The Internet & the

World Wide Web:

Exploring Cyberspace
LESSON 2
Topics

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UNIT 2A: The Internet & the Web
The Internet began in 1969 as ARPANET.
The Internet was text-only. In the early 1990s, multimedia became available on the Internet, and
the World Wide Web (web) was born.

This is the first image

uploaded to the web, in
1992.

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To connect to the Internet you need
1. An access device (computer with modem)
2. A means of connection (phone line, cable hookup, or wireless)
3. An Internet access provider
2.1 Connecting to
the Internet
NARROWBAND, BROADBAND,& ACCESS PROVIDERS

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Connecting to the Internet
However you connect to the Internet, the bandwidth will determine the speed
of your connection.

Bandwidth: Expresses how much data can be sent through a communications channel in a
given amount of time.
1. Baseband: Slow type of connection that allows only one signal to be transmitted at
a time.
2. Broadband: High-speed connections.

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Connecting to the Internet
Physical connection to Internet—wired or wireless?
◦ Telephone [dial-up] modem
◦ High-speed phone line—DSL, T1/T3
◦ Cable modem
◦ Wireless—satellite and other through-the-air links

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Connecting to the Internet
Data Transmission Speeds
◦ Originally measured in bits per second (bps)
◦ 8 bits are needed to send one character, such as A or a
◦ Kbps connections send 1 thousand bits per second
◦ Mbps connections send 1 million bits per second
◦ Gbps connections send 1 billion bits per second

Uploading & Downloading

◦ Upload—transmit data from local to remote computer
◦ Download—transmit data from remote to local computer

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Connecting to the Internet
Narrowband (Dial-Up Modem): Low speed but inexpensive
◦ Telephone line = narrowband, or low bandwidth, low speed
◦ Dial-up connection—use of telephone modem to connect to Internet (used mostly in rural areas on
POTS, or plain old telephone system)

Telephone Modems
◦ Can be either internal or external
◦ Maximum speed of 56 Kbps
◦ Most ISPs offer local access numbers

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Telephone (Dial-Up) Modem

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High-Speed Phone Lines
More expensive but available in cities & most towns
◦ DSL line
◦ Uses regular phone lines, DSL modem
◦ Receives data at 7 ̶ 105Mbps; sends at about 384 Kbps – 1 Mbps
◦ Is always on
◦ Need to live no farther than 4.5 miles from phone company switching office
◦ Not always available in rural areas
◦ T1 line—very expensive
◦ Traditional trunk line, fiber optic or copper; carries 24 normal telephone circuits
◦ Transmission rate of 1.5 ̶ 6 Mbps (T3 = 6 – 47 Mbps)
◦ The “last mile” can still be a problem
◦ Generally used by large organizations
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High-Speed Phone Lines
◦ Cable modem
◦ TV cable system with Internet connection; company usually supplies cable
modem
◦ Is always on
◦ Receives data at up to
100 Mbps; sends at
about 2-8 Mbps

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Basic DSL/Cable-PC system
Satellite Wireless Connections
◦ Transmits data between satellite dish
and satellite orbiting earth
◦ Connection is always on
◦ Requires Internet access provider with 2-way
satellite transmission
◦ User needs to buy or lease satellite dish and
modem and have them connected

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Other Wireless: Wi-Fi, 3G, & 4G
Wi-Fi—stands for “wireless fidelity”
◦ Name for a set of wireless standards (802.11) set by IEEE
◦ Transmits data wirelessly up to 54 Mbps for 300 – 500
feet from access point (hotspot)
◦ Typically used with laptops and tablets that have Wi-Fi
hardware
◦ 3G = “third generation”; uses existing cellphone system; handles voice,
email, multimedia
◦ 4G = “fourth generation”; faster than 3G; built specifically for Internet traffic
– but not standard yet
◦ Both 3G and 4G used mostly in smartphones
◦ 5G = “fifth generation”; higher speeds
◦ less latency, capacity for a larger number of connected devices, less interference and better
efficiency

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Internet Access Providers (ISPs)
ISP: Local, regional, or national organization that provides access to the
Internet for a fee — e.g., Comcast, Charter, AT&T.
Wireless Internet Service Provider (WISP) — e.g., AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon
Wireless, Sprint, Credo
◦ Enables wireless-equipped laptop/tablet and smartphone users to
access Internet

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2.2 How Does the
Internet Work?

