Concepts Assignment

26. Privacy and Security

The Internet’s great strength is its openness. It would not flourish, nor work efficiently if it did not encourage people to share material, and to identify themselves for the purposes of networking people as well as computers. However, as a consequence, Internet users are vulnerable to various threats.

But advanced Internet users know that, even without resorting to extensive and complex methods involving encryption, secure networks and the like (most of which are expensive, time-consuming and require detailed technical assistance), they can protect themselves by carefully guarding their personal data and only ever giving out information when absolutely necessary

The Internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced Internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the Internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media (Allen, n.d.).

The Internet is becoming the widest used tool by perpetrators to commit bank and identity fraud (Krebs, n.d.). Internet savvy individuals are able to use the Internet to steal people’s identities and use their identification to commit crimes. How can we ensure that we remain safe on the Internet? Being aware and being careful can help to protect you when you are online. Using common sense and following some basic precautions as outlined in the Consumer Guide to Internet Safety, Privacy, and Security (n.d.) can help to ensure that Internet time can be enjoyed safely whilst keeping your privacy intact.

It is necessary to be very careful with the information you put on the web about yourselves. I experienced a situation once where my hotmail account was hacked, I’m not sure if it was a virus or what? I have a work email account and a hotmail account. I have in the past used my email as a way of transferring files. I email from my work email to my hotmail and vice versa so I can then access files at home. Due to this my work email was listed as a contact in my hotmail account. One morning I came into work and checked my email, I had an email from my own hotmail promoting some American company whom I have never heard of. To cut a long story short, everybody on my contact list in my hotmail received the same email message from apparently me, and when I went into my hotmail all my contacts had been deleted. How did this make me feel? Totally violated, all my contacts thought I had sent them this junk and then I couldn’t even email them all to let them know what had happened as all their details were deleted. I quickly went and opened myself a new hotmail account. No serious repercussions as a result of this occurred but this is my experience of how personal information can be stolen. In this case it was only email addresses, it can be much worse in some cases.

There are countless stories regarding identity theft and hacking into systems. Mike (2008) posts about the CEO at Lifelock who had his identity stolen, he was daring people to steal his identity to promote his fraud protection company. Lets just say things didn’t go as planned for Mr. Todd Davis. This just goes to show that with the age of online it is very crucial to be careful about what information you are posting online.

As technology becomes better at preventing intruders, they too become for advanced at penetrating these securities and finding other ways of gaining information. Internet traps such as ‘spoofing’ and ‘phishing’ are used to send fraudulent emails, which the user believes are from a trusted source, and direct them to sites where they are asked personal information (Longley, n.d.). Even the FBI is releasing warnings on the latest forms by Internet crooks. Web-site break ins and e-mail viruses are a high worry for all Internet users at some time, the Internet is such a fast paced changing environment and highly susceptible to ‘cyber terrorism’ (Underwood, 2001). Governments worldwide now have to face these problems and find ways to fight it.

I have always been very cynical about providing personal information online. I use a hotmail account when signing up for anything online and never provide any personal details; I use different birthdays and don’t put my address. On the other hand I use Internet banking and shop online all the time with my credit card. This seems to be a huge contradiction, how do I know that these details will not be stolen!

Annotated References

Site 1: Malware infestation responsible for credit card data breach. http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090120-malware-infestation-responsible-for-credit-card-data-breach.html

This article was written by Joel Hruska and outlines potential credit and debit card thefts that have occurred from Heartland Payment Systems. Heartland Payments Systems is an independent payment processor in the United States, which may be responsible for the largest data breach by leaking over 100 million peoples card details onto the black market.

The source of the leak has been identified as unauthorised Malware on one of the systems that forms part of the payment processing chain. The Malware is designed to track and report the magnetic information stored on the card. The potential credit card fraud as a result of this leak is huge. This goes to show how even a so-called safe or credible payment processing company can have faults with significant repercussions. Whatever information is provided over the Internet can never be 100% secure there is always a chance of somebody accessing your information and using it for other purposes.

Site 2: Worm Infects Millions of Computers Worldwide. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/technology/internet/23worm.html?_r=1

This article written by John Markoff in the NY Times and discusses the latest worms to be spread known as Conficker or Downadup. This infection is thought of as the worst since 2003 when the Slammer worm hit. These types of worms ricochet around the Internet at lightning speed and infect computers into unified systems called botnets. Microsoft has released a patch to protect users computers, however the worm continues to spread. Many users are vulnerable to being infected by worms and they can spread so quickly whilst the user is oblivious to the fact. It is unknown who released the worm.

