Collaborative Discussion 1 - Digitalization - Peer Responses

In week two, students were required to review peer’s posts, and provide at least two responses.

Peer Response 1: Hello Amrol,

I admire your first sentence and comparison of Homo Sapiens settlements to today, 2023, which is a great representation of how far we have come, as people, and as technology. You also mention the use of artificial intelligence and IoT. I do agree that breakthroughs in intelligent human-computer interaction technology often open up new digital service scenarios. The IoT also simplifies and automates tasks that are complicated and sometimes beyond the scope of human capabilities. For example, in AI, the latest digital human technology, through synthetic voice, emotion, visual image and three-dimensional graphic modeling. As much as this may benefit digital enterprises from one perspective, it can also be a disadvantage in other perspectives, as it can be used by malicious actors to formulate new types of cyber-attacks. Having background in cyber related crime, I have often seen these new types of attacks, which use AI generated synthetic imaging and videos to represent an individual who has a reputable position within a company, to falsely advertise a campaign, in hopes that their ‘audience’ fall for the scam, which unfortunately often lead to monetary losses.

I also agree with your views on improvements needed surrounding the energy crisis, and the topic in general. The use of fossil fuels is not sustainable which has shown over the decades in environmental damages which have affected us in some ways as well. The energy crisis leaves behind important lessons regarding the energy transition. One important lesson we learn from the crisis is that the energy transition process will have disruptive effects through supply shocks, rising energy demand and rising prices. Policy makers need to find a way to make the energy transition less painful by ensuring that there are enough energy reserves in order to meet energy demand during transition process. Future studies and implementations of new technologies can perhaps help this long term issue the world has been facing.

References: Greengard, S. (2023). Internet of Things. Available at: https://www.britannica.com/science/Internet-of-Things [Accessed 14 November 2023]. Ozili, P.K. (2023) Global Energy Crisis: Impact on the Global Economy. SSRN Electronic Journal. [online] https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/118791/1/MPRA_paper_118791.pdf [Accessed 14 November 2023]. Evans, J. (2022). Energy crisis causes more businesses to switch to renewables. Available at: https://www.raconteur.net/climate-crisis/energy-crisis-causes-more-businesses-to-make-the-switch-to-renewables [Accessed 14 November 2023].

Peer Response 2: Hello Mohammed,

Your initial post is very informative and I agree with your views and referencing regarding digital transformations being a must-do phase for both large and small enterprises. This can be reflected in digitalization and modernization of day-to-day technologies which we encounter. This has also reflected in the way malicious actors are using social engineering to implement new types of attacks, with rightfully highlighted statement that almost any company of any size could be a target of a cyber threat. With this of course, come the challenges of choosing what system to implement, which can be overwhelming, especially for brick and mortar companies, wishing to take on the modern approach, in order to meet specific needs of employees and customers.

Spremic & Simunic (2018) also state that while in information security era it was enough to conduct basic protection from ‘common’ attacks, in cyber security era organizations need to implement smart, innovative and efficient controls to detect and prevent advanced and emerging cyber-attacks. Cyber security activities should no longer be solely the responsibility of IT departments or assigned individuals, but institution-wide efforts with all employees engaged. This is where regular employee training for trending attacks and types is key. It is important to always have a zero-trust approach, and adopt a mindset that breaches will occur, the malicious actors will find a way in at some point, to ensure that the correct prevention methods are highlighted and implemented.

I also believe, as the digitalization further evolves, so will the use of Artificial Intelligence, the way it is implemented across the enterprise and the advantages it may have to companies. According to IDC, by 2025, AI technologies will power approximately 90% of the processes and products of advanced enterprise applications.

References: Jingrong, L. (2023). Application of Artificial Intelligence in Enterprise Digitalization. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370579499_Application_of_Artificial_Intelligence_in_Enterprise_Digitalization/citation/download [Accessed 14 November 2023]. Spremic, M. & Simunic, A. (2018). Cyber Security Challenges in Digital Economy. Available at: https://www.iaeng.org/publication/WCE2018/WCE2018_pp341-346.pdf [Accessed 14 November 2023]. Ghazanfari, A. (2022). Cybersecurity – Protecting the Connected Digital Enterprise. Available at: https://datacentremagazine.com/articles/cybersecurity-protecting-the-connected-digital-enterprise [Accessed 14 November 2023]. Wei, J., Sanborn, S., Slaughter, A. (2019). Digital transformation and the utility of the future |Deloitte Insights. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/industry/power-and-utilities/digital-transformation-utility-of-the-future.html [Accessed 14 November 2023].

Reflection: Compiling these references was challenging due to the fact they everyones posts, to some extend, provided similarities in views, as it was on the same topic. Having to do extra research, gaining a different perspecitve on the post, trying to look outside the box and provide a different opinion was a challenge. At times, presenting the post was also challenging, having to consider the way it was presented, as I did not wish for it to come across as negative or critique, but rather as constructive feedback, with additional opinions added onto it. Another challenge was digesting all the research timely, as this was the week before the first assignment was due, and of course there were other non graded activitied which needed to be completed.