Student survival guide

Free Essays on My Personal Goals

My Personal Goals As a University of Phoenix Student â€Å"I know I can. Be what I want to be. If I work hard at it, I’ll be where I want to be.† That is the chorus line to a rap song by popular hip-hop artist, Nas. The song’s purpose is to inspire young people and adults alike to the possibility that anything desired can be obtained in life with the help of confidence and hard work. Daily, I listen to this song and remind myself that I must strive to believe in myself and work as hard as I can to do my best in every aspect of my life. There are many important pieces that fit together to complete my life as a whole. One of the most important parts is my seven-year-old daughter, Jessica. It is my desire to be able to supply all of her needs. The way in which, I feel, I can make this happen is to acquire a well paying job. The road to a well paying job is through education. Because I want to be able to provide a good life for Jessica, I decided to become a University of Phoenix student and obtain my Bachelor’s degree. As a single mother, I am faced with the problem of not having enough time to attend classes, complete assignments and study in addition to catering to Jessica’s never-ending needs. I do not have the time I need to successfully complete the Criminal Justice Administration Program requirements in addition to properly taking care of Jessica. To go to college and take care of Jessica simultaneously, I would need an abundance of one thing- time. Many of the obstacles I face in college have to do with a lack of time. Time is the most important ingredient when it comes to achieving a positive balance of my â€Å"school time† and my â€Å"family time.† First, I would need a class schedule that did not meet too many days per week. University of Phoenix gives me the opportunity to attend classes only one time per week, at the same time giving me full-time student status. My college schedule allows me to utilize the re... Free Essays on My Personal Goals Free Essays on My Personal Goals My Personal Goals As a University of Phoenix Student â€Å"I know I can. Be what I want to be. If I work hard at it, I’ll be where I want to be.† That is the chorus line to a rap song by popular hip-hop artist, Nas. The song’s purpose is to inspire young people and adults alike to the possibility that anything desired can be obtained in life with the help of confidence and hard work. Daily, I listen to this song and remind myself that I must strive to believe in myself and work as hard as I can to do my best in every aspect of my life. There are many important pieces that fit together to complete my life as a whole. One of the most important parts is my seven-year-old daughter, Jessica. It is my desire to be able to supply all of her needs. The way in which, I feel, I can make this happen is to acquire a well paying job. The road to a well paying job is through education. Because I want to be able to provide a good life for Jessica, I decided to become a University of Phoenix student and obtain my Bachelor’s degree. As a single mother, I am faced with the problem of not having enough time to attend classes, complete assignments and study in addition to catering to Jessica’s never-ending needs. I do not have the time I need to successfully complete the Criminal Justice Administration Program requirements in addition to properly taking care of Jessica. To go to college and take care of Jessica simultaneously, I would need an abundance of one thing- time. Many of the obstacles I face in college have to do with a lack of time. Time is the most important ingredient when it comes to achieving a positive balance of my â€Å"school time† and my â€Å"family time.† First, I would need a class schedule that did not meet too many days per week. University of Phoenix gives me the opportunity to attend classes only one time per week, at the same time giving me full-time student status. My college schedule allows me to utilize the re...

Hitler's Table Talk Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Hitler's Table Talk - Term Paper Example In the book, Hitler’s table talk, we find his thoughts brought out in his private conversations. Hitler was a man of many worlds as depicted by his varying thoughts. He talks about different aspects of life and brings out his personal opinion about such. Hitler addressed the mistakes of the monarchy system in Germany. He expressed his appreciation for social democracy, which abolished monarchies. He believed that the monarch system brought a great loss to the political, economical, and cultural setting of Germany. He argues that the Germans of that time should have condemned the injustice of the monarch system. In my opinion, he was not justified to criticize that system because he brought an economical collapse. He is also in history for the worst political system. One of the issues Hitler addresses is Christianity. Hitler has his own views about Christianity but this is justified as everyone has a right to hold opinion. When Hitler talks about Russia and the priest, he bring s about an issue of the hope Christianity brings to people. He believes that the priest only manages to convince Russia to reconciliation by promising him happiness in a foreign world. On another instance, Hitler claims that in every human being, there is a feeling of the existence of a supernatural being but the priests in society only exploit this feeling in people. They give these people threats that they will face punishment in the future. Hitler then elaborates that every individual needs a place to run to when there is danger implying that man should run to God for consolation. Hitler however does not take this as a reality in his world. Later in his thoughts, he also mentions that the church is irreplaceable. He claims that replacing the church would be terrifying but wisely notes that time would tell and honesty was fundamental. He however later points out that Christianity was the biggest blow that hit human race and believes that Christianity started the lie in religion. H e thought that Christianity established intolerance because of their belief in love. In my opinion, Hitler was not against Christianity but rather what Christians of that time thought and how they practiced their faith. He makes this clear to us in his October 14, conversation. He stated that Christians who preach love were the last people who practiced it. He acknowledges that each individual has a conviction from inside that there was a supernatural being and that included him. He was opposed to what the priests made of Christianity. Hitler does not agree to the fact Russia must consult the priest before making any major decision. He believes that this has caused Russia to lose its ability to think. During midday on October 14, he stated that the end of Christianity would not mean that the belief in God would fade. He describes the belief in God as a wonderful feeling. In another private conversation, he argues that Christianity encourages people to be poor, as the poor will go to heaven. The Church therefore takes advantage of this teaching to encourage people to give offerings. The leaders benefit from this teaching. He also indicated that Protestants and Catholics should not attack each other as they were doing. Therefore, Christians of Hitler’s time did not practice what they preached and this explains his opposition towards them. Hitler also addresses the issue of society making sure that equal opportunities are accessible to each

Company law, study case Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4750 words

Company law, study case - Essay Example 1 Thus, in Rolled Steel Products (Holdings) Ltd v British Steel Corporation the disputed transaction was not held to be void. The court came to this decision as the transaction was not wholly beyond the capacity of the company.2 The directors of a private company with just one class of shares are permitted to allot the same class of shares. In addition, they can convert securities into such shares. 3 Moreover, such directors can grant rights to subscribe to such shares. However, these share allotment activities are subject to the prohibitions of the Companies Act 2006. 4 In all other instances, share allotment is permitted to the directors of the company, only if there is specific authorisation to do so by the Articles of Association of the company or there is a company resolution to that effect. Such authorisation has to specify the maximum number of shares that can be allotted under the authorisation. 5 As such, directors are instrumental in decision making and other critical funct ions of the company. The law relating to conflict of interests is intricate, and the director of a company should seek legal advice in this regard. In addition, it is necessary to ensure that the company’s constitution provides the required authority to a director in a specific situation. 6 However, Section 175 of the Companies Act 2006 does not cover all the functions of the directors. For instance, it does not deal with instances, where a director intends to have transactions with his company. This should be permitted by the constitution of the company. Moreover, under the provisions of section 177, the director has to make proper disclose to the board of the company. 7 There should be proper flow of information to the directors of a company. This is indispensable for the proper and efficient functioning of the company. As such, it is obligator for the company board to ensure that the directors have a proper flow of information. This is essential, as there is a statutory ob ligation on directors to take into consideration particular matters at the time of taking decisions. 8 Companies formed prior to the enactment of the Companies Act 2006, can acquire the same status regarding the issue of shares, by resolving to excise the clause relating to authorised share capital from their articles of association. In addition, these companies should resolve to bestow upon their directors the powers granted under section 550 of the Companies Act 2006.9 Companies formed under the Companies Act 2006 are not limited with regard to the number of shares that they can issue. 10 Section 550 of this Act provides that in the absence of a specific prohibition in the articles of association, the directors of a company with only one class of shares are at liberty to allot shares without requiring the authorisation of the shareholders.11 In addition, section 550 of the Companies Act 2006 empowers the allotment of shares by the directors of a private company that has only one c lass of shares. Such allotment of shares does not require prior authority from the members of the company. Furthermore, this power can be precluded or restricted by the members, via the Articles of Association of the company.12 In our problem, Ben and Holly realized that the Kingdom Ltd company would not be in a position to grow without the obtention of further financing for

Academic paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Academic paper - Essay Example The paper will also discuss the metrics of implementing change in the HR operations of the organization. As a recap of the SWOT analysis conducted, it has been observed that the main weakness being faced by PAC is that the management styles used by the HR department are divisive. As a result, the employees are not motivated and the other issue is that in the staffing department, only one person is responsible for performing various tasks related to recruitment along with another recruit. The other weakness is that the employee grievances are not addressed on time. The leaders lack understanding of the needs of the employees and this contributes towards low morale among them. The major threat witnessed from this analysis is that the benefits and compensation structures are significantly high and they strain the financial status of the organization. The company is paying large sums of money to cover the benefits of the employees and this scenario may not be sustainable in the long run. From the findings outlined above, it has been recommended that cost cutting measures particularly in the area of labour force should be implemented. This will go a long way in helping the company to save money while at the same time improving its operations. The human resources department should be tasked with assessing the viable measures that can be taken in order to make necessary changes that would not negatively impact on the operations of the company. The other issue is that in order for the company to operate viably, it is recommended that it should adopt change especially in the structure of human resources management. During the contemporary period, it can be observed that change in the operations of the company is inevitable due to the dynamism of the environment in which the company operates (Jackson and Schuler, 2010). Thus, enlightened leaders should anticipate change and act accordingly and they should also take a

