could be trained for such evolutionary database management systems and models which will benefit both employees and organization in the long run.  
  • Bahssas, D. M., AlBar, A. M., Hoque, R., (2015). Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Systems: Design, Trends and Deployment. The International Technology Management Review, Vol. 5(2), pp. 72-81.

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

The decision-making process

The decision-making process through an organization is dependent on the leadership within the organization. The decision-making process of management is influenced by the decision-making process of leadership. As Rodriguez (2017) discussed, managerial decision-making is compared to a dictatorship leadership style. The manager takes the information passed down from senior leadership. From there, the manager communicates the tasks with the team or employees and expects them to carry out those expectations.
For a manager to have their team perform optimally, there are several factors that should be addressed. Films Media Group (2014) explains that establishing a positive value upon the individual’s job, valuing the individual, and giving the employees confidence are areas that should be nurtured. Creating a positive environment through praise and recognition for a job well done help foster the growth in the individual. Mentioning challenges and providing constructive feedback towards resolving the issue can also help build the individual. By building individuals in a team and assessing the need and skill level of each employee, the manager can make informed decisions.
Leadership decision-making is a different process. Rock Star Leadership (2015) states that a decisive leader will assemble a team that helps project the vision of the leader and the organization. Establishing a good relationship with those lower level leaders helps provide trust and confidence. This ties it back to playing value to their job, a member of the team, and as an individual.
I am most familiar with the managerial type decision-making. Business News Daily (2017) provides a four-point strategy that is closely mirrored in military decision making. Those strategies include: Identifying the problem; analyze the possible situations; evaluate the possibilities; and make the decision based on the findings of the analysis. Information was passed down from senior leadership and it was curtail that the mission was carried out effectively. Squad leaders and team leaders filtered the information down to essential tasks to perform. Communication was essential to ensure success.
I have recently begun a new leadership adventure. The Ambassador type of leadership. Rock Star Leadership (2015) discusses that the Ambassador seeks out feedback of services from both within and outside of the organization. I find myself executing components of the Ambassador leadership style. The new production company that I am part of is trying to get off the ground. The struggles of getting off the ground so to speak, is due to misconceptions about working with some of the other leadership. I actively go out to other film sets, usually as an actor, and take in the feedback of others about the services and working environment they have encountered in the past. I see the ambassador as a sponge and a cleaner. Taking in all sorts of information to be processed and through positive interactions in and promoting, we can reach our goals.
Being A Leader: Management Essentials. (2014). Films Media Group. Available at: http:// 

Business News Daily (2017). Decision-Making Techniques. Improve your ability to make effective decisions. Retrieved from:
Rock star leadership [Video file]. (2015). Retrieved February 8, 2017, from 

Rodriguez, I. (2017). What Differences in Decision-Making Approaches Might Occur Among Leadership Styles? Retrieved from:  

Friday, January 11, 2019

Computer Crimes

Computer crimes are crimes that involve attacking a computer or a network, and Some attacks involve single computers, and others are intended to involve thousands of computers and networks. Moreover, cyberattacks have greatly increased recently as companies have amplified their Internet connectivity. Cyberattacks can take many shapes, many involve data breaches such as the loss of financial data of individuals, like credit or debit card data. Cyber threats can be unintentional or intentional. Unintentional threats are caused by human error e.g. poorly designed systems, environmental hazards like natural disasters, and finally computer systems failure such as poor maintenance. While intentional cyber threats include hacking, phishing, crimeware distributed denial of Service (DDoS) insider and privilege misuse, and physical theft (Pollard, Turban, Wood, 2018).
     Alhayat hospital is a privet hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and it has been affected by a cyber-attack. The malware called ‘WannaCry’, and it was a ransomware designed to block access to a computer system until a certain amount of money has been paid. The malware spreads through computer networks all over the globe within 4 days invading 116 countries. Exploiting a vulnerability in Microsoft Window’s operating system, it allowed hackers to encode organizations' files, and Alhayat's employees were sent a message demanding $300 (£228) worth of Bitcoins in exchange for the decryption key (Mohurle, & Patil, 2017).  
    Similarly, ransomware attacks are considered by security experts as a higher rate of success versus other cyberattacks activity that has become more difficult, possibly because of the centralization of data resources in an organization. Alhayat's managers best way to ensure avoidance of such ransomware is to have offline or segregated backups of data. Furthermore, they have to possess deeper knowledge of cyberattacks and combine it with business context, valuation techniques, and financial quantification to establish the true costs of their losses as well as being more effective in controlling cyber risk and improving their ability to recover from a cyberattack (Brewer, 2016).

Brewer, R. (2016). Ransomware attacks: detection, prevention and cure. Network Security, 2016(9), 5-9.
Mohurle, S., & Patil, M. (2017). A brief study of wannacry threat: Ransomware attack 2017. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science, 8(5).
Pollard, C., Turban, E., Wood, G. (2018). Information technology for management: On-demand strategies for performance, growth, and sustainability (11th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 9781118890790

