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Ankit Patel

Professor Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1104

15 April 19

Computer Security: Number One Priority

Computer science is the study of everything about computers from theory to engineering

that forms the basic elements of computers. Without it there would be no need for society to own

personal computers or smartphones. Even though computer science covers many aspects, such as

artificial intelligence, numerical analysis and bioinformatics, in my exploratory paper we will

look at Software Development, Cybersecurity and Web / Mobile applications. Let’s take a brief

overview on the history of the computer. The first computer was built by John V. Atanasoff in

1937 and he made it to where it could only perform a single task which was, it could only turn on

and off with no operating system. The first commercial use of computers was in 1951 and IBM

started using computers in 1953 that used many different programming languages, had memory

as well as operating systems. IBM also introduced the first personal computer in 1981 and

around 1984 the Macintosh by Apple was made available to the public. All of the advancements

made in computers from 1937 to present day would not have been possible without people

interested in computer science. Overall, we will look at some of the different types of threats

there are and how people sometimes can easily be fooled into falling for them.
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Software development has made an impact on computers and how we use them on a day

to day basis. Just looking at the changes from ten years ago to now makes the future brighter in

software development world. We’re living in a age where many everyday things are run by using

a code of some sort such as smartphones, home security and everyday personal computers.

Computer coding is a language that is used to develop apps, websites and software. Without

coding, which is what software development is all about, devices would not be able to function

properly. Microservices is a specific style used to design applications in an algorithmic tic order.

Microservices are at the heart of switching engines that take in inputs. In other words, sends

results to other services (Bisson, 1). Apache’s Cordova, Xamarin and Microsoft Visual Studio

are examples of cross platform tools and frameworks. According to Simion Bisson these make it

easy to build / develop apps that run on anything (Infoworld, 1). There has been a tremendous

increase in development tools and services available for new programmers to acquire. These

tools are available, not only for the advanced coders, but those just beginning. There are many

opportunities for developers in the coming years. According to Siddhartha Agarwal using

blockchains will make a huge difference for many companies / businesses. Blockchain is a

“technology that enables efficient secure, immutable, trusted transactions among organizations

that might not fully trust each other, eliminating intermediaries” (Software, 1). Many people

would be lost without social media communication apps or Amazon Alexa, Google Home and

Home pod to answer questions quickly. These are going to become more popular in the future

because thousands of apps are being developed daily by developers becoming more familiar with

intelligent bot building, which is a bot that is created in a factory that can store lots of different
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information, programs and even software. Eventually there will be no need to open up individual

applications in your smartphone to retrieve data / information without it having to remind you all

the time. Apps are going to become more intelligent where you will be informed of notifications

and information automatically without relying on the person opening up individual apps.

Software development might sound complicated to some people but without it there would be no

point in owning a personal computer or smartphone.

Cyber security has been under attack for the past few years. Some people feel not enough

is being done to protect the individuals and companies that rely on computers every day.

Scammers like to use their own programs to prey on unsuspecting people on their devices. One

such an example is malicious advertising where computer users are told they have won a prize

and open up the suspicious link. Unbeknown to them this is when their computer becomes

infected with a virus, which can cause crucial failure to your system such as by shutting down

randomly, data loss, slow computer performance and etc. everything from files to photos to your

own personal information would be in another person’s hand. Malvertising used to be found

mainly on desktops but now is very prevalent in all devices including smartphones.