Challenges to Defining Cybercrime

Challenges to Defining Cybercrime What is Cybercrime? At this point of time there is no commonly agreed definition of ‘Cybercrime’. The area of Cybercrime is very broad and the technical nature of the subject has made extremely difficult for authorities to come up with a precise definition of Cybercrime. The British police have defined Cybercrime as ‘use of any computer network for crime’ and council of Europe has defined Cybercrime as ‘any criminal offence against or with help of computer network. The two definitions offered by the British police and council of Europe are both very broad and they offer very little insight into the nature of conduct which falls under the defined term. Most of us do a vague idea what Cybercrime means but it seems that it is very to difficult to pinpoint the exact conduct which can be regarded as Cybercrime. For the purposes of the dissertation, I shall attempt to come up with my own definition of Cybercrime; the available definitions do not adequately explain the concept of Cybercrime. In order to understand and provide better insight into nature of Cybercrime, it will be a good idea to divide Cybercrime into two categories because computers can be used in two ways to commit Cybercrime. The first category will include crimes in which the computer was used as tool to commit the offence. The computer has enabled criminals to use the technology to commit crimes such as fraud and copyright privacy. The computer can be exploited just as another technical device which can be exploited, for e.g. a phone can be used to verbally abuse someone or stalk someone, someway the internet can be used to stalk someone or verbally abuse someone. The second category will include offences which are committed with intention of damaging or modifying computers. In this category the target of the crime is the computer itself, offences such as hacking. Whichever categories the offence committed falls in, ultimately it are us the humans who have to suffer the consequences of Cybercrime. Now we know that there are two ways in which the computer can be used to commit offences, my definition of Cybercrime would be: â€Å"Illegal acts using the computer as instrument to commit an offence, or targeting a computer network to damage or modifying computers for malicious purposes† Even my definition cannot be regarded as precise, as pointed earlier that due to the broad and technical nature of Cybercrime, it almost impossible to come up with a precise definition. The term Cybercrime is a social term to describe criminal activities which take place in world of computers; it is not an established term within the criminal law. The fact that there is no legal definition of Cybercrime within criminal law makes the whole area of Cybercrime very complicated for concerned authorities and the general public, it creates confusion such as what constitutes as Cybercrime and if Cybercrime cannot be defined properly how will the victims report the crime? The lack of proper definition means that majority of the Cybercrime which takes place is unreported as the victims and the authorities are not sure whether the conduct is a Cybercrime. It is estimated that 90% of the Cybercrime which occurs is unreported. Types of Cybercrime Computer can be used to commit various crimes, in order to have a better understanding of Cybercrime; we shall look at individually the types of crimes which are committed in the world of computers. It will not possible to describe every type of Cybercrime which exists due to the word limit, we will only concentrate on crimes which are considered to be major threats to our security. First Category Fraud Fraud can be defined as use of deception for direct or indirect financial or monetary gain. The internet can be used as means targeting the victim by replicating â€Å"real world† frauds such as get rich quick schemes which don’t exist, emails which demand an additional fee to be paid via credit card to stop loss of service such as internet or banking. The increasing availability of the internet means that fraudsters can carry out fraudulent activities on a grand scale. Fraud is a traditional crime which has existed for centuries and internet is merely a tool by which the fraudsters actions are carried out. Fraud has become a serious threat to e-commerce and other online transactions. Statistics suggest that internet only accounts for 3% of credit card fraud, credit card fraud is one of the more difficult frauds to commit on the internet, however other forms of fraud such as phising are more easier to carry out using the internet and equally lucrative. Phising is a form of fraud which is rapidly increasing. Phising is when you get emails from commercial organizations such your bank and other financial institutions, they would ask you to update your details, emails look genuine and it is a scam to trick people on giving their details. There are no official figures available on ‘phishing scams’ but on average I receive about three emails everyday asking me to update my bank account details. Recently there was email going around asking the staff members and students of LSBU to update their personal details, the email looked genuine but the ICT staff informed students/staff to ignore as it was a trick to gain personal information. Since the advancement of technology, it is has become easier and cheaper to communicate and fraudsters are also taking advantage of technology because it is easier to exploit the internet and it is cheaper than other alternatives such as phone and postal mail. There are other forms of fraud such as auction fraud, it is when buy goods in auction and you pay for the item but your item will never turn up. Fraud is one of the lucrative crimes on the internet; experts suggest that it is more than trafficking drugs. The reasons why fraudsters prefer internet is because: Internet has made mass communication easy and it is cheap, same email can be sent to millions of people very easily and cheaply with just one click of button. Majority of users do not have adequate knowledge on how technology works, this makes it easy for fraudsters to fool innocent people into taking an action such as giving their personal details. Internet users are considered naà ¯ve in the sense that they have too much faith in the information they receive via the internet, therefore, they do not take necessary steps to verify the information and often get tricked in handing out their credit card or personal details. Offences against person(s) Offence against a person can either be physical or mental, it is not possible to cause direct physical harm to a person using a computer but it is possible to cause mental harm such as anxiety, distress or psychological harm. It can be done by sending abusive or threatening emails or posting derogatory information online. Stalking is a crime which is done to harass another person repeatedly. As the number of user on the internet increased, the opportunities for abuse have also increased. It is possible to use internet as a tool for sending abusive emails, leaving offensive messages on guestbooks, or posting misinformation on blogs. In some cases, cyberstalkers have morphed images of their victims onto pornographic images and then emailing the pictures to relative and work colleagues to cause embarrassment. There are mainly three reasons for committing a crime such as stalking, Main reason is usually when relationships fail, former intimates usually target their ex-boyfriend/girlfriend to get revenge. Second reason for cyberstalking is boredom; some people usually pick random people and target them by sending them abusive and threatening emails just for fun. Cyberstalkers take advantage of anonymity of the internet to cause distress to their victim’s life. Hate and racist speech is also a form of crime which escalated since the introduction of the internet; it can cause traumatic experience and mental distress to those who are targeted. Post 9/11, there have been many websites set up to mock the religion Islam, such as www.laughingatislam.com, this website has been cause of distress to many Muslims around the world. Sexual offences This category includes offences which have sexual element, such as making undesired sexual approaches in chat-rooms and paedophiles harrasing children. Child pornography and child protection are one of the main concerns on the internet. Paedophiles are taking full advantage to exploit the technology for viewing and exchanging child pornography. Paedophiles use the internet to their advantage, they use chat rooms and other popular social networks such as facebook to entice and lure children into meeting them. Many popular chat rooms such as MSN Chat and Yahoo chat have closed down their chat rooms to protect young children but closure of popular chat rooms have not stopped paedophiles from using less popular chat rooms and other social networks. Second category Hacking related offences Hacking can be defined as gaining unauthorised access to a computer system. As soon as we hear the word ‘hacking’, we tend to think that it is a crime, it should be noted that hacking started of as show of skill to gain temporary access to computer systems. It was rather an intellectual challenge than a criminal motive. But now, many hackers misuse their skills to inflict damage and destruction. Examples of hacking include stealing confident information such credit card details. In a recent incident of hacking, Harriet Harman whose is a politician, taking part in upcoming elections. Her website was hacked and the blog section of her website encouraged the audience to vote for Boris Johnson whose is a competitor of Harman Harriet. Boris Johnson has also complained that his email account was hacked recently. Most politicians believe that internet as a medium will be a major part of election campaigns and activities such as hacking can sabotage election campaigns by posting disinformation on candidate’s websites. Virus and Other Malicious Programs Virus is a malicious code or program that replicates itself and inserts copies or new versions onto other programs, affecting computer systems. Viruses are designed to modify computer systems without the consent of the owner or operator. Viruses are created to inflict senseless damage to computer system. It is a widely accepted perception that crime is committed in times economic distress. Criminals do not gain any monetary benefit; it is simply done to show off their computer skills. Some viruses are failed programs or accidental releases. The most famous virus which was released is the I LOVE YOU virus or commonly known as the ‘love bug’. The virus damaged millions of computers worldwide; it caused damage worth of $8.5bn, the author of the virus claims that it was released to impress his girlfriend. Legislation on Cybercrime It is often believed that the internet is just like the ‘wild west’ where there no rules and regulations and people are free to carry out illegal activities. Fortunately, this is not true at all; there is legislation which exists to protect us from cybercrimes. Type of crime Legislation Fraud Fraud Act 2006(Covers all types of possible frauds) Offences against person(s) The Public Order Act 1986(Hate speech) Sexual Offences The Protection of children Act 1978 The Criminal Justice Act 1988 The Criminal Justice an Public Order Act 1988 Sexual Offences Act 2003 After carefully reviewing all pieces of legislations mentioned above, I can conclude by saying that legislation we have at the moment is adequate enough to protect us from any sort of traditional crime carried out using computers. There were few anomalies which have been removed now. Anomalies The Theft Act 1968 which previously covered fraud has been replaced by Fraud Act 2006 to cover anomaly under the previous legislation. In the case of Clayman, it was held that it is not unlawful to defraud a computer; the courts do not regard computers as deceivable as the process is fully automated. In theory if we apply the principle deriving from the Clayman case then it will not be unlawful to false credit card number when signing up for an online service such as subscription to a newsgroup or online gaming. There is only exception to this rule that it will not apply if deception involves licensed telecommunications services, such as dial-up chat lines pay-per-view TV. Second anomaly before us was that information was not regarded property. In the case of Oxford v Moss, in this case a student took a copy of forthcoming exam from a lecturer’s desk and made a photocopy of that exam paper, it was held that the student cannot be charged under the theft act as he did not deprive the owner of the asset, a copy had simply been taken. Computers only contain information, by applying the principle deriving from this case, it means that it is acceptable to print other people’s files as long they do not deprive the owner of the file by deleting it, one would only be prosecuted if he/she steals trade secret or confidential information. Decisions in both cases mentioned above are absurd, both of them were decided in 1970s, the only possible reason for reaching absurd decision could only be lack of knowledge on technology. Previous legislation took into account the consequences of the fraudster’s activities when deciding whether the conduct in question is an offence. The Fraud Act 2006 aims to prosecute the fraudsters on the basis of their actual conduct rather than the consequences of their activities. How serious is the threat? In order to determine the seriousness of the threat, it is important to look at the statistics available on cybercrime. Type of crime Number of cases reported Fraud 299,000 Offences against the person 1,944000 Sexual offences 850,238 Computer Misuse(Hacking) 144,500 Virus related incidents 6,000000 Total number of cases reported 9,237738 Source of statistics: Garlik According to the figures, they were approximately 9.23 million incidents of cybercrime reported in the year 2006. Statistics show that 15% of the population of the UK was affected by cybercrime in someway, after looking at these figures; one can easily conclude that we are having an epidemic of cybercrime. These statistics could only the tip of the iceberg of the totality of cybercrime; experts believe that real figure could be 10 times higher as cybercrime is massively under-reported. Reasons for under-reporting Reporting any crime involves a three stage process: The conduct needs to be observed. The conduct needs to categorised as criminal. The relevant authorities need to be informed of the criminal conduct. A particular crime will not be reported if there is failure in any of the stages, therefore the relevant authorities will not take action against the criminal. There are certain factors which affect reporting of cybercrime, factors include: Sometimes the criminal conduct is not noticed, internet fraud usually comprises of low-value transactions across a bulk body of victims, and victims are not always able to spot discrepancy in their bank accounts. Lack of awareness means that the victims may not know whether the conduct in question is a crime. Victims of viruses don’t see them as victims of crime, people tend to see viruses as technical issue, and therefore, the victim would believe that no one has broken the law. Most victims don’t know which authorities they should contact to report cybercrime. Police officers have inadequate amount of resources and don’t have the expertise to deal with cybercrime at the moment, therefore, pursuing a formal complaint can be a difficult process. Once I tried reporting a cybercrime, a laptop was purchased on EBay but the seller took my money and never sent the laptop, this is a common case of auction fraud. I did try to make a complain, the whole process was extremely slow, the officer dealing with me had no clue what EBay is, I was able to register a complaint but it has been two years and my complain is still unresolved. Under-reporting is factor which contributes towards increase in cybercrime, under-reporting mean that criminals will have less fear of getting caught and therefore, they are more likely to commit illegal acts online. People’s attitude towards cybercrime Traditional crimes such as murder, rape and robbery can have serious effects on the victim’s life; in some cases the victim may not be able to lead a normal life after being a victim of crime. In contrast to cybercrime, the impact is not that serious, majority of users have insurance against financial frauds, and frauds are usually of low-value. Viruses can easily be filtered using antivirus software. Other offences such as cyberstalking usually cause some anxiety and distress. Only crimes such as child pornography have a greater impact, it is the only the crime which can have a serious consequences on the victims life. A recent survey suggest that only 37% are afraid to use the internet after being a victim of crime, majority of the users do continue to use the internet after being a victim. Cybercrime and e-commerce Cybercrime is a growing concern for all of us, however, the effects of cybercrime are not hindering the growth of the internet, and the effects of cybercrime on the e-commerce have not been drastic. Financial transactions over the internet are on the rise, number of people using internet for shopping is increase day by day and over one third of population is using internet banking. One of the reasons why cybercrime spiraling out of control is the fact that it is very easy to commit if have the technical knowledge, all you need is a computer connected to the internet, the crimes on the internet are hard to detect. It can be committed from anywhere in the world, the criminal could sitting in Africa and targeting his victim in Australia. In the next chapter, we shall examine the problems faced by authorities when investigating cybercrime. Jurisdiction Jurisdictional issues and the cyberspace Cyberspace is a world without defined boundaries; anyone can access any website using his computer. It can very difficult to locate the source of crime in cyberspace because relative anonymity and as easy way to shield identity. Even if the relevant authorities are able to identify the source of crime, it is not always easy to prosecute the criminal. Double criminality When dealing cross border crime, it is imperative that both countries should recognise the conduct as illegal in both jurisdictions. The principle of double criminality prohibits the extradition of a person, if the conduct in question is not recognized as a criminal offence by the country receiving the request for jurisdiction. Imagine a situation where a computer programmer from Zimbabwe sends Barclays bank a virus which causes the computers in Barclays bank to malfunction, the bank cannot carry out their business for 1 hour and as a result they lose about $1 million worth of revenue. English authorities would want to extradite the offender to England so they could prosecute the offender. In an action for extradition, the applicant is required to show that actions of the accused constitute a criminal offence exceeding a minimum level of seriousness in both jurisdictions. Imagine now that they are no laws on spreading viruses in Zimbabwe, therefore it will not possible to show