Information Technology: Social and Economic Impact of Information and Communications Technology
Potential impact of the criminal activities and what they are classified under
Organizational | Individual | Government |
|---|---|---|
DOS Attack Industrial Espionage Malware Copyright Infringement Software Piracy | Cyberbullying Phishing Fraud (Identity theft & Computer Fraud) Obscenity | Propaganda Electronic Eavesdropping |
Ten careers you need to know:
Network Engineer
Software Developer
Web Developer
Computer Engineer
Computer Programmer
System Analyst
Social Media Specialist
Computer Support Specialist
Database Administrator
Network Administrator
System Administrator
Know the order of:
Vulnerability
at risk of being attacked because of a circumstance
threat
an attempt at doing something wrong to a network
attack
an actual assault on a network
countermeasure
what you do to protect the network
Data Security
What is data misuse?
Is any activity during which a computer system or computer network or its data is accessed, modified or deleted without proper authorization.
Computer security: the protection of hardware and software resources against their accidental or deliberate damage, theft, or corruption (in the case of software).
Computer security, data security, and cyber security are the same but with different wording.
There are two types, internal and external.
internal has to do with software (VPN, antivirus, firewall)
external has to do with physical (lock & key, security guards)
Companies take care to ensure:
vulnerabilities - any weakness in an information system that can be used to extort it. these vulnerabilities are a target for lurking cybercriminals and are open to exploitation through these points of vulnerability
e.g. leaving your facebook account logged in on a public system, someone could post something and you take the blame
There are two types, internal points of vulnerability and external points of vulnerability.
internal has to do with things you can control (not having a VPN, antivirus, or firewall)
external has to do with you can’t control (power surges)
Points of Vulnerability
lack of security cameras
weak firewalls, vpn, passwords
unlocked doors at businesses
unjust employees
no back-up in place for data
threats -an attempt to take advantage of a computer vulnerability or weakness.
Examples of Threats
malware (worms)
ransomware (holding someone’s information against them for a price)
distributed denial of service attacks
spam
phishing
cyber threat - an unauthorized attempt to access a network or system
cyber attack - an attack launched by cybercriminals using one or more computers against single or multiple computers or networks. can, maliciously disable computers, steal data, or use a breached computer as a launch point for other attacks.
countermeasures - actions, devices, procedures, techniques or other measures that reduce the vulnerability of an information system. countermeasures are measures prescribed to meet the security requirements (confidentiality, integrity, and availability) for an information system.
Examples of Countermeasures
Encryption (e.g. end-to-end encryption)
Computer Misuse - a broad category of categories where a computer is used to improperly or illegally cause harm to someone else or their property
identity theft
online publication of obscene materials
phishing attacks
software and music piracy
electronic eavesdropping
Computer security is done to prevent the following computer misuses:
Cyberbullying
Cyberbullying includes sending, posting, or sharing negative, harmful, false, or mean content about someone else involving the use of technology such as social media. It can include sharing personal or private information about someone else causing embarrassment or humiliation
social media like facebook, instagram, snapchat, tiktoks
Examples:
Sophraya value experienced cyber bullying because of her physical condition
Dalton Harris receiving death threats after a picture posted
Impersonating someone and sending mean messages to them
Ways to prevent cyberbullying
blocking people on social media
secure your passwords
creating a positive online community
make people aware and educate them on cyber bullying
Copyright Infringement
The use or production of copyright-protected material without the permission of the copyright holder.
The rights afforded to the copyright holder are being breached by a third party.
Music and movies are of the most well-known forms of entertainment that suffer this.
The name given to the protection in law of the rights of the person responsible for creating things such as text, music, etc.
Data theft
the act of stealing digital info stored on computers or electronic devices to obtain confidential information or compromise privacy.
Denial of Service Attack (DOSA) - an attack meant to shut down a machine or network, making it inaccessible to its intended users
Accomplish this by flooding the target with traffic, or sending it information that triggers a crash; in both instances, the dos attack deprives users of the service or resource they expected
Example: a massive DDOS attack in 2020 reported by AWS
Victims of dos attacks often target web servers of high profile organisations such as banking, commerce, and media companies, or government organisations.
Ways to prevent:
Web application firewall
Use a vpn
Monitor your website traffic
Enabling geo blocking: blocking certain countries such as korea, taiwan and china (who are responsible for most ddos attacks)
Virus vs Malware
Malware is software specifically designed to destroy, damage or gain unauthorised access to a computer system.
a catch-all term for any type of malicious software, regardless of how it works, its intent, or how it's distributed.
