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Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Implications of anInformation Society
Final Exam:Tuesday,
4/29 from8am-noon
in 014
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Computers in our day-to-day lives• Communication
– Email, Instant Messaging• Our identity, a virtual face
– Facebook, Blogs, Wikis• Security
– Bad guys who want your data, money, and tocontrol of your computer
• Privacy– Is your important personal information out there
for everyone to see?
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Email and IM• Advantages
– Immediate (Fasterthan traditional mail)
– Free– Efficient broadcast to
multiple recipients– Email: Asynchronous– IM: Nearly instant
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Downsides of E-Communication• Problems with email and IM:
– Fast may not be a good thing…• less thinking before acting• Replying slowly or not at all
– Conveying emotions accurately:) ;) :D
– Emphasis, ***This*** or THAT?– Ambiguity– Flame-a-thons– SPAM
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Conveying Emotion• Difficult to convey subtle emotions using email
– Medium is too informal, impersonal,and casually written
– Conversational cues are missing
• Emoticons are popular,but are they effective?– Universal agreement?
– Does the email reader orIM program interpret them?
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Emphasis• Typing for emphasis can convey the wrong
meaning– Text in all caps can be interpreted as yelling
• Email is still largely ASCII based and may notallow italics or underlining– Asterisks for underscores can replace underlining
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Conversational Pace• Asynchronous mediums, like email, make dialog
difficult– For interactive purposes (like negotiation)
synchronous mediums like telephone may be best
Ambiguity• Text can be interpreted in ways we don't intend
– People often don't proofread what they write inemail to avoid ambiguity
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Flames• Flame is slang for inflammatory email• Flame-a-thon is ongoing exchange of angry emails• When angered by email, it's best to delay
answering until you cool down
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
SPAM• Unsolicited or undesired bulk electronic messages• Many types of electronic spam, including
– E-mail spam, unsolicited e-mail– Mobile phone spam, unsolicited
text messages– Spam in blogs, posting random
comments or promotingcommercial services to blogs,wikis, guestbooks
– Newsgroup spam, advertisement and forgery on newsgroups– Messaging spam ("SPIM"), use of instant messenger
services for advertisement or even extortion
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Netiquette• Rules to promote civilized email usage
– Ask about one topic at a time
– Include context (include the questionwith your answer)
– Use an automated reply if unable toanswer mail for a period of time;an “away message”
– Ask the sender's permission before forwarding email
– Use targeted distribution lists (don't send the latestjoke to every person you've ever exchanged mail with)
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Email Quagmires• Are you responsible for what you say on email?
– Accidentally forwarding a message to anunintended recipient
– Reply to All• Who OWNS your email?
– You?– Your employer?– Google?
• Authentication– Is this message really from who you thought?
ElectronicCommunications
Privacy Act of 1986
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Computer Security• Protecting information from theft or corruption• Approaches for improving computer security
– Limited access• Passwords, permissions
– Hardware mechanisms (biometrics)• Fingerprints, retinal readers
– Authentication Challenges• Moms maiden name, etc
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Creating Good Passwords• The Role of Passwords
– To limit computer or system access to only thosewho know a sequence of keyboard characters
• Breaking into a Computer without a Password– Trying all possible passwords algorithmically would
eventually find correct password, but softwareusually limits the number of tries
• Forgetting a Password– Passwords are scrambled or encrypted and
stored, so system administrator usually can't tellyou your password if you forget it
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Guidelines for Selecting a Password• It's not a good idea to choose something easily guessed
• Should have at least 6 characters
• Mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers,punctuation characters
• Sequence not found in dictionaries
• No personal association (like your name)
• Use– Substitutions: 1 for I, 5 for s, @ for at, 2 for to, etc
– Punctuation: ! ? , .
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Heuristics for picking a password• Select a personally interesting topic
– Always select passwords related to topic
• Develop a password from a phrase rather than asingle word
• Encode the password phrase– Make it short by abbreviating, replace letters and
syllables with alternate characters or spellings
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Changing Passwords• Should be changed periodically
• Managing Passwords
– Using a single password for everything is risky;using a different password for everything is hardto remember
– Passwords can be recycled• Make slight changes to good passwords or• Rotate passwords
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Viruses and Worms• It's a Zoo Out There
– Virus a program that "infects" anothers by embeddinga copy of itself. When the infected program runs, thevirus copies itself and infects other programs
– Worm is an independent program that copies itselfacross network connections
– Trojan horse is a program that hides inside anotheruseful program, and performs secret operations. Mayrecord keystrokes or other sensitive data, or loadmalicious software
– Exploit is a program that takes advantage of securityholes. Backdoor access enters computer andreconfigures it for remote control
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
How to "Catch" a Virus• Email attachments. Do not open attachments before
checking– Is this email from someone I know?– Is the message a sensible follow-up to the last message
from the sender?– Is the content of the message something the sender would
say to me?– Is there a reason for the sender to include an attachment?
