COMPUTERS AND MARKETING

Marketing is the process by which goods are sold and purchased. The aim of marketing is to acquire, retain, and satisfy customers. Modern marketing has evolved into a complex and diverse field. This field includes a wide variety of special functions such as advertising, mail-order business, public relations, retailing and merchandising, sales, market research, and pricing of goods. Businesses, and particularly the marketing aspect of businesses, rely a great deal on the use of computers. Computers play a significant role in inventory control, processing and handling orders, communication between satelite companies in an organization, design and production of goods, manufacturing, product and market analysis, advertising, producing the company newsletter, and in some cases, complete control of company operations. In today's extremely competitive business environment businesses are searching for ways to improve profitability and to maintain their position in the marketplace. As competition becomes more intense the formula for success becomes more difficult. Two particular things have greatly aided companies in their quests to accomplish these goals. They are the innovative software products of CAD/CAM and, last but not least, the World Wide Web. An important program has aided companies all over the world. Computer-aided design and computer-aided manufacturing (CAD/CAM) is the integration of two technologies. It has often been called the new industrial revolution. In CAD, engineers and designers use specialized computer software to create models that represent characteristics of objects. These models are analyzed by computer and redesigned as necessary. This allows companies needed flexibility in studying different and daring designs without the high costs of building and testing actual models, saving millions of dollars. In CAM, designers and engineers use computers for planning manufacturing processes, testing finished parts, controlling manufacturing operations, and managing entire plants. CAM is linked to CAD through a database that is shared by design and manufacturing engineers. The major applications of CAD/CAM are mechanical design and electronic design. Computer-aided mechanical design is usually done with automated drafting programs that use interactive computer graphics. Information is entered into the computer to create basic elements such as circles, lines, and points. Elements can be rotated, mirrored, moved, and scaled, and users can zoom in on details. Computerized drafting is quicker and more accurate than manual drafting. It makes modifications much easier. Desktop manufacturing enables a designer to construct a model directly from data which is stored in computer memory. These software programs help designers to consider both function and manufacturing consequences at early stages, when designs are easily modified. More and more manufacturing businesses are integrating CAD/CAM with other aspects of production, including inventory tracking, scheduling, and marketing. This idea, known as computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), speeds processing of orders, adds to effective materials management, and creates considerable cost savings. In addition to designing and manufacturing a product, a company must be effectively able to advertise, market, and sell its product. Much of what passes for business is nothing more than making connections with other people. What if you could passout your business card to thousands, maybe millions of potential clients and partners? You can, twenty four hours a day, inexpensively and simply on the World Wide Web. Firms communicate with their customers through various types of media. This media usually follows passive one-to-many communication where a firm reaches many current and potential customers through marketing efforts that allow limited forms of feedback on the part of the customer. For several years a revolution has been developing that is dramatically changing the traditional form of advertising and communication media. This revolution is the Internet, a massive global network of interconnected computer networks which has the potential to drastically change the way firms do business with their customers. The World Wide Web is a hypertext based information service. It provides access to multimedia, complex documents, and databases. The Web is one of the most effective vehicles to provide information because of its visual impact and advanced features. It can be used as a complete presentation media for a company's corporate information or information on all of its products and services. The recent growth of the world wide web (WWW) has opened up new markets and shattered boundaries to selling to a worldwide audience. For marketers the world wide web can be used to creat a client base, for product and market analysis, rapid information access, wide scale information dissemination, rapid communication, cost-effective document transfers, expert advise and help, recruiting new employees, peer communi- cations, and new business opportunities. The usefullness of the Internet or WWW depends directly on the products or services of each business. There are different benefits depending upon the type of business and whether you are a supplier, retailer, or distributor. Lets examine these in more detail. Finding new clients and new client bases is not always an easy task. This process involves a careful market analysis, product marketing and consumer base testing. The Internet is a ready base of several million people from all walks of life. One can easily find new customers and clients from this massive group, provided that your presence on the internet is known. If you could keep your customer informed of every reason why they should do business with you, your business would definitely increase. Making business information available is one of the most inportant ways to serve your customers. Before people decide to become customers, they want to know about your company, what you do and what you can do for them. This can be accomplished easily and inexpensively on the World Wide Web. Many users also do product analyses and comparisons and report their findings via the World Wide Web. Quite frequently one can find others who may be familiar with a product that you are currently testing. A company can get first hand reports on the functionality of such products before spending a great deal of money. Also, the large base of Internet users is a principle area for