Wednesday, January 9, 2019

The Cyber Attack

Any organization could face several types of attacks; cyber attack is one of the main threats that a company might get especially since we live in an era where technology dominates day today operations. Cyber attack is any attempt to destroy, steal, exploit or gain unauthorized access to an asset by computer. Long time ago we used to hear that bank theft is usually happening by a gang where they physically inter a bank and start robbing while holding the employees under gun point, but nowadays robberies could happen within a click!
The present of the World Economic Forum has announced by early 2018 the cyber attacks have cost USD 1 trillion worldwide. For example, in 2017 a bank in Eastern Europe encountered a cyber attack through accessing their card processing system, they also hacked the bank infrastructure and increased card overdraft limits. In addition, they disabled the bank anti fraud system that would send alarms for any unusual transactions. Such attack unfortunately cost the bank approximately $100 million. Such an attack is called Phishing, which is a form of communications that appear to come from a reputable source, usually through email. The goal is to steal sensitive data like credit card and login information or to install malware on the victim’s machine. As a business manager I would increase the risk mitigation procedures in the Information Security Department and spread awareness to clients to be more conservative when it comes to sharing information especially online. 
Positive Technologies. (2019, January 11). How hackers rob banks. Retrieved February 6, 2019, from
Cyber Attack - What Are Common Cyberthreats? (2018, November 05). Retrieved February 6, 2019, from

Saturday, January 5, 2019

Ethical Decisions in the Mortgage Industry

Ethics and trust is huge in an organization. I agree that is would be deceitful to allow the Mortgage company the clients information without their consent. In fact, that could open them up for lawsuits that would in the end cost much more than the $10 million on the table. I believe there would be a way to offer the products and have clients opt in like you said and that way it's done ethically. Most companies have a code of ethics and by allowing the mortgage company the clients information wouldn't follow that code. You are correct in suggesting in the long run nobody would come to the company because they were found to be unethical.

The question comes down to did you create this data or did you acquire it from someone else?
If you created the data, you can sell it to whomever you want. If that data includes information about people (names, contact information, etc), you need to have their permission to sell it. In the US, all you have to do is stipulate in your Terms & Conditions that you have the right to sell information about them. When they check “Agree,” you are legally OK to sell their information.
By agreeing to the Mortgage Company you are setting yourself up for lawsuits for selling personal information without their consent. It could end up costing more than the $10 million offered. 
It would be very tempting but still unethical. Perhaps renegotiating the contract could prove legal and beneficial.
In this scenario the client has not agreed to disclose personal information except anonymously. The company could not ethically or legally accept this offer unless they renegotiated the contract and contacted every client and asked them to re-sign a new disclosure giving the Mortgage Company permission to sell their information. They would need to educate the client so they understood their personal information could be used by other companies to sell them products they may not understand and probably don't need. Unless they went back to all existing clients and all new clients and re-disclosed, ethically the company can not sell their information unless its on an anonymous basis. .

Friday, January 4, 2019

Lee’s Florist

The obvious goal Mr. Lee would like to accomplish is increasing his revenue using the
pay-per-click method. In what ways can we help Mr. Lee accomplish his goal, and what are some other goals we can help Mr. Lee define for his business.
            To help Mr. Lee I made a list of goals for him that are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely. Increasing revenue, means we will have to increase the traffic to his website, which means we will have to increase his brand awareness, while maintaining relationships with his current and loyal customers. To get his business to stand out from the competition I suggested that he offer professional photos of the flowers, and bouquets that his business sells for people to buy in addition to the flowers themselves.
            Mr. Lee could offer a beautiful print in any size, or a canvas print of the flower(s)  to begin with, then slowly expand by printing the photos onto mugs, keychains and other items, if it deems to be a popular concept. This way people can enjoy their flowers forever and not just for a week or two.
            To increase traffic to his site we’ll put ads on social media, google search, his website, and also utilize traditional marketing such as a brief flyer with a discount code on it, for people to use online or to bring into the store with them. These methods can be tracked using click through rates. The order in which we’ll focus on is current/loyal customers first, then increasing brand awareness that will target new customers. Numbers and timeline for this project will be to get 100,000 new customers by the second quarter.
            Before implementing this strategy, we must set things up to help achieve these goals. Setup includes creating a Google Ads account, a general keyword search, a specific keyword search and researching what keywords the competitors are using. Setup also includes creating campaigns, targeting our chosen audience, deciding on locations, bidding, delivery methods, scheduling and rotating ads, creating ad compositions and extensions, creating landing pages that not only catch the audience’s eye but entices them to click on Mr. Lee’s website link, setting up Google Display Network and developing ways to remarket the original content. Once all of these things are planned in detail then we can move onto to the manage stage of the pay-per-click method (Dodson, 2016).
            Now that Mr. Lee and I have defined his goals and setup ways to achieve these goals, we need to track everything to make sure he’s meeting his goals. The way we chose to do this is through Google Ads. The campaigns tab in Google Ads tells gives us a variety of detailed information that will help us optimize Mr. Lee’s methods to improve his business. Some of the things this tab and it’s sub tabs are responsible for are: letting us know which keywords are getting the most traffic, which days of the week and which ads are the most popular, it will even let us know which times of the day are most popular (Dodson, 2016). All of these things are needed for optimizing Mr. Lee’s ads, keywords etc.
            The opportunities tab helps us get the most out of our spending by providing advice and suggestions, on what we can do better and what we need to cut out. This tab cannot work without the tools tab which holds planners and trackers. It allows us to see when a customer transitions from a lead to a prospect to a conversion (Dodson, 2016). This information is most useful for determining what works and what doesn’t in terms of ads etc.
            What do we do once we have all this information from the campaigns and opportunities tabs. We move onto to analyzing it, through specific performance reports. Keywords, Ads, Campaigns and Dimensions all have individual reports that should be reviewed often (Dodson,2016). These reports along with everything else we have created will give us an in-depth visual of the company’s progress. They will help identify strengths and weaknesses giving us the ability to improve our strategies.
            Defining goals, implementing setup, managing the data and analyzing are all things Mr. Lee will have to do continuously, to ensure the longevity of his business. Doing so will provide him with the knowledge and motivation of keeping his business in tune to the ever changing landscape of technology.
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