• When in doubt, be cautious
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
How to "Catch" a Virus (cont'd)• Copying software from infected computer
• Peer-to-Peer Exchange– Downloading files from unreliable sources
• New Software– Any software is a potential source of infected code– Most software distributors are careful to
avoid infection
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Virus-Checking Software• Three companies are McAfee, Norton, and Sophos,
Inc.
• Programs check for known viruses, worms, etc.
• New viruses are created all the time, so updateoften
• Better solution- Virtualization
– VMWare, Parallels
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Phishing• Password harvesting exploits• Users are sent SPAM emails asking for credit card or
banking information• Message is disguised to appear to be from
a bank, or other legitimate source– Often reports a security problem the user needs
to address– When the user clicks legitimate looking link, they are linked
to bogus sites set up to steal the information entered
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
What Can Be Done About Phishing?• Never respond to requests for personal information like
passwords via email; legitimate businesses do not requestinformation this way
• Examine links or pre-typed addresses because they can bespoofed; type the URL yourself. Be weary of numeric IPaddresses in URLs.
• Check to make sure the website is using encryption(https: rather than http:)
• Routinely review credit card and bank statements forunusual activity
• Report suspected abuses to proper authorities
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Protecting Intellectual Property• Intellectual property is any human creation like
photograph, music, textbooks, cartoons, etc.
• Licensing of software– You don't own software; you lease it– License gives you the right to use personally, but not
to resell or give it away
• Try before you buy– Shareware allows you to download and try software for
free, then pay the person who built it if you like it(honor system)
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Copyright on the Web• A person automatically owns copyright of what he
creates in the U.S. and most nations
• Copyright protects owner's right to– Make a copy of the work– Use a work as the basis for a new work
(derivative work)– Distribute or publish the work, including
electronically– Publicly perform the work– Publicly display the work
©
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Copyright on the Web (cont'd)• Free Personal Use
– You are free to read, view or listen to protectedwork
• When is permission needed?– Information placed in public domain is free for
anyone to use– Otherwise you must get permission
from owner
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Copyright on the Web (cont'd)• The Concept of “Fair Use”
– Allows use of copyrighted material for educational or scholarlypurposes, to allow limited quotation for review or criticism, topermit parody
• When Is It Fair Use?
– What is the planned use?
– What is the nature of the work in which the material is tobe used?
– How much of the work will be used?
– What effect would this use have on the market for the work, if theuse were widespread?
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Copyright on the Web (cont'd)• Violating the Copyright Law
– You break the law whether you give awaycopyrighted material or sell it
– Commercial use usually results in higher fines
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Your E-Persona• Good News, on the internet we are all
– Equals– Free– Fools– Stooges
• In addition to your Resume, potential employersare reading your facebook pages
• “I broke up with my Ex posting a dear john letteron his wall”
• On-line predators
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
An E-Voice!• Blogs
– A website, usually maintained by an individual, withregular entries of commentary, descriptions ofevents, or other material such as graphics orvideo..
• Wikis– A collection of web pages designed to enable
anyone who accesses it to contribute or modifycontent, using a simplified markup language. Wikisare often used to create collaborative websitesand to power community websites.
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Wrap up: Two Big IT Ideas• Computers are merely machines that process information
– Information is measured in bits– Bits are stored in a computer’s memory– Computer instructions process bits
• Many layers of the abstraction onion– Machine Languages - 0010010001– Assembly languages - addi $2,$3,$4– Interpreters - for i in range(10):– Spreadsheets– Visual Programming– Web browsers
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Lifelong IT Learning• Pursuing New Uses:
– Be confident that you can learn new applications, and take thetime to do so
– Apply IT only if it can help
• Asking for Help– After applying all reasonable efforts to solve problems,
ask for help
• Noticing New Technology– Be attentive, and skeptical– Be willing to learn about fundamental advancements– Adopt new technology as soon as there is a high probability that
it will assist you, but expect it to continue to improve!• Be Fearless!
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
Be Fearless!• Fluency gives us the ability
– to control IT– to extract its full power– to be in command– to achieve our goals
Comp 101 - Spring 2008 04/24/08 L17 - IT Society and Security
The IT FutureDon’t prognosticate… invent!
(Then you too can make predictions ;-)'I think there is a world market for maybe five computers'
-Thomas Watson, Chairman of IBM, 1943
'I have travelled the length and breadth of this countryand talked with the best people, and I can assure youthat data processing is a fad that won't last out the year’
- Editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957
'There is no reason why anyone would want a computer in the home’ - Ken Olson, Present, Chairman and founder of
Digital Equipment Corporation, 1977
'640K should be enough for anybody'- Bill Gates, 1981