Defend Your Company by Attacking It From Within

For those who aren't familiar with the acronym SWOT, it means, "strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats." Wikipedia defines this strategy as "a strategic planning method used to evaluate the strengths, weaknesses/limitations, opportunities, and threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favorable and unfavorable to achieve that objective."

SWOT analysis applies especially well to a tech venture, because tech companies have to be constantly aware of the ever-changing threats to their products and to their very existence.

What I am proposing is that tech companies -- and other companies that operate in quickly changing environments -- have an in-house team devoted exclusively to trying to "sabotage" the company. By sabotage, I mean trying to anticipate what competitors could do, in some fashion, to hurt your company. This team should report only to top management. 

Creating an Effective SWOT Team

The proper creation and structuring of a SWOT team is absolutely critical if the team is going to be an effective management tool. For this reason, I have outlined several of what I consider key factors to the creation and implementation of such a team:

1. The team must have unfettered access to the workings of the business.
2. The team should work in isolation and have very little contact with most of the staff.
3. Information will be garnered mostly from the executive team that is responsible for reporting to the company's board of directors.
4. Members of the SWOT team must sign confidentiality agreements and non-compete agreements before they start their work.
5. The team should be composed of at least four members and no more than six members. Having more than that many usually becomes too bureaucratic and unwieldy.
6. One person in the team will be designated the lead person. This person will be elected through a vote of the members of the team.
7. The members should represent the disciplines of technology and business.

The Purpose of the Team

The team should be charged with, among other things, determining ways to sabotage the company. That is, they should be brainstorming how a competitor could effectively challenge and undermine their company. They will be looking not only at what competing products/services could be coming down the track, but also how outsiders could somehow obtain access, either through legitimate or illegitimate means, to company secrets, processes or customer lists.

On a more positive note, the team should also be constantly looking to the future in order to best determine what new products and services will keep the company growing and profitable. This is why, especially for a technology company, the team must include members steeped in the products and services of the company.

For example, if certain company patents are due to expire within a couple of years, the team should be looking at ways by which the company could approach the inevitable event in a proactive way in order to best respond.

Reporting to Management

Ideally, this team should present an annual, detailed report to the board of directors outlining the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to the company. In a perfect world, the team leader will have annual access to the board of directors without any interference from management, including executive management.

The team should also generate reports on a quarterly basis. These reports can go directly to the top executives of the company and include a complete SWOT analysis.

A monthly report can be created that will enable management to check up on the activities of the team, what the team has done in the prior month and in what direction it is heading.

An Inspired Team

The members of the team should be highly motivated and competitive. They should have specific goals, approved by the team leader, that aim to poke holes in the firewall that protects the company from unwanted incursions and unexpected competition. If the company does not have such a firewall, the SWOT leaders should immediately report this fact to the executive team and ideally help to create one.

Besides protecting the company in a defensive way, the team should be striving to create new products or services. For example, one international technology company I'm familiar with created a SWOT team to both protect and enhance its product offerings. The technology members of this team were given the special title of "research scientists."

I met some of these research scientists and they were among the brightest and most interesting people I've ever met. They were absolutely absorbed in their work and were, understandably, somewhat isolated from the other hundreds of employees who worked for the firm.

I was given the opportunity to take a tour of the SWOT area of this company. This was located in a corner section of an upper floor that had rather tight security. Since I don't have a technological background, I was allowed to walk through this area.

What I noticed was that these people were operating in a highly isolated manner without any obvious supervision. They were on their own and allowed to work quite independently. These individuals seemed to revel in their job, and I sensed a friendly competition among them.

One of them told me that they were having fun playing dual roles: one was to attempt to sabotage the company and the other was to create new products or processes that would bring value added to the enterprise. Additionally, one of the members of the team confided that they would get healthy year-end bonuses if their bifurcated work bore fruit -- either by finding ways an outsider could sabotage their company or developing a major advancement.

Although it would seem that one would need a split personality to have such a job, the people I met appeared quite "together" and reveled in their dual roles.

