Digital Divide and Its Impact on Information Systems

¶ … Information Systems

There are numerous external factors that impact the extent to which Information Systems (IS) can be effective. One such factor is the digital divide that keeps a gap between communities that have access to digital technology and those that don't. For those without access, IS is hardly an effective tool for communication, transference of information or data storage. However, there are also security issues, factors regarding confidentially and privacy variables. This paper will examine these external factors and discuss how they impact the effectiveness of IS.

Web access is one of the biggest factors in effective IS. This is correlated with the availability of computers. For example, the Chromebook is a computer that depends on web access to be fully utilizable. It is essentially useless if it is not connected to the web. Yet, most computers are like that today, as the cloud has become a place of storing essential information for various computer user functions. If the intended audience does not have computer knowledge or access to computers, there is a large gap between what the user can do and what the user should be capable of doing in the 21st century's Digital Age. This is the problem of the digital divide and it is one of the most significant external factors impacting the effectiveness of IS today (Deursen, Dijk, 2014; Krebeck, 2010).

Security issues are also a problem, however. Indeed, there are new security threats to computers created by attackers every day. There are a number of varying threats, from viruses, spam, phishing, spyware, and keylogging to adware, botnets, worms, Trojan Horses, blended threats and denial-of-service attacks. All of them are common in today's Digital Age and just go to show how important security is for IS and how big of an impact these external threats can have on IS effectiveness. Just one of them, for instance, could cause serious problems to IS if caution and care are not taken. For example, Malware is a particularly heinous form of attack because it is constantly being upgraded just as fast as protection can be crafted. Malware is designed to find vulnerabilities in your computer program. Since malware protection programs are constantly upgrading defenses, malware designers are also constantly looking to adapt and find the "chinks." This is known as searching for the "O-day exploit" -- and if this "Holy Grail for vulnerability" is discovered, "all systems running the vulnerable code will be unpatched and possible targets for attack and compromise" (Vacca, 2009, p. 295). The larger and more widespread the program (that is to say, the more popular a program is with the users) the greater its 0-day factor. But one way to protect against such threats is to use penetration testing. Penetration testing is used in which the activities of a hacker are simulated in order to see if there is any exposure or holes in the system's security (Haes, Grembergen, 2009).