Concept #26 Privacy and Security

“The Internet is a profoundly ‘open’ system and advanced Internet users are cautious about either accepting or sending material from and to unknown sources and are careful in releasing information about themselves in any form. Conceptually, the Internet challenges us to take greater responsibility for the protection of privacy and security than perhaps we are used to when dealing with the media.” (Allen)

There are many threats to a user’s privacy and security on the internet. Viruses, SPAM and identity theft are increasingly common on the internet today. The openness of the internet, which is it’s great asset, is also the reason there are so many security threats. Almost all of these risks can be avoided by an experienced internet user. It doesn’t require expensive anti-virus or malware solutions, it simply requires care to be taken when giving out any kind of personal information. “With awareness as your safety net, you can minimize the chance of an Internet mishap.”(Federal Trade Commission, 2007). If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is.

It’s a good idea to set up a second email address through a free provider such as hotmail or gmail so that if you do have to give out your email address to websites you aren’t sure of then it won’t fill your primary email inbox with spam.

You shouldn’t open or click on any links in emails where the sender is not known and trusted. Often, for example, criminals will send out many emails purporting to be from a particular bank and asking that you click on a link, which will take you to an imitation of the banks internet banking website, and ask you to type in your username and password. This is called “phishing”. All banks now advise customers never to access internet banking from an email. With a little experience with email, it becomes fairly easy to detect such fraudulent emails. If in doubt about the sender, you should verify their identity first. Don’t give out your personal information unless you made contact first.

Most viruses are downloaded because the user has clicked on a link or downloaded an infected file. Most of this can be avoided by simply being careful what you click on. However, viruses and spyware are likely to infect even a careful internet user’s computer. This is why Spyware removal and Anti-Virus programmes are essential. It is important to update these programmes as much as possible because the list of spyware applications and viruses grows extremely rapidly.

Many identity thefts occur through social networking sites. This is because of the carefree way people give out information on these sites. “Social Network Communities allow more than the public articulation of social networks; in each service, a user creates a richly detailed personal profile. The data in an individual’s profile ranges from the relatively innocuous (favourite book or movie) to the potentially invasive (sexual orientation, political views, photo).” (Stutzman, 2006) To combat this, the user must be careful who they interact with on such sites and limit as much as possible the personal information entered into the user’s profile. Date of birth, full name, street address, phone number and marital status are things that should never be given out in a chat session or made available in a public profile. “Spear phishers” target users of Social Network communities by pretending to be a friend of the user and requesting confidential information or sending links, seemingly harmless, which could contain viruses or other malware applications.

The internet can be a dangerous place, but with some common sense and awareness of the risk involved in giving out personal information, protecting yourself on the internetis not as hard as it sounds.

Site 1:

Title: OnGuard Online

US Federal Trade Commission (2007) Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://onguardonline.gov/index.html

This website, published by the US Federal Trade Commission, contains information on a long list of privacy and security issues faced in everyday internet use, as well as tutorials and tips on how to protect yourself. It is extremely useful as it contains many checklists of things to look out for when conducting a particular activity on the internet. This concept of this site is privacy and security for internet users which fits well as it is the same as the concept discussed. The site is from a government agency and as such I regard it as very credible.

Site 2:

Title: Protecting your privacy on the internet

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner (2007) Retrieved April 28, 2008, from http://privacy.gov.au/internet/internet_privacy/index.html

This website is published by the Office of the Australian Privacy Commissioner. It starts off with informative explanations of what the internet is what the various forms of internet communications are and goes on to list privacy and security threats on the internet and gives advice on how to protect yourself. This site is a very good starting point for learning how to protect yourself online. The concept of the site fits neatly with what we are discussing in this essay. This site is from the Australian government and as such I regard it as very credible.

Concept #7 Netiquette

“Good communication practice on the Internet is not something one ‘learns’, but something one practices so as to teach others, less familiar than yourself, how it is done.” (Allen)

The idea of Network Etiquette, or “Netiquette” has been around since the late 1980’s when large numbers of the general public started communicating via the internet. Internet communication is almost entirely written, “When you communicate electronically, all you see is a computer screen. You don’t have the opportunity to use facial expressions, gestures, and tone of voice to communicate your meaning; words — lonely written words — are all you’ve got.”(Shea, 1994) This means that care must be taken when you communicate with someone online. It is easier to be rude online than it is in a face to face environment but the feelings generated are much the same. It is important then, not to say anything in online communication that you wouldn’t say to them over the phone or to their face. This requires careful consideration of the contents of your communications before you transmit them.

