Coding 1A: Unit #6 Vocabulary

Harassment Laws

The internet can become a tool for criminals, like any area of life. Cyber-stalking is a repeated course of conduct online that is designed to cause emotional distress and fear of physical harm. It can include threats of violence, sexual harassment, spreading lies or sharing personal and compromising information, and hacking a person's social media accounts. If this sounds similar to the definition of bullying we saw earlier, it's because they are one and the same. As early as 1999, a cyber stalker in California was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison for online sexual harassment. For that reason, if you are being bullied, you should document what is being posted with screenshots and report it to the police. It may very well be a criminal offense, and your rights are protected by the law. You do not need to put up with it and are not expected to!

Reputation

You might also like to limit what information you have publicly available as well. Identity theft is probably the worst thing that can happen when you make your personal information publicly available. An identity thief uses your information to start masquerading around as you! Let's say you are an accomplished writer with a profile on LinkedIn outlining your accomplishments, what's to stop someone in another country using your name and presenting themselves as you in emails and online freelancing forums? They could even use your resume to get themselves work and in turn, cause damage to your reputation.

Recognizing Bullying: Device Use

A student noticeably increases or decreases their device use, including texting. Student's social media accounts are shut down, or new ones appear.

Fact or Fiction #2: Attention Span

A number of articles bouncing around social media claim that the average attention span is down from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds now. That is less than the nine-second attention span of your average goldfish. But is it true? Well, not quite. The claim can be traced back to a Microsoft Report published in 2015. A BBC article in 2017 looked into the sources of this figure and found it to have a pretty flimsy basis. Goldfish don't even have attention spans! One study did find that simply having a cell phone on the desk significantly worsens performance on a demanding task but not on easy tasks. Another study showed that individuals who are more addicted to their smartphone are less able to achieve a state of flow, or a state of concentration so focused that it amounts to absolute absorption in an activity. However, this doesn't necessarily mean that cellphone addictions cause reduced attention. Instead, maybe students who struggle to study by themselves for long periods, also struggle to control their impulse to use the smartphone a lot. There just may not be enough research to conclusively say that technology is reducing people's attention spans. We'll have to wait and see!

Recognizing Bullying: Emotional Response:

A student exhibits strong emotional responses (laughter, anger, upset) to what is happening on their device. A student becomes withdrawn or depressed or loses interest in people and activities.

Avoidance:

A student hides their screen or device when others are near and avoids discussion about what they are doing on their device. Student starts to avoid social situations, even those that were enjoyed in the past. This is what you can do today to deal with a bully. Don't wait! Make a difference today.

Intellectual Property

Another way the government protects the rights of individuals to their own ideas is through the law of intellectual property. This means that you can copyright or license your ideas, which means you own them and they cannot be freely used or distributed by other people. Creative Commons is an organization that provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses that allow artists to give people the desired level of permission to use and even distribute their work while retaining ownership of it. Companies who own their own software are said to have a proprietary software. Often, they will require you to purchase a license to use it, so they make some money. If it is made available for free, then the software is called freeware. If the software actually has no owner, and even its source code is made publicly available and free to use, it is open source software. Open source software allows whole communities to join together to improve a piece of software, and from speech recognition (CMU Sphinx), to graphic design (GIMP), to web browsing (Mozilla Firefox), open source options provide high quality free options to software developers and users. This ensures better competition and equitable opportunity to everyone, regardless of their personal wealth, or lack thereof!

Passwords

As a programmer, it's your job to make sure that your users' data is not stolen. In some cases, such as the Netflix email scam, it looks like that might be impossible, but there are many measures you can take. One popular approach is to require passwords to access your site. This keeps users' profiles and accounts private but introduces security risks. How many passwords can one person remember!? Users often choose a simple password and use the same password for multiple sites. This means that people with bad intentions can easily use password cracking software to find out passwords and again use them to steal your information. Sometimes, hackers don't even need to 'crack' your password, they can simply intercept it when you ask a company to resend it to you because you have forgotten it. So, what can you do to stop this? Well, for starters, your software should never, ever, ever send out a password. It is poor practice to send out a user's password and make it susceptible to being stolen. If someone has forgotten their password, secure websites will send an email to their registered email address, with a link asking them to enter a brand-new password. But this still does not safeguard a user's password! When a user enters a new password in their web browser, it is then sent along a computer network to the website's data storage device, or server. Just like a wagon traveling through the Wild West, this data can be hijacked by thieves! To keep it safe along the journey, programmers use techniques called hashing and salting, which means that the password is converted into unintelligible data by having letters and symbols added to it and all its characters jumbled up. It can only be deciphered if you possess the key, which is safely stored at the website's server.

data permanence

Data permanence is the term given for the fact that what you post online is never truly erased. You might take things down years later, but they might still be viewable somewhere if someone looks hard enough. Thinking ahead just a little bit, do you think when you are competing with other highly qualified applicants for a job that you want your prospective employer flipping through your personal photos? You may decide that it's not an issue for you, but it's good to be aware that we all have a digital footprint that shows a trail of activities that goes a long way back.

