Secure Email Project

Week 14: Clear, Advanced Storage

Large organizations use enterprise hardware to manage and store information and data using devices that are fast, efficient and have large capacity. With this comes some risk which include hard disk failure and data loss. Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID)is an advanced storage device that duplicates data, instructions and information to improve data reliability. In the different levels of RAID, RAID 1 stores through mirroring. This is when data is written on two disk at the same time to duplicate the date if any were to be lost. RAID 0, another level, does striping where that data is split across multiple disks. These two levels can also be combined if more reliability is necessary.

Advanced storage and using devices like RAID is very important in the business, especially in larger organizations. Mechanical components are likely to fail and electronics are not something that we can always depend on. With that, storage devices are extremely important to use so that no important information or documents will be lost do to hard disk failure. If the right precautions are not taken, the business can be slowed down by the loss of data or even a complete failure. This site gives some statistics to how computers and businesses fail due to data loss.

Week 13: Clear, Computer Security Risk

Everyone these days depend on computers for a lot of task. The problem with this is that security precautions have to be taken when creating, storing and managing information because of the many risk. Computer security risk are any events or actions that can cause a loss of damage to computer hardware, software, data, information or processing capability. Many people, including myself have been victims of cybercrime, which is an illegal act on the Internet. The most popular category that I know of when it comes to these intrusions is hackers. These are people that access a computer or network illegally to take some form of information or content. It is best to use very creative passwords and antivirus programs when trying to avoid cybercrime.

Computer security risk is extremely important to the business world because there is always information involved about the business and their clients that needs to be protected. It is even known for some organizations to hire previously convicted people of computer crimes to help identify security risk and implement safeguards. The article from the link discusses how most convicted hackers end up writing or speaking about what they did instead of working for businesses. Antivirus programs would also be helpful, but I think that businesses should go a step further to really secure their files and information. They can also set up passwords for all employees to keep unauthorized users to stop them from getting access.

Database Project

Doing this database project gave me experience with using Microsoft Access. I have made tables before in Microsoft Word, but making tables in Access is much more intricate in its detail. Even though it can be tedious at times, its format is more useful. I also learned how to import data into the table. My traditional copy and paste method was elementary compared to the many steps of importing on Access.

One enhancement that could have been made to the database is to include a reason why the individual members left the gym. The focus of the database seems to be the type of member and whether or not they have left the gym. I think a document like this is helpful but would be more useful if it could lead to future enhancements for the gym. A possibility to do this is similar what we did for the first table when entering descriptions for the field names. Somehow under membership type you could put a brief reason why they left to give a general idea of what went wrong.

Week 12: Clear, Training Users

Week 11: Clear, Deleting Records

One of the file maintenance procedures is deleting records. File maintenance refers to the procedures that keep data current. When information is no longer needed, the user deletes it from the file. Database management systems then either removes the record from the file immediately or the records can be flagged so that it cannot be processed again. Flagging can be done by noting an asterisk at the beginning of the file name like this, *courtneyblog. The thing about a flagged record is that it physically remains on your disk, taking up space. It is best to run programs that remove flagged records often so that space can be opened up and the data will remain current.

Deleting records is important to the business world because just like the student example given in the book, employers also have to delete the records of employees sometimes. It can also be the case that a business has confidential information that they no longer need, but no one else can see the documents. When deleting records of this status it is very important to make sure it is deleted properly and not able to be retained. This site gives you a program, QuickWiper, that will delete files safely and gives you the steps to do so. It is probably better to use programs like this instead of just pressing delete when dealing with secure or personal records.

Excel Project

For this project, we used the Excel program and acted as if we worked for a large fitness center. The owner gave us an Excel spreadsheet containing data that was collected from 500 subjects that included their heart rate measurements before and after the 15 minute workout and during the 5 minute cool down period. The sheet had raw data that included age, sex and 21 heart rate measurements from 0:00 to 20:00 minutes. Some of the tasks I performed included manipulating and formatting the raw data, creating formulas, analyzing data and making pivot tables.

Doing this project was very interesting and very helpful in building my excel skills. Previous to the Excel Scavenger Hunt, I had no experience with the program. The scavenger hunt gave me basic knowledge and understanding of how to use the program, but the project gave me an opportunity to actually put my skills to the test and I honestly enjoyed it. For example, my notes on the pivot table did help but in actually creating it correctly with formatting the numbers, rows and columns, it was more thought that needed to be put into it. Also, we had to come up with formulas, so I not only had to remember the rules for inserting the formulas, but I had to focus on the information for the correct formula. In all, the excel project was a success for me and I now have another program to continue to use and add to my resume!