Assembling an effective SWOT team is a crucial endeavor that can affect the success and longevity of your business. Good luck!

 

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Theodore F. di Stefano
E-Commerce Times
Part of the ECT News Network

http://www.technewsworld.com
11/15/12 5:00 AM PT 

If You Believe Your Internet Content and Webmail are Private, Read This!

The legal status of personal data stored in the cloud or transmitted over the Internet is far from clear. Terms of Service and Privacy Policies may leave you more vulnerable than you expect -- unless you're one of the decidedly small minority of users who actually read those documents. In short, if you want to protect personal information, don't send it by email or store it online.

Do you really believe your Web-based email is private? Let's start with Terms of Service (ToS) or Privacy Policies, which few people actually read -- maybe even less so for webmail accounts.

1986 Stored Communications Act Controls Internet Content

In 1986, the Stored Communications Act (SCA) was initially designed to protect telephone records, not Internet activity. There was not much Web activity then, since there were no browsers. So when Internet Service Providers were confronted with Internet record requests, they relied on the SCA to address whether to withhold producing personal content without the written permission of the owner when served a subpoena in a civil action.

Until Congress creates new laws dealing with Internet data to replace the SCA, ISPs will continue to look to the SCA for guidance. Under the SCA there are two types of records: 1) "electronic communication service" (ECS), controlled internally within a business, such as on company owned computers and servers; and 2) "remote computing service" (RCS) -- such as Gmail, Facebook and telephone records at AT&T.

In a civil litigation, one party may subpoena content of litigants' emails and postings from ISPs, since those are kept in "electronic storage." Electronic storage is defined in the SCA as follows:

A) any temporary, intermediate storage of a wire or electronic communication incidental to the electronic transmission thereof; and B) any storage of such communication by an electronic communication service for the purposes of backup protection of such communication. This may seem simple on the surface, but of course courts do not always agree on what things mean.

SC Supreme Court Rules on SCA

The SCA applies to electronic storage for "the purposes of backup protection of such communication." However, the South Carolina Supreme Court recently ruled in the divorce case of Jennings v. Jennings, where the availability of emails was a critical issue shedding light on the alleged infidelity of the husband. The issue for the court was whether the SCA could be relied on to limit access under a subpoena after emails were read.

Following is how the majority of the Court ruled:

"After opening them, Jennings left the single copies of his e-mails on the Yahoo! server and apparently did not download them or save another copy of them in any other location. We decline to hold that retaining an opened e-mail constitutes storing it for backup protection under the Act. "The ordinary meaning of the word 'backup' is 'one that serves as a substitute or support.'
"Thus, Congress's use of 'backup' necessarily presupposes the existence of another copy to which this e-mail would serve as a substitute or support. We see no reason to deviate from the plain, everyday meaning of the word 'backup,' and conclude that as the single copy of the communication, Jennings' e-mails could not have been stored for backup protection."

Chief Justice Toal disagreed with the majority ruling, noting "...that Congress never contemplated this new form of technology." She rejected the majority's reading of "backup" and instead concluded that the emails are not backups because they were not made by the ISP for its own purposes.

Of course, the South Carolina Supreme Court ruling only applies in that state. It remains to be seen whether other states will adopt the same definition of "backup" or agree with Chief Justice Toal's minority opinion.

Twitter Challenge of Subpoena

On a related note about Internet content, Twitter currently is challenging a New York Criminal Court's order to produce information through a subpoena without first obtaining a warrant. Twitter is asserting that such production would be a violation of the defendant's rights under the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution. In the case of People v. Harris, Malcolm Harris is being prosecuted for disorderly conduct in connection with the Occupy Wall Street protest in October 2011.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Freedom Foundation filed an Amicus brief in support of Twitter appealing April 20 and June 30, 2012, rulings requiring Twitter to produce specific information from Harris' account "@destructuremal":

"...his personal email address and also the content of all tweets, the date, time and the IP address that corresponds to each time he used Twitter over a three-and-a-half month period, and the duration of teach of Harris' Twitter sessions."

