Monday, April 4, 2011

Classwork 4-4-11

a.) Two IT features of a smart card is the payment of the bike. The money for the bike is taken directly from the account of the buyer and is automatically paid for. The buyer does not have to produce the money because it can simply be taken right out of their account electronically. Another IT feature of a smart card is that the money can be transferred from one account to another account from any location or from any place because the money can be taken from one account to the other through the same card being used. RFE technology. Stores data and cyclist number.
b)Describe the process by which a cyclist can be authenticated when collecting a bike:The card is swiped and then the PIN is entered, the machine puts the PIN in the database and finds a match and if its matches the person is billed and their information is taken up. The cyclist is authenticated when they give their money, credit card information, and then they later receive a smart card or a PIN. The cyclist becomes authenticated when they return the bike back to the bike shop and they are registered into the system that creates them to be in the bike system. The cyclists can rent from any location through the credit card they have registered the first time, and they are authenticated because when the bike shop has the has the credit card information they can deduct money from the account if a bike is not returned.
c.) There are many advantages of using a relational database rather than a plat lines database. Relational databases can narrow down the search of things until it is one distinct thing that is being looked for, unlike a flat filed database that it would take awhile to query all of the information the user wanted to see and have access to. The flat file has to search the whole database for one certain thing when the relational database only has to search certain things and areas for one distinct thing. For example the Bike number, name, phone, address, and credit card information can be put into the relational database that can narrow it down to what is being looked for very quickly and efficiently. The purpose of the relational database is to make it easier for the user to find one distinct thing opposed to searching the whole thing.
d.) The privacy and security concerns that could arise from a database that records bike rentals is very great. There are many concerns that come from the information that is entered into the database. For example people would not feel comfortable having all of their personal information in a database that can be hacked or seen by other people and people would have access to it that the bike renters would not wish. When people rent the bikes they have to give their information such as their address, phone, and name, and if that information gets into the wrong hands or the database is hacked than it is very possible that the information will be taken and abused, such as spam being sent through email and phone. The most important security concern is the credit card information that has to be entered into the database, if the credit card information is taken or abused than people can lose a large amount of money and it would not be fair to the bike renters. They would be concerned that their money would be stolen from the database with their information would be taken from hackers or people that abuse the database. Advantages of having their information in the database is that they can rent from anywhere anytime, however disadvantages are that their information and credit card information are in an open database that people have access too.

No comments:

Post a Comment