offender’s action constitute as criminal behavior. If they are no laws regarding on cybercrime in Zimbabwe then he cannot be extradited and he will walk free after deliberately causing damage to Barclays bank. Cybercrime has an international dimension, it is imperative that legal protection is harmonised internationally. There are still about 33 countries such as Albania, Yugoslavia and Malta; they have no laws on cybercrimes. If there are no laws then those countries are considered as computer crime havens. The perpetrator of ‘I LOVE YOU’ virus which caused $8.5 billion worth damage was caught in Philippines but he could not be prosecuted as Philippines had no laws on cybercrime. Cybercrime is global issue and the world will need to work together in order to tackle cybercrime. How real world crime dealt across borders? In relation to real world crime which transcended national borders, an idiosyncratic network of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties(MLATs) bound various countries to assist each other in investigating real world crime, such as drug trafficking. If there was no treaty agreement between two countries then they would contact the relevant authorities to ask for assistance and obtain evidence, this mechanism was sufficient in dealing with real world crime. This mechanism can only work if both countries have similar cybercrime laws; if any country lacks cybercrime laws then the process would fail. How should Jurisdiction be approached in Cybercrime? In a case of cyberstalking, An Australian man was stalking a Canadian Actress. The man harassed the actress by sending unsolicited emails. Australian Supreme Court of Victoria held that crimes ‘committed over the internet knows no borders’ and ‘State and national boundaries do not concern them’, therefore, jurisdiction should not be the issue. He was convicted. This case was straightforward as both nations recognise stalking as a criminal offence, however, there can be conflicts if both nations do not recognize the act as criminal. In Licra v Yahoo, French courts tried to exercise jurisdiction over an American company. Yahoo was accused of Nazi memorabilia contrary to Article R645-1 of the French Criminal Code. Yahoo argued that there are not in breach of Article R645-1 as they were conducting the auction under the jurisdiction of USA and it is not illegal to sell Nazi memorabilia under the American law. In order to prove that Yahoo is subject American jurisdiction, they argued the following points: Yahoo servers are located in US territory. Services of Yahoo are primarily aimed at US citizens. According to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed and any attempt to enforce judgement which restricts freedom of speech and expression would fail for unconstitutionality. The court ruled that they have full jurisdiction over Yahoo because: The auction was open to worldwide bidders, including France. It is possible to view the auction in France, viewing and displaying Nazi memorabilia causes public nuisance and it is offence to public nuisance under the French law. Yahoo had a customer base in France, the advertisements were in French. Yahoo did have knowledge that French citizens use their site; therefore they should not do anything to offend French citizens. Yahoo ignored the French court ruling and kept saying that they French court does not have the right to exercise jurisdiction over an American company. Yahoo was warned that they would have to pay heavy fines if they don’t comply. In the end Yahoo owners did comply with the judgement they had substantial assets in France which were at risk of being confiscated if they don’t claim. The sole reason why French courts were able to exercise jurisdiction over Yahoo because it is a multinational company with large presence in France. Imagine instead of France, if the action would have been taken by courts of Saudi Arabia on auctioning playboy magazines, under the Saudi Arabian Sharia law, it is illegal to view or buy pornography. Saudi Arabia court would have failed to exercise jurisdiction over Yahoo as they don’t have any presence in Saudi Arabia but it was possible to view Yahoo auctions from Saudi Arabia. The case of Yahoo is a rare example where a court was able to exercise jurisdiction over a foreign company. In majority of the cases concerning individuals, courts trying to exercise jurisdiction over foreign elements are usually ignored. In the case of Nottinghamshire County Council v. Gwatkin (UK), injunctions were issued against many journalists to prevent them from publishing disseminating a leaked report that strongly criticises [the Councils] handling of allegations of satanic abuse of children in the 1980s. Despite the injunctions, a report appeared on an American website. The website refused to respect the English jurisdiction as they argued that the report was a public document. The Nottinghamshire had no option then to drop the case. Cybercrime has an international dimension. International law is complicated area, it can be very difficult to co-operate with authorities if there is no or weak diplomatic ties, for e.g. Pakistan and Israel have no diplomatic ties, if a situation arises where Israeli citizen hacks into State bank of Pakistan steals millions of dollars from the bank, in a situation like this, one easily assume that both countries would not co-operate with each other even though both countries recognise hacking as a offence but they do not have diplomatic ties with each other, most probably the hacker would get away with the crime. A case involving Russian hackers, they hacked into Paypal and stole 53,000 credit card details. Paypal is an American company. The Russian hackers blackmailed Paypal and asked for a substantial amount of money, they threatened they would publish the details of 53,000 credit cards if they do not receive the money. Russia and American both have signed extradition treaty but still Russian authorities failed to take action, it is still not clear why they did not take appropriate action against the Russian hackers. Both nations struggled to gain jurisdiction over each other. FBI decided to take things into their own hands by setting up a secret operation, undercover agents posed as reprenstatives of a bogus security firm Invita. The bogus security firm invited the Russian hackers to US with prospects of employment. When the interview for employment by the bogus firm Invita was being carried out, the Russian hackers were asked to display there hacking skills, one of the hackers accessed his own system in Russia to show off his skills, the FBI recorded every keystroke and later arrested the Russian hackers for multiple offences such as hacking, fraud and extortion. The keystrokes recorded were later used to hack into one of the hacker’s computer in Russia to access incriminating evidence. All this took place without the knowledge of Russian authorities. When Russian authorities came to know about whole incident, they were furious and argued that US misused their authority and infringing on another sovereign nation’s jurisdiction. Lack of co-operation in relation to jurisdiction can lead to serious problems between nations, in order to avoid such conflicts, there is need to address the jurisdiction issue and come up with a mechanism which ensures that countries co-operate with each other. Where is the Jurisdiction? In the real world crime, the conduct and the effect of the conduct are easy to pin down because we can visibly see the human carrying out the conduct and the effect of the conduct is also visible. The location of the offence and the location of the perpetrator can easily be identified. Imagine a situation in which a shooter in Canada shots an American across Niagara Falls, it is clear from the example that the conduct took place in Canada and the effect of the conduct took place in Canada. Cyberspace is not real, people say that events on cyberspace occur everywhere and nowhere, a man disseminating a virus could release a virus which travel through servers of many different country before reaching the victim, for e.g. a person makes a racist website targeting Jews in Malta, uploads the website on American servers and the website is available for everyone to see, a Jewish living in Israel comes across the website and gets offended. In a situation like this where would you bring an action, should you bring an action in Malta because the perpetrator is based over there, would bring an action in America where the server is hosted or would bring the action in Israel where the victim is? There are specific laws regarding jurisdiction issues on the internet, the world is still struggling to come up with a solution which would solve the problem of jurisdiction. Positive or Negative Jurisdiction? The principle of negative jurisdiction occurs when no country is willing to exercise jurisdiction for a cybercrime. Cybercrime can have multiple victims in different countries; the ‘love bug’ caused damage in many different countries including USA, UK, France and Germany. If the damage is caused to multiple countries then who should claim jurisdiction over the cybercrime, should it by prioritised by the amount of damage suffered by each country. If the effected countries decide not to take action against the perpetrator because it is not in their best interest, the country may be occupied by other internal problems. If no country is willing to exercise jurisdiction over a cybercrime then the perpetrator would walk free. Positive jurisdiction is opposite of negative jurisdiction, how will the issue of jurisdiction be decided if more than two countries want to exercise t Challenges to Defining Cybercrime Challenges to Defining Cybercrime What is Cybercrime? At this point of time there is no commonly agreed definition of ‘Cybercrime’. The area of Cybercrime is very broad and the technical nature of the subject has made extremely difficult for authorities to come up with a precise definition of Cybercrime. The British police have defined Cybercrime as ‘use of any computer network for crime’ and council of Europe has defined Cybercrime as ‘any criminal offence against or with help of computer network. The two definitions offered by the British police and council of Europe are both very broad and they offer very little insight into the nature of conduct which falls under the defined term. Most of us do a vague idea what Cybercrime means but it seems that it is very to difficult to pinpoint the exact conduct which can be regarded as Cybercrime. For the purposes of the dissertation, I shall attempt to come up with my own definition of Cybercrime; the available definitions do not adequately explain the concept of Cybercrime. In order to understand and provide better insight into nature of Cybercrime, it will be a good idea to divide Cybercrime into two categories because computers can be used in two ways to commit Cybercrime. The first category will include crimes in which the computer was used as tool to commit the offence. The computer has enabled criminals to use the technology to commit crimes such as fraud and copyright privacy. The computer can be exploited just as another technical device which can be exploited, for e.g. a phone can be used to verbally abuse someone or stalk someone, someway the internet can be used to stalk someone or verbally abuse someone. The second category will include offences which are committed with intention of damaging or modifying computers. In this category the target of the crime is the computer itself, offences such as hacking. Whichever categories the offence committed falls in, ultimately it are us the humans who have to suffer the consequences of Cybercrime. Now we know that there are two ways in which the computer can be used to commit offences, my definition of Cybercrime would be: â€Å"Illegal acts using the computer as instrument to commit an offence, or targeting a computer network to damage or modifying computers for malicious purposes† Even my definition cannot be regarded as precise, as pointed earlier that due to the broad and technical nature of Cybercrime, it almost impossible to come up with a precise definition. The term Cybercrime is a social term to describe criminal activities which take place in world of computers; it is not an established term within the criminal law. The fact that there is no legal definition of Cybercrime within criminal law makes the whole area of Cybercrime very complicated for concerned authorities and the general public, it creates confusion such as what constitutes as Cybercrime and if Cybercrime cannot be defined properly how will the victims report the crime? The lack of proper definition means that majority of the Cybercrime which takes place is unreported as the victims and the authorities are not sure whether the conduct is a Cybercrime. It is estimated that 90% of the Cybercrime which occurs is unreported. Types of Cybercrime Computer can be used to commit various crimes, in order to have a better understanding of Cybercrime; we shall look at individually the types of crimes which are committed in the world of computers. It will not possible to describe every type of Cybercrime which exists due to the word limit, we will only concentrate on crimes which are considered to be major threats to our security. First Category Fraud Fraud can be defined as use of deception for direct or indirect financial or monetary gain. The internet can be used as means targeting the victim by replicating â€Å"real world† frauds such as get rich quick schemes which don’t exist, emails which demand an additional fee to be paid via credit card to stop loss of service such as internet or banking. The increasing availability of the internet means that fraudsters can carry out fraudulent activities on a grand scale. Fraud is a traditional crime which has existed for centuries and internet is merely a tool by which the fraudsters actions are carried out. Fraud has become a serious threat to e-commerce and other online transactions. Statistics suggest that internet only accounts for 3% of credit card fraud, credit card fraud is one of the more difficult frauds to commit on the internet, however other forms of fraud such as phising are more easier to carry out using the internet and equally lucrative. Phising is a form of fraud which is rapidly increasing. Phising is when you get emails from commercial organizations such your bank and other financial institutions, they would ask you to update your details, emails look genuine and it is a scam to trick people on giving their details. There are no official figures available on ‘phishing scams’ but on average I receive about three emails everyday asking me to update my bank account details. Recently there was email going around asking the staff members and students of LSBU to update their personal details, the email looked genuine but the ICT staff informed students/staff to ignore as it was a trick to gain personal information. Since the advancement of technology, it is has become easier and cheaper to communicate and fraudsters are also taking advantage of technology because it is easier to exploit the internet and it is cheaper than other alternatives such as phone and postal mail. There are other forms of fraud such as auction fraud, it is when buy goods in auction and you pay for the item but your item will never turn up. Fraud is one of the lucrative crimes on the internet; experts suggest that it is more than trafficking drugs. The reasons why fraudsters prefer internet is because: Internet has made mass communication easy and it is cheap, same email can be sent to millions of people very easily and cheaply with just one click of button. Majority of users do not have adequate knowledge on how technology works, this makes it easy for fraudsters to fool innocent people into taking an action such as giving their personal details. Internet users are considered naà ¯ve in the sense that they have too much faith in the information they receive via the internet, therefore, they do not take necessary steps to verify the information and often get tricked in handing out their credit card or personal details. Offences against person(s) Offence against a person can either be physical or mental, it is not possible to cause direct physical harm to a person using a computer but it is possible to cause mental harm such as anxiety, distress or psychological harm. It can be done by sending abusive or threatening emails or posting derogatory information online. Stalking is a crime which is done to harass another person repeatedly. As the number of user on the internet increased, the opportunities for abuse have also increased. It is possible to use internet as a tool for sending abusive emails, leaving offensive messages on guestbooks, or posting misinformation on blogs. In some cases, cyberstalkers have morphed images of their victims onto pornographic images and then emailing the pictures to relative and work colleagues to cause embarrassment. There are mainly three reasons for committing a crime such as stalking, Main reason is usually when relationships fail, former intimates usually target their ex-boyfriend/girlfriend to get revenge. Second reason for cyberstalking is boredom; some people usually pick random people and target them by sending them abusive and threatening emails just for fun. Cyberstalkers take advantage of anonymity of the internet to cause distress to their victim’s life. Hate and racist speech is also a form of crime which escalated since the introduction of the internet; it can cause traumatic experience and mental distress to those who are targeted. Post 9/11, there have been many websites set up to mock the religion Islam, such as www.laughingatislam.com, this website has been cause of distress to many Muslims around the world. Sexual offences This category includes offences which have sexual element, such as making undesired sexual approaches in chat-rooms and paedophiles harrasing children. Child pornography and child protection are one of the main concerns on the internet. Paedophiles are taking full advantage to exploit the technology for viewing and exchanging child pornography. Paedophiles use the internet to their advantage, they use chat rooms and other popular social networks such as facebook to entice and lure children into meeting them. Many popular chat rooms such as MSN Chat and Yahoo chat have closed down their chat rooms to protect young children but closure of popular chat rooms have not stopped paedophiles from using less popular chat rooms and other social networks. Second category Hacking related offences Hacking can be defined as gaining unauthorised access to a computer system. As soon as we hear the word ‘hacking’, we tend to think that it is a crime, it should be noted that hacking started of as show of skill to gain temporary access to computer systems. It was rather an intellectual challenge than a criminal motive. But now, many hackers misuse their skills to inflict damage and destruction. Examples of hacking include stealing confident information such credit card details. In a recent incident of hacking, Harriet Harman whose is a politician, taking part in upcoming elections. Her website was hacked and the blog section of her website encouraged the audience to vote for Boris Johnson whose is a