The Cuckoo's Egg

One thing that has definitely changed over the last 20-30 years is the importance of computer security. At a very low level, computers are just machines executing instructions. They do whatever they are told. Computers don't care where the instructions come from and they do not ask questions. They just execute. So, it is our job as humans to make sure that instructions that computers are given are from secure sources. This is not an easy task. Hackers continue to invent and find new ways to infiltrate systems and gain access to resources they are not meant to have access to. There is a constant battle between hackers and computer security experts. As the importance of protecting data increases, so does the intensity of the battle.

In the cuckoo's Egg, we learn of a hacker name Markus Hess. Hess was a hacker stationed in Germany who was after U.S. military secrets and would sell what he found to the Soviets. He was eventually found through the efforts of Clifford Stoll. Stoll was originally asked in 1986 to a resolve an accounting error and this led him to realize that their system had been exploited. It is interesting to see how much smaller of an issue this exploitation was back then compared to what it would be now. The FBI did little to help. Eventually, through keeping logs and setting up a hoax system, Stoll was led to Hess.

Today, computers security has become a very real issue. Just think about what all we use computers to do for us! We use them to manage our money, make purchases, find places we want to go, talk to people, etc. With so much information being given to computers the need for security becomes invaluable. And yet, it is still something we tend to look over. Just a few months ago a hacker was able to steal millions of people's data including credit card numbers from Target. With so much information at stake, why do we often look over security. Perhaps it is because of a lack of knowledge in how to be secure or a lack of sufficient money, or we just hope for the best. However, if there is one thing we can learn from the Cuckoo's Egg it is that we can never be too cautious when it comes to computer security.

Technology Everywhere!

Its just fascinating to think of all the ways technology influences our lives. In fact, its difficult to think of a part of our life that its not affected by technology. By affected, I mean controlled by a computer. When we have a question, we can ask the question to our phone which converts the sound into text and then converts the text into a request to Google. Google then responds with the data almost immediately. Our cars have computer systems. Our washing machines have computers and so does almost everything else. At what point, if ever, will technology control too much of our lives? Will humans ever become obsolete? It is an interesting question. Certainly, we can agree that technology is not going away anytime soon. In fact, I think we can agree that technology is going to increasingly affect more aspects of our lives. This recent news article shows how our watches may soon tap into our cars. This sounds cool, dangerous, and exciting all at once and shows that people continue to find more ways to add technology to our lives!

Is Facebook Safe?

I was once asked if Facebook is safe. In some ways Facebook is safe. For example, connections to Facebook are done over a secure connection so that data sent and received is encrypted and meaningless to outsiders who try to listen in. Also, Facebook gives us control over who can see what we post. So, with a little knowledge of how to change the Facebook privacy settings, we can control the privacy of what we post. However, there are many ways that Facebook is not safe. For example, what does Facebook do with the data we send it once it gets it? We hear all the time of government requests for data, such as in this recent news article. What if we knew the government had access to everything we posted to Facebook? While this is definitely an extreme and most likely not the reality, we should be aware that anything we post to the internet can potentially be accessed by anyone. This is something to keep in mind as we use the internet!

What is possible?

What is possible with the internet? The internet has given people an unprecedented opportunity to communicate and collaborate ideas. In most cases, the internet is no respecter of location as people from all over the world can meet in a virtual setting to discuss an idea, share information, etc. This has allowed for ancestry work to vastly increase. FamilyTree, a FamilySearch feature, is a somewhat new feature in this area. A spokesman for FamilySearch said the following:

The Family Tree feature hopes to create a collaborative, conclusion-based, online family tree system that allows anyone to make changes, explain why, and provide evidence for their conclusion.

Only the internet could allow for so many people to simultaneously find and gather information about their ancestors. It is a amazing what can be done with the internet!

Can we trust anything with technology?

Most of us that have some awareness of the news are aware that the government has used a lot of questionable practices to collect data about people. Today, I came across news article that points to another way the government is collecting data. Apparently, the NSA and British intelligence have teamed by sharing ways to collect data from phone apps. These apps include ones commonly used such as angry birds and various social media apps. Recently, a bunch of user information was taken from the Snapchat app. Though I do not believe that any data on the internet is completely safe, one thing that I think will increase the safety of our personal information is to use different passwords for apps on our phones, because phone apps seem to be more vulnerable.

The Great Equalizer

Imagine having a very important message that you want the entire world to know about as soon as possible. Imagine that you are responsible for bringing this piece of information to the world. Now imagine you must do it without technology. That tasks seems daunting and nearly insurmountable without technology. This is why I love technology. A specific aspect of technology that I would like to express an opinion about is the internet. To me, the internet is wonderful. Everyone, regardless of age, skin color, wealth, etc, has the vast information available one the internet available to them as well as the ability to speak their mind so that anyone is able to hear their voice. In this sense, the internet is a great equalizer, in that it gives all people a voice. In Neil Postman's talk he discusses five ideas about technological change. One idea that he presented is that the mass printing of the bible undermined the authority of the church hierarchy, I believe that technology today also gives more power to the people to voice their opinions and have a voice in society.

This is a blog I created for CS 404 class!