{"id":237,"date":"2018-09-24T15:08:36","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T15:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-osintrobus\/chapter\/trends-in-information-technology\/"},"modified":"2018-10-12T17:39:38","modified_gmt":"2018-10-12T17:39:38","slug":"trends-in-information-technology","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-herkimer-osintrobus\/chapter\/trends-in-information-technology\/","title":{"raw":"Trends in Information Technology","rendered":"Trends in Information Technology"},"content":{"raw":"
    \r\n \t
  1. What are the leading trends in information technology?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n

    Information technology is a continually evolving field. The fast pace and amount of change, coupled with IT\u2019s broad reach, make it especially challenging to isolate industry trends. From the time we write this chapter to the time you read it\u2014as little as six months\u2014new trends will appear, and those that seemed important may fade. However, some trends that are reshaping today\u2019s IT landscape are digital forensics, the shift to a distributed workforce, and the increasing use of grid computing.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n

    Cyber Sleuthing: A New Style of Crime Busting<\/h3>\r\n

    What helped investigators bring suit against Enron<\/span>, Merck<\/span>\u2019s Vioxx medication, and the BTK serial killer? Digital evidence taken from an individual\u2019s computer or corporate network\u2014web pages, pictures, documents, and e-mails are part of a relatively new science called digital forensics.<\/em> Digital-forensics software safeguards electronic evidence used in investigations by creating a duplicate of a hard drive that an investigator can search by keyword, file type, or access date. Digital forensics is also evolving into areas such as cloud computing and blockchain technology. For instance, it is estimated that as much as 3.9 million of the original 21 million bitcoins are \u201clost\u201d on hard drives confined to landfills and flash drives located in the back of old office desks.[footnote]Patrick Watson, \u201cWhy Bitcoin Has Inflation Risk,\u201d Equities.com, https:\/\/www.equities.com, January 13, 2018.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n

    But nowadays digital sleuthing is not limited to law enforcement. Companies such as Walmart<\/span>, Target<\/span>, and American Express<\/span> have their own secret in-house digital forensics teams. And what if you\u2019re in New York and need to seize a hard drive in Hong Kong? No problem. Over 75 members of the Fortune 500 now use technology that allows them to search hard drives remotely over their corporate networks. Digital forensics makes it possible to track down those who steal corporate data and intellectual property. Broadcom<\/span>, a semiconductor chip designer, used computer forensics to investigate and apprehend former employees who were attempting to steal trade secrets. In the process, Broadcom<\/span> gathered incriminating e-mails, including deleted documents, that gave it solid evidence to use the 2013 Federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act<\/span> to stop the former employees from starting up a rival firm.[footnote]Kaveh Waddell, \u201cCSI: Walmart,\u201d The Atlantic, https:\/\/www.theatlantic.com, April 3, 2017; Dave Smith, \u201cComputer Fraud and Abuse Act 2013: New CFAA Draft Aims to Expand, Not Reform, the \u2018Worst Law in Technology\u2019,\u201d International Business Times, http:\/\/www.ibtimes.com, March 28, 2013.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n

    However, there is a downside to having these advanced capabilities. If this kind of software falls into the wrong hands, sophisticated hackers could access corporate networks and individual computers as easily as taking candy from a baby\u2014and the victims would not even know it was happening. In an age of corporate wrongdoing, sexual predators, and computer porn, your hard drive will tell investigators everything they need to know about your behavior and interests, good and bad. Cybersleuthing means we are all potential targets of digital forensics. As evidenced by the huge increase in identity theft, personal privacy\u2014once an unassailable right\u2014is no longer as sacred as it once was.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n
    <\/div>\r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n
    \r\n

    ethics in practice<\/h3>\r\n
    Unearthing Your Secrets<\/strong><\/div>\r\n

    Cybercrimes in our technologically driven world are on the increase\u2014identity theft, pornography, and sexual predator victim access, to name a few. The FBI\u2019s computer analysis response team confirms their caseload includes 800 cases reported per day<\/em> in 2017. To keep up with the changing world we live in, law enforcement, corporations, and government agencies have turned to new crime-fighting tools, one of the most effective being digital forensics.<\/p>\r\n