competitor of Harman Harriet. Boris Johnson has also complained that his email account was hacked recently. Most politicians believe that internet as a medium will be a major part of election campaigns and activities such as hacking can sabotage election campaigns by posting disinformation on candidate’s websites. Virus and Other Malicious Programs Virus is a malicious code or program that replicates itself and inserts copies or new versions onto other programs, affecting computer systems. Viruses are designed to modify computer systems without the consent of the owner or operator. Viruses are created to inflict senseless damage to computer system. It is a widely accepted perception that crime is committed in times economic distress. Criminals do not gain any monetary benefit; it is simply done to show off their computer skills. Some viruses are failed programs or accidental releases. The most famous virus which was released is the I LOVE YOU virus or commonly known as the ‘love bug’. The virus damaged millions of computers worldwide; it caused damage worth of $8.5bn, the author of the virus claims that it was released to impress his girlfriend. Legislation on Cybercrime It is often believed that the internet is just like the ‘wild west’ where there no rules and regulations and people are free to carry out illegal activities. Fortunately, this is not true at all; there is legislation which exists to protect us from cybercrimes. Type of crime Legislation Fraud Fraud Act 2006(Covers all types of possible frauds) Offences against person(s) The Public Order Act 1986(Hate speech) Sexual Offences The Protection of children Act 1978 The Criminal Justice Act 1988 The Criminal Justice an Public Order Act 1988 Sexual Offences Act 2003 After carefully reviewing all pieces of legislations mentioned above, I can conclude by saying that legislation we have at the moment is adequate enough to protect us from any sort of traditional crime carried out using computers. There were few anomalies which have been removed now. Anomalies The Theft Act 1968 which previously covered fraud has been replaced by Fraud Act 2006 to cover anomaly under the previous legislation. In the case of Clayman, it was held that it is not unlawful to defraud a computer; the courts do not regard computers as deceivable as the process is fully automated. In theory if we apply the principle deriving from the Clayman case then it will not be unlawful to false credit card number when signing up for an online service such as subscription to a newsgroup or online gaming. There is only exception to this rule that it will not apply if deception involves licensed telecommunications services, such as dial-up chat lines pay-per-view TV. Second anomaly before us was that information was not regarded property. In the case of Oxford v Moss, in this case a student took a copy of forthcoming exam from a lecturer’s desk and made a photocopy of that exam paper, it was held that the student cannot be charged under the theft act as he did not deprive the owner of the asset, a copy had simply been taken. Computers only contain information, by applying the principle deriving from this case, it means that it is acceptable to print other people’s files as long they do not deprive the owner of the file by deleting it, one would only be prosecuted if he/she steals trade secret or confidential information. Decisions in both cases mentioned above are absurd, both of them were decided in 1970s, the only possible reason for reaching absurd decision could only be lack of knowledge on technology. Previous legislation took into account the consequences of the fraudster’s activities when deciding whether the conduct in question is an offence. The Fraud Act 2006 aims to prosecute the fraudsters on the basis of their actual conduct rather than the consequences of their activities. How serious is the threat? In order to determine the seriousness of the threat, it is important to look at the statistics available on cybercrime. Type of crime Number of cases reported Fraud 299,000 Offences against the person 1,944000 Sexual offences 850,238 Computer Misuse(Hacking) 144,500 Virus related incidents 6,000000 Total number of cases reported 9,237738 Source of statistics: Garlik According to the figures, they were approximately 9.23 million incidents of cybercrime reported in the year 2006. Statistics show that 15% of the population of the UK was affected by cybercrime in someway, after looking at these figures; one can easily conclude that we are having an epidemic of cybercrime. These statistics could only the tip of the iceberg of the totality of cybercrime; experts believe that real figure could be 10 times higher as cybercrime is massively under-reported. Reasons for under-reporting Reporting any crime involves a three stage process: The conduct needs to be observed. The conduct needs to categorised as criminal. The relevant authorities need to be informed of the criminal conduct. A particular crime will not be reported if there is failure in any of the stages, therefore the relevant authorities will not take action against the criminal. There are certain factors which affect reporting of cybercrime, factors include: Sometimes the criminal conduct is not noticed, internet fraud usually comprises of low-value transactions across a bulk body of victims, and victims are not always able to spot discrepancy in their bank accounts. Lack of awareness means that the victims may not know whether the conduct in question is a crime. Victims of viruses don’t see them as victims of crime, people tend to see viruses as technical issue, and therefore, the victim would believe that no one has broken the law. Most victims don’t know which authorities they should contact to report cybercrime. Police officers have inadequate amount of resources and don’t have the expertise to deal with cybercrime at the moment, therefore, pursuing a formal complaint can be a difficult process. Once I tried reporting a cybercrime, a laptop was purchased on EBay but the seller took my money and never sent the laptop, this is a common case of auction fraud. I did try to make a complain, the whole process was extremely slow, the officer dealing with me had no clue what EBay is, I was able to register a complaint but it has been two years and my complain is still unresolved. Under-reporting is factor which contributes towards increase in cybercrime, under-reporting mean that criminals will have less fear of getting caught and therefore, they are more likely to commit illegal acts online. People’s attitude towards cybercrime Traditional crimes such as murder, rape and robbery can have serious effects on the victim’s life; in some cases the victim may not be able to lead a normal life after being a victim of crime. In contrast to cybercrime, the impact is not that serious, majority of users have insurance against financial frauds, and frauds are usually of low-value. Viruses can easily be filtered using antivirus software. Other offences such as cyberstalking usually cause some anxiety and distress. Only crimes such as child pornography have a greater impact, it is the only the crime which can have a serious consequences on the victims life. A recent survey suggest that only 37% are afraid to use the internet after being a victim of crime, majority of the users do continue to use the internet after being a victim. Cybercrime and e-commerce Cybercrime is a growing concern for all of us, however, the effects of cybercrime are not hindering the growth of the internet, and the effects of cybercrime on the e-commerce have not been drastic. Financial transactions over the internet are on the rise, number of people using internet for shopping is increase day by day and over one third of population is using internet banking. One of the reasons why cybercrime spiraling out of control is the fact that it is very easy to commit if have the technical knowledge, all you need is a computer connected to the internet, the crimes on the internet are hard to detect. It can be committed from anywhere in the world, the criminal could sitting in Africa and targeting his victim in Australia. In the next chapter, we shall examine the problems faced by authorities when investigating cybercrime. Jurisdiction Jurisdictional issues and the cyberspace Cyberspace is a world without defined boundaries; anyone can access any website using his computer. It can very difficult to locate the source of crime in cyberspace because relative anonymity and as easy way to shield identity. Even if the relevant authorities are able to identify the source of crime, it is not always easy to prosecute the criminal. Double criminality When dealing cross border crime, it is imperative that both countries should recognise the conduct as illegal in both jurisdictions. The principle of double criminality prohibits the extradition of a person, if the conduct in question is not recognized as a criminal offence by the country receiving the request for jurisdiction. Imagine a situation where a computer programmer from Zimbabwe sends Barclays bank a virus which causes the computers in Barclays bank to malfunction, the bank cannot carry out their business for 1 hour and as a result they lose about $1 million worth of revenue. English authorities would want to extradite the offender to England so they could prosecute the offender. In an action for extradition, the applicant is required to show that actions of the accused constitute a criminal offence exceeding a minimum level of seriousness in both jurisdictions. Imagine now that they are no laws on spreading viruses in Zimbabwe, therefore it will not possible to show offender’s action constitute as criminal behavior. If they are no laws regarding on cybercrime in Zimbabwe then he cannot be extradited and he will walk free after deliberately causing damage to Barclays bank. Cybercrime has an international dimension, it is imperative that legal protection is harmonised internationally. There are still about 33 countries such as Albania, Yugoslavia and Malta; they have no laws on cybercrimes. If there are no laws then those countries are considered as computer crime havens. The perpetrator of ‘I LOVE YOU’ virus which caused $8.5 billion worth damage was caught in Philippines but he could not be prosecuted as Philippines had no laws on cybercrime. Cybercrime is global issue and the world will need to work together in order to tackle cybercrime. How real world crime dealt across borders? In relation to real world crime which transcended national borders, an idiosyncratic network of Mutual Legal Assistance Treaties(MLATs) bound various countries to assist each other in investigating real world crime, such as drug trafficking. If there was no treaty agreement between two countries then they would contact the relevant authorities to ask for assistance and obtain evidence, this mechanism was sufficient in dealing with real world crime. This mechanism can only work if both countries have similar cybercrime laws; if any country lacks cybercrime laws then the process would fail. How should Jurisdiction be approached in Cybercrime? In a case of cyberstalking, An Australian man was stalking a Canadian Actress. The man harassed the actress by sending unsolicited emails. Australian Supreme Court of Victoria held that crimes ‘committed over the internet knows no borders’ and ‘State and national boundaries do not concern them’, therefore, jurisdiction should not be the issue. He was convicted. This case was straightforward as both nations recognise stalking as a criminal offence, however, there can be conflicts if both nations do not recognize the act as criminal. In Licra v Yahoo, French courts tried to exercise jurisdiction over an American company. Yahoo was accused of Nazi memorabilia contrary to Article R645-1 of the French Criminal Code. Yahoo argued that there are not in breach of Article R645-1 as they were conducting the auction under the jurisdiction of USA and it is not illegal to sell Nazi memorabilia under the American law. In order to prove that Yahoo is subject American jurisdiction, they argued the following points: Yahoo servers are located in US territory. Services of Yahoo are primarily aimed at US citizens. According to the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, freedom of speech and expression is guaranteed and any attempt to enforce judgement which restricts freedom of speech and expression would fail for unconstitutionality. The court ruled that they have full jurisdiction over Yahoo because: The auction was open to worldwide bidders, including France. It is possible to view the auction in France, viewing and displaying Nazi memorabilia causes public nuisance and it is offence to public nuisance under the French law. Yahoo had a customer base in France, the advertisements were in French. Yahoo did have knowledge that French citizens use their site; therefore they should not do anything to offend French citizens. Yahoo ignored the French court ruling and kept saying that they French court does not have the right to exercise jurisdiction over an American company. Yahoo was warned that they would have to pay heavy fines if they don’t comply. In the end Yahoo owners did comply with the judgement they had substantial assets in France which were at risk of being confiscated if they don’t claim. The sole reason why French courts were able to exercise jurisdiction over Yahoo because it is a multinational company with large presence in France. Imagine instead of France, if the action would have been taken by courts of Saudi Arabia on auctioning playboy magazines, under the Saudi Arabian Sharia law, it is illegal to view or buy pornography. Saudi Arabia court would have failed to exercise jurisdiction over Yahoo as they don’t have any presence in Saudi Arabia but it was possible to view Yahoo auctions from Saudi Arabia. The case of Yahoo is a rare example where a court was able to exercise jurisdiction over a foreign company. In majority of the cases concerning individuals, courts trying to exercise jurisdiction over foreign elements are usually ignored. In the case of Nottinghamshire County Council v. Gwatkin (UK), injunctions were issued against many journalists to prevent them from publishing disseminating a leaked report that strongly criticises [the Councils] handling of allegations of satanic abuse of children in the 1980s. Despite the injunctions, a report appeared on an American website. The website refused to respect the English jurisdiction as they argued that the report was a public document. The Nottinghamshire had no option then to drop the case. Cybercrime has an international dimension. International law is complicated area, it can be very difficult to co-operate with authorities if there is no or weak diplomatic ties, for e.g. Pakistan and Israel have no diplomatic ties, if a situation arises where Israeli citizen hacks into State bank of Pakistan steals millions of dollars from the bank, in a situation like this, one easily assume that both countries would not co-operate with each other even though both countries recognise hacking as a offence but they do not have diplomatic ties with each other, most probably the hacker would get away with the crime. A case involving Russian hackers, they hacked into Paypal and stole 53,000 credit card details. Paypal is an American company. The Russian hackers blackmailed Paypal and asked for a substantial amount of money, they threatened they would publish the details of 53,000 credit cards if they do not receive the money. Russia and American both have signed extradition treaty but still Russian authorities failed to take action, it is still not clear why they did not take appropriate action against the Russian hackers. Both nations struggled to gain jurisdiction over each other. FBI decided to take things into their own hands by setting up a secret operation, undercover agents posed as reprenstatives of a bogus security firm Invita. The bogus security firm invited the Russian hackers to US with prospects of employment. When the interview for employment by the bogus firm Invita was being carried out, the Russian hackers were asked to display there hacking skills, one of the hackers accessed his own system in Russia to show off his skills, the FBI recorded every keystroke and later arrested the Russian hackers for multiple offences such as hacking, fraud and extortion. The keystrokes recorded were later used to hack into one of the hacker’s computer in Russia to access incriminating evidence. All this took place without the knowledge of Russian authorities. When Russian authorities came to know about whole incident, they were furious and argued that US misused their authority and infringing on another sovereign nation’s jurisdiction. Lack of co-operation in relation to jurisdiction can lead to serious problems between nations, in order to avoid such conflicts, there is need to address the jurisdiction issue and come up with a mechanism which ensures that countries co-operate with each other. Where is the Jurisdiction? In the real world crime, the conduct and the effect of the conduct are easy to pin down because we can visibly see the human carrying out the conduct and the effect of the conduct is also visible. The location of the offence and the location of the perpetrator can easily be identified. Imagine a situation in which a shooter in Canada shots an American across Niagara Falls, it is clear from the example that the conduct took place in Canada and the effect of the conduct took place in Canada. Cyberspace is not real, people say that events on cyberspace occur everywhere and nowhere, a man disseminating a virus could release a virus which travel through servers of many different country before reaching the victim, for e.g. a person makes a racist website targeting Jews in Malta, uploads the website on American servers and the website is available for everyone to see, a Jewish living in Israel comes across the website and gets offended. In a situation like this where would you bring an action, should you bring an action in Malta because the perpetrator is based over there, would bring an action in America where the server is hosted or would bring the action in Israel where the victim is? There are specific laws regarding jurisdiction issues on the internet, the world is still struggling to come up with a solution which would solve the problem of jurisdiction. Positive or Negative Jurisdiction? The principle of negative jurisdiction occurs when no country is willing to exercise jurisdiction for a cybercrime. Cybercrime can have multiple victims in different countries; the ‘love bug’ caused damage in many different countries including USA, UK, France and Germany. If the damage is caused to multiple countries then who should claim jurisdiction over the cybercrime, should it by prioritised by the amount of damage suffered by each country. If the effected countries decide not to take action against the perpetrator because it is not in their best interest, the country may be occupied by other internal problems. If no country is willing to exercise jurisdiction over a cybercrime then the perpetrator would walk free. Positive jurisdiction is opposite of negative jurisdiction, how will the issue of jurisdiction be decided if more than two countries want to exercise t