the distribution of surveys for an analysis of the market for a new product of service ideas. These surveys can reach millions of people and potential clients with very little effort on the part of the surveyors. Once a product is already marketed, you can examine the level of satisfaction that users have received from the product. Getting customer feedback can lead to new and improved products. Feedback will let you know what customers think of your product faster, easier and much less expensively than any other market you may reach. For the cost of a page or two of Web programming, you can have a crystal ball into where to position your product or service in the marketplace. Accessing information over the Internet is much faster on most occasions than transmissions and transfers via fax or postal courier services. You can access information and data from countries around the world and make interactive connections to remote computer systems just about anywhere in the world. Electronic mail has also proved to be an effective solution to the problem of telephone tag. Contacting others through email has provided a unique method of communication which has the speed of telephone conversations, yet still provides the advantages of postal mail. Email can be sent from just about anywhere that there is an Internet service or access so that businessmen or travelers can keep in touch with up to the minute details of the office. Another benefit of the World Wide Web is wide scale information circulation. You can place documents on the Internet and instantly make them accessible to millions of users around the world. Hypertext documents provide an effective technique by which to present information to subscribers, clients or the general public. Creating World Wide Web documents and registering your site with larger Web sites improves the availability of the documents to a client base larger, and cheaper, than the circulation of many major newspapers and/or television medias. You may not be able to use the mail, phone system and regulation systems in all of your potential international markets. With the World Wide Web, however, you can open up a dialogue with international markets as easily as with the company accross the street. The Web is also more cost-effective than conventional advertising. Transferring on- line documents via the Internet takes a minimal amount of time, saving a great deal of money over postal or courier services which can also suffer late deliveries, losses or damage. If a document transfer fails on the Internet, you can always try again since the cost of the transfer is exactly the same. Current or potential clients are not lost due to late or absent documents. Beyond product and market analysis, there are a great number of experts on the Internet who make their presence widely known and easily accessable. Quite often you can get free advice and help with problems you might have from the same people you may otherwise pay highly for their consulting services to large organizations, magazines, and other periodicals. Researchers and business executives alike have attested to the fact that much of their communications over the Internet are with others in their line of research or field of work. Communicating with peers allows the sharing of ideas, problems and solutions among themselves. Often people find that others in their field have already created solutions for problems similar to their own. They are able to obtain advice on their own situations and create a solution based upon this shared knowledge. Many businessmen and conpanies are continuously on the look-out for new and innovative ideas as viable business ventures. Internet users are continuously coming up with such new ideas because of the available research the Internet offers and also because of the cooperative atmosphere that surrounds the internet. In addition, the Internet has many job lists and resumes online for prospective employers. New resumes are constantly posted to the Web to inform companies of the availability of new skills. As competition intensifies in the business world, consumers are faced with more and more products and services to choose from. The future of business is being decided right now in the minds and wallets of customers. The successful business and marketing approach utilizes everything possible to insure that the choice the customer makes is to choose their product or service. Computer technology is by far the most important and impressive means by which to insure a company's success. Computers play a significant role in every aspect of a company's survival, from product design and manufacturing, creating client databases, inventory control , market analysis, advertising and sales, and even total company operations.

Virtual Reality

Virtual reality as of recent, while still extremely new, has become the topic of many opposing viewpoints. It has caught the eye of the general public for several reasons. Perhaps, this is mainly because of all the possibilities which virtual reality creates. Note that the possibilities are not pre-determined as either good or bad, mainly because there are many different opinions to the future of this developing technology. However, despite the controversy this new technology has aroused, society should not remain skeptical. Virtual reality has the potential, if used correctly, to become a great technological advancement that will aid society in many ways. In the past, virtual reality has been nothing more than a small step beyond video games. However, it is now apparent that this technology can be used for more practical purposes. These purposes include national defense, surgical procedures and various other applications. Society has not fully acknowledged the benefits of virtual reality as of yet because it is still under development. The reason for virtual reality remaining in its development for so long is mainly due to its complexity. The hardware that has developed so far is unable to make the large calculations required by a virtual reality based machine. However, as apparent in recent years, technology is advancing at an extreme rate. This is another reason why society's hopes for virtual reality should and have remained unwaivered. In Orenstein's story, she gives the perspective of the average citizen who is obviously uncertain about the uses and/or affects that virtual reality will have upon society. The show she attended was quick to point out the practicality of virtual reality however, it still left much