IT and the internet threats and flaws: Denial of service attacks.

A denial of service attack is an incident in which a user or organization is deprived of the services of a resource they would normally expect to have. In a distributed denial of service, large numbers of compromised systems (sometimes called a botnet) attack a single target.
A denial of service attack doesn’t normlly lead to theft of information or security loss however it may cause the victim to be unable to access certain programs or networks whilst under attck or afterwards. An example is you may loss access to e-mail or other things which you would need to log on to. A denial of service attack can also destroy programming and files in affected computer systems. In some cases, D of S attacks have forced Web sites accessed by millions of people to temporarily cease operation.
A recent case where this has happened was when the London 2012 olympic tickets went on sale and millions of people all tried to access the website at the same time, casueing it to overload and cease to work for a time. That was an unorganised denial of service attack although D of S attacks can be organised by groups of people to affect a website or program.

Common types of Denial of service attacks are:
>Buffer Overflow Attacks
-to send more traffic to a network address than the programmers who planned its data buffers anticipated someone might send.
>SYN Attack
-attacker can send a number of connection requests very rapidly and then fail to respond to the reply. This leaves the first packet in the buffer so that other, legitimate connection requests can’t be accommodated.
>Teardrop Attack
-exploits the way that the Internet Protocol (IP) requires a packet that is too large for the next router to handle be divided into fragments. The fragment packet identifies an offset to the beginning of the first packet that enables the entire packet to be reassembled by the receiving system.
>Smurf Attack
-the perpetrator sends an IP ping (or “echo my message back to me”) request to a receiving site The ping packet specifies that it be broadcast to a number of hosts within the receiving site’s local network.
>Viruses
-which replicate across a network in various ways, can be viewed as denial-of-service attacks where the victim is not usually specifically targetted but simply a host unlucky enough to get the virus.
>Physical Infrastructure Attacks
-someone may simply snip a fiber optic cable. This kind of attack is usually mitigated by the fact that traffic can sometimes quickly be rerouted.

IT and the internet threats and flaws: Phishing.

PHishing NOT Fishing!!

Not to be confused with fishing but uses the same basic idea, throw a line see if you take the bait then reel you in and steal your money.

Phishing is a devious way of extracting confidential information and financial information out of you to steal your money. If you recieve an email from any banks, ebay, paypal or any legitimate businesses where they are asking you to reply to the email by sending your account or login details, and or by entering your details on a website via a link sent to you Then you can be 100% sure that it is a phishing scam email.

IT and the internet threats and flaws: SPAM.

Stupid Pointless Annoying Mail…

Spam are messages that are sent to lots of internet users in an attempt to force people who may not necessarily choose to read or receive mail as most spam is commercial advertising.

There are three types of spam; Cancellable spam and Email spam.
> Cancellable spam is a single message sent to 20 or more net groups. This spam is aimed at “lurkers”, people who read newsgroups but rarely or never post and give their address away.
> Email spam targets individual users with direct mail messages. Email spam lists are often created by scanning Usenet postings, stealing Internet mailing lists, or searching the Web for addresses. another part of email spam is sending spam to mailing lists (public or private) because many mailing lists limit activity to their subscribers, spammers will use automated tools to subscribe to as many mailing lists as possible, so that they can grab the lists of addresses, or use the mailing list as a direct target for their attacks.
> Virus spam is when someone else’s computer gets infected with a virus and they then send you an email or you get a spam email from that address and your computer is then at risk of getting that virus.

How to prevent spam:
>use anti-spam software as there are many tools you can use that check incoming mail and try to detect which is spam and which is not. The spam emails are sent to a ‘spam’ folder on your computer. You can still access these messages if you want to.
>Avoid using ‘CC’ (carbon copy) for group emails that you send.
If you send an email to a group of people that might forwarded it on and on, it could get into the hands of a Spammer, who you can add the address from your original message and more to their spam address database. Instead use BCC (blind carbon copy), this means the recipients do not see the list of email addresses that your message has gone to.

Potential threats of IT:Stay safe online.

Top tips for staying safe online:
1) Keep your email address private.
2) Block or ignore unwanted users.
3) Be careful about what you ‘say’ online.
4) Never use a business account for personal use.
5) Never give out your password.
6) Don’t give out your contact details.
7) Be sensible when online.
8) Use online chatrooms and social networking sites wisely and be aware of you your privacy settings.

A useful website you may want to take a look at about staying safe online.
http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/YoungPeople/CrimeAndJustice/KeepingSafe/DG_10027670

Potential threats of IT: Cyber bullying.

“Cyberbullying” is when a child, preteen or teen is tormented, threatened, harassed, humiliated, embarrassed or otherwise targeted by another child, preteen or teen using the Internet, interactive and digital technologies or mobile phones. It has to have a minor on both sides, or at least have been instigated by a minor against another minor. Once adults become involved, it is plain and simple cyber-harassment or cyberstalking. Adult cyber-harassment or cyberstalking is never called cyberbullying.”
Quote from…http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/what_is_cyberbullying_exactly.html

In other words Cyber bullying is a form of bullying conducted over the internet or technical devices such as mobile phones. Cyber bullying generally happens among teenagers often the bully is someone unsecure for one reason or another and therefore feels a need to pick on someone else to make themselves feel better. In reality this does not have a desired outcome as no one should ever be subjected to bullying and as long as the victim speaks up then the bully cannot get away with it.

