What I chose to write about?

Time to finish up your blog. This last assignment should be a retrospective look at your postings over the last 11 weeks. Time for a little analysis.

Write up an entry that provides a summary of what you chose to write about.

I tried my best to make my blog an informative one. I have tired to inform people that how hackers are being active now a days. Also, I have provided various measures to take precautions. A broad concept of security including the law is the main target of my post.

First, you need to categorize your topics of choice. Did you write primarily on operating system issues? User errors? Viruses? Or did you write about a variety of topics? Why did you choose those topics?

 My topics of choice:

§         Cyber Crime

§         Laws on security

§        Online Anonymity

§        Protection on Internet especially Facebook

I primarily wrote on Cyber Crime and tried to provide enough measures to take precautions so that people can prevent themselves from being one of the victims.

I focus mainly on cyber crime because I always want to stay informed about cyber security so that I can share and keep other up to date about the security.

Next, you need to include an analysis of where you got your material. Did you use the same source each week? A variety each week?

I used variety of source every week as I like to research about different stuffs from various sources. I have used fbi.gov most of the time for my findings.

As the last part of this entry, include whether or not you thought this type of blog might be useful to an information security professional and provide a few lessons learned for the next group of students.

I absolutely like blogging and encourage other to blog. I never thought that it would be interesting. Blog is very useful to an information security professional as it helps up to date with the current news and trends that are in the market. Blog not only help us to keep up with the news inside the country but it provides news of all around the world.

Online Anonymity

Talking about anonymity, in networks taking on different personas individual can communicate without their actual identity. Even when persons are talking on a phone or face to face they can lie about who they actually are. Online anonymity is often in  a natural estate. Person must have to identify the actual user id wear another person identity. Problem of integrity is created by anonymity. Anonymity arises form the reproducibility of the information. Because of their reproducibility, one can use others word and use it as their own word. In ordinary space effort is necessary to record where as in computer network effort is generally needed to delete an action. In computer networks anonymity and reproducibility seems to be favored. Author’s three special characteristics of communication directly or indirectly lead to problems online. Even though people are geographically far in distance they can harass someone, steal which can affect lots of people. For example -anonymity creates a veil so people are not afraid to express their personal views or ideas.

 When people are communicating online they have much more reach then when they are doing something offline. With in a second lot of messages could be send to various people around the world. Scope would be special by the combination of these three factors- speed, number of individual reached and availability to individuals. Talking about the scope of the power, it has much more greater power than the action in ordinary life. For example if I have to invite people for a gathering I could simply write an invitation message and it would reach to lots of people in a very short time.The originator of the information would not notice and information by that person can be reproduced online. When a person reproduce via copying machine the originator of the information will not even noticed as there will be no evidence that somebody has copied it. Cameras and photocopy machines are used to reproduce information in ordinary life. For example when some reproduce someone personal property by taking a photograph via camera.

Facebook “like-jacking”

There is a new spam on Facebook time line so Facebook is warning its users about it.  It is called like jacking, which is a Facebook enabled attack. It guides users into clicking a like button, which is hidden on external web pages. It draws its users to like feature and lead them to credit card as well as identity theft. Especially when messages come from users friend they tends to trust it. Facebook is warning that if it does not look like something your friends or family would send you do not trust and do not click on popular like feature. Users need to be very aware from this spam especially when it doe not have any introductory language.
Facebook do not know the exact count of how many people have been victim of this spam.

If you are a victim of like jacking spam, immediately clean up your Facebook profile. Facebook profile can be clean by simply removing like button from your wall. By doing this you do not assist the spam artist to spread his like jacking feature to your friends and family. In order to remove a like button from your wall just click on profile in your Facebook home page. Click on the little X on the top right corner of the message. Message or like will be removed when you select “Remove and Unlike” from the menu.

Facebook Face Recognition feature

Face Recognition feature or tag suggestions automatically find faces in the upload photos. Facial recognition software suggests names of the users based on photos they have already been tagged. I believe Facebook should take permission from users before enrolling users in new features without their knowledge or consent. It is people rights to know that facial recognition feature is being implemented and they should be aware of it. There was no choice for the people not to allow others to tag in pictures. There should be a feature that stops people from tagging pictures. Facebook users must be very aware that they will not be tagged in pictures that they don’t want to share with others. It’s all about privacy and being secure in your daily life and not being able to control is something everyone hates.

