8th entry

What struck me the most about our discussion last meeting was how the use of friendster and sites like it and the sites themselves itself are unsafe. It made sense that people could actually use information that a person voluntarily gives out and use it to stalk them. It is just hard to think that there are people that would actually do that.

I saw on television recently that there was this family that was being threatened and stalked through their cellphones. Apparently the stalkers knew where they were all the time and knew what they were doing. The stalkers also knew what they were wearing. As a result of this the family members changed their phones and phone numbers. However, this apparently didn't work and the stalkers still threaten them.

The family believes that the stalkers uses the camera on their phones to see them. Is this possible?

7th entry

Last meeting's topic of Internet Security was very interesting. It is good to know what the basic techniques are that hackers use to try to infiltrate a website/system. This knowledge will indeed help programmers to develop code that cannot be easily hacked using such methods as SQL injection.

I also found amusing the ignorance of most people about the IT field. This was shown in the Dilbert cartoons. I can understand the first few times that someone asks a Computer Science or IT person to fix their computer, but if it happens frequently then it becomes offensive. This just proves that the IT profession is still very new to people and much of them have no understanding of what IT people do. I am hoping that one day the majority of people will know exactly what IT professionals are trained to do and will recognize it accordingly. It does not follow that if you are in the IT field you are automatically capable of fixing computers. IT people are trained programmers not technicians.

6th entry

Viruses, spyware, malware and other harmful material are scattered on the internet and are continuously spreading and increasing in number. It was said in class that most of the time a virus cannot spread or get into a computer unless the user actually opens it/runs it on purpose. This happens as most people who are not much versed in technology or just not too careful will mistaken the virus for something else.

It seems to me that the problem with viruses will never go away. Programmers who develop such things get a kick out of proving that they are smart enough to infiltrate computers and cause damage. Thus, I think that the solution to this problem is to educate people about how to avoid these harmful software. If people know what to look for and how to spot potential viruses then hopefully this will discourage people from creating viruses.