The past 20 years have been a TREMENDOUS leap for technology as we know it. Twenty years ago we had single core cpus with 100mhz processing, and in this short amount of time we have 80 core cpus with 3.1ghz processing power. We have been able to make better, smaller more efficient devices in such a short amount of time.
Currently password and personal information on the internet is encrypted information, however "Man has made, Man can break". With enough motivation, knowledge and skill, those encrypted documents can be decrypted. Which has been occurring more and more in the recent years. Just even a week ago, a famous company, Sony had its files hacked by a group called Anonymous. This lead Sony to shutting down their entire online network for over a week and still counting. Even a company as powerful as Sony can become susceptible to hackers, which is why I believe that passwords will be replaced by a different type of identification, ranging from Vocal, Retinal and/or Fingerprint Recognition.
Because of all these recent attacks over the internet it won't be surprising if some laws were passed to help regulated online business and just overall regulations on the internet. Too many people get away with online theft, and deception, additionally Denial of Service is becoming more and more frequently used. It's just a matter of time before something really big happeneds that will "force" a higher authorities hand in passing some laws.
Sources:
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/government/more-sony-bad-news-sony-online-also-compromised-this-goes-beyond-the-playstation-network/10339
http://news.cnet.com/Intel-shows-off-80-core-processor/2100-1006_3-6158181.html
Monday, May 2, 2011
Sunday, April 10, 2011
CyberWatch & You
CyberWatch is an organization that is built around educating as many people they can about computer information. One way they do this is by posting challenges or competitions for college students such as myself and allow us to create informational projects that we can submit into the competition, these projects can range from slideshows, to interactive flash videos. I think this is a great idea for an organization to do, it makes students work harder on the projects and dig deeper into information and they are bound to find out new and interesting things, that they themselves or possibly even the teacher didn't even know.
CyberWatch and their competitions can be found at: http://www.cyberwatchcenter.org/
I decided for my project that i'm going to be doing Computer Security, mostly because I know much about the subject because I have been taking two semesters here at NCC for computer programming ,so I have a strong base for the project which will allow me to look into deeper aspects of computer security such as which aspect of a computers operating system programming is most susceptible to hackers/viruses and how they are patched.
Some resources that I am possibly going to be using consist of articles of world famous viruses and how it worked and effected the world, how to prevent viruses, how to remove viruses, what are Bot-Nets, what the difference is between a virus, worm and a other bad programs.
This project is a great way for us the students to take it upon ourselves to learn more about the pat of the course that we found most interesting. Because of this it allows students more free thought and creativity in their field of student that they think is the strongest, which in itself will make for more informative projects and presentations.
CyberWatch and their competitions can be found at: http://www.cyberwatchcenter.org/
I decided for my project that i'm going to be doing Computer Security, mostly because I know much about the subject because I have been taking two semesters here at NCC for computer programming ,so I have a strong base for the project which will allow me to look into deeper aspects of computer security such as which aspect of a computers operating system programming is most susceptible to hackers/viruses and how they are patched.
Some resources that I am possibly going to be using consist of articles of world famous viruses and how it worked and effected the world, how to prevent viruses, how to remove viruses, what are Bot-Nets, what the difference is between a virus, worm and a other bad programs.
This project is a great way for us the students to take it upon ourselves to learn more about the pat of the course that we found most interesting. Because of this it allows students more free thought and creativity in their field of student that they think is the strongest, which in itself will make for more informative projects and presentations.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Argg Are You A Pirate?
When people think of pirates they typically think of the old days with ships, gold and parrots. Unfortunately that is not the case, pirates these days can be almost anyone and they may not even know it. By downloading movies, music, games or even a book off the internet you are literally stealing money and sales from the company.
Most people think that if you download a song or two it won't hurt the company because they make a lot of money off of DVDs and other merchandise. WRONG! Millions of people are doing this, which when added up the companies are losing an excessive amount of money. You could even potentially go to jail for up to 5 years and/or pay up to $250,000 per song downloaded. If that isn't the worst of your issues by downloading random materials off the internet you are opening yourself up to viruses or identity theft.
