Author: esmit049

It can sometimes be difficult to tell the difference between fake and legitimate websites, but certain strategies can assist us with this. Fake websites will often try to replicate the qualities of real websites or even try to imitate the websites of other companies to get you to enter sensitive information. The first indicator of a possible fake website would be the number of advertisements you see. While some websites do use advertisements, fake or dangerous websites may often have very flashy advertisements that ask you to download various shady services, such as file cleaners or free antivirus software. While advertisements can be a decent indicator of fake websites, another indicator is the address bar that lists the name of the website and if it is secure or not. Hackers can add subdomains to the URL that can list the website as something other than what it really is, but the actual domain will tell you what the website actually is. By paying attention to the words right before the “.com” portion of the URL, you can see if a website is really what it claims to be rather than being a phishing scheme or fake website (Nohe, 2021). You should always check what websites you’re inputting your credentials into before doing so and ensure that the website is the actual one used by the company. A third way to check if the website you are using is real and secure are indicators such as the padlock icon and the EV name badge/green address bar at the top of the website. Both of these indicate that the website utilizes the HTTP protocol that the internet was built on, which all websites use, and either SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) or TLS (Transport Security Layer) security protocols. This means the website uses HTTPS, meaning the information you input cannot be intercepted by anyone other than you and the website, whereas HTTP websites are insecure. Sensitive information should never be entered into HTTP websites, so ensure the website you’re using has the padlock icon or the aforementioned EV name badge to guarantee your information’s safety (Nohe, 2021). Chances are if the website you’re using doesn’t utilize SSL or TLS, it’s either an outdated, unsafe website or some sort of scam looking to take your information. 

Works Cited

1. Nohe, P. (2021, June 10). 5 ways to determine if a website is fake, fraudulent, or a scam in 2018. Hashed Out by The SSL Store™. Retrieved October 15, 2022, from https://www.thesslstore.com/blog/5-ways-to-determine-if-a-website-is-fake-fraudulent-or-a-scam/

There are numerous reasons for hackers to do what they do, and seven reasons are given in the most recent module. Out of the reasons listed, I believe multiple reasons make the most sense for why hackers turn to criminality. The article mentions a few different causes of cybercrime, with “socioeconomic factors, technical skill, and psychological factors such as revenge and ego” all being mentioned as root causes for hackers turning to criminality (Zurkus, 2018). While all three can be causes on their own, I believe that a mixture of multiple factors usually leads someone to commit cyber crime rather than one factor, due to how powerful this mixture of influences can be. I think the second motive that makes the most sense is monetary gain, as a lot of money can be gained from cybercrime. While the article list various ways that cybercriminals may use their money, the type of currency they spend tends to be consistent among the group as most of them use virtual currency like bitcoin. This currency is hard to trace and allows them to get away with criminal purchases easier, making the prospect of cybercrime even more alluring. The third motive would be political activism, as hacktivism seems to be making a comeback after a decade of absence. Many younger hackers seem to be participating in cybercrime for political reasons, hacking larger companies and exposing practices they see as unethical (Reuters, 2021). In my opinion and personal experience, political activism is one of the only factors other than money that can influence people to take action, even if it’s criminal, and cybercrime is no exception to this. Political activism actually leads into the next reasonable factor of recognition, as hackers generally become famous for their exploits. Similar to 22-year-old Bradley Niblock, many hackers may engage in cybercrime due to the recognition they can gain, as the field is still relatively new and impressive to many. By engaging in these activities, they can accomplish other goals like political activism or even entertainment, while also gaining the recognition they desperately want. I think boredom is the next likely motive due to the remaining motives seeming to be more niche, whereas boredom can apply to many people. Especially during the pandemic, many were stuck inside and had very little to do which possibly could have led many to commit cybercrimes.I think the second-to-last least likely motive would be revenge, as I think it pertains to much fewer people than the previous motives. Revenge porn is an issue that causes immense harm to everyone it affects, but I think most cybercriminals tend to gravitate towards other crimes rather than revenge cybercrimes. Money, fame, and political power are all factors that can apply to almost anyone, but revenge hacking requires someone to wrong you as well as some way to retaliate against them. The final and least likely motivator in my opinion is entertainment, as while I do believe some hackers commit cybercrimes solely for their entertainment, I think its a very small minority. Even the man in the article who hacked LinkedIn for fun is selling the accounts he stole, meaning there is an additional motivator driving him to hack (Lovejoy, 2021).