Cybersecurity companies such as Symantec and Confiant are aware of the trojan horse known as

Android.Fakeyou Won and tainted ads found on legitimate websites (Beiersdorf, 1). By selecting

the ok button and participating in the quiz, hoping for a prize, it may infect your system or allow

access to the scammers of your social media friends list. If your computer does become infected

there are anti-malware applications that can be run to clean it. Facebook, Google and Mozilla

have added instructions and more security features to prevent this from happening so often.
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Another type of security breach that has become a problem for city and counties computer

systems is known as ransomware. This is a type of software that prohibits access to personal data

unless a ransom is paid. An attack in Atlanta hit five out of thirteen agencies such as Bank of

America, medical billing company, hospitals and etc. After this attack happened it forced

approximately eight thousand workers to be offline and in Baltimore a ransomware attack shut

down their 911 emergency system. (Neubauer, Stop Ransomware, 1) Even though there are

many concerning computer crimes, most of them do not address ransomware. Some states such

as Connecticut, Texas, California and Wyoming have made the use of ransomware software a

crime, if anyone was to get caught by making these attacks, they would be subjected a fine up to

$100,000 and a sentence of 10 years in prison. Cybersecurity experts say the best way to prevent

these attacks is by backing up your data and educating employees about threats. It is very

important that employees of companies understand the importance of following good rules set

aside by security experts.

Training is a valuable asset in teaching ways to protect computers such as never sharing

sensitive information or passwords with others. Password have become more complicated now

and they are not as easy to hack into anymore. Employees who have computers at home know

that they will receive suspicious emails most of the time, and they know not to open them and

just to put these emails in the trash bin. When going to work, you should treat it the same. If it

looks fishy, do not open it. The training should be mandatory and done at least once a year.

Many security breaches occur because of human error. There will always be people smart
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enough to hack into computers, therefore, people in the cybersecurity field need to always be on

top of the latest trends to prevent attacks and try to stay one step ahead of the hackers.

Spyware is another type of attack in Cyber Security because there are many different

types of attacks that happen in this section such as denial of service, man in the middle, password

attack and etc. A Spyware attack is where someone can gather your information and collect data

off of you, without you even knowing. (Rouse,1) Anything you download or by even clicking

on a link, it is sending information back to the other person behind the screen such as your IP

(Protocol Address), which is one of the biggest things hackers love to get their hands on. A

Protocol Address is a numerical label assigned to each device as they are connected to the

internet. If anyone gets this, they could possibly track your location of where you are at all times.

An organization named IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) which is a company that

oversees everyone ip. They are the people that assigns these random numerical addresses. They

not only assign these numbers, but they are fighting against hackers who try to steal random

citizens information and try to track their location every single day. There have been multiple

spyware attacks in the past couple year and the most recent attack that happened was on July 5th,

2018. This was known as the invasive spyware attack on military mobile devices. Israeli security

agents were involved working with a terrorist organization that installed spyware in soldiers’

smartphones to collect information. (Tomi, 1) This attack not only traced people but it would

allow the other person behind the screen to control whatever the person on the other side looked

at , recorded the users phone call, steal the user’s SMS messages, view there browsing history

and get intel on unauthorized military services such as locations, weapons, technology and etc.
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(Tomi, 1) Israeli security agents were involved working with a terrorist organization that

installed spyware on soldiers’ smartphones to collect military data. The year of 2017 was a big

year for hackers to attack, one of the type of spyware attacks that happened was in June which

shut down big services such as banks, corporations, airports and even power plants in Ukraine,

Russia and other European countries (Tung, 1). This spyware attack was named as the Petya

Virus. These encrypt hackers demanded money to be donated to an anonymous bitcoin address,

if money was not donated by the time limit, they would delete everything, and all data would be

lost. Another spyware attack that happened was named as the “Wanna Cry?” which happened on

May 12th, this attack was one of the biggest attack that the U.S every faced since 2016 because

this not only attacked one industries in one state, but it attacked multiple corporations throughout

the U.S. such as National Health Services, facilities, banks and etc. These hackers demanded 52

bitcoins which is about $130,0000 donated to an anonymous bitcoin address, which really wasn’t

that much for attacking multiple states and only requesting that much. Until this money was paid,

they temporarily crippled all services such as the banks and national health services by locking

them out of there system and preventing medical produces from happening and creating chaos

for patients. The government eventually ended up paying this money because they could not risk

anything else getting corrupted. After this money was paid the companies were sent a 30-letter

key that de-encrypted their systems. A huge team was sent out to look for these hackers and

arrest them about 16 people were arrested 2 months later after the attack from multiple countries

such as Italy, Estonia, Romania, and the United Kingdom. There are more people that were part
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of this attack that did not get caught but soon they will after they make a mistake says

government officials and when they do, they will be arrested (Tung, 1).

