Catching Up with MLFF

What can be observed in countries such as Australia, ones which we can call as developed countries.. there are no tolls! Really? Correction..there are no physical tolls. Their toll system is like a scan, where cars do not have to slow down, que up and pay one at a time. However, in our country Malaysia we still have the physical tolls, with a few choices of payment methods - either via Smart TAG (scanning device, car just needs to slow down), TouchNGo (card payments, cars just need to stop for a second, tap their card on the reader and go - literally 'touch and go') and of course cash.

Our country is however always advancing and is slowly catching up with the developed countries. As reported by a local news agency, the government is planning to implement tolls without the plaza stops i.e. similar to the developed countries (1). This is called the Multi-Lane Free Flow (MLFF) concept and is illustrated as below:

PLUS plans to implement the MLFF in stages starting in 2018.

Of course, implementation would require detailed studies beforehand to see feasibility and readiness of our society to such technology. However, it is a step forward and it would definitely help reduce traffic congestions caused by long ques at the tolls ;)

Reference/s:
(1) http://www.hmetro.com.my/node/47099

Data Privacy & Security

Living in the Information Age, our society has become accustomed to providing their personal information (sometimes without hesitance or second thoughts)..to websites, business online forms, social networks etc. Now, we all know deep down that personal information should somewhat be kept as it is named.. personal. 

Our local government had introduced the 'Personal Data Protection Act 2010' which came into full force on 15 November 2013 (1). This had changed the information systems of businesses and companies which are required to disclose their privacy policies and ensure a customer/client/any third party's information is removed from their systems as soon as there is no longer a purpose. The IT systems then would have been re-designed or altered in such a way as to 'purge' this information if it was found to be left idle and used for no reference. This act is a very serious act and it does have further details to it (of course I will not dwell on it all here), but penalties for non-compliance go up to RM100-500K and/or 1-3 years of imprisonment.

Sounds serious..? It is. And we should also take it seriously in our daily lives and in our personal virtual connections and activities, for our own protection. Misuse of information could range from just being annoying (e.g. having tele-marketers call you up) to being dangerous (e.g. being targeted for armed robbery at your own home). And if you refer back to my post on 'Cyber-terrorism' - you may even start to be paranoid. You wouldn't like to be in a scenario where you are threatened with a "You better watch out, I know everything about you" - as if out of some horror-terror-thriller movie. Would you? I definitely wouldn't.

Lock up your information, make sure all security measures are in place; Don't let unwelcomed strangers into your home!

What I don't get is why so many of us instead of going out of our way to protect ourselves, do the exact opposite. We are a society which loves to share... nothing wrong with that I guess, but make sure you know who you are sharing with, and be aware of the consequences! 

Just to share (see, even I'm doing it - sharing hahaha) with you, a story of a friend of mine. I will not reveal any names here for confidentiality and security (of course) purposes. Anyway, the story goes like this. My friend was not well and so went back to her hometown to rest in the arms of her beloved family. A gang of her friends (not including me) decided to visit her, but yet did not know where the house was. They tried to call her but her phone must have died or was turned off. But, in the end... they ended up right outside her house! Amazing. How did they do it? Through shared information of course, on social networks and the main clue was a picture of the house posted by my friend's sister (who was not at all connected to anyone in the gang). My friend's sister did not privatize anything on her social network, everything and anything was made available to any Tom, Dick or Harry. Now from amazing, I found this to be very worrying instead. If a gang of school kids could track a person down using this kind of information, imagine what professionals could do?!

I know it may sound paranoid, but please do take care of your information. Today, too often that not we share information which just does not need to be shared. Penny for your thoughts..

Be the gate-keeper to your data, know who you are letting in!

Reference/s:
(1) http://www.pwc.com/my/en/services/what-is-pdpa.jhtml

Physical-Cyber Distance

The MIT Media Lab unveiled the inFORM in December 2013, which is an interface of tomorrow. Almost like a table of living clay, the inFORM can change shape and colour three-dimensionally, allowing 'physical' contact between people who are miles apart.

This is only the beginning, if the inFORM can be programmed and refined in such a way, the opportunity for physical-cyber distance can be vastly impacted!

Watch the video below for a taste of tomorrow:

Reference/s:

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lvtfD_rJ2hE
(2) http://www.fastcodesign.com/3021522/innovation-by-design/mit-invents-a-shapeshifting-display-you-can-reach-through-and-touch

Cyber-Terrorism

Cyber-Terrorism is the act of pre-meditated, politically motivated attack/s against information, computer systems, computer programs, and data that results in violence against noncombatant targets by sub-national groups or clandestine agents. Too many big words? Basically, cyber-terrorism is just like any other act of terror - but it is using cyber space, and software attacks as the main terror tool.

Terrorism - scary. Cyber-terrorism - scary scary. Why? It just comes back to the nature of cyber space.. its reach is just so much wider! It affects so many people and so many things which depend so much on cyber space, software and IT in general.

Go back to my previous posts on 'IT Dependence', 'The Information Age' and 'The Internet of Things'. Now imagine if those precious databases and integration points were compromised, maliciously altered, or straight-up wiped clean and been shutdown. The impacts would no longer be "in the clouds", it would instead pose very real, physical threats to our lives.

Below are examples of real cyber-terrorism acts, some would get us thinking.. (1)

A threat (in reference to a database compromise) by a group known as the "Cyber Caliphates", which has claimed to have hacked into US's CENTCOM sytem..

Coming closer to home, we see the same group 'playing games' with our Malaysian national carrier, Malaysian Airlines (MAS).. the same group has claimed to have hacked MAS's website, but this claim was disputed by MAS who then counter-claimed that it was merely a software attack via a Pharming mechanism - this is where the Domain Name compromised and users are re-routed to a false landing page, in this case the actual site data had not been compromised.

