Analyzing the Impact of the Internet on Businesses and Societies

This report delves into the multifaceted impact of the internet on both businesses and society. It explores the positive aspects, such as increased marketing opportunities and automation, and the negative aspects, including heightened competition and security concerns. The report examines various cyber threats faced by organizations, including spam, viruses, phishing, and hacking, emphasizing the importance of internet privacy and the use of preventive software. It also includes a comparison of Cisco and Microsoft based on their features, applications, and suitability for business, offering a comprehensive overview of digital challenges and solutions in the modern era. The study highlights the necessity of integrated professional skills in navigating the digital age.

Integrated Professional Skills in
the Digital Age

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................2
Comparison of positive and negative uses of internet towards businesses and societies............2
2. Threats faced by organization while using internet.................................................................4
Comparison of Cisco and Microsoft on the basis of features, applications and suitability for
business........................................................................................................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
1

INTRODUCTION
Integrated professional skills is necessary as it is useful in effectively developing new
skills and knowledge which in turn helps in effectively resolving various problems, leads to
critical thinking, etc. There are various professional skills such as teamwork, project
management, mentoring, conflict management, negotiation, confidence, motivation,
perseverance, ability to work under pressure, productive meeting management, data analytics,
resilience, etc. It is very important to develop digital communication skills in this digital tech
economy. This study will highlight on the negative and positive impact of internet on society and
business. It will also examine the threats faced by the company and society while using internet.
Furthermore, this study helps in determining the features, application and suitability of various
unified communication providers to the business.
MAIN BODY
Comparison of positive and negative uses of internet towards businesses and societies
In today’s modern era it would be foolish to debate whether internet should be used or
not. Instead of want or desire, internet has rather emerged as a basic necessity which is required
to be fulfilled by the people today. In context of the present report it can be adequately argued
that internet acts as a blessing as well as a disaster. In context of the various businesses, it can be
argued there are various positive as well as negative impacts that internet has and they can be
categorized as follows:-
Positive Impact Negative Impact
The major positive impact of internets on
business is that there are large numbers of
marketing opportunities that are available to
the company i.e. using internet they can easily
market or sell their products. By creating
excellent digital marketing content, campaigns
and usage of social media marketing tools, the
company can easily attract a large number of
customers.
While Internet and features like easy and
wide spread marketing targeting multiple
customers collectively help in garnering
increased number of customers and their
attention, it also, unnecessarily increases the
competition faced by the company
(Vladimirova and et.al., 2017). Traditional
businesses are losing their clients due to
increased online purchasing trends and even
business having online presence face cut
throat competition form numerous other
2

businesses.
Internet has assisted businesses by automating
their operations and tasks using different
applications, websites and many other tools
like cloud computing, email accounts, software
etc. that have assisted them in performing their
businesses in a simplified manner. To move
further to an even more advanced level, the
companies now are using robots, drones etc.
which are managed and controlled using
internet services (Kueh, 2015).
There are an increased number of security
concerns while operating online. While
online businesses continuously face the
threat of hackers who can steal both
company as well as client’s data, even
traditional businesses are experiencing this
threat as they hesitate in using online mode
of payments or other similar facilities which
make them deal in the traditional manner of
cash only.
Internet helps in garnering competitive
advantage for the businesses by developing
innovative practices and such online marketing
strategies help the companies in achieving
overall growth of the entire economy rather
than focusing on individual centred growth.
Another major negative impact of internet
upon businesses is the rapid or instant
destruction of the reputation that is built by
working hard for many years. It is easy to
manipulate the internet users by showing
them the half-truth and a minor complaint or
grievance of nay consumer can spark off a
war against the company.
Another major pay-off of using internet
services for their businesses is the facility of
hiring and training remote employees of the
company. This has also helped in increasing
the flexibility by providing services like work
from home etc. so that employee motivation
and productivity can be increased.
The small businesses often face a tough
competition from the bigger companies
because their digital marketing campaigns
and online presence is not as strong as these
small businesses due to limited fund
availability which leads to development of
monopoly of the bigger companies.
Society is another major part which gets impacted from the internet and its usage in both
positive as well as negative manner. Internet has helped in bringing transformation in the society
especially in educational fields but it has also left the youth addicted to internet where they
cannot operate without using internet.
Positive Impact Negative Impact
3