Protection for social media usage under the Constitution remains an interesting challenge, and how this case plays out may have a significant impact on social media privacy for years to come.

Some Conclusions

Ultimately, in addition to limitations posed by ToS and Privacy Policies, privacy of your Internet content and webmail may be subject to further limitations by the SCA and court decisions.

The advice given to many still holds: If you don't want others to know your private content or emails, don't put that content on the Internet or in emails. 

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Peter S. Vogel
E-Commerce Times
Part of the ECT News Network
11/14/12 5:00 AM PT

Indonesia Needs Cyber ​​Army

Attacks through cyberspace without having to be physically present military strength in the opponent, has become a new trend in modern warfare in the 21st century. Therefore, Indonesia needs to prepare for power or cyber army cyber warriors comprised of individuals skilled and experts in cyber warfare, as outlined in the draft National Cyber ​​Defense Development, a frontline in information warfare challenges. This was stated by the Minister of Defence (Defence) RI Yusgiantoro at once opened officially welcome the National Cyber ​​Defense Workshop, at the Ministry of Defence (Kemhan), Jakarta, Tuesday (2/10).

 With the formation of the National Cyber ​​Defense, said the minister continued his speech, the development of national capacity in order to enhance national resilience against various threats from cyber world will be further enhanced. But on the other hand, infrastructure development should also be realized in an integrated development environment specifically Kemhan RI and the military.

 It is also expected as the capital base in order to prepare the concept and initial development or Back Bound Comprehensive Cyber ​​Defense, considering that so far the concept of development with the formation of Cyber ​​Defense is still not comprehensive sectoral or as a whole the National Cyber ​​Defense.

 In line with the statement of Defence Minister, Chancellor of the University of Defence (IDU) Dr. Syarifuddin Tippe, M.Si said in a report on implementation of activities, that penyelenggaraaan National Cyber ​​Defense Workshop event is a reflection of concerns at the operational level of the threat of cyber world. Thus, the condition is a contemporary context that should not be considered as ordinary matter, because in the information age all the changes happening as fast as blink of an eye.

 One-day workshop and participants from Kemhan, TNI headquarters, Navy and other agencies concerned, the theme of National Defence Information Systems Implementation (Sisinfohanneg) Towards realization of the National Cyber ​​Defense. By presenting a number of speakers from among practitioners and academics, among others, from Kemenkopolhukam that explores the material about the National Cyber ​​Organization, then BPPT about Sisinfohanneg Grand Design Concepts, Communication and Information about the ISO Standards Applicable Current ICT as well as from Puster AD that convey the topic of Needs Minimal in the Context of Cyber ​​Threats Facing Defense.
visit : http://dmc.kemhan.go.id

Cisco Enables Telkom to Become a Wi-Fi Leader in Asia

Cisco is working closely with PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia (Telkom) Tbk (TLKM), Indonesia's largest information and communications provider, to enable the rapid deployment of 100,000 access points across Indonesia. This will be the largest deployment of Wi-Fi access points by a single service provider in Asia.

                       

According to IDCi, as Indonesia transforms itself into an economic leader, ICT will play a major role in boosting economic growth as the ubiquitous use of smartphones and tablets results in a high demand for mobile network access. Both licensed and unlicensed (Wi-Fi) small cells are seen as key to managing this rapidly increasing demand. 

 

Over the last six months, PT Telkom has initiated the deployment of thousands of Wi-Fi access points across Indonesia as it prepares for mobile data traffic to double each year through at least 2016. The Cisco Visual Networking Index also predicts that mobile data traffic in Indonesia is expected to grow 32 times from 2011 to 2016, with an average per user consumption at 716 megabytes of mobile data traffic per month in 2016, a staggering 2,387 per cent increase from 30 megabytes per month in 2011.

 

As Indonesia's biggest telecommunication company, PT Telkom has 8.6 million fixed wire-line customers, 14.2 million fixed wireless customers and 107 million cellular customers.

The Wi-Fi deployment will reinforce PT Telkom as a comprehensive service provider that supplies both fixed and mobile broadband services across Indonesia. Wi-Fi is being deployed to offload mobile data from the macro cellular network, as well as to offer more convenient mobile broadband services in malls, hotels, schools, hotspots and public areas.

