Friday, September 27, 2013

ASSIGNMENT #2: ANALYSIS OF AN ONLINE CRIME

In your assigned reading, John Suler's "Online Disinhibition Effect" [LINK], Suler addresses several reasons why people become "disinhibited" on the Internet: Dissociative Anonymity, Dissociative Imagination, Invisibility, Asynchronicity, Minimization of Status, and Solipsistic Introjection.

Your assignment is to:

• Find, in a news publication, an online crime (something which is illegal which was done using the Internet) which has occurred in the last 9 months.  This online crime can have offline consequences.

• On your team website: post your assignment, describing this crime in your own words (perhaps a paragraph or less).

• Include a link to the news item.

• Of the different causes Suler identifies as generating "disinhibition" (listed above), identify the most likely reason/cause for disinhibition which would motivate the criminal.  In other words, please find an online crime that was likely motivated by disinhibition (by the criminal), and what you identify as the particular cause of this disinhibition (Asynchronicity? Dissociative Imagination? etc.). Please explain your answer in detail.  Please consider that the victim may also have become a victim because they too were disinhibited. If that is the case, please provide an explanation for the victim also. If you cannot identify a crime as being the result of disinhibition (either by the criminal or victim), then search for another online crime example which does.

• This assignment is due, FRIDAY OCTOBER 4th, posted on your team website, WITH YOUR NAME ON IT.

Thursday, September 19, 2013

READING ASSIGNMENTS

****NEW READINGS****


• Boyd, Danah “Participating in the Always-On Lifestyle” in The Social Media Reader, Michael Mandiberg (ed), New York University Press, 2012

• Coleman, E. Gabriella “Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls” in The Social Media Reader, Michael Mandiberg (ed), New York University Press, 2012

• Davidson, Patrick “The Language of Internet Memes” in The Social Media Reader, Michael Mandiberg (ed), New York University Press, 2012

• Hyde, Adam et al. “What is Collaboration Anyway?” in The Social Media Reader, Michael Mandiberg (ed), New York University Press, 2012 

• Maratea, Ray "The e-Rise and Fall of Social Problems: The Blogosphere as a Public Arena" Social Problems, Vol. 55, No. 1, 2008. [LINK] [NOTE: This is a JStor article, you need to be on a Berkeley Internet connection to view/download this article].

• Choi, Chong Ju and Ron Berger "Ethics of Global Internet, Community and Fame Addiction"
Journal of Business Ethics, Vol. 85, No. 2, 2009. [LINK] [NOTE: This is a JStor article, you need to be on a Berkeley Internet connection to view/download this article].

• Wang, Rong and Suzanne M. Bianchi and Sara Raley "Teenagers' Internet Use and Family Rules: A Research Note" Journal of Marriage and Family, Vol. 67, No. 5, 2005. [LINK] [NOTE: This is a JStor article, you need to be on a Berkeley Internet connection to view/download this article].


****NEW READINGS****

• Wallace, Benjamin "The Rise and Fall of Bitcoin" WIRED Nov 2011 [LINK].


• Welsh, Andrew and Jennifer Lavoie "Risky eBusiness: An Examination of Risk-Taking, Online Disclosiveness, and Cyberstalking Victimization" CyberPsychology 6 (1), 2012 [LINK].


• Glaser, Mark "Your Guide to Citizen Journalism" MediaShift, Sept 2006 [LINK].


Astleigh, Richard "Web 1.0: Never Giving Up the Early Internet" CyberPsychology and Behavior vol.5 no.1, 2011 [LINK].

Kushner, David "The Hacker is Watching" GQ Jan 2012 [LINK].

Suler, John "The Online Disinhibition Effect" CyberPsychology and Behavior vol.7 no.3, 2004 [LINK]. [NOTE: This is a JStor article, you need to be on a Berkeley Internet connection to view/download this article].

• Norton, Quinn "Anonymous 101: Introduction to the Lulz" WIRED Nov 2011 [LINK].


• Dibbell, Julian "The Assclown Offensive: How to Enrage the Church of ScientologyWIRED Sept 2009 [LINK].

• Zetter, Kim "Oil Companies Spring a Leak, Courtesy of AnonymousWIRED July 2012 [LINK].

Captain, Sean "Inside Occupy Wall Street's (Kinda) Secret Media HQ" WIRED Nov 2011 [LINK].

• "A Short, Strange History of Anonymous" -

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

IN THE NEWS


MEET SUSAN BENNETT, THE VOICE OF "SIRI":


THE UNDERGROUND MARKET "SILK ROAD" IS CLOSED: THEY HAD 9.5 MILLION OF THE 11.75 MILLION KNOWN BITCOINS [LINK].

