Stage 3

Stage 3

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General Business Process

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Project Description

• We are going to solve the surge of doxxing in the video game industry by creating a console app VPN that will prevent cybersecurity issues.
• A private company that will allow console gamers to hide their IP address and personal information to prevent all incoming cyber security attacks that occur so often
• GPN will also host a system that rewards customers for showing good etiquette online
• A community will be formed to incentivize a healthy and positive virtual environment
• By creating a point system where there will be giveaways and plenty of opportunities to make great etiquette even more worth it

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Elevator Pitch

In the year 2022 alone, there have been over 43 million doxxing cases. What is doxxing you ask? By definition, Doxxing is the search for private information on the internet, typically with malicious intent. This usually leads to players IP’s getting leaked which can lead to even larger problems. Many people understand that video game anger should stay in the game, however this has become a larger issue as the years have gone on. Whether they are adults or children, these victims have had their online security compromised by random strangers, causing either physical or social pain. With our new app that will be available in the console itself, it will be able to provide complete anonymity to anyone playing online. Preventing these online attacks from ever occurring again.

Ethics, Privacy, and Security

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• Potential fraud and hacking/Data and IP collection
• In our monthly GPN subscription, subscribers will be provided an antivirus program which will be able to prevent their data from being potentially hacked.
• Regarding credit card numbers, GPN will not allow users to save their credit card information on the app
• Exploitation of the Rewards System, falsely reporting good etiquette to earn points/Potential boosting issues
• Address this by only allowing two devices per credit card/household
• This will prevent multiple fake accounts being made
• Botting/ AI-operating accounts.
• Using a VPN to conduct criminal activity
• There is a debate whether VPN services are dangerous because of their ability to hide criminal activity
• However, our service is focused primarily on console gaming and our protection service will be very efficient in preventing these crimes
• Costs associated with these potential solutions will be discussed in our cost and benefit analysis slide

KWHL TABLE

(Based on Primary Market Research)

Primary Market Research

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• For our survey we have got 15 gamer responses and 8 parent responses.
• Our survey showed most of the surveyors are interested in the vpn service to avoid doxxing problems.
• The survey also helps us to understand the necessity of our product. It also helps us to understand how important it is for our society.

Primary Market Research 2

• From the results of our survey, we have been able to find important information about the parents of gamers and adult gamers.
• Through our survey, it is safe to say that many people have suffered from online threats, including adult and children gamers.
• Although many people were unsure of whether they were willing to pay for a VPN service, many people were in favor of paying for a VPN service as well.

Business Process Analysis- Context Diagram

Business Process Analysis- Cross-Functional Flow Diagram

Process Flow Diagram

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Low Fidelity Prototype

• This is the low fidelity prototype of GPN’s Menu and Login Screens.
• Designed to be as efficient as possible, accessing information in the least amount of pages
• Profile Page is also planned (Which will be implemented in high fidelity prototype).

Draft UI/UX Designs

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Our initial design(s) involve providing a minimal menu, having every feature needed accessible right at the main menu.

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High Fidelity Prototype

Gaming Private Network - Proto.io

Costs & Benefits

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Cost & Benefits

• Our financial spreadsheet layout that each year our company needs approximately 1.1 million dollars to run the business.
• Our expectation is to get at least 20k members as a subscriber for our gpn service.
• We have added a new position “Content Moderator” who will work to handle any criminal activity and will try to report the problem as they discover any threat.
• Because of this new position our yearly cost have increased but we are looking forward to provide a good service instead of just making profit.
• We also have the cybersecurity subscription to avoid any fraudulent/hacking into our system.

