1. Using Information Technology
The Challenges of the Digital Age
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The Challenges of the Digital Age Society & Information Technology Today
9.1 Security Issues: Threats to Computers & Communications Systems
9.2 Security: Safeguarding Computers & Communications
9.3 Quality-of-Life Issues: The Environment, Mental Health, & the Workplace
9.4 Economic Issues: Employment & the Haves/Have-Nots
9.5 The Digital Environment: Is There a Grand Design?
Key Questions (from the text):
9.1: Security Issues: Threats to Computers & Communications Systems. What are some characteristics of the key security issues for information technology?
9.2 Security: Safeguarding Computers & Communications. What are the characteristics of the four components of security?
9.3 Quality-0f-Life Issues: The Environment, Mental Health, & the Workplace. How does information technology create environmental, mental-health, and workplace problems?
9.4 Economic Issues: Employment & the Haves/Have-Nots. How may technology affect the unemployment rate and the gap between rich and poor?
9.5 The Digital Environment: Is There a Grand Design? What are the Internet 2, the 1996 Telecommunications Act, and ICANN?
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3. 9.1 Security Issues: Threats to Computers & Communications Systems
Errors & Accidents:
Human errors
- humans can’t assess own information needs
- human emotions affect performance
- humans act on their perceptions
Software errors
Procedural errors
Electromechanical problems
“Dirty data” problems
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Errors & Accidents
Human errors
Procedural errors – computer failures occur as a result of non-compliance of procedures
Software errors – software bugs
Electromechanical problems – failure of mechanical systems due to faulty construction,overheating, wearing out, or damage
“Dirty data” problems - incomplete, outdated, or otherwise inaccurate data
In 1999, the $125 million Mars Climate Orbiter was fed data expressed in pounds, instead of newtons. As a result, the spacecraft flew too close to the surface of Mars and broke apart.9
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5. Natural & Other Hazards
Natural hazards
Civil strife and terrorism
Some disasters do not merely lead to temporary system downtime; they can wreck the entire system. Examples are natural hazards.
Even before September 11, 2001, the United States was not immune to civil unrest, as evidenced by the 2000 riot in Los Angeles after the hometown Lakers won the National Basketball Association championship. championship. Nor were we immune to terrorism, as was
seen in the first bombing of New York’s World Trade Center and the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
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6. Crimes Against Computers & Communications
Theft of hardware - shoplifting an accessory
Theft of software and data - illegal copying of programs
Theft of time and services – using employer’s computer time to play games
Theft of information – stealing confidential personal records
Crimes of malice and destruction – abusing or vandalizing computers
Two types of computer crime:
Crimes AGAINST computers & communications.
Crimes USING computers & communications.
Hardware theft can range from shoplifting an accessory in a computer store to removing a laptop or cellular phone from someone’s car. Professional criminals may steal shipments of microprocessor chips off a loading dock or even pry cash machines out of shopping-center walls.
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7. Crimes Using Computers & Communications
Using information technology to assist in a crime
Investment fraud
Tools to detect fraud:
Rule-based-detection software
Predictive-statistical model software
Just as a car can be used to perpetrate or assist in a crime, so can information technology. One persistent scam is the so-called Nigerian letter scam, the cause of 16,000 complaints in 2002 with the Internet Fraud Complaint Center. Most Nigerian-letter perpetrators claim to have discovered inactive or delinquent accounts that hold vast amounts of money ready to be claimed. Victims are given a chance to receive nonexistent government money, often from the “Government of Nigeria,” as long as they pay a fee to help transfer the money to an overseas account.
Rule based detection software – users create a “negative” file that states the criteria each transaction should meet.
Predictive statistical model software - examines tons of data from previous transactions to create mathematical descriptions of what a typical fraudulent transaction is like.
