My thoughts in Management in Information Systems
By: Jc Nevarez
Tags: Management, Cybersecurity, Information Technology, Thoughts, Project Management

Technology is all around us. In fact, it has become a modern survival tool that gives many people access to services, goods, entertainment, and education. Since the 1970’s business computers have been a thing of the past and the future; and here we are today with processing power at the palm of our hands. Technology has become less expensive over the years. Thanks to data mining, large smart televisions have become common place in more family homes today than ever. We have free email services like: Gmail, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail which provides the modern way of communicating with one another in the personal and business world. Information Systems today have come a long way since the printed paper memo. We teleconference from one side of the world to another for businesses meetings to collaborate with others.

Technology is always evolving, therefore those who fail to keep up tend to fall behind on the demand necessary of modern-day workers. With robots replacing workers for simple tasks, the demand for software developers, hardware engineers, electric engineers, and such have become the new future model for companies. Of course, robots and software cannot replace all the jobs in the world, unless AI (Artificial Intelligence) began to write its own code and build its own robotic body. Many common technological themes and items that have been in science-fiction films are now reality or close to it. These science-fiction movies prepare us by adapting our minds to new technologies in order to learn how to manage the digital world.

In the information age, there are no limits to where we can go and what we can learn. You can educate yourself on quantum computing on many free courses online. You can look up a cooking video on YouTube and learn how to adapt their techniques to a recipe for your favorite fish. Information has become the modern currency of today, and not many people notice that their information is being mined in exchange for entertainment. Social networking companies, like Facebook, provide a free service in exchange for information on your health, habits, names, friends, phone numbers, and anything else you could possibly imagine all the way down to your favorite drink from Starbucks.

In the past I worked for Google through an outsourcing company as a Risk/Fraud Customer Support Agent. Working with their management software gave me an insight into the data that was collected. They collected everything, from real time GPS locations to your favorite Android games. Information is of monetary value today, it’s how companies target their customers with brands that they might be interested in. It’s as if we are getting a small taste of our soon-to-be dystopian future. Social Media, Internet of Thing, Cloud Computing, Big data, and Mobile phones are most likely connected under one network with the data using the same lifeline. With over a billion users on Facebook internationally, the planet has become interconnected with each other. News has never traveled faster than it does today because of Facebook and other social media sites.

Facebook wouldn’t be what it is today without the foundation of hardware such as cell phones, servers, laptops, home computers, and iPads. More devices are connected to the internet in the world today than there are human beings. As an example, I currently have about twenty hardware devices that are in my home right now, from smart phones, computers, smart TV’s, and security cameras connected to my Wi-Fi. Most of the world is now living under the Internet of Things. Like our home devices, the worlds’ devices relate to each other too. One example, Windows 10 by Microsoft allows update files to be shared on a peered network so that people near you can update more quickly. This function was made as a network balancing technique so that Microsoft servers wouldn’t use up so much bandwidth and provide stability.

The Internet of Things has become the future model to homes near you. From being able to record your security footage to the cloud, to changing the temperature from your AC unit from your cell phone the Internet of Things have changed our lives drastically. Many people in the city and suburbs have come dependent on technology that has not only made our lives easier, but faster. Programming languages like Java and JavaScript have enabled the creation of the current applications that we use in all our devices. Many of these programs run solely on the cloud but they can also be individually installed in your personal computers or cell phones.

With the new 5G network, which has yet to be fully implemented in the United States, the internet will soon be on another level of big data. As a rule, the quicker the data can download the bigger it becomes. When I first started using the internet, we used dial-up. As much as I miss the sound of a 56k modem connecting to the internet, I do not miss the torturing loading speeds. One of the issues we had while working for Google, was the issue with flooded networks. This was not a problem experienced very long ago as it was only six years ago. Too many computers connected to the network would cause a stall in the system, making it harder to provide a service to the customer. Since then, internet speeds have become exponentially faster. The evolution of ever faster internet speeds has translated into a heightened speed of productivity in tech jobs.

Careers in Information in Systems will continue to grow over the next decades, as long as we are able to connect to the internet. The internet has become the lifeline for many of the workers in my field, and it’s what drives the computer science programs. Many people today work from home, especially those in the Information Systems field. Thanks to the convenience of transaction processing systems, office automation, knowledge management systems, electronic commerce, and teleconferencing more people have been able to work in the comfort of their own home.

