Future of Information Technology
With the advancements in technology, the challenges associated with them have increased as well. Technological advancements have the capability to influence the lives of people across the globe in both positive and negative manner. It resulted in making their lives easier and enabling them to communicate with others globally. However, the technology is proliferating, and it poses many threats for individuals, organisations and governments across the globe (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014). Due to this fast development in technology field, it has become difficult for parties to implement appropriate security policies to ensure that these technologies did not negatively influence a large number of people. It has become easier for cyber criminals to hack into the data of people and organisations to collect their private data and violate their privacy.
New technological advancements have the potential to wipe out the entire humankind that shows how significant and challenging it is for individuals and organisations to ensure that they did not misuse the technological advancements. The advancement in information technology poses substantial threat to the privacy of information of individuals and organisations which leads to challenges such as breach of privacy, identity theft, blackmailing and others (Webb, Gibson and Forkosh-Baruch, 2013). In this report, the biggest challenges which people, organisations and governments face relating to information technology will be discussed. Various solutions for addressing these issues will be included in the report as well.
The future of information technology poses bigger challenges relating to security. The lack of security guidelines resulted in negatively impacting connectivity to public networks. If appropriate solutions are not implemented to address this issue, then the risk relating to users’ privacy will increase substantially. The biggest risk is not related to the machines which are used in this field, instead, it is the people who operations in this industry which will present challenges in the future. The technology advances rapidly, and it influences people operating at all levels. The real challenge is dealing with individuals and technologies to ensure that they work best for the interest of people and organisations and assist in achieving long-term goals. The technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and machine learning are developing rapidly, and these technologies have the potential to change people’s lives completely (Prajogo and Olhager, 2012).
These advancements have a significant influence on the information technology industry as well. As the world develops, organisations will continue to use information technology to gain a competitive advantage in their respected industry (Webb, Gibson and Forkosh-Baruch, 2013). In the future, trends such as platform architecture, social platforms, cloud computing and data privacy will likely to influence the future of the information technology. Thus, along with these advancements, the challenges related to information technology will grow as well which will adversely influence individuals, organisations and governments.
The cloud computing technology has the ability to connect a large number of computers to a single network which enables them to share data globally and provide its users a ubiquitous system. Thus, it raises many challenges relating to information technology. The key challenges faced by organisations are making themselves cloud ready to ensure that they are able to take full advantage of the cloud (Zissis and Lekkas, 2012). Many corporations prefer to keep their data and other applications in-house, and they prefer complete control over these information. But, the cloud provides them easy access and cheaper storage cost which is beneficial for organisations. Thus, corporations face challenges relating to ensuring that they are prepared for taking advantage of cloud computing technology. Moreover, they face challenges relating to ensuring that their data is secured during that process and it not accessible to cyber criminals.
Biggest Challenges relating to information technology
Securing the data on the cloud is a key challenge for even large multinational enterprises which have the resources to implement world-class technology to protect their data. A good example was the case of Apple Incorporation and the iCloud data leak scandal in 2014. The company offers its cloud computing storage facilities to customers which they can use to store their images, videos and music, and they are accessible on their other devices as well. In 2014, a breach in the iCloud occurred in which a hacker collected more than 500 private pictures of celebrities and posted them online (Raven and Wilson, 2014). These explicit images quickly circulated across the globe make it one of the biggest data leak. It shows that the future of cloud computing is dark without appropriate security measures which could result in adversely affecting society.
Development in new technologies in the IT field leads to increasing the challenge of cyber security for corporations worldwide. This is a key issue faced by IT professional while developing business strategies to ensure cyber security. With the popularity of social media websites, the risks associated with cyber security has increased substantially. For instance, Facebook was involved in a cyber-security scandal in which data of more than 87 million users were collected and used by Cambridge Analytica to support Donald Trump in 2016 US Presidential elections (Granville, 2018). The number of cyber-attacks is increasing rapidly which resulted in creating new challenges for IT professionals in the industry. One of the key issues is identity theft which is growing faster than ever. In 2016, the number of cases relating to identity theft increased significantly in the United States in which over 15.4 million users reported that their identity had been stolen online (Sullivan, 2017). These cases show the challenges relating to cyber security faced by individuals and organisations in the IT industry.
The IT industry is growing rapidly, and so does the demand for talented engineers. As per the study of the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the demand for IT jobs will increase by 15 percent between 2012 and 2022 which is faster than compared to 11 percent average for other occupations (BLS, 2013). In order to retain talented staff members, corporations are forced to pay huge salary packages to their employees. For instance, Google announced that it is raising the salaries of its employees to compete with other rivals such as Facebook. Moreover, there is a key issue of talent deficiency in the IT industry which is creating challenges for corporations. These companies hire employees from all across the globe, but they are not able to fulfil their talent demand which slows the growth of the companies. Organisations are also encouraged to balance the gender ratio while giving growth opportunities to employees.
