Computing And IT in the Workplace

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Computing and IT in the Workplace

Module Code

: CT006-3-1-CITW-L

Intake Code : UC1F1404SELecturer Name

: KHURSHID BEGUM BINTI ABDUL JABBAR

Hand in Date

: 1/08/2014

Group Number

: TWO

Student ID : Student NameTP035130 : Hussein Hassan AbdowTP035323 : MIN NAING SOE

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ContentsAbstract...........................................................3Introduction.......................................................4Flight dispatching system..........................................5Functionality......................................................6Advantages of the use of computing and information technology at flight dispatching system..........................................7Scheduled Airline operations.......................................7Flight Planning....................................................8Flight Safety......................................................9Impact of computing and Information technology in flight dispatch system.............................................................9Minimization of delays.............................................9Minimization of schedule disruption...............................10The safe flights..................................................10Security Issue....................................................11

Viruses, worms and Trojan Horses..............................11Denial of Service attack......................................12System Failure................................................12

System Protection...............................................13Anti-virus software...........................................13Creating a Recovery Disk......................................13Files Back-up.................................................13Message encryption............................................13

Internet Applications.............................................15Conclusion........................................................17References........................................................18

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Abstract

This report is researching on a

scenario that benefit for the use of computers and

information technology in a workplace. This report is

taking a look on the flight operations of the air

Asia airline company. The proposed scenario is the

flight dispatching system of the air Asia’s flight

operation.

Additionally, this report is

having a very clear explanation on flight dispatching

system, functionalities of the system, advantages and

disadvantages, impact of technology to the flight

dispatching system of the organization, as well as

the passengers. This report is explanation on the

implementation of computing and information

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technology to the proposed scenario, it is flight

dispatching system.

And also this report is

identifying and discussing on the differences and

similarities with the lectures of computing and

information technology in workplace which are the

chapters of internet application and security. There

are also the recommended suggestions that could help

to overcome any issue related to the computing and

information technology of the proposed scenario.

Introduction

Air Asia is Kuala Lumpur

International Airport based cheap airline, and it is

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a Malaysian based airline, too. The CEO of the

airline is Tony Fernandez. Their wide-ranging network

includes domestic flights in Malaysia, Southeast Asia

countries and many international flights. It is also

a leading aviation industry with the dream of

“everybody is possible to fly”. It is operating

international and domestic flights to more than 400

destinations in 20 countries.

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Flight dispatching system

Flight dispatchers in an airline are

those who have the responsibilities for the operation

of airplanes on the specific schedule. Both the

pilots and the flight dispatchers have the jointed

responsibilities for the flight’s safety. Flight

dispatchers plan the flight plans in collaboration

with pilots for the aircrafts to be able to land at

their destinations as in schedule in consideration

with payload, operation costs, fuel requirement,

alternate destinations, and weather of the

destinations and the flow of flight traffic.

Flight dispatchers are also the

aircraft dispatchers those who have authority to

control, regulate and terminate the aircraft in

accordance with the policies and regulations of

governments and the company for the safety of

aircraft and the passengers. They are also

responsible for the passenger services, economics,

and operation of flights for daily operation of

flights. Aircraft dispatcher is authorized to divert,

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cancel or delay the flight with the safety conditions

of passengers and aircraft. They are also responsible

to monitor the reports of aircraft position, aircraft

navigation charts, weather conditions, and radio

calls for the evaluation of safety and progress of

the flights.

Functionality

Every airline has the central hub at where

they manage the activities of their flights. All the decisions

related to the daily operations of the flights are made at the

operational control hub by Federal Aviation Administration

licensed flight dispatchers in the collaboration with the

management of the aviation industry and crews of the

aircrafts. In the operation, both software and communication

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are used by the flight dispatchers. Communications are

internet communication and radio communication such as High

Frequency or Very High Frequency radio communication.

In operation of the flight dispatching,

SITATEX, an airline software is used by the flight dispatchers

for the communication with the pilots and captains of the

aircrafts. SITATEX is an application software that is used by

aviation industries for the communication of ground and

aircrafts. It runs very functioning communication for the

airlines around the world, and aerospace industries.

With the use of SITATEX, documents and the

messages can be delivered through internet, dial-up

connections and IP networks. All these task are done through

an easy user interface designed for ATI (Automatic Transaction

Initiation) messaging environments.

Air Asia’s flight dispatchers make use of

computing and information technology at their work for their

computerized planning of flights, and receiving information

about the weather. And also NOTAMs, used by Air Asia’s

dispatchers to make notifications to the pilots about the next

departure airport. NOTAMs, “Notice to Airmen” are a scenario

in the operation of aircraft dispatching. SABRE is one of the

software that is used by the flight dispatchers for the

planning of the flights.

