Thursday, 6 May 2010
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Possible security risk between Swansea University email and Facebook?
The e-mail system at Swansea University sets a default password of the users date of birth and the users student ID. This all seems very secure as a student ID is unique and not known by everyone. However I have noticed that many people post their student email on social networking sites such as Facebook, alongside their date of birth, which is a very large security loophole as it would take a monkey that knows the default password algorithm to figure out the default password in no time.
Advice to students? Change your default password, it is highly recommended.
Advice to students? Change your default password, it is highly recommended.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Internet use in foreign countries
Over here in the UK, we live in a Democratic country where everyone has the right to a fair vote and a freedom of the internet (although this has very recently changed, as mentioned in this post). However, not all countries are as fortunate to have the freedom we have and in this post I shall analyse some of these countries and how internet use is different for them and how it affects their lives.
Saudi Arabia
As a strict Islamic nature, Saudi Arabia filters the internet to "preserve our Islamic values, filtering the Internet content to prevent the materials that contradict with our beliefs or may influence our culture.", very similarly to many other countries that filter web content. The filters in Saudi Arabia also block websites related to alcohol, drugs and gambling. A full report can be read here which is written by Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman of Harvard Law School.
Interestingly enough, Saudi Arabian men have recently been using the internet for finding their ideal partner, as reported here on CNN. Due to the strict gender segregation in Saudi Arabia, men and women have little chance to meet each other and one of the few ways they can communicate is through social networking sites such as Facebook. Sites like these can be very useful in conservative societes where it is considered a crime to be seen talking to a member of the opposite gender in public. For further reading, see here, a news article mentioning how 68% of youth Saudis use pseudonyms or aliases online.
France
Very recently France introduced it's Hadopi law to internet users, which involves a three strike system in an aim to reduce piracy in the country by cutting off consistent offenders' internet connections. Many people are against this law, including the French Green and Socialist parties and there are a few loopholes in the law. For example, if a user of a wifi hotspot is caught downloading copyright material, it would be the hotspot owner that would be punished, not the violator which means free hotspots are becoming very unpopular in France. Also, the method of IP collection is uncertain and therefore many people question the validity of the evidence for catching offenders. Further reading on the Hadopi law can be found here
United Kingdom
Within the last month (April 2010), the UK passed it's controversial digital economy bill. This had created a big outrage in the online community, especially on social networking site Twitter when the bill was rushed through Parliament. As explained here the bill could stop persistent copyright offenders from using the internet and could block websites that link to illegal content. This would be unideal as you could argue that even Google links to illegal content through its search engine. According to the BBC, many big web giants have opposed the bill, as reported here arguing that the three strike system proposed could be unfair and accidentally pick people that have done nothing wrong.
Saudi ArabiaAs a strict Islamic nature, Saudi Arabia filters the internet to "preserve our Islamic values, filtering the Internet content to prevent the materials that contradict with our beliefs or may influence our culture.", very similarly to many other countries that filter web content. The filters in Saudi Arabia also block websites related to alcohol, drugs and gambling. A full report can be read here which is written by Jonathan Zittrain and Benjamin Edelman of Harvard Law School.
Interestingly enough, Saudi Arabian men have recently been using the internet for finding their ideal partner, as reported here on CNN. Due to the strict gender segregation in Saudi Arabia, men and women have little chance to meet each other and one of the few ways they can communicate is through social networking sites such as Facebook. Sites like these can be very useful in conservative societes where it is considered a crime to be seen talking to a member of the opposite gender in public. For further reading, see here, a news article mentioning how 68% of youth Saudis use pseudonyms or aliases online.
FranceVery recently France introduced it's Hadopi law to internet users, which involves a three strike system in an aim to reduce piracy in the country by cutting off consistent offenders' internet connections. Many people are against this law, including the French Green and Socialist parties and there are a few loopholes in the law. For example, if a user of a wifi hotspot is caught downloading copyright material, it would be the hotspot owner that would be punished, not the violator which means free hotspots are becoming very unpopular in France. Also, the method of IP collection is uncertain and therefore many people question the validity of the evidence for catching offenders. Further reading on the Hadopi law can be found here
United KingdomWithin the last month (April 2010), the UK passed it's controversial digital economy bill. This had created a big outrage in the online community, especially on social networking site Twitter when the bill was rushed through Parliament. As explained here the bill could stop persistent copyright offenders from using the internet and could block websites that link to illegal content. This would be unideal as you could argue that even Google links to illegal content through its search engine. According to the BBC, many big web giants have opposed the bill, as reported here arguing that the three strike system proposed could be unfair and accidentally pick people that have done nothing wrong.
Blogger Themes
Been searching blogger themes online to find a suitable and trendy theme for my blog- I think I may have found one! Also with some CSS editing, I have managed to hide the title from the top as I found it was too long to fit in the suitable location. Thoughts anyone?
Wednesday, 17 March 2010
Mini project on Virtual Revolution background
For my mini project I have chosen the second episode of virtual revolution, 'Enemy of the state?'. The episode and my project focus on the powers various governments and organisations have over the internet and how they possibly use that power to hide specific content or what users can do over their internet connection whilst being watched by government officials.
Outside the episode I have already found more evidence of governments attempting to throttle users' internet experience, especially on the P2P front. For example, I have found many news posts such as this one showing that France attempted to implement a three strike policy towards P2P users and I intend to investigate this and see how it affected internet users in France.
Very recently in the UK the Digital Economy Bill was passed through the House Of Lords to impose tougher sanctions on file sharers in the UK and with the bill expected to be passed before the general election, will this affect the way people use the internet in the UK? Will they be more careful in what they download or will they attempt to take a stance and fight for their right for the free and open internet that was masterminded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990.
The episode I have chosen primarily focuses on the goings on in Iran during the Presidential elections in 2009 and focuses on the amounts of people that were posting tweets on Twitter and videos on YouTube even through the Iranian Governments tight proxies. I will talk about this but would also like to consider both sides of the story, as I noticed on the news only one side of the story was largely reported at the time.
I will be creating a mini wiki over the next few weeks and posting my findings on this blog and the mini wiki. I shall post a link to the mini wiki very soon.
Outside the episode I have already found more evidence of governments attempting to throttle users' internet experience, especially on the P2P front. For example, I have found many news posts such as this one showing that France attempted to implement a three strike policy towards P2P users and I intend to investigate this and see how it affected internet users in France.
Very recently in the UK the Digital Economy Bill was passed through the House Of Lords to impose tougher sanctions on file sharers in the UK and with the bill expected to be passed before the general election, will this affect the way people use the internet in the UK? Will they be more careful in what they download or will they attempt to take a stance and fight for their right for the free and open internet that was masterminded by Tim Berners-Lee in 1990.
The episode I have chosen primarily focuses on the goings on in Iran during the Presidential elections in 2009 and focuses on the amounts of people that were posting tweets on Twitter and videos on YouTube even through the Iranian Governments tight proxies. I will talk about this but would also like to consider both sides of the story, as I noticed on the news only one side of the story was largely reported at the time.
I will be creating a mini wiki over the next few weeks and posting my findings on this blog and the mini wiki. I shall post a link to the mini wiki very soon.