The advancement in information technology has made it easy for individuals to access any information which they want at any given time. The number of music sharing networks, photo bookmarking sites and free movies websites has increased which all users from all over the world to stream any content directly to their devices. Free music, movies and other files downloading sites are launching each day which made it difficult for the government to govern these sites and put a stop on them (Sitdikova et al., 2015). Due to these websites, original work of authors is sold for free which creates challenges for the artist and the company. Organisations are facing significant loss due to these sites which have created challenges for their business. These websites easily infringe the copyright laws, and it is difficult for the government to put a stop on these websites. It has become easier for users to access this content with the popularity of smartphone, tables, laptops, smart television and other devices which directly connects to the internet (Piotrowicz and Cuthbertson, 2014). Thus, it issues present various challenges for people and corporations operating across the globe to ensure that they are able to protect their copyrights.
Cloud computing
As the risks relating to IT increases worldwide, the importance of finding new solutions to address these threats increased as well. IT professionals and corporations are continuously struggling to find new solutions which enable to address the issuing relating to IT in the future. Following are different solutions for above mentioned challenges which adversely affect individuals, organisations and governments worldwide.
The advancement in IT has made it easier for people to transfer and share data with each other on a global stage. Technologies such as cloud computing provide users ubiquitous access to data which they can access from anywhere in the world. This ease of access has created the challenge for IT which can be solved through proper encryption methods. The technique of encryption is simple, and it is used by corporations across the globe. In this technique, the data is converted into a secret code while transferring between two devices which can only be accessed by the party who has the secret key to unlock the data (Arora, Parashar and Transforming, 2013). This makes it difficult for cyber criminals to gain unauthorised access to the data even if they collect it during the transmission stage when the data is most vulnerable. Encryption can be used to ensure that files in the cloud are not accessible by anyone but the owner of such content. By encrypting their data, artists and corporations can ensure that their copyrights are not infringed online through free download websites (Singh, 2013). This technique should be improved to ensure that it is capable of protecting data in cloud computing technology which will assist in addressing IT-related challenges.
A firewall is referred to a network of security system which is designed in order to prevent cyber criminals to gain unauthorised access to or from a private network. The firewall technology can be implemented for both hardware and software products. By further developing this technology, companies can ensure that cyber criminals are not able to hack into their servers to gain unauthorised access to their confidential data (Hayajneh et al., 2013). It will improve cyber security which will reduce the risk of leaking of private data of individuals online. It will reduce the number of identity theft, and people will be able to secure their identity online.
One of the major reason due to which the privacy of individuals is breached online is because they are not aware of the actions which they can tool to ensure their privacy. Governments and organisations should increase awareness regarding cyber security measures which can be taken by users to ensure that their data is protected from unauthorised access (Jing et al., 2014). They can aware them to change their passwords on a regular basis and using strong password. The use of two-step verifications and setting up security questions are some ways through which users can protect their data online.
In order to meet the demand for talented employees, corporations should start giving training and education facilities to employees so that they can develop their skills and knowledge. Organisations can provide educational facilities to individuals to improve their knowledge regarding IT subjects which will assist them in fulfilling the demand for talented employees (Burbules, 2018). It will also assist corporations in easily retain talented employees in their organisations.
Conclusion
Based on the above observations, it can be concluded that the future of IT brings many advancements and challenges for individuals, organisations and governments. These challenges affect the privacy of individuals online and make it easier for cyber criminals to collect confidential data from companies. The popularity of cloud computing technology brings new challenges by making it easier for hackers to gain unauthorised access to the data of individuals and corporations. The importance of cyber security has increased as the number of cyber-attacks increased. The demand of talented employees has increased in the industry along with infringement of copyrights. To address these issues, various strategies can be implemented by IT professionals. Firstly, encryption of data should be mandatory which would protect it from unauthorised access while using cloud computing technology and social media sites. Organisations can protect their data by using firewalls and awareness regarding online security should be increased between individuals so that they are able to protect their privacy online. Training and education facilities should be given to existing and new candidates to meet the demand of talented employees in the industry.
References
Arora, R., Parashar, A. and Transforming, C.C.I. (2013) Secure user data in cloud computing using encryption algorithms. International journal of engineering research and applications, 3(4), pp.1922-1926.
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Granville, K. (2018) Facebook and Cambridge Analytica: What You Need to Know as Fallout Widens. [Online] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/19/technology/facebook-cambridge-analytica-explained.html [Accessed 6 November 2018].
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Raven, D. and Wilson, J. (2014) Jennifer Lawrence leaked nude photos: Apple launches investigation into hacking of iCloud. [Online] Available at: https://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/jennifer-lawrence-leaked-nude-photos-4155078 [Accessed 6 November 2018].
Singh, G. (2013) A study of encryption algorithms (RSA, DES, 3DES and AES) for information security. International Journal of Computer Applications, 67(19).
Sitdikova, L.B., Shilovskaya, A.L., Volkova, M.A., Lenkovskaya, R.R. and Stepanova, N.A. (2015) Legal regulation and copyright protection in Internet in Russia and abroad. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 6(6), p.163.
Sullivan, B. (2017) Identity theft hit an all-time high in 2016. [Online] Available at: https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2017/02/06/identity-theft-hit-all-time-high-2016/97398548/ [Accessed 6 November 2018].
Webb, M., Gibson, D. and Forkosh?Baruch, A. (2013) Challenges for information technology supporting educational assessment. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 29(5), pp.451-462.
Zissis, D. and Lekkas, D. (2012) Addressing cloud computing security issues. Future Generation computer systems, 28(3), pp.583-592.
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