Another area of interest in computer science is web / mobile applications. This is actually

two new different areas; mobile is phone apps whereas web is personal computers. There are

thousands of mobile apps already available in Google Play and Apple App Store, with many

more being developed daily. Some examples of the apps available are games such as angry birds

, social network like Facebook and sites such as Amazon. Although apps are different the

process remains the same: idea, strategy, design, development, deployment and post-launch

phases (Francis) . Nothing would happen without an idea first, even if you think the idea isn’t the

greatest. If you can find a problem or think of a way to do something better, you have an idea

started. Next you need to develop a strategy by looking at the competition and how you plan to

make money with it. Design is how you want the app to look like and how you want it to work

at the end. Development is where you test the program outside to see if it works well. Once all

that is all done you are ready to choose a web server and make it published onto the Google Play

Store and Apple App Store. Most people would be completely lost without their cell phones.

You can text each other, call, order things such as food or apparel, play games and look up the

latest news According to Katie Stanfield’s article “A Glimpse of Latest Mobile App

Development Trends” 75% of mobile applications would not pass security tests and hackers will

continue to take advantage of this. When the Apple Watch was first released it was considered to

be very advanced technology. Now there are many wearable devices not just for fitness anymore.

All of these would require access to mobile apps. Mobile banking, payments and M- Commerce
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which allows you to make payments using your phone is becoming the latest trend with

approximately 19% of commercial sales coming from smartphones or tablets. Even though

mobile apps seem more appealing and easier to use, someone still needs to develop apps for

computers / websites. A website will reach more people. Around 21% of the website traffic for

Brain Hub comes from mobile devices and about 77% from desktop users. (Warcholinski, 1) . If

you plan on using an app five times a day then a mobile app is more convenient. Web apps are

usually slower than mobile. If you’re going to use things such as google maps, calculator or

safari then mobile is the best option for you. Your computer would not work very well in the car

if you get lost and need assistant. If startup money is an issue, then websites are less expensive to

develop. There are many things as you can see to consider when deciding whether to develop a

website or a mobile app. Web / Mobile Applications can be an exciting part of computer science.

There is a lot of things to consider when developing an app for a consumer to use. In the long run

it is a lot of work but can be very rewarding when you see the finished product.

The world of computers has made many strides for the better with the help of people

interested in the many fields of computer science. Software development is the core of

computers on how we break down its problems and analyze the situation. Cybersecurity will

always be an important aspect to try and keep ahead of all the would-be hackers in the world.

People want to make sure their personal information is safe when browsing the web. Web /

Mobile Applications can be the fun part of computers. Who wouldn't want to develop some of

the apps that are so popular today or fun games for everyone to enjoy? Computers are here to

stay and computer science will continue to be a field that grows bigger and bigger.
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Work Cited

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Mar. 2019.

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2018,nytimes.com/2018/04/23/technology/personaltech/malware-prize-malvertising

Accessed 10 Apr 2019.

Bisson, Simion. “We're Living in the Golden Age of Software Development .”

Infoworld.com/Article/3027160-Application-Software-Development, 28 Jan. 2016.

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Francis , Paul. “Mobile App Development Process .” Mobile App Development , Bhw Group , 5

June 2017, thebhwgroup.com/blog/mobile-app-development-process. Accessed 7 Apr

2019.
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Neuhauser, Alan. “Can the Law Stop Ransomware .” Ransomware , U.S News , 13 Apr. 2018,

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Accessed 6 March 2019.

Tung, Liam. “16 Arrested in European Bust over RAT Spyware.” ZDNet, ZDNet, 24 Nov. 2014,

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2019.
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