The Emergence of the Middle Ages: 1000 ad Essay -- essays research pap

The Emergence of the Middle Ages: 1000 AD When the Old World Order began to crumble with the fall of the Roman Empire and the break up of the Mediterranean the foundation was laid for a new type of civilization to emerge, a â€Å"western civilization†. The Empire in the East continued, based in Constantinople.. It was the most obvious heir to the culture of the classical world. This culture still dominates Eastern Europe and Russia, through Orthodoxy. Islam was the religion of Arab townsmen. Led by Mohammad (d. c. 640, Hijira 622). They swept out of the Arabian Peninsula. [Lacey, 174] They eventually took control of all North Africa, Egypt, Anatolia (under the Turks) and for a time Spain. Islam is also is an heir to Classical civilization. It gleamed mathematics from Mesopotamia, Philosophy from the Greeks and Monotheism from the Jews. For almost a thousand years Muslims were by all objective standards more advanced than Western Europe Finally, Barbarians and Germanic tribes dominated what was left in the area known today as; France, Spain, Italy, Britain, Germany. This was the least developed of the three cultures that succeeded the classical world. It was dominated increasingly also by the Church of Rome. It was a Latin reading and speaking world, therefore the term "Latin Christendom." This area was to become the West. From around 600 to 1000 AD conditions were fairly bleak in the emergence of a western civilization. By 1050 AD the Latin Christendom movement ...

