Assignment 1-3

The article I chose to do an analysis of is titled “An overview of social engineering malware: Trends, tactics, and implications” by Sherly Abraham and Chengalur-Smith of the State University of New York. This article is an investigation to the practice of social engineering and the implications it has in the world of malicious programmers and hackers. It describes the actions taken and explains the spread of malicious content through the internet based on programming users through social engineering.

The target of this particular article and study would be technology professionals and especially information security agencies. This article speaks to the expert and is not intended for lay readers and novice computer users. Attempting to read this article without having any knowledge of the computers systems and infrastructure of today would be very difficult. It describes methods hackers and programmers use and the utilities that allow them to pass malicious content through infected systems. Words like “keylogger” and “rootkits” are examples of this. These tools hide themselves in places on a users system without their knowledge and are very difficult to detect even using modern and up to date antivirus protection. One common practice described in this article is that of the SMTP hijack. The small mail transfer protocol hijack is used on an infected user’s computer to send copies of itself via email using the user’s contact list as a jumping off point. The article also describes the theory of botnets, which is an infection that turns computers into a zombie like state. The computers wait for a command from the author and certain botnets have infected millions of computers. These botnets have the power to force entire countries of the web through what is called DOSA or “denial-of-service-attack”. These have been used to cripple famous web pages like MySpace, Facebook, and Live Journal off the web.

The article takes the reader in a very fluid and progressive manor; it builds a framework that leads to a very solid conclusion. The article fist beings with the standard introduction that is accustomed to research papers and technical documents. It explains very clearly the goal of the article and provides the settings for which the groundwork of the study was laid. Next it moves onto described how social engineering is used to program user’s to allow the malicious content on the system. It also details the trend of social engineering and the beginnings of “pop-ups” on the web to distribute malicious code. Then it flows onto the infiltration channels that this malicious code travels through, both in the enterprise environment and home user environment. Which leads the article up to the tactics that hackers and malicious programmers use to manipulate those channels and how that can maximize the effectiveness and spread of the Trojan to impact as many users as possible. Then described is the implication that these infections have on systems network, internet service providers, sensitive data like credit card accounts and bank accounts, and the military infrastructure. This all leads to a very solid conclusion that has a solution and how to go about approaching that solution and implementing it. In the end the article is very logically organized and walks the reader through the process of social engineering and how it is used to pass malicious code; all the way to how to prevent the spread of infection and altering social engineering to combat the situation.

The key idea I take way from this article is that the individual must work in cooperation with the rest of the community to provide a “healthy” and stable network. If an individual were to practice habits that prevent the spread of malicious content, that is just one more system that is safe from harm. As the internet spreads and grows more and more into our daily lives, we must cooperate as a community to ensure its stability and security. If continue to practice bad habits and click on every pop up and email we get, we are just crippling the system. This would lead to more drastic measures. One idea currently floating around to combat this problem is that of quarantine, and what that does is disconnects a system from their internet service provider if malicious content is detected coming from their system.

References

Abraham, S, & Chengalur-Smith, I. (2010). Technology in society. An overview of social engineering malware: Trends, tactics, and implications, (32), 183-196.

Assignment 5-1

A current pop culture topic that has caught my eye lately has to deal with politics and the popularity of Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert. This weekend in Washington D.C, the pair hosted a rally called “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear’’ that drew in about 150,000 to 200,000 individuals. People held up signs and dressed up as various things like aliens, pirates and giant tea bags. The signs read (“SOMEWHAT IRRITATED BY EXTREME OUTRAGE’’) to the ridiculous (“Squirrels for Sanity’’). One person was dressed as a Banana holding a sign that read “God Hates Apples”. It was a political rally without the politics, mostly a comedy standup that involved the audience. Now both Jon Steward and Steven Colbert played their typical characters from the show on Comedy central, blasting political satire and Jon left with the message of “We can disagree without being disagreeable. When everything is amplified, we hear nothing”. What interested me in this article is the drawing power these two comedians have in the political world. The exposure that modern media has provided for these comedians has allowed them to become as popular as they are today. The power of popular culture has propelled both Steven Colbert and Jon Stewart into a position of power with the younger political audience, with me being one of them. The rally even had several celebrity appearances like Ozzy Osbourne, Cat Stevens, Sherly Crow and Kid Rock. Now politics have always been popular culture but never political satire on this scale. Both of these comedians could run for a seat on the senate and probably win them. Fans of the show have been even asking for Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert to run as a presidential candidate. I feel that as long as both of these comedians stay in the show light, popular culture will increase their political power and how much clout they have to toss around. The article can be found here at this link.

