Blog Post 4: Online Privacy

This article about online privacy caught my attention immediately. The article starts by listing all the purchases a random man has made within the past few days. This information was obtained through a website called Blippy which shows every purchase you make with a designated credit card. The article goes on to discuss many aspects of online privacy including a statement from the creator of Facebook that lack of privacy has become the social norm. One person interviewed stated that, “The only reason privacy ever existed is because Facebook didn’t. People have always liked talking about what they’re into and the more people share information with one another, the more comfortable others are joining in.” Besides these points, the article discusses how the things that you post online could come back to haunt you.

There is a lot to think about after reading this article. First of all, I was completely shocked that there was a website that posted your credit card purchases. I was even more shocked that people actually used it. Although, the more I thought about this the more I realized that people post this information frequently on social networking sites. People may not post the monetary value of the items they purchase but they will tweet, "Just bought the new Gucci boots!" I wonder if this could be a form of bragging for some people. We all know those people, the ones that list the price of each new item they have to an uninterested listener. Maybe the website Blippy is paradise for these people but I do not see why anybody else would want to use it.

The article also talks about a woman who was a student teacher and posted a picture of herself apparently drunk on Facebook. This woman was denied her teaching certificate because of this incident. In my personal opinion, I wonder how many times young people have to be warned about this before they will start to realize that privacy is a valuable thing. How could posting a picture of yourself drunk on Facebook possibly get you ahead in the world? Drunk pictures do not help anybody and Lindsey Lohan is an excellent example of this. Maybe this is why the rich and famous are fighting so hard for more privacy rights as the article mentions. Perhaps these people have had so much of their lives exposed that they learned the value of privacy.

In general, I think privacy is completely undervalued among members of my age group. I truly believe that what drives younger people to expose their lives to the world is the hope of becoming famous. If they can make their lives seem interesting enough then maybe people will care. Drunk pictures are posted to show off that they are invited to the "best" parties where everyone gets wasted and has a great time. Peer acceptance is the most important issue in their lives at this time and so they give up their privacy to gain more attention. Unfortunately, this can come back to haunt them all too soon when the issue of peer acceptance is overshadowed by getting a job.

I do not really believe that it is right for a social networking site such as Facebook to archive and make information that is supposed to be private accessible to third parties. However, if that is the way it is then people are exposing themselves at their own risk.

Blog Post 3: Israel is looking into Cyberwarfare

So I found an article here that talks about how Israel is preparing for cyberwarfare. In December of 2008, during the winter war in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, there was an Arab attack on the Israeli Internet infrastructure. Israel fought back by hacking into an Arab television network with a message that said, "Hamas leaders are hiding and they left you on the front line." The article goes on to talk about how cyberwarfare can shut down a country's economy and military by attacking its computer systems. Israel's chief of Military Intelligence announced that Israel is becoming a world leader in cyberwarfare. Apparently, he was not lying because according to the article, "In 2008 the Technolytics Institute, a private U.S. consultancy, rated Israel the sixth biggest 'cyberwarfare threat' after China, Russia, Iran, France and 'extremist/terrorist groups.'"

This article gives the impression that cyberwarfare could be a revolutionary change in the way countries fight. I agree with this to some extent. This kind of warfare could literally shut down a country without bloodshed. However, it depends on how a country chooses to use their cyber power. If the country uses it to hack into military systems it could cause more deaths by crashing planes, shutting down strategic defensive bases, etc. On the other hand, a country could choose to just hack into an enemy's computer system and shut down their economy. This would cause the enemy to be extremely crippled without shedding any blood.

The article does mention that cyberwarfare could be a great opportunity for small countries to gain more power. If small countries were extremely technologically advanced they could compete against bigger countries without having to worry about the difference in population size. It seems to me, though, that advances in technology have always given countries the upper hand in warfare. So in this respect, I do not believe cyberwarfare is really a revolutionary change. Nevertheless, I do think cyberwarfare can give very small, militarily weak countries a new opportunity to gain more power than ever. Cyberwarfare could be important for small countries because it is much cheaper than a traditional war. A small country that could not afford to buy military equipment could easily afford a cyberwar. Therefore, small countries could be very empowered by cyberwarfare because they do not need large numbers of people or a lot of money to be successful.

After reading this article, I hope that the U.S. is as advanced in terms of cyberwarfare as Israel. The fact that Israel made such a public announcement seems to imply that they are pretty confident in their cyberwarfare capabilities. I would like to see more media and government attention to this issue in the very near future. With other types of warfare countries have to spend time creating strategies and training their military. Cyberwarfare could easily take less time to execute and could be done in very secretive manner. Basically, as Americans we need to make sure we are not caught by surprise. I truly do believe that superior technology is the most important factor to being a powerful country I think cyberwarfare is something to watch out for.

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