Benito Cereno and American Characteristic

19th Century Literature Prof. Bland Typical American Character â€Å"Benito Cereno† is a work that exceedingly depicts how ideological self-delusion of an American character is one of the most dangerous capacities of mankind. Captain Delano a Yankee from â€Å"Duxbury Massachusetts† exemplifies these two American cultures of concerning nature and confidence. As Americans we have concerned and helped other less fortunate (i. e. the amount we donate to help third world countries), we are also confident and fearless in nature that we can accomplish anything (i. e. American dream).These traditional American characteristics I believe forms the American arrogance that we are stereotyped to have. We maybe helping others we have no business helping. Just like the American culture Delano truly believes he is doing the right thing, by showing concern and having confidence in being able to help the San Dominick slave-ship and he is incapable of seeing the horrifying consequences o f his actions both with respect to his â€Å"friendly racism† and his fantasy of â€Å"superiority†. He spends a day on the  San Dominick  following a slave mutiny, never quite aware that anything is wrong until the truth all but bites his head off.Delano subscribes to a typical â€Å"Northern† view of African slaves: he considers them to be naturally good-natured, submissive servants. He spends much of his time aboard the  San Dominick  condescendingly admiring Babo's performance. Melville critiques this naivete arrogance of superiority and friendly racism to which although these characteristic are positive if not careful, can be a barrier that blinds a person from seeing the actual situation. â€Å"None wore fetters, because the owner, his friend Aranda, told him that they were all tractable† (BC 224) As Delano first boards Benito's ship, the slaves are still unfettered. The ship seems unreal; these strange costumes, gestures, and faces, but a s hadowy tableau just emerged from the deep, which directly must receive back what it gave† (BC). This â€Å"shadowy tableau,† on the ship inhabited mostly by unregulated African slaves, roaming around freely is there for Captain Delano to develop his own understanding as to why this ship culture is the way it is. Having the traditional American character of concern, Delano in nature is concerned about the ship and his intention of genuinely helping the troubled captain Benito Cereno becomes a curtain that prevents him from seeing the real intentions of the slaves.Symbols that have previously been formed and encoded by the American culture and upbringing in the back of his mind; Delano's â€Å"trustful good nature† makes him accept the image of the faithful slaves in his understanding of the unknown Africans slaves on the ship. With this idea of faithful slaves, confronted with a genuine signs and warning; the frail captain Benito Cereno, the vigilant Babo, chained Atufal, the oakum-pickers and hatchet-polishers, the flaring moments of violence and unease—he is not capable of understanding and arranging them accurately or truthfully.This trustful and concerned nature of Americans is one of the characters Captain Delano represents. That an American upbringing create a perception even today that we, as a country, had a right to go around the world helping other struggling nations who were beset by tyrants or internal fighting with the attendant killing and raping of the populace. This trusting and concerned nature makes us delusional preventing us from seeing the facts that maybe these country America is helping does not want our help.The same goes for captain Delano his trustful nature creates a delusion of â€Å"faithful and harmless slaves† that helping this slave ship and its current condition of unfettered slaves is a result of the poor management of Captain Delano’s lesser Hispanic counter Captain Benito Cereno theref ore his is obliged to help to get it under control. This concerning nature blinds Captain Delano from seeing the truth. Before even making contact with the blacks on the ship, Delano readily stresses their good-natured and pristine qualities.These â€Å"unsophisticated Africans,† with their â€Å"self-content† and â€Å"peculiar love . . . of uniting industry with pastime,† (BC) bring out Delano's â€Å"weakness for negroes. † In his understanding of them, they are a mixture of docility and nobility. Delano feels confident as he sees â€Å"the affectionate zeal† and â€Å"good conduct† (BC) As this book reveals, Delano alternates between his images of the Africans as an innocent faithful slaves, he completely misinterprets the slave revolt and totally neglects the blacks' inner motivations.While revealing how Delano adapts these ideological images of the black man to fit his own understanding. This confidence from his own American upbringing and staying in his own paradigm of slaves being kind in nature, and are submissive servants make Captain Delano a benign racist. He does not express hate for the black people; he likes them. But his fondness of them shows in a characteristic of overconfidence or arrogance, in which that he is confident in his own knowledge that the slaves are obedient creatures, incapable of harm and completely demeaning the black slaves.He considers Babo, for instance, to be a childish slave of limited intelligence. In Delano's understanding, the faithful blacks are closer to animal nature than the white man is. Delano's dialogue continuously dehumanizes the slaves by attaching animal imagery to them. First, as the narrator mentions, â€Å"Delano took to negroes, not philanthropically, but genially, just as other men to Newfoundland dogs† (BC).When Babo looks up at Don Benito, he is â€Å"like a shepherd's dog,† (BC) whose grins denote â€Å"mere animal humor† (BC). These refe rences and comparison to animals of the slaves becomes not to decline them as human, but instead to acknowledge them within the white community in their position as docile servants, the image of the dog, domesticated animal, is significant in this context. At the same time, their animal reference accounts for their inability for being totally free.This show of confidence and trust completely blinds Captain Delano from the truth and maybe be seen by the majority as a weakness but this ignorance ultimately helped him from the slave revolt. Delano's trustfulness and perception that all the blacks are docile and faithful slaves and are good nature saves their lives. Delano's ignorance prevents him from discovering the truth, which would almost certainly lead him to a untimely demise.Cereno conveys his surprise that Babo refrained from murdering Delano,   Cereno conveys his surprise that Babo refrains from murdering Delano, â€Å"to think of some things you did – those smilings and chattings,  rash  pointings and gesturings. For less than these, they slew my mate† (BC) This reinforces the fact that if Delano makes any indication of recognizing the truth, he would have been killed on the spot. Delano’s confident, arrogant and absolutely insulting demeanor and perception of slaves being too stupid to be able to formulate a revolt ultimately saves him and Benito Cereno.If Delano is not so unaware of the events encircling him and exhibits a little more suspicion, Babo would certainly have him executed. This confidence that conveys a typical American characteristic is also part of Captain Delano’s. This confidence created a barrier that prevented him from once again seeing the truth in the situation. An arrogant demeanor that he underestimates his adversary, in which nine out of ten will completely destroy you but in this particular story turned out to be an advantage.Captain Delano’s overconfidence in his own â€Å"limited† knowledge and upbringing and from his own experiences growing up, and perhaps his interaction with the black community, he views them as a lesser being forming an idea of himself as a superior or idea of white supremacy that completely limits his understanding and cannot read the gravity of the situation. This overconfidence in his understanding became ignorance and although I believed it helped him from getting killed on the ship by Babo and the slaves, is the same overconfidence that can potentially be deadly.With the revelation of the slave revolt, we should realize that one of the main reasons Delano has been incapable of seeing through the masquerade has been his benign racism, in which that he see’s the slaves as harmless and too stupid to come up with such an idea. Delano’s racism can be understood most directly it seems to be a reflection of his upbringing in a somewhat liberal Northern racism that practice anti-slavery views (it’s important to rememb er Delano is from Massachusetts, a hotbed of anti-slavery activity during the period).The story suggests that Delano, like others who viewed slaves sympathetically, may have a weak recognition of the horrors of slavery and may consider himself the slaves’ friend, but such feelings depend on viewing himself as superior to the slaves and to the slaves staying in their appointed position of submission. In conclusion while Delano finds blacks utterly charming and â€Å"fun-loving,† fond of bright colors and of â€Å"uniting industry with pastime,† this â€Å"admiration† masks his deep-seated conviction that blacks are not entirely human.In fact, when in the midst of trying to understand the odd occurrences on the San Dominick, it briefly occurs to Delano that Cereno might be in league with the blacks, he dismisses the thought with a shudder: â€Å"who ever heard of a white so far a renegade as to apostatize from his very species almost, by leaguing in agains t it with Negroes? † (BC). This proves once again his overconfidence in his understanding limiting him from seeing the big picture that the slaves are controlling the situation. He can never imagine that the slaves are the one who thought up the grandiose plan, that he thinks Captain Cereno is orchestrating something gainst his kin. He fails to discern that the Spanish vessel is in fact in the hold of a complex, meticulously plotted mutiny, that the slaves have successfully revolted, and that the dutiful Babo is in fact the revolutionary in command. Delano's trusting and overconfidence in this regard is very nearly fatal, and in a way that the text explains, and that critics have frequently described, it is his concerning, unselfconscious, absolutely stubborn ideology of slaves and creates a benign racism—his offhand white supremacism—that drives and sustains this ignorance.Despite his several moments of deep suspicion, is his unmoved confidence that a slave like Babo, so naturally docile, so ideally suited to those watchful and pleasant â€Å"avocations about one's person,† could never surpass the â€Å"unaspiring contentment of a limited mind† common to all Africans (BC). The blacks in league with a piratical Cereno? â€Å"But they were too stupid,† Delano reminds himself (BC).Believing this, he cannot see what's before him, because of his paradigm and views of the slaves in a northern upbringing of being sympathetically to the slaves, He is incapable of imagining the black slaves in any but a passive role of devoted and faithful servants, docile and incapable of harming their white superiors, This overconfidence is ultimately ignorance that Delano cannot perceive the true situation on the San Dominick. Works Cited Page Melville, Herman, and Herman Melville. Bartleby ; And, Benito Cereno. New York: Dover Publications, 1990. Print.

In economic geographic analysis, the ‘firm’ usually is assumed, at least implicitly, as a coherent and unitary economic actor. The WritePass Journal