Technology, like many other things, does have its risks. Software glitches, environmental disasters, data loss, and hackers are a few examples of the many risks facing technology today. Glitches in software can cause misinformation or provide downtime to a multi million-dollar company which can result in millions in financial losses. Environmental disasters can destroy the hardware that holds the data, and software that runs the current platforms. Many data centers that hold thousands of servers, are guarded by concrete steel walls and with security guards securing the premises. A hurricane or earthquake can destroy data centers centers. The good news is that many companies, like Facebook and Amazon, place data servers in different parts of the country as a failsafe. Not all companies can afford the same luxury. Another threat to Information Systems are hackers. Individuals who create viruses or ransomware in order to destroy or steal data from companies that hold important information. In a world of limited privacy, which is worse, the companies who listen in 24/7 to your conversations, or one sneaky hacker who potentially steals the same information you give for free to corporate companies? Something to think about.

When it comes to cyber security, it is important for an Information Systems Specialist to have some background in the information security field. When it comes to privacy, it is imperative that measures are in place to protect the company from inside and outside cyber-attacks. In todays businesses models, we depend on the cloud to save our data, and run our platforms that we use for our jobs. Many social engineering attacks can trick a simple power user to give up their credentials, causing a company to cripple for some time while trying to recover. Security will always be an issue when it comes to managing the IS infrastructure, and we can’t certainly train all our employees to be security specialists. Businesses can’t run without hardware, software, storage and networking centers. Therefore, many companies spend less than they should to secure the information. Some companies use propriety software and hardware for security. Since the process of security is automated, it makes decision making on attacks as easy as the click of a mouse button by an administrator. As I stated earlier, data is currency in today’s world, and it’s very valuable to dark web hackers. Honeypots, a separate server with fake information that allows hackers to roam the system without damage to the company, are a common tool for large companies.

Before I moved to New Jersey, I had my own consulting company in Florida. One of my biggest clients was a broker who owned a realty company. He had five office employees and seven realtors who worked for him. Being a Microsoft Office 360 partner, gave me the opportunity to get clients who needed assistance in migrating systems. This broker had an issue with security. Some people who quit in the past were still accessing clientele information because he had employees use personal emails for business. Of course, this was a huge mistake for the broker as it resulted in monetary loss that would be hard to prove in court. That’s where I came in. I consulted with the broker and explained to him that this cannot happen again if he wanted to protect his business. In a strategic move, I presented him the idea of having a corporate Microsoft Office 360 account, and then I proceeded to educate him as to why this would be a perfect fit for his company. I explained how his employees could share pictures, contracts, charts, teleconference and message in real time. In addition, I explained to the broker that when an employee left the company or was terminated, he could instantly disable their account to avoid information theft.

After three weeks of implementation and planning, I migrated all his employees and realtors to new email accounts. I also provided his employees and realtors with full on software and hardware training. We spent two days getting everyone trained for all the features in Microsoft 360. Thus, ensuring that they were all comfortable on their own. It took one month to fully launch the new platform for his company. In the end he was happy and learned that the expense was well worth it. After the migration, I was contracted to handle his administrative account. In this role my job was to push upgrades in order to ensure the system was running smoothly on the Microsoft server sides. During downtime I would push updates and report any suspicious activity. I had full control of the users, password resets, locking, and removing accounts. Before moving to New Jersey, I trained his nephew (who was in IT) how to manage the software, and he was hired on full time for the job.

For me the job of installing and training was a tedious process. I had to learn new software and create a training program before I could train his company. In the process I had learned to be an administrator for the company, while also learning the ins and outs of Microsoft 360. This was my biggest client at the time in Florida. Many other clients I had were just regular people who needed help with their internet or website. With this experience I learned more about cloud computing, because Office 360 runs on the cloud. Therefore, it gave me an insight on the pros and cons of cloud computing. Sometimes the system would be slow, and I was doubtful that it would fit the client’s needs. Eventually, I learned that with the job of protecting valuable information comes new knowledge, and the client would have to adapt to the new system in order to ensure that his business was safe from outsiders. I’m sure his system has improved in the past 3 years, as technology speeds and Microsoft servers continue to improve. My previous skills in Information Systems allowed me to adopt to the new role of trainer and administrator, making it a new skill that I can take anywhere with me. Even though I helped the company be more competitive by helping employees transfer files faster and filling out contracts in real time, it made me a competitive business owner to the other IT consulting companies in the area as well. Overall, it was a valuable learning experience.