Issues with Online Services
1 - Account Security
Account security is an ongoing issue, increasingly so as the use of technology, social media platforms, and other suchlike things skyrockets. There are a few sectors to account security that are of
prominent importance in terms of account vulnerability. Firstly, to do with password reliability; most may think that, per se, this is a fairly straightforward security and is hard to break down.
However, there are in fact many deceiving ways to gain access to passwords and use them for the mischief and madness that some online service users will engage in. Secondly, involving account content:
on social media platforms and things of the sort, account content and preventing it from getting into the wrong hands has become quite an issue. Finally, concerning our data, the model of most online
media services is data collection, to sell to advertisers or data scientists. The likes of which is not only used to attack democracy as seen in the Facebook cases, but also in order to corrupt the
human mind towards hedonistic narcissism.
1.1 - Password Reliability
The reliability of passwords is something that is constantly under question, with increasing ways of manipulating the system in order to gain advantage on it. Brute force and dictionary attacks are
the petty crooks attempt at breaking the password of an enemy.. According to Bruce Schneier, examining data from
a 2006 phishing attack, 55% of MySpace passwords would be crackable in 8 hours using a commercially available Password Recovery Toolkit capable of testing 200,000 passwords per second in 2006 (1). But, we
can also phish passwords, sending them fake instagram login pages to see a post, for example. The commonality of lost passwords is prominent and growing: they are, in a sense, unreliable.
1.2 - Account Content
The content of accounts is very insecure; it can be given out of a whim, namely, on the growing social media platforms. The privacy features on social media have become increasingly irrelevant as the drive
of hedonistic narcissism has taken over: the drive that pushes us to die for more likes, followers, and things of the sort. In fact, it has also been used for the exact opposite purposes on larger pages like
6ixbuzz. 6ixbuzz, a well-known and buzzing Toronto instagram page, used the private feature to encourage people to follow, being that it is the only way to see their content, in order to reach one million
followers (2).
1.3 - Data Distribution
The large-scale distribution of data is something that is incredibly threatening to democracy and the human mind as a whole, namely within the online media. Following where the money is, that's a good motto
when examining industries. So, an industry that is growing at a seemingly infinite rate is data science, the study of data. Data Science and the collection of data has allowed for mischief that well exceeds
some of the most horrid crimes, it has allowed for total societal degradation. For example, through the attacks on democracy carried through Facebook, or the sale of identity and personality profiles by
common search engines like Google (3).
2 - Network Security
Network Security is a prominent issue, especially as threats to network security have become regular within the gaming community. There are several sectors to network security that constantly are against
threats to their activity; issues range from five minute downtimes, to fried routers, network takeovers, and complete database leaks. One of the first and most prominent issues is malware/viruses; malware can come in
many forms, as the name suggests, they are all malicious both in intent and manifestation. Possibly the most prominent issue is Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and Dox (originating from leaked documents
"docs"). Finally, identity theft, network eavesdropping, and database leaks all pose great risk, more so for the people using the services.
2.1 - Malware and Viruses
Malware and Viruses are a threat, moreso as virus detection softwares like VirusTotal and the like become seen as "unnecessary"; and, with the spread view that suchlike things may false flag for minor
code errors. The imposed distrust of said softwares has created pretexts for letting our guard down when it comes to downloading applications and programs. And thus, the use of malware and viruses has
ggrown exponentially; CNN, for example, proclaims that, "The bad guys are winning the war on cybercrime: Computer viruses, trojans and web attacks are soaring at their fastest pace in four years" (4).
2.2 - DDoSing/Doxxing
Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) and the theft of personal or private information or "docs" (Dox) have become prevalent amongst many online services. There are popular scripts that can be used to these exact applications,
used by "script kiddies" (a term for non-knowledgeable hackers, typically children or teenagers, who use well-known scripts to hack others) (5). They are especially common amongst the gaming community
(6). The growing
ability for even the most stupid and ignorant people to be able to threaten and harm others and gain unfettered access to their personal information sets the scene for non-stop aggression amongst online services and
communities.
2.3 - Identity Theft
Identity theft is a large-scale issue, increasingly so as the uses of identity and methods to steal them become widespread. It is, per se, possible for an average Joe to buy identities off of underground platforms
such as the Dark Web: an unfiltered internet system that anybody can access. (7) This issue is widespread and has wreaked havoc on online users; it therefore seems only fit, for it to be included as an issue and danger
with online services.
2.4 - Database Leaks
On the topic of network security and heavily involved with other prior-discussed subtopics such as Malware, DDoSing/Doxxing, and Identity Theft, Database Leaks remain an important problem. The leaking of databases
has been going as an issue for a long time, but has been increasingly concerning as the information coming out of them is being stored and accessed on websites, platforms, and other suchlike places; the leaking of
databases allows greater opportunity for online user's malicious intents to surface - that is, it allows DDoSing/Doxxing, Identity Theft, and similar activities to be performed. Database leak websites remain prominent
within gaming, hacker, and other online communities (8).
Questions
1) What are two ways to hijack passwords?
2) What is DDoSing?
3) What is Doxxing?
Works Cited
(1) Schneier, Bruce. "MySpace Passwords Aren't So Dumb." Wired, Conde Nast, 14 Dec. 2006, www.wired.com/2006/12/myspace-passwords-arent-so-dumb/.
(2) Brown, Emma. "5 Reasons Why Brands Are Using Private Instagram Accounts." Hootsuite Social Media Management, 13 Dec. 2018, blog.hootsuite.com/private-instagram-accounts/.
(3) Holak, Brian. "Demand for Data Scientists Is Booming and Will Only Increase." SearchBusinessAnalytics, TechTarget, 31 Jan. 2019, searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com/feature/Demand-for-data-scientists-is-booming-and-will-increase.
(4) In its quarterly "Threats Report, " Intel (INTC) subsidiary McAfee said that it had found more than 8 million new kinds of malware in the second quarter. "Malware Attacks on the Rise." CNNMoney, Cable News Network, 4 Sept. 2012, money.cnn.com/2012/09/04/technology/malware-cyber-attacks/index.html..
(5) Putman, Patrick. "Script Kiddie: Unskilled Amateur or Dangerous Hackers?" United States Cybersecurity Magazine, 14 Sept. 2018, www.uscybersecurity.net/script-kiddie/.
(6) Starr, Michelle. "Interview with a DDoS Troll: Meet 'the Gods of the Internet'." CNET, CNET, 8 Oct. 2014, www.cnet.com/news/the-gods-of-the-internet/.
(7) Oza, Shyam. "Identity Theft on the Dark Web: The Impact of a Data Breach." Spanning, 17 Oct. 2019, spanning.com/blog/identity-theft-on-the-dark-web/.
(8) Armerding, Taylor. "The 18 Biggest Data Breaches of the 21st Century." CSO Online, CSO, 20 Dec. 2018, www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/the-biggest-data-breaches-of-the-21st-century.html".