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Summary Impact

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• After receiving and reviewing feedback from stage two
• There have been multiple changes made since the previous stage
• We have added our previous stage 1 and stage 2 slides to our overall presentation as we did not include them in the previous stage
• This has made our project flow much better overall and allows us to view all of our progress
• Another major component we added in our updated stage was primary market research
• In our previous presentations, we lacked primary research and did not have enough responses from our survey
• We have now included all of our responses as we prioritized market research and received lots of feedback to help us build our company

Team Role Assignments

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• Team Leadership and Management
• Team Leader: Brian Kim
• Project Manager: Fabrizio Mendoza (BAST&F) + Rohan Arun (SD&DST&F)
• Presentation/documentation manager: Jakob Sarmiento
• Business Analysis Sub-Team and Functions
• Market research: MD Ishraq
• Business analysis and context modeling: MD Ishraq + Fabrizio Mendoza
• Financial analysis: Jakob Sarmiento
• Solution Design and Development Sub-Team and Functions
• Cross-functional process model: Rohan Arun
• UI/UX design: Brian Kim + Nabeel Kazi
• Prototype development: Brian Kim + Nabeel Kazi

Summary Impact

What, and how, has your Stage 3 work influenced or changed our any/all of our Stage 1 and Stage 2 work. This is to be a summary impact slide bulleting any key impacts.

Appendices

1] https://vpnpro.com/blog/vpn-market-share-overview/

[2] https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/video-game-market

[3] https://www.proquest.com/docview/2664759333?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

[4] https://www.proquest.com/openview/f08bf77a6b855cd4d17a9f75d26d72b9/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=41798

Project Description

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• We are going to solve the surge of doxxing in the video game industry by creating a console app VPN that will prevent cybersecurity issues.
• A private company that will allow console gamers to hide their IP address and personal information to prevent all incoming cyber security attacks that occur so often
• GPN will also host a system that rewards customers for showing good etiquette online
• A community will be formed to incentivize a healthy and positive virtual environment
• By creating a point system where there will be giveaways and plenty of opportunities to make great etiquette even more worth it

​

​

Elevator Pitch

In the year 2022 alone, there have been over 43 million doxxing cases. What is doxxing you ask? By definition, Doxxing is the search for private information on the internet, typically with malicious intent. This usually leads to players IP’s getting leaked which can lead to even larger problems. Many people understand that video game anger should stay in the game, however this has become a larger issue as the years have gone on. Whether they are adults or children, these victims have had their online security compromised by random strangers, causing either physical or social pain. With our new app that will be available in the console itself, it will be able to provide complete anonymity to anyone playing online. Preventing these online attacks from ever occurring again.

KWHL Table

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Preliminary Secondary Research Findings

What data have you found?

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Finding out someone’s IP address is as easy as typing in a gamertag or PSN on xResolver.com

Xbox IP Finder: How To Find an IP Address on Xbox Live with Xbox Resolver (2022) - EarthWeb

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Most of the doxxing and swatting cases are happening with the basic information of a gamer like their phone number, name, and address which is accessible through many public sources or online gaming platforms.

https://theconversation.com/doxxing-swatting-and-the-new-trends-in-online-harassment-40234

• According to SafeHome.org website 21% of Americans or over 43 million people have experienced the doxxing problem.
• Most of the doxxing incident sparked by online posts about 52% and almost 20% of the incident happens from the online gaming platform.
• 86% of the doxxing attack impact individuals personal life where the victims were harassed online and faced public shaming.

https://www.safehome.org/family-safety/doxxing-online-harassment-research/

Preliminary Secondary Research Findings

What Have we Learned

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• Cyber attacks occur all throughout the nation, affecting multiple citizens
• Types of cyber attacks include doxing, swatting, and cyberstalking
• Although there are laws in certain states which address these issues of cyber attacks, these laws are falling behind due to the development of technology and electronic communication.

https://commons.stmarytx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1119&context=thestmaryslawjournal

Preliminary Secondary Research Findings

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• Between November 2017 and March 2019, over 12 billion credential stuffing attacks occurred, with some of them involving the possession of video game items being stolen for financial gain.

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• Cybercrime is the on the rise. In 2015 Cybercrime cost users $3 trillion annually with reports showing the number has doubled to $6 trillion in 2021

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Preliminary Secondary Research Findings

Market Share

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The estimated VPN market value in 2022 is over $44 billion and is estimated to reach $71 billion by 2027.

The compound annual growth rate set for 2020-2027 is 16.5%.