A flight dispatcher plans a flight with

the information such as allowable landing and taking off

weight, weather conditions, airport conditions, PIREPs,

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NOTAMs, TAFs, METARs (the processes and procedures in

aviation), and the other information which are required for

the completion of a safe flight.

Advantages of the use of computing and information technology at flight dispatching system

The use of Computing and

Information Technology has resulted to a lot of

advantages to the Aviation Industry and has

contributed a lot in the well-being of this industry.

There are lots of advantages of flight dispatch

system in an airline company like Air Asia. Some of

the Advantages of Flight dispatch system upon the

implementation of computing and information

technology elaborated below:

Scheduled Airline operations.

One of the most important matter

in an Airline company is to ensure that flights are

operated as in agenda. Flight time lag are one of the

most irritating things in aviation industries which

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irritates both passengers and Aviation Functionary

including airport officials, airline managers etc.

In2006, more than 20% of all scheduled flights were

delayed in the US due to increase in air traffic. By

implementing computing and information technology in

flight dispatch system aided a good deal in flight

process like flight dispatch operations which results

in holding the airlines operate on schedule.

Flight Planning Flight Preparation is one of the

important subroutine done in dispatch operation

system. In flight planning, with the respective

aircraft captain and the dispatchers work together

for flight planning. The en-route weather condition,

weather condition of destinations, and alternate the

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destinations in-case of emergencies are considered by

both flight captains and the dispatchers. These help

to ensure the safety of the journey, keep the flights

on schedule help the industries to know the

requirement of the flights and also to reduce the

operating costs and ensure the safety of flights. So,

by using the computers and information technology in

this process is very beneficial to the aviation

industries.

Economic Planning

Economic planning is one of the

most important thing in the operations of flights in

airline industries like Air Asia. That is done by

flight dispatcher when path ways and flight routines

are scheduled and planned. By considering the

destination and en-route weather conditions, the air

traffic, the maintenance of aircrafts and other

factors, flight dispatcher enable to reduce the costs

of the operation.

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Flight Safety

Air transportation is said to be the

safest transportation these days. This is because

many individuals are working as a team together and

keep communicating the aircrafts to be safe on air

and arrive to the destinations on time with no

conflicts with another. This is managed by the

controllers at the control tower, the flight

dispatchers and also TRACON (terminal radar control

approach). The pilots in the aircraft are always kept

communicating by the dispatcher all the time to

ensure safety and also the notification on routes,

weather changes, the case of emergencies as well. To

be doing so, computer and information technology is

playing a vital role at where GPS to track the

flights and communication are used. All the flights

are always tracked by dispatchers from departure till

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the arrival to the scheduled destination, at where

technical errors are recorded and warning alerts are

detected easily, so as the flight to be secured.

Impact of computing and Information technology in flight dispatch system

Minimization of delays The delays of flights have been

decreased years ago due to positive impact of flight

dispatching system in aviation industries in

collaboration with air traffic controllers. The

dispatchers have assisted the airlines in avoiding

delays in airports, to minimize any inconvenience

cases causes to passengers and management of the

airports. The increasement of delayed flights is

because of the increasing the air traffic as the

rapidly increasing of air travels and aviation

industries. So, the flight dispatching system has the

great impact of minimizing of inconvenience causes,

and computing and information technology plays the

vital role in the flight dispatching system.

Minimization of schedule disruption

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The flight dispatch system that

is powered by the use of computing and information

technology largely has minimized the schedule

disruption in Air Asia. The use of computing and IT

in flight operations (Flight Dispatch) is so critical

in this era of information technology to the air

travel.

The safe flights

The fact, inconstant and changing

weather make difficulties for air travel to be safe.

Air travel needs a very huge attention from all

sectors responsible to make it safe. One among the

important departments responsible for safety of an

aircraft is flight dispatch.

Flight dispatch has caused air

travel not only comfortable but also safe for the

respective aircraft as well as other aircrafts in the

airspace at that particular. The air traffic has

increased in recent years due to the development of

aviation industry and air travel, flight dispatch has

played an important role in prevention of collision

during flights. Flight dispatch system also prevents

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aircrafts to fly into undesirable weather conditions

and can re-route a flight plans into the safe routes.

Security Issue (MIN NAING SOE TP 035323)

The damage or loss of data in the

computer system is called computer security risks.