Internet is a big ocean of information from
which whatever information an individual
wants to acquire can be acquired and utilised.
This has helped in developing the society
multi-faceted manner. When the information
that is required can be accessed in an easier
manner, the pool of knowledge often
increases.
Unnecessary and increased usage of internet
has led to creation of a digital life, i.e. there is
increasing emphasis on portraying one’s own
life on social media and getting influenced by
what others are doing (Michalski and et.al.,
2017). Other luxuries of life i.e. the beauty of
nature, developing personal relationships etc.
are getting lower importance.
Internet has opened wide sources of
communication through social media
platforms and other modes of online
communication. Therefore, internet has
helped in development of social media
relationships all over the world because today
two unknown individuals can come together
and interact with each other even if they
belong to two separate corners of the world.
It is quite easy to fake a personality in the
internet and manipulate the other person
making them believe on an intelligence that is
either false or fraudulent. Voicing and raising
public opinions has become of higher
importance rather than garnering actual
intelligence.
In order to ensure that society is regularly and
consistently developing, internet has played a
major role. Internet influences and impacts
the social interactions promoting trust
amongst the communicators (Lai, Jackson and
Jiang, 2018). It also helps in widening the
social work platforms etc. where in one good
cause people from all over the world can
contribute in their own personal capacity.
There is an entire loop of internet which has
impacted every single individual on this earth
and not only them but also robots and other
Artificial Intelligence. It has simplified and
minimized the problems of life but the
looming threats of such short term happiness
cannot be ignored since it is unimpeded.
2. Threats faced by organization while using internet.
Internet and advanced technology has evolved over the years which in turn adversely
influences the organization and society. Whilst internet is one of the most effective platform for
transfer of information and communication. But on the contrary, there are various other
4

malicious threat with the use of internet which mainly includes spam, virus, phishing, spyware,
security software, pharming, adware, trojan, botnets, wiper attack, intellectual property theft,
hacking, etc. are factors which might influence the efficiency, performance and productivity of
the organization. Threat is referred to as the potential violation of risk which in turn results in
turn results in higher threat to the business and society (Jeske and Van Schaik, 2017). Threat may
result in potential risk to the business which in turn leads to loss or hacking of confidential
information.
Cyber threats is one of the most common issue which intends to compromise the security
of various information system by effectively altering the confidentiality and integrity of the
information. Cyber threat results in malicious attempt to disrupt the computer system or any
other application which in turn leads to lower operational growth and productivity. Cybercrime
or cyber risk is the risk related with corruption of data, illegal monitoring, cyber security breach,
disrupt business operations, loss of sensitive data, etc. which largely influences the organization
and society.
Pharming is a technique which is used to effectively redirect the traffic from the
particular specific website to the malicious website. Phishing is a malicious activity where the
cyber actors act as a trustworthy entity in order to lure large number of individuals in order to
provide login credentials, personally identifiable information and bank details. Spoofing is
another cyber threat to the business and society as it results in forging of website, phone number,
email address, which in turn results in giving up of useful and sensitive information. Typo
squatting is a malicious act which largely threat registers with the similar spelling or domain
address in order to manipulate the user and hack the useful information which in turn results as a
threat to the organization and society (Trivedi, Dave and Sridaran, 2016, March). Wiper is also
referred to as the malicious threat which in turn helps in wiping off the hardware of various
infected devices. Virus in computer results in hack of confidential information which in turn
adversely affects the confidentiality of the information.
Internet privacy is very important as it helps in securing the personal and confidential
data of the organization and individual person. It helps in protecting data from getting hacked
and focuses on protecting the private and sensitive data. Internet privacy is also referred to as the
online privacy. It helps in securing personal and confidential information which is published
through internet. Privacy violations and risk to threat or loss of data are one of the common
5