In economic geographic analysis, the ‘firm’ usually is assumed, at least implicitly, as a coherent and unitary economic actor. Introduction In economic geographic analysis, the ‘firm’ usually is assumed, at least implicitly, as a coherent and unitary economic actor. IntroductionConclusionRelated Introduction In economic geographic analysis the ‘firm’ has an ontological and epistemological privilege (Grabher, 2004). Since 1980s onwards the notion of firm as a ‘black box’ a coherent and unitary factor was challenged. There is an increase in investigation of the relation between firms. The concept of firm as a coherent and unitary economic actor was diminished by the concept of ‘projects’ (Grabher, 2002). This essay aims to discuss the centrality of ‘the firm’ in economic geography, and examine the concept of project that undercut the integrity of firm as a coherent and unitary actor by using the evidence from the recorded music industry. The firm in neoclassic economics is defined as â€Å"the theoretical in which production take place†. This does not take the activities of the real firms or corporate organization into accounts (Williamson 1999: 1089). While market is viewed as the most efficient ways of organizing economic activities, much of neoclassical economic geography simply perceive the firm as â€Å"black box† (Hodgson, 1989) which means that it converts inputs into outputs according to the demand and supply in the market. In the perfect markets, all firms in the industry have an equal opportunity to access to perfect information without the need of human or social interaction (Hirchman, 1982). The firm is considered as ‘self-contained and homogenous’ (Yeung, 2005). Grabher also suggests that in economic geography the ‘firm’ have been unproblematised as coherent and unitary actor. This was evidence in â€Å"geography of enterprise† approach in which primary concerned with a dominant firm, rather than industry or a regions of firm (Yeung, 2000 ).   Much economic geographic analysis was focused only with the role of motivation, location, and individual firm’s behaviour (Krumme, 1969). This was called as pseudo-concrete analysis (Sayer, 1982) because it does not take the complex organizational processes inside the representative firm into accounts. Therefore it reduces organisational structures of firm into simple dichotomies such as single-plant or multi-plant enterprises. However, single-plant firms are difference from multi-plant firms and separate plants within multi-plants firms are much more similar (Yeung, 2000). Hence, the notion of firm as a coherent unitary economic actor usually leads to misrepresentation of spatial organization of production. However, the concept of firm as a ‘black box’ a coherent unitary economic actor was challenged by the practice of project-based organizing. Project is defined as system of productions that constituted by different agents such as economic, social and cultural agents with specialize, difference and complementary skills. They aim to accomplish usually a complicate task in which the task requires cooperation of multidisciplinary skills that it more economically efficient to bring together on a temporary basis (Lorenzen and Frederiksen, 2005 ). In order to coordinate the division of labor, it focuses on the ‘relational proximity’ instead of ‘spatial proximity’ and represents particular forms of temporal and spatial actor-networks (Boggs and Rantisi, 2003). Project organizing diminishes the integrity of firm as a coherent and unitary actor because boundaries of project organization operate and cooperate across different firms (Gann and Salter, 2000). In many project-based businesses, project teams work closely with a variety of difference firms rather than their home base manager (Grabher, 2002). In addition, instead of assuming the firm as a single and coherent actor, projects focus on the role of individuals with in firms, specifically how individuals’ interest coincides with or differs from material interests of the firms (Boggs and Rantisi, 2003 ). Grabher (2001) also illustrates a number of paradoxes that challenge the key assumptions of organizing. Projects often have high complexity, high risk and high stake outcome; however, they could be unorganized and lack formal structure that could coordinate the complexities. Since projects depend on collective knowledge and diverse skills; nevertheless there is little time for individuals to clarify members’ abilities and skills. Furthermore, there is not enough time to develop trust and confidence among the members. However, Grabher (2001) argues that these paradoxes can be partly resolved by including the social context into projects. Networks, localities and institutions supply legitimation and trust that are preconditions for the ‘projectification’ of economic organisation. He further explains that reputation is essential for success in projects. Reputation in project organization is not about certificate; it is about how well we work with other people. In addition, the success of project also depends on inter-personal skills and co-operate attitude. Furthermore, location plays a crucial role in the success of the project.   Grabher (2001) explains that project collaboration often takes place in densely knit clusters. The co-location of project partners reduces transaction costs and increase face-to-face interaction. This also provides a local ‘communities of practice’ that serve as informal educational system for sharing knowledge. Moreover, rather than formal firm contractual networks, it is personal networks that provide the basic social infrastructure for learning. In addition, he argues that since projects are embedded in an institutional context of normative structures that manage complex tasks, it allows the emergence of ‘swift trust’. Swift trust is where actors are viewed from their role instead of their individual personality. For example, engineers are trusted because they are engineers and they believe that engineers are trained to apply their principles. As a result, expectations are more standardised and stable because it is defined in term of tasks than personalities (Grabher, 2001). Nevertheless, since project becomes more popular, it has the impact on the employment.   There will be more self-employ job and freelance labor in the future. There are some disadvantages such as short contact, job insecurity and uncertainty. Grabher (2002) argues that project does not entirely replace the firm, but there are interdependencies between projects and firms as well as the personal relations, localities and corporate networks from which these projects mobilize essential sources; this is called project ecology. He uses example of the project ecology of record music industry. The recorded music industry is characterized by high innovation and task complexity that requires cooperation from difference skills. Recorded music industry illustrates that projects are more likely organized on the market instead of inside the boundaries of firm. However, the localized cluster in the advertising village shares the same basic principles of social organization with the global communication group. In addition, both ‘the village’ and ‘the group’ represents high level of diversity of organizational forms which is crucial in working. In addition the periods of ‘idleness’ in project work mi ght be considered economic inefficient; however period of idleness is a part of the process that give a chance to rest and reflect. Furthermore, the evidence from recorded music industry shows that geographical clustering has a significant role in market organized-project (Lorenzen and Frederiksen, 2005). Recorded music ecologies are often clustered in the world’s major cities (Scott, 1999). This because clustering allows people to interact with each; it creates social trust and allows information to be shared and available to all local firms (Grabher, 2005). Conclusion To conclude, the notion of the firm as a ‘black box’ was challenge by organizational practices which are built instead around ‘projects’’. Project organizing undercuts the integrity of firm as a coherent and unitary actor because boundaries of project organization operate and cooperate across different firms. There are some paradoxes of project such as there are a lack the normative structures, there is no time to clarify member’s ability and develop confidence building. However these paradoxes could be overcome by including the social context into projects. The evidence from record music industry also illustrates that the projects are not completely replace the firm, but there are the interdependencies between projects and firms as well as the personal relations, localities and corporate networks.