    The leader in this technology is Guidance Software, founded in 1997 to develop solutions that search, identify, recover, and deliver digital information in a forensically sound and cost-effective manner. Headquartered in Pasadena, California, the company employs 391 people at offices and training facilities in Chicago, Illinois; Washington, DC; San Francisco, California; Houston, Texas; New York City; and Brazil, England, and Singapore. The company\u2019s more than 20,000 high-profile clients include leading police agencies, government investigation and law enforcement agencies, and Fortune 1000 corporations in the financial service, insurance, high-tech and consulting, health care, and utility industries.<\/p>\r\n

    Guidance Software\u2019s suite of EnCase\u00ae solutions is the first computer forensics tool able to provide world-class electronic investigative capabilities for large-scale complex investigations. Law enforcement officers, government\/corporate investigators, and consultants around the world can now benefit from computer forensics that exceed anything previously available. The software offers an investigative infrastructure that provides network-enabled investigations, enterprise-wide integration with other security technologies, and powerful search and collection tools. With EnCase, clients can conduct digital investigations, handle large-scale data collection needs, and respond to external attacks.<\/p>\r\n

    Notably, the company\u2019s software was used by law enforcement in the Casey Anthony murder case and the Sony PlayStation security breach, and was used to examine data retrieved by the U.S. special forces in the Osama bin Laden raid.<\/p>\r\n

    Guidance Software also helps reduce corporate and personal liability when investigating computer-related fraud, intellectual property theft, and employee misconduct. It protects against network threats such as hackers, worms, and viruses and hidden threats such as malicious code.<\/p>\r\nIn response to increases in the number and scope of discovery requests, Guidance Software developed its eDiscovery Suite. The software package dramatically improves the practice of large-scale discovery\u2014the identification, collection, cataloging, and saving of evidence\u2014required in almost every major legal case these days. eDiscovery integrates with other litigation-support software to significantly decrease the time for corporations to accomplish these tasks. At the same time, it improves regulatory compliance and reduces disruption. The result is many millions of dollars in cost savings. In late 2017, Guidance Software was acquired by OpenText, an enterprise information management company that employs more than 10,000 people worldwide.\r\n

    Sources: FBI website, https:\/\/www.fbi.gov, accessed January 15, 2018; Guidance Software website, https:\/\/www.guidancesoftware.com, accessed January 15, 2018; OpenText website, https:\/\/www.opentext.com, accessed January 15, 2018; \u201cCasey Anthony: The Computer Forensics,\u201d The State v Casey Anthony website<\/em>, https:\/\/statevcasey.wordpress.com, July 18, 2011; Declan McCullagh, \u201cFinding Treasures in Bin Laden Computers,\u201d CBS News<\/em>, https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com, May 6, 2011; Evan Narcisse, \u201c Who\u2019s Cleaning Up the PSN Debacle for Sony?\u201d Time,<\/em> http:\/\/techland.time.com, May 4, 2011.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

    \r\n
    Critical Thinking Questions<\/strong><\/div>\r\n
      \r\n \t
    1. How is Guidance Software responding to and helping to manage changes in our technology-driven world?<\/li>\r\n \t
    2. What other types of forensics software do you foresee a need for in the future? Do you think there are ethical issues in using forensics software, and why?<\/li>\r\n \t
    3. What are the benefits and risks of Guidance Software being acquired by a larger company?<\/li>\r\n<\/ol>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nThe Distributed Workforce<\/span><\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
      \r\n

      Insurance company Aetna<\/span> shuttered 2.7 million square feet of office space, saving the company $78 million, while American Express<\/span> estimates it saved between $10 to $15 million dollars per year by expanding its distributed workforce. Was this a sign that these company were in trouble? Far from it. Instead of maintaining expensive offices in multiple locations, they sent employees home to work and adopted a new model for employees: the distributed workforce. Employees have no permanent office space and work from home or on the road. The shift to virtual workers has been a huge success, and not only do companies save on their personnel and related costs, but they also have happier, more productive employees.<\/p>\r\n

