Threats: Cyber Bullying

Introduction


Hi, I'm Luca and I am a student in year 10 at St. Francis Xavier's College in Woolton, Liverpool. One of the subjects I am currently studying at school is ICT, and I am going to share my knowledge and understanding of this subject with everyone in a series of blogs. In this particular blog, I will be discussing cyber bullying. I hope that you enjoy this blog, and come away learning something new which you can hopefully pass on to someone else.

What is Cyber Bullying

Cyber bullying is when either the internet or mobile phones are used to delibrately upset someone.

How can Social Networking Sites be Used for Cyber Bullying

An example of how social networking sites can be used for cyber bullying is someone posting a message up on one of these sites which is aimed at someone to make them feel sad and upset.

Risks of Using these Sites

One risk of using these sites is that it is literally impossible for you to stop someone from posting something hurtful about you. You cannot physically take the thing down which is hurtful towards you, as the person who posted it owns the right to do so.

Another risk is the fact that people can use identity theft. Someone can create an account which has your name and your picture on it. The person who has created this account can post whatever they want without it being taken down, and people may think that this is the person who's name and picture is on the account. This could get you into different amounts of trouble, depending on what the person decides to post.

Threats: Denial of Service

Introduction

Hi, I'm Luca and I am a student in year 10 at St. Francis Xavier's College in Woolton, Liverpool. One of the subjects I am currently studying at school is ICT, and I am going to share my knowledge and understanding of this subject with everyone in a series of blogs. In this particular blog, I will be discussing cyber bullying. I hope that you enjoy this blog, and come away learning something new which you can hopefully pass on to someone else.

What is Denial of Service

Denial of Service is an illegal act, which has the intent of disabling a server.

Every server responds to external requests from its network. An example of this is when a web server responds to an internet browser calling for a web page to be delivered from its hard drive.

Each request takes a small period of time and some of the CPU resources on a server. With a DoS attack, the server is overwhelmed by millions of rogue requests being sent to it. This means that it is using up all of its resources and denying normal service for the legitimate users.

Why Would these Types of Attack be Made

A reason why these types of attacks would be made is because if one person has access to the wire that someone else is using, they then have access to that person's computer. This means that the person who is being granted access can find out all different types of information, such as bank details, passwords, internet history and a lot more.

Threats: Phishing

Introduction

Hi, I'm Luca and I am a student in year 10 at St. Francis Xavier's College in Woolton, Liverpool. One of the subjects I am currently studying at school is ICT, and I am going to share my knowledge and understanding of this subject with everyone in a series of blogs. In this particular blog, I will be discussing phishing. I hope that you enjoy this blog, and come away learning something new which you can hopefully pass on to someone else.

What is Phishing

Phishing is a type of spam and a form of internet fraud where criminals try to trick people into giving out their important information such as credit card details, user IDs and social security numbers.

How it Occurs

Criminals set up a fake website which looks exactly the same to a genuine one, such as a bank or insurance company, and then they try to trick people into giving away their security codes and account details.

What are the Risks Associated with it

If your PC is not protected, then there is a huge risk of phishing occuring. There are many problems with phishing. For example, you could click onto a phishing website which looks like your typical bank website. You could then click onto something which requires you to type in your credit card details or any other personal and important information, which means that the people who set up the phishing website will have all of your details at their finger tips. This could lead to further problems such as huge amounts of money being stolen from your bank account.

Threats: Viruses

Introduction

Hi, I'm Luca and I am a student in year 10 at St. Francis Xavier's College in Woolton, Liverpool. One of the subjects I am currently studying at school is ICT, and I am going to share my knowledge and understanding of this subject with everyone in a series of blogs. In this particular blog, I will be discussing viruses. I hope that you enjoy this blog, and come away learning something new which you can hopefully pass on to someone else.


What is a Virus

A virus is a piece of program code that makes copies of itself by attaching itself to another program. The virus can sometimes destroy and change files.

While viruses are commonly malicious, by either destroying data or crashing network services, many just do nothing and are usually very annoying. For example, displaying a data message to the user. A majority of viruses are made to be delayed before they actually do anything, commonly destroying data on a certain day or week, such as a holiday.


Viruses are spread in many ways, usually by either a computer network, by e-mail, or by removable media such as a memory stick or a floppy disk.


How to Avoid Them

The best way to avoid them is by purchasing a good, well known anti-virus software such as Norton or Mcafee, and then install it onto your computer. Make sure that you update your particular anti-virus software regularly too.

You should also perform regular security scans on your PC to see whether any unwanted software or anything else has got onto your PC. If you are about to download something or open an attachment, then you should scan these aswell, in case either of them contain viruses.

