Instagram

Instagram is a social media where people can post, share images, and text/call each other.

• Would this application/system work as well NOT in the cloud?

I would say that without the cloud, Instagram definitely would not be fun to work with. The whole point of Instagram is to socialize and share things.

• What are the advantages to having this system on a distributed network?

You are able to interact with others, and even share videos. There’s a function on the video calls that enables the users to watch the same Reels (they’re kind of like Instagram’s version of TikTok) at the same time.

• Do you have any security or privacy concerns when using this system?

Hackers and other malicious internet users could manipulate the user into giving them, money, information, and other things.

• Anything else you’d like to share about cloud services.

You can also have multiple different accounts and be on them at the same time.

Minecraft

Minecraft is a multiplayer and singleplayer game where you have to survive in a blocky world. You can mine, build, and craft things by collecting things around you.

• Would this application/system work as well NOT in the cloud?

I don’t think the multiplayer function would work, so a large part of the game would be missing, but you could play it by yourself and still make it fun.

• What are the advantages to having this system on a distributed network?

Players can engage in multiplayer, share servers, and more.

• Do you have any security or privacy concerns when using this system?

Not really, just keep in mind not to share personal information over the internet, or leave your account open and unattended in a public place.

• Anything else you’d like to share about cloud services.

1. What were the top three social media sites, in terms of traffic, in 22-23? List them in order of popularity.

1. Facebook

2. Youtube

3. WhatsApp

(https://buffer.com/library/social-media-sites/)

2. Provide a brief summary of how each social media site works and why people use it.

1. On Facebook, you can create posts and comment on other people’s posts.
2. Youtube, similar to facebook, allows the user to create and comment on other people’s posts, but the majority of the posts are videos.
3. WhatsApp allows the user to receive and manage calls and text messages over Wi-Fi

3. What are “demographics” and why is it important in social media?

According to Oxford, a demographic is “statistical data relating to the population and particular groups within it.” This is important for social media so advertisers or producers know who their audience consists of.

4. Explain any demographics that stand out among the three social media sites you listed above. (More popular with a specific age group, are majority of users male or female, married or single, employees or self-employed, etc.)

1. According to Social Shepard, “The largest Facebook audience in 2021 is men aged between 25 and 34, accounting for 19% of total potential reach.” (https://thesocialshepherd.com/blog/facebook-statistics#:~:text=The%20potential%20reach%20of%20Facebook%20Ads%20is%202.11%20billion%20users&text=The%20largest%20Facebook%20audience%20in,35%20are%20responsible%20for%2013%25.)
2. Omnicore states, “As of 2023, 20.7% of all adult YouTube users are 25-34 years old (Oberlo). What’s more, 16.7% of all users are 35-44 years old, which shows us that YouTube caters to older audience than other social media platforms.” (https://www.omnicoreagency.com/youtube-statistics/#:~:text=4.-,YouTube%20Demographics%3A%20Age,than%20other%20social%20media%20platforms.)
3. According to verloop.io, “While WhatsApp seems to be almost used equally by men and women alike, 53.9% of WhatsApp users are male.” (https://verloop.io/blog/whatsapp-statistics-2023/#:~:text=While%20WhatsApp%20seems%20to%20be,by%2046.1%25%20of%20female%20users.)

5. On average, how much time do users spend on each social media site during a day, week or month? Provide a resource that supports your answer.

Typically, a user spends around two hours on social media daily, so that would mean 14 hours a week, and roughly 60 hours a month. (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/6/30/how-many-years-does-a-typical-user-spend-on-social-media)

6. Which of the three social media networks is growing the fastest? Why do you think that is?

1: Facebook – It’s a very well known social media that is easy to navigate.

2: Youtube – Younger people that grew up with Youtube could put it on for their kids without needing to buy cable or anything.

3: WhatsApp – All you need is Wi-Fi to use WhatsApp, so this would be cheaper to use than paying for a cellphone data plan.

(https://targetinternet.com/resources/fastest-growing-social-media-networks-2022-23/)

7. How are the majority of visitors accessing these three sites (computer, mobile device, tablet)?

Usually some kind of mobile phone and smart T.V.

• Using the list above (or researching on your own), find one concrete example of “bad behavior” in the online space.

One type of bad behavior online is stealing personal information. This is theft, and hackers online steal personal information such as credit card and ATM numbers.

• In your blog post for this week, briefly summarize what happened… Who was involved, and what was the outcome? Was there financial loss or damage to someone’s reputation? Were the criminals held accountable?

Albert Gonzalez is attributed to one of the largest credit card thefts in history. He used a sniffer to steal personal information such as credit cards and ATM numbers, and resold them. There was definitely financial loss towards the victims, and Gonzalez served roughly twenty years in prison.

Gonzalez learned to hack in high school, when he worked with people in Shadowcrew, an illegal website. When he got arrested, he switched sides and started working with the government to implicate a lot of his associates. As an informant, he stole from nearly 200 million accounted, most of which were from major corporations.

Although he was a black hat hacker, his achievements were rather impressive for the age of 22. He stole over $250 million from TJX alone! While it is ironic, I don’t think his reputation was damaged, but rather improved..? He became popular for the wrong reasons, some even admiring his skills. Admiring or not, the damage he has done to innocent people cannot be undone, and he was imprisoned in 2015.

Hurting or stealing from people is wrong, and should ever be admiring or considered so.

(https://christianespinosa.com/blog/6-famous-hackers-that-got-caught/)

• What practical lessons can we learn as a result of this example (i.e., what will you do to avoid being similarly victimized?)

