Journal Assignment Five - Notebook Assignment

http://www.google.com/notebook/public/17694856984508508791/BDY9U5goQio2mpPsj?hl=en

Notebook assignment from Mithona Ly and Surapheal Belay

Journal Assignment Four - Software Bug

I decided to write about a software glitch in Toyota Prius hybrid because it displays how software runs all types of mechanics, including vehicles. The Toyota Prius had a software glitch that made the car stall while going at high speeds. Not only do we have to test our software for the security of data but for the security of people. Since computers are running on more products, we have to put more testing into the product for the safety of people.

With this mention, Toyota met the NIST 800-14 principle. The principle stating that organization must have security responsibilities outside their own organization. Toyota met customer satisfaction by giving free towing to customers who were stranded on the road at any time and of course, free software upgrades to all customers who came to a Toyota dealership.

http://money.cnn.com/2005/05/16/Autos/prius_computer/

Journal Assignment Three - Taxonomy of Internet Based Attacks

The article below presents an example of DOS (Denial of Service) attack. I liked the article because it presented the flooding attacks from the attacker and the reactive solution from the website as explained similarly in the MIT document. Furthermore, the MIT document has a figure that explains how the attacker can use other computers to attack their destination. The article mentions this type of attack method as a possibility from the attacker because some were stating that it would cost the attacker too money to do this alone - the attacker would need in the range of a 1,000 to 5,000 computers to send that amount of traffic to website's host. The website tried to buy more bandwidth but ended being taken down after 10 minutes. In the end, the hosting company could not sustain the traffic and had to shut down the website.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/03/03/26/HNjazeera_1.html

Journal Assignment Two - Malware

I selected this article because it explains how vulnerable we are on the internet. Basically, as mentioned in class, the user does not have to click or download anything to be infected with malware; it is as easy as visiting an infected website. The process is called “drive-by download.” The article states that the Trojan or malware will collect the user information and in extreme cases such as this, will collect banking information. It is very important for internet users to keep their virus program up-to-date and to use free programs such as, Ad-aware, to keep your computer as safe as possible.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7701227.stm#top

Journal Assignment One - ID Theft

I selected this article because of the widespread usage of Facebook, especially amongst college students. From the young to the old and poor to the rich, social networking sites are consistently rising every year with the affordability and easy access to the internet. With a bright side, along comes a dark side – hacking and ID theft. Facebook and MySpace – two of the top social networking sites – members are repeatedly getting hacked. In minor cases, the hacker will rearrange a member’s site, leave embarrassing remarks, or harass friends. On the other hand, in severe cases, the hacker will act as the member, exploit the member’s friends, and have them send money. There have been numerous cases as such, and in each case, hundreds to thousands of dollars have been lost.

Facebook and MySpace are continuously beefing up their security and trying to prevent such issues. At the end of the article are some safety tips for users of these networking sites.

http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/01/post-1.html