By Ned Smith

Introduction

            The research paper was published by the International Journal of Cyber Criminology and is titled “Juveniles and Cyber Stalking in the United States: An analysis of Theoretical Predictors of Patterns of Online Perpetration”. The article was written by Catherine D. Marcum, George E. Higgins, and Melissa L. Ricketts and was published in June 2014. The purpose of the study, as stated in the research paper, is to “provide a clearer picture of the amount of adolescents who are participating in the cyber stalking as well as the predictors of such behaviors.”. It does this along with two of its hypotheses, which are that low self-control adolescents are likely to engage in cyberstalking behavior and that adolescents are likely to engage in cyber stalking if they associate with deviant peers (Marcum-Higgins-Ricketts, 2014).

Methodology

            The setting picked for the research was North Carolina in which the principals of four schools would send a survey form home to all students between 9^th and 12^th grade that were permitted to participate by their parental guardians. The study uses race, gender, age, and GPA as control measures, while the stalking measure is the dependent variable along with measures for low self-control and deviant peer association. To measure the stalking variable, the survey originally asked if the participant had “repeatedly contacted someone online even after they requested you to stop” (Marcum-Higgins-Ricketts, 2014), with answer choices ranging from 1 to 5, 1 being “never” and 5 being “seven or more times”. This resulted in abnormal data, so the researchers simplified it by changing the survey to include either 0, meaning “never”, or 1, meaning “performed”. To account for self-control, they included a nine-item measure from a study done by Shreck in 1999 that asked the participants to answer nine questions using a 5-point scale, with 1 meaning “strongly disagree” and 5 meaning “strongly agree”. The higher the individual scored, the less self-control they had according to the study. To account for deviant peer association, they included a measure that asked participants if their friends had participated in various deviant activities and asked them to report how many of their friends had done so, with 1 meaning “none” and 5 meaning “all of them”.

Data and Analysis

For the analysis, the researchers first presented the statistics to show an indication of the distribution of the data. They then used multiple regression, which uses independent measures to correlate to a dependent measure. In this case, the independent measures were race, gender, age, and GPA and were used to correlate the dependent measure, that being participation in cyberstalking. The data showed that 5% of participants had continued to contact someone online even after they had been asked to stop, with the average self-control score for the sample being 17.78 and the average peer association score being 20.80. Both are relatively higher scores on the scale and lend to the idea that low self-control and high levels of deviant peer association can lead to cyberstalking. The average age was 15.77, 49% of the sample size was male, 72% was white and the average GPA was 2.70.

Relation to Cyber Principles and Class Material

Relativism is the idea that all things are related and that changes in one system or action can lead to changes in another. This certainly applies to the action of stalking being changed by advances in technology, specifically the advent of social media. Before technology made it easy to contact people with the push of a button, stalkers needed to constantly follow and harass individuals in person. This was most likely more dangerous and difficult for the stalkers, but social media and chat services now make it much easier to harass individuals. Stalkers can comment multiple times on their victim’s post, spam messages them on a variety of apps, and even learn their habits through what the victim posts on their social media to stalk them offline. A change in technology has caused a direct change in how stalkers go about stalking their victims and made it much easier to harass their victims. Another factor that relates to this study is determinism or the idea that behavior is influenced or determined by past events. This most certainly applies to the study, mainly to the idea that associating with deviant peers can influence deviant behavior. The data confirmed the study’s hypothesis that those who associate with deviant peers are more likely to participate in cyberstalking. There are likely many factors that can lead to cyberstalking, but deviant peer association can lead to the individual justifying it because their friends have participated in similar activities. The third factor to relate to this study would be empiricism or the idea that scientists should only study behavior that is real to the senses. This can be easily applied to the study as the behavior being studied is that of the real behavior of the sample size, meaning the researchers are only drawing conclusions on the facts they have at hand. There are also many concepts from class that relate to this study, one of which is the idea of victim precipitation. This is the idea that individuals may analyze possible behaviors they engaged in that may have contributed to their victimization while keeping this separate from victim blaming. Victims of cyberstalking may be critical of what activities they posted on their social media that stalkers may have taken advantage of. Another idea from class that is related to this study is the basic tenants of the research method and its steps. The steps include the hypothesis, research questions, variables, and the actual research itself, which can be applied to all studies including this one.

Impact

There is a multitude of impacts that arrive from this study, the first being that it can give researchers an insight into what type of behavior to look for when it comes to cyberstalking. The measures relating to low self-control and deviant peer association give an insight into the types of individuals that may participate in these activities. By knowing the issues and possible causes that lead to cyberstalking, researchers can better understand why individuals do this and possibly even develop methods to help individuals that cyberstalk. Another impact is that this study can possibly help those who are victims of cyberstalking to know what type of behavior to look out for. It can help them be more careful with what information they give to who and who to possibly avoid lessening their chance of being stalked. This study is particularly important due to cyberstalking impacts marginalized groups like women more than it impacts men. This is like normal stalking, although it is perpetrated by acquaintances or strangers rather than ex-partners, which differs from normal stalking. This study also lent to the idea that men participate in stalking much more than women and that women are more likely to be the victims of stalking, which is also shown through the data and conclusions of the study.