to be desired. It seems that Orenstein was disgruntled when she came to an exhibit and the topic of cyber-sex was raised. Perhaps it wasn't just that it came up but more like how it came up. The idea of a man and woman being in a virtual world and a man fondling the womans breasts was probably, although very much possible, not a great first impression. It gave Orenstein the opportunity to explore the evils that virtual reality makes possible. After a while, Orenstein realizes that just like the computing age has hackers, the virtual age will have it's own high-tech delinquents. You can't prevent technology from being abused. There will be those who use VR rudely, stupidly, dangerously--just as they do the telephone or computer. Like the telephone and the modem, its popular rise will also eliminate the need for certain fundamental kinds of human contact, even as it enhances our ability to communicate. (Orenstein 258) Here she is quick to point out that because virtual reality is such a new technology it is extremely possible for hackers to have their way with it. Perhaps she also points out that in order for society to accept this new technology they will have to accept it's risks as well. In the government's perspective use of virtual reality it is easy to see how this technology proves useful. Supposing that the United States got into a war, by using virtual reality pilots instead of real pilots the number of casualties would obviously be less. Pilots would fly their aircraft from a remote location via video and audio equipment in the form of virtual reality. As technology increases over the next several years it will become easier and easier for the pilots to fly planes from a remote location. However, despite all the lives this may save there is a down side. The down side being that perhaps this will stimulate the government to react more easily in a violent way. Without any loss of lives the only thing the government has to lose by attacking are the cost of planes. Keeping this idea in mind, it is very likely that the US will spend less time negotiating and more time fighting. This is most definitely a negative side-affect of virtual reality because it will weaken the relationship that the US has with other countries. Integrating virtual reality with society is where the majority of problems occur. It is clearly apparent that because this technology is so new society is unsure how it will fit in. This is also a good example of why people's opinions are so varied. Some people see virtual reality as just another tool which will aid society in several ways. Others see it as dominating society all together and affecting everyone's lives everyday. It obviously has the potential to be both and it is easy to see why people are so hesitant to decide. Perhaps another reason for society's lack of optimism is their fear that they will somehow be removed from actual reality. Although quite ironic, for a long time society has had a fear that technology will someday take control of their lives. Perhaps the idea of technology becoming so advanced that people will no longer be able to tell whether they are in virtual or actual reality. It is clear that technology has definitely affected society in recent years. However, it is quite difficult to predict the role of technology in the future. The potential for technology is certainly there, it just needs to be focused it the right direction. Technology most definitely has the ability to run out of control. Just the idea alone, of man creating technology and having it run out of control is something society has been fascinated with for many years. Books and movies depicting technology overwhelming society have been created with much of this idea in mind. Perhaps it is possible that virtual reality will be that technology which man is unable to control and will take over all of society. If this is the case, society and the people within it would become uncertain if they were in virtual or actual reality. It must be pointed out however, due to the nature and precaution of society in general, it is very unlikely that anything like this will ever actually occur. If society is intelligent enough to invent such a technology it should be able to determine and control it's consequences. Orenstein brings up a good point when she says, "This time, we have the chance to enter the debate about the direction of a revolutionary technology, before that debate has been decided for us"(258). Often times in the past, society as a whole has been subject to decisions made by those of the creators of new technology. In this quote however, Orenstein points out that with this technology people should not only try but make it a priority to get involved. She, as many others do, see this technology as having a huge amount of potential. Without the direction and influence of society upon virtual reality it could go to waste, or even worse, turn into society's enemy of sorts. Towards the end of the story she tries to depict how virtual reality will have an impact upon society whether they like it or not. As I rode down the freeway, I found myself going a little faster than usual, edging my curves a little sharper, coming a little close than was really comfortable to the truck merging in the lane ahead of me. Maybe I was just tired. It had been a long night. But maybe it just doesn't take the mind that long to grab onto the new and make it real. Even when you don't want it to. She depicts that no matter how much society is aware of virtual reality, the human brain still has instincts that cannot be controlled. That is one of the drawbacks of virtual reality. That no one is sure what to expect. Just as with any other technology, the only way to find out the results of virtual reality are to test the limits. Knowing that virtual reality has the ability to affect so many people in such a large number of ways there needs to be some kind of limitation. This brings up another key controversy as to who should be in control of limiting this virtual world. If the government is in control it could likely be abused and mishandled. However, if society as a whole is left to contemplate its uses, the affects could be either good or bad. Although society knows a lot about virtual reality there is still so much that it doesn't know. Perhaps in the coming years, new technology will come out and people will learn more about this virtual world. However, until that time, the questions will remain numerous and doubtful yet the possibilities are unlimited.