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The estimated global video game market

value was $195.65 billion in 2021 and is estimated

to reach $405 billion 2027

The compound annual growth rate set for 2020-2027

is 12.9%

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SWOT Analysis

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Strengths

Weaknesses

• An exclusive VPN service for console players
• Easy to user interface
• Lower monthly subscription than other competing companies
• Quality Protection
• Unique User Experience
• Constant giveaways
• Inclusive and Positive community

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• Service may only support certain games based on partnerships
• No current marketing or publicity
• Small Staff
• Gaps in experience
• Financial Aspects

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Opportunities

Threats

• Potential Partnerships with corporations such as Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo to help introduce all players to this service
• Along with provide a set up announcement of the VPN service so all new players and parents have an option to subscribe right away
• Sponsorship deals with other name brands to provide giveaways to well mannered players

• Competing VPN services using our ideas to propel their own companies
• Potential hackers that can access user data and IPs
• Strong Competition
• Constant need for maintenance
• Slight dependency on partnerships and sponsors

Magic Quadrant

Magic Quadrant

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Our competitors are well known in the VPN space especially Nord and

Express VPN

• Google trends show they account for a majority of searches for VPNs
• Both have strong marketing

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Cyberghost is strong in the mobile space.

• Dominates the Apple sphere.
• On par with Express VPN in Google Play downloads

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Hotspot and TunnelBear are important to beat free VPN services

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Gaming Private Network has been placed in the visionaries quadrant.

While our goal is to become the #1 choice for console VPNs we are still a startup looking to

establish ourselves as key players in the scene.

Labor Cost

• GPN has 15 employees in total.
• These employees plays different roles within the company. For example:
• App Designer (2 person)
• App development team (2 person)
• App tester (1 person)
• Cyber Security (2 person)
• Marketing team (2 person)
• Finance team (1 person)
• Legal team (2 person)
• Customer service (3 person)

Labor Cost (Continue)

App design

• This department is responsible for designing the app so, customer can easily operate the system.
• Salary: 65k/year/employee

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App developer

• This department is responsible for coding and develop the app according to the design.
• Salary: 85k/year/employee

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App tester

• This department is responsible for testing the app and decide if its ready for the customers.
• Salary: 70k/year/employee

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Cybersecurity team:

• This team is responsible for defending the company’s network and systems from cyber attacks.
• Salary: 105k/year/employee

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Marketing

• They are responsible for promoting the product as well as reaching out customers and investors.
• Salary: 55k/year/employee

Finance

• This department is responsible for taking care of daily expenses, creating budget, keeping track of all transaction and manage tax data.
• Salary: 70k/year/employee

Legal Team

• This department is responsible for all legal related matter either external or internal like litigation, compliance, merger etc.
• Salary: 110k/year/employee

Customer Service

• This department is responsible to provide answers any customer inquiry.
• Salary: 33k/year/employee

IT Services and Equipments

Hardware:

• We need 7 MacBook Pro and 12 iMacs for our employees. This would cost $39.5k.
• Then for the customer service we need 3 telephones and that would costs wound $300.

Software:

• We need photoshop and design software for the designer and marketing team. That would cost $85/month for Adobe all app.
• We need a coding software for which we choose visual studios software that costs $45/month. This software is for the app development team.
• Then we need Microsoft office software subscription for finance and legal department which would cost $18/month
• We also need internet and phone lines for the employees which would cost $90/month.

Cybersecurity

• $600/month for cyber security protection.

Workspace and Insurance

Workspace:

• We need an office and furniture to operate our business.
• The office rent with partially furnished would cost around 60k/year.
• We would need additional $7k for furnitures.
• The utility would cost $800/month

Insurance :

• We need a liability insurance for our company which would cost around $260/month
• We also need worker compensation insurance which would cost around $4500/year

Cost Spreadsheet

Summary Impact

• After receiving feedback from Stage one
• Stakeholders and Customers/target audience was heavily reconsidered
• Customers
• The Target audience in stage one was “gamers” as a whole
• We realized that this is a very broad term where players can drastically range in age
• We did not specify whether we were marketing out service to children, adults, or elders
• The new target audience will be Parents and adult gamers ages 18+ and above
• Using marketing and advertising, GPN is conducting a plan to partner with console companies and provide an advertisement during the console setup process
• This will allow parents and adult users to educate themselves on who GPN is and why a console VPN service is needed
• Along with a side tab advertisement available in the homepage so that customers can subscribe at any convenience

Summary Impact Cont.