      Aetna<\/span> and American Express<\/span> are not alone in recognizing the benefits of distributed workers, especially in companies that depend on knowledge workers. Work Design Collaborative LLC in Prescott, Arizona, estimates that about 12 percent of all workers in the United States fall into this category, and in urban areas the number could be as high as 15 percent. There are estimates that this trend could eventually reach 40 percent over the next decade, as long commutes, high gas costs, and better connecting tools and technologies make this an attractive option for many workers who like the flexibility of not working in an office.[footnote]\u201cRemote Work is \u2018the New Normal,\u2019\u201d Fast Company, https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com, February 28, 2018.[\/footnote] Already, employees use the internet to conduct video-conferenced meetings and collaborate on teams that span the globe. On the downside, working from home can also mean being available 24\/7\u2014although most workers consider the trade-off well worth it.<\/p>\r\nAccording to recent statistics, close to four million U.S. workers work from home at least half of the time. Remote workers continue to be recruited by companies of all sizes, including Amazon<\/span>, Dell<\/span>, Salesforce<\/span>, and others.[footnote]Michael Guta, \u201c3.9 Million Americans\u2014including Freelancers\u2014Now Work from Home at Least Half the Week,\u201d Small Business Trends, https:\/\/smallbiztrends.com, April 2, 2018.[\/footnote] Intel has a successful virtual-work program that has been popular with working parents. \u201cTechnology allows working remotely to be completely invisible,\u201d says Laura Dionne, the company\u2019s director of supply-chain transformation. At Boeing<\/span>, thousands of employees participate in the virtual-work program, and it has been a critical factor in attracting and retaining younger workers. Almost half of Sun Microsystems<\/span>\u2019 employees are \u201clocation-independent,\u201d reducing real estate costs by $300 million. Additional benefits for Sun are higher productivity from these workers and the ability to hire the best talent. \u201cOur people working these remote schedules are the happiest employees we have, and they have the lowest attrition rates,\u201d says Bill MacGowan, senior vice president for human resources at Sun. \u201cWould I rather settle on someone mediocre in the Bay Area, or get the best person in the country who is willing to work remotely?\u201d[footnote]Andrea Loubier, \u201cBenefits of Telecommuting for the Future of Work,\u201d Forbes, https:\/\/www.forbes.com, July 20, 2017; Michelle Conlin, \u201cThe Easiest Commute of All,\u201d Business Week, December 12, 2005, p. 78.[\/footnote]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

      \r\n

      Grid and Cloud Computing Offer Powerful Solutions<\/h3>\r\n

      How can smaller companies that occasionally need to perform difficult and large-scale computational tasks find a way to accomplish their projects? They can turn to grid<\/em> or cloud computing<\/strong>, also called utility computing<\/em> or peer-to-peer computing.<\/em> Cloud and grid technology provides a way to divide the job into many smaller tasks and distribute them to a virtual supercomputer consisting of many small computers linked into a common network. Combining multiple desktop machines results in computing power that exceeds supercomputer speeds. A hardware and software infrastructure clusters and integrates computers and applications from multiple sources, harnessing unused power in existing PCs and networks. This structure distributes computational resources but maintains central control of the process. A central server acts as a team leader and traffic monitor. The controlling cluster server divides a task into subtasks, assigns the work to computers on the grid with surplus processing power, combines the results, and moves on to the next task until the job is finished. (Figure)<\/a><\/strong> shows how typical grid and cloud setups work, and the differences between the two.<\/p>\r\n\r\n

      \r\n\r\n[caption id=\"\" align=\"aligncenter\" width=\"1701\"]\"In Exhibit 13.9<\/strong> How Grid and Cloud Computing Work (Attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license.)[\/caption]\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n

      With utility computing, any company\u2014large or small\u2014can access the software and computer capacity on an as-needed basis. One of the big advantages of cloud computing is that companies can update their inventory in real time across their entire organization. For example, suppose you are an appliance retailer and have several outlets throughout the Midwest. If you have one model of a Whirlpool<\/span> washing machine in your Des Moines, Iowa, store, and a salesperson in your Chicago location can sell that model in Chicago, the sale can be accomplished pretty easily. They can finalize the sale, create the shipping instructions, and update the inventory record automatically\u2014and the Chicago consumer\u2019s needs will be met.[footnote]Paul Trujillo, \u201c5 Reasons Small Businesses Need the Cloud,\u201d B2C Community, https:\/\/www.business2community.com, January 30, 2018.[\/footnote]<\/p>\r\n

      Amazon<\/span>, Google<\/span>, IBM<\/span>, Salesforce.com<\/span>, Oracle<\/span>, and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise<\/span> are among the companies providing as-needed cloud and grid services. Although cloud and grid computing appears similar to outsourcing or on-demand software from ASPs, it has two key differences:<\/p>\r\n\r\n