Fact or Fiction #3: Polarization

Do you have your own Spotify radio station, perfectly tuned to your own tastes? Do you spend hours each week reading a Facebook feed with posts from friends with exactly the same political and religious views as yourself? Do you ever read a news article with a viewpoint that you strongly disagree with or do you only visit a news website that matches your political leanings? Across North America and Europe, political arguments are alive and well. Some political commentators have taken a step back and observed that the number of people in the middle ground between liberal and conservative are disappearing! These days, people seem to be in one camp or another, and strong opinions abound. According to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal, in the United States in 1960, 5 percent of Republicans and Democrats reported that they would "[feel] 'displeased' if their son or daughter married outside their political party"; by 2010, nearly 50 percent of Republicans and over 30 percent of Democrats "felt somewhat or very unhappy at the prospect of interparty marriage" (Boxell, Gentzkow, & Shapiro, 2017). Of course, lively debate and a diversity of viewpoints are a healthy thing, but is technology changing the political landscape around the world? This is our final fact-or- fiction question of the day. What do you think?

Germany and the Netherlands

Even countries with a strong and long-standing privacy protection footprint, like Germany and the Netherlands, passed or are about to pass regulations that considerably increase government surveillance powers.

Phishing

One of the simplest and most common malicious ways that information is stolen on the internet is through phishing, or the sending of fake emails designed to capture sensitive data of unassuming receivers. A recent example of phishing is an email hoax being sent by hackers that claim to be from Netflix. The email, which looks exactly like any other email from Netflix, tells the customer that their credit card has not worked for the month and the credit card details need to be updated immediately. If a user clicks on the email, it again takes them to a website that looks exactly like the Netflix site, where they are prompted to enter in the new credit card details. You're in the middle of a series and must find out what happens next! The next thing you know, your credit card details have been stolen.

Finland

Finland is drafting legislation that would give its military and domestic security forces broad access to civilian web communications to gather intelligence.

Cyber Attacks

Hackers use a wide range of approaches to access people's personal information online. As a programmer, as well as a user of technology, it's important to be aware of these technological loopholes and know how to safeguard against them.

India

In India, a law tried to force companies to store information unencrypted for 90 days so that the government and law enforcement could more easily gain access to data. The law was met with much opposition and did not take effect.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

In light of some of the controversy previously discussed surrounding Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, those laws have recently been reviewed, and in some cases made stricter. The European Union (EU), consisting of 28 countries, has led the way with legislating protection of users' personal data. Their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most significant recent data privacy legislation to affect businesses across the globe. The regulation imposes a higher standard of personal data protection, with significant penalties for companies from the EU who do not comply. This obligates companies to take some of the measures we learned earlier, such as the encryption of data, and promises all users some fundamental rights—such as the right to know how their data is being used and to erase it at any time if they so wish. In light of some of the controversy previously discussed surrounding Facebook and Cambridge Analytica, those laws have recently been reviewed, and in some cases made stricter. The European Union (EU), consisting of 28 countries, has led the way with legislating protection of users' personal data. Their General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is the most significant recent data privacy legislation to affect businesses across the globe. The regulation imposes a higher standard of personal data protection, with significant penalties for companies from the EU who do not comply. This obligates companies to take some of the measures we learned earlier, such as the encryption of data, and promises all users some fundamental rights—such as the right to know how their data is being used and to erase it at any time if they so wish.

Government Surveillance

Ironically, the government is both part of the solution and potentially part of the problem. Security agencies need to monitor citizens' data to identify security threats such as terrorism. Around the world, the balance between security intelligence and personal privacy continues to create tension between governments and citizens. While some countries are hesitant to give their security agencies access to citizens' data, others are less concerned. Check out the policies of these countries:

Fact or Fiction #1: Communication

It is true that technology is making the world a smaller place and letting people find support in online communities. But has the popularization of mobile computer and communication platforms such as Facebook and Snapchat reduced how well, and how often, we communicate face to face? Many researchers have found indications that smartphones do have a negative impact on both the quality and quantity of face to face communication. In person conversations do happen less than they used to; and according to studies, conversations in the absence of mobile communication technologies are rated as significantly superior than conversations in the presence of a smartphone.

Malware

It's a piece of software packed with viruses to compromise the security of the system it is downloaded to. If you use a Mac, you are pretty well protected against viruses. The Mac operating system is sandboxed, which is like having a series of fire doors that slam shut as soon as a fire is detected. If malware does get in, it's not able to spread to the heart of the machine. If you use a PC, it's a good idea to get some virus protection software. Unfortunately, these are the dangers of technology. Knowledge is power, and increasingly, every little detail of our lives is stored online. Dangerous forces are constantly trying to steal and misuse users' information. Be vigilant in your personal life and even more so as a programmer. You could be the difference between stolen data and a safe and secure user.