DEVELOPING A WAY TO DO A WEB SEARCH. . . IF YOU ARE BLIND: This will give you hope for humanity [LINK]

HOW U.S. AND U.K. INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES SURVEIL THE INTERNET: an article overview of the methods which the NSA and GCHQ use to decrypt protected Internet communications. [LINK]

BITCOINS ON THE RISE : A nice China Central Television article about the rise of the use of Bitcoins digital currency (sound bites from yours truly around 2:09):


LOCAL CYBERBULLYING LEADS TO TEEN SUICIDE: A tragic local/Bay Area incident, a student in Saratoga was violated at a party and photos were being circulated around by classmates; this incident lead to her suicide. [LINK]

ANONYMOUS GETS INVOLVED IN JUSTICE AGAINST RAPISTS: Anonymous has had recent involvement in using information and social media to bring rapists to justice. [LINK]

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT STEPS-IN ON 3-D PRINTED GUN: The U.S. State Department issued a notice to Defense Distributed to no longer post the schematics/data on how to print the "Liberator" - an entirely 3-D printed gun.  Defense Distributed has complied, however the schematics have already been downloaded over 100,000 times. [LINK]

PENTAGON RELEASES REPORT ON CHINA'S CYBER-ESPIONAGE CAMPAIGNS: the report for 2012 reveals pronounced efforts by the Chinese government to acquire military technology information from U.S. organizations and to collect industrial technology information from U.S. businesses and corporations [LINK]

• "COMMENT CREW" HACKER COLLECTIVE LIKELY CHINA'S "UNIT 61398" MILITARY INTELLIGENCE: Cybersecurty firm Mandiant has traced 6 years of cyberattacks by the hacker collective "Comment Crew" to China's military intelligence organization "Unit 61398" [LINK]

3-D PRINTED GUN "THE LIBERATOR": The organization "Defense Distributed" recently released the 3-D printing plans for "The Liberator" - a completely functional  3-D printed gun [LINK]



BITCOINS: MESSAGES HIDDEN IN DATA: This past Monday (April 29th), users identified messages and images (hidden in hexadecimal code) in Bitcoin transaction records [LINK].

NEW $100 BILL - VIRTUAL TOUR: A cool virtual tour of the new American $100 bill.

FACEBOOK PHONE: April 4th, Facebook has announced the new Android. . . ahem. . . "Facebook Phone." And consumer audiences are already underwhelmed.  And the ad parodies are flooding in:

 


ANONYMOUS vs. NORTH KOREA: April 3rd, Anonymous hackers claimed to have hacked state servers for North Korea, demanding the resignation of North Korean leader Kim Jung-Un. The International Business Times article.

SPAMHAUS ATTACK: On March 27th, the servers of the Geneva- and London-based anti-spam organization Spamhaus fell victim to one of the largest Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks in known history. The primary suspect behind the attacks is the Netherlands-based hosting service Cyberbunker; Spamhaus had recenlty blocked Cyberbunker's servers. Cyberbunker has denied these allegations.

BITCOINS - INFORMAL NATIONAL CURRENCY: In early March, the Bitcoin sold for around $45. They are now selling for $135 and higher (current all-time high of $147).  By mid-March, the nation of Cyprus reached a level of "national financial crisis" - many banks shut-down.  Cypriots (and many Russians who have kept their savings in Cypriot banks) have turned to using Bitcoins - removing banks and the national economy from the equation. Cyprus will soon be the first nation to have Bitcoin ATMs. Spain is now showing similar interest in Bitcoins.

GOOGLE GLASSES: Google looks for volunteers for their Project Glass "Explorer Program" (effectively, people to beta test their epic new Google Glasses). Baidu, China's most popular search engine, has recently announced that they will release an innovative new technology: a rip-off of Google Glasses.

SOUTH KOREA CYBER-ATTACKED: March 20th, several Korean television stations and banks had been attacked by a group using the name "The Whois Team"; many suspect North Korea or China may be involved, but recent evidence links the attacks to sources in the United States and 3 European Nations. Link: al Jazeera news article.

THE TALLINN MANUAL: A NATO-commissioned manunal for proposed international laws for cyber warfare was recently released. This manual proposes policies for state-sponsored cyberattacks; among other things, it advises that cyberattacks should avoid targets such as hospitals, and that in some circumstances, when facing a cyber attack, retaliation with conventional weapons can be an acceptable course of action. Link from The Verge.

WHAT THE INTERNET LOOKS LIKE: This epic free app is an amazing visualization of the Internet.

THE F.A.A vs. THE HARLEM SHAKE: March 1st, The FAA is investigating an incident on a Frontier Airlines flight involving a college ultimate frisbee team.

INTERNET CENSUS: A 2012 world census on Internet use, with epic graphics.

iPHONE TRACKING TO CATCH CRIMINALS: An example of using iPhone tracking to catch a criminal in New Orleans. A related article on how to uniquely identify cellphone users.

IRAN INTERNET CENSORSHIP: A nice graphic explaining the underlying structures behind Internet censorship in Iran.

ASSIGNMENT #1 - PROJECT 241543903

To get the ball rolling on your team blogs, here is your assignment: PROJECT 241543903

David Horvitz is attempting to create an urban legend/joke utilizing "Google Image Search." The idea is that you can tell someone that one of the greatest Internet secrets is a Google Image Search for this cryptic number - which reveals photos of human heads in freezers. The punchline is that these photos are of living people.

• In the spirit of participation and collective action, your assignment is for each team member to get a photograph of their head in a freezer, post it on the team blog, labeled with their name, and the blog post should be labeled with the cryptic number 241543903. No Photoshop, no art projects, no puns. Just your head in a freezer. Due Thursday Sept 19th.