COMPUTER VIRUSES

<1>WHAT IS A COMPUTER VIRUS: The term usually used to define a computer virus is: ' A computer virus is often malicious software which replicates itself' [ Podell 1987 for similar definition ] - COMPUTER VIRUSES ARE BASICALLY PROGRAMS, LIKE A SPREADSHEET OR A WORD PROCESSOR. - PROGRAMS WHICH CAN INSERT EXECUTABLE COPIES OF ITSELF INTO OTHER PROGRAMS. - PROGRAMS THAT MANIPULATES PROGRAMS, MODIFIES OTHER PROGRAMS AND REPRODUCE ITSELF IN THE PROCESS. Comparing Biological viruses & Computer viruses ************************************************************* * Attack specific * Attack specific * * body cells * programs (*.COM *.EXE) * ************************************************************* * Modify the genetic information * Manipulate the program: * * of a cell other than previous 1* It performs tasks * ************************************************************* * New viruses grow in the * The infected program produces * * infected cell itself * virus programs * ************************************************************* * Infected cells aren't infected * Program are infected only once* * more than once by the same cell* by most programs* ************************************************************* * An infected organism may not * The infected program can work * * exhibit symptoms for a while * without error for a long time * ************************************************************* * Not all cells with which the * Program can be made immune * * virus contact are infected * against certain viruses * ************************************************************* * Viruses can mutate and thus * Virus program can modify * * cannot be clearly told apart * themselves & possibly escape * * * detection this way * ************************************************************* However, " computer virus " is just another name for a class of programs. They can do anything that another program can. The only distinguishing characteristic is the program has ability to reproduce and infect other programs. <2>WHAT KIND OF PROGRAM ARE CHARACTERIZED AS A VIRUS PROGRAM: - PROGRAM WHICH HAS CAPABILITY TO EXECUTE THE MODIFICATION ON A NUMBER OF PROGRAMS. - CAPABILITY TO RECOGNIZE A MODIFICATION PERFORMED ON A PROGRAM.(THE ABILITY TO PREVENT FURTHER MODIFICATION OF THE SAME PROGRAM UPON SUCH RECONDITION.) - MODIFIED SOFTWARE ASSUME ATTRIBUTES 1 TO 4. <3>HOW DOES A VIRUS SPREAD: A computer virus can only be put into your system either by yourself or someone else. One way in which a virus can be put into your computer is via a Trojan Horse. -TROJAN HORSE IS USUALLY CONTAMINATED IN DISKS WHICH ARE PARTICULARY PIRATED COPIES OF SOFTWARE. IT IS SIMPLY A DAMAGING PROGRAM DISGUISED AS AN INNOCENT ONE. MANY VIRUSES MAYBE HIDDEN IN IT, BUT T.H. THEMSELVES DO NOT HAVE THE ABILITY TO REPLICATE. Viruses also can be spread through a Wide Area network (WAN) or a Local Area Network (LAN) by telephone line. For example down loading a file from a local BBS. BBS(bulletin board system)-AN Electronic mailbox that user can access to send or receive massages. However, there seems to be countless numbers of ways to become infected. Every-time you down loads a program from somewhere or borrowed a disk from a friend, you are taking a risk of getting infected. <4>DAMAGES AND SIGNS OF INFECTION: a.> Fill Up your P.C. with Garbage: As a virus reproduces, it takes up space. This space cannot be used by the operator. As more copies of the virus are made, the memory space is lessened. b.> Mess Up Files: Computer files have a fixed method of being stored. With this being the case, it is very easy for a computer virus to affect the system so some parts of the accessed files cannot be located. c.> Mess Up FAT: FAT(the File Allocation Table) is the method used to contain the information required about the location of files stored on a disk. Any allocation to this information can cause endless trouble. d.> Mess Up The Boot Sector: The boot sector is the special information found on a disk. Changing the boot sector could result in the inability of the computer to run. e.> Format a Disk/ Diskette: A virus can simply format a disk as the operator would with the format or initialise command. f.> Reset The Computer: To reset the computer, the operator or the user only has to press a few keys. The virus can do this by sending the codes to the operating system. g.> Slowing Things Down: As the name implies, the object of the virus is to slow down the running line of the program. h.> Redefine Keys: The computer has been program to recognize that certain codes/ signals symbolize a certain keystroke. The virus could change the definition of these keystrokes. i.> Lock The Keyboard: redefining all keys into an empty key. <5>WHAT TO DO AFTER VIRUS ATTACKS: When signs of a virus attack have been recognized, the virus has already reproduced itself several times. Thus, to get rid of the virus, the user has to hack down and destroy each one of these copies. The easier way is to: 1. Have the original write protected back-up copy of your operating system on a diskette. 2. Power down the machine. 3. Boot up the system from the original system diskette. 4. Format the hard disk. 5. Restore all back-ups and all executable program. *If it's not effective, power down and seek for professional help* <6> TYPE OF VIRUSES: a.> OVER-WRITING VIRUSES b.> NON-OVERWRITNG VIRUSES c.> MEMORY RESENDENT VIRUSES <7>PRACTICE SAFE HEX: Viruses are a day to day reality. Different activities leads to different exposure. To protect oneself from a virus, several things can be done: 1. Avoid them in the first place. 