E-SPEAIT

source: Pixabay The task for this week is to write about the cyber security situation in my home country. My home country is Germany, so I’ll write about that country. A good indicator for measuring cyber security is the Mitnick formula. It consists of three parts: technology (networks, firewalls, antiviruses, etc.), training (awareness of different attacks) and policy (set procedure and requirements). Germany has the Federal Office for Information Security. The BSI's goal is to protect government networks and secure central network transitions [2]. Since there’s currently a war in the Ukraine, many countries started to look at their cyber security. Concerns about cyberattacks in Germany have increased a lot. “75% of respondents are concerned that hackers could cripple power or water supplies or shut down communications networks. And it looks like we are not adequately equipped against this.” [1] The IT industry association assumes that the Ukraine war could shift even more ...

This week’s topic is „IT, risks and ergonomics”. I’m going to write about two Usability cases: One really bad one (a failure) and a good example. Usability measures how user-friendly a product is. Usability refers to the extent to which a product, system, or service can be used by specific users in a specific application context to achieve specific goals effectively, efficiently, and satisfactorily [1]. User Experience (UX) extends the usability term with aesthetic and emotional features. It measures the joy that the user gets by using the product. The Juicero juicer source: [2] First, I’ll write about a bad UX example: The Juicero juicer. This UX fail is so bad, that the company closed its doors in 2017. The website Careerfoundry [2] claims The Juicero has been lauded by multiple UX platforms and experts as one of the best examples of bad UX design we’ve seen in the last few years—so much so that it closed its doors in 2017 out of shame “. The UX mistake from the juicer is, that y...

source: pixabay This week’s topic is about Professionalism. I'm going to write a short depiction about the IT sector in my home country. I’ll describe how it changed during the last 20 years. My home country is Germany, so we’ll have a look on the IT sector there. 20 years ago, the society for the German language chose the word “multimedia” as the word for the year [1]. A big change in the IT sector is, that nowadays the customers have all the IT equipment at home. The customers turned into users. That caused IT systems so to be more efficient, but also easier to use and cheaper. Sensitivity to data protection has declined significantly over the past 20 years. While Germans are still concerned about their personal data (especially in an EU comparison), they are now much more open with their data. The vice president of the society of informatics Andreas Oberweis said, that “Today, there is more of a serenity about data protection issues that almost borders on carelessness." The...

source: Pixabay In this week’s assignment we’re reading the “Ten Commandments” by Virginia Shea. I’m going to write some thoughts about the second command and its ideas. The rule goes as follows: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life . Virginia Shea claims, that in real life, most people follow law-abiding rules either by disposition or because we’re afraid of getting caught. This however does not apply on the internet. The chances of getting caught in the cyberspace seem slim (note: they aren’t). Shea appeals to be ethical online. Breaking the law is bad netiquette and not ethical. She also says that you should pay for shareware since it encourages more people to write shareware. I agree with her rule and would like to add, that the chances of getting caught in the cyberspace aren’t as slim as one would think. For once, there are the obvious indices like the username, IP-address, or email-address. But even if you think you leave no trai...