I'm going to begin by piggybacking off of my last post on the Deep Web to introduce my post on the future of computer crime. The future is most certainly lying within Tor browsers where anonymity allows everybody to do anything that they would please. This includes hacking companies or banks, selling drugs or murdering via a livestream. The issue with the future of computer crime lies simply in the topic itself. Computer crime and, more specifically, anonymous computer crime is difficult to track by its nature and by the time things had added up for law enforcement, the culprit has moved on and away and becomes unable to be tracked again.
The future has written itself out for law enforcement. They have to be able to keep up with the cyber criminals and find productive and effective ways of capturing and prosecuting them. Legislation also needs to be updated to mirror the changing times that we are currently living in. If hacker groups are doing their activities but are benefitting the greater good, shall that be allowed? What are the boundaries that law enforcement can cross when it comes to spying on and watching over people's computer usage? If there is enough circumstantial evidence in a case where computer evidence gets encrypted, shall that be allowed and admitted as a guilty catch?
There are more and more tech-savvy criminals popping up all over the web and it's important for the future of criminal justice to follow suit. Future criminal justice majors such as myself will need to be taught much more about programming and tracing identities through computers as a part of their regular curriculum as opposed to an elective that you choose to take on your own. As much as I enjoyed this course, my head simply cannot wrap itself around the technological side of things with just one course. I unfortunately do not currently have the skills to be placed into any position where I would be relied on to track people's activities through a computer. With the right training, sure. But that training is something that will need to be implemented into college degree programs in the near future.
Friday, November 6, 2015
ROLLING STONE / BLOG 9
Here
I am yet again. Writing about the Deep Web. You know you start noticing things
once you've learned about them? They've always been there but now you're more
educated and can notice them? That's how I am with the Dark Net/Deep Web/etc.
I'm seeing it everywhere! Most recently I was at work and I saw in the mess of
magazines the November issue of Rolling Stone. Right on the cover was "The
Dark Web: Inside the Hidden Internet". I wasn't able to read the issue but
I was lucky enough to find the matching article on Rolling Stone's website.
Aside
from learning more about what I already knew about the Deep Web on how it's
below the "Surface" and uses Tor browsers to keep user anonymous, I
found more out. I had no idea that the government funds the majority of the
Deep Web for good reasons. I was under the assumption that the Tor browser
software somehow funded the Deep Web and that it was only used for bad. I also
discovered more about the "layers" of the Internet. Yes, there is the
"Surface" and the "Deep Web" but there is then the
"Darknet" which is the most private, most protected aspect of the
Deep Web. Ulbricht's case was mentioned as well as "Darkode", a mass
hacker forum and community that was operating in the Deep Web and has now moved
into the Darknet. Terrorists have been using this side of the Internet for
recruiting purposes and planning out attacks. The Deep Web has just gotten
scarier and scarier the more that I've learned about it.
I
decided to watch a YouTube video on the kind of things you can
find. That was a mistake. It made me angry, upset and have so many other
feelings. It now makes so much sense that the government funds this for good
purposes because before I knew that I was always so confused how these people
were able to get away with all of this stuff. I figured it was as simple as
outlawing Tor browsers. When there are good things coming from the Deep Web,
however, things get messy. As the article states, "The same tools that
keep government agents and dissidents anonymous keep criminals virtually
invisible too".
I
am so unbelievably fascinated by the Deep Web and I hope to learn more about it
even after this course has finished up. I'm thankful that this Rolling Stone
article highlighted all of the good things that it can be used for because
after hearing about all of the murder, child pornography and drugs that can be
viewed/purchased via the Deep Web, my heart can rest a little lighter now that
I know it's being balanced out (if it can be balanced out at all) with the
good.
Article link: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-battle-for-the-dark-net-20151022?page=2
Monday, November 2, 2015
ANONYMOUS / BLOG 8
Jumping
back to two posts ago here on my blog… something very interesting has happened
today. The "hacktivist" group Anonymous has begun posting emails and
phone numbers for alleged members of the Ku Klux Klan. 1,000 full identities are
rumored to be exposed this Thursday. This is a black and white example of
fighting evil with evil. On the numerous news sites reporting about this
happening, although it's only been up for about a half hour, there are many
people jumping to the defense of the KKK's anonymity. Yes, what the Klan does
is hateful but an anonymous group giving up the information of another
anonymous organization is wildly ironic.
Ah,
the power of the Internet. This was possible because Anonymous hacked into a
"compromised" Twitter account that housed much of the email
information that they eventually leaked today. Supposedly Anonymous and the
Klan have had issues with each other in the past and Anonymous made it very
clear in their leak today that they were not intending on bashing them for
their use of free speech and that, although it is hateful, their speech is
legal and shall remain so. That being said, Anonymous claims that the Klan's
actions are terrorist-like and much more than an extremist or hate group.
