Fluency with Information Technology 2012-01-27Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1...

When IT Goes BadFrom Software to Society

Fluency with Information Technology

2012-01-27 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1

INFO100 and CSE100

Katherine Deibel

Errors and IT

Basic fact: Technology can go bad At least two sources of fault

How the technology operates

How people use the technology At least two forms of correction

Debugging

IT Fluency


DebuggingTHE ANTS… THEY'RE IN

MY PANTS!!!



But before we begin…

A Historical Note

5

An Amazing Photo

Philadelphia Inquirer, "Your Neighbors" article, 8/13/1957

2012-01-27 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology

6

Grace Hopper

Education Vasser: B.S. in Mathematics & Physics

Yale: M.S. and Ph.D. in Mathematics

Naval Career Joined Naval Reserves (1943)

Assigned to work with Howard Aiken

Harvard First person to write a program for the Mark I

(arctangent calculations)

Member of the Mark II and III development teams


7

The Infamous Bug

While working on the Mark II, Hopper discovered a moth stuck in a relay.

Originated the term “debugging”


DebuggingTHE ANTS… THEY'RE STILL IN MY PANTS!!!


Many Types of Debugging

Programming Debugging Writing HTML, CSS, Javascript, etc.

Software Malfunction Program crashes, feature doesn't work

as expected, etc. Hardware Debugging

Printer will not print

Wireless will not connect


Your Role as the Debugger

Programming Debugging You are the chief mechanic

Software and Hardware Mechanic Your role is much more limited


Historically, it was much, much easier for people without technical degrees to perform repairs on home electronics: televisions, radios, etc.

Programming Debugging

Ignore the number of errors Remember, errors propagate errors

Start with the error that first occurs Again, errors propagate errors

If there is error feedback, read it! Make a fix and then check

Do NOT fix repeated errors unless you are certain that you know the cause


Example: XHTML Validation

We attempt to validate a page We get 24 errors and warnings.. EEK! What do we do?



We attempt to validate a page We get 24 errors and warnings.. EEK!


Ignore the number of errors


First error reported is an <h1> tag

<h1 class="banner>…</h1> We put in the missing quote


Start with the first occurring error


We save and revalidate Only 4 errors and warnings now


Make a fix and then check


All of our errors now look like this We need to put <img> inside <p>…

</p> We can do this for all four


Line 11, Column 25: document type does not allow element "img" here; missin one of "p", "h1", "h2", "h3", "h4", "h5", h6", "div", "pre", "address", "fieldset", "ins", "del" start-tag

... <img src="photo.png" alt="a cute calico cat" />

Only fix multiple errors if certain of cause

Software/Hardware Debugging

Much more difficult If possible, first save and backup your work Look around and see what you know Read the screen

Write down any error messages to look up online

Is there a pointer/link that offers help When in doubt, restart


Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 18

The Levels of Restart

Close and restart the program Might need to close in Task Manager (Windows)

Log out and log back in Restart the machine (hot reboot) Shutdown the machine, wait a few

minutes, then restart (cold reboot)

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Why Restarting Helps

Think mental exhaustion When programs run

Memory gets allocated and deallocated (available for others to use)

Memory is not cleared when deallocated Legacies of past calculations build up

Minor things begin to snowball

Entropy ensues


Why Restarting Helps

Helps flush away the clutter, clears the board, etc.

Power down causes most volatile memory to "zero" out

Basically gives programs a do-over, mulligan, fresh start, etc.


But I must whine…Why bugs will always occur


IT Cannot Be Perfect

Bugs, errors, etc. cannot be avoided beyond very simple situations Proven to be mathematically impossible

Unless you invoke a god-like being

But you cannot prove the god-like being will always work

Unless you invoke a god-like, god-like being…

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We Do Our Best

Software engineering Testing before products hit market Upgrades and fixes Risk assessments and failure cost

analyses


Debugging will always be necessary

When Users Go BadDon't always blame the inventors and engineers


How IT Goes Bad

Spam Scams Phishing Viruses Trojans Malware Misinformation Pollution


Spam – Not a pork product

Different definitions Informal: e-mail you don't want

Formal: unsolicited e-mail Estimated to be ≈80% of all e-mail Mostly sent by bot-nets

Virus-infected computers

Distributed across globe

No central means of takedown


Spam – Address Collection

Some companies sell their lists Hacking of lists We give our e-mail addresses to them

Crawled from webpage mailto links

Our names are listed at organizations▪ John Smith is a student at UW

▪ UW e-mails are @uw.edu

▪ Try [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], etc.


Avoiding Giving Out E-mail

Make it harder to crawl from a page I avoid mailto links

List e-mail verbosely: deibel AT uw DOT edu

Do not make your address an image file—This violates accessibility guidelines

Keep separate e-mail addresses An e-mail address purely for online shopping

A dump addresses for registering products, etc.

