TOPIC 5 - Issues and Impacts

Environmental Issues

There are three main environmental issues to consider in computer science:

• Energy Consumption - during production, recycling, combustion, or functioning.

• Manufacturing - large quantities of raw materials like copper and palladium are used; these are non-renewable and mining for these scars the landscape.

• Disposal - discarded devices end up as e-waste, and only around 20% of e-waste is recycled. It may be illegally dumped where toxic waste substances can get into the land and water.

We can recycle responsibly to address these problems by recovering valuable metals from old devices, recycle our e-waste, or reduce the potential for chemical leakage in landfills.

The short replacement cycle is when manufactures make it hard for people to take their old devices apart for recycling (by soldering certain components), causing them to get rid of the old device entirely.

This adds to the e-waste problem and cause more manufacturing, leading to more fossil fuels being burned.

Ways to reduce energy consumption:

• Using a lower brightness.

• Switching off Wifi and Bluetooth when not in use.

• Disconnect peripherals when not in use.

• Don’t leave applications running in the background.

Personal Data

The collection of personal data can raise ethical and legal issues.

There are some privacy issues in computing:

• Facial Recognition - Who else is watching?

• GPS - Who has access to this data, and is it being used for any other purposes?

• Internet Monitoring - Is there biased algorithms?

Someone’s digital footprint is personal data left behind from websites they visit and information they post/read.

The Data Protection Act 2018 protects personal data from being misused, such as someone’s DOB or their address.

Organisations must have a legitimate reason for having/using someone’s personal data.

People have the right to be informed about the use of their data, have data erased or restricted, and withdraw consent at any time.

A cookie is a tiny data file that is downloaded when a user enters a website.

This enables the website to store their preferences, however the website must display a message telling users this under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003.

AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is an intelligent computer systems that has similar behaviours to a human.

Machine Learning is an algorithm (a subset of AI) that looks for patterns in data, and slowly get progressively better at performing a task. This method is used to achieve an artificial intelligence.

AI that is designed to perform a specific task is known as narrow AI.

However there is growing recognition that AI is stereotypical and biased, leading to algorithmic bias.

This is due to the producer of the AI who unintentionally incorporates their own prejudices into them.

Accountability is also an issue:

• Driver-less cars: who’s fault is it?

• What happens when danger is unavoidable?

Intellectual Property

IP is a creation of the mind that is unique and has commercial value.

This includes software, inventions, literacy work, or designs.

There are three methods of IP protection:

• Copyright - Used for original dramatic, literary, musical, or artistic work, such as software or novels. Represented by the © symbol.

• Patents - Applies to inventions and encourages inventors to share their work while gaining profit, however patents are temporary.

• Trademarks - Applies to a brand identity (the name and logo), which protects the brand and their service.

Open-source software has viewable and changeable source code, while proprietary software has source code protected by copyright law.

Users cannot modify proprietary source code.

Both have licenses, but these licenses allow the user to do very different things.

Open-source software is usually free, but may contain bugs or vulnerabilities.

Proprietary software is patched quickly if bugs/vulnerabilities are found.

Threats to Digital Systems

Malware is any software cerated with malicious intent.

Devices are ‘infected’ when they click on links in a seemingly harmless website.

A hacker is a criminal who exploits vulnerabilities in a computer system.

Reasons why hackers use malware:

• To slowly damage/delete data on the hard drive.

• To gain backdoor access into a network.

• To spy on what a user is doing.

There are many types of malware.

Virus - A program which replicates itself, leading to corruption or deletion of files.

Worms - Similar to viruses, but spread to other computers on the network.

Trojan - Malicious code disguised as legitimate software.

Key logger - Logs your keystrokes to gain access to passwords and more.

Ransomware - Malware that encrypts your documents, often resulting in a demand/ransom.

There are many ways hackers can exploit vulnerabilities:

• Unpatched software

• Out-of-date anti-malware software

• Default admin passwords.

Social Engineering

Social Engineering is the art of manipulating human behaviour and goodwill to gain confidential information.

There are four main techniques:

• Phishing - Tricking people by pretending to be a company/website, usually through emails or SMS.

• Pretexting - Using an invented scenario to target a victim.

• Baiting - Tempting something with bait (e.g. something free, a prize, or exclusive access to something).

• Quid Pro Quo - Asking for something in return after a service, which can lead to the installation of malware.

Protecting Digital Systems

The best defence is anti-malware, which is a term used to describe a combination of software to prevent viruses and other malicious software.

Anti-malware scans through attachments to search for issues.

It uses signatures (unique malware patterns) and if one is found, the file is quarantined.

More sophisticated software uses heuristic analysis, which is a process used to scan for unknown/new/modified malware in code.

Encryption also protects digital systems by using an encryption key to encode data. It cannot be read by anyone without possession of the encryption key.

This protects it if the data is stolen, since it cannot be read or misused.

You could also use a AUP (Acceptable Use Policy):

• This is a document that outlines acceptable behaviour when using a computer on a network.

• This is used typically by organisations.

• Examples of appropriate behaviour includes using a strong password, locking the screen before leaving a computer unattended, and to exercise caution when opening email attachments.

Backup and recovery procedures can also be done - it won’t protect the data, but it’ll recover the important parts if it were to happen.