Much like becoming accustomed to a new culture, learning the “rules” of netiquette requires both practice and trial and error. The internet is a difficult place to navigate for a new user and they will inevitably make mistakes in learning how to communicate effectively. Different places online have different versions of acceptable Netiquette. Something that may be fine to say somewhere could be perceived as incredibly rude elsewhere. The only real way to combat this problem is to ‘lurk’. Soak up information from discussion boards and mailing lists and get a feel for the way people in that particular community are communicating before contributing actively. Also, your communications on the internet are usually very insecure, most communications can be fairly easily intercepted and read. “Unless you are using an encryption device (hardware or software), you should assume that mail on the Internet is not secure. Never put in a mail message anything you would not put on a postcard.” (Hambridge, 1995)

Not only must you be polite with the wording of your messages, you must ensure that they are properly addressed and are of genuine interest to the person you are sending them to. Your communications on the internet must be concise and informative if they are to receive much attention. There are a lot of unwanted messages flying around the internet and if your message doesn’t look relevant to the recipient, it will most likely be ignored.

An important foundation of Netiquette is that you try to make things as easy as possible for other internet users. If you are an experienced internet user, communicating effectively helps teach new users how to effectively communicate and thus improves the experience for everyone.

Behaving badly on the internet can affect you for a long time. Discussion boards keep posts up for a long time before removing them and email messages also can be kept for long periods of time before being deleted. Often chatting online can feel like casually chatting face to face but it is important to remember that every word may be recorded.

Experienced internet users have the job of teaching new users how to communicate online. They must be patient when communicating. It is not good manners to go around correcting others mistakes in face to face communication and nor is it online. Care must be taken when pointing out errors to others. Always give the benefit of the doubt and assume the mistake was not intentional.

Site 1:

Title: The core rules of Netiquette

Shea, V., (1994). Netiquette. Retrieved May 2, 2008, from http://www.albion .com/netiquette/corerules.html

This website is constructed largely from excerpts from Virginia Shea’s book “Netiquette”. It contains an excellent overview of Network Etiquette and the attitudes internet users should take in communication. The site is easy to navigate, which is good for relatively new internet users, who are the users with the most to learn from it. ‘The Core Rules of Netiquette’ expounds many of the same ideas as the article in the concepts document with a slightly more practical angle. Virgina Shea’s “Netiquette” is widely quoted in literature and is a credible source.

Site 2:

Title: RFC 1855 – Netiquette Guidelines

Hambridge, S., (1995) RFC1855 – Netiquette Guidelines. Retrieved May 4, 2008, from http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html

This site contains a list of guidelines for Network Etiquette (Netiquette) which have been designed for organisations to adapt and use to develop their own set of guidelines. It is a very informative document with detailed lists of what is generally acceptable or otherwise. It is a very practical application of the concept. It is a very useful site to the user as it shows what sort of things businesses are concerned with about internet communication and many rules about emailing. It is a very credible site as it is an RFC (Request for Comments) document provided by Intel corporation.

Concept #17 – The impact of text-based real-time chat

“Communicating in real-time with text enables a form of ‘authoring of the self’ that is similar to the processes of face-to-face speech but which is much more amenable to authorial control, experimentation and reflection. Further, text-based communication carries with it the possibility for multiple, differing conversations occurring simultaneously, relying on the ability of the human brain to deal with text much better than speech.” (Allen)

Text-based real-time chat has been available on the internet since the introduction of Internet Relay Chat(IRC) in 1988. As the internet has matured and technology vastly improved, one might expect that this form of communication would have lost popularity however this is not the case. Millions of people communicate using such tools as ICQ, Microsoft Live Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, IRC and many more. Chatting in text, in real time retains the advantage of instant two-way communication whilst also allowing you to think through much more thoroughly what you wish to say. When communicating in this form, if what you have written does not look right, you can simply change it before transmitting, almost the verbal equivalent to taking back words after you have said them.

