Teaching Hacking as a General Subject - Term Paper Example

Teaching Hacking as a General Subject By (Name) Instructor Course Date Institution City & State Executive Summary The purpose of the report is to propose an analysis on whether hacking can be considered as a general subject. The application of the program as a subject will improve the security systems that are being used in the business industry. Fraud will also offer a negative impact on the region’s economy forcing them to seek external support to improve the economic status. The method used in the attainment of the data is observation method. The different records linked with the hacking practice provided a conclusion on the need to teach the practice as a subject. Records have also been stated that indicate the firms that have implemented the various measures of safeguarding data. The significant finding shows that the United States as the highly affected region with the unethical hacking practices. A big number of people are serving sentences related to a security breach. However, firms are resorting to the creation of mechanisms that will improve the safety of their data closing the loopholes that were often used by unethical hackers. Introduction Ethics is a primary activity in the context of teaching. Nevertheless, certain activities should not be taught to students thus avoiding instances of irregularities and immoral acts in the near future. For example, learning about hacking can lead to an aspect of encroaching on an individual’s privacy or an attempt to executed criminal activities in society. The paper will discuss the validity of teaching hacking as a general subject in the classes and provide an analysis of the outcomes that the public are likely to witness after the act of teaching the subject. The tenacity of the topic is to interpret the advantage of this practice to the students in relation to the evil of the practice to the community that we live. The most important points in the report include theft, the safety of data, and an innovation of new programs. Similarly, the different persons involved in the practice of hacking have violated privacy rules affecting the operations of certain organizations with some firms running into losses of huge sums of money. Outcomes to these instances have led to the filing of lawsuits to the offenders and creation of mechanisms that will assist in improving the privacy levels of sensitive documents. To the country, the practice is affecting the economy’s stability as the uneven supply of money is witnessed thus large sums of money circulating in the economy (Hanebutte, 2013). In the long run, the nation is to observe a specific number of people with vast amounts of income in comparison to the economic activities that are being held in the country. The practice of teaching hacking as a general subject will hardly help the students and the community that we are living in. Impact of Teaching Hacking The shift in generation makes the practice unfavorable to the context of teaching students about hacking. According to Granger 1994; Revesz 2017; and Sinha 2017) the primary target of teaching the program was to help children have their computers work in a particular way as compared to other machines save companies considered to be in danger and have communication originate from a single server. To the teacher training, the hacking activity to the students’ needs to have an understanding of the name server concept before heading to the next stage. The trainer can have the capability to know what it does, LAN IP address that then sends traffic to the DNS server and later directs the queries back after resolving accordingly. It is a different motive in the current field of technology advancement with publics carrying out these practices with individual goals (selfish interests that hardly help the society or firm). However, the different procedure should then be followed so that the public can have their information safely stored with no interventions from a third party. For example, the NHS is a victim of hacking activities but were later saved by a computer whizz that later accused tabloid journalists of being super invasive. Having people like Marcus H would then push for an initiative to teach the subject and help the various MNCs from attacks. On the other hand, the practice of hacking has then led the executors to make claims of money to keep their information secret from competitors and other bodies. On the other hand, the teacher may then make reference to the actions of Google when it applied spiders in the aspect of searching and finding documents that can be added to its index. Nevertheless, Google hacking further involves the creation of search engines through the multiple search results that should be protected. Instances of deleting the information from the portal can hardly affect the programmer as it can be retained from the cache. However, an appropriate timeframe can be used to for an individual to retract the information that has been earlier used on a search engine. For example, search activities that had earlier occurred cannot be of help due to changes that have been done by Google. Therefore, the servers that are often used by the firms are created with the provision of an adjustment on the span of operation so as to meet the ever changing technology applied in the society. This student will then have an opportunity to innovate programs that will suit the kind of technology that is being used in the market. Impact to the company The management of the firm will then have a reliable team of experts that will program computers to work in a particular manner than leaving them in default. The majority of the system administrators in a company often consider the practice as unethical thus creating problems in case they seek legal communications. Many clients are losing their data to the public through their cellphones leaving the hacker with access to millions of money, but firms are coming up with ways of securing data (LearnVest 2017; Pagliery 2014; Looper 2016). In the current setting, the legal framework provides a different interpretation to the actions that have been demonstrated by the accused with the hackers providing an alternative interpretation to their actions (Hosein Jafarkarimi, 2015). Therefore, the context of teaching the program will hardly help the general public as the majority term the practice as unethical and compromise the security of their property (sensitive documents). Once vital information is leaked to a competitor or an unauthorized source, the hackers tend to dictate the model of communication with the limited opportunity given to an arbitrator. The hackers will then have the powers to establish the kind of break-ins that may be executed at the facility. However, if the company employs such class of computer whizz, they will have the chance to watch the various activities that are being carried out against their firm. Ethics of the practice According to a publication by Pike (2013), software developers have created innovative and aesthetic software programs that would ease the different activities that are to be applied by firms. The trainers will have to teach the ethics of the practice involving warnings to the learners of the various criminal penalties. Nevertheless, this group will have a proper social interaction that will then be of assistance in recognizing sufficient challenges as they are enhancing cybersecurity programs (Nicole Radziwill, 2014). Additionally, Pike supports that the teachers should also include the context