Final Exam Blog Post

Okay everyone this is going to be my final blog post for the semester. For this post I decided to look at two similar articles that talk about the damage malware has caused to two specific areas within Japan.  Now for those of you that didn't read my last blog post:

"malware consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) that is designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, or gain unauthorized access to system resources, or that otherwise exhibits abusive behavior."(Wikipedia)

The two articles I looked at come from the website "Scoop.it" On this website you can find a bunch of post about different issues. The two articles I decided to look at deal with malware and how it is being used to steal very sensitive information relating to the Japanese Government and Mitsubishi Industries which is one of Japan's largest companies.

In the first article: "Japanese Parliament Cyber Attack". The Japanese Parliament talks about how they have come under a cyber attack from a server within China.  In the upper house of the Parliament not to much damage was done, but in the lower house it was said that passwords and other data were stolen and sent back to a server within China. Just recently a number of Japanese diplomats information on the countries they travel to has come under attack.  The intent behind this attack was to steal any pertinent information relating to the diplomats operations.


In the next article: ""Warplane and nuclear plant data were at risk in Mitsubishi Heavy attack" by Dean Wilson. The Japanese government expresses their frustration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries after they had a cyber -attack on their facilities and failed to report the issue in a timely manner. In this instance, it's reported that highly classified data might have been stolen from over 83 computers and servers.

 "The company also revealed that they found evidence that suggested information on fighter jets and helicopters designed for Japan's Ministry of Defence and nuclear power plant and anti-earthquake data was pilfered by the hackers." (Wilson)

Because of this attack the Japanese government has threatened to penalize the company due to confidential information being released. 

In both articles the culprit behind each of these attacks looks to be China. In these cases malware is being used in the worst form possible, because who is ever behind the viruses is using them to steal advanced technology information or in this case find out what their enemy is doing. As most people know China and Japan don't exactly have the best relationship between each other. There is a lot of built up tension between these two countries ever since the last World War.  For this reason it doesn't surprise me that the China seem to be the usual suspects when things of this nature happen in Japan.

In the chart below you will see how the vast majority of malware being sent is coming from China.

 Picture from this site

 

Overall, I am a little worried about some of these cyber-attacks.  You really don't know how much information has been stolen until it's too late. I believe companies need to have stronger safeguards in place to prevent these attacks from happening. We live in a world today were someone can create something so destructive just from behind their own computer. As I always say, individuals and corporations need to be more cognizant of their surroundings and stop being so naive. Instead of waiting for something catastrophic to happen use more preventative measures to combat these such things.

ds106 Assignment #5

For this ds106 assignment I decided to do another spubble. For those of you who still don't know what a spubble is just click on this link for more details "Very Own Spubble."While the spubble is not the most challenging of all the ds106 assignments, I find it to be one of the funniest and most enjoying. I believe this picture was taken while I was in Shibuya. My friends and I found this really cool pet store where they had dogs just running around on the floor.

Common Everyday Object

For this ds106 assignment I chose to take a picture of an everyday object and manipulate the colors around the object. For more details on the assignment you can look here "ds106 Common Everyday Object." So for this assignment I took a picture of Tokyo Tower for anyone who doesn't know what the image is. For me this is a common everyday object because I see it everyday on my way to school. For this semester I have yet to go up to the observation deck. When I was in Tokyo for my first time I went up during the day time but I heard the view at night is in some respects better. I have a couple more weeks left in Japan so I am going to definitely put that on the "TO DO LIST" before I leave.

Regular picture of Tokyo Tower

My view of Tokyo Tower lol

Roppongi Street View Story: ds106

The name of this ds106 assignment is called "Street View Story." The purpose of this assignment is to use Google Maps or Google Earth to find a street view picture of a place you have been to, then to explain the significance of the picture. So for assignment I grabbed a picture of a club I have visited a couple times out here in Tokyo. While it's definitely not the best club in Tokyo, they do play very good music here. I choose this picture because just last weekend while I was there celebrating my friends birthday the police came and shut the club down. It was kinda a big scene there were some 50 cops and there was even a news crew filming the whole incident. It wasn't until later that I  found out the reason the club was shut down. Apparently the club had been operating without a license to allow dancing and to be open past midnight, which I found to be funny.  The club was frequented by a lot of foreigners, so now that it's closed I'm not exactly sure where they are going to go now. I've posted a youtube video clip of the incident below:

Car Lust DS 106

For this Ds 106 Assignment I decided to choose Car Lust as my topic. Audi's in general are my favorite car, but this particular make and model is by far my dream car. It's not to often that I have a chance to see this car in public due to how expensive it is to buy. However, I did see this car parked in the front parking lot outside my apartment. It stood out so much than any other car in the area. Seeing this car makes we want to work harder, so that I will be able to buy it one day.  I think I may have went and started studying right after I saw this car lol. Overall, this is by far my dream car and when I see it in person, it shows me that you can have the nicer things in life as long as your willing to put to time and dedication into your work.

Malware

I'm not even sure how many people are familiar with the term malware. I for one have heard about it but never really did any reading on to to fully understand what it really does and how it can affect your computer.

Wikipedia defines malware as: "short for malicious software, consists of programming (code, scripts, active content, and other software) designed to disrupt or deny operation, gather information that leads to loss of privacy or exploitation, gain unauthorized access to system resources, and other abusive behavior."


In today's society you can find malware anywhere on the internet. A common place to find it is on social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and LinkedIn. Hackers have discovered that people who use these social networking sites are not very cognizant of the information they look at of share. 
A form of malware that can be found on Facebook is through the use of random friend request from people you don't know. This tends to be very common because it seems that most users will add anyone who ask to be their friend. While I have never had this problem, because I don't add people who I don't know personally, I have seen malware through some of the videos that are posted on Facebook. 


The main motive behind malware is so that hackers can steal you personal information such as bank number, social security numbers etc. 


Ways to prevent malware on your computer are through the installation of anti virus software. While this has proven to be very effective, you have to continually check for any update that may be needed for the software. If you fail to continually update your computer you are just leaving the door open for another malware attack. 


While there are many options out there to protect us from malware, in the end it still comes down to us and how cognizant we are of the things we do on the Internet. Those programs can only be as effective as the person using the computer. If you are continuously going to push the limits on things you do on the Internet then you are only asking to get something in return.  

For anyone who is having a problem with malware on your computer, I Found this youtube video that shows you step by step how to remove malware from your computer. The video is kind of long but I think it can be very helpful.

Final Exam Question: What is the name of the company that Facebook has partnered up with to protect users from malicious links?
Answer:Websense

My first Spubble

Ok, so this is my first attempt at a spubble for my first DS106 assignment. A definition of is spubble is when you take a picture of yourself in which your body language, gestures, etc. suggest one thing and then play off that using a speech bubble. To find out a little more detail about the assignment click on the this link "Very Own Spubble." A little background on the picture. It was taken while I was in Osaka and going up this ridiculously long elevator to get to the top of this observation deck at in one of the tallest buildings in the city. I guess if I do any other assignments like this they will be about my travels while out here in Japan.