Be careful which websites you enter your credit card information in, and which WiFi networks you connect to. It would also help to keep your systems up-to-date, and install a good antivirus program. It is highly unrecommended you leave your devices unattended in public as well. People could place things such as trackers on your phone and find out your personal information. They could also download things onto your phone or transfer files to and from their own phone, all while you’re not looking. Make sure you watch which WiFi networks you connect to, don’t click on any links random numbers send you, and don’t send personal information to people you don’t know.

(https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/cyber)

 

1. Know your enemy: What are 5 sources/types of potential digital threats to your organization. Examples include external malicious actors or internal human error. Provide a thorough description and examples; be specific. Make sure your sources are current.

• Theft of personal information – A hacker could steal credit card information of our customers and employees. This can cause people to quit working and doing business with us because they don’t trust our security procedures.
• Spam – Someone could spam the website with fake low star reviews. Customers could find this annoying and stop doing business with us, and turn potential new customers away.
• Worms – A type of malware could infiltrate our website through software vulnerabilities and deny service to our customers. This can cause a decrease in business and a negative review about us.
• Ransomware – Hackers gaining control and locking us out of our website, and demanding cash in exchange for control of our website again.
• Spyware – Hackers could gain access to personal data from our customers. This could cause our customers to lose trust in us and no longer do business with us.

1. Know yourself: Identify at least 5 digital processes, systems, and/or functions your company has in place. Importantly, address how could those be exploited or manipulated in order to gain access to valuable corporate or customer data?

• Shipping details – A keylogger could unknowingly be on a customer’s device and gain access to personal information such as credit card numbers and addresses for shipping.
• Creating reviews – These could technically include links, so a customer could click on them, not realizing it is a scam, and have their information hacked or accessed.
• Recommended Items – After purchasing an item, a customer
• Login – Users have to log into our website in order to purchase items. Someone could do this in public, and someone nearby could take a photo of their login and have access to their account.
• Location – For shipping purposes, customers could input their location in order to receive their shipment, or have items recommended to them. In the case that their information is accessed, their location could be stolen and someone could go to their house to steal packages or in extreme cases, cause harm to the customer.

1. Develop your strategy: As the chief technology executive, make 5 recommendations that your company should adopt to be more safe, secure, and reliable. Again, consider hardware, software, networks, and human policies and procedures. (e.g., appropriate use policy on corporate computers; firewall; SSL/web encryption; backup/retention)

• Reviews go to the company itself, not in a comment section, in order to protect our customers from scams. Either that, or we could make it so that users are unable to upload links in their reviews.
• Have reminders about online safety tips around the website to spread awareness. These should especially be on pages where a user could input their information.
• Create a second security measure by having customers first sign in, and then confirm it is them by typing in a code sent via text message or email (similar to what COTC does).
• We could provide helpful links for customers that do get exploited on our login page, so that they would not have to log into their account to see them. These links include what to do when you get hacked and possible solutions.
• Installing a firewall and methods of data encryption in order to keep our customer’s data safe. In addition to this, upgrading database security and doing data risk analysis would prove to be beneficial.

Sources:

https://www.imperva.com/learn/application-security/cyber-security-threats/

https://www.poppulo.com/blog/what-are-the-4-main-areas-of-digital-transformation – June 21st, 2023

 

Number 1: https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/30-tips-tricks-all-photoshop-users-should-know–cms-34437

• Technology changes very rapidly, how current is the information you found?

The article itself was updated in March of 2023.

• Who is posting the information? Are they an authority on the matter? How can you tell?

Abbey Esparza posted this information, and on their profile it says that they are a digital artist with over ten years of experience.

• What types of gatekeeping mechanisms are in place for the source you found? (i.e., is there an editor or are posts up/downvoted democratically?)

There are only thumbs up buttons on the site, but this specific website is also buried in the different categories. I also believe there is an editor.

• Discuss the quality of the information. Is it well written, clear, and easy to follow?

It’s very easy to follow, and they bold the shortcuts. They also include pictures!

• Finally, is this a resource you might use in the future, and if so, why?

I would say yes, it just has shortcuts and stuff, so there’s a low chance of anything messing up my computer.

Number 2: https://www.keithknittel.com/10-adobe-photoshop-tips-tricks-in-2022

• Technology changes very rapidly, how current is the information you found?

The date on the site is February 24th, 2022.

• Who is posting the information? Are they an authority on the matter? How can you tell?

I would assume Keith Knittle, since it has a little blurb about him at the bottom of the page. It says that he is a designer that takes photos (and uses Photoshop), so I think that he can give a few tips that he uses in Photoshop.

• What types of gatekeeping mechanisms are in place for the source you found? (i.e., is there an editor or are posts up/downvoted democratically?)

I believe that there is an editor.

• Discuss the quality of the information. Is it well written, clear, and easy to follow?

I think it’s pretty straightforward, but sometimes too much so. I don’t think it’d be great for a beginner, but if you know the basics of Photoshop, then it’d be easier to understand.

• Finally, is this a resource you might use in the future, and if so, why?

Not for beginners, but if I need advice, maybe I’d skim over this article.

Number 3: https://gizmodo.com/18-quick-photoshop-tips-for-beginners-1770054733

• Technology changes very rapidly, how current is the information you found?

It says it was originally posted in 2016.

• Who is posting the information? Are they an authority on the matter? How can you tell?

David Nield. He has been writing how-to guides for about 20 years. I’m not sure if they’re an authority on the matter.

• What types of gatekeeping mechanisms are in place for the source you found? (i.e., is there an editor or are posts up/downvoted democratically?)

I think there’s an editor.

• Discuss the quality of the information. Is it well written, clear, and easy to follow?

It’s fairly written and easy to follow!

• Finally, is this a resource you might use in the future, and if so, why?

Probably! It’s written for beginners.