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How Does the Internet Work?
The Internet is basically a huge network that connects hundreds of thousands of smaller
networks.
Central to this arrangement are client/server networks
◦ Client: computer requesting data or services
◦ Server or host computer: central computer supplying data or services requested of it

Client

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Internet Connections: POP & IXPs
◦ Point of Presence (POP)
◦ A collection of modems and other equipment in a local area
◦ A local gateway (access) to an ISP’s network
◦ ISP connects to an IXP
◦ Internet Exchange Point (IXP)
◦ A routing computer at a point on the Internet where several connections
come together
◦ IXPs are run by private companies
◦ Allow different ISPs to exchange Internet traffic

(continued)
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Internet Connections: Backbone, & Internet2
◦ Internet Backbone
◦ High-speed, high-capacity data transmission lines, usually
fiber optic
◦ Uses the newest technology
◦ Providers include AT&T, Sprint, Verizon, CenturyLink, and
Deutsche Telekom
◦ Internet 2
◦ Cooperative university/business education and research project
◦ Adds new “toll lanes” to older Internet to speed things up
◦ Advances videoconferencing, research, collaboration

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21
Internet Communications: Protocols,
Packets, & IP Addresses
Handshaking & Authentication: Connecting to your ISP’s point of presence (POP)
◦ Handshaking—fastest transmission speed established
◦ Authentication—correct password & user name

Protocols
◦ The set of rules a computer follows to electronically transmit data.
◦ TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) is the Internet protocol
◦ Developed in 1978 by ARPA; used for all Internet transactions

Packets
◦ Fixed-length blocks of data for transmission, determined by TCP/IP
◦ Data transmissions are broken up into packets and re-assembled at destination (the IP—Internet
Protocol— address)

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IP (Internet Protocol) Addresses
Every device connected to the Internet has
an address
Each IP address uniquely identifies that
device
The address is four sets of numbers
separated by periods (e.g., 1.160.10.240)
◦ Each number is between 0 and 255
◦ Dynamic IP addresses change with every use; individual
computer users are
assigned static IP addresses when they log on
◦ Static IP addresses don’t change (established
organizations – including ISPs – and companies have
static IP addresses, which they pay for)

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Who Runs the Internet?
Basically, no one owns the Internet
The board of trustees of the Internet Society (ISOC)
oversees the standards
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) regulates domain
names (such as .com, edu., .net) that overlie IP
addresses; ICANN does not
control content

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2.3 The World Wide Web

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The Face of the Web: Browsers,
Websites, & Web Pages
The World Wide Web brought multimedia to the Internet.
The web and the Internet are not the same; the web is multimedia-based, and
the Internet is not. The Internet is the infrastructure that supports the web.
A browser is software that gets you to websites and their individual web pages
and displays the content in such a way that the content appears mostly the
same regardless of the computer, operating system, and display monitor.
Examples
Internet Explorer
Mozilla FireFox
Apple Macintosh’s Safari
Google’s Chrome
Microsoft’s Bing
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The Face of the Web: Browsers,
Websites, & Web Pages
Website
◦ The location on a particular computer (server) that has a unique address; example =
www.barnesandnoble.com, www.mcgraw-hill.com
◦ The website (server) could be anywhere — not necessarily at company headquarters

Web Page
◦ A document on the web that can include text, pictures, sound, and video
◦ The first page on a website is the Home page
◦ The Home page contains links to other pages on the website (and often other websites)

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How the Browser Finds Thing: URLs
Uniform Resource Locator (URL): address for a web page
◦ A character string that points to a specific piece of information anywhere on the web
◦ A website’s unique address
◦ It consists of
◦ The web protocol, http://
◦ The domain name of the web server
◦ The directory name or folder on that server
◦ The file within the directory, including optional extension

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 The Nuts & Bolts of the Web: HTML &
Hyperlinks
TCP/IP— As explained (p. 60), general Internet Protocol
HTTP—Protocol Used to Access World Wide Web
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)
◦ The “markup” language used in writing and publishing web pages
◦ Set of instructions used to specify document structure, formatting,
and links to other documents on the web

Hypertext links connect one web document to another

hypertext link Tim Berners-Lee saw the possibility of using hyperlinks to link
any information to any other information over the Internet.

