ICE-B 2010:proceedings of the International Conference on e-Business

The International Conference on e-Business, ICE-B 2010, aims at bringing together researchers and practitioners who are interested in e-Business technology and its current applications. The mentioned technology relates not only to more low-level technological issues, such as technology platforms and web services, but also to some higher-level issues, such as context awareness and enterprise models, and also the peculiarities of different possible applications of such technology. These are all areas of theoretical and practical importance within the broad scope of e-Business, whose growing importance can be seen from the increasing interest of the IT research community. The areas of the current conference are: (i) e-Business applications; (ii) Enterprise engineering; (iii) Mobility; (iv) Business collaboration and e-Services; (v) Technology platforms. Contributions vary from research-driven to being more practical oriented, reflecting innovative results in the mentioned areas. ICE-B 2010 received 66 submissions, of which 9% were accepted as full papers. Additionally, 27% were presented as short papers and 17% as posters. All papers presented at the conference venue were included in the SciTePress Digital Library. Revised best papers are published by Springer-Verlag in a CCIS Series book

The impact of social network applications on societies of the MENA region (Egypt as a case study)

Despite the importance of promoting socially responsible citizenship in Internet age with the global massive spread of IT consumption, there is a paucity of research for scrutinizing the impact of ICT tools such as Social Networking Sites on citizens of the Middle East and North Africa region and/or investigating their tendency toward digital transformation. In the information age, Internet and its applications are creating a ‘network state’ due to the continuous interaction of SNS by people on their daily personal and professional lives; which made it a rich data bank for researchers to analyze and predict people’s behavioral, cultural and societal change. This research focused on the digital impact of SNS on various aspects of life in the society of Egypt and the forecast of its subsequent normal progression over time. The research questions were; what are the factors affecting the usage of SNS and its impact on the society of Egypt? In addition to, How SNS usage and IT developments are likely to affect future changes in Egypt’s culture and societal behaviors in the arena of human computer interaction and information communication technology? Hence, the research investigated those questions on recent years where there is still not enough complete specialized analysis nor mature socio-technological researches have been developed about the online society of Egypt. In specific, it concerned with studying the interaction of human practices with information network applications and the latter role in changing human cultures and societal behaviors from personal, governmental and business perspectives. This study is an example of interdisciplinary research, linking cultural theories and social networking phenomena with human-mediated informational technology and communication studies contributing to the emerging field of Internet studies. Therefore, this research’s best matching philosophy is interpretivism, the research approach is inductive and the utilized research strategy was grounded theory and surveys through four employed quantitative and qualitative research methods over two phases. Phase one implemented observational study, survey questionnaire and focus group sessions; while interviews were accomplished in phase two. Outcomes are reached through applying descriptive statistics of structural equation modeling via using SPSS 20.0, AMOS 20.0.0, Tableau 10.4, and MS 2010 Excel; in addition to, qualitative content analysis using NVivo 11. Findings of interweaved data collection methods supported in investigating the research questions and testing the hypotheses of the research proposed SDR model. Consequently, these research findings deduced that the Egyptian online society is affected by SNS forming a pre-digitalization stage. In addition to the research’s major offering of the SDR model, there were four others emerged contributions to knowledge base. One of the main challenges of research in this domain is the dynamic pace of both technological developments and users’ preferences. Hence, this research study impacts the growing knowledge repository with five contributions about the significant role of SNS in transforming people’s daily activities which can shed lights of more novel questions for other neighboring countries as well as regarding other ICT tools for future studies

Pursuing fit: a grounded theory of e-recruitment in Namibia – an integrated jobseeker and agency perspective

The purpose of this study was to identify the main concern of jobseekers and recruitment agencies in electronic recruitment (e-recruitment) and determine how it was resolved. The country of Namibia was chosen for the study because many of its jobseekers and recruitment agencies are adopting e-recruitment to overcome challenges in their recruitment context. In order to meet the purpose of the study, Classic Grounded Theory Methodology (classic-GTM) was used. Through the application of classic-GTM it emerged that jobseekers' and recruitment agencies' perspectives on e-recruitment are varied and shifting, which together with the dynamics in information technology bring many possibilities and fluidity of stakeholders' behaviour. Therefore, jobseekers and recruitment agencies are mainly concerned about Fit or lack thereof between their conceptualizations of Objects of Concern (namely information technology, jobseekers, job providers (recruitment agencies and employers) and jobs) in such a dynamic environment. Pursuing Fit emerged as the core variable (core category) representing how the participants continuously resolved their main concern. Two sub-categories constituting Pursuing Fit are Interpreting Fit and Positioning for Fit and they explain how stakeholders interpret e-recruitment concepts and position themselves and other Objects of Concern based on interpretation. Recruitment is likely to take place when Objects of Concern relate in a desirable (fitting) manner. The study's contribution to knowledge is through the theory of Pursuing Fit that suggests a systematic way of understanding e-recruitment and of conceptualizing information technology in e-recruitment to increase chances of recruitment. Implications common for both jobseekers and recruitment agencies are context awareness and flexibility. Context awareness allows stakeholders to interpret Objects of Concern based on the context and flexibility makes it possible to change from a previously held position. The study can be used as the foundation for research involving multiple stakeholders in e-recruitment. In conclusion, e-recruitment is a process of meaning creation in which stakeholders interpret concepts and based on the meanings relate the concepts with each other