Assignment 4-1

Today when I was taking out the trash I realized something, I use significantly less then when I was a kid. In fact, my trash bag is the smallest it’s ever been. When I was younger I remember wheeling out a giant 55 gallon trash can to the curb and sometimes even two. Granted this was for a family of five at the time and now it’s just down to two. I maybe take out two small grocery bags of garbage now ever since I’ve become what we call today “environmentally responsible”. I find it strange that since the climate debate and lack of resources that has haunted the media for years is actually taking its toll on my behavior.

With this shift in behavior and responsibility, my recycling bag is huge in comparison to my garbage. In fact the trash cans are totally different in size, the one for garbage is a tiny bedroom trash can while the recycling is a larger pop top trash can. I find myself recycling anything and everything; I would attribute this new behavior to the social trend of today. As kids, we lived by the mantra of use and throw away. Now I’m buying products only made using recycled material or material that can be recycled after the product is done. Along with this, I’ve been avoiding any product that contains harmful chemicals that can damage the environment if it were to be emptied into the drain or cause damage to the ecosystem. The question that comes to mind now is, does this make me a new age hippie?

The media and pressure to be energy conscious and environmentally friendly has altered my behavior completely. Everything is recycled except for a few items, I’m using everything LED or energy star rated, I’m even composting food scraps in this little worm bin. When I was in my teens, none of this was in my mind, I had never even heard of energy efficient bulbs, composting garbage and recycling was limited to just soda cans. You never notice the impact of popular culture on yourself until you analyze your behavior and why you are doing it.

Assignment 3-1

The internet has revolutionized the way that we as a society function. Many businesses can no longer operate without having a web component and the vast majority of people in the United States and abroad communicate via email far more frequently than postal letters. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace are connecting people in an entirely new way. Perhaps the one aspect of the internet that gets the least amount of media attention, however, are comedic blogs. Websites such as cracked.com and peopleofwalmart.com are two such examples.

Cracked.com is advertised as “America’s only humor and video site since 1958” and features daily blog posts about various topics, usually formatted in a top-ten style list. Many Cracked articles use facts and studies not commonly known to disprove misconceptions about history or science. Some of their most popular posts include “7 Real World Heists That Put 'Ocean's 11' to Shame”, “The 5 Most Widely Believed WWII Facts (That Are Bullshit), and “Superpowers We All Had as Babies (According to Science)”. The writers do an excellent job of making the articles funny but informative at the same time, appealing to those who want to read humor articles based off of fun, researched facts. Every day there is a new interesting article up on the blog, usually with information that few people have heard of before. Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of Cracked is that anybody can write for the site – although Cracked has regular contributors, anybody can sign up for their workshop and submit an article for the website.

People of Walmart takes a different approach to the comedy website, relying almost exclusively on amateur photos submitted to the site. These photos are of people or events happening at Walmart stores across the country. The site hosts candid photos of customers who are dressed strangely, have interesting tattoos, or are conducting themselves in a strange fashion at Wal-Mart. Notable pictures have included an adult woman being pushed around in a shopping cart, a child in a shopping cart with groceries on top of them, and a child hanging on to the end of a motorized shopping cart. The site offers up a societal critique through the use of photographs, poking fun at those whose behavior is outside of the norm.

Overall, the internet has many practical uses for both business and personal life. However, the Internet has also given the public access to entertainment previously only found sparingly in magazines and newspapers. Websites such as cracked.com and peopleofwalmart.com give people on the internet a forum to relax, make fun of the society they live in – and laugh.

Assignment 2-1

“Green energy” – a buzzword used by the media and bloggers more and more frequently nowadays – is seen as being an increasingly important topic as a result of the BP oil spill that is leaking thousands of barrels of oil into the Gulf Coast daily. The whole concept of green energy is that as we as a nation grow more and more, we will consume more energy – which, as it stands today, is a finite resource. Green energy, on the other hand, has the potential to be infinite – using solar, wind, and geothermal sources to produce energy that can power houses, factories, and cars. By converting most of our dependence on oil and coal to ‘green’ energy, it will not only ensure that we are able to meet the needs of an ever-expanding population, but it will also cut down dramatically on our collective ‘carbon footprint’, that is, the negative impact that our carbon output has on the environment.

The movement for green energy and a more environmentalist outlook has not been exclusive to radicals or activists. A green culture has developed where it is now fashionable to be sustainable, clean, reusable, etc. Even major corporations such as Wal-Mart have capitalized on the ‘green revolution’, selling reusable grocery bags with planet-friendly slogans printed on them for $1. Even celebrities such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Cameron Diaz, and George Clooney are getting in on the action, starting up action groups like Oil Change and driving electric cars.