Although
this news is unrelated to Chapter 11 in the text, law enforcement can be tied
in because of the potential leak of political and enforcement leaders' names
later this week. Anonymous has mentioned that they have information about the
Ku Klux Klan that would link them to the Ferguson issues and if that ends up
being true, the topic of police corruption will be raised and potential social
distrust of police would skyrocket.
Since
this news is so recent and sudden, I have not yet formed an opinion on it.
Although I am all for people owning up to their hateful behavior regardless of
they believe they should be guarded by an anonymous curtain, the legitimacy of
this leak is questionable at this point and repercussions from the Klan concern
me. I'm not bothered by the irony of Anonymous leaking other organization's
anonymous information because, as their group type "hacktivist"
suggests, they get their information through hacks in compromised accounts and
sites and that's just as they did with this situation.
Article link: http://www.ibtimes.com/anonymous-begins-publishing-ku-klux-klan-member-details-online-2164710
Wednesday, October 28, 2015
SILK ROAD / BLOG 7
The subject of my blog post this week is more along the lines of Chapters 9 and 11. Chapter 10 not so much. But please, bear with me. After completing lab 7 (and slightly overlapping while completing it), I came across wired.com's "Story of Silk Road" Parts One and Two on Ross Ulbricht and everything prior, during and after the fall of the Silk Road.
I cannot believe that I read the entire thing but I actually did. It was a page-turner. And by page-turner, I mean finger scroller. Since there weren't actual pages I don't know how long the two parts ended up being but it took about an hour to read leisurely. I was fascinated in myself for being so interested in this story. The author brings you on a trip through the rise and fall of the Silk Road, a Dark Web black market website focused on selling drugs and pornography. The story is told from many different angles between Ross Ulbricht, the creator and the different government agencies who were consecutively fighting to crack the case first such as the FBI, DEA and more. Mainly through Ross's journal that he kept on his computer, the reader is able to journey through Ross's life and how he changed internally as the success of Silk Road grew over time. At the peak of his empire, Ross was making $7 million a year. That was quite a substantial amount for the way that Ross was living (with a roommate with no lavish belongings).
Prior to beginning lab 7 I had no idea about the Deep Web or how to access it. By completing the lab and reading this story I am confident that my base knowledge is set and now I can only begin to learn more. I was absolutely taken by how Agent Force in the story working for the FBI was able to con Ulbricht by chatting with him. Force was able to get onto Silk Road and begin conversing with Ulbricht, who favored community over anything. Force pretended to be a cartel head and over the course of a YEAR and A HALF gained his trust through (staged) assassinations, advice and simple friendship. Although Ross was intelligent and a good business man when it came to the Silk Road, he was not tech-savvy at all. That eventually led to his downfall and aided in his foolishness when he didn't realize or figure out that he was not talking to 'Nob' the cartel leader but instead Agent Force who was sitting in his family's living room on his laptop. The Rise and Fall of Silk Road was an incredible eye-opener that taught me so much about a topic I knew so little on; so little on that I didn't even know the subject itself before this week.
If you are reading my blog and have never read the WIRED articles/stories on Ross Ulbricht, please do. It will be educational to any eye that reads it regardless of how little or much you know about the Deep Web or the Silk Road itself.
Monday, October 19, 2015
HATE GROUPS / BLOG 6
Despite
the downward slide in numbers of hate groups in America, the groups that are
still around are reverting back to their old ways of communicating strictly by
word-of-mouth. Leaving the Internet marks a big change in ways for these groups
as they are going against what the entirely of the country is doing. While
everybody has begun relying on technology to intervene into almost every aspect
of our lives, hate groups strive to get back to their old ways so that they can
conserve their power and regain strength after faltering in their numbers in
recent years.
The
reelection of Barack Obama has been marked as the cause of the dwindling
amounts of hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan and more but the initial
election of President Obama is what started sprouting so many groups up to
begin with. Obama’s election made these groups angsty because of his race,
naturally, but his reelection showed that the general public was okay with his
background and that ostracizing realization is what could have made the groups
lose steam. Now that the decline has begun, hopefully this decline can slide us
back and past the numbers that were around pre-2008 and pre-Obama in the White
House.
How
could these groups operate without any form of communication other than verbal
communication? They are “everywhere” says a member of the Klan and with over
150 chapters in the country, it can’t be that difficult to come together when
needed. But this does make me wonder if the violence and evil doings of these
hate groups will become more centralized to the specific chapters within the
groups instead of potentially mass events or occurrences because of this shift
offline.
This
CNN article mentioned that another cause for the decline could be legislation
shifting to the right and aligning more with these extremist’s views.
