How Mobile And Social Feeds Government’s Appetite For Innovation

Applications that simply deliver information can be useful, but government agencies are now pushing user engagement to new heights. With 173 million people in the U.S. owning smartphones, citizens are continuously equipped with an Internet connection, GPS functionality and a digital camera.

In fact, the mobile phone has evolved from a simple voice device to a multimedia communications tool capable of uploading and downloading data, text, audio and video while also functioning as a global positioning system, wallet, FM radio, television, alarm clock, thermometer, address book, newspaper, camera and more. Enterprise government apps have the opportunity to take advantage of these basic smartphone attributes.

To help balance workforce productivity with security and compliance risks, just about every agency is looking to set up their own internal app stores to provide access to mobile devices that are issued and managed by the government. Access to the information on these devices is closely monitored and regulated to protect against unauthorized access and apps that could pose a security risk.

As the federal government warms to the idea of bring your own device (BYOD) policies, agency administrators must ensure security and address stringent procurement and policy guidelines.

Whether collecting phone or text logs or location data, one of the initial challenges for federal IT managers will be to ensure the security of their agency’s infrastructure for the increasing number of diverse devices entering the network and accessing this data. They must also focus ways to separate the management and monitoring of job-specific information versus personal content.

Agencies must also focus on app-development strategies to create job- or role-specific apps that not only make it simpler to support compliance requirements, but also encourage use that translates into greater productivity — a key goal of any enterprise mobile initiative. But, agencies don’t have to start from scratch.

Sometimes, reinventing the wheel with your own app might be the wrong way to go, especially if there are familiar and preferable apps already available to your audience that accomplish a similar goal. With any app-development strategy, the user experience must be a focal point. Being open to ideas and engaging with other departments in the design and functionality of the app will be key.

Hackathons or other events can also bring developers and designers together to work on creative solutions to civic challenges. These events often encourage developers to create applications, either for use by the public, or to help government employees solve specific challenges.

Open data and mobile apps are changing the government-citizen relationship. Creative ideas like 311 apps and mobile public transportation payment systems, along with a movement toward open and transparent data, have spawned a new era of government-citizen interaction.

Putting open data and mobile technology to use, IBM recently announced a humanitarian initiative with the government of Sierra Leone to use SMS and voice calls with a citizen and engagement and analytics system to enable citizens to report Ebola issues.

In the U.S., agencies are making use of new mobile innovations, as well. Some examples include a MyTSA app that tracks security wait times at airports, as well as an app that makes it easier for small businesses to apply for licenses and registrations at the Small Business Administration. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mobile app includes disaster safety tips, an interactive emergency kit list, storable emergency meeting locations, and a map with open shelters and open FEMA Disaster Recovery Centers (DRCs).

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With the right app, Department of Agriculture food inspectors can replace clipboards and laptops with tablets capable of recording and processing complex safety data. And a cache of yet-to-be-developed medical apps are expected to transform the healthcare landscape at government hospitals across the country.

One untapped resource is the 500 million public tweets sent every day. It’s a virtual town hall of people sharing their opinions and preferences. That tsunami of 140-character messages spans the range of human interests and activities — from raves about recent purchases to exhortations to rally behind social causes.

Think about that from a federal agency perspective. You’re the U.S. Forest Service and you start seeing indicators for wildfires. Or you’re the National Park Service and you get early indicators of crowded campgrounds based on tweets. The potential here is endless.

Navigating this land of mobile and social app development can be a challenge, even for government agencies with sizeable budgets and plenty of talented resources. After overcoming the hurdles of planning, development and testing an app, agencies still have to decide how to launch, maintain and drive adoption.

To help spur innovation in this area, we are encouraging and working with the ecosystem that supports the federal government — business partners, academia and entrepreneurs. The goal is to drive rapid development of mobile and web apps that can be built and delivered on the cloud using open data and innovation to solve real-world problems and enhance forms of citizen engagement.

Increased app development collaboration among agencies will accelerate government-wide expertise in mobile, increase focus on the user experience, and prompt agencies to rethink the way data and digital content is created and shared in a wide variety of citizen-centric services.

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Hackers Derail Sony's PlayStation Network

Still reeling from a cyberintrusion that exposed massive amounts of personnel data from its entertainment division on the Internet, Sony was attacked again over the weekend. This time, hackers disrupted the company's PlayStation Network.

However, unlike the foray against Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is still under investigation, the company quickly recovered from the PSN attack and had the network up and running by Monday morning.

A group calling itself the "Lizard Squad" has claimed responsibility for what appears to be a distributed denial-of-service attack. Hackers often use DDoS attacks to impair performance or totally shut down the websites they target.

The Lizard Squad hasn't given a reason for its action. When PSN users landed on the site, they were greeted by the message, "Page Not Found. It's the Internet's fault."

During the week prior to the PlayStation attack, the Lizard Squad launched two similar offensives against Microsoft's Xbox network.

Anonymous Warns Lizards

Sony did not respond to our request to comment for this story.