2. Discovering and getting rid of them. 3. Repairing the damage. The simple thing that can cut down on exposure rate are to: avoid pirate software, checking programs that have been down loaded form the BBS before running them. Make sure that you have sufficient backups. <8> ANTIVIRUS PRODUCTS COMPANY: The pace at which new antiviral products have been pouring onto the market has accelerated rapidly since the major infection of 1988. Indeed, by early 1989, there were over 60 proprietary products making varied claims for effectiveness in preventing or detecting virus attacks. For: IBM PCs & Compatibles DISK DEFENDER PC SAFE McAFEE SCAN DIRECTOR TECHNOLOGIES THE VOICE CONNECTION McAFEE ASSOCIATES 906 University Place 17835 Skypark Circle 4423 Cheeney Street Evanston, IL 60201 Irvine, CA 92714 Santa Clara, CA 95054 TEL: (408) 727-4559 TEL: (714) 261-2366 TEL: (408) 988-3832 Price: $ 240.00 U.S. Price: $ 45.00 U.S. Price: $ 80.00 U.S. Class : HARD.2 Class : SOFT.1 Class: SOFT.3 For: Macintosh Plus, SE, & II(Apple) VIREX HJC SOFTWARE P.O. BOX 51816 Durham, NC 27717 TEL: (919) 490-1277 Price: $ 99.95 U.S. Class : SOFT.3 *Class 1(infection prevention class)* Most Class 1 products are unable to distinguish between an acceptable or unacceptable access to an executable program. For example, a simply DOS COPY command might cause the waring appear on screen. *Class 2(infection detection class)* All Class 2 products are able to distinguish all DOS commands. Addition to Class 1's prevention fuction, it is able to protect all COM and EXE files from infection. *Class 3(Top class)* Class 3 products are cable of both prevention & detection fuctions. And they are cable of removing the infection viruses. <1>. COMPUTER VIRUSES a high-tech disease WRITTEN BY: RALF BURGER PUBLISH BY: ABACUS, U.S.A <2>. DATA THEFT WRITTEN BY: HUGO CORNWALL PUBLISH BY: PONTING-GREEN, LONDON <3>. COMPUTER VIRUSES,WORMS,DATA DIDDLERS,KILLER -PROGRAMS, AND OTHER THREATS TO YOUR SYSTEM WRITTEN BY: JOHN McAFEE & COLIN HAYNES PUBLISH BY: ST.MARTIN'S PRESS, U.S.A ************************************************* * COMPUTER VIRUSES CRISIS * THE SECRET WORLD * * WRITTEN BY: PHILP E FITES * OF COMPUTER * ****************************** WRITTEN BY: * * COMPUTE'S COMPUTER VIRUSES * ALLAN LNNDELL * * WRITTEN BY: RALPH ROBERTS * * ********************

Computer Crime

A young man sits illuminated only by the light of a computer screen. His fingers dance across the keyboard. While it appears that he is only word processing or playing a game, he may be committing a felony. In the state of Connecticut, computer crime is defined as: 53a-251. Computer Crime (a) Defined. A person commits computer crime when he violates any of the provisions of this section. (b) Unauthorized access to a computer system. (1) A person is guilty of the computer crime of unauthorized access to a computer system when, knowing that he is not authorized to do so, he accesses or causes the be accessed any computer system without authorization... (c) Theft of computer services. A person is guilty of the computer crime o f theft of computer services when he accesses or causes to be accessed or otherwise uses or causes to be used a computer system with the intent to obtain unauthorized computer services. (d) Interruption of computer services. A person is guilty of the computer crime of interruption of computer services when he, without authorization, intentionally or recklessly disrupts or degrades or causes the disruption or degradation of computer services or denies or causes the denial of computer services to an authorized user of a computer system. (e) Misuse of computer system information. A person is guilty of the computer crime of misuse of computer system information when: (1) As a result of his accessing or causing to be accessed a computer system, he intentionally makes or causes to be made an unauthorized display, use, disclosure or copy, in any form, of data residing in, communicated by or produced by a computer system. Penalties for committing computer crime range from a class B misdemeanor to a class B felony. The severity of the penalty is determined based on the monetary value of the damages inflicted. (2) The law has not always had much success stopping computer crime. In 1990 there was a nationwide crackdown on illicit computer hackers, with arrests, criminal charges, one dramatic show-trial, several guilty pleas, and huge confiscations of data and equipment all over the USA. The Hacker Crackdown of 1990 was larger, better organized, more deliberate, and more resolute than any previous efforts. The U.S. Secret Service, private telephone security, and state and local law enforcement groups across the country all joined forces in a determined attempt to break the back of America's electronic underground. It was a fascinating effort, with very mixed results. In 1982, William Gibson coined the term "Cyberspace". Cyberspace is defined as "the 'place' where a telephone conversation appears to occur. Not inside your actual phone, the plastic device on your desk... The place between the phones. The indefinite place out there." (1, p. 1) The words "community" and "communication" share the same root. Wherever one allows many people to communicate, one creates a community. "Cyberspace" is as much of a community as any neighborhood or special interest group. People will fight more to defend the communities that they have built then they would fight to protect themselves. This two-sided fight truly began when the AT&T telephone network crashed on January 15, 1990. The crash occurred due to a small bug in AT&T's own software. It began with a single switching station in Manhattan, New York, but within ten minutes the domino effect had brought down over half of AT&T's network. The rest was overloaded, trying to compensate for the overflow. This crash represented a major corporate embarrassment. Sixty thousand people lost their telephone service completely. During the nine hours of effort that it took to restore service, some seventy million telephone calls went uncompleted. Because of the date of the crash, Martin Luther King Day (the most politically touchy holiday), and the absence of a physical cause of the destruction, AT&T did not find it difficult to rouse suspicion that the network had not crashed by itself- that it had been crashed, intentionally. By people the media has called hackers. Hackers define themselves as people who explore technology. If that technology takes them outside of the boundaries of the law, they will do very little about it. True