This proves that users need to use the Internet with caution and ensure their computers have the latest anti-virus software to try to defend themselves against these worms.

20. Active communication generates identity awareness

Lurkers, obviously, are real people who exist in many ways. Yet, within the context of a particular list, if they are not posting, then they appear invisible and, indeed, can lack identity completely.

One can only generate awareness of one's membership of an email list by posting messages; others' awareness of your identity will enable them to include you in their discussions and enable you to play your part in the community that is the list (Allen, n.d.).

There are many mixed opinions on lurkers on the internet, JonKatz (1998) states “there are far more Lurkers than participants in most websites that permit posting and open discussions, they are invisible, sometimes counted but almost never seen or heard”. Lurkers don’t submit any ideas they are less likely to participate in arguments or post their opinions. But why is it that people lurk?

Indiana University (2007) defines three types of lurkers: malevolent, benign or constructive. Malevolent lurkers are just like dobbers, they roam forums and simply alert administrators of things that offend them. Benign lurkers are generally shy or feel less educated making it more of a personal insecurity reason as to not participating. Constructive lurkers are those that regularly read posts but lack the time to give a detailed response to a topic.

Many avid users of the Internet become angry, annoyed and frustrated with participation levels and the huge amount of lurkers out there. Platt (2002) explains how people’s frustrations arise out of lack of replies to discussions started. He explains how lurkers are actually good for the lists as they are learning from babblers, people want to learn and they are using the web to do so. Another perspective that those angry and frustrated individuals need to look at is why people lurk, why people don’t want to participate, everybody is different and their reasons differ too.

Many people like the anonymity and the fact they can “cruise” from site to site (JonKatz, 1998). Many people lurk out of fear, of ridicule or humiliation, boredom, self-confidence, bad experiences, overbearing or arrogant posts, lack of time, bad experiences or even just because they are slow at typing (Pawlik-Kenlen, 2007). Therefore without actually knowing or understanding why each and everyone out there is lurking, others should not be judging or criticising out of their own frustration and lack of ability to control their online lists.

Researching this topic has given me another perspective of how my use of the Internet can be perceived by others. I am a lurker, I had never really thought about this concept before. I have never really considered how my use of the Internet and the information provided by others and my non-active participation affects the authors and other users (in this context). I spend a lot of time on the Internet; I look for information, I shop, I Google everything. But I never really participate or contribute anything to the online world. I hadn’t even considered that this might be thought of as unacceptable behaviour. I always imagined that those participating were happy doing so and if others did not want to, or feel the need to, than that was their choice. How wrong was I. To me the whole point of the Internet is to be able to browse for information and look at content that is available without having to establish an identity or be an active participant, it should all be individual choice, and not be judged, as so many posts seem to reveal.

Annotated References

Site 1: What lurkers and posters think of each other http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/Papers/LurkersAttitudesHICSS04.pdf

Nonnecke, Preece & Andrews, (2004) conducted an online survey to examine the behaviours and attitudes of posters and lurkers. “The aim of this study is to throw some light on lurkers’ attitudes, and the attitudes of lurkers and posters to each other”(Nonnecke, Preece & Andrews, 2004). The results indicted that both lurkers and posters go online mainly for personal reasons than work or study. The most popular response from lurkers for not posting was that just browsing and reading were enough.

The Internet will always have lurkers more than posters and this paper discusses some differences and ways to deal with these differences.

Site 2: Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html

Jakob Nielson researches the inequality percentages online that exist as a result of people who lurk, contribute occasionally and contribute continually. The result of the percentages are 90% lurkers, 9% occasionals, and 1% always posters. The results when plotted create a zipf curve.

Downsides to the participation inequality include customer feedback, reviews, politics, search and signal to noise ratio. This means that the feedback and reviews are not relative to the majority of what people actually think and are reflected only by those who post. Inequality on the Internet results in skewed results that are not really reflective of real results. Ultimately if everybody contributed the outcomes would be more truly reflective but there is no way to make people contribute and majority of us will continue to lurk.

5. The mobility of electronic digital data

Functions such as carbon copying, forwarding and so on enable the most rapid form of communication 'expansion' - bringing other people into communicative circuits - yet seen.

Moreover, once people begin to use email and realise that information can be copied and forwarded very easily, there is a tendency for this 'mobility of data' to become a cultural given in which, routinely, we include more people within circuits of communication than are necessary; or include them in ways that are inappropriate.

Advanced Internet communicators always think about the ways in which their own exploitation of the technological ease of mobile data can impact on other Internet users, seeking to ensure that technical possibility is not simply substituted for effective communication requirements.

