Journal of Information Technology Research

Includes bibliographical references.

[Article Title: Secure Electronic Healthcare Records Management in Wireless Environments/ Stefanos Gritzalis, Petros Belsis and Christos Skourlas, p. 1-17]

Abstract: Wireless technologies have lately been integrated in many types of environments; their development is able to provide innovative services minimizing costs and the time necessary to identify the necessary information. However medical information is very sensitive since it contains critical personal data. Security and privacy preservation are very critical parameters. Lately, innovative technologies such as software agents' technology have been utilized to support distributed environments. Presented is an architecture that allows secure medical related information management using software agents; this work expands previous research Belsis, Skourlas, & Gritzalis, 2011. The authors present a security oriented solution and also provide experimental evidence about the capability of the platform to operate in wireless environments with large number of users.

https://doi.org/10.4018/jitr.2011100101

[Article Title: Enhancing the Disaster Recovery Plan Through Virtualization/ Dennis Guster and Olivia F. Lee, p. 18-40]

Abstract: Currently, organizations are increasingly aware of the need to protect their computer infrastructure to maintain continuity of operations. This process involves a number of different concerns including: managing natural disasters, equipment failure, and security breaches, poor data management, inadequate design, and complex/impractical design. The purpose of this article is to delineate how virtualization of hosts and cloud computing can be used to address the concerns resulting in improved computer infrastructure that can easily be restored following a natural disaster and which features fault tolerant hosts/components, isolates applications security attacks, is simpler in design, and is easier to manage. Further, because this technology has been out for a number of years and its capabilities have matured an attempt has been made to describe those capabilities as well as document successful applications.

https://doi.org/10.4018/jitr.2011100102

[Article Title: The Value of Government Mandated Location-Based Services in Emergencies in Australia/ Katina Michael, Roba Abbas, Anas Aloudat andMutaz Al-Debei, p. 41-68]

Abstract: The adoption of mobile technologies for emergency management has the capacity to save lives. In Australia in February 2009, the Victorian Bushfires claimed 173 lives, the worst peace-time disaster in the nation's history. The Australian government responded swiftly to the tragedy by going to tender for mobile applications that could be used during emergencies, such as mobile alerts and location services. These applications have the ability to deliver personalized information direct to the citizen during crises, complementing traditional broadcasting mediums like television and radio. Indeed governments have a responsibility to their citizens to safeguard them against both natural and human-made hazards and today national security has grown to encapsulate such societal and economic securitization. However, some citizens and lobby groups have emphasized that such breakthrough technologies need to be deployed with caution as they are fraught with ethical considerations, including the potential for breaches in privacy, security and trust. The other problem is that real world implementations of national emergency alerts have not always worked reliably and their value has come into question as a result. This paper provides a big picture view of the value of government-mandated location-based services during emergencies, and the challenges ensuing from their use.

https://doi.org/10.4018/jitr.2011100103