Another way to avoid viruses is to only use trusted websites on the internet, and not websites which you have never heard of before. If you do want to go on a website which you have never heard of, make sure you do your research on it to check whether it is a potentially dangerous website, and one which could cause all sorts of harm to your PC.

Finally, you should never download anything from untrusted websites, and websites which are genuine. For example, if you wanted to download Microsoft Office and you thought it was too expensive, you may try to download either a free, or much cheaper version of it. However, this may contain viruses, and you should therefore not download it.

Threats: Spam

Introduction


Hi, I'm Luca and I am a student in year 10 at St. Francis Xavier's College in Woolton, Liverpool. One of the subjects I am currently studying at school is ICT, and I am going to share my knowledge and understanding of this subject with everyone in a series of blogs. In this particular blog, I will be discussing spam. I hope that you enjoy this blog, and come away learning something new which you can hopefully pass on to someone else.

What is Spam

Spam is when a company tries to sell people their products by sending lots of emails or texts to them when they do not want the company to do so.

Many ISP email packages offer services to users such as 'spam filters' that try to prevent these emails from getting through to your inbox, however it is a difficult process trying to separate spam from your wanted mail. Your email service may have a mailbox called either 'junk' or 'bulk' which will contain all of your spam mail. You will then have to check it to see whether some of your real mail has been accidently caught by the filters.

It is estimated that 80%-90% of the emails on the internet are spam.

How to Avoid it

To avoid spam, you should try to avoid giving people your email or mobile number, as when you give either of these pieces of information to companies, you are now part of their automatic system which means that they will keep sending you emails or texts as they know that these pieces of information are genuine and do exist.

Also, if you get an unwanted email or text off a company, do not reply to it as this lets that company know that your email or phone number exists, which means they will keep on sending you emails or texts.

The Ethical Impacts of ICT: Privacy of Information

Introduction


Hi, I'm Luca and I am a student in year 10 at St. Francis Xavier's College in Woolton, Liverpool. One of the subjects I am currently studying at school is ICT, and I am going to share my knowledge and understanding of this subject with everyone in a series of blogs. In this particular blog, I will be discussing the ethical impacts of ICT: privacy and information. I hope that you enjoy this blog, and come away learning something new which you can hopefully pass on to someone else.


What Sort of Information the DPA Keeps and what this Information is Used for


The DPA includes different pieces of information about people, such as:


Your beliefs (e.g. religion)


Your health (e.g. medical records)


Your money (e.g. bank balance)


Your education (e.g. exam results)


Your behaviour (e.g. speeding fine)


Your work (e.g. employment records)


An example of why the DPA may keep your beliefs is in a Catholic school, who only employ Catholic teachers, they may wish to know a particular new teacher's beliefs. 


They may also want to know that teacher's behaviour, and if that teacher has had any previous criminal convictions, then the police force would be informed about this. 


Another thing the school may want to know about the new teacher is their employment records, to see how much experience they have had in the past, and what kind of other jobs they have had. 


Health is another thing which the school may want to know, as if the teacher has any health issues, then the school would need to be informed about this immediately in case of any emergencies in the future. 


Finally, they may want to know about your education, to see whether the teacher is clever enough to teach a class of students.

The Ethical Impacts of ICT: Global Implications

Introduction



Hi, I'm Luca and I am a student in year 10 at St. Francis Xavier's College in Woolton, Liverpool. One of the subjects I am currently studying at school is ICT, and I am going to share my knowledge and understanding of this subject with everyone in a series of blogs. In this particular blog, I will be discussing the ethical impacts of ICT: global implications. I hope that you enjoy this blog, and come away learning something new which you can hopefully pass on to someone else.


What is the Digital Device


Not everyone has the equal amount of access to the internet. This is called the 'Digital Divide'. 


People in less developed countries are affected by the digital divide for many reasons, such as:


Money - technology and access to it is not free


Language - the majority (or at least a large part) of the internet is written in English


Literacy - most of the internet includes text


Age - older people find it harder to use new technology


Physical - many people have physical disabilities which makes using the internet a lot harder for them than it should be, and is for most people.


How Does it Affect People in Developing Countries


People who live in developing countries are undoubtedly affected by the digital divide. 


One of the ways how these people are affected by the digital divide is their education. ICT is a huge part of education nowadays, as a lot of people who study various subjects at school, university or college use ICT to complete different pieces of homework, research, coursework and a lot more. Therefore, if people in less developed countries don't have access to the internet and ICT, then they will fall behind a lot in terms of their education.