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Using Your Browser to Get around the
Web
Web browsers interpret HTML and allow you to move around the Internet and the web
◦ Come preinstalled on most PCs, but you can download others
◦ 5 basic elements
◦ URL (address)bar
◦ Menu bar
◦ Toolbar
◦ Workspace
◦ Status bar
◦ (displays current status of the
◦ web age; 100% = fully loaded)

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Using Your Browser to Get around the
Web
Browser’s Home Page
◦ The page you see when you open your web browser
◦ You can change the Home Page on your browser

Back, Forward, Home

◦ Use the browser’s icons to move from one page to another
(these icons can appear on different bars in different browsers)

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Using Your Browser to Get around the
Web
Navigation
◦ History List
◦ A list of websites you visited since you opened up your browser for this session
◦ Allows you to easily return to a particular site
◦ Bookmark
◦ Allows you to store the URL from a site on your computer so you can find it again in another browser session
◦ To save the URL for a site, click on “Favorites” in Internet Explorer, “Bookmarks” in Mozilla Firefox, or the star icon in the URL
address bar in Chrome

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 Using Your Browser to Get around the
Web
Interactivity with a web page
◦ Click on hyperlinks to transfer to another page
◦ Click on a radio button to choose an option
◦ Type text in a text box
and then hit Enter
◦ Click on scroll arrows to move up and down,
or side to side, on a page
◦ Click on different frames
(separate controllable
sections of a web page)

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Using Your Browser to Get around the
Web
Web portals: Starting points for finding information
◦ A portal is gateway website that offers a broad array of resources and services, online shopping malls,
email support, community forums, stock quotes, travel info, and links to other categories
◦ Examples: Yahoo!, Google, Bing, Lycos, and AOL
◦ Most require you to log in, so you can
◦ Check the Home page for general information
◦ Use the subject guide to find a topic you want
◦ Use a keyword to search for a topic

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Search Services & Search Engines
Organizations that maintain databases accessible through websites to help you find information
on the internet
◦ Examples: portals like Yahoo! and Bing, plus Google, Ask.com, Gigablast
◦ Search services maintain search engines—programs that users can use to ask questions or use keywords
to find information
◦ Databases of search engines are compiled using software programs called spiders (crawler, bots, agents)
◦ Spiders crawl through the World Wide Web
◦ Follow links from one page to another
◦ Index the words on that site
◦ A search never covers the entire web
◦ Search engines differ in what they cover

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Four Web Search Tools
1. Individual Search Engines
◦ Compile their own searchable databases on the web
◦ You search by typing keywords and receiving “hits”
◦ Examples are Ask, Bing, Google, and Yahoo!

2. Subject Directories
◦ Created and maintained by human editors, not electronic spiders
◦ Allow you to search for information by selecting lists of categories or topics
◦ Example sites are Beaucoup!, LookSmart, Open Directory Project, and Yahoo! Directory

(continued)
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Four Web Search Tools
3. Metasearch Engines
◦ Allows you to search several search engines simultaneously
◦ Examples are Yippy!, Dogpile, Mamma, MetaCrawler, and Webcrawler
4. Specialized Search Engines
◦ Help locate specialized subject matter, such as info on movies, health, jobs
◦ Examples are Career.com. WebMD, Expedia, U.S. Census Bureau