This is a serious matter, and experts do warn of the possibilities of cyber-terrorism:

Imagine the impact and its magnitude if cyber-terrorists were to shutdown our power systems, water supplies, etc. If our power-grid were to fall into the wrong hands, who knows what can happen...

Reference/s:

(1) http://news.siteintelgroup.com/blog/index.php/entry/342-%E2%80%9Ccybercaliphate%E2%80%9D-claims-hacking-twitter%2C-youtube-accounts-of-centcom%2C-stealing-information

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102367777

The Internet of Things

The Internet of Things refers to the integration of physical objects (things) to our cyber space, softwares, and the wide databases that we collect via IT.  It is a term coined by a British visionary called Kevin Ashton back in 1999, before the dotcom bubble started to burst, to describe how internet-connected devices would change our lives (1). It comes hand-in hand with the notion of Web 2.0.

This has now become a reality with households across Britain having their heating systems connected to the internet by brands such as 'Nset' and 'Hive'. Another example of this is our cars - parking themselves! This is like the BMW cars which can understand your command to park through a smart watch, map the carpark area using sensors, and proceed to position its wheels and drive forward/reverse as required to fit into the space. 

Ideas are being thrown around about the possibilities of integration points and the Internet of Things, can you think of any? Imagine.. weather forecasting helping to automatically maneuver the opening of drainage systems & re-routing traffic, a scanner in the fridge linking to your calendar - automatically providing you a shopping list and target dates to go grocery shopping? The list can go on and on..

In a world where we are too busy to manage our own lives, we can let our THINGS manage it for us! 

Reference/s:

(1) http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/mar/31/the-internet-of-things-is-revolutionising-our-lives-but-standards-are-a-must
(2) http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2875977/Who-needs-valet-BMW-s-automated-car-parks-speak-SMARTWATCH.html

The Information Age

The world has seen many changes - from the Industrial Revolution 1.0 and Industrial Revolution 2.0, technological advancements and automation has been highly evolving and bringing our society along for the ride.. to the point that we are now in a new era. The era brought by the availability of technological advancements...we are now in The Information Age!

The Information Age basically emphasizes the use of data - digitized data. It may be surprising to you the amount of data we contribute to the various systems made available through IT. From our name, IDs, key strokes, search preferences, and now even (and possibly the most dangerous information transmitted)... our location - guess how? Through GPS, of course!

We transmit our location through our handheld devices even when we are unaware of it.

Many organizations are taking advantage of the large databases we create, and some are even banking on it. Amazing isn't it, how the use of IT has opened this new arena for business opportunities. Never before have we been able to see, use and analyse such big amounts of data - following this, consultancy services are on a rise for data analysis and management.

IT Dependence

As IT is becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives, we may sometimes take it for granted. IT actually has a myriad of contributions unseen to the younger generation of today - because they know nothing of a world without IT. The implementation of IT goes hand in hand with the need to grow, and our Malaysian government is one to take on this opportunity by slowly digitizing their data and moving towards online transactions within the different ministries.

There are many examples which we can look at, but what I would like to shift our attention to is how IT is an enabler to some of our Malaysian government's policies - specifically in case, the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The concept is fairly simple - 6% on all (almost all, of course after excluding the 0 rated and exempted categories - but for now to simplify, we assume all is standard rated at 6%) items traded in the market as either 'Goods' or 'Services'. This is the net end effect to all users (in theory).

Each item is charged with a tax value

But here's where it gets complicated. Items are rarely ever coming straight from the source to the consumer. It will always change hands at least 2 or 3 times through channels such as wholesalers and distributors. The government has set in place (emulating the implementation of GST in other countries, of course) the mechanism involving Input & Output Tax. Sound alien to you? Let me try and explain in simple terms - Input Tax is the amount of 'tax' recorded coming in to the company and Output Tax is the amount of 'tax' recorded out. These 'middle men' (e.g. the wholesalers, traders, distributors) will act as the government's agents to help transfer the tax over to the end user by charging their customers (Output Tax) and being able to claim the tax imposed on to them (Input Tax). The net effect to these 'middle men' should be zero, they will not bear the 6% tax, it is meant for the end user to bear. 

So... with thousands and thousands of transactions a day, how do these middle men track all their taxes? You tell me - IT? Yes. In order to fully implement the GST policies, IT is a must. The middle men must be able to clearly record their Inputs and Outputs - and only claim the difference from the government. The use of IT does not stop there. In order to be able to claim the tax difference from the government, these middle men need to have a valid GST Registration Number - and this number needs to be clearly shown on their Invoice to the customers. Again, digitized data allows the process to run as planned. 

The Cash Register records all outgoing transactions, and outputs a Tax Invoice to customers. It can also be linked to the organisation's finance system for auto-calculation of (Input-Output) Tax for claiming purposes.

Customers (end users) also benefit from IT as they will be able to cross-check this number in the government's portal to see whether it is truly a valid number. Why would they go through the hastle of checking?? Basically, if the number is invalid - the middle man is not able (by law) to charge the tax and is required to bear the tax cost i.e. he is not able to transfer the tax to the customer. For high valued spend items, a 6% tax may be quite hefty - I'm sure you would like to check whether or not you are being rightly charged....right?

The mechanism gets more complicated and the need for IT more apparent when we dive into further details such as having some items exempted, and some 0 rated. It then looks at details such as the source of the item, the intended recipient and the intended purpose of use etc.

The point I'm trying to make here.. is that we are dependent on IT. It is no longer just a means to help us work more efficiently, it is THE means for us to work. Think about it.. can you survive in today's world without the use of IT? We are (especially the younger generations) becoming more and more dependent.