Week 12, Social & Ethical Issues, 23-10-2007

LECTURE

The week 12 lecture was all about the Internet. The Internet is open to abuse and it has no standards. There are open protocols. The information on the Internet could be published by anyone and has no control on bias and unethical information. The smart people that use the internet are the ones that abuse it, for example hack into other peoples accounts, where as the dumb people are the ones that give up personal information. The problems that arise from the Internet are copyright breaches, intellectual property, plagiarism, security, privacy and freedom of speech.

The problem of intellectual property is that the information can be stolen by anyone. With copyright there usually are strict laws of using it and Justine recommends that students ask for permission of use of information for educational purposes if they need to. Plagiarism is a major factor as the ideas and words are taken without acknowledging the source. Privacy could be invaded for instance, people gaining your information at an Internet café, where as it is less likely to happen if you use home computers. Security risks such as probe attacks, which take your passwords; or virus attacks that are caused by such things as emails and downloading etc.

All these problems can be preventable. Installing firewalls is a good way in preventing harmful things happening to your computer. Installing anti-virus programs and generally scanning and being aware of attachments with emails etc is another warning made by Justine. Another thing that Justine says is to at least once a month scan your computer. All of these methods will help prevent problems with computers.

TUTE



The first task for week 12 was to visit the Australian Copyright Council at http://www.copyright.org.au. I am going to provide a list of information sheets from the website that I have found relevant as an undergraduate student.

· Quotes and Extracts: copyright obligations
· Research and Study
· Internet: copying and downloading
· Libraries
· Creating and publishing on the Internet

The second part was to visit the website of the US department of Justice’s intellectual property cases.

This was a very real and relevant case to the students, I also believe Justine may have included a bit in the lecture. John Sankus was more commonly known as his online nickname eriFlleH. Sankus was co-leader of one the largest Internet software piracy companies called DrinkOrDie, which was an Internet software piracy group that specialised in acquiring new software by breaking the copyright. They had the ability to post programs on the Internet. He was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison for conspiring to violate the criminal copyright laws, which in turn was the longest sentence given out for piracy.

We also had to visit 3 websites then provide a plan on how to protect ourselves from attacks on our privacy and security threats such as viruses, Trojans. The 3 website are which are:

· NetSecurity
http://netsecurity.about.com/library/weekly/aao52501a.htm

· How Stuff works
http://www.howstuffworks.com/virus1.htm

· PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,34058,00.asp

There are many ways in which we are able to protect ourselves from attacks of our privacy. Things including Trojans and viruses can affect the way we use our computer. The ways we can protect ourselves include the following:

· Installing and updating your Antivirus software on a weekly basis
· Do not give out any personal details (Passwords, bank details, addresses etc)
· Use commercial software that it provided from CD's instead of programs from unknown sources that have been downloads from the internet
· Don't open email attachments that come in .EXE, .COM, .VBS etc
· Don't open emails that you find suspicious (unknown sender or SPAM etc)
· Always ensure that your cookies are enabled

A Trojan Horse is seemingly a harmless computer virus that turns out to be extremely destructive. A Trojan Horse often comes in the form of programs in a clever way, claiming newer versions to ensure the downloading of these harmful viruses. A virus is a program written to cause damage to a computer system. It is a self-replicating program that inserts copies of it in computers and documents. A virus might attach itself to a program and every time that the program runs, the virus runs too giving it the chance to replicate and attaching itself to other programs. It is very harmful and it can be very harmful to your computer as well as other people’s computers.



READINGS


EFF's Top 12 Ways to Protect Your Online Privacy – This is a simple reading which gives the user a list of the top 12 helpful information on using the internet. Some of the hints are simple and should be implemented. Also gives links for the user for further information.

Social Justice Issues: Electronic Monitoring – This website provides a collection of information under the following headings: monitoring, privacy, suggested policies and privacy resources. The links provide information on the rights and also information in defence of employees.

Computer Viruses and the Internet – This is a PDF as well. The main point of this reading is to provide information of the history of viruses. It also gives a range of information on viruses of today.

Brown & Michaels - Overview of Intellectual Property - this website provides information about protecting your intellectual property. It goes into detail about trademarks and also copyright. The whole point of this is to tell you about your limitations.

Music, Copyright & the Internet – This website is about providing the most common questions and providing answers (FAQs). The questions are very good and also are very reasonable. Some are just common knowledge but it does provide good information on them.

Email Attachments and Viruses – This reading was all about warning people about the dangers of attachments on emails. It goes into detail about attachments providing a list of files that could be sent to anyone by email. It also provides other links that will help prevent virus attacks.