The pitfalls of using the internet

Unfortunately, while the advent of the internet brought us many opportunities and benefits, there were many problems that arose at the same time. Along with the inconveniences that come with internet shopping such as the potential for the website to be a fraudulent place of business, the item being misrepresented, or other third party individuals that can steal your identity, there was a new wave of crime that came with it, computer crime. Computer crime refers to any crime that involves a computer and a network, where the computers may have played an instrumental part in the commission of the crime. Typical issues surrounding this type of crime have risen in popularity among thieves and con artists especially those surrounding hacking, copyright infringement, espionage, financial theft, and other cross-border crimes.

The term computer crime encompasses a huge gamut of illegal activities. However, they are generally divided into two types of categories; crimes that target computer networks or computers directly and crimes done through computer networks or devices. Examples of the first are malware (malicious code) and computer viruses, and examples of the latter include cyber stalking, fraud and identity theft, phishing scams, and information warfare.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2010-06/08/content_9948762.htm

This type of crime has grown significantly in China over the past few years. According to a white paper titled "The internet in China", online fraud, online theft, and other forms of crimes are increasing rapidly. Crimes such as disseminating obscenity, pornography and gambling are also of much concern in this country. In fact, It is one of the countries suffering the most from hacking. What is ironic however, is that there is also a considerable amount of crime that is performed from hackers in other countries using Chinese IP addresses. The paper states that 42,000 websites were distorted by hackers, and 18 million Chinese computers were infected by the Conficker virus every month.

It is truly sad and outrageous to see this trend going on in many parts of the world today. For many companies in many industries, this presents substantial amount of expenditures in technology to prevent hackers from committing these crimes. In fact, this is a repetitive and continuous investment within the banking industry as they need to always be up to date with the latest security software particularly to protect their online webpages. In the future, this is only going to continue to grow and therefore we must be careful with how we secure our personal information.

Good use of user generated content

Over the past couple of years, the importance and advantages of user generated content have captured the attention of eyes around the world including companies and private individuals. The term refers to refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are basically produced by end-users. It is used for a wide range of applications including problem processing, news, gossip and research. Among the types of uses for UGC include all digital media technologies such as question-answer databases, digital video, blogging, podcasting, mobile phone photography and wikis.

Apart from individuals posting their thoughts, insight, and creativity, companies are also using website like linkedin, facebook, and twitter to generate advertising buzz around their products and services. One company that has gone a bit further is Unilever, which is experimenting with crowdsourcing for ads on an unparalleled scale.
Keith Weed, the company's new chief marketing and communications officer have started a global initiative last month to source consumer-generated advertising content. Basically, this initiative is geared towards film-makers, not your typical everyday consumer, to make videos of any of Unilever's 13 global brands with the goal of finding content that can run in multiple markets and either on TV or online channels. Their products include some of the biggest consumer goods in the market such as Ben & Jerry's, Close Up, Dove, Lipton, Sure, and Vaseline. While the company's aim is not to get millions of people creating ads for the company, Weed is looking for entry numbers in the hundreds that can help the firm tap into a film-making audience to give them visibility and enhance their careers while producing great advertising for the company at the same time.

This is a great use of user generated content by a multinational company that can help them create marketing strategies at a fraction of the cost. It not only allows them to find exceptional talent in advertising medium, but it also helps build brand equity to the thousands of people interested in the event. While the idea can have some negative appeal included such as the content not being in sync with the company values or particular ideas, it presents a creative way that companies can take advantage of this technology and produce great results at an affordable price.