Indonesia Gets $1.4 Billion Investment Agreement From Slovakia

The Indonesian businessman and businessman from Slovakia had on Monday (Dec 10) signed six memorandum of understanding (MoU) for investing in energy and natural resources which costs US$1.4 billion.

Indonesian Coordinating Minister for Economy Hatta Rajasa said the investment will be not funded by loan or State budget but wholly funded by private investors through the public private partnership (PPP) scheme.
That six investment projects signed are electricity supply for Kabil industrial estate in Batam, funding commitment for power plant in Kabil with capacity of 2x60 megawatts, 600 megawatts power plant development in Batam, and network installment for electricity distribution with minimum capacity of 600 megawatts using under water transmission cable.
Other two projects are cement mill establishment in East Kalimantan and commitment to participate in gas power plant auction for Arun with capacity of 200 megawatts offered by state electricity firm PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).
During a meeting between Hatta Rajasa and his Slovakian counterpart Tomas Malatinsky, the two sides discussed ways to step up trade and investment of the countries.
"The trade volume between Indonesia and Slovakia has risen on an average 6.1 percent annually over the past five years. In 2011, total trade volume between the two countries reached $65.95 million, lower than $84.5 million in 2010.
Indonesia's main exports commodities to Slovakia are palm oil, rubber, footwear component, while Slovakia exports engine, electronic and cars and ammunitions.

PSSI VS KPSI = FIFA Sanctions

Indonesian soccer fans may have to pay the price of not seeing their national team playing internationally for an indefinite period as two rival organizations staged their separate national congresses on Monday.

The two congresses, one by the Indonesian Soccer Association (PSSI) and the other by the Indonesian Soccer Rescue Committee (KPSI), have finally forced world soccer governing body FIFA to consider sanctions that “could go as far as an indefinite suspension”.

FIFA will decide on the sanctions at an executive committee meeting in Japan on Friday.

The PSSI, chaired by Djohar Arifin Husin, held its national congress in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, while La Nyalla Mattalitti’s KPSI set up a separate one in Jakarta.

Monday was the deadline FIFA had given both camps to stage a national congress to settle key issues, including the existence of two separate soccer leagues and federations, a review of PSSI statutes and the reinstatement of four expelled executive committee members; La Nyalla, Tony Apriliani, Erwin Dwi Budiawan and Roberto Rouw.

FIFA’s order was stipulated in a memorandum of understanding (MoU) the two soccer federations signed in June in Kuala Lumpur.

The PSSI congress resulted in, among other things, the reinstatement of the four expelled executive committee members, but only on the condition that the four apologize within a month and the MoU is annulled. The four were expelled from the committee last year for “ethical violations”. La Nyalla has previously said that he would never apologize to PSSI.

Djohar said his congress had to be held in a hotel lobby after congress participants were locked out and its results remained valid although no members from the 2011 Surakarta congress took part in the Palangkaraya congress, defying FIFA’s instructions in the MoU, Antara news agency reported.

The Surakarta congress members are soccer clubs currently playing in the Indonesia Super League, which is under the auspices of the KPSI and is not recognized by the PSSI.

“The most important thing is that we kept to the rules and the participants met the requirements,” Djohar said. The PSSI failed to gain the support of the government for their Palangkaraya congress because of the disagreements between the two organizations.

“We have tried to prevent sanctions from being imposed on Indonesian soccer, but if that eventually happens, we will prepare ourselves with a number of policies,” Coordinating People’s Welfare Minister and acting Youth and Sports Minister Agung Laksono said.

Arema Malang soccer club coach Rahmad Darmawan said whatever decisions FIFA made, all stakeholders needed to be ready. “There’s not much we can do in this kind of situation,” the coach, who brought the national team to win silver in the Southeast Asian Games last year, told The Jakarta Post.

“National competitions, youth and young talent development programs and soccer training will likely remain the same until we are ready to have a soccer federation that the public can trust,” he said.