The most common way people download music and other popular items online is by using a Peer to Peer (P2P) network. By using a program such as Limewire or BitTorrent you can upload or download a song and other people can download the song from your computer. By doing this you are able to be tracked quite easily by the police because you aren't masking your IP Address in anyway. That way the police are able to track your IP Address back to your house, as you might know now, that method isn't very effective. Torrents are too easy to track unless you use masking programs which allow you to download through a proxy server. Additionally if you want to be truly safe you can download through a file hosting server site such as RapidShare, Megaupload, Hotfile ect. This makes it so it obscures your IP Address when you download a file from them. So if you are too every download an illegal file, use a file hosting server site.
One of the biggest sources of illegal downloading is college students on campus, the campus regulates files that are being downloaded through their network which makes downloading illegal files very risky. If they catch you they have the option to turn you over to the police, disconnect you from the network or even dismiss you from the college on the grounds of theft.
So the moral of the story is not to steal things you don't own, even if you don't think you will get caught, it is still illegal and the chance of getting caught is always there.
(Additionally the part of posting our SSID, I do not own a router since I am directly plugged into a modem and therefor I do not have an SSID.)
Most people think that if you download a song or two it won't hurt the company because they make a lot of money off of DVDs and other merchandise. WRONG! Millions of people are doing this, which when added up the companies are losing an excessive amount of money. You could even potentially go to jail for up to 5 years and/or pay up to $250,000 per song downloaded. If that isn't the worst of your issues by downloading random materials off the internet you are opening yourself up to viruses or identity theft.
So the moral of the story is not to steal things you don't own, even if you don't think you will get caught, it is still illegal and the chance of getting caught is always there.
(Additionally the part of posting our SSID, I do not own a router since I am directly plugged into a modem and therefor I do not have an SSID.)
Monday, March 21, 2011
Does your computer have the flu?
A computer can in fact get "sick" but not in the sense that most people would think of. A computer being "sick" is referred to as a computer virus. A virus is a program that attempts to forcefully insert itself into your computer, this is typically done by going to certain websites that will have a popup saying your computer has been infected. If you download anything form that site, it will most likely be a virus and you have become prey to it. There are many ways to protect yourself from virus's, first, the most important thing to do is use common sense when visiting websites. Sadly people go to painfully obvious sites that are obviously populated by virus's, by using common sense you can decide not to go to these sites from emails, or pop-ups. Secondly, install an anti-virus. An anti-virus can be thought of as your computer's immune system, it helps to protect it from harmful programs. An anti-virus isn't guaranteed to stop everything but it helps immensely.
As seen in this video it helps to reinforce the points I previously stated, by having the anti-virus it helped protect his computer from a potential virus because he went to a suspicious site and it attempted to infect his computer.
In the video he used an anti-virus named Norton, unlike him I use an anti-virus named Windows Security Essentials. This anti-virus is made by the people who made Windows, so who better to program an anti-virus to protect your operating system, than the people who made the operating system? If it doesn't sound good already, the best feature is that it is free to anyone that has a legitimate version of Windows. I'm not saying that Norton, AVG and several other anti-virus's are bad, they still get the job done. However I have had Norton and AVG and I see a drastic decrease in the time spent when it scans your computer for threats, additionally it takes up less system memory when running idle int he background.
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Luckily your anti-virus isn't the end all be all for your computer. If you create a system restore point on your computer it will take a snapshot of what your computer is and then save that into a file. This file can be loaded and will revert your computer back to the time when the snapshot was taken. Instructions on how to setup a system restore can be seen in my following video. However if the virus does prove to much for you to handle you can take your computer to a professional or you can attach your hard-drive to a secondary computer and save your personal files and then reformat the computer. Also you could use a Live CD, which will allow you to run a operating system from a CD, which will allow you to safely transfer files.
As seen in this video it helps to reinforce the points I previously stated, by having the anti-virus it helped protect his computer from a potential virus because he went to a suspicious site and it attempted to infect his computer.
In the video he used an anti-virus named Norton, unlike him I use an anti-virus named Windows Security Essentials. This anti-virus is made by the people who made Windows, so who better to program an anti-virus to protect your operating system, than the people who made the operating system? If it doesn't sound good already, the best feature is that it is free to anyone that has a legitimate version of Windows. I'm not saying that Norton, AVG and several other anti-virus's are bad, they still get the job done. However I have had Norton and AVG and I see a drastic decrease in the time spent when it scans your computer for threats, additionally it takes up less system memory when running idle int he background.