Similarly to other companies or organizations, Air

Asia encounter several of security issue or threats

in their system. The flight dispatching department is

a very critical and responsible in an airline company

as Air Asia, and similar to all other aviation

industries.

Since Flight Dispatch operationsdepend such a great amount on web too, it is clearthat Air Asia's flight dispatchers confront a ton of

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online security assault like virus attacks, phishingscams, spam, hackers and denial of services attacketc. Once in a while, even terrorists may hack to theflight dispatch system and utilize the data as a partof assaulting or capturing the airplane.

In collaboration with air trafficcontroller, flight dispatchers may encounter many security attacks into their systems and since these departments are vital in the airline operations. Theorganizations like Air Asia needs a good security system to minimize and evade security attacks which may jeopardize the lives of a large number of travelers depending on these individuals.

Among the security attacks Air Asia’s dispatchersface, the followings are included:

Viruses, worms and Trojan HorsesComputer Virus is an undesirable program in thecomputers that can duplicate itself and spread fromone computer then on to the next. They can bespreaded and additionally harm the files in thecomputers. Viruses the tendency to meddle theoperation of computers, it may also erase or corruptdata or even every accessible things on computers.

Computer worms are the stand-alone malware programs that can reproduce themselves and spread on the network or even on the web. They are potentially ableto shut a computer or a system down. Worms spread consequently through emails, networks or vulnerabilities of operating systems. They do not

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always destruct the computers but they typically cause machine and performance of networks and stability of operating system of the computer.

Trojan Horses are the stand-alone malicious programs that trick as legitimate applications or files. They are not replicated themselves and trick like a legitimate program until it isactivated. All the worms, viruses, spyware, Trojan horses, untrustworthy adware and other malevolent or undesirable software are to be said as malware, where they are unsafe to the computers or the networks and can either damage or cause the otherissues to the infested machines or networks.

Denial of Service attack A denial of service attack is an assault that makes a machine or network unreachable to its user. The assault stops legitimate users to the particular service. Denial of service attack is the way that hackers commonly use.

The hackers use unsuspicious computers to hack the systems. That can cause break down of communication within the organization where critical data need to be imparted for the security of the airplane. Subsequently, the DOS assaults can result in deadly impacts if not counteracted or managed when it happens.

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System Failure System failure is the malfunctioning of a system. It could happen from failure of hardware or severe issue of software. The system failure makes system reboot, freeze or discontinue functioning. Disturbance of electrical power, disasters and aging of hardware can cause system failure.

System failure can result many consequences in a department that rely on computer and information technology like operations of flights including controlling of flights and dispatching of flights. Itmay result the damage of software, hardware and loss of critical data.

System Protection.

Anti-virus software Anti-virus software is the software that can distinguish and remove viruses in the systems. All the viruses, worms and Trojan horses can be prevented by the anti-virus software. The anti-virus software reads the virus signature

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which is the specific pattern (algorithm) of virus code. This pattern is also called virus signature.

Air Asia uses Anti-virus softwarein order to protect their systems from virus and other malware attacks. Among the popular Anti-virus programs include, AVG Anti-virus, Norton Anti-virus, McAfee Anti-virus, F-Secure Anti-virus etc.

Creating a Recovery Disk A recovery disk is removable disk that contains uninfected copy of key operating systemcommands that enables computers to restart. The recovery disk is also called a Rescue disk. Once computerrestarts, antivirus program attempts to repair damaged files.

Files Back-up A back-up is a duplicate of a file, program or disk to another disk in order to save the files in case of System failure or corruptedfiles. Individual can restore the files by copying tooriginal location.

Like any other organisation, Air Asia practices a backup procedure. Back-up procedure is regular plan of copying and storing data and program files. Apart from the backup procedure, there’s also a disaster recovery plan. This is a written plan for restoring computer operations in events of disaster.

Air Asia, as one among the great organisations which operate in Aviation Industry alsokeeps a Computer Security Plan. Computer Security

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Plan summarizes in writing all safeguards in place toprotect company’s information.

Message encryption Since Air Asia’s flight dispatchers communicate crucial information with their pilots, Air Traffic Controllers, Weather agencies as well as other dispatchers it is importantthat they secure their information so that any other unauthorised party to be unable to access that information.

Hence, Air Asia together with other Aviation departments encrypt their messages so that they secure the information.

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Internet Applications (HUSSEIN HASSAN ABDOW TP035130)

Air Asia is one of the low cost airlines which is a trademark of the ASEAN Countries.It is also considered the best low cost airline in the world. Flight Operations System of Air Asia is highly dependent on the internet applications it usesin the control tower and in the inflight functions. Basically all the communications in between the flight and the control tower is through the internet which sends two way signals enabling both the pilots in the aircraft and the people in the control tower to have effective communication.