PSSI vs KPSI

April 4, 2011
FIFA removes Nurdin Halid from the post of PSSI chairman.

May 20, 2011
PSSI congress, which is meant to elect new executives, ends in deadlock.

July 9, 2011
PSSI extraordinary congress in Surakarta, Central Java, names Djohar Arifin Husin as chairman.

Dec. 18, 2011
KPSI meeting issues a vote of no confidence against Djohar and deputy chief Farid Rahman. KPSI demands an extraordinary meeting over Djohar’s alleged poor performance in leading the PSSI.

Dec. 27, 2011
PSSI dismisses four of its executive committee members.

March 18, 2012
KPSI elects La Nyalla as chairman and Rahim Soekasah as deputy chairman. Both will serve until 2016.

March 18, 2012
PSSI congress recognizes the Indonesia Super League (ISL), which is organized by PT Liga Indonesia, on one condition — the PSSI will take control of the league.

June 7, 2012
PSSI and KPSI sign an agreement in AFC headquarters in Kuala Lumpur to form a joint committee tasked with evaluating the nation’s soccer competition as well as forming a sole national soccer body.

Dec. 10, 2012
PSSI accepts and endorses an amendment to the 2009 PSSI statutes in Palangkaraya and will reinstate the four expelled executive committee members.

KPSI approves a proposal of amendments to some articles of PSSI statutes; approves the establishment of a new league that will kick off in 2015; commits to improving Indonesia’s FIFA ranking to 129th in the world and takes over all of the PSSI’s legal and financial matters, runs the organization and returns to the PSSI office in the Bung Karno Stadium area, Jakarta.

Microsoft Details Windows Phone 8 Lenses for Developers

One of the features that Microsoft has announced as part of its new Windows Phone 8 operating system was the possibility to come up with custom applications that would take advantage of a handset’s camera to deliver great new experiences to users, called Lenses. The company provides third-party developers with the possibility to create their own Lenses for users to enjoy, and is now offering some more info on what Lenses involve for developers. With only a few Lenses apps available for Windows Phone 8 at the moment, developers are provided with the possibility to innovate, Microsoft notes. “The camera application space is currently a hotbed of innovation; our Lenses feature makes Windows Phone a compelling place to build these types of apps,” Microsoft’s Larry Lieberman notes in a blog post. From a user’s perspective, Lenses offer the possibility to access photo manipulation apps that present new options when launching the camera on their devices. And with a lens space in the Windows Phone 8 interface, users are also being provided with direct access to Lenses apps that are available for download through the Windows Phone Store.

Microsoft has already launched a series of lens applications for the new mobile operating system, so that users could take advantage of some features of the OS, such as get instant translations through framing foreign words in the camera viewfinder, courtesy of Bing Translator. There is also Cam Wow, which offers real-time camera filters and effects, as well as ReadyClick, an app designed to enable people to use their voice to activate the camera shutter. Developers interested in building applications for Windows Phone 8 to tap into some of the capabilities that Lenses can offer have a series of resources they can take advantage of:

Introduction to Lenses, on Inside Windows Phone
PM Eric Bennet’s great talk from BUILD 2012 on Building Lens Applications
The Lens Design Guidelines from the MSDN Library
A great Lens code sample in the MSDN Code Gallery
The segment on camera use from the WP8 Jumpstart module 9 (“Using Phone Resources”)
Overview of Lens content on the MSDN Library
Simply access the above links to learn a few more details on what Lenses could offer both to Windows Phone 8 developers and to their users.

Ubuntu Software Center 5.4.1.2 Review

Ubuntu Software Center is one of the most disputed applications in the Ubuntu operating system, but the developers have stuck with it and it has proved to be a very good decision. Canonical doesn’t have the best track record when introducing new applications, especially when they are the developers of it. Usually, the people who put together Linux distributions don’t have the time or the resources to implement their own software, so they rely on applications from other developers. This method of combining applications from hundreds of third parties has proven to be quite a challenge as the apps and frameworks don’t always work well together. Canonical is not your usual developer. They do have the means and the capability to make their own applications, if they feel that the software they’ve been using is not complete or it’s too buggy.