While the ability to move data rapidly and simply, and the cultural sensibility of constantly forwarding and sharing information, is to be valued, it does have certain problems (Allen, n.d.).

Email has become a widely used tool for both personal and business communications. Quite often though people seem to take the mobility of data for granted and do not think about what they are sending or forwarding, why they are sending it and if they are sending it to the correct recipients.

In the workplace email has become a highly used tool, Schmidt (2005) states “email use is out of control”. Email is reported to be the most common form of dialogue at work for 71% or people (Email replacing, 2006). Employees choose to send emails rather than having conversations face to face or over the phone; this can result in the breakdown of employee relationships (Schmidt, 2005). Schmidt (2005) explains how email can negatively impact employee relationships:

§ Increased gossip
§ Issues are not addressed or resolved quickly
§ An “us vs. them” environment is created in the workplace
§ Employees don’t form as close relationships and empathy for co-workers declines
§ Frequently leads to miscommunication and misunderstanding

The above effects on email have become so common, I experience them everyday in my workplace. Van (2007) declares that every organization has at least one employee with bad email habits, (ours seems to have many). Misuse and overuse is an abuse of email and creates negative tension in the workplace. Why is that people feel they need to email you when they are sitting right next to you? Email has made the workplace impersonal, you are less likely to chat with people and get to know them on the same level as in the past.

One of the issues faced with communicating via email is that it does not have the ability to convey meaning through inflection, or with tone and accent that is used in speech (Britell, 1996). Continual misuse of email can cause frustration and confusion if not used carefully as many of the signs used for feedback are lost. Brittel (1996) states that the indiscriminate, inappropriate and overuse of email can cause emails to be unread and trashed. Some people even create or forward so much email that it borders on spamming, this results in their credibility being lost and all future emails being trashed and the sender being blacklisted (Britell, 1996).

Bad email habits include using subject lines that don’t explain the message, use of cryptic, not to the point messages, unnecessarily CC’ing or BCC’ing people in, not proof reading and making emails too long (Van, 1996). Too often emails are sent without regard to their importance; it is essential to critically think about who and why you are sending an email (MacNevin & Schymitzek, 2007). Don’t just CC everybody in on messages so they need to wonder why they are receiving the email, it is only necessary to send emails to those who need to act on the email. Avoid forwarding emails that are chain mail as well, nobody really likes to receive them and nobody believes anything terrible will happen to them if they don’t send it to 10 people in the next 10 minutes.

Why is it that everyone is now hiding behind their email? Email is great for quick one-way conversation, it provides a written record but it needs to be recognized that it can’t totally replace the telephone or in person communication (Email replacing, 2006). I don’t think we will ever get back to where we used to be with communication, technology has changed and will continue to change the world as we once knew it. Change is not necessarily a bad thing, but we must recognize the change and learn to adapt whilst also using being conscious to use technology responsibly and appropriately.

Annotated References

Site 1: E-mail communication -- The good, the bad & the ugly http://www.prairiebizmag.com/articles/index.cfm?id=9333&section=guides

Ronnie Moore has written this article in the Prairie Business Magazine. It exposes the effective and ineffective use of email. Email has its use and can be effective when used to; down/upload information, reach many people at the same time and when messages don’t require repeated interaction (Moore, 2008). Email loses its effectiveness when face to face communication is replaced, how many times have you been involved in emailing backwards and forwards to have a conversation which takes twice as long than picking up the phone.

It is critical to think wether email is the right form of communication to use. It is also important to not let email take over our lives why is it that we constantly feel the urge to “log in “ and check our mail first thing in the morning to last thing at night?

Site 2: Irresponsible Forwarders Exposed!
http://www.netmanners.com/email-etiquette/irresponsible-forwarders-exposed-2-2/

Judith (2008) writes about a very important that is the privacy breach associated with forwarding emails. Many people are irresponsible forwarders; they simply forward all emails without verifying the content. I would say many of us guilty of not verifying emails before forwarding but very valid of Judith (2008) to point out the necessity to do so. By going to Snopes.com or TruthOrFiction.com it is possible to look up to see whether an email is real or a hoax. Remember also to always delete others email addresses when forwarding messages; it is a very bad breach of privacy to forward on or reply to peoples emails without their authority. Responsible email use needs to be practiced by all.

7. Netiquette

But what is important about Netiquette is the concept that there are these 'agreed' rules of what is good and bad.