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• Stakeholders were also heavily reconsidered after feedback from stage 1
• Prior stakeholders were customers, potential partnerships, and wireless service providers
• After reconsideration
• Customers would not be considered stakeholders but instead our target audience as customers are providing revenue for GPN
• Parents are officially the target audience and as a result of this, children are now stakeholders
• The GPN team is also a stakeholder because we are the foundation of our development
• Game development companies also classify as stakeholders as they have shown interest in helping us propel in productivity and functionality

Final Team Roles

• Team Leadership and Management
• Team Leader: Brian Kim
• Project Manager: Fabrizio Mendoza (BAST&F) + Rohan Arun (SD&DST&F)
• Presentation/documentation manager: Jakob Sarmiento
• Business Analysis Sub-Team and Functions
• Market research: MD Ishraq
• Business analysis and context modeling: MD Ishraq + Fabrizio Mendoza
• Financial analysis: Jakob Sarmiento
• Solution Design and Development Sub-Team and Functions
• Cross-functional process model: Rohan Arun
• UI/UX design: Brian Kim + Nabeel Kazi
• Prototype development: Brian Kim + Nabeel Kazi

Upcoming Plans

• Next Steps
• GPN has made huge steps towards developing a successful and efficient service for all
• Next steps include full development of the interface and service itself
• With assistance in the IT department
• Begin marketing our VPN to potential investors including the big three gaming companies
• Have business meetings with Microsoft, Nintendo,and Sony
• Explain why we created our company and why a partnership would be beneficial for both sides
• Elaborate our plans with giveaway community and providing analytic numbers along with estimated dates

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Appendices

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1. https://www.indeed.com/career/application-developer/salaries
2. https://www.salary.com/research/salary/benchmark/marketing-manager-salary/nj
3. https://www.apple.com/
4. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/business/compare-all-microsoft-365-business-products-b?&ef_id=CjwKCAjwzNOaBhAcEiwAD7Tb6G1iuMWqzO6c53EPZZ1Dr8goJTw876v3n40z-6NDE2-150d21fMKVRoCyHMQAvD_BwE:G:s&OCID=AIDcmmwf9kwzdj_SEM_CjwKCAjwzNOaBhAcEiwAD7Tb6G1iuMWqzO6c53EPZZ1Dr8goJTw876v3n40z-6NDE2-150d21fMKVRoCyHMQAvD_BwE:G:s&lnkd=Google_O365SMB_Brand&gclid=CjwKCAjwzNOaBhAcEiwAD7Tb6G1iuMWqzO6c53EPZZ1Dr8goJTw876v3n40z-6NDE2-150d21fMKVRoCyHMQAvD_BwE
5. https://www.loopnet.com/search/office-space/new-brunswick-nj/for-lease/
6. Top 10 VPN Market Share Overview in 2022 | VPNpro

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Team Description/Who are we?

• GPN is a tech startup company looking to provide a private network solution to gamers worldwide
• We are a group of people who think that video games are a very innovative and important aspect in people lives
• However, we are all too familiar with how toxic the community can be
• There are many disputes that can often be taken too far and can result in much more serious problems as a result

Project Description

• We are going to solve the surge of doxxing in the video game industry by creating a console app VPN that will prevent cybersecurity issues.
• A private company that will allow console gamers to hide their IP address and personal information to prevent all incoming cyber security attacks that occur so often
• GPN will also host a system that rewards customers for showing good etiquette online
• A community will be formed to incentivize a healthy and positive virtual environment
• By creating a point system where there will be giveaways and plenty of opportunities to make great etiquette even more worth it

Elevator Pitch

• In the year 2022 alone, there have been over 43 million doxxing cases. What is doxxing you ask? By definition, Doxxing is the search for private information on the internet, typically with malicious intent. This usually leads to players IP’s getting leaked which can lead to even larger problems.

​

• Many people understand that video game anger should stay in the game, however this has become a larger issue as the years have gone on. Whether they are adults or children, these victims have had their online security compromised by random strangers, causing either physical or social pain.