As environmental disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon oil spill continue to occur, environmental consciousness will seep more into the popular conscience, making environmentalism more and more relevant to popular culture. Although it is a tragedy that this disaster occurred one positive result that can be gleaned from the oil spill is that, now more than ever, Americans are waking up to our impact on the environment and seem to be more willing to do something about it. Let’s hope that this collective consciousness will not wash away when the oil does.

Assignment 2-2

The first contemporary icon I can think of would have to be the television show, Lost. This show was a smash hit over the past years and I could never really understand why. With that being said, I can't think of a single person other than myself that completely drools over the show. I guess the idea of multiple dimensions and time travel are a unique concept that ABC kept throwing together. After catching several episodes to see what the buzz was about, I can easily see how people became addicted to the show. The overtone of religion and science fiction was a very appealing concept and I wouldn't be surprised to see a knock off of this series. What appealed to me about this show was just how creative it was with the script and development of the characters, to me this show could only have succeeded in the present.




The second icon that comes to mind would have to be good old TiVo. Everyone knows what TiVo is, its the magical little box that records your most favorite shows while you are aware at work or watching the kids. This device became so popular that every cable company across the country now offers a service just like. The interesting thing about that is, the very creators of the device are inching ever closer to bankruptcy. The device became in such high demand that the technology rapidly spread into the realm of PC/TV entertainment. Now there isn't a week that goes by that I don't either fix someone's home entertainment computer or setup one so that they can ditch their TiVo like devices. These devices have become a staple in the modern lifestyle of young professionals and is truly on par, in my opinion, with the cellular telephone.



The last great icon that pops into my mind is somewhat from my teenage past, the wonderful show of South Park. Yes, the show is wildly immature and graphic, but that is what is so very appealing. When you grow up having shows like the Simpsons, which wasn't bad but it was very censored since it appeared on public television. Then came along this show, which begged to be scoffed at and ridiculed by everyone you knew and parents would shield their children from. I find it remarkable that a show like this can exist and still be very popular today. The fact that the show draws so much attention from the FCC and other television censors just adds to the charm that is South Park.

Assignment 1-4

This weekend I had the chance to go catch Iron Man 2 with a few friends of mine.The movie was fantastic, script was excellent and the computer graphics totally wrapped up the movie. We all completely enjoyed it, but while we sat waiting for the movie to begin, we realized that more and more comic book scripts have become mainstream movie blockbusters. Now, just to give you a bit of history, my friends and I all grew up around comic books and the local comic shop. It seems that within the last decade, comic book movies have exploded onto the major screen. With the advancement in technology, the ability to truly tell the complex story behind comic books has become apparent. In the 80’s, there were a few comic based movies, like superman and batman. Now you have multiple comic based movies within a year. As a result of this exposure, we’ve seen comic books becoming more and more mainstream. Characters like Tony Stark, Professor Xavier, Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent can be recognized as house hold names. Everyone knows Iron Man, Batman, and Superman and the industry have picked up on this. Disney has recently acquired Marvel comics in a huge buyout in the multiple millions. Don’t be surprised when you see more and more comic book influence to be apparent in the mass media.

Assignment 1-2

Popular culture is things like art, music, technology, and fashion that fit into the mainstream of our society. Usually, it is something that is easily accessible to everyone, regardless of social standing within that society. Now what pop culture means to me is close to what the definition is. Personally, I see popular culture as culture that bridges gaps in society. There are certain luxury items that the elite culture enjoys that the popular culture category can't support because of either education or monetary reasons. In the same note, there are certain things that the elite category can't have because of lineage and or heritage, such as folk cultures. Items that reside in popular culture tend to be mass manufactured and easily accessible, so these items tend to bridge the gaps between the various groups.
Understanding popular culture is very relevant to me because I work with technology. Staying on top of technology and the current popular trends take a serious amount of effort to do. Every week I hear of some new application for smart phone that clients what to use at their business or that they want to change their company platform over to Blackberry or back to Apple. I need to be able to understand, implement, and troubleshoot the latest and greatest so that I can provide my customers with a better experience, because as we all know, technology can be a hassle.
To me, the perfect example of popular culture would have to be today's smart phones. I can't think of anyone who hasn't either tried one, own one, or at least heard about one. Just last year I equipped my father with a BlackBerry and he won't let that thing go. He could barely stand using email and the computer more than four years earlier. Now he texts and surfs the web on his phone. This device is a part of popular culture because he has no boundaries, and is accessible to just about anyone.