Because this method of communication enables the user to put a lot more thought into what they are saying, text-based real time chat is a very good way to share information. The way that all communication is recorded and reviewable makes it excellent for problem solving. In utilising real time text chat with other students when completing distance education is a great example. Instead of waiting for an answer to your questions on a discussion board, you can discuss problems in real time and still have a copy of how you solved your problem.

Text-based real time chat can seem as intimate and personal as verbal communication and often is but care must be taken and it is important to remember that the ability to monitor and reflect on what is transmitted makes it easier to control the perceptions others have of you. This is particularly important when engaging in personal discussions. If online contact is the only contact you have had with someone, you should be aware that there is a chance they are not who they say they are. “Be careful who you trust online and remember that online friends are really strangers.” (Childnet International, 2004). Many people also use this form of chat to keep in touch with people they already know, instead of using the telephone or communicating via email. As with any form of online communication it must be remembered that a copy of all you are transmitting may be sitting either on the computer of the person/s that you are communicating with or in the possession of a third party.

Audio Visual communication has not overtaken text-based chat at the speed that it was widely expected to after it became available. This is attributed by some to the slow rollout of the technology required to utilise it. Audio Visual communication still has a long way to go before it can offer significant benefits over text-based chat. It is a form of chat which allows rapid information sharing, reviewability and most importantly on a personal level, it allows the user great control over what they contribute and how they are perceived.

Site 1:

Title: Chat Wiki

Retrieved 4 May, 2008, from http://www.xtreemconnex.com/chatwiki/index.php

This site contains a list of chat services as well as a short history of this medium of communication, and tips on things like etiquette and slang. It is in a Wiki format so it is easy to navigate. Although it does not contain a large volume of information, it is a good starting point for a new user. It concentrates more on web based chatrooms than on clients like MSN messenger, etc. The underlying concepts are however very similar. As it is a wiki format, information gleaned from here shouldn’t be seen as absolute truth, however the way Wiki’s work, most information ends up correct sooner or later.

Site 2:

Title: Chatdanger

Childnet Int’l., (2004) Retrieved 4 May, 2008, from http://www.chatdanger.com/

This website concentrates on the potential dangers of real time text-based communication. It gives tips on how to protect yourself using online chat, email, messenger clients, and even in online games. This is very useful especially for new users who may be a little naïve when chatting online for the first time. It contains a lot of useful information for parents with children who may be starting to use text based real time chat to socialise. The site is published by a credible organisation, Childnet International, also a non-profit organisation.

Concept #21 – Threading

“Threading is what makes discussion groups – either Usenet news groups or, for example, this unit’s discussion group (accessed from the home page or the learning space page) – so valuable for enabling complex inter-flows of communication to take place in a manner that allows us to see the pattern of conversation and response.” (Allen)

Threading is a valuable tool for organising information on discussion boards or newsgroups. It allows massive amounts of posts to be arranged in an organised, easy to navigate manner. Email lists are fine for sharing information when there are not a huge amount of users and not a large amount of emails but as communication traffic increases, it becomes harder and harder to find what you are looking for in an email list. Discussion boards and newsgroups use threading, grouping posts by topic and order of response. This makes it far easier to navigate straight to the information you need.

Threaded discussions also help encourage a sense of community as when replying to a post you are also replying to a specific user. This is especially helpful in an education environment as it brings the class together as well as encouraging collaboration between students. “In a learning situation the primary goal of any discussion is to promote thinking. Web-based discussion tools provide many ways to increase discussion between class members and faculty. Researchers have found that adding threaded discussion areas to a course increases student motivation and participation in class discussions.” (Peters, 2000)

The threaded arrangement makes it relatively easy to navigate to a particular post without having to wade through large amounts of material which is not relevant to you. It is also much easier to follow the flow of a conversation, simply noting which users post the most informative answers to questions helps direct you work out who are the candidates to aim your questions at.

In a learning environment, instructors can use threaded discussions to guide the flow of student discussions. With a relatively few posts, instructors can guide student discussions on to the right path and get students to think critically, reflectively and collaboratively. Without this tool distance education in particular would be far more difficult and much more of a burden on the instructor.

