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Threat modeling is when the user thinks about who would potentially try to breach data to better protect it. It reminds me of how detectives will try to solve a case by putting themselves in the suspects’ shoes—they try to think like the suspect in order to predict what moves the suspect would make. As technology becomes more and more of an essential part of daily life, data breaches and cyberattacks are quickly jumping the list of the most likely global risk, trumped only by natural disasters and extreme weather events.

Ransome ware is malware that locks a computer to prevent the user from accessing data until a ransom is paid, typically in Bitcoin to prevent tracing. It is extremely effective since the hacker can tailor the hack to make it personalized and harder to crack, almost like creating a custom key to unlock the malware. It is often installed on a computer through tainted website links or clickable downloads. Hospitals are extremely susceptible to ransom ware due to the immediate need for up-to-date and accessible data. They cannot afford to shut down while they try to remove the ransom ware and will often give in to what the hacker wants in order to be able to access data again.

It’s important to back up your data often to prevent it from being lost, whether to a hacker or other. Also, you should never click suspicious links, and definitely do not download software that you don’t fully trust.

The network effect happens when the value of a good or service rises as an indirect effect of more people using it. There isn’t always an obvious change, but it is not purely coincidental that platforms that start to gain more traction also start to earn more money. A good example of this is Facebook—Facebook started to grow and evolve as more people started creating accounts and using Facebook, thus also adding more data. Facebook began earning more money as it collected valuable information about customer preferences and running ads.

Cloud computing is the on-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. Cloud computing has become very popular in recent years due to the rise of technology—with so many people able to access the internet and data from their own homes and smartphones, it is easier to store all information in one central place that is conveniently accessible to those who want to find it. Unfortunately, since all the information is stored in one central place, this can bring up issues of safety and data breaches since all the information can be accessed from one location.

API stands for “Application programming interface”, and it is a software intermediary to allow two applications to communicate with each other. Building APIs onto older systems makes it possible for businesses to extract valuable existing data for new innovations. Incorporating APIs into new applications allows easier consumption and reuse across new web and mobile experiences.

ERP stands for “enterprise resource planning”; it’ purpose is to standardize, streamline, and integrate processes across a wide range of business functions. Essentially, ERPs help manage business process and finances by integrating all necessary processes into a single system. Legacy systems may run into problems sometimes because it is often hard to keep everything running at a fast and efficient pace. Also, there may be issues with security since all the data is in one place. As companies begin to expand and try new technologies, legacy systems are slowly becoming outdated or incompatible with new technologies. I liked this resource (https://www.bairesdev.com/blog/7-problems-with-legacy-systems/) if you want to learn more about legacy systems.

CRM stands for “customer relationship management”; its purpose is to manage a company’s interactions with current or potential customers. A CRM system can span across an entire enterprise’s infrastructure, and CRM systems can link up information about current or potential customers. CRM software should be viewed more as a strategic process to understand customer needs rather than a platform. Salesforce is one of the world’s most trusted and used CRM platforms. In Max Labs, we designed a software for Riley to keep track of all her potential investors, including contact and company information, meeting notes, investment amount, and past and future meeting dates. We keep designing our platform to be more efficient for storing information, and our data could be accessed from all users in the company.

CRM and ERP are different in the sense that CRM focuses on sales force automation and converting leads into contacts while ERP aims to coordinate the process of producing and delivering products to consumers. ERP manages financial information about sales. CRM keeps track of the contacts who ordered the products. ERP and CRM serve different purposes but ultimately work towards a shared goal: to increase company information organization.