A virus is a malicious code or program written to alter the way a computer operates and is designed to spread from one computer to another.
a specific type of malware that self-replicates by inserting its code into other programs.
WORM: written once read many. a type of stand-alone virus that doesn’t need a program to replicate
Identity Theft
The fraudulent acquisition and use of a person's private identifying information such as passwords and credit card information and use it usually for financial gain, such as applying for loads, cloning credit cards
identity theft is a type of computer fraud, and so is credit card fraud
The crime of obtaining the personal or financial information of another person to use their identity to commit fraud.
Phishing
The fraudulent practice of sending emails or other messages purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
a technique for attempting to acquire sensitive data, such as bank account information, through a fraudulent solicitation in email or using a website, in which the perpetrator masquerades as a legitimate business or person
Piracy (music, movies, software)
copying software
Downloading software from the internet that are not for free use
when you use someone’s information without their permission
sharing, selling or distribution of software
Software piracy is the act of copying disseminating or distributing copyright computer software in violation of copyright laws or applicable listening limitations without authorisation or payment.
impacts individuals (like artists- stealing their music and art)and organisations (like adobe- they pirate their products)
Music piracy is a large-scale unauthorised duplication of recorded music with the intent to defraud the copyright holder of their own rights.
How do we prevent it?
end user agreements, which specify what a customer is permitted to do with a piece of software
software product keys; which confirm the originality of a program copy. It consists of a unique combination of numbers and letters.
obfuscation makes a page blurry
software that is tamper proof
software watermarking
anti piracy software
Propaganda
The use of computer systems to distribute information that may be beneficial or harmful material to influence public opinion. It is the spreading of information, especially of a biased or misleading nature, used to promote a political cause or point of view.
e.g. in some countries, they use propaganda to uplift a particular party
it’s gossip
it can be in the form of images or text, voicenotes, twitter messages, emails
Electronic Eavesdropping (alexa, echo. wiretapping)
The use of electronic devices to monitor electronic communication between two or more groups without the permission of any of the communicating parties.
Occurs when a hacker intercepts, deletes or modifies data that is transmitted between two devices.
modern day phones make it possible to intercept phones electronically without direct access to the device
to prevent:
encryption
authenticate data packets
antivirus & anti malware
vpn
Industrial Espionage
An illegitimate method that some organisations use to try and gain an advantage over their competitors by illicitly gaining access to information about their marketing strategy, latest research, etc.
primarily used as a means to gather classified data
A type of cyber attack in which an unauthorised user attempts to access classified data for economic gain, competitive advantage or political reasons.
To prevent it:
encryption
installing security software and cameras
having different authorisation levels for ppl in the company; not everyone can access all the info
Data security
A process by which an individual or organisation uses different methods to protect data from peering eyes, criminals, or malicious persons and accidental loss or damage
Data security, computer security and cyber security are the same. they all secure data & they’re all interrelated
Obscenity
Printing publishing or selling of materials/content that is harmful to children, which portray the commission of crimes, acts of violence, cruelty or other unsavory activities
Anything that treats sex or nudity in an offensive or lewd manner, violates standards of decency or lacks serious literary, artistic, political or scientific value.
A type of propaganda
Drugs, nudity, etc
anything that may corrupt or negatively influence someone’s mind
Example:
someone releasing someone else’s nudes
How to stop this from happening
Immediately close pop up ads
Utilise cyber filters
think before you post
don’t take nudes
limit who has access to your social platform
Violation of privacy
Unjustifiable intrusion into another person's personal life without their consent.
includes internet privacy, data collection, workplace monitoring, and other other means of disseminating private and confidential information
Examples:
JamCOVID19: government people had to enter passport info and covid results. a cloud storage was left unprotected and publicly released personal info. so it was easily accessible by hackers
National Bank had a random attack
Cybercrime Act section 2 speaks about violation of privacy.
How to Prevent Violation of Privacy:
install a vpn which will hide you IP address
Do not log into personal accounts on public wifi, it’s not encrypted and so people (hackers) can see your accounts and passwords and they may be able to place malware
Install antivirus software and keep it updated
Share less online - the less information you share online the better
Frequently update your software- hackers may exploit known vulnerabilities in softwares because they haven’t been updated
Banks, hospitals, auditing firms etc, can steal your data and it can be sold.
