Week 1: Discussions
Hello all, my name is Chase Lawson and I transferred in as Junior with two Associates degrees from New River Community College and Wytheville Community College. I am from a small town called Galax here in Virginia. I have various hobbies including playing golf, watching various sports and going to various conventions and obtaining collectibles. I have taken several online courses over the time that I have attended community college. I have interned at a small computer company. They were a relatively small company that had a small range of services from pc hardware and software support to technical to support for mid-range companies. I have started an ePortfolio but I am excited to learn and add more to it. My goal after graduation is to obtain a job in cybersecurity but I have yet to decide in which path I want to take with cybersecurity.
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Module 2 Discussion
I think the principle of determinism relates to computer hacking by accepting the idea that introducing computer’s into the world set in motion the causality of hacking. When computers were first built it was hard to foresee that they would have vulnerabilities or anyone could figure out how to manipulate computers. Ethical/Non Ethical hackers alike would test and probe to see how far they could push the boundaries and gain access to sensitive information. I think in terms of computer hackers themselves, I think that there could be preceding events that cause “new age” hackers to learn how to hack. Some for notoriety others for financial gain. In my opinion the production of computers laid the foundation of computer hacking
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Module 3 Discussion
When it comes security breaches and human error, there could be a broad range of reasons for the security breach. For instance, an end-user falls for a phishing scam, they are a target of a social engineering attack or they simply just download an application that appears to be legitimate but it’s full of malware. To reduce these kinds of errors I think the most important way is end-user training. With phishing to an unsuspecting person might respond to a fraudulent email thinking they are communicating with a higher level employee like a supervisor, when in reality they are just communicating with an actor. This could cause them to fall for a scam like giving up a personal cell phone number, or downloading a zip file that’s imbedded in the email. There are ways to mitigate phishing attempts, like using a training application called knowbe4 this is used to provide end-users with training to focus on key words within an email, unfamiliar domains and a range of things that could go along with phishing. With Social Engineering someone could coerce an unsuspecting person in resetting a password for the actor to gain access to an application or site that contains sensitive information of the target. With someone downloading a bad application someone might want to do some research into what they are downloading. They can Google it or read reviews. To improve security people should change passwords regularly and use multi-factor authentication (2FA). I think to improve security someone would want to look at the top cybercrime trends and defenses. Make sure they have an antivirus that regularly updates their virus library. Another improvement in security is the use of Virtual Private Network (VPN) that way it becomes harder someone to trace an IP address. I think it would definitely help to enroll in some cybersecurity training programs as well.
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Module 4 Discussion
In today’s world there are a wide range of social networking sites and how we interact with one another. There a plethora of sites where you can make post’s, share ideas, and or opinions. I think this opens the door for victim precipitation. Once something is posted then it’s there forever and it isn’t like writing with pen and paper. Once it’s shared it cannot be taken back, chances are someone has already seen it and there is a high chance a screenshot was taken. Having said that, if someone posts something on a social networking site that someone else doesn’t like than the other person more than likely will react negatively to it. This is what I think cyber victimization is. A person who participates in social networking can easily become a victim by what they post. They can open themselves up to harassment, and cyberbullying. I think this is very problematic in today’s society.
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Module 5 Discussion
First I think that neutralization theory best explains why there is cybercrime. Even though the theory was developed before there was such a thing as cybercrime the theory can be applied to cybercrime. It starts off with Denial of Injury. The neutralization theory dives into reasons hacker or cyber criminals use to justify why they are hacking in the first place. They will justify no one is actually being physically harmed or someone deserves it. They can also justify it by stating that the victim will learn something from the hack or intrusion. Hackers may also justify it for political reasons. I think all these reasons can best explains why the neutralization theory fits. I also think that the cognitive theory best explains it as well. I believe to be true that people that have been hurt will in turn be capable of harming others. Someone with a rough upbringing can potentially have the motive to become hackers and harm others. They will likely engage in cyberbullying or harassing others. Behavioral Theory works as well because hacking is something that is learned behavior as well.
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Module 6 Discussion
I like the idea of the human firewall. Much like the long pipe it becomes everyone’s responsibility to stay informed and inform others. The flow of information is necessary, the more people are informed of scams they are less likely to fall for scams. People need to be aware and less trusting. For starters when it comes to connecting to public wifi if people were better informed on what the WIFI SSID (network name) was then they would know not to connect something obvious like Starbucks_Free_WIFI I like the idea of people staying up to date on the latest cybercrime trends and what to watch out for.
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Module 7 Discussion
In this video Ruben Paul demonstrated how he could hack household items to be exploited. One of the ways this video relates to what I have read is cybersecurity and colleges. In the reading it details that the college has created a wide range of data and on teachers and students and that information is in cyberspace. Since there is so much data in cyberspace it makes colleges a target for security breaches. If household items can be hacked such as google home or ring cameras than more information can be exploited. Another way this video relates to what I have read is cybersecurity and religion. Religious institutions keep a record of it’s members, names, addressee’s, telephone numbers. Since church’s cannot afford the same cybersecurity measures as companies makes them an easy target to for cyber attacks. Religious institutions can and most likely will be a target of ransomware.
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Module 8 Discussion
- How Data Mining by the Government can have an impact on society. Data Mining is the process of searching through various database’s collecting information and looking for patterns on individuals and this can have a profound impact on society. This raises concern because citizens may not be aware of who is collecting their data and what it is being used for.
2. Is there a natural right to privacy? Most if not all people use some form of social networking, whether that be Facebook, Twitter or some sort of chat function. This information that we share online can be intercepted without us knowing about it. This is a question that has raised some concerns with the ability to track someone online.
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Module 9 Discussion
Economics intertwines with cybersecurity in a multitude of ways. Global economic loss’s due to cyber attacks outweigh global economic spending on cybersecurity by a wide margin. Cyberattacks can effect business’s and corporations in many ways. They can disrupt productivity and bring the companies to a complete halt. Cyberattacks can affect anything in the digital marketplace. By 2017 the global loss’s reached nearly 1 trillion dollars due to cyber attacks with that number growing every day. There is a term that is used called the underground economy and this is based off financial transactions that that occur when someone has gained property of someone else like credit cards and bank account information. Business’s and cooperation’s invest in cybersecurity to attempt to thwart attacks but that doesn’t account for attacks they can’t see coming. Zero day attacks occur and these attacks can come without detection and can have major impacts. The economy is affected in many ways including identity theft, breached medical records and peoples bank accounts. The best way to mitigate this is to properly balance money between training and cybersecurity. When it comes to economics cybersecurity becomes a necessary tool. With proper training people can better protect themselves and their information
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Module 10 Discussion
There are a lot of reasons people do not report cybercrimes when they become victims of the crime. I think the biggest reason why they do not report is they are oblivious or unaware that they have became victims until it’s too late. A hacker could install some kind of virus that can create a backdoor into their system. Their computer can have a keylogger that can monitor keystrokes or their onboard microphone could be activated and become an eavesdropper. This can be used to gain access to username and passwords to all sorts of e-commerce and banking sites. Another reason is there could be fatiguing to report such crimes. They have to know the proper authorities to report the crimes and have detailed information on the crime. They may not know who to report the crime to and if’s not a substantial loss they may feel like they don’t need to worry about it. I think another reason the crime isn’t reported is they shame they may feel about falling for some kind of scammed. They may fall for some sort of phishing or smishing scam that could end up costing them money. Lastly victims may try to resolve or handle the issue themselves instead of seeking proper authorities.