“It is fundamental that interaction between the student and course content, the faculty member, and other students contributes to learning.” (Meyer, 2003)

A great driver in the popularity and success of online learning is the effective use of threaded discussions. Very few people are critical of them and most of those are critical of the software used as opposed to the threading itself. Most threaded discussions are searchable, which allows you to quickly find what you are looking for and also to view related posts.

Posts are usually kept on threaded discussion boards for a long time, which puts responsibility on the user not to post anything they wouldn’t be proud of or anything inappropriate or off topic. Moderators are power users with privileges to delete posts and without them there is a danger that the discussion will become cluttered and hard to follow. Moderators keep the discussions on track by deleting posts or communicating with other users and informing them where they should go to post their query.

Early in the internet’s evolution, threaded discussions were only used by relatively advanced users but more recently there has been greater use of them by ordinary internet users. Websites like Yahoo! Groups are a great example of this. Large numbers of discussions between large numbers of people that are searchable and easy to navigate are possible with the help of threading.

Site 1:

Title: Creative Use of Threaded Discussion Areas

Peters, K., (2007) Creative Use of Threaded Discussion Areas, Retrieved 6 May, 2008, from http://www.webct.com/OTL/ViewContent?contentID=898084

This website is published by WebCT.com, the same company that writes Curtin’s online learning area software. It explains why threaded discussions are so useful in an online learning environment and discusses ways to get the best out of them. It also contains links to other useful information about Asynchronous learning environments. This website focuses on the use of threading for educational purposes, something very relevant to all students. It is from a credible source and the author, Karen M. Peters is a member of faculty at Penn State University in the United States.

Site 2:

Title: Yahoo! Groups

Yahoo! Inc., (2008) Retrieved May 7, 2008, from http://groups.yahoo.com

This site is quickly becoming one of the larger examples of a threaded discussion on the internet today. It has the added advantage that it is a very easy way for an inexperienced user to learn how threaded discussions work. It is well presented and there are step by step guides for setting up an account, posting, and even creating your own forums. This site is a practical application of the concept of threaded discussions. Yahoo! Inc are a very large internet company and are generally trusted by the internet community.

Bibliography

Allen, M. (n.d.). Internet Communications – Concepts Document.

Childnet International. (2004). How to keep safe in chat. Retrieved 5 3, 2008, from Chatdanger: http://www.chatdanger.com/chat/safetyadvice.aspx

Commission, U. F. (2007, September). Stop – Think – Click: 7 Practices for Safer Computing. Retrieved 4 24, 2008, from OnGuard Online: http://onguardonline.gov/stopthinkclick.html

Hambridge, S. (1995, October 24). RFC 1855: Netiquette Guidelines. Retrieved 5 2, 2008, from http://www.dtcc.edu/cs/rfc1855.html

Meyer, D. K. (2003). Face-To-Face verus Threaded Discussions: The Role of Time and Higher-Order Thinking. Journal of Asynchronous Learning Networks , 55-57.

Peters, K. M. (2000, 5 9). Creative Use of Threaded Discussion Areas, Part 1. Retrieved 5 5, 2008, from http://www.webct.com/OTL/ViewContent?contentID=898084

Shea, V. (1994). Netiquette. Albion Books.

Stutzman, F. (2006). An Evaluation of Identity-Sharing Behavior in Social Network Communities.

]]> http://mynet11blog.wordpress.com/2008/05/10/assignment-1-conceptual-research-and-reflection-project/feed/ 0 mynet11blog http://mynet11blog.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/newsgroup-task/ http://mynet11blog.wordpress.com/2008/04/23/newsgroup-task/#comments Wed, 23 Apr 2008 06:35:07 +0000 mynet11blog http://mynet11blog.wordpress.com/?p=9 ]]> I found newsgroups difficult to set up, especially if your ISP doesn’t maintain a news server.  Most free news servers do not allow posting and others don’t carry a full list of groups.  I used a free server “Aioe.org” and once set up found it simillar to a web based discussion forum minus the frills.