hackers follow a "hacker's ethic", and never damage systems or leave electronic "footprints" where they have been. Crackers are hackers who use their skills to damage other people's systems or for personal gain. These people, mistakenly referred to as hackers by the media, have been sensationalized in recent years. Software pirates, or warez dealers, are people who traffic in pirated software (software that is illegally copied and distributed). These people are usually looked down on by the more technically sophisticated hackers and crackers. Another group of law-breakers that merit mentioning are the phreakers. Telephone phreaks are people that experiment with the telephone network. Their main goal is usually to receive free telephone service, through the use of such devices as homemade telephone boxes. They are often much more extroverted than their computer equivalents. Phreaks have been known to create world-wide conference calls that run for hours (on someone else's bill, of course). When someone has to drop out, they call up another phreak to join in. Hackers come from a wide variety of odd subcultures, with a variety of languages, motives and values. The most sensationalized of these is the "cyberpunk" group. The cyberpunk FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions list) states: 2. What is cyberpunk, the subculture? Spurred on by cyberpunk literature, in the mid-1980's certain groups of people started referring to themselves as cyberpunk, because they correctly noticed the seeds of the fictional "techno-system" in Western society today, and because they identified with the marginalized characters in cyberpunk stories. Within the last few years, the mass media has caught on to this, spontaneously dubbing certain people and groups "cyberpunk". Specific subgroups which are identified with cyberpunk are: Hackers, Crackers, and Phreaks: "Hackers" are the "wizards" of the computer community; people with a deep understanding of how their computers work, and can do things with them that seem "magical". "Crackers" are the real-world analogues of the "console cowboys" of cyberpunk fiction; they break in to other people's computer systems, without their permission, for illicit gain or simply for the pleasure of exercising their skill. "Phreaks" are those who do a similar thing with the telephone system, coming up with ways to circumvent phone companies' calling charges and doing clever things with the phone network. All three groups are using emerging computer and telecommunications technology to satisfy their individualist goals. Cypherpunks: These people think a good way to bollix "The System" is through cryptography and cryptosystems. They believe widespread use of extremely hard-to-break coding schemes will create "regions of privacy" that "The System" cannot invade. (3) This simply serves to show that computer hackers are not only teenage boys with social problems who sit at home with their computers; they can be anyone. The crash of AT&T's network and their desire to blame it on people other than themselves brought the political impetus for a new attack on the electronic underground. This attack took the form of Operation Sundevil. "Operation Sundevil" was a crackdown on those traditional scourges of the digital underground: credit card theft and telephone code abuse. The targets of these raids were computer bulletin board systems. Boards can be powerful aids to organized fraud. Underground boards carry lively, extensive, detailed, and often quite flagrant discussions of lawbreaking techniques and illegal activities. Discussing crime in the abstract, or discussing the particulars of criminal cases, is not illegal, but there are stern state and federal laws against conspiring in groups in order to commit crimes. It was these laws that were used to seize 25 of the "worst" offenders, chosen from a list of over 215 underground BBSs that the Secret Service had fingered for "carding" traffic. The Secret Service was not interested in arresting criminals. They sought to seize computer equipment, not computer criminals. Only four people were arrested during the course of Operation Sundevil; one man in Chicago, one man in New York, a nineteen-year-old female phreak in Pennsylvania, and a minor in California. This was a politically motivated attack designed to show the public that the government was capable of stopping this fraud, and to show the denizens of the electronic underground that the government could penetrate into the very heart of their society and destroy routes of communication, as well as bring down the legendary BBS operators. This is not an uncommon message for law-enforcement officials to send to criminals. Only the territory was new. Another message of Sundevil was to the employees of the Secret Service themselves; proof that such a large-scale operation could be planned and accomplished successfully. The final purpose of Sundevil was as a message from the Secret Service to their long-time rivals the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Congress had not clearly stated which agency was responsible for computer crime. Later, they gave the Secret Service jurisdiction over any computers belonging to the government or responsible for the transfer of money. Although the secret service can't directly involve themselves in anything outside of this jurisdiction, they are often called on by local police for advice. Hackers are unlike any other group of criminals, in that they are constantly in contact with one another. There are two national conventions per year, and monthly meetings within each state. This has forced people to pose the question of whether hacking is really a crime at all. After seeing such movies at "The Net" or "Hackers", people have begun to wonder how vulnerable they individually are to technological crime. Cellular phone conversations can be easily overheard with modified scanners, as can conversations on cordless phones. Any valuable media involving numbers is particularly vulnerable. A common practice among hackers is "trashing". Not, as one might