New media is a perspective of how technological advances made in recent decades have created a revolution in the media, allowing people to communicate in ways they had never dreamed of. This is a new mode of communication including the personal computer, the Internet, and other digital technologies which are available throughout many parts of the world, these media may be used in different ways depending upon the prevailing political and social circumstances. I myself raise a question about the future of the social media and how the unfolding media revolution will affect people’s lives.
We cannot deny the fact that increasing commercial use of the Internet has heightened security and privacy concerns. With a credit or debit card, an Internet user can order almost anything from an Internet site and have it delivered to their home or office. Companies doing business over the Internet need sophisticated security measures to protect credit card, bank account, and social security numbers from unauthorized access as they pass across the Internet. Any organization that connects its intranet to the global Internet must carefully control the access point to ensure that outsiders cannot disrupt the organization’s internal networks or gain unauthorized access to the organization’s computer systems and data.
In fact in the Philippines, many government websites have been attacked by anonymous hackers just to fight back against the implementation of Republic Act No. 10175, otherwise known as the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 that addresses legal issues concerning online interactions and the Internet in the Philippines. Among the cybercrime offenses included in the bill are cybersquatting, cybersex, child pornography, identity theft, illegal access to data and libel. Disruptions of data in a cyberspace world could cause loss of life or that could be part of a coordinated terrorist attack have also become an increasing concern. For example, using the Internet to attack computer systems that control electric power grids, pipelines, water systems, or chemical refineries could cause the systems to fail, and the resulting failures could lead to fatalities and harm to the economy. Aside from that, U.S. congress had also passed the Homeland Security Act in November 2002. The new law creates criminal penalties, including life imprisonment, for disruptions of computer systems and networks that cause or attempt to cause death. The law also allows ISPs to reveal subscriber information to government officials without a court-approved warrant if there is a risk of death or injury. It also enables government officials to trace e-mails and other Internet traffic during an Internet disruption without obtaining court approval. Civil liberties groups objected to the lack of court supervision of many provisions in the new law.
Computer Security is a technique that has been developed to safeguard information and information systems stored on computers. Potential threats include the destruction of computer hardware and software and the loss, modification, theft, unauthorized use, observation, or disclosure of computer data. Computers and the information they contain are often considered confidential systems because their use is typically restricted to a limited number of users. This confidentiality can be compromised in a variety of ways. For example, computers and computer data can be harmed by people who spread computer viruses and worms. A computer virus is a set of computer program instructions that attaches itself to programs in other computers. The viruses are often parts of documents that are transmitted as attachments to e-mail messages. A worm is similar to a virus but is a self-contained program that transports itself from one computer to another through networks. Thousands of viruses and worms exist and can quickly contaminate millions of computers.
In cyberspace, a people who intentionally create viruses are computer experts often known as hackers. Hackers also violate confidentiality by observing computer monitor screens and by impersonating authorized users of computers in order to gain access to the users’ computers. They invade computer databases to steal the identities of other people by obtaining private, identifying information about them. Hackers also engage in software piracy and deface Web sites on the Internet. For example, they may insert malicious or unwanted messages on a Web site, or alter graphics on the site. They gain access to Web sites by impersonating Web site managers. This is not new to us in the Philippines because during the hot issue between Philippines and China over the longing territorial dispute, Anonymous Philippines a group of internet hackers block some government websites.
Some social concern that must be given an attention by the government to regulate and control malicious hackers who are increasingly developing powerful software crime tools such as automatic computer virus generators, Internet eavesdropping sniffers, password guessers, vulnerability testers, and computer service saturators. For example, an Internet eavesdropping sniffer intercepts Internet messages sent to other computers. A password guesser tries millions of combinations of characters in an effort to guess a computer’s password. Vulnerability testers look for software weaknesses. These crime tools are also valuable security tools used for testing the security of computers and networks.
An increasingly common hacker tool that has gained widespread public attention is the computer service saturator, used in denial-of-service attacks, which can shut down a selected or targeted computer on the Internet by bombarding the computer with more requests than it can handle. This tool first searches for vulnerable computers on the Internet where it can install its own software program. Once installed, the compromised computers act like “zombies” sending usage requests to the target computer. If thousands of computers become infected with the software, then all would be sending usage requests to the target computer, overwhelming its ability to handle the requests for service.
A variety of simple techniques can help prevent computer crimes, such as protecting computer screens from observation, keeping printed information and computers in locked facilities, backing up copies of data files and software, and clearing desktops of sensitive information and materials. Increasingly, however, more sophisticated methods are needed to prevent computer crimes. These include using encryption techniques, establishing software usage permissions, mandating passwords, and installing firewalls and intrusion detection systems. In addition, controls within application systems and disaster recovery plans are also necessary.
It is better to have a storing backup copy of software and data and having backup computer and communication capabilities like what I’ve did as important basic safeguards because the data can then be restored if it was altered or destroyed by a computer crime or accident. Computer data should be backed up frequently and should be stored nearby in secure locations in case of damage at the primary site. Transporting sensitive data to storage locations should also be done securely.
This may not be familiar to you but there’s one more technique to protect confidential information is encryption. Computer users can scramble information to prevent unauthorized users from accessing it. Authorized users can unscramble the information when needed by using a secret code called a key. Without the key the scrambled information would be impossible or very difficult to unscramble. A more complex form of encryption uses two keys, called the public key and the private key, and a system of double encryption. Each participant possesses a secret, private key and a public key that is known to potential recipients. Both keys are used to encrypt, and matching keys are used to decrypt the message. However, the advantage over the single-key method lies with the private keys, which are never shared and so cannot be intercepted. The public key verifies that the sender is the one who transmitted it. The keys are modified periodically, further hampering unauthorized unscrambling and making the encrypted information more difficult to decipher.
New technique to help prevent abuse and misuse of computer data is to limit the use of computers and data files to approved persons. Security software can verify the identity of computer users and limit their privileges to use, view, and alter files. The software also securely records their actions to establish accountability. Military organizations give access rights to classified, confidential, secret, or top-secret information according to the corresponding security clearance level of the user. Other types of organizations also classify information and specify different degrees of protection.
Lastly, it is logical to separate out questions relating to technological developments from questions relating to ownership and control, but, in practice, visions of the future world involve bringing them together. It is difficult in present circumstances to avoid the blurring of “image” (seeing the world as it is presented to us or as we present it to ourselves) and “reality.” Can “truth” survive? The new media in their mediation can create what has come to be called “virtual reality”; and Internet can offer fantasy ways of escaping from the restraints of life as it is lived to a world of cyberspace.