What forms can cyber bullying take?
>Email- sending emails that are aggressive,threatening or upsetting. These messages often refered to as ‘hate mail’ and can be prejudice towards someone.
>Instant messenger and chatrooms- Sending instant messenger and chatroom messages to friends or direct to a victim.
>Social networking sites- Some people may set up profiles on social networking sites to bully someone.
>Mobile phone- Sending humiliating and abusive text or video messages, as well as photo messages and phone calls over a mobile phone. This includes anonymous text messages over short distances using Bluetooth technology and sharing videos of physical attacks on individuals (happy slapping).
>…and more methods of communication.

The effects of cyber bullying:
Cyber bullying cannot physically harm you however it would most likely leave you feeling sad, upset and mentally vulnerable. Escaping cyberbullying can be very difficult. Because anyone can get access to a mobile phone or the internet almost anywhere, it can be tough for those on the receiving end to avoid it, even in the safety of their own home. The best way to escape cyberbullying is to talk to an adult you trust and they can then help you to sort it out. Do not try to pretend theat it isn’t happening or try to hide it from anyone as this will make the situation worse because the bully may then become even more threatening or aggressive towards you.

Stay strong and speak up!

From your community to the whole world: The Digital divide

“The digital divide refers to the gap between individuals, households, businesses and geographic areas at different social economic levels with regard both to their opportunities to access information and communications technologies and to their use of the Internet for a wide variety of activities.”

Check out this news article on ‘the digital divide’. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8568681.stm

Basically the digital divide is the fact that many people are not fortunate enough to have access to a computer or the internet. Even other new technical equipment such as mobile phones and MP3 players just becasue they live in a world of poverty. Partly having no access to the internet is a reason why so many people living in the third world have no job because they have to means to find one or move abroad due to only having a little amount of money if any at all.

Helping the digital divide: There are  charities and organisations that have been set up to help beat the digital divide and other methods are by providing broadband wireless systems in poverty affected areas. an example of how the divide is being helped is…Lloyd’s Charities Trust has donated £50,000 to the e-Learning Foundation, to provide children from low income families with computers at home and access to their schools’ online networks for their studies.

Your donations will help too!

From your local community to the whole world.

How has your community changed with the effects of the internet?

How has the world changed with the effects of the internet?

This…               to…this…

Practically one and the and the same nowadays as technology and communication have developed to allow people to communicate via the internet with their next door neighbour or a relative on the other side of the world! This is a social benefit and there are few potential risks of the internet but as long as you are safe when using the internet then there shouldn’t be any problems.

So many new developments have been made in the IT industry, some of these are some commonly found items you most likely have in your home.

• Computers
• Laptops
• Mobile phones (including smart phones)
• Televisions
• Heating (systems)
• MP3 Players
• CD’s
• DVD’s (now also Blue-Ray)
• SAT NAV’s
• Email
• Credit cards

The internet and our free time: Music and videos.

Without internet, who knows what the music industry would be! Music video sites like You Tube allow current artists and upcoming artists to share their music to the public and even for the public to share their musical talent with everyone else. Social network sites are also useful for the advertisement of music as almost all music artists have Facebook and Twitter  Pages so they can update their followers to tell them the latest about their music and events etc. Also You Tube and Vimeo allow users to ‘vlog’ this can be entertaining and informational. there are so many benefits of having internet access during our free time!

As technology had continued to develop with Apple making ipods that connect to the internet it brings even more publicity for artists on You Tube. But also there are many sites to download music from. (Make sure its legal.) And Itunes has significantly improved the download of music as you can download tracks as soon as they are released.

I know personally I love my iPod and it goes everywhere with me same for many people as they are brilliant for journeys

or just for relaxation! :) but just think if we didn’t have internet then we probably wouldn’t have very easy access to music.

The internet makes access to so many things a lot easier!

The internet and our free time: Online shopping.

Online shopping… you love it or you hate it! Generally women prefer shopping to men, however the beauty of online shopping is that…

• You can search lots of websites to find just what you’re looking for.
• It’s quick and easy.
• You don’t have the hassle of trawling around lots and lots of shops.
• Quite often there are many items available online which you wouldn’t find in a  shop.
• Online shopping can be done at anytime of day. Which makes it easy to do a bit of shopping after work or school.
• Or simply you can just browse items without any cost of driving to shops, parking etc.

Online shopping is great especially if say, you don’t have time to go to the shops but you desperately need something the next day, well there is a solution… Express delivery! This means yes you do have to pay for delivery however it will come the next day! There are also many other advantages of online shopping or browsing and very few disadvantages! :)

‘Shop ’til you drop!’ is no longer necessary :)

The internet and our free time: Online gaming

Online gaming is a popular way to spend your free time. There are many different games available to play for free this makes them ideal for quick and fun entertainment.

When Flash and Java players rose in popularity, websites could then utilize streaming videos, audio clips, and a whole new set of user interactivity. As the internet has become more and more demanded it has gradually shifted from mainly data information sites to ‘on-demand’ entertainment. This includes online gaming.

 With the increasing ability of online technology there is now a massive market for gaming, from free interent games to Xbox and many other types. There is also an increase in people playing online games. Some people may say that people are ‘addicted’ to gaming but it is a common thing to do in free time.