think, damaging public property, but actually going through a public area and methodically searching the trash for any useful information. Public areas that are especially vulnerable are ATM chambers and areas where people posses credit cards printouts or telephone bills. This leads to another part of hacking that has very little to do with the technical details of computers or telephone systems. It is referred to by those who practice it as "social engineering". With the information found on someone's phone bill (account or phonecard number), an enterprising phreak can call up and impersonate an employee of the telephone company- obtaining useable codes without any knowledge of the system whatsoever. Similar stunts are often performed with ATM cards and pin numbers. The resulting codes are either kept or used by whomever obtained them, traded or sold over Bulletin Board Systems or the Internet, or posted for anyone interested to find. With the increasing movement of money from the physical to the electronic, stricter measures are being taken against electronic fraud, although this can backfire. In several instances, banks have covered up intrusions to prevent their customers from losing their trust in the security of the system. The truth has only come out long after the danger was passed. Electronic security is becoming a way of life for many people. As with the first cellular telephone movements, this one has begun with the legitimately wealthy and the criminals. The most common security package is PGP, or Pretty Good Privacy. PGP uses RSA public-key encryption algorithms to provide military-level encryption to anyone who seeks to download the package from the Internet. The availability of this free package on the Internet caused an uproar and brought about the arrest of the author, Phil Zimmerman. The United States government lists RSA encryption along with weapons of which the exportation is illegal. The Zimmerman case has not yet been resolved. The United States government has begun to take a large interest in the Internet and private Bulletin Board Systems. They have recently passed the Communications Decency Act, which made it illegal to transmit through the Internet or phone lines in electronic form any "obscene or inappropriate" pictures or information. This Act effectively restricted the information on the Internet to that appropriate in PG-13 movies. As of June 12, 1996, the censorship section of the Communications Decency Act was overturned by a three-judge panel of the federal court of appeals, who stated that it violates Internet user's first amendment rights, and that it is the responsibility of the parents to censor their children's access to information, not the government's. The court of appeals, in effect, granted the Internet the protections previously granted to newspapers, one of the highest standards of freedom insured by our Constitution. The Clinton administration has vowed to appeal this decision through the Supreme Court. Technological crime is harder to prosecute than any other, because the police are rarely as technologically advanced as the people they are attempting to catch. This situation was illustrated by the recent capture of Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick had eluded police for years. After he broke into security expert Tsumona's computer, Tsumona took over the investigation and captured Mitnick in a matter of months. It will be fascinating to see, as technology continues to transform society, the way that technological criminals, usually highly intelligent and dangerous, will transform the boundaries of crime. As interesting to see will be how the government will fight on this new battle ground against the new types of crime, while preserving the rights and freedom of the American people.

Computer Communications

NICATIONSBus NetworkBus Network, in computer science, a topology (configuration) for a local area network in which all nodes are connected to a main communications line (bus). On a bus network, each node monitors activity on the line. Messages are detected by all nodes but are accepted only by the node(s) to which they are addressed. Because a bus network relies on a common data "highway," a malfunctioning node simply ceases to communicate; it doesn't disrupt operation as it might on a ring network, in which messages are passed from one node to the next. To avoid collisions that occur when two or more nodes try to use the line at the same time, bus networks commonly rely on collision detection or Token Passing to regulate traffic.Star NetworkStar Network, in computer science, a local area network in which each device (node) is connected to a central computer in a star-shaped configuration (topology); commonly, a network consisting of a central computer (the hub) surrounded by terminals. In a star network, messages pass directly from a node to the central computer, which handles any further routing (as to another node) that might be necessary. A star network is reliable in the sense that a node can fail without affecting any other node on the network. Its weakness, however, is that failure of the central computer results in a shutdown of the entire network. And because each node is individually wired to the hub, cabling costs can be high.Ring networkRing Network, in computer science, a local area network in which devices (nodes) are connected in a closed loop, or ring. Messages in a ring network pass in one direction, from node to node. As a message travels around the ring, each node examines the destination address attached to the message. If the address is the same as the address assigned to the node, the node accepts the message; otherwise, it regenerates the signal and passes the message along to the next node in the circle. Such regeneration allows a ring network to cover larger distances than star and bus networks. It can also be designed to bypass any malfunctioning or failed node. Because of the closed loop, however, new nodes can be difficult to add. A ring network is diagrammed below.Asynchrous Transfer ModeATM is a new