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Worms & Viruses
Worm - a program that copies itself repeatedly into a computer’s memory or onto a disk drive
Virus - a “deviant” program, stored on a computer drive, that can cause unexpected and often undesirable effects, such as destroying or corrupting data
Anti-virus software - scans a computer’s hard disk, floppy disks, and main memory to detect viruses and destroy them
Worms and viruses are passed in two ways:
By floppy disk
By the internet or some other network
Types of worms and viruses:
Boot-sector virus
File virus
Multipartite virus
Macro virus
Logic bomb
Trojan horse
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Computer Criminals
Hackers - gain unauthorized access to computer or telecommunications systems
Crackers - illegally break into computers for malicious purposes
Employees - more than 80% of all IT crime perpetrators
Outside users - suppliers and clients
Professional criminals - organized crime rings
Hackers – in the positive meaning, computer enthusiasts; in the negative meaning, people who gain unauthorized access to computer or telecommunications systems, often just for the challenge of it.
Crackers - people who illegally break into computers for malicious purposes--to obtain information for financial gain, shut down hardware, pirate software, or alter or destroy data.
Workers may use information technology for personal profit or steal hardware or information to sell. They may also use it to seek revenge for real or imagined wrongs, such as being passed over for promotion.
Suppliers and clients may also gain access to a company’s information technology and use it to commit crimes.
Members of organized crime rings don’t just steal information technology. They also use it as a business tool for illegal purposes. For instance, databases can be used to keep track of illegal gambling debts and stolen goods.
Discussion questions:
Most computer criminals are employees. What does this say about our society and our work ethics?
What do you think of hackers? Should they be prosecuted even if they do nothing malicious?
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10. 9.2 Security: Safeguarding Computers & Communications
Security - system of safeguards for protecting information technology
Identification & Access
Encryption
Protection of software and data
Disaster-recovery plans
Security is a system of safeguards for protecting information technology against disasters, systems failure, and unauthorized access that can result in damage or loss. We consider four components of security here.
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11. Identification & Access
What you have -
What you know
Who you are
Cards
Keys
Signatures
Badges
What you have
What you know…
Who you are
PIN (personal identification number) - the security number known only to you that is required to access the system
Password - a special word, code, or symbol required to access a computer system
Credit cards, debit cards, and cash-machine cards all have magnetic strips or built-in computer chips that identify you to the machine. Many require that you display your signature, which may be compared with any future
signature you write.
Cards
Keys
Signatures
Badges
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12. Identification & Access
What you have
What you know
Who you are…
Biometrics - science of measuring individual body characteristics
Some forms of identification can’t be easily faked—such as your physical traits. Biometrics tries to use these in security devices. Biometric devices authenticate a person’s identity by verifying his or her physical or behavioral characteristics. Devices for verifying biometric identifiers, physical or behavioral characteristics that can be used to authenticate a person’s identity are fingerprint scanners, face-recognition systems, iris-recognition systems, voice-verification systems, and signature verification systems.
Iris scan
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Encryption
Encryption - the process of altering readable data into unreadable form to prevent authorized access
Private key - same secret key used by both sender and receiver
Public key - two keys are used
Private key or symmetrical encryption - the same secret key is used by both sender and receiver to encrypt and decrypt a message.
Data encryption standard (DES) was accepted as a standard for private key encryption in 1976.
Public key - two keys are used — a public key, which the receiver has made known beforehand to the
sender, who uses it to encrypt the message, and a private key, which only the receiver knows and which is required to decrypt the message.
Pretty good policy (PGP), RSA encryption, and Fortezza are examples of public key encryption.
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14. Protection of Software & Data
Control of access - restricts access to data files to those with a need to know
Audit controls – track which programs and servers were used, which files have been opened, etc.
People controls - check resumé facts, separate employee functions, shred papers, etc.
Disaster-Recovery Plan
Disaster-recovery plan - a method of restoring information-processing operations that have been halted by destruction or accident
Many organizations have a system of transaction logs for recording all accesses or attempted accesses to data.
Audit control creates an audit trail, a record of how a transaction was handled from input through processing and output.
Because people are the greatest threat to a computer system, security precautions begin with the screening of job applicants.