​

• With our new app that will be available in the console itself, it will be able to provide complete anonymity to anyone playing online. Preventing these online attacks from ever occurring again.

Preliminary Secondary Research Findings

Market Share

​

The estimated VPN market value in 2022 is over $44 billion and is estimated to reach $71 billion by 2027.

The compound annual growth rate set for 2020-2027 is 16.5%. [1]

​

The estimated global video game market

value was $195.65 billion in 2021 and is estimated

to reach $405 billion 2027

The compound annual growth rate set for 2020-2027

is 12.9% [2]

​

​

Preliminary Secondary Research Findings

What sources have you researched to support your idea?

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Between November 2017 and March 2019, over 12 billion credential stuffing attacks occurred, with some of them involving the possession of video game items being stolen for financial gain. [3]

​

​

Cybercrime is the on the rise. In 2015 Cybercrime cost users $3 trillion annually with reports showing the number has doubled to $6 trillion in 2021 [4]

​

Preliminary Secondary Research Findings

What Have we Learned

​

​

• Cyber attacks occur all throughout the nation, affecting multiple citizens
• Types of cyber attacks include doxing, swatting, and cyberstalking
• Although there are laws in certain states which address these issues of cyber attacks, these laws are falling behind due to the development of technology and electronic communication.

https://commons.stmarytx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1119&context=thestmaryslawjournal

Preliminary Secondary Research Findings

What data have you found?

​

Finding out someone’s IP address is as easy as typing in a gamertag or PSN on xResolver.com

Xbox IP Finder: How To Find an IP Address on Xbox Live with Xbox Resolver (2022) - EarthWeb

​

Most of the doxxing and swatting cases are happening with the basic information of a gamer like their phone number, name, and address which is accessible through many public sources or online gaming platforms.

https://theconversation.com/doxxing-swatting-and-the-new-trends-in-online-harassment-40234

• According to SafeHome.org website 21% of Americans or over 43 million people have experienced the doxxing problem.
• Most of the doxxing incident sparked by online posts about 52% and almost 20% of the incident happens from the online gaming platform.
• 86% of the doxxing attack impact individuals personal life where the victims were harassed online and faced public shaming.

https://www.safehome.org/family-safety/doxxing-online-harassment-research/

Stakeholders

• Funding will be provided by players who were previously at risk of a security breach with a small membership fee
• It will be a much lower fee than other VPN competitors
• Possible partnerships with Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo and software companies
• We will conduct meetings with these companies and any other investors who are willing to listen to our ideas
• Wireless service providers
• “Toxic” communities may become worse if our project fails
• Rivaling VPN services will be alerted if our project succeeds

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Customers / Target Audience

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• All Gamers and anyone who plays primarily on console will be benefited with our service
• Xbox
• Playstation
• Nintendo
• Who wants to buy?
• Anyone interested in their privacy/ safety/ any gamers playing on console who are at risk of a cybersecurity breach
• Gamers who have already been affected by cyberattacks and want to prevent it.
• Who will care if it doesn’t happen?
• Companies that are already big names in the VPN industry will care a lot of GPN either not being successful or not happening at all
• This will heavily motivate all competition in the VPN industry as this concept has not been thought of and the companies will begin developing their own versions of GPN

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Scope

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• The Scope of our project will be a VPN platform that allows a user to directly connect to a VPN and protect them from all cyber security attacks on console
• We will be doing this with the help of potential investors including big name video game companies who are also aware and concerned about these attacks
• Whos in
• Video Game enthusiasts or “gamers”, The Western playerbase (initially, but may expand to other regions if successful)
• Companies who are losing profits due to these doxxing cases
• Any user who is connected to a online server on their console
• Technologies, software/ hardware platforms, specs etc
• What’s out?
• Competing companies who also provide vpn services
• Players who are not concerned about their online privacy
• Customers that are not willing to pay the membership fee

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High Level Project Plan and Gantt Chart

Gantt Chart - How you will complete the project throughout 4 stages over the semester

• The next steps of our project is to develop a detailed Gantt chart in 4 stages to document all of our achievements and meetings
• Address the research that we conducted and take action in the cybersecurity field
• Acquire sponsors and any other investors needed to propel our project as much as we can

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