networking technology standard for high-speed, high-capacity voice, data, text andvideo transmission that will soon transform the way businesses and all types of organizationscommunicate. It will enable the management of information, integration of systems andcommunications between individuals in ways that, to some extent, haven't even been conceived yet. ATM can transmit more than 10 million cells per second,resulting in higher capacity, faster delivery and greater reliability. ATM simplifies information transfer and exchange by compartmentalizing information into uniformsegments called cells. These cells allow any type of information--from voice to video--to betransmitted over almost any type of digitized communications medium (fiber optics, copper wire,cable). This simplification can eliminate the need for redundant local and wide area networks anderadicate the bottlenecks that plague current networking systems. Eventually, global standardizationwill enable information to move from country to country, at least as fast as it now moves from officeto office, in many cases faster.Fiber Distributed Data InterfaceThe Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) modules from Bay Networks are designed forhigh-performance, high-availability connectivity in support of internetwork topologies that include: Campus or building backbone networks for lower speed LANs Interconnection of mainframes or minicomputers to peripherals LAN interconnection for workstations requiring high-performance networking FDDI is a 100-Mbps token-passing LAN that uses highly reliable fiber-optic media and performsautomatic fault recovery through dual counter-rotating rings. A primary ring supports normal datatransfer while a secondary ring allows for automatic recovery. Bay Networks FDDI supportsstandards-based translation bridging and multiprotocol routing. It is also fully compliant with ANSI,IEEE, and Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) FDDI specifications.Bay Networks FDDI interface features a high-performance second-generation Motorola FDDI chipset in a design that provides cost-effective high-speed communication over an FDDI network. TheFDDI chip set provides expanded functionality such as transparent and translation bridging as wellas many advanced performance features. Bay Networks FDDI is available in three versions -multimode, single-mode, and hybrid. All versions support a Class A dual attachment or dual homingClass B single attachment.Bay Networks FDDI provides the performance required for the most demanding LAN backboneand high-speed interconnect applications. Forwarding performance over FDDI exceeds 165,000packets per second (pps) in the high-end BLN and BCN. An innovative High-Speed Filters optionfilters packets at wire speed, enabling microprocessor resources to remain dedicated to packetforwarding.Data Compression In GraphicsMPEGMPEG is a group of people that meet under ISO (the International Standards Organization) to generate standards for digital video (sequences of images in time) and audio compression. In particular, they define a compressed bit stream, which implicitly defines a decompressor. However, the compression algorithms are up to the individual manufacturers, and that is where proprietary advantage is obtained within the scope of a publicly available international standard. MPEG meets roughly four times a year for roughly a week each time. In between meetings, a great deal of work is done by the members, so it doesn't all happen at the meetings. The work is organized and planned at the meetings. So far (as of January 1996), MPEG have completed the "Standard of MPEG phase called MPEG I. This defines a bit stream for compressed video and audio optimized to fit into a bandwidth (data rate) of 1.5 Mbits/s. This rate is special because it is the data rate of (uncompressed) audio CD's and DAT's. The standard is in three parts, video, audio, and systems, where the last part gives the integration of the audio and video streams with the proper timestamping to allow synchronization of the two. They have also gotten well into MPEG phase II, whose task is to define a bitstream for video and audio coded at around 3 to 10 Mbits/s.How MPEG I worksFirst off, it starts with a relatively low resolution video sequence (possibly decimated from the original) of about 352 by 240 frames by 30 frames/s, but original high (CD) quality audio. The images are in color, but converted to YUV space, and the two chrominance channels (U and V) are decimated further to 176 by 120 pixels. It turn out that you can get away with a lot less resolution in those channels and not notice it, at least in "natural" (not computer generated) images. The basic scheme is to predict motion from frame to frame in the temporal direction, and then to use DCT's (discrete cosine transforms) to organize the redundancy in the spatial directions. The DCT's are done on 8x8 blocks, and the motion prediction is done in the luminance (Y) channel on 16x16 blocks. In other words, given the 16x16 block in the current frame that you are trying to code, you look for a close match to that block in a previous or future frame (there are backward prediction modes where later frames are sent first to allow interpolating between frames). The DCT coefficients (of either the actual data, or the difference between this block and the close match) are "quantized", which means that you divide them by some value to drop bits off the bottom end. Hopefully, many of the coefficients will then end up being zero. The quantization can change for every "macroblock" (a macroblock is 16x16 of Y and the corresponding 8x8's in both U and V). The results of all of this, which include the DCT coefficients, the motion vectors, and the quantization parameters (and other stuff) is Huffman coded using fixed tables. The DCT coefficients have a special Huffman table that is "two-dimensional" in that one code specifies a run-length of zeros and the non-zero value that ended the run. Also, the motion vectors and the DC DCT components are DPCM (subtracted from the last one) coded.