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9.3 Quality-of-Life Issues: The Environment, Mental Health, & the Workplace
Environmental problems:
Manufacturing by-products - exposing semiconductor industry workers to a variety of hazardous toxins
Disposal by-products
Disposal by-products - “e-waste” - obsolete or broken PCs, monitors, printers, cellphones, TVs and other electronics
Environmental blight
Environmental blight - visual pollution represented by wireless towers, roof antennas, satellite dishes, and all the utility poles topped with transformers and strung with electric, phone, cable-TV, and other wires
Many communities are eager to have computer and chip manufacturers locate there because they perceive
them to be “clean” industries. But there have been lawsuits charging that the semiconductor industry has knowingly exposed workers to a variety of hazardous toxins, some of which were linked to miscarriages, and there is speculation that others may be linked to cancer and birth defects.
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16. Environmental problems:
Manufacturing by-products
Disposal by-products
Environmental blight
Possible risks of nanotechnology - manipulating materials such as carbon, zinc, and gold at molecular level
Although scientists call the fears speculation, some environmentalists worry that the spread of nanotechnology
could create contaminants whose tiny size makes them ultra-hazardous.
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17. Mental-Health Problems
Isolation - going for days without actually speaking with or touching another person
Gambling - information technology makes it almost unavoidable
Stress - 83% of corporate network administrators reported “abusive and violent behavior” by employees toward computers
Automation allows us to go for days without actually speaking with or touching another person, from buying gas to playing games. Even the friendships we make online in cyberspace, some believe, “are likely to be trivial, short lived, and disposable—junk friends.”
Gambling is already widespread in North America, but information technology makes it almost unavoidable.
A survey found that 83% of corporate network administrators reported “abusive and violent behaviour” by employees toward computers—including smashing monitors, throwing mice, and kicking system units.
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18. Workplace Problems: Impediments to Productivity
Misuse of technology - computers may be costing U.S. companies tens of billions of dollars a year in downtime, maintenance and training costs, game playing, and information overload
Fussing with computers - all the fussing that employees do with hardware, software, and online connections
Information overload - employees tend to work longer hours under more severe deadline pressure
The new technology is definitely a two-edged sword. Cellphones, pagers, fax machines, and modems may untether employees from the office, but these employees tend to work longer hours under more severe deadline pressure than do their tethered counterparts who stay at the office, according to one study.
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19. 9.4 Economic Issues: Employment & the Haves/Have-Nots
Technology, the Job Killer?
Hundreds of companies are replacing service representatives with voice software.
Gap between Rich & Poor
Employees with technology skills earn roughly 10–15% higher pay
Economist Paul Krugman believes that we are now living through one of those difficult periods in which technology
doesn’t produce widely shared economic gains but instead widens the gap between those who have the right skills and those who don’t.
Digital divide - gap between those with and without access to information technology.
Discussion question:
Do you think technology creates or eliminates more jobs? Is technology generally a good or bad thing for the employment situation?
How serious a problem is the digital divide? Has the Information Age made the gap between rich and poor wider or narrower?
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20. 9.5 The Digital Environment: Is There a Grand Design?
Internet2 - a cooperative university/business education and research project that enables high-end users to quickly and reliably move huge amounts of data over high-speed networks
The 1996 Telecommunications Act - designed to let phone, cable, and TV businesses compete and combine more freely
In effect, Internet2 adds “toll lanes” to the older internet to speed things up. The purpose is to advance videoconferencing, research, and academic collaboration—to enable a kind of “virtual university.” Presently Internet2 links more than 200 research universities.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act is designed to let phone, cable, and TV businesses compete and combine more freely.
ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers) - a private corporation that regulates the
domain names that overlie IP addresses and identify the website type.
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21. The Digital Environment: Is There a Grand Design?
ICANN – a private corporation that regulates the domain names that overlie IP addresses and identify the website type
Whom Does the Internet Serve?
In a World of Breakneck Change, Can You Still Thrive? upgrade your skills, specialize, and market yourself
ICANN is not a government body and has no statutory authority; it imposes policies through contracts with its world members.
Because of its unruly nature, perhaps the internet truly serves no one—and that is both its blessing and its curse.
Today, experts advise, you must be willing to continually upgrade your skills, to specialize, and to market yourself. In a world of breakneck change, you can thrive.
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