Citations Marcum, C. D., Ricketts, M. L., & Higgins, G. E. (2014, June). https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.1082.2885&rep=rep1&type

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been an important way to understand human psychology since its inception and even applies to the topic of technology use. The theory states that the needs must be met in order from bottom to top and that a need cannot be met until the one before it is. Starting at the lowest level of the pyramid, our basic needs include food, water, rest, warmth, and other base-level needs. While the technology itself cannot feed us or make us sleep, there are numerous ways that it benefits these needs. Food can be ordered for delivery directly to your door and recipes can be found online to enhance your experience. Phones can set alarms, certain apps analyze how you sleep and provide you with strategies on how to enhance it, and you can even find videos that claim to help you fall asleep. The next level revolves around safety and security needs, which technology can assist with. Law enforcement is only one call away and they have the ability to triangulate your position through your phone should something happen to you. GPS monitoring ensures you don’t get lost and some apps even exist to assist those with medical problems that require assistance. The third level focuses on belongingness/love needs, such as intimate relationships and friendships. In my own experience, many of my friends go to different colleges or work back at home, meaning I can’t see them as often as I use to. However, with technology like messaging apps, online game services, and voice chat services, we talk every day and hang out just as much as we use to. Apps that allow us to communicate help us to maintain intimate relationships and friendships from anywhere, as long as we have a device and internet connection. The fourth part of the pyramid is esteem needs, those being prestige and feelings of accomplishment. Many apps and services provide users with feelings of success that wouldn’t exist in the offline world, such as social media apps with their follower counts. Social media provides a way for others to tell us exactly what they like and don’t like about what we share, which can be beneficial or harmful. The final level of the hierarchy is Self-actualization or reaching one’s full potential, which I believe is what technology benefits most. There are endless applications and devices designed to further the potential of humans and assist with their self-actualization. Whether your calling in life is engineering, science, agriculture, graphic design, or any other field of study, there are numerous devices that can assist you with your endeavors. While technology is limited in how it furthers the other needs mentioned in the pyramid, I believe this is the level where its possibilities to assist us are endless.

The database is valuable to researchers for various reasons, but its most valuable use would be knowledge of the most vulnerable companies to attacks. The data provides information on which companies were breached, a description of the breach, their location, and various other facts about breaches. By analyzing the data, researchers can figure out which companies are most vulnerable to attack as well as the other factors that influence attacks. They can study how location, company type, and information available affect which companies are chosen for attacks. They can also correlate which breach types are most common with which company types and use this information to inform companies of which attacks they should expect more than others. While the database may not provide specifics on which exploits were used, knowing what types of attacks were initiated is invaluable knowledge for cybersecurity researchers.

The social sciences relate to cybersecurity in many ways and their importance in the field cannot be overstated. Starting with relativism, or the idea that all things are connected, we must understand that a change in a field related to cybersecurity will relate to a change in cybersecurity. For example, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many students to transition to online learning, it also increased the importance of cybersecurity for education. If schools rely heavily on well-defended servers for their students to learn, cybersecurity professionals need to adapt to the switch to online learning. Cybersecurity is constantly changing along with the fields it’s commonly connected with, reinforcing the idea of relativism. Objectivity is essential to the Cybersecurity field because its a risk to allow opinions to dominate the methods and circumstances around cybersecurity. We all may have opinions on the ethics of hacking, the possible misuse of cybersecurity technology, or the use of spyware for ethical reasons, but we must put these opinions aside to allow objective facts to determine how we advance cybersecurity. The importance of parsimony cannot be overstated, as overcomplicated explanations can lead to fewer experiments or studies being conducted. By simplifying cybersecurity theories, we can allow others to understand them more easily and enable more research to be done on them. Cybersecurity also must rely on empiricism, as we must rely on real evidence rather than assumptions or unsubstantiated beliefs. Ethical Neutrality is probably the most important of the social sciences to relate to cybersecurity, as there are many moral questions that arise when studying cybersecurity. There are many practices that currently exist, such as data gathering or government spying practices, that carry many ethical questions. Almost every advancement or practice within cybersecurity carries an ethical question along with it, meaning a strict ethics system is needed to operate correctly. Determinism simply states that behavior is influenced or caused by past events, which certainly applies to cybersecurity. The decision of individuals to become unethical hackers or work for companies, the decisions of companies on what practices to implement, and numerous other decisions are impacted partially by past events. While individuals do have free will, their choices are certainly influenced in some way by the events they’ve experienced, leading them to make choices based on multiple factors.