I posted an answer to a question I found on comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad

The post, including header information, is as follows:

From:                    Adam Bayfield

Organization:       Aioe.org NNTP Server

Date:                    Wednesday, 23 April 2008 4:25PM

Newsgroups:        comp.sys.laptops.thinkpad

Subject:                Re: R40e – hard disk

I have a 160GB 5400rpm seagate drive in my R40e and all is well.  Apparently
a 7200rpm drive will work fine too, just need to watch the heat.

Thanks
Adam

2. The CC function in email is handy when you wish to send a message to a group of people. It is easier than sending it to each person individually, and it let’s everyone know who has received the email. The BCC function I find to be rarely useful, it could be handy with job applications for example, as you could send a blind copy to a friend to get another opinion on your writing style, or to yourself as a record.

The reply function is one of the most commonly used functions in email. It simply opens a new message with the sender of the currently selected email’s address in the “To:” field. It also copies the subject with a “Re:” in front. It is a very useful way to reply to everyday email.

3. You can make sure attached files are easily viewed by the recipient by sending the email in text format. This ensures that no matter what configuration the recipient has, they should be able to read the email. Rich text format (.rtf) files are also easily read across platforms and provide a little more leeway for presentation.

4. I have several filters set up in my email inbox to route emails from my inbox. I do this because I emails from 3 separate addresses coming in to my inbox. Creating rules based on the sender’s address makes them much easier to manage.

5.  I have made four different folders for Uni, my girlfriend’s Gran (a chain letter fanatic) as well as other friends and old emails.  This makes it much easier to find what I am looking for.

The results for the route to curtin.edu.au are as follows:

Tracing route to curtin.edu.au [134.7.179.53]…

Trace complete

The average time taken from the tools site to the curtin server was 2282 ms.

The IP address of the curtin server is 134.7.179.53

This is a great tool with many uses including locating problems in a network.

The average time to ping the webct site from network-tools.com was 248.5 ms.  The average time from my computer was 530ms.  This could be due to the fact that I am using a wireless connection or it could be because the network-tools.com site, although being geographically further from Perth than I am here on the Gold Coast, has a faster link to the internet.

The traceroute from my computer to Curtin’s server took 6 fewer hops than from network-tools (11 as opposed to 17).  The route was much the same after network-tools.com’s trace had reached australian servers.

While waiting for the rather slow download to complete I downloaded a traceroute/ping application called WinMTR from http://www.snapfiles.com/download/dlwinmtr.html for the next task in this module.

After Downloading WS-FTP, connecting to the curtin server was not difficult.  WS-FTP insists you create a profile for each server you connect to and after doing this and setting the username to anonymous I clicked on connect and shortly I was connected to the server recall.curtin.edu.au.  Folder show up as though in Windows Explorer and shortly I was able to find the Readme file in the MSC folder.  Downloading it was a simple task.  I simply clicked on the arrow pointing from it’s location on the server to a folder on my hard drive.  The word “CAPITALIZATION” goes in the blank.

FTP is great for sending files around without navigating through unnecessary extraneous information.

Task A

We start this week by using telnet to log onto and search the Deakin University library catalogue. I started Windows XP’s inbuilt telnet client by clicking Start —-> Run and then typing telnet://

Once here I was a little unsure of what to do to connect to the server but after trying a few things I quickly discovered typing “?” would bring up a help menu. From here I discovered that typing “o library.deakin.edu.au” would connect me to deakin’s library server.

After choosing the default emulation mode I was presented with a menu much like what you would see on a computer screen if you were sitting in a library. Navigating the menu’s wasn’t too difficult nor was sending results via email. The first book by an author with the last name Bennahum was : Managed care : financial, legal, and ethical issues / edited by
David A. Bennahum, and the other was: Dance & community : Congress on Research in Dance, Spring 2005 conference, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida /[Ninotchka Bennahum & Tresa M. Randall, co-editors].

Task B

Blinkenlights uses ascii characters very cleverly to graphically represent Star Wars.  I didn’t actually sit through the whole animation as it was very long and I knew the story anyway.  I believe sites like this should be maintained to show us how the internet was and what modern applications such as MSN messenger and VOIP have developed from.

2. Don’t focus solely on yourself. Try to connect with your audience.

3. Use links to support your posts wherever possible.

4. Make your posts easy to read.

5. Take the time to look over and edit posts before submitting them.

That’s all for tonight folks, see you tomorrow!