of mitigating these risks. Inabilities to solve such practices will present a negative flow (relationship) between the skills and challenges. Information security is the primary target in the training of hacking to students. According to an analysis by McCoey (2016), training offensive security is a vital component with a primary target of developing superior security specialists. These students are to attain skills more than the creation of system defensive policies hence proposing steps to minimizing the risk of inappropriate behavior and institutional responsibility. It further elaborates that the application of a hands-on approach to the training process will assist in the context of providing practical exercises that are to be applied to offensive and defensive strategies (McCoey, 2016). Additionally, these students will then have the capability of performing specific tasks and the different procedures on the prevention of malicious hosts from attaining success. Other sources claim that the aspect p teaching offensive techniques to the students will then yield better results as compared to the aspect of teaching defensive techniques. Therefore, teaching offensive techniques will require an application of the standalone fashion that then comprises training of offline cracking (Engebretson, 2013). State Security Activities executed on the internet are many which then calls for hackers to moderate the issues of trespass of particular activities. Similarly, the various organizations that take security as a critical component in their actions employ ethical hackers that will use similar tools to those of the criminals to protect instead of damaging the IT setups (Price, 2017). They are also known as the penetration testers based on a particular western movie that had a scene of one man in a white cap with the other in a black cap. The differences in the dress code of the two gentlemen demonstrate the mindsets that the hacker have when executing these actions. It is also witnessed where a set of computer whizz saved the Royal Navy Cruise-ship HMS Belfast from external attacks. The activity is also visible with the UK’s Ministry of Justice as they often strive to improve the security level through detection of the weaknesses in the government’s security systems. Elections in many regions are viewed as a major loophole to the practices of hacking with the intentions of meeting a particular candidates’ goals. The third party connection will implement a malpractice mechanism that will see none of the parties realize the shifts of certain votes during the tallying process. In the United States, the National Congress has to change the voting process so that they can attain a better process of selecting representatives in the house. Publication by Gillmor (2017), indicates that the Unites States needs to improve on the verification of the ballots or shift to the use of papers. Regular practices of hacking and other malpractices will increase levels of dissatisfaction from the masses that may later ignite issues of war amongst the voters and political class. Figure 1 The picture above demonstrates the need to improve the type of data storage that we often use in our firms to prevent incidences of hacking. For example, the old (version) hard disks can easily be manipulated creating an incident of losing data with limited chances of recovery. Therefore, an improved process of data storage and transfer will reduce chances of theft and manipulation from third parties. Disadvantages of Ethical Hacking The practice of ethical hacking has a series of possible drawbacks from the dishonest group of people. In most cases, the students can then use this kind of knowledge to execute malicious activities and can also allow the firm’s financial statements to be viewed by the public. Similarly, there is a possibility that the hacker can send malicious codes and malware to the computer system that will then affect the company’s operations. The practices of hacking had led to the loss of billion in the US economy with multiple accounts being exposed, transfer of data to unauthorized personnel, and the customers’’ sensitive information leaving the firm’s database to strangers (Overfelt 2016; Shin 2016; Pagliery 2014). These actions will then slow the practices of the firm creating a window of downfall or leaving the company bankrupt as they make an attempt to invest in a new security system. Losing incomes from the daily operations will affect the income statements that the firm is to provide at the end of a trading period. Additionally, the companies should then be concerned with the kind of publics that are being employed and concentrate on a particular activity that these ethical hackers possess. It is however concluded that the United States is faced with the highest amount of data breaches which have been made public. On the contrary, the US laws have then forced the various organization to admit to the different data breaches that involve the client's something that is evident in all countries. However, the organization in the UK are then protected by the Data Protection Act as the responsibility to these fines are by the Information Commissioner who is lo known as the ICO. Nevertheless, an instance of hacking can then be traced in the Zomato incidence where an approximated data from 17 million subscribers were stolen that also included their passwords and email addresses. The Indian Firm then had to log off the affected customers from the system as these hackers were constantly changing passwords on the app and the website that would then affect the model of business. The move by the firm to notify the model of log-ins determines the level of safety of the client. For example, the customers that login through OAuth services that includes Facebook and Google are not at risk which then translates to an estimated 60% of the clients to be safe. Therefore, over 40% of the customers had to use alternative measures of feeding in data to the website or app that will then provide a limitation on the third parties from accessing this kind of information. Recommendations and Conclusion The paper provides an analysis of the benefits of training students about hacking in comparison to the context of failing to implement the program as a general lesson. Training students about hacking as a general subject is an advantage to the public, but the teachers should follow certain precautions. Additionally, the students should also maintain a high level of ethics to have their data stored in the right channels. Observation of such practices will then lead to the attainment of better security measures to the firm’s data or individuals that would wish to have their information kept a secret. The paper also provides a finding that the publics that are involved in unethical hacking are then asked to respond to the lawsuit that has been filed. They can then be faced with a jail term, a fine, or can be called upon to serve the jail term and the fines. Additionally, these students can then provide innovative security systems that will help in the protection of data. Companies will then be well protected from the third parties that are intending to send malicious data to their servers or expose sensitive information to their competitors (EC-Council Press, 2017). Trainers will also have to design a mechanism that will reduce the risk of inappropriate behaviors from communities that have access to the internet. Additionally, companies should invest in appropriate technology that will help in safeguarding their data. References Read More