Ubuntu Software Center and the Unity desktop environment are just two examples of Canonical determination of doing things their way. Ubuntu Software Center was initially called AppCenter and it’s not actually an original application. It’s based on gnome-app-install, which in turn is based on a Debian tool. It’s not uncommon for this kind of applications to get branched and this is just the case here. Canonical has fiddled with the idea of their own app center for quite some time and there are rumors (more like certainties, if you check the similarities between the two products) that Apple took some inspiration for their Mac App Store from Ubuntu Software Center.

Installation

If you are running an Ubuntu operating system from 9.04 (Karmic Koala) upwards, you already have Ubuntu Software Center installed. In any case, Canonical provides a source code, through Launchpad, so anyone can download it and insert it in their distribution.Moreover, the developers also provide a PPA for the development version of Ubuntu Software Center. Keep in mind that this is a daily build, which means that features, changes, and updates are implemented and removed on a daily basis. In any case, this is how you install it. Open a terminal and enter the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:software-store-developers/daily-build
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Perform this installation only if you are absolutely sure about what you are doing. Making a downgrade for Ubuntu Software Center would be quite difficult.

Usage

Before the full implementation of Ubuntu Software Center in Canonical’s distributions, users got around with other applications, such as Synaptic. The problem with these programs is that they don’t have functions for shareware, meaning users can’t buy something. This had to be remedied, especially because Canonical also wanted a digital distribution platform for various products, in the same manner Valve is doing with Steam. After getting the software in place, Canonical started working on making it user friendly, in the accordance with the rest of the operating system.

The company is trying really hard to make Ubuntu an easy-to-use operating system that anyone can pick up, not just Linux fans. For the most part they are successful and Ubuntu Software Center is one of the best examples of their perseverance. The first time you open the software, you are welcomed with a clear interface that leaves no doubt on what can be done with it. It’s composed of three major panes.

On the top there's a pane featuring four promoted items that are circulated like a slideshow, while on the left there's a second pane encompassing all the categories, and the third one pane rests at the bottom, with the latest entries. Ubuntu Software Center doesn’t require an account to install free software, but if you want to buy stuff, then you will need to take some additional steps. Besides installing applications from the official repositories, it also provides quick access to Software Sources, an important part of Ubuntu. From Software Sources, users can choose what repositories Ubuntu has to use, can managed PPAs, choose the priority and sources of the updates, check authentication keys, and see if there are any proprietary drivers available in the repositories. The last and probably one of the most important features of Ubuntu Software Center is its capability to install .deb files. Sure enough, they can still be installed from the terminal, but if you are novice with Ubuntu, you might now want to get all that involved. Just double click a .deb file and Ubuntu Software Center will gather the necessary dependencies files from the repositories and install the application.

The Bad

Canonical claims that their application is almost a complete solution, but they are actually far from it. From a beginner's point of view, Ubuntu Software Center might seem complete, but it lacks a lot of features, not to mention transparency. For example, when installing a .deb file it doesn’t show you what the other dependencies also installed are. Maybe you just picked up a library you didn’t want, but you can’t see what is happening during the installation, like in the case of Synaptic. The categories are not complete and their functionality is truncated. For example, after you enter the Games category, the filters don’t work properly, a lot of entries don’t have screenshots, and the size of the packages isn’t shown. These are just a small part of the problems, but you get the idea. The application is far from complete.

The Good

A lot of people were unhappy when Synaptic was removed from the distribution (not from the repositories though) and Ubuntu Software Center was left to fend for itself. Nonetheless, it’s a great tool for new users and probably one of the most useful integrated into Ubuntu. It provides easy access to a few important features we mentioned above and it’s a very good package manager, at least when it comes to uninstalling applications.

Conclusion

Ubuntu Software Center is without a doubt a very useful software, especially for new users, but it still fails to provide the necessary features the more advanced user needs. We certainly hope that Canonical will continue to develop the software until it reaches the level of quality we expect from them.