People should be protected against information misuse. Information misuse is the use of information in ways it wasn't intended for. People need to be protected from risks such as these so that data does not fall into the wrong hands. Personal data can be misused to commit some offences; e.g. identity theft and fraud which causes financial problems, use of someone's or an organisation’s personal data to gain an undue advantage, information can be found out about a person and propaganda may be spread. This is prevalent on social media,and causes negative effects of the people who use it.
Three companies that deal with data misuse & protection.
Classify which data misuse affects governments and five for organisations
Government
Propaganda
Industrial espionage
Electronic eavesdropping
Organisations
Copyright Infringement (music, Art)
Piracy (software)
Phishing (hackers [for money] and crackers [for fun]
DOSA
Software and Physical Restrictions of Data Security
Types of data security: software, physical
Physical | Software |
|---|---|
Lock & Key | Passwords |
Security GuardsSecurity Camera | Firewall |
Alarm | Encryption |
Safe (fireproof & waterproof) - MUST MENTION IF ITS FIREPROOF OR WATERPROOF | Antivirus SOFTWARE |
Biometric systems (voice, face, finger, iris scans) | Biometric systems - usually have software in it (a software that goes beyond the scanners, but the system itself physical) |
Back-up and recovery procedures | Back-up and recovery procedures |
Archiving (hard copy files only, creates space for current files to be stored) | Archiving (soft copy files only) |
Alarm Software (software behind alarm system to work, e.g. a computer storing data for it to work) | |
VPN (Virtual Private Network) - protects the network, system and data |
some of these can be used for both software and hardware, but you have to explain them for each
when it’s a software you must specify
Passwords
have a specific design
must have different types of characters: uppercase/lowercase letters, numbers, special characters or symbols
also minimum limit of character length (6-8 characters). for a pin it’s 4
Biometric systems
can be digital or physical
the system itself is strictly physical, but there must be a software behind it
so depending on the question, it may either be software or physical
do not use this as a first choice for software, it is primarily a hardware device
this also applies to alarm systems, there may be a computer behind the alarm system that holds the code for the alarm systems
Encryption
for every encryption there is a key
decryption:
data must be decrypted using a special key
An example of a key could be the alphabet.
(8 5 12 12 15) means H E L L O
used by organisations to protect their data
Archiving
creating a copy of files and saving them somewhere else
for physical data restrictions this is only applicable to hard copy files
to protect, safeguard data
done by museums
Firewall
a software that is used to protect users on a network from hackers
also includes a password feature
Antivirus
protects your computer from malware
Norton antivirus software, avast. macaffie, ad blocker
Virus: a software that replicates itself and spreads easily from computer to computer.
Types of Malware
worm: attaches itself to computer memory (worm - write once read many. code written once, can be copied to other places). also attached to emails
virus: when you download and INSTALL a worm, it becomes a VIRUS, the virus is attached to the program files
a worm can be developed into a virus, only when a worm is activated (when it is installed) it becomes a virus.
worm = downloaded, virus = installed
trojan horses: doesn’t replicate like a virus, it looks and behaves like a genuine program but once it is running it allows hackers to obtain access to the computer
Jobs in ICT
Network Engineer
Computer Programmer
Computer Support Specialist
Computer system analyst
Network Administrator
System Administrator
Database Administrator
Software Developer
Web Developer
Social media specialist
Computer support specialist: provides technical assistance directly to computer users who need assistance with a specific application.
software developer: works with the system analyst to develop the code and algorithms that the computer programmer will use
The programmer will write, test and maintain the application software.
Social media specialist: communicates with the public using social media to create and share content using social media platforms such as Twitter. Manages their employers' social media accounts, working to build the brand's reputation.
computer programmer: writes, develops, and maintains applications based on specifications that allow users to complete specific tasks on a computer or another device.
Systems administrator: installs and implements the operating systems in a network. monitors the security system of a network. responsible for adding users to a network, and updating security permissions as well as backup and recovery.
Web developer: builds websites, which involves writing the programming code necessary for an efficient and stable website.
Systems analyst: oversees the design and implementation of new computer systems.
Database administrator (DBA): designs, creates and maintains the integrated database. The integrity and security of the database are also the responsibility of the DBA.
Network administrator: designs, develops and maintains LANs, WANs and MANs. responsible for implementing network security features such as firewalls and antiviruses. also responsible for setting up network hardware such as routers and switches
Sets up access and security measures such as user IDs, passwords and firewalls. Also ensures that all shared resources, such as printers and disks, are monitored and working properly.
Network engineer: responsible for the design and implementation of local, metropolitan and wide area networks. also responsible for any hardware maintenance & malfunctions on the network
Impact of ICT in the Workplace
Social Impact: both positive and negative. communication with workers over instant messages, which is fast but can reduce their social skills. You can talk to them on social media but not in person.