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Smart Searching: Three General Strategies
◦ If you’re just browsing . . .
◦ Try a subject directory
◦ Next try a metasearch engine
◦ If you’re looking for specific information . . .
◦ Try a Answers.com “one-click” search
◦ Or go to a general search engine, then a specialized one
◦ If you’re looking for everything on a subject . . .
◦ Try the same search on several search engines

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Wikis & Wikipedia
A wiki is a simple piece of software that can be downloaded for free and used to make
a website (also called a wiki) that can be corrected or added to by anyone.
Wikipedia is a free online encyclopedia that anyone around the world can
contribute to or edit. It has more than 25 million articles in more than 285 languages;
over 4.1 million articles appear in the English Wikipedia alone. However, Wikipedia is
not considered reliable or authoritative by many academics and librarians.
Multimedia Search Tools
◦ Still images—e.g., Google Image Search, Bing Images, Fagan Finder
◦ Audio—e.g., Yahoo! Music, Lycos MP3 Search
◦ Video—e.g., AlltheWeb, AOL.video
◦ Scholarly—e.g., Google Scholar

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Tagging
Tags: Do-it-yourself labels that people can put on anything found on the Internet, from articles
to photos to videos, that help them to find their favorite sites again and to link them.
◦ Can be shared easily with other people
◦ Tags are commonly used on blogs and YouTube – word listed at the bottom. Essentially tags are
keywords used to classify content. (The # is a hash symbol; thus the Twitter term hashtag. )
◦ Tag managing is available through delicious.com and BlinkList, among other companies.

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UNIT 2B: The Riches & Risks of Internet
Use

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2.4 Email, Instant
Messaging, & Other Ways
of Communicating over
the Net

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Email
Outgoing mail: sent from your computer to a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) server run
by your ISP
Incoming mail: Email sent to your computer: uses Post Office Protocol version 3 (POP3)

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Two ways to send & receive email:
1. Email Program
◦ Enables you to send email by running email software on your computer that interacts with an email server at your Internet access
provider
◦ Incoming mail is stored on the server in an electronic mailbox
◦ Upon access (your ID and password), mail is sent to your software’s inbox
◦ Examples: Microsoft Outlook, Apple Mail
2. Web-Based Email
◦ You send and receive messages by interacting via a browser with a website
◦ Advantage: You can easily send and receive messages while traveling, using any computer or equipped mobile device
◦ Examples: Yahoo! Mail and Gmail (Google)
◦ Disadvantages are ads and email hacking

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Using email
Get an email address from your ISP, following this format:

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Tips for Using Email
◦ Use the address-book feature to store email addresses
◦ Use folders to organize email
◦ Be careful with attachments
◦ Be aware of email netiquette

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Email Attachments
◦ A copy of a file or document that you send attached to an email to one or more people
◦ Recipients must have compatible software to open the attachment; for example, if they don’t have
Excel, they probably can’t read the spreadsheet you sent them.
◦ Be careful about opening attachments:
◦ Many viruses hide in them; scan them with antivirus software
◦ Know who has sent the attachment before you open it

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Netiquette: Appropriate Online Behavior
◦ Don’t waste people’s time.
◦ Don’t write anything that you would not say to a person’s face.
◦ Include helpful subject and signature lines.
◦ Be clear and concise.
◦ Avoid spelling and grammatical errors.
◦ Avoid SHOUTING and flaming.
Also:
◦ Be careful with jokes.
◦ Avoid sloppiness, but avoid criticizing other’s sloppiness.
◦ Don’t send huge file attachments unless requested.
◦ When replying, quote only the relevant portion.
◦ Don’t overforward (don’t copy emails to everyone you know).

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Instant Messaging
Instant messaging enables you to communicate by email with
specified other users (“buddies”) in real time.
Any user on a given email system can send a message and have it pop up instantly on the screen
of anyone logged into that system.
To get IM: Download IM software from a supplier
Examples: AOL/AIM, Google Chat, Windows Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger
Done on computers; is not the same as texting.