International PepsiCo. Company

International PepsiCo. Company Introduction Every organization is expected to undertake strategic analysis to determine its market position as well as its current and anticipated performance. Through the application of different environmental analysis tools, managers are able to determine the strong and weak points of an organization. One of the activities carried out by organizations is scenario analysis.Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on International PepsiCo. Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Scenarios are used to map the future based on uncertain and predetermined elements. These elements are explored with the aim of helping an organization to seek solutions to some of the foreseen problems which may have an effect on the company. The purpose of the current essay is to undertake a scenarios analysis and offer their respective strategic responses in respect to PepsiCo Company. The first task involves the development of three future sc enarios and strategic responses for PepsiCo. Scenario one predicts no major future changes scenario in the external environment. Scenario two predicts negative future changes in the external environment. Scenario three predicts positive future changes’ in the external environment. The second task of the essay involves evaluating the contribution of scenario planning to effective management. Introduction to the PepsiCo Company PepsiCo Company is a multinational company whose headquarters are in Purchase, New York (Berch, Montoya Sawayda 2010, p.1). The multinational company operates in the drinks and beverage industry. The company which was formed as a merger between Frito-Lay Inc and Pepsi-Cola is a major competitor of the Coca-Cola Company. PepsiCo has a presence in 200 countries across the globe. Some of the areas where it has subsidiaries include Africa, Asia, Middle East, Europe, and Australia, among others. Globally, the company is second after Coca-Cola in the food and beverage industry. Over the years, the company has undergone several mergers and acquisitions which have promoted its success and presence in the international markets. Through M A, the company has been able to diversify in its areas of production. For example, PepsiCo product base has expanded to increase products like snacks and foods (Berch, Montoya Sawayda 2010, p.1), PepsiCo competes with Kraft Foods.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The company has diversified its product mix where majority of the product mix are foods and the rest are beverages. Both carbonated and un-carbonated beverages are available although the carbonated beverages no longer dominate the market. Despite the success of the company, it has in the recent past been involved in challenging situations like environmental problems such as pollution and disposal of its biodegradable wastes (Berch et al. 2010, p.8) Rationale for its selection PepsiCo Inc is a large US company which controls about thirty six percent of the US’ drinks market (Berch et al. 2010, p.1). The company operates in an industry that is greatly affected by season. For example, most of the drinks are drunk seasonally and more so during summer. As a result, the company has to undertake a scenario analysis in order to determine its current and future operations. Furthermore, the company is normally faced with stiff market competition from Coca Cola, the number one market shareholder. Following the recent global market financial crisis it is imperative to acknowledge that PepsiCo was financially affected by the crisis. According to a case analysis by Berch and colleagues (2010), the operations of PepsiCo in the beverage industry has been faced with a lot of controversies. For example, the company has been accused of engaging in price wars with its main rival Coca Cola, contamination, and false labeling of its products. To remain relevant in the industry, there is need for PepsiCo to undertake a scenario analysis which would assists in strategic management. Scenario Analysis Scenario analysis has been described as the process by which several informed, alternative, plausible and â€Å"imagined alternative future environments in which decisions about the future may be played out, for the purpose of changing current thinking, improving decision making, enhancing human and organization learning and improving performance† (Chermack 2004, p15).Advertising We will write a custom case study sample on International PepsiCo. Company specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In this case, environmental scanning is an essential process which enables the success of scenario planning or analysis. Different factors in the external environment are considered in the process. To better conduct scenario analysis, SWOT and PESTEL analytical to ols have been adopted. On the one hand, the PESTAL analytical tool looks at the external environment on which the organization operates. Some of the elements analyzed include economic, political, technological, legal, social, and environmental factors that could have an impact on an organization. On the other hand, the SWOT analysis is normally concerned with the future opportunities available to an organization, as well as the threats that such a company may anticipate in the future. Scenario 1: no major future changes Competition in the beverage and drinks industry is not expected to change a lot in the future. Since the inception of the PepsiCo, its major competitor has been the Coca-Cola Company in as far as drinks are concerned (LTONEWC FIASCO 2005, p.34). On the other hand, Kraft Foods has been the major competitor of PepsiCo in the food snacks industry (Marketing Teacher Ltd, 2012). The current competition in these two industries is less likely to intensify hence the trend ca n be classified as stagnant. For instance, a new entrant into the industry would normally be required to have substantial amounts of capital and infrastructure. This creates stronger market entry barriers which prohibits other companies from entering the market. As a result, competition is not expected to increase greatly as the two companies enjoy some kind of monopoly. The company has a strong brand which ensures that the company stays competitive in the market.Advertising Looking for case study on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Although other companies like Nestle and Groupe Danone may try hard to compete, the brand of PepsiCo is a worldwide brand, well known and diversified brand (Marketing Teacher Ltd, 2012). With more than 60 brands, the company is well placed in the beverage and food industry. As such, other brands from emerging companies are less likely to influence the drinks and the food snacks industry. Scenario 2: negative future changes One of the major negative effects that PepsiCo is expected to encounter in the future is the government regulations and laws. These could either be from the political or the legal environments. In the 21st century, there is an increased awareness on the environmental changes, health and safety issues. In the future, laws and regulations related to the three fields are likely to change, thereby affecting the operations of PepsiCo negatively (Marketing Teacher Ltd 2012). For example, environmentalists and communities have been complaining on the environmental damage s Pepsi has especially in India (Berch et al. 2010, p.6). Pepsi has been accused of using chemicals in its products which jeopardizes the health and the safety of human beings. If the government imposed bans or restrictive measures on Pepsi then the company is likely to lose the second largest market in Asia after China. This will definitely affect the company operations, market share, and sales negatively leading to lose. The changes in laws could also be future changes in taxation requests, tax rates and ecological laws. All these will negatively impact the company. A memorable incidence is when the company was accused of using pesticides in its bottled water drinks (Berch et al. 2010, p.6). As a result, the company was partially banned in five Indian states. This is an indication of the excepted laws and regulations regarding the environment, safety, and the health of the customers. With these noticeable incidents, the company is faced to face the same bans in different countries if it engages in similar unethical issues in the future. Environmental laws are aimed at ensuring environmental conservation, and these are also expected to rise in the near future. As such, PepsiCo may be affected negatively bearing in mind that the company’s products are developed and packaged in plastic bottles which are non-biodegradable. For example, Aquifina is a bottled water drink packaged in plastic bottles. Upon use, people discard the plastic containers anywhere thus causing environmental contamination. So far, international environmental watchdogs have been calling for the ban of these plastics as they cause landfills and other pollution-related problems (Berch et al. 2010, p.10). Other emerging concerns on laws and regulations are the labeling of water containers. For example, although labeling laws are not very strict in the United States, countries in the Middle East and Asia have strict relations which are expected to increase in the future. Scenario 3: posit ive future change Increased market base: PepsiCo has the likelihood of witnessing an increase in its market base in the future. This is because the company has diversified its operation through the incorporation of bottled water and snacks. So far, the company has a presence in two hundred countries in the world. In 2009, the company announced its plans to expand in countries with already existing operations (Berch 2010, p.3). Through the use of its adoptable expansion strategy, the company is expected to continue expanding in the years to come. Some of its brands like the Cola diet have been increasing in terms sales and popularity. This increase has been necessitated by the fact that people have become self conscious on their health and well being. As the awareness continues to take place, the brand will catch many people. As such, its market share will increase as its customer base increases. With a broad product base, the company will expand its market share. The diversification of the company’s products to include foods and snacks has prompted its future increase in market base at present and in the future. According to Berch et al. (2010, p.7) the company is on the verge of developing health products and health foods. For example, the company has been planning to invest over USD 10 billion to support the production of healthy snacks. This trend will have positive future changes on the market base of PepsiCo. This is based on the fact that many people are becoming health conscious which represents a new untapped market. In the future, the company expects to reap over USD 30 billion in this new market (Berch et al.2010, p.7). Healthier PepsiCo snacks which incorporate the demands of the health conscious customers are more than likely going to expand the market for PepsiCo. The current collaboration with researchers from Mayo Clinics and the WHO promises to develop new healthier products which will see the market of expand its market share. The bottl ed water and food snacks have a perfect market in the US which is anticipated to get the attention of consumers (Marketing Teacher Ltd 2012). As such, the sales of the organization are anticipated to increase and so is its market share. The company has also been experiencing high returns from the diet Cola. With the trends continuing the same as they are, the company will experience an increase in market share in different parts of the globe. Proposed strategies for the scenarios The negative scenario of change in the regulations and laws regarding aspects of environment, health, and safety will definitely have negative effects if the company does not put into place strategic mechanisms. The company will have to set a legal team which oversees that all the ethical and legal regulations in different countries are followed. In the process, it will ensure that the mentioned accusations are not witnessed in the future. In case of changes in the operational laws and regulations, the comp any will have to comply with the set rules and regulations. By following the laws and regulations, the company will be able to keep off from legal battles and bans. As such, its operations will continue to be operative. Health, safety, and environmental laws are increasing and are expected to increase in the near future. PepsiCo will have to carry tests on its products before entering in the market to avoid the repetition of past incidents in India. The strategy will ensure that the company does not get a bad reputation, calling back of products and face bans in major markets. Environmental conservation initiatives could be taken in future to conserve the environment. In order to solve these ethical related dilemmas, it is necessary that PepsiCo takes â€Å"different levels of government into account, as well as the concerns of NGOs† (Berch et al. 2010, p.6). This strategy will involve all the stakeholders and deal with any negative repercussions. Furthermore, the company cou ld carry thorough stakeholder orientation with the aim of discovering ethical course of action and avoid the uncalled bans. The company can develop biodegradable PepsiCo drinks bottles which would ensure environmental safety and avoid similar incidents to the one faced in India in 2006. This would reduce environmental pollution and ensure safety. Additionally, the dream machine project currently present in US could be initiated in other countries. This would encourage customers to discard their products wastes in a more planned manner which ensures conservations. On the issue of labeling the drinks bottle, the company needs to follow the regulatory laws and regulations in every country. Positive changes are expected in the future in the external environment in which PepsiCo operates. The market share for PepsiCo may increase in the future given that people are becoming health conscious. To accommodate the anticipated positive change, the company has invested a lot in research and de velopment. Therefore, the organization should continue to invest in R D in order to come up with products that can accommodate the expected changes in the future. Furthermore, the organization has already started collaboration with WHO and Mayo clinic to develop snacks and foods which are health conscious. The same has been done on the drinks sector. In the future, the same processes are required to continue to meet the anticipated changes. Contribution scenario planning make to effective strategic management To begin with, strategic management has been described as the process by which organizations manage the relation with the current environment while aligned to the organization mission (Sung 2004, p.12). It can also be defined as the manner in which a balance is maintained between strategies and the internal activities to manage the external environment. Therefore, to achieve the definition and the purpose of strategic management, scenario planning has to be carried out. This e nsures that the relationship between the organization and the changes anticipated in the future is monitored. With the changes exhibited in the external environment, managers depend on the scenario planning to plan future planning of the organization. One of the major benefits associated with scenario planning is the ability to help an organization information center from repeating past mistakes (Schoemaker 2011, p.43). As such, the organization’s strategic management team thrives to develop ways of mitigating the anticipated future negative scenarios. For example, PepsiCo scenario planning will assist the organization avoid past mistakes related to ethical issues and regulations. When an organization knows the anticipated change, it carries out up-front investment. As such, an organization avoids unnecessary thinking of the anticipated future problem change like laws and regulations. This saves the company time, energy, and costs that would result from the anticipated change if it was not carried up-front. As part of strategic management, planning prepares an organization from possible changes (Schoemaker 2011, p.43). As such, a company like PepsiCo would be in a position to reduce overexposure. Uncertain risks associated with resources and capitals are reduced if scenario planning is carried out in advance. The investment of the present and the future depends heavily on scenario planning for efficient and effective decision making process (Van Der Heijden 2011). Strategic decisions made by the strategic management team should depend on facts and collected data on external environment. As a result, the decision making process is improved since the management is aware of the possible future external environment changes (Schoemaker 2011, p.43). Managers are assisted as they are made to think in a certain systematic way. For example, through scenario planning, managers are provided with the possible predetermined changes which a manger cannot ignore or re ject. Compared to the traditional method of decision making, scenario planning is much better and effective process (Schoemaker 2011, p.43; Van Der Heijden 2011). Uncertainties resulting from different variables are easily adjusted at the same time without any difficulties. Issues of imperfect reasoning and bias by the managers are overcome through the use of this method. Scenario planning influences strategy development positively. For example, the management is forced to think beyond the current position and situation of the company. This enables the company to focus on the future of the company. Van Der Heijden (2011) adds that the process of planning energizes the management system of an organization. Attention is paid while the top management team is making decisions. Unlike in the traditional way of decision making and management, using the results of scenario planning enables the management to justify the operation on a single line or department (Schoemaker 2011, p.43). Scena rios provide contexts in which decisions are passed down the chain of command. Through the provision of a context for decisions and decision making, the communication process in an organization is improved. The decisions made are well communicated through set up channels which define the direction of an organization. Monitoring of weak signals and recognizing them until they are fully coalesced enhances corporate perception. For example, a company is enhanced to effectively incorporate any changes no matter how small it may be. This creates a corporate attitude that ensures that all problems have to be solved. As a result, strategic management process is improved. Van Der Heijden (2011) note that the commitment by a company to scenario planning makes it become part of the organization language. The reason behind this is the way in which a complex inter-disciplinary reality is transferred in effortless manner. As part of the strategic management, an organization has to ensure that it educates its managers to make quality scenarios. Consequently, the organization is in a better position to make realistic decisions both in the present and in the future of the company. ‘Stretching mental model’ is achieved which is used by planners to determine the driving forces of an organization in respect to the business environment (Van Der Heijden 2011). In reference to the case study, PepsiCo would be in a position to know the drivers of its business in respect to the business environment. Leadership is an essential tool in strategic management which coordinates the different tasks of an organization. Van Der Heijden (2011) has advised that scenario planning acts as a leadership tool. Scenario process or planning reinforces the interests of the management. Consequently, the managers become involved in the process of developing scenarios in occasional basis thus improving their leadership qualities. As the process continues, managers get more involved in the pro cess of generating scenarios which becomes contextual and influential tool. Ideas are easily communicated enhancing development of projects. According to organizational theory, the external environmental creates pressure on the internal environment of an organization (Fuhs n.d, p.6). The different pressures on the organization can be determined through the use of scenario planning. The claim can be supported by the views of Van Der Heijden (2011) who adds that the scenarios analysis which was first carried out more than 35 years ago at Shell have enabled the company deal with any external pressures. Because of the benefits associated with the process, Shell has been carrying scenario planning even to-date. The purpose of scenario planning is to â€Å"envisage alternative views of the future in the form of distinct configurations of key environmental variables† (Grant 2003, p.494). Therefore, scenario planning enables organizational managers to get on thinking and have the ava ilable mental models of thinking changed to accommodate the specified changes. As a result, managers and strategic analysts are able to synthesize different knowledge coupled with sharing of information. Russell (2005, p.11) note that managers and team players are able to discuss the possibilities of the future in relation to the stated scenario. This allows the management to solve the problems and note the possibility of the anticipated future outcomes (Russell 2011, p.11). It should be noted that scenario planning does not give alternatives to the anticipated changes from the external environment. Chermack (2004, p.15) note that scenario planning is more of the intended outcomes of the external factors than offering alternatives. Conclusion In summary, scenario planning is an essential undertaking which plays an integral role in strategic management. In reference to the essay, PepsiCo which is a MNC is more prone to changes and pressures from the external market hence the need for scenario analysis. Essentially, with increased competition and changes in laws and regulation on the areas of environment, health, and safety, the organization is required to carry scenario analysis. Based on the analysis, the major negative changes in the future are change in the environmental, safety, and health related laws and regulations. These may reduce the sales and market share of the organizations. News markets segments are a positive change which PepsiCo is more likely to depend on in the future. However, the current competition trends are not expected to reduce or increase as the market has strong entry and exit barriers. The major benefits associated with scenario analysis/planning is enabling leadership and effective decision making process which aids in strategic management of an organization. Others include creation of effective communication of decisions from management to other departments in an organization. It also allows the development of the ‘stretching mental model’ which allows better thinking among the managers. As a result, corporate perception is enhanced which enables coalesce of weak points. Lastly, the leadership of an organization is developed as the managers develop the attitude of scenario planning. This promotes the process of strategic management in an organization. Reference List Berch, K, Montoya, J Sawayda, J 2010, PepsiCo’s journey toward an ethical and  socially responsible culture, http://danielsethics.mgt.unm.edu/pdf/PepsiCo%20Case.pdf Chermack, T 2004, ‘The role of system theory in scenario planning, Journal of Futures  Studies’, vol. 8, no.4, pp.15 3 Fuhs, C n.d, Toward an integral approach to organization theory: An integral  investigation of three historical perspectives on the nature of organizations, experienceintegral.org/uploads/media/Fuhs_Toward_An_Integral_Approa h_to_Org_Theory.pdf Grant, R M 2003, ‘Strategic Planning in a Turbulent Environment: Evidence from the Oil Majors’, Strategic Management Journal, vol. 24, no. 6, pp. 491-517 LTONEWC FIASCO 2005, Cola Wars: Coca-Cola vs. PepsiCo, http://media.wiley.com/product_data/excerpt/16/04717432/0471743216-3.pdf Marketing Teacher Ltd 2012, SWOT analysis PepsiCo, marketingteacher.com/swot/pepsi-swot.html Russell, L 2005, Leadership development. 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