Advantages
easier to communicate with people, instantly
Disadvantages:
reduction in social skills, less social contact with employees/workers
miscommunication
There is a large use of online computer games, wasting time
Privacy consideration, with this there comes more hacking and the creation of digital footprints
Health & safety:
Advantages:
Disadvantages:
Ergonomic Problems:
carpal tunnel syndrome
strains on your wrist, neck and back
To reduce:
invest in chairs with back support, neck support and arm support
keyboard should be raised, have arm rests
blue light glasses to protect the eyes
proper ventilation
pay attention to posture
radiation hazards, from monitors and eye strain
Work patterns:
You can work from home, the term is known as telecommuting. meetings can be held online, teleconferences.
with the advent of an intranet
Advantages: able to work flexible hours, companies don’t need to provide office space, eating, refreshments and other amenities
Disadvantages: less productivity, less supervision, less work hours, distractions
There is a large use of online computer games, wasting time
Privacy consideration, with this there comes more hacking and creation of digital footprints
Companies have to provide office space causing them money
Cashless society:
Advantages: E-commerce, the workplace is able to sell and buy products
EFT: Electronic funds transfer, causing payroll to exist, invention of debit and credit cards, gift card, cash app, paypal, zelle
Disadvantages: fraud, stolen/lost cards
Employment:
Advantages:
saves time on viewing job applications: you can submit applications online, the company can look through a lot more applications in a shorter amount of time, and they can choose the best employees from the list of applications
new jobs created, such as: web developer, network administrator, social media specialist.
Disadvantages:
practical skill jobs are on decline - computers replace jobs of people. the jobs don’t disappear completely but the employment scale goes down lower
possible redundancies: some jobs are seen as redundant, as in not needed anymore (can be done by machines)
workers have to be re-trained: as the technology is evolving, people need to be re trained to efficiently do their jobs
Research the impact of ICT on the following industries:
business
research and development
stock management
marketing and distribution
sales
banking
education
music
medicine
law enforcement
How Computers are Used
Industry | Impact | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Business | Stock Management | Keeping an automated stock control system for any raw materials purchased. This can ensure there is always an adequate supply for the manufacturing process. |
Marketing and Distribution | Marketing departments inform customers of new and existing products with the use of computers (which can make advertisements) | |
Sales | Computers can automatically: change price labels, itemise receipts and check stock levels | |
Research and Development | Hardware such as computers can process images, scanners can input designs, printers and graph plotters can produce designs. | |
Banking | E-commerce | EFT, EPOS (barcode reader), transferring money between accounts |
Online banking | checking a balance | |
Education | e-learning | online school and remote learning |
Computer-aided learning (CAL)/Computer-aided institution (CAI) | designing software to help students, such as Quizizz, knowt, quizlet, etc. | |
student management systems | canvas, Google Classroom, moodle (for record keeping and attendance), blackboard | |
distance learning | you can learn from anywhere even places that are not inside the country | |
Databases | Wth computers, computerised database records can be created and queries and searches can be made faster | |
Medicine | expert systems | Expert systems, which are used in the medicine industry, are artificial intelligence designed to store a vast amount of information, related to patients (also known as a knowledge base). It can draw from information entered into the system by medical professionals and come up with a prediction or diagnosis for the outcome of a current situation. |
EMR (Electronic Medical Record), also known as Medical Information System | Electronic medical record, keeps details and their illnesses along with prescribed medications. | |
3d printing | The medical industry may 3d print the parts needed for surgery, equipment (PPE - personal protective equipment), etc. because of a shortage. | |
simulations: | Creates an artificial environment which gives users the feeling they are a part of that reality. | |
Scans | x-ray, ct scan, mri, ultrasounds | |
Law Enforcement | Creation of databases (e.g. Driver Licensing databases) | Databases can be created to make it easier to search for crime statistics, storing new criminal records, accessing databases in other countries, etc. |
Recreation and Entertainment | Game Playing | Game playing is one of the most common usages of computer systems. There are many games online to play. |
Virtual Reality | Some games include a physical device attached to the computer to play in the online world | |
CDs and DVDs | Multimedia computers can play music and video CDS and DVDs for entertainment. |
Three ways in which computers are used in schools
multimedia projectors, students who are visual learners can benefit from this
printers
earphones
microphones
multimedia ready computers, to use for quizzes like on canvas, moodle, quizizz
note taking online, using google docs and word