Feds Shutdown of Silk Road

             This week I read an article on the capture of the dread pirate Roberts and the shutdown of silk Road. The article is called ”Feds Say they’ve Arrested ‘Dread  Pirate Roberts,’ Shut Down His Black Market ‘The Silk Road’  (Alex Konrad, 2013)  The Silk Road was a dark net site for the trading of illegal goods such as drugs.  “The Silk Road didn’t just sell drugs. The FBI says listings also offered social media hacks, illegal contact lists, currency and firearms.” (Alex Konrad, 2013)  

        The silk Road site was only accessible through the TOR network.  The Tor network is anonymity service that routes a user with the correct software to several virtual private networks.  This set of network shifts every so often so that the user stays hidden.   

              The currency used for the silkworm website is the controversial anonymous currency Bit Coins.  Bit coins are like stocks and that they fluctuate in price up and down.  Bit coins are peer-to-peer currency that could be traded anonymously.  They are controversial because they are treated as a currency.  They can be bought for money and exchanged back for money as well.  This makes them thoroughly different than most point currency’s that go one way, an example are PlayStation wallet, xbox points, steam wallet.  The difference in those is that they are nonrefundable.  

            The point of the silk road was to take black market  dealing of illegal goods on line.  I mean it was not just pot and drugs.  It allowed for other things to be sold like stolen information and weapons.    I personally am happy to see a black market site go. 

For a better picture of what the dark net was see this article http://www.pcworld.com/article/20462 (Chacos, Brad, 2013)27/meet-darknet-the-hidden-anonymous-underbelly-of-the-searchable-web.html.

Works Cited

Alex Konrad. (2013, October 2). Feds Say They've Arrested 'Dread Pirate Roberts,' Shut Down His Black Market 'The Silk Road'. Retrieved from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2013/10/02/feds-shut-down-silk-road-owner-known-as-dread-pirate-roberts-arrested/

Chacos, Brad. (2013, August 12). Meet Darknet, the hidden, anonymous underbelly of the searchable Web. Retrieved from PCworld.com: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2046227/meet-darknet-the-hidden-anonymous-underbelly-of-the-searchable-web.html

On NSA Spying and Privacy

On NSA Spying and Privacy

            I recently read an article called NSA: fear of a black van by David Gewirtz.  Gewirtz states that he believes that most of are afraid of the government spying on us.  He then express that most of us are honest people that do not’t been the bend the rules almost any.  The thing is Gewirtz writes and is consult by in his area of expertise counter terrorism.  He then relates following conversation between him and his wife.   Mrs. Gewirtz says “What have you been doing this morning?”.  He answers “Well, I'm running a simulation on what happens if a nuke were detonated on the ground here in Central Florida. It's really kind of small compared to an air burst. It's pretty clear why air bursts are more effective."  He then states it’s his job to research these scenarios.  He infers that is is “perfectly normal for me to be simulating a nuclear detonation at 10am and then dive into issues of Chinese espionage at 2pm.”  The inference is that he uses his computer to research these topic.  He then asks the pivotal question "What if the algorithm doesn't know that?".  The Program may then place him on watch list and says “Will the black vans show up outside my door?”  The government could make his life a nightmare.  He express that he believes that we need to be protect from terrorist but that government can and has in the past made lives miserable.  He references that J Edgar hoover allegedly used his secret files that to black mail influential to get his way.  He states “Based on what we know of history, we can't give them that trust.”

            I he is that I believe that his article mirrors closely what my views are on the subject.  I believe like the tone of the article that chances of the government being interest in you are remote.  But I believe also that with the spread constant yielding of yield of personal information.  Though all kinds of electron mediums like social networking sites, smart phones, and our I believe to insecure e-mails system.  That we as society leave a lot of information about ourselves in the open for others to get at whether they are with government or not.    I believe that we need to be carful of what information we put out there.  That mostly by default that internet is a public place that we assume to private.  And that it is assumable The storage of the information on the internet is indefinite. 

What are the groups that I am afraid of getting information on me.  My future employers wanting access to my Facebook page is one.  I like small group of friends and family.  If got access to Facebook you could find out many things.  About me who my friends are, what music, movies, and video games I like.  What if I say something or like some in spur of the moment that will put in someone black books forever.  The I am afraid of people who use technology I use against me to find were I am.  An example would be that a thief downloads a piece malware that tells him my location.  Another piece of info I would hate for my future employer’s to have is my medical history.  Our are available through reverse phone number look up.  The GPS feature of smart phones can track our every move.  He could use information to rob my house while I am away.  The fact that we have already have not had or lost a right to privacy in our electronic places is sad.  We as society need to carve out some rules of the road for which election places and information is private and to what type of groups should it be protected from. 

Works Cited

Gewirtz, David. "NSA: fear of a black van." 26 August 2013. www.zdnet.com. 1 September 2013 < http://www.zdnet.com/nsa-fear-of-a-black-van-7000019846/?s cid=e540&ttag=e540 >.

hyperlink

http://www.zdnet.com/nsa-fear-of-a-black-van-7000019846/?s_cid=e540&ttag=e540

CSC 210 Class Introduction

Hi. I am Andrew Scott Chapman but I go by Scott.  I moved to Hickory from Bowling Green, Kentucky.  I have been to three different colleges: WKU in Kentucky, CVCC, and then I transferred into Lenoir Rhyne.  I have several pet cats.  I usually play video games on PS3 or watch Hulu for fun.  To tell more about me, I’m listing some of my favorite websites. One is slacker.com. It is a music site like Pandora with tons of music choices and it’s free; it allows uses to favorite songs and artists or ban them this allows to customize your listen experience.  I know the flip side of this is that anyone who uses the site is free market research; more clearly, that your actions are tracked by the database and songs are suggested to you on the favorites channel based on what songs and artists you have favorited.  I visit the site howtogeek.com a lot.  It is a how-to tech site that covers a hodgepodge of topics;  I enjoy reading it and have learned from it and recommend it.  I enjoy the theater and music convos the school offers.  Some the books series I have read are Harry Potter, Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Terry Prattchatt Diskworld series, and I am starting on the Game of Thrones series.   I would like to network on Facebook with other Information Technology and Computer Science students.  I will post that soon.  I live at home and commute to school to save money on my education.  I am a senior in Information Technology and plan to get the certification for SAP the school offers.  I would like to know more about the choices for work there are in information technology.  I feel like I would value consistency in work position.  I am planning to graduate in the spring.  I look forward to this class.