Microsoft declined to comment on the Xbox network service disruption. However, the Xbox support team boasted on Twitter, "We upgraded our network to be fully protected against #LizardSquad attacks!"

To celebrate the lizard-proofing of its network, the team also wrote, it was going to give away 50 Xbox consoles and 100 US$50 Xbox cards.

Meanwhile, the hacker collective Anonymous has been pressuring the Lizard Squad to stop its attacks on the PlayStation Network.

"If you continue to attempt to attack the gaming communities, we will take action against you," Anonymous declares in a YouTube video.

"What you are doing is wrong. You are taking away the fun and enjoyment of children as well as adults. You have no real reason for taking down their servers. Your only goal is to see how far you get without getting caught," it continues.

"We will stop at nothing to ensure that you never attack the gaming communities again," adds Anonymous. "You have been warned."
Claiming Street Cred

Back in 2011, Anonymous wasn't so protective of gamers on the PlayStation Network. It brought the network to its knees in a DDoS attack that lasted several days.

Anonymous ended the action, launched in protest against the arrest of a young hacker who devised a way to jailbreak a PlayStation 3 unit and posted it to the Net, after receiving negative feedback from gamers around the world.

Although the Lizard Group's motives for attacking the PSN are opaque, it is getting something many hackers crave.

"They're getting their desired results, which is publicity and denial of service," Michele Borovac, vice president of HyTrust, told TechNewsWorld.

"Attention itself can be an objective," added Steve Pao, general manager for security business for Barracuda Networks.

"They can use it as marketing and to claim their street cred," he told TechNewsWorld.
Changing Face of DDoS

While DDoS remains a tool in the hacker's bag of mischief, it has changed over the years. Initially, DDoS was used for extortion: We'll keep disrupting your website until you pay us to go away.

"That doesn't pay off anymore," Mike Davis, CTO of CounterTack, an endpoint threat protection provider, told TechNewsWorld.

"What they do now is use it as a mechanism to cover their tracks while they steal," he said.

The methods behind DDoS attacks also have changed. There are fewer traditional attacks where traffic from millions of zombie computers is directed at a site to take it down.

"We're seeing increases this year in reflective attacks," Davis noted.

In a reflective attack, hackers fool a server they have no control over to send traffic to a target.

"Instead of getting control of 200,000 systems to launch a denial-of-service attack, I can get control of 1,000 high-powered servers, send them data -- and instead of responding to me, they will respond to Sony and take it down," Davis explained.

"The reflective attack has really grown this year," he observed. "I think the main reason for that is that anti-DDoS technologies have gotten better and the attackers have had to modify their techniques to get around those technologies."

Troubleshooting Computer Issues @ home

We at Infosurfers are constantly working to make you a techy even if you are a art lover. We in our daily life face so many pity issues for which we need technical assistance. However these issues can be taken care off at our home and that too by our self. All you need is operator manual. We have worked out few of the manuals available on the world wide web that will help yo to resolve your issues.

 

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Why every business needs a website ?

Websites are perhaps the most overlooked vehicle of advertising for local, owner-operated businesses. Yes, every retailer needs one. Every dentist, lawyer, accountant and minister needs one. Every café, restaurant, coffee shop and nightclub needs one. Every wholesale supply company needs one.

I'm not suggesting that all these businesses need to actually transact business online. I'm only saying that everyone listed in yesterday's Yellow Pages needs to also be available on the internet today--it's where your customers expect to find you.

If you're thinking you might not be able to afford putting up a website, think again. For a simple website, a budget of Rs.5000 to Rs10,000 for construction and Rs 2000 to Rs.5000 for yearly maintenance and updates should cover it.

Properly constructed, a website allows your prospects to gather the information they need from the privacy of their own computer monitors. What are the questions your salespeople answer virtually every day? And how, exactly, would your best salesperson phrase those answers on his or her best day? This is the information that needs to be available 24/7 on your site.

Think of your site as a relationship deepener, a half step between your advertising and your front door. Do you suppose it's easier to convince customers to visit your web site or to convince them to get in their car, drive to your store, park that car and walk in your door?

The internet is heaven on earth for the 49 percent of our population who are introverted. That's because introverts strongly prefer to gather information anonymously. They're unlikely to dial your phone number, except as a last resort. Even more unlikely is that they'll choose to walk into your store and engage a salesperson. Introverts aren't necessarily shy--they simply like to gather all the facts before they put themselves in a position where they'll likely be asked to answer questions. Forty-nine percent of your customers strongly prefer to know what they're coming to buy before they walk in your door. And even the extroverted 51 percent of your target market will appreciate an informative site that functions as an expert salesperson during all those hours you're not open for business.

Don't think for a moment that your customers aren't already online. Several times a month, I speak to groups of at least several hundred people. And I always ask, "How many of you have used a search engine within the past seven days to research a product or service that you were considering purchasing?" I raise my own hand as soon as the question is finished. The hands raised in response have never been less than 85 to 90 percent of the crowd.

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