Understanding why and now netiquette operates is more than just learning those rules (for, indeed, there are numerous differences and disagreements about the 'rules'). Rather, one must gain from a reading of 'netiquette' a sense that users must themselves contribute to the proper functioning of the Internet as a communication system: that no-one is in 'charge' of the net and we all must exercise an ethic of maintenance, taking responsibility for doing it 'right'. Moreover, what defines 'right' most of all is : 'how would I feel if this action I am about to take was done to me, instead of by me?' and, as a test of whether you are implementing 'right' properly, ask yourself "if I assume the recipient of my messages is less experienced than me, will they learn something 'good' or 'bad' from what I am doing?'

The difference is that, in the latter case, the immediacy of the communication, the sense of ‘back and forth’ means that damaging practices cannot be as easily ignored (Allen, n.d.).

Communication online brings with it a new set of considerations that need to be made. By understanding and following the guidelines and rules for netiquette we can helpt ot keep ourselves safe online and deal with unwanted or unacceptable behaviour.

Netiquette rueles were developed to deal with speed and anonymity on the Internet (Netiquette n.d.). The internet enables fast communications that quite often “typing, pointing, and clicking often resulted in careless sloppiness, unintentional blunders, or hasty belligerence” (Netiquette n.d.). It is hoped that by developing rules of netiqette people will take more care and notice of the messages they send and also more responsibility for their actions even when they are anonymous.

So what exactly are some of the rules of netiquette, Rinaldi (1996a, cited in Scheuermann & Taylor, 1997) lists some as not using your computer to cause harm, interfere with other people’s work, snoop into others files, steal or copy software that is not paid for and to use the computer in a way to show consideration and respect. Brakeman (1995, cited in Scheuermann & Taylor, 1997) also discusses netiquette to be brief, descriptive with subject headings, careful with humour and sarcasm and use appropriate references. There are many documents on the internet that make suggestions for what netiquette is and the rules that should be followed.

To me netiquette is about ethics and morals. One should conduct themselves in a way that they would in person and should not simply do or say things just because nobody can see them or know who they are. It seems that the Internet has bred bullies out of otherwise harmless individuals (Sheffield, 2007). With the Internet people are hiding behind their computers and many people who don’t have the courage to stand up for themselves in person now use the Internet to threaten and abuse others. These individuals are known as Cyberbullies.

It is all very well to have a set of guidelines for appropriate online behaviour but how is it taught, and how are violations dealt with? How can we ensure compliance with the rules of netiquette, and who will control users?

Responsibility for use of the Internet lies with the individual, one must take responsibility for their own actions. However as there are many individuals out there who have a disregard for others it is important that everybody with good netiquette habits helps others to learn these habits of how to conduct themselves online. Scheuermann & Taylor (1997) note that online service providers, employers and governments can promote and encourage good behaviours by punishing major netiquette breaches.

Violations of netiquette can be a crime and people need to acknowledge this. A Canadian Court has taken lead and made a ruling that unsolicited commercial email is a violation of netiquette (Canadian Court, 1999). The court has given authority for Internet Service Providers (ISP) to disconnect customers committing violations, a violation is in breach of the contract and the ISP can terminate the services. If more actions are taken like this one hopefully violators start to take things seriously and think twice about their online behaviours.

Annotated References

Site 1: The Net Lothario http://www.albion.com/bookNetiquette/0963702513p117.html#55365:%20Head4:%20The%20net%20Lothario

Internet use can leave you wide open to a violation and this is exactly what Shea (n.d.). talks about in this story the net “lothario”. This particular story relates to a man who successfully charmed and romanced women on WELL. These originally online relationships developed to a physical level. To cut a long story short these women chatted and discovered they had been involved with the same man. He had lied to and manipulated them.

In response to this mans behaviour the women posted a warning to a public forum to let other women know so they too wouldn’t be scammed, this was good netiquette as they took action to protect others rather than gain revenge for themselves (Shea, n..d.).

Site 2: Quick Facts: Internet Flaming http://www.syl.com/articles/quickfactsinternetflaming.html

Quick Facts (2005) discusses flaming as a major problem on the Internet, which is classified as bad netiquette. Flaming is a big nuisance on the Internet and anybody is vulnerable to becoming a victim, which can in turn result in a flame war. Flaming is the deliberate attack on somebody to cause offence, personal attacks, insults and the like. Why do people feel the need to flame, some think it is fun and get entertainment out of doing so, others do it out of anger or to show their authority (Quick Facts, 2005).

Flaming is a major down point of the Internet, but understanding it can help you to prevent or avoid it.