standardised considerations that are necessary for website. Organization and company must
focus on using preventive software application. People should use strong passwords which
consists of numbers, letters and special characters. Organization and individuals must focus on
clearing the browsing history and cache and must also avoid exposing personal data. Individuals
should avoid using unreliable website which may hamper the privacy and confidentiality of data.
Online privacy is very important as it is useful in protecting the personal privacy online.
Encryption tools such as OpenVAS, AxCrypt, Nmap, Bitlocker, GNU privacy guard, Nessus,
Metasploit, etc. helps in protecting various online information. Organization should focus on
virtual private networks in order to protect all the necessary information. It is very useful in
creating secure connection with the help of encrypted virtual tunnel (Chasaki and Mansour,
2015). Organization and society must focus on protecting the identity online with the help of
effective up to date security software. Avoid using phishing emails, encrypt your data, keeping
passwords private, safely disposing personal information, wisely choose open Wi-Fi, etc. This in
turn helps in effectively protecting the data with the help of various software. The organization
must focus on using firewall which helps in effectively blocking the various dangerous
programs. Backing up the data is very useful in protecting the data. This can be effectively done
with the help of cloud support which are intended to gain high professional standards and
efficiency. Automation of serious software updates helps in defending against various risk.
Organization and society must also focus on securing the wireless information with a strong
password. Do not store passwords on the mobile devices and laptop (17 essential tools to protect
your online identity, privacy, 2016). People should also focus on configuring the privacy setting
which in turn results in high operational growth and efficiency. Society should focus on anti
malware and anti virus protection for mobile devices. Two factor authentication is also useful as
it helps in keeping all the information private. It helps in dual verification and helps in security of
data and helps in effectively verifying the credential of the users (Mackey and Nayyar, 2016).
This in turn helps in reduction of internet risk and is useful in protecting important information.
Comparison of Cisco and Microsoft on the basis of features, applications and suitability for
business.
Unified communication is referred to as the effective marketing concept which is useful
in integrating enterprise communication service which mainly includes mobility features, instant
messaging, desktop sharing, video conferencing, speech recognition, unified messaging, etc.
6

CISCO Unified Communications (CUCM) specialises in providing IP based
communicating systems. Following are the Features of Cisco:-
Call Processing:- This involves entire process of originating followed by routing and hen
terminating the call including any billing or statistical information collection. CUCM provides
this service and further extend it to holding, forwarding, transferring or speed dialling a call and
many other features for IP phones.
Programming of the interface to external applications:- CUCM also given a programming
interface to other applications which are external like CISCO IP Communicator, CUCM
Attendant Console, Cisco Personal Assistant etc.
Features of Backing up and restoring the lost data:- CUCM also gives this additional feature of
recovering in case the data is lost and further backing up so that data loss can be altogether
avoided. Backing up call details, managing call records (CMR) etc. are some of the features that
CUCM provides.
Some of the applications of CISCO are:-
IP telephony: This is a unique application which enables the users to transfer voice
communication messages over those networks which use IP standards (Nasr, 2015). There is a
wide variety of software and hardware products that CISCO provides like video and
conferencing devices, third party applications etc.
Video and Conferencing Telephony:- Cisco, has collaborated video communications with IP
networks and other agents related to call processing. The major advantage is that this Cisco
Unified Video does not need any other special training for the end user. Similarly, in order to
support virtual media conferencing, Cisco integrated IP based tools.
Suitability of the CISCO UM can be discussed in following points:-
It helps people in collaborating easily because of the different IP tools like voice calling, video
calling, meetings and conferences etc. i.e. it has simplified the communication between users
based in different locations and made it more instant (Waitzinger, Ohlhausen and Spath, 2015).
By providing the facility of real time communication, it ensures that people are connected with
each other at all times and at all places by providing those applications which require use of
APIs.
It is extremely easy to access and utilise the CUCM solutions as they are available online, in
software, hardware and through cloud computing.
7

