Lack of Security Essay

The Net has a very little security of information embedded and the companies using the Net are subjected to the risk of disclosing large proprietary information without their knowledge. Since the Net was originally designed for a free flow of communication there was no provision for any regulation or security at the time the idea of internet was conceived and put to use. But with the increased use of internet for marketing as well as for advertising there are lot of chances that the copyrights and other property rights are infringed by many computer hackers and pranksters. With the number of people accessing and using the net the chances of anyone go into the Net and meddle with the information and other contents though manipulation by using pirated software and other measures. Even though there are some basic measures that can be used to safeguard the information and to prevent the practice of manipulating such information they are considered as inadequate considering the volume of information that are being fed into the Net every hour. The other disturbing factor is that it is possible for unauthorized users to get into the internal computer systems of the systems and hack away any classified information about the company and its products/services. There is the danger of the copyright protection also put to jeopardy â€Å"when the creation of intellectual property and the upload of a host of information, transmission, access and use of content† is attempted. (Business Europe, 1995) For instance the issue of computer hackers meddling with the internal computer system had costed millions of dollars of business apart from losing the customers for Sheraton Hotels when the hackers booked every room in the hotel chain worldwide. (Seal, 1995) Another serious threat posed by the hackers is their ability to access the customers’ personal information like addresses and credit card numbers and misuse them. This menace had necessitated many software and high tech companies to invest millions of dollars to arrive at solutions to make the interactive shopping on the internet fully secured. ‘Firewall’ is one of such mechanisms that allow the genuine customers to do their shopping online but prevents the hackers from creating any problems. Firewall is one of the combinations of ‘security algorithms and router communication protocols’ that are put to use for the prevention of the tapping by the outsiders into the databases and websites of various corporate entities. (Sales and Marketing Management, 1995) Firewall acts as a buffer in between the internal networks and larger external networks. It is the usual practice of all large companies that advertise on the internet to have firewall in place to protect their internal database and other networks. (Pugh 1995) Encryption is another method used to provide security to the marketing through internet. Encryption can be described as the scrambling of digits and a coding that can be deciphered by the intended receiver of the information who will be able to retrieve the required information. ‘Mosaic’ is one of such encryption programs adopted by the Netscape Corporation for its software and is first of its kind. However even this program is not considered 100 percent safe with its own shortcomings. (Computer World 1994) Hence the companies are forewarned to protect themselves as well as their products and services against the infringement by hackers and other illegitimate users of the internet. It is crucially important that a well designed copyright warning notice appears on every screen, logos and slogans and the companies should also ensure that all of them are registered with the appropriate authorities to ensure protection. Even though it is easier and less expensive for the companies to advertise through Net, it requires a large investment for the customers to access and browse through the Net. If the customers want to have a continuous access to the Net it becomes important that they own a personal computer with appropriate internet connectivity. It involves high cost for the common users. The customers sometimes find it difficult to access the required information due to the fact that most of the modems – the equipment to provide the internet connectivity – are slow and do not allow the customers to use the Net efficiently. Also with the advancement in the technology relating to the visual media enables the companies to make their advertisement with advanced multimedia features. This requires the capacity and compatibility from the computer hardware and hence making the marketing proposals by internet beyond the reach of the common man. Since the marketing through the internet reaches all the age groups it becomes difficult for the managers to control the advertisements effectively. It may be noted that at least 50 percent of the users of the Net is below the age of 25 and the balance above 25 and the advertisements reach all of them invariably. Hence targeting a certain age group becomes difficult. Unlike the conventional methods used for advertising in the magazines and other print media or television the advertisement through internet cannot be measured precisely to aim a certain age group or class of customers. Since the nature of the Net is such that it is so broad and beyond comprehension it is difficult for the companies to really assess whom to target and how to advertise to reach the targeted audience. Further since there are a number of resources in the internet it is not possible for the users to see the advertisement for a certain product or the advertisements from a particular company unless they are prompted to do so. This necessitates a company to still use the conventional methods of advertising which have proved to be more proactive in addition to advertising through the Net. Applying the above advantages and disadvantages of marketing through internet in our instant study of the marketing of the Indian Punjabi music it can be inferred that though the advantages of internet marketing are helpful in furthering the sales of the music products, the disadvantages like file sharing and P2P swapping of music files act to the detriment of the sales growth. But the influence of internet is much large that the advantages resulting from the sales to a wider customer base over rules the disadvantages. This makes the record companies use more and more of the internet as a media of marketing to improve the sales of their products.