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Luckily your anti-virus isn't the end all be all for your computer. If you create a system restore point on your computer it will take a snapshot of what your computer is and then save that into a file. This file can be loaded and will revert your computer back to the time when the snapshot was taken. Instructions on how to setup a system restore can be seen in my following video. However if the virus does prove to much for you to handle you can take your computer to a professional or you can attach your hard-drive to a secondary computer and save your personal files and then reformat the computer. Also you could use a Live CD, which will allow you to run a operating system from a CD, which will allow you to safely transfer files.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
Want to go Phishing?
Ever see those nice emails that say you have won the lottery, or have won a fabulous prize? After giving the site your personal information it will probably tell you your money is on your way. Isn't that great news!? Sadly it isn't your lucky day, you have just become a victim of a phishing scam. A phishing scam is where someone impersonates someone you may or may not know and attempted to retrieve your personal information through clever means.
This is typically done through pop-ups or emails because they are the most abundant and easy to trick people with. Phishing emails commonly won't have your actual name, it will refer to you as "Valued Customer" or "Hello Friend", by doing this the email can be sent to anyone, also the email will attempt to trick you into going to a link which may look like a real site link. By changing the programming code you are able to make the link appear as "www.wallmart.com", but the link you are actually going to is "www.walllmart.com". (See real email picture for further information, picture needs link due to size limitation on this site) Upon going to the fake site it will ask you for your personal information and the scam will be complete.
You can prevent these scams by using mostly common sense. Just ask yourself if you are feeling suspicious about an email, "did you really just win 1 million dollars?", "win a car", "do you know this person?". Also make sure to see if they use your correct name in the email. If you are still suspicious go to google and search the person sending you the email and send them a support message regarding the email.
As you could see from the fake email, I get these all the time and my brother lost his World of Warcraft account due to it. He thought it was a real email and clicked on the link, the site that it linked looked legit. However every time he entered his account info it said it was incorrect. Due to this later when he tried to login on the game his password and email was changed. We had to go through 3 days worth of customer support to have the account reissued in his name. Luckily no credit cards weren't issued with the account, or we could have had bigger issues.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Keeping Private Information Private Online
When most people are online they think they are safe and secure from threats. Little do they know that making even one mistake can put all of your personal information in jeopardy. Whenever you go to a website it creates a cookie on your computer, a cookie is a small text-file containing encoded information about what you did on the website. Say I just bought a new book on a 3rd party website. This website now has all my personal information and could sell it to advertisers which can lead to lots of unwanted spam and junk mail.
(Referenced http://computer.howstuffworks.com/cookie5.htm)
If you are worried about spam and junk mail you may want to avoid any opt-in programs called Deep-Packet-Inspection. This program tracks all your online activities and collects information about you and sells this information to advertisers who then try to sell you products according to the information they gathered.
Because of online computer threats I always make sure that I have the latest antivirus to help detect possible dangerous cookies and to protect against virus's. Additionally I only buy from trusted online retail sellers and never opt-in to any of those weird programs that my Internet Service Provider may try to trick you into.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Internet Security and You
Many people go about their day thinking they are secure from all the harmful things on the web. Unknown to most people, computer security is never a guarantee. By not taking the right precautions you may become exposed to viruses, worms, Identity Theft and much more.
I use my computer on a daily basis and am at risk, however I take measures to protect myself by making sure I have the proper software installed and by making sure I don't fall for any suspicious links/scams on the internet. I have much to risk ranging from my video game accounts to personal information such as my Angel account and banking information.
If I ever did become a victim of a scam on the internet, the first step would be to secure yourself so you don't fall even further into trouble. You can do this by changing your passwords, running your anti-virus program to detect threats on your computer and by cancelling your credit cards if necessary.
Threats on the internet are no joke and should not be taken lightly. They are extremely dangerous and can lead to much trouble and hardships if not prevented/dealt with corrrectlty and in a timely manner.
I use my computer on a daily basis and am at risk, however I take measures to protect myself by making sure I have the proper software installed and by making sure I don't fall for any suspicious links/scams on the internet. I have much to risk ranging from my video game accounts to personal information such as my Angel account and banking information.
If I ever did become a victim of a scam on the internet, the first step would be to secure yourself so you don't fall even further into trouble. You can do this by changing your passwords, running your anti-virus program to detect threats on your computer and by cancelling your credit cards if necessary.
Threats on the internet are no joke and should not be taken lightly. They are extremely dangerous and can lead to much trouble and hardships if not prevented/dealt with corrrectlty and in a timely manner.
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