MBAs must understand all areas of the web if they are to help their organisations succeed in a digital age, writes Kevin Lee-Simion
When Tim Berners-Lee, a British computer scientist, invented the World Wide Web in 1989, society changed forever. Berners-Lee made it possible for people and organisations to do things such as share and acquire information quickly.
And although the World Wide Web has brought numerous advantages to society, there are organisations and people who try and take advantage of technology. But don’t mistake the World Wide Web for the Internet. The Internet refers to a network that connects millions of computer systems together all over the world. The World Wide Web is a way of accessing information over the medium of the Internet.
Using the web as a tool for manipulation
Mike Kozloski, Vice President of Professional Services at Kelser, an IT management Services Company, explains: ‘Organisations use the web as a way to manipulate people to influence the users’ decisions.’
This can be done in a number of ways such as by using algorithms that favour content; for example, the EdgeRank algorithm that, up until 2011, Facebook used to determine what content should be displayed on a user’s news feed.
Andy King, cyber security expert of online comparison site Jamjar, explains: ‘Huge corporations can invest in marketing strategies that manipulate search engine results.’ Because of this, organisations can ‘push out influential content to those they know are more susceptible,’ King says.
The publication of false content is another way in which organisations and people can use the web as a tool for manipulation. As Braden Perry, Partner at law firm Kennyhertz Perry, LLC, says: ‘This can be done by fake reviews for products or product endorsements from alleged experts or celebrities.’
In a study conducted by BrightLocal, a SEO tools and citation building service, 85% of respondents said that they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Because fake reviews are often difficult to spot, these can easily be trusted and influence what a person thinks about an organisation.
Decisions can also be influenced through the web by organisations leveraging consumer data. An example of this was seen in 2018 when the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica data scandal surfaced. It was reported by a number of publications, including The New York Times and The Guardian, that that data from users of Facebook was being used to influence voter opinion on behalf of the politicians who hired them.
Aaron Birnbaum, Founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Seron Security, a managed service provider technology company, acknowledges this: ‘As we saw in the last presidential election, at least two companies leveraged behaviour patterns of users to push an agenda.’
And Kozloski warns that ‘this is the “Facebook problem” we have with the political system [in the US],’ referring to the fact that, on Facebook, ‘there are a lot of targeted advertisements and politically-motivated fake accounts.’
However, Birnbaum also argues that ‘leveraging data about a consumer can create a better experience for all’, since the ‘customer can find what they are looking for more easily’ and ‘the company can provide more suitable products for the customer to buy’.
Meanwhile, Professor Milo Jones, Visiting Professor at IE Business School, believes that as well as the impact the web can have on user decisions, we also have to be careful about the impact the web and the internet can have geopolitically.
Alluding to ‘smart cities’, he explains: ‘Any country that puts in too much digital infrastructure opens the door to digital deception or even takeover on a massive scale by the IT administrators themselves.’
He goes on to say that then you ‘have to worry far less about coups from the army, and far more about coups launched by whoever administers the system (and that may not be the President or Prime Minister).’
The impact of net neutrality
Net neutrality is the idea that all Internet providers treat data equally. During the Obama Administration in 2015, net neutrality became a regulation in the US meaning that internet providers could not block or slow web content. However, in 2018, under President Trump, this regulation was repealed.
Talking about the repeal, Perry describes the possible effects on business as ‘significant’, the most significant of which is ‘the ability for major internet service providers to offer faster service to a large client and then slow down service for all its competitors’.
Regulations around net neutrality will also have an impact on the internet user. Kozloski argues that the repeal of net neutrality will lead to organisations having ‘monopolies over the internet’ and therefore ‘a stage to take away consumer choice.’
On the other hand, Jones believes that ‘businesses focused on net neutrality still haven’t absorbed how quickly the world is changing,’ arguing that the more important questions to be considered include ‘do bots have free speech?’ and ‘what is the line between parody, fake news and an actual crime?’
Despite issues such as the repeal of net neutrality, Birnbaum is optimistic about future consumers on the internet. He points out that ‘the Internet is not limited to the US so the rest of the world may have some problems if the net neutrality changes remains altered’.
And Birnbaum highlights how much people actually rely on the internet – and the power that people can have en masse: ‘People use the internet for many things today, and it has been classified as “a basic need” in legal decisions,’ he explains. ‘If you start to mess with pricing, limitations and other restrictions, the masses will eventually force the companies to change voluntarily.’
The deep web and business
While the terms ‘deep web’ and ‘dark web’ are used interchangeably, there is a difference. The deep web is a portion of the World Wide Web that is hidden from indexing so it can’t be found by search engines such as Google. The dark web, however, is part of the deep web that is only accessible through certain software such as the Tor Browser, allowing users and website hosts to remain hidden.
While Perry explains that the dark web ‘hosts websites that want to be anonymous, such as websites that promote illicit or illegal behaviour’, according to King, the deep web ‘provides a valuable service for many businesses’.
But what do our commentators think about the role of the deep web in business?
Kozloski shares his view that ‘the deep web enables businesses to do a lot more’ in terms of ‘storing large amounts of protected data online’. This makes it easier for businesses to exchange files in a secure fashion.
Birnbaum comments that the deep web ‘can be used to provide limited access to most people or to store data that you may need access to but don’t want the general public to find.’ This means logging in to a hosted desktop, viewing a document on a server, or even looking through work emails is all made possible because of the deep web. As a result, he explains: ‘Employees should be utilising the deep web on a regular basis.’
However, the deep web can have negative effects for organisations too, as King makes clear: ‘The deep web includes all content that is not indexed by search engines, so this has the potential to negatively affect the digital marketing efforts in which legitimate businesses are investing, such as SEO and paid advertising opportunities via Google,’ he says, explaining that ‘if a service or product is available elsewhere in an undetectable or non-indexed area, a level of search volume, and therefore traffic, will be diverted from legitimate platforms which are listed on search engines.’
Organisations commonly use the deep web, but the same cannot be said of the dark web. ‘When it comes to employees, you want to block them from using it,’ sums up Kozloski.
This can be done, Perry explains, by organisations putting ‘strict prohibitions on their employees using the Tor or other anonymous web search engines and punishing those who do’.
Birnbaum adds: ‘If an employee is found using the dark web, generally that is a termination of contract offence, as they are engaging in criminal enterprise.’
The MBA and the deep web
All our commentators agree that MBAs and business leaders should have knowledge of the deep web.
Oyku Isik, Assistant Professor of Information Systems Management at Vlerick Business School says: ‘Knowing about the deep web would bring a certain advantage to the MBAs, specifically from an awareness perspective.’ So as MBAs become more aware, they will become be more knowledgeable about IT management and the challenges organisations face in this area.
As a result, Isik explains: ‘Being aware of the possibilities the deep web brings should be a motivator to take cybersecurity discussions out of the turf of the IT department and put it into the boardroom where it belongs.’
However, not only does knowing about the deep web and its impact make MBAs more aware of issues relating to cybersecurity, it allows MBAs in organisations to consider how to implement certain strategies. For example, Birnbaum explains: ‘Knowing that a competitor’s security has been breached and customers are leaving should change the sales targets.’ Ultimately, MBAs with knowledge of the deep web can be advantageous to an organisation.
Jones takes this one step further by saying that ‘it is necessary for all business people to understand the basic structure of the digital world, which includes the surface web [the part of the World Wide Web that is searchable through standard search engines], deep and dark webs.’ This is because ‘such knowledge is a key tool to living life “under digital conditions”’.
He concludes by stating that digital technology ‘structures our choices’ so ‘MBAs (and everyone else) need to be aware of this.’
