GT101 Learning and Information Technology - Computing Essentials (PDF)

GT101: LEARNING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TU170: COMPUTING ESSENTIALS MEETING 6 CHAPTER 16: PRIVACY, SECURITY AND ETHICS Prepared by: ITC team – AOU, Kuwait branch Based on the content of GT101 smart book @McGraw-Hill Education LEARNING OUTCOMES Identify the most significant concerns for effe...

GT101: LEARNING AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY TU170: COMPUTING ESSENTIALS MEETING 6 CHAPTER 16: PRIVACY, SECURITY AND ETHICS Prepared by: ITC team – AOU, Kuwait branch Based on the content of GT101 smart book @McGraw-Hill Education LEARNING OUTCOMES Identify the most significant concerns for effective implementation of computer technology. Discuss the primary privacy issues of accuracy, property, and access. Describe the impact of large databases, private networks, the Internet, and the web on privacy. Discuss online identity and the major laws on privacy. Discuss cybercrimes types including creation of malicious programs. Discuss computer ethics including copyright law, software piracy and digital rights management. PEOPLE As we have discussed, information systems consist of people, procedures, software, hardware, data, and the Internet. Thischapter focuses on people. While most everyone agrees that technology has had a very positive impact on people, it is important to recognize the negative, or potentially negative, impacts as well. PEOPLE Effective implementation of computer technology involves maximizing positive effects while minimizing negative effects. The most significant concerns are privacy, security and ethics. Privacy – What are the threats to personal privacy and how can we protect our selves? Security – How can access to sensitive information be controlled and how can we secure hardware and software? Ethics – How do the actions of individual users and companies affect society? PRIVACY Technology makes it possible to collect and use date of all kinds, including information about people. The Web sites you visit, the stores where you shop …. Privacy concerns the collection and use of data about individuals. Three primary privacy issues: - Accuracy: relates to the responsibility of those who collect data to ensure that the data is correct. - Property: relates to who owns data. - Access: relates to the responsibility of those who have data to control and able to use that data. PRIVACY: LARGE DATABASES Large organizations are constantly compiling information about us. Everyday, data is gathered about us and stored in large databases. This ever-growing volume of data is often called big data. A vast industry of data gatherers known as information resellers or information brokers now exists that collects, analyzes, and sells such personal data. Information resellers create electronic profiles, or highly detailed and personalized descriptions of individuals. These profiles can reveal more than you might wish and this can raise many important issues, including: ▪ Collecting public, but personally identifying information ▪ Spreading information without personal consent ▪ Spreading inaccurate information PRIVACY: PRIVATE NETWORKS Many organizations monitor employee email and computer files using special software called employee-monitoring software. These programs record everything you do on the computer. PRIVACY: INTERNET & WEB Most people do not concern about privacy when sending e-mail on the Internet or browse the web. As long as they use their own computers and have the choice to reveal their personal information, they think that little can be done to invade their personal privacy. Experts call this the illusion of anonymity. When you browse the web, your browser stores critical information onto your hard disk. This information, which contains records about your Internet activities, includes: - History files, which include the locations, or addresses, of sites that you have recently visited. - Temporary Internet files, also known as the browser cache, contain web page content and instructions for displaying this content. PRIVACY: INTERNET & WEB Another way your web activity can be monitored is with cookies. Cookies are small data files that are deposited on your hard disk from websites you have visited. Cookiesare harmless in themselves, but they can store information about you, your preferences, and your browsing habits. Types of cookies: ▪ First-party: generated (and then read) only by the website you are currently visiting. ▪ A third-party cookie (tracking cookie): is usually generated by an advertising company that is affiliated with the website you are currently visiting. These cookies are used by the advertising company to keep track of your web activity as you move from one site to the next. PRIVACY: INTERNET & WEB Several other threats could potentially violate your privacy such as: 1. Web bugs, which are invisible images or HTML code hidden within a web page or e-mail message, can be used to transmit information without your knowledge. 2. Spyware are programs designed to secretly record and report an individual’s activities on the Internet. - They run in the background and are invisible to the average user. - Computer monitoring software is the most invasive and dangerous type of spyware. - Keystroke logger is a type of computer monitoring software that records every activity and keystroke made on your computer system, including credit card numbers, passwords, and e-mail messages. PRIVACY: INTERNET & WEB Best defenses against spyware are: - exercise caution when visiting new websites - be careful when downloading software from an unknown source. - use antispyware or spy removal programs, which are designed to detect and remove various types of privacy threats (e.g. Ad-Aware). PRIVACY: ONLINE IDENTITY Another aspect of Internet privacy comes from online identity, the information that people voluntarily post about themselves online. There are any number of cases of people who have lost their jobs on the basis of posts on social networking sites. SECURITY Weare all concerned with our personal security (e.g. lock our doors). What about computer security? Computer hackers are the persons who try to gain unauthorized access to our computers or other computers that contain information about us. Security involves protecting individuals and organizations from theft and danger. Computer security specifically focuses on protecting information, hardware, and software from unauthorized use, as well as preventing or limiting the damage from intrusions, sabotage, and natural disasters. SECURITY: CYBERCRIMES Cybercrime or computer crime is any criminal offense that involves a computer and a network. Examples of Cybercrimes SECURITY: CYBERCRIMES Malicious Programs (malware) are specifically designed to damage or disrupt a computer system. A cracker is a computer criminal who creates and distributes malicious programs. The three most common types of malware are: 1. Viruses are destructive programs attach themselves to programs and databases that can alter or delete files. 2. Worms are programs that replicate themselves causing computers and networks operations slowed or stopped. Worms can carry a virus. 3. Trojan horses are programs that appear to be harmless; however, they contain malicious programs like viruses. Trojan horses usually appear as free computer programs that can be downloaded from the Internet. SECURITY: CYBERCRIMES Virusesand worms can find their way into PCs through e-mail attachments and programs downloaded from the Internet. Zombie is a computer infected by a malware that allows it to be remotely controlled for malicious purposes. A collection of zombie computers is known as a botnet, or robot network. Antivirusprograms such as Symantec and McAfee provide services that keep track and alert users about virus threats. ETHICS The essential element that controls how computers are used is ethics. Ethics are standards of moral conduct. Computer ethics are guidelines for the morally acceptable use of computers in our society. ETHICS: COPYRIGHT & DRM Copyright is a legal concept that gives content creators the right to control use and distribution of their work. Material that can be copyrighted include paintings, books, music, films and video games. Some users choose to make unauthorized copies of digital media which violates copyright. Software piracy is an unauthorized copying or distribution of software. To prevent copyright violations, corporations often use digital rights management (DRM).