There are so much of things to think about before posting it to Facebook. Some ethical decisions that I have to make in my social networking activities are in terms of the photos, which I post. Is it ethical to post someone’s pictures while they are drinking in a bar, as his parents might not know that he was drinking in a bar. 

Sixth sense Technology and Security concerns

Research Assistant at MIT, Pranav Mistry is currently pursuing his PhD at MIT. Sixth sense prototype is made up of different parts and he is the mastermind behind it. He uses all the useless devices and is made up of mirror, camera and pocket projector. It can be used very simply and gestures are easy to learn. In order to snap a picture a user has to make a rectangular in the air with fingers. The user can easily access the picture to edit them. In order to make a call also he just has to touch digital keys on one’s palm. In order to check the time users just have to gesture a circle on a wrist. If you want to read a book, newspaper sixth sense can scan it and provide you every detail. This device comes in handy so it can be a substitute of a computer or laptop. Checking emails, web browsing and everything uses in everyday life can be done by just a hand gestures.

There are some security concerns about this product so this product is not in the market yet. This product can be a huge problem as this product is invading other’s privacy. For example: Person can never tell that sixth sense is taking a picture as picture can be captured by just a hand gesture. . It is not private for just the user when the device is projecting in a hard surface. As it is in detail people around the user can easily see the projection. Also, there is a great issue about the vision of the user as the projection is better in dark areas and night times rather than mornings. Mistry has announced that the price of this device is $ 350 each. The manufacture’s and people who have been waiting for this product does not know when this is available on the market. Even they did not know if the work on this device is completely stopped. 

Security of Intellectual property

A man from Queens, NY is charge in Federal Reserve software theft. Bo Zhang, 32 a Chinese computer programmer who work at a Federal Reserve Bank of NY is facing charges. Federal Reserve Bank protects customers dealing with Banks and helps operate U.S. payment system. Zhang was hired as a contract employee in May and was a programmer at a Bank. For his own computer training business he stole that computer code. Last year in summer while he was working as a government employee he was arrested for copying the software to an external hard drive. About $9.5 million was the cost to develop this software and its own by US Treasury Department.

The suspected breach was uncovered when one of his friends told his supervisor that he has lost the hard drive, which contains the code. The suspected breach was investigated by the Bank and reports it to the authorities. He admitted that he copied that code in his private computer to use it in his computer training Business. He faces 10 years in prison if convicted. After a brief court hearing Judge ordered him released on $200,000 bail. The FBI does not believe that this is connected to international espionage so he was released on Bail and charges only with theft. Computer security is at risk as a government contract employee like Bo steals government intellectual property. Fighting cyber crime sounds complicated when government employee like him misuse his position. 

Protect Children's on the Internet

In order to protect children’s on the Internet, it is difficult to restrict their access because we also have to restrict adults. U.S. government has laws to protect children, national security and the rights of business. In order to block access to objectionable material, software manufacturers have invented special software.


Communications Decency Act (CDA) (1996) protects children from pornography. Child Online Protection Act (COPA) (1998) protects children from any materials that are harmful to minors. Not following this act shall be not more than $50,000 and imprisoned not more than six months or could be both.  Children Internet Protection Act (CIPA) (2000) required federally financed libraries and schools to use Internet filter or form of technological protection to block access to pornography or obscene material.

When anonymous email criticizes the company or reveal company secret and upset the company, it may file a John Doe lawsuit. This lawsuit is especially to protect the rights of business. Controlling the Assault of Non-Solicited Pornography and Marketing (CAN-SPAM) Act (2003) is law, which requires commercial emailers to follow specific requirements when promoting a commercial service or product by advertising through messages. Violation of this act can result in $250 fine or it can be tripled in some cases. These all acts proved that U.S. government is serious about the protection of rights and is taking major steps to control it. Socially conservative emphasize the importance of tradition and put the family ahead of the state. Online content became an important focus of government across the world with the wide spread availability of Internet and the increasing number of users.