Topic 17
Vulnerability of networks to intrusion by Isaku Oba
Over the years the increase in digital technology has succeeded in making the internet much more sophisticated beyond the imagination of the people who created the model of today’s internet. However, these revolutionary developments in the network have come with significant side effects.
The user friendly environment and the many attractive services the internet offers have been used by many people in developed countries and have succeeded in connecting huge numbers of totally unrelated people who do not even live close to each other. Also still it is these three of the most obvious benefits that have resulted in making our personal information vulnerable towards possible ‘thefts’ from others.
The first aspect, the connection of many people anonymous to each other has given skilled computer programmers a reach towards personal information. In order to steal personal information without the internet, it is required for the stealer to actually get to the source of the information, but in the internet, the dimension of distance has become almost nonexistent. This is extremely important because without the internet the stealer actually has to come in physical constant to the direct source of information. In this case the stealer leaves a trail behind him, which will allow the victim to find out who stole the information. When we are connected to the internet through our server which contains our personal information, it is like going into a building carrying a briefcase full of our information, making us extremely vulnerable to theft.
It is also impossible to neglect that the internet connecting us to almost all the people in the world will make everyone in connected to the internet, even those who have never met the stealer, or even live on the other side of the world. Therefore if a person can design computer programs which can some how extract information from a ‘trap’ that lets him view information through our server, he can steal information from anyone, anytime, and anywhere. This raises the ethical issue of the power held by these programmers, which leaves the fate of our information to the ethical values of these programmers. We will have to take more caution in our life using the internet, for example not entering suspicious sites as they may be traps and taking precautions in our email as there might be Trojans inside them.
The vulnerability of personal information obviously does benefit the creator of the technology, the programmers, who may sell the information they gain or use it to create other benefits for himself: but another group that takes advantage of the suffering of normal internet users who fearing loss of information is the network security companies. The internet users will now live in fear of people looking at their personal information. This will cause the demand for programs that prevent this to rise, creating more benefit to companies which make products such as anti virus programs, Trojan detectors, fishing site scanners, and trap searchers.
The internet is a sophisticated technology that connects the whole world together. What we cant forget is that all technology comes with its tradeoffs.
11 Comments:
- moyer said...
i love sujit
- taro kondo11 said...
it mightve been good if you talked about the solutions to intrusion deeper.
i did get the message that its a scary world though.. anonymous users shouldnt be trusted 100%
- said...
I agree with Sujit that your essay was layed out nicely, explaining the details in order. It would help too if you wrote about ways to prevent people these anonymous users from stealing our personal information. It seems simple to avoid them but like written in your essay these people can trap you into giving the information they want.
- ronniewonnie said...
This is a very well structured essay.
You cleary explain the problems that the development of technology presents to us.
You may want to write about ways to prevent people from stealing our important personal information.
Ronald Chu
- harsh said...
I agree with Joseph, gotta mention some ways that you can prevent these people from intruding your networks. One of the ways, of course, is firewall. Windows Defender seems to do a good job at that. However, the easiest and the best way is to purchase a mac and enjoy a virus-spyware-firewall free life! Just let the mac take care of your privacy. No need to install any third-party software!
- Chun said...
I agree with you and as much as the digital technololgy have helped us, it also has put as in danger of making our personal information vulnerable. Therefore, we need more extreme caution to protect this. Anyway very well written essay!
- said...
a well structured essay as sujit said and also analyzes pros and cons(such as those of digital technology) effectively.
Slightly bothersome was that you said that only people from developed countries avail internet services. The creator of hotmail is indian(and india is developing). jai hind
posted by Robert Martens @ 2/01/2006 12:20:00 AM
This essay is a very well structured essay. Who the man! That's right! I loved it. Essay is your face. Yeah!
This essay shows the problems that the development of technology ironically presents. The threat posed by connection of worldwide people by the internet does indeed increase the need of caution.