Microsoft: Unified communication is useful in integrating multiple communication method
within the organization. Microsoft comes with various unified communication feature which
comes with audio conferencing, instant messaging, enterprise, etc. there are various available
which mainly includes iOS, Mac, Android, Windows, etc. Microsoft unified communication
approach is useful in enhancing the communication security which helps in building
authorization and encryption. It is also has rich interoperability. It has greater control on the
networks with defined software network support (Trivedi, Dave and Sridaran, 2016, March).
Office 365 is a unified communication approach which very useful in combining email
messaging and voice messaging altogether. It has an easy disaster recovery and has lower cost of
ownership. It also leads to simple emailing with the help of Outlook 365. Unified communication
is very useful in conferencing, phone communication, data sharing, messaging, etc. Office 365 is
useful in enhancing team meetings. It is very useful in uptime guarantee, privacy controls,
disaster recovery, geo- redundant data centres and robust security. This application is very
suitable for the business as it helps in enhancing security. It is also very useful in effortless
collaboration by effectively and easily sharing all the information in a systematic and efficient
manner (Shillair and et.al., 2015).
Skype is one of service that is provided by Microsoft as communication tool. Skype is
consists of different features like live chatting, video call, voice call, information sharing data
transferring and conference calling. This all features of Skype are free of cost with limited
features. The advance level features provided with some charges. This is the most common tool
that is used by business organizations and private user.
CONCLUSION
Integrated professional skills is necessary as it is useful in effectively developing new
skills and knowledge which in turn helps in effectively resolving various problems, leads to
critical thinking, etc. this study helps me in determining that, internet and advanced technology
has evolved over the years which in turn adversely influences the organization and society. After
going through this report, it can be concluded that Internet today is an integral part of
individuals, society and business as a whole. Unified communication is referred to as the
effective concept which is useful in integrating enterprise communication service. Although
there are many positive as well as negative impacts of using internet which were discussed in this
report, it can be adequately summarized that Internet cannot be abandoned. Further, in this report
8

two companies Cisco and Microsoft were used to analyse the unified communication and its
various different aspects.
9

REFERENCES
Books and journals
Chasaki, D. and Mansour, C., 2015. Security challenges in the internet of things. International
Journal of Space-Based and Situated Computing, 5(3), pp.141-149.
Jeske, D. and Van Schaik, P., 2017. Familiarity with Internet threats: Beyond
awareness. Computers & Security, 66, pp.129-141.
Kueh, M.C., 2015. A Multiple Case Study of Consumer Internet Security Application Customers
on Customer Loyalty and Customer Retention with CISC Loyalty Programs. Northcentral
University.
Lai, C.T.A., Jackson, P.R. and Jiang, W., 2018. Designing service business models for the
internet of things: aspects from manufacturing firms. American Journal of Management
Science and Engineering. 3(2). pp.7-22.
Mackey, T.K. and Nayyar, G., 2016. Digital danger: a review of the global public health, patient
safety and cybersecurity threats posed by illicit online pharmacies. British medical
bulletin, 118(1), pp.110-126.
Michalski, M., Montes-Botella, J.L. and Guevara Piedra, W., 2017. Can asymmetry impact
performance, collaboration and integration? An empirical study. The International Journal
of Logistics Management. 28(4). pp.939-963.
Nasr, M., 2015. Cloud Computing.
Shillair, R and et.al., 2015. Online safety begins with you and me: Convincing Internet users to
protect themselves. Computers in Human Behavior, 48, pp.199-207.
Trivedi, S.D., Dave, D. and Sridaran, R., 2016, March. Analysis and impact of cyber threats on
online social networks. In 2016 3rd International Conference on Computing for
Sustainable Global Development (INDIACom) (pp. 3548-3553). IEEE.
Vladimirova, D., and et.al., 2017. A conceptual framework for sustainable re-distributed
manufacturing business models based on data-driven decision making. In British Academy
of Management (BAM) Conference.
Waitzinger, S., Ohlhausen, P. and Spath, D., 2015. The industrial internet: Business models as
challenges for innovations.
Online
10

17 essential tools to protect your online identity, privacy. 2016. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.infoworld.com/article/3135324/17-essential-tools-to-protect-your-online-
identity-and-privacy.html>
11