Regardless of how these groups feel about the current political climate, the
fact that they are moving off of the Internet is going to allow the groups to
regain their strength in leadership again, which while stronger leadership in a
group that spread so much hate is not necessarily what everybody wants, it is
proven that having a leader in place diminishes chances of violent outbursts
between the members of the group and the public and more specifically, the
groups of people that the group is against.
Article link: http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/25/us/hate-groups-decline
Tuesday, October 6, 2015
SUBWAY NO WAY / BLOG 5
After
finishing up with my reading of chapter 8 on cyber obscenity, one story rang
clear in my mind. That story is of fallen Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle who
last month reached a plea agreement in his child pornography scandal. Jared
Fogle was charged for possessing child pornography and for crossing state lines
in order to have paid sex with minors. Fogle's plea deal would allow him to see
between five to over twelve years in prison for his crimes. Aside from his jail
time, Jared Fogle will also give money for damages to his victims.
This
much reported about story brings to light a very large issue of cyber obscenity
that is child pornography. Child pornography has become such a large issue with
trafficking of images of minors to producing and even creating digital versions
of children inappropriately on the Internet. Fogle obtained his images
from a man who was working for his Jared Foundation and instead of turning the
man into the cops, took the creepy role and kept the images for himself and eventually
acting on those desires of his that he had by then made clear.
In
this case, the term “child” is often misrepresented as many of the children involved
were near legal age to consent to sexual relations. That does not make the acts
of Jared and the man involved through the Jared Foundation any less guilty of
their acts. These images are still around and will be around to haunt the
victims for the rest of their lives. That is the main issue in my mind about
cyber obscenity is that even if the images are of people who are of-age and
even if it was consensual at the time does not mean that those people will feel
the same way in twenty years when those images and/or videos will still be in
perfect form to be replicated or sent around the Internet.
What is
the absolute worst side of this story, if there really could even be one, is
that the man who worked for the Jared Foundation obtained these obscenities by
secretly video taping the victims in his bedroom. These victims did not even
know that they were being recorded and later passed onto Jared Fogle at all.
$100,000 per victim may be a lot of money but it does not cover up any of the
immoral acts that the man and Fogle did during this entire incident.
Article link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/21/us/subway-jared-fogle-charges/index.html
Wednesday, September 23, 2015
FINGERPRINT BREACH / BLOG 4
This
story may be a popular one this week. I signed onto Facebook to see that a
popular story currently is a data breach of the Office of Personnel Management
where over 5.5 million fingerprints were accessed and stolen. The story
originally was that "only" 1.1 million were compromised but that
number jumped massively as the investigation continued. While the hackers did
not get much from all of these fingerprints, as technology advances,
fingerprints may be more useful for the hackers. As for right now, fingerprints
do not allow enough access into the personal lives.
This
made me wonder what the future could hold for hackers and their victims in the
future. As of right now, the only common sense thing that I could think of that
my fingerprints link me to is my identity. They don't give you my social
security number nor do they allow access to my banking account and routing
numbers. But then I had to second-guess myself. I had remembered about my
iPhone 6 sitting next to me. With one of the most recent operating system
updates on my iPhone came fingerprinting "Touch ID" where I can
unlock my phone, access Apple Pay and both Apple's App and iTunes Stores with
the touch of my thumb or forefinger. Or any other finger that I decide to make
my phone memorize for easy access.
I
had just been talking with my roommates a few days earlier about how the Touch
ID feature was one of the best additions to the new operating system and how I
never knew that I needed it until I had it. With this personal realization
comes the understanding that fingerprint scanners are going to begin to
infiltrate the everyday person’s life in more ways over the years most likely.
Once we as a society begin to become more reliant on them, that’s when hackers
who have accessed this information that has affected over 21.5 million people
will have more damage to cause.
While
not directly related to this week’s topic in the text, I felt that this story
was meant to be on my Facebook. Fingerprints seem like a thing of the past when
they are most likely going to be a part of our future. My prediction for
the future is that we will become more reliant on our prints in places like the
airport or bank in addition to other sensitive information like our social
security number. Fingerprints are an obviously unique aspect of each of our
bodies that it seems crazy that we’ve never really relied on them outside of a
criminal investigation or something of the sort. Thankfully this breach
occurred while we are less reliant on prints and over the years if we begin
stretching towards the use of them, technology and security can learn with us
so that a breach of this magnitude does not occur again. Maybe I could be
entirely wrong in my prediction and maybe fingerprints will stop at Apple and
iPhones.
Article link: http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/opm-5-6-million-fingerprints-not-1-1-million-were-n432281?cid=sm_tw&hootPostID=2b259895c48c0d9742f7bfbe0f5adfa4
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