Being the frontrunner in Low costTransporter airlines Air Asia has made it obvious

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that they are installing Teledyne Controls Wireless Ground link Quick access Recorder (WQAR) on 25 new Airbus A330 aircraft and retrofit on 2 Airbus A-340 aircraft. Air Asia has also selected Air Asia’s flight Data Monitoring System (FDM) services for the replay and analysis of their flight data.

Air Asia X will organize Teledyne’s confirmed wireless technology through their complete fleets to automate the recording and air to ground wireless transmission of their aircraftstatistics. The WQAR will also allow Air Asia X to transmit their ACMS (Aircraft Condition Monitoring System) reports from the aircraft inexpensively, at afraction of the cost of sending the same information via ACARS

A significant new feature of Teledyne’s WQAR is the new Download on Demand (DoD) feature. This function will allow Air Asia X to remotely command flight data download wherever they need. Earlier access to flight data, regardless of the airport destination, designated hub or gate. Withthe WQAR’s capability, the airline can collect critical flight data much faster from almost any airport worldwide and respond to potential issues in record time.

There is effective communication through the internet that provides cockpit email and SMS connectivity during the flight, flight following both downstream (i.e. the aircraft reporting

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automatically back to flight dispatch. Also it provides this service upstream which includes these components.(TAF/METAR, NOTAM, graphical SigMET, graphical SatWx updated in a push mode (no need for the pilot to request data they function automatically), system-internal hand shakesto promise completeness, accuracy and confirmed delivery of data, engineering and maintenance data support, AOC messaging, There are supplies in the method to support CPDLC data transmission, if essential at alater stage. All this can be supported by the present"low bandwidth" connection. There is nothing in termsof real-time connectivity missing that would be mandatory for a comprehensive clarification. While competence is one part, lowoperational cost is another, because AirAsia has succeeded in cutting their communications cost at thesame time.It is vital to note that the airborne capability goeshand-in-hand with a "no cost" (in terms of data transmission) airport connectivity. This is the key, because today, many arguments for "broadband" are based on substantial data that is effectively transmitted from or to the aircraft at airports. A captain of Air asia was interviewed and he stated :For this I am briefed that there is no reasonwhy KU or KA band "broadband" should be necessary forcockpit or engineering, neither from the cost nor from the capability point of view. Customer amusementis a different problem, but we favor to strictly

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isolate traffic here anyway. For hardware, In Air Asia, the drag induced by KU or similar antennas incurs a hefty petroleum/freight penalty. An Additional point to note is the simplicity of installation- the Iridium narrow-band system AirAsia uses employs a very small antenna only (flat, about 10cm diameter), and operates on low-power equipment. All this contributes to lower cost- while still giving 100% of the capability that is required, adjustable in 12h end to end. These are the applications that Air Asia uses which are namely Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) system, the Teledyne’s Control Wireless Ground link Quick Access Recorder (WQAR) and Flight Data Monitoring System (FDM). These systems were developedunder high level of supervision which enhance the communications between the flight dispatch departmentand the flight. It ensures greater reliability, efficiency and easy for the operators of the concerned flight.

Conclusion

According to the research the author has gone through, it has been figured out that Flight

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Dispatch system is a very important department in theAviation Industry and it is very critical in terms ofsecurity as well as Economics. Airline Companies likeAir Asia are implementing Computing and IT in the workplace in order to improve the efficiency of the Operations. Also, Airline Companies are putting a lotof effort in the department of Flight Dispatch to ensure smooth operations of the company. Among these efforts which Airline Companies like Air Asia are taking to includes High Salary to the Flight Dispatchers.

In this report, the author has also realized the importance of Security in the fieldof Computer and Information Technology as well as Aviation Industry. Nevertheless, it has been realisedhow important Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is in the workplace. The human computer interaction in a workplace is extremely crucial not just for personal health purposes, but also the efficiency and safety of an individual and the organization.

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References

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How to prevent and remove viruses and other malware [Online], Microsoft Support, available at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/129972 [Accessed 28 Jul 2014]

Denial of Service Attacks [Online], CERT, available at http://www.cert.org/tech_tips/denial_of_service.html [Accessed1 July 2014]

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AirAsia X Selects Teledyne Controls' Wireless GroundLink? System and Flight Data Analysis Services to Support their

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Computing And IT in the Workplace

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