http://nation.time.com/2013/10/14/hackers-target-town-after-dropped-sexual-assault-case/?iid=tsmodule

A 14 year-old girl, Daisy Coleman, was raped by a 17 year old boy, Matthew Barnett, who comes from a prominent family in Maryville. Astonishingly, although non-consensual sex was proven, the court dropped the case and the entire town turned on the Coleman family, resulting in their house being “suspiciously” burned down. When hacker group, “Anonymous” heard about this incident, they decided to target Maryville with the intention to “stand for the victim”.

This is the logo of the Anonymous hacker group. Another incident they are famous for is their threat to hack the Westboro Baptist Church which could be found here <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1359376/Hackers-threaten-Westboro-Baptist-Churchs-website-spewing-hate.html>

Hacker groups are great threats to any database, whether it be a town’s or a company’s. With the growing MIS and IT sector in business, it is in a company’s best interest to keep the databases protected. Like natural disasters, hacking incidents are unpredictable and extremely corruptive. Although companies can create backup storage for data to minimize damage from natural disasters, how can they shield themselves from hackers? However, it does appear that after companies, such as Apple and Adobe, are hacked, their stock value rises, showing that customers who are loyal to the company do not seem to sway even after a hacking attack. <http://www.danielmiessler.com/blog/how-does-getting-hacked-actually-affect-company-value>

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/couple-incensed-as-air-canada-overbooking-continues-1.1894951

An airline makes profit by selling its services to satisfied customers, and in such a competitive industry, Air Canada’s lack of ethic in regards to treating their customers and their agents puzzles me. In a service oriented industry, where is Air Canada’s parity when their customer service is deemed appalling? With West Jet and many other competitors thriving and offering similar travel routes, Air Canada does not offer unique distinctiveness that cannot be paralleled. By mistreating its customers and neglecting the consequence of their actions, whether it is to the company itself or to the lives of the customers, Air Canada is endangering its reputation among its target audience that will prove difficult to salvage. As a pilot, I have “insider knowledge” about the dissatisfaction among the Air Canada pilots, especially in terms of pay and length between promotions. A company’s personnel are their most valuable assets, yet Air Canada does not appear to be particularly concerned about their satisfaction. Further strengthening my point, the article states that agents are upset by the company’s act of overbooking and turning passengers away due to its own indiscretions. How does Air Canada expect to be a leader in the airline industry when they offer such poor service to customers and their own employees?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/how-this-gay-oreo-sparked-internet-outrage/article4374318/

Last year, Kraft’s Oreo sparked an Internet outrage when it replaced its white icing with rainbow coloured ones to show support for world Pride in its advertisements. Many homophobic consumers expressed their apparent disgust and anger towards the colourful fillings on social media, primarily Facebook. 

However, instead of thinking that the Facebook uproar has caused detrimental effects for Oreos, I agree with the author of the article that it was a brilliant marketing strategy. Like the old saying: “any publicity is good publicity”, Oreos was able to gain the attention of many people who may not have originally been interested in the sugary cookie. By showing its support of a global celebration/issue, Oreos, and its mother Kraft, can create a deeper sense of relation between customers and producers. A disappointment that I found was that Kraft does not actually plan to sell rainbow coloured Oreos in the market; it was purely a marketing campaign. Creating this much fuss over a proposed product is a great opportunity for the company to expand its product line, especially when the cost to producing extra coloured icing is presumably small and the it can further distinguish itself from other cookie brands by showing its support for equality every time someone sees a pack of Oreos in an aisle.