Falsification

It's equally important to be truthful in the material you produce. Falsification of information in an essay, or for posting on the internet, is a lie. From a moral standpoint, however, falsification can have a very negative ripple effect far beyond your words. Believe it or not, 2 percent of scientists have admitted to having falsified or willfully modified data. Up to a third admitted other questionable, bordering on illegal, research practices. Such false research wastes other researchers' time, clouds accurate conclusions, and pushes back the advancement of research in all kinds of important areas such as medicine and psychology. You're probably not a researcher just yet, so let's move this discussion a little closer to home, and talk about fake news, or the intentional posting of false news stories online, particularly on social media. The biggest ever study on fake news, published in the well-respected Science journal, looked at approximately 126,000 stories tweeted by around 3 million people more than 4.5 million times. These stories were identified as true or false by six independent fact-checking organizations. The results? According to an article in Science, falsehoods on Twitter spread "significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information, and the effects were more pronounced for false political news than for false news about terrorism, natural disasters, science, urban legends, or financial information."

Plagiarism

Just because information is free, it doesn't mean it's yours. If you use someone else's words in your own work, you are obligated to quote them and cite the source. Otherwise you are engaging in plagiarism or taking someone else's material without giving them credit. There are free plagiarism checkers online that can detect whether your words are original or not, and it is common practice for schools and universities to run submitted work through a plagiarism checker before issuing your final grade. What are the consequences of plagiarism? First of all, you aren't creating your own unique voice! Even if you agree with the position you quote or are working it into an objective analysis of an issue, putting the argument into your own words when possible gives it your special perspective and helps you fully grasp the matter at hand. At the college level, plagiarism is dealt with very strictly. At most universities, plagiarism penalties range from a lower grade to failing your degree and expulsion from the university. It's always worthwhile to run your final essay through a plagiarism checker and make sure you are within accepted norms.

Social Engineering

Of course, you can't be everywhere. There always have been con artists out there, and there still are today. Sometimes, hackers use traditional techniques, such as phoning up a call center pretending to be you, until they glean little pieces of information they can use to break in to your accounts and steal your information. That's why it's important to keep track of your accounts and how your credit cards are being used (if you have them!)

Behavior on Social Media

Perhaps you think this is all a bit much. What's wrong with some celebratory pics and showing you have a social life? The truth is, this issue relates not only to the outcome of what you post on social media but to behaving appropriately in the first place. Most importantly, this means behaving ethically on social media. The anonymity of having a computer between two people makes it easier for kids these days to bully online, or make hurtful, or even prejudiced comments. Over 35 percent of teenagers in the United States say they have been bullied online at some point, including being subject to mean comments online, threats of violence, posting of hurtful pictures, and being impersonated by bullies. This kind of behavior can be really harmful to teenagers. If you or someone you know are being bullied online, first of all know that the real-world judges a bully pretty harshly and, as you grow up, you're not stuck in a setting with mean people, and you will someday have every choice to live and work where, and with whoever, you like. You should also know that there are ways you can deal with the situation today. The official site of the U.S. government, stopbullying.gov, outlines how to recognize and deal with online bullying. Just as you have a responsibility to fight criminals as a programmer, it's up to you to stop the bullies in your school making your life or the lives of your classmates miserable. Let's look at some of the ways to recognize if someone is being bullied and how to deal with it.

SQL Injection

Stay alert, there's more you can do to save the world. If you remember back to the previous unit, SQL is a programming language that is used to manipulate databases. Well, a hacker can weaponize SQL using something called SQL Injection. It's about as sinister as it sounds! Any time you ask a user to input a string of text, they can type whatever they like. If they know how to code, they could input an entire algorithm that will reach deep into your hard drive and take over your entire system. For example, a hacker can use the simplest input such as "Please enter your name:" to instead input an SQL command that crashes your company's operations, or even worse, send users' private information to a secret address where it can be misused and abused. To safeguard against SQL injection, you should scrub any input data by removing it of any slashes or arrows that are common to computer code.

Dealing with Bullying

Talk: Ask questions to learn what is happening Document: Take screenshots of harmful content or posts if possible. Most laws and policies note that bullying is a repeated behavior, so records help to document it. Confront: Tell the bully that their behavior is not OK. Block and Report: Most social media platforms and schools have clear policies and will take down the post and deal with the offender. Report to Police: If you or someone you know has received a physical threat, report it. Switch Off: Take a break from social media and do something else you like! Get Support: Seek help from a trusted adult or call a help hotline near you.