Reference List

Allen, M. (n.d.) Curtin University of Technology, Concepts. Retrieved 20 December, 2008, from http://webct.curtin.edu.au/SCRIPT/305033_b/scripts/serve_home

Britell, J. (1996). AVOIDING THE DARK SIDE OF EMAIL. Retrieved 15 January, 2009 From http://www.britell.com/use/use19.html

Canadian Court Rules That Spam is a Violation of Netiquette, (1999). Retreived 28 January, 2009, from, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0CGN/is_3700/ai_55129581

Consumer Guide to Internet Safety, Privacy, and Security (n.d.). Retrieved 7 January, 2009, from http://www.nclnet.org/technology/essentials/

Email replacing phone and face- to-face contact (2006). Retrieved 16 January, 2009, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5426/is_200603/ai_n21387026?tag=content;col1

Hruska, J. (2009). Malware infestation responsible for credit card data breach. Retrieved 20 January, 2009, from http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20090120-malware-infestation-responsible-for-credit-card-data-breach.html

Indiana University, (2007). What is a Lurker? Retrieved 15 January, 2009, from http://kb.iu.edu/data/arwk.html

JonKatz, (1998). Luring the Lurkers. Retrieved 19 January, 2009, from http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?no_d2=1&sid=98/12/28/1745252

Judith (2008), Irresponsible Forwarders Exposed! Retrieved 23 January, 2009, from http://www.netmanners.com/email-etiquette/irresponsible-forwarders-exposed-2-2/

Krebs, M. (n.d.). Internet Fuelling Boost In Fraud & Identity Theft. Retrieved 7 January, 2009, from http://www.uplink.com.au/lawlibrary/Documents/Docs/Doc142.html

Longley, R. (n.d.). 'Spoofing' and 'Phishing' and Stealing Identities - FBI warns of latest expensive Internet traps and tricks. Retrieved 8 January, 2009, from http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/consumer/a/aaspoofing.htm

MacNevin, S. Schymitzek, T. (2007). Email Culture – are you a slave or master? Retrieved 15 January, 2009, from http://www.emailmanagement.com.au/pdf/AITD2007Dec.pdf

Markoff, J. (2009). Worm Infects Millions of Computers Worldwide. Retrieved 22 January, 2009, from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/technology/internet/23worm.html?_r=1

Mike (2008). Idiot at Lifelock Loses Identity. Retreived 6 January, 2009, from http://spudswebnews.blogspot.com/2008/05/idiot-at-lifelock-loses-identity.html

Moore, R. (2008). E-mail communication -- The good, the bad & the ugly. Retrieved 24 January, 2009, from http://www.prairiebizmag.com/articles/index.cfm?id=9333&section=guides

Netiquette, (n.d.). Retrieved 29 January, 2009, from, http://ecommerce.hostip.info/pages/777/Netiquette.html

Nielson, J. (2006). Participation Inequality: Encouraging More Users to Contribute. Retrieved 21 January, 2009, from http://www.useit.com/alertbox/participation_inequality.html

Nonnecke, B. Preece, J. Andrews, D. (2004), What lurkers and poster think of each other. Retrieved 21 January, 2009, from http://www.ifsm.umbc.edu/~preece/Papers/LurkersAttitudesHICSS04.pdf

Pawlik-Kienlen, L. (2007). Lurking In Chat Rooms Internet Psychology Reveals Why We Lurk & Don't Participate. Retrieved 19 January, 2009, from http://psychology.suite101.com/article.cfm/lurker_psychology

Platt, B. (2002). LURKERS and BABBLERS and the Make-Up of Your Subscriber Base. Retrieved 10 January, 2009, from http://www.articlestree.com/internet/lurkers-and-babblers-and-the-make-up-of-your-subscriber-base-tx195157.html

Quick Facts: Internet Flaming (2005). Retrieved 27 January, 2009, from http://www.syl.com/articles/quickfactsinternetflaming.html

Scheuermann, L. Taylor, G. (1997) Netiquette, Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, Volume 7, No 4, Retrieved 2 February, 2009, from Emerald Database

Schmidt, D. (2005). No Email Fridays. Retrieved 16 January, 2009, from http://theloyaltyleader.blogspot.com/2005/09/no-email-fridays.html

Shea, V. (n.d.), The Net Lothario. Retrieved 21 January, 2009, from, http://www.albion.com/bookNetiquette/0963702513p117.html#55365:%20Head4:%20The%20net%20Lothario

Sheffield, A. (2007). Rules of Netiquette. Retrieved 28 January, 2009, from http://edtech2.boisestate.edu/sheffielda/573/netiquette.html

Underwood, L. (2001). Internet Security and Privacy, Retrieved 8 January, 2009, from http://www.wdvl.com/Internet/Security/

Van, T. (2007). Are you wasting your colleagues’ time with your bad email habits? Retrieved 16 January, 2009, from http://blogs.bnet.com/pr/?p=89