When IT Goes Bad From Software to Society

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?


Example: XHTML Validation We attempt to validate a page We get 24 errors and warnings.. EEK!


Ignore the number of errors

Example: XHTML Validation First error reported is an <h1> tag

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


Start with the first occurring error

Example: XHTML Validation We save and revalidate Only 4 errors and warnings now


Make a fix and then check

Example: XHTML Validation

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)

2012-01-27

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… Etc.


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

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 companies2012-01-27 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 28

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

12-34

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

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

TrojanSW inside of other SW with monitoring or other malicious purposes

SpywareSW 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.2012-01-27 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 46

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 positive2012-01-27 Katherine Deibel, Fluency in Information Technology 49

Documents

When IT Goes Bad From Software to Society