Securing the Edges of IoT Networks: a Scalable SIP DDoS Defense Framework with VNF, SDN, and Blockchain

An unintended consequence of the global deployment of IoT devices is that they provide a fertile breeding ground for IoT botnets. An adversary can take advantage of an IoT botnet to launch DDoS attacks against telecommunication services. Due to the magnitude of such an attack, legacy security systems are not able to provide adequate protection. The impact ranges from loss of revenue for businesses to endangering public safety. This risk has prompted academia, government, and industry to reevaluate the existing de- fence model. The current model relies on point solutions and the assumption that adversaries and their attacks are readily identifiable. But adversaries have challenged this assumption, building a botnet from thousands of hijacked IoT devices to launch DDoS attacks. With bot- net DDoS attacks there are no clear boundary where the attacks originate and what defensive measures to use. The research question is: in what ways programmable networks could defend against Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) flooding attacks from IoT botnets? My significant and original contribution to the knowledge is a scalable and collaborative defence framework that secures the edges of IoT networks with Virtual Network Function (VNF), Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and Blockchain technology to prevent, detect, and mitigate SIP DDoS flooding attacks from IoT botnets. Successful experiments were performed using VNF, SDN, and Blockchain. Three kinds of SIP attacks (scan, brute force, and DDoS) were launched against a VNF running on a virtual switch and each was successfully detected and mitigated. The SDN controller gathers threat intelligence from the switch where the attacks originate and installs them as packet filtering rules on all switches in the organisation. With the switches synchronised, the same botnet outbreak is prevented from attacking other parts of the organisation. A distributed application scales this framework further by writing the threat intelligence to a smart contract on the Ethereum Blockchain so that it is available for external organisations. The receiving organisation retrieves the threat intelligence from the smart contract and installs them as packet filtering rules on their switches. In this collaborative framework, attack detection/mitigation efforts by one organisation can be leveraged as attack prevention efforts by other organisations in the community

The appraisal of Facebook online community: An exposition of mobile commerce in social media reviews

Peer reviewe

The protection of banking customers from the risks of mobile payments in Saudi Arabia

Demand for mobile payment (m-payment) services is transforming the banking payment system in unprecedented ways and at a growing rate. These developments raise unique concerns and risks which must be managed by the adoption of an appropriate regulatory framework if this 'Fintech' innovation is to offer a net social and economic benefit. This work will draw on Western and Islamic consumer protection literature to analyse how Saudi Arabian law at present protects consumers when it comes to m-payments, particularly unauthorised mobile payment transactions and consumer data in order to maintain privacy and protect them against breaches of their privacy. In so doing, the research seeks to make an original contribution to the Saudi Arabian legal system in the presently under-researched areas of both consumer protection and m-payment services. It will be demonstrated that the Saudi Arabian legal provisions are inadequate and fall short of the requirements of Sharia law in many respects: Consumer protection is insufficient and is not appropriately targeted to address the specific, unique risks raised by m-payment services. At the same time, restrictive legislation designed in the context of traditional banking has created a hostile regulatory environment which has failed to stimulate innovation and growth within this potentially promising sector. With a view to proposing a model for reform of Saudi regulation, the United Kingdom ('UK') legal system will be scrutinised to assess whether lessons can be learnt in providing greater protection to customers in a Saudi Arabian context while remaining Sharia compliant. The UK is a valuable selection as a comparator as it has succeeded in balancing these objectives to a significant extent, achieving greater consumer protection than is currently available in Saudi Arabia ('SA') without compromising the strength and freedom of the market. There are also strong parallels between the two societies particularly in respect of openness to Fintech innovation. It will be proposed that the UK law provides a positive example of how this systematic defect in the regulation of m-payments can be remedied, in addition to more specific illustrations of provisions and policies which can aid in balancing the demands of consumer protection and market development. Recommendations are made as to how these can be usefully incorporated into a broader reform of the Saudi regulatory regime

Selected Papers from the 5th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications

This Special Issue comprises selected papers from the proceedings of the 5th International Electronic Conference on Sensors and Applications, held on 15–30 November 2018, on sciforum.net, an online platform for hosting scholarly e-conferences and discussion groups. In this 5th edition of the electronic conference, contributors were invited to provide papers and presentations from the field of sensors and applications at large, resulting in a wide variety of excellent submissions and topic areas. Papers which attracted the most interest on the web or that provided a particularly innovative contribution were selected for publication in this collection. These peer-reviewed papers are published with the aim of rapid and wide dissemination of research results, developments, and applications. We hope this conference series will grow rapidly in the future and become recognized as a new way and venue by which to (electronically) present new developments related to the field of sensors and their applications