I never check these except when I am interacting with said companies


Spam Filtering

Incorporated into e-mail clients and providers Series of filters that add “points” to email

score Examples

Forged header information

Suspicious content

No text, just an image

Foreign language email

Fonts all in Caps Threshold determines if e-mail is spam

How Spam Filters Work

Spam filters cannot “understand” the content of a message, they just guess based on message characteristics

Spam score is computed by checking Forged message headers

Suspicious text content (keywords like “lottery” or “mortgage”)

No text, just as image (an attempt to foil text checks)

Foreign language text

Fonts styles – all caps, large font size, bright colors

How Spam Filters Work

If the score passes some threshold, the message is quarantined, meaning put aside in a spam folder

User can scan the spam folder for legitimate messages that have been wrongly flagged

Spam Filtering Threshold

Set too high, you miss some e-mails Set too low, you get more spam No perfect value in general

Adjust until it works for you

Might need to 'whitelist' certain addresses

Whitelisting

Opposite of blacklisting A list of entities you want to allow in Examples for Kate:

E-mails from Sallie Mae (student loans)

Student e-mails▪ Hotmail addresses

▪ Foreign characters


Spam Netiquette

Many of the commercial spam emails we receive seem unsolicited, but may not be so

We often have given our permission to the sender we may not remember doing this

it was in some small print or checkbox on some Web form or site we used

Reputable companies provide “opt out” addresses or links in the ads so we can get off the mailing lists

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Scams

Nigerian E-mail Scam

SUBJECT: URGENT RESPONSEDEAR SIRIT IS WITH HEART FULL OF HOPE THAT I WRITE TO SEEK YOUR HELP IN THE CONTEXT BELOW. I AM MRS. MUNIRAT ABACHA THE SECOND WIFE OF THE FORMER NIGERIA HEAD OF STATE, LATE GENERAL SANI ABACHA, WHOSE SUDDEN DEATH OCCURRED ON 8TH OF JUNE 1998.

HAVING GOTTEN YOUR PARTICULARS FROM THE FAMILY LIBRARY, I HAVE NO DOUBT ABOUT YOUR CAPACITY AND GOOD WILL TO ASSIST US IN RECEIVING INTO YOUR CUSTODY (FOR SAFETY) THE SUM OF US $20 MILLION WILLED AND DEPOSITED IN MY FAVOUR BY MY LATE HUSBAND, PLUS 24 CARAT GOLD DUST WORTH USD5M.

…

Scams

Old tricks, new technologies You've won a lottery so we need your

bank account number

Forward this e-mail to collect money for a kidney transplant

Free chemicals at European prices


Phishing

False web site for collecting personal information Most companies will not send e-mails such as this

Check the links

Contact the company directly

<a href="http://borscht.ru/custverifyinfo.aspx">http://trustedbank.com/general/custverifyinfo.asp</a>

Malware: Malicious Software

Viruses

SW that rides along on other software with the intent of doing damage and propagating

Worms

SW that transmits itself (often by email) with the intent of doing damage and propagating

Trojan

SW inside of other SW with monitoring or other malicious purposes

Spyware

SW resident in your computer trying to find information about you for malicious purposes

First Virus: Morris Worm

The first major malicious attack on computers came from Robert Tappan Morris, Jr, a Cornell CS major who lost control of self-replicating software in 1988

It took down 10% of the Internet (~6000 machines) and cost millions to recover from

Morris got 3 years probation, 400 hrs community service, $10,000 fine

Vectors of Attack

E-mail attachments Even friends and family may send them

Facebook Apps Infected websites

Google warns you about these if it can Infected ads on websites

Rare nowadays Infected downloads from sketchy sites

Just buy your own copy of Plants vs Zombies


Misinformation

Sometimes it's not the technology but the message Credibility of web pages

Appeal to popularity

Deliberate tampering

Fearmongering


Googlebombing

Embedding links in web pages to change Google Search results

Positive and negative uses Positive:

Prevent an anti-semitic site from being the first result for 'jew'

Negative:Link "dumb motherf***er" to George W. Bush during the 2000 elections


Wikipedia Falsehoods

Vandalism is frequent but gets caught usually quickly Easier for popular topics

Seigenthaler Incident

Palin-Paul Revere revisionism Neutral point-of-view contention


Internet Diseases

Munchausen by Internet People self-diagnosing via WebMD

Faking illnesses for sympathy Morgellons

First Internet-spread epidemic

Non-existing illness that is a group think led hysterical delusional parasitosis


Pollution

Disposing of old electronics Too hazardous for landfills

Few recycling options Recycling efforts are problematic

Shipped to third world countries

Sits outside and contaminates area

Poor working conditions for recycling staff


Other Errors of IT Use

Intellectual Property Theft TV shows

Movies

Books Distractions

Productivity drops due to e-mail

Workers spend time on Facebook Cyberbullying, flame wars, etc.


Not all IT is BadRight?


Lots of Positive Aspects to IT

Greater access to information Connecting disparate groups New means of expression, sharing,

ideas, learning, etc. What are some others?


Summary

IT can and does go wrong at times. Sometimes it's the technology

Debugging can help you fix the problems

You just need to observe and think Sometime it's the use of technology

Be aware of how it can go wrong

Be smart, careful, and kind IT should be a net positive


Fluency with Information Technology 2012-01-27Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1...

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Transcript of Fluency with Information Technology 2012-01-27Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 1...