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Discussion Groups
Mailing Lists:
◦ One-way (to make announcements) or two-way (for discussions) email subscription lists
◦ Email discussion groups on special-interest topics, in which all subscribers receive email messages sent
to the group’s email address

Newsgroups:
◦ Giant electronic bulletin board for written discussions about specific subjects
◦ To participate you need a newsreader program

Message Boards:
◦ Special-interest discussion groups without newsreaders
◦ Accessed through a web browser
◦ A collection of messages on a particular topic is called a thread

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FTP (File Transfer Protocol)
Software standard for transferring large files between computers,
including those with different operating systems
You can also transfer files from an FTP site on the Internet to your PC
FTP sites offer many free files
FTP sites may be either public or proprietary
You can download using your web browser or FTP client programs, such
as Fetch, Cute, FileZilla, and SmartFTP

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2.5 The Online
Gold Mine
TELEPHONY, MULTIMEDIA, WEBCASTING, BLOGS, E -COMMERCE, &
SOCIAL NETWORKING
Telephony: The Internet Telephone
Uses the Internet to make phone calls via VoIP (Voice over Internet
Protocol)
Long-distance calls are either very inexpensive or free
With no PC, dial a special phone number to packetize your call for a
standard telephone
Use with a PC that has a sound card, microphone, Internet connection
with modem & ISP, and internet telephone software such as Skype and
Vonage
Also allows videoconferencing

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Multimedia on the Web
Allows you to get images, sound, video, and animation
May require a plug-in, player, or viewer
◦ A downloadable program that adds a specific feature to a browser so it can view certain files
◦ Examples: Flash, RealPlayer, QuickTime
◦ Multimedia Applets
◦ Small programs that can be quickly downloaded and run by most browsers
◦ Java is the most common Applet language
◦ Text & Images: great variety available
◦ Example: Google Earth

(continued)
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Multimedia on the Web
◦ Animation
◦ The rapid sequencing of still images to create the appearance of motion
◦ Used in video games and web images that seem to move, such as banners
◦ Video & Audio
◦ Downloaded completely before the file can be played, or
◦ Downloaded as streaming video/audio
◦ Examples: RealVideo and RealAudio

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The Web Automatically Comes to You
◦ Push technology: Software that automatically downloads information to personal computers.
◦ Webcasting: Sending users customized text, video, audio on regular basis.

RSS newsreaders (RSS aggregators): Programs that scour the web,

sometimes hourly, sometimes more frequently, and pull together in one
place “feeds” from several websites. RSS is based on XML, or extensible
markup language, a web-document tagging and formatting language that is
an advance over HTML and that two computers can use to exchange
information.

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The Web Automatically Comes to You

◦ XML and RSS have led to blogs and blogosphere.

◦ Blogs (weblogs) are frequently updated sites on the web
intended for public consumption that contain a writer’s
observations, opinions, images, and links to other websites.
◦ Podcasting: Internet radio or similar Internet audio program
delivered via RSS feed to a subscriber to be played back on
computer or digital audio device.

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E-Commerce: B2B, B2C, & C2C
E-Commerce (electronic commerce): conducting business activities online
E-commerce has led to showrooming, the phenomenon in which shoppers browse for products
in stores, only to buy them from an online rival, frequently at a lower price.
◦ B2B is business-to-business e-commerce.
◦ Business-to-consumer commerce, or B2C, is the electronic sale or
exchange of goods and services from the companies directly to the
public, or end users (e.g., online banking, online shopping, online stock
trading).
◦ Consumer-to-consumer commerce, or C2C, is the electronic sale or
exchange of goods and services between individuals (e.g., auctions).
Discussion Question: Have you every sold anything on eBay? Used PayPal? Did you
have any problems? What would you warn people about?

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Web 2.0: The Social Web
Web 2.0 refers to the web viewed as a medium in which interactive experience, in
the form of blogs, wikis, forums, social networking, and so on, plays a more
important role than simply accessing information.
◦ The move toward a more social, collaborative, interactive, and responsive web; has led to the “social
web,” giving rise to:
◦ Social networking sites: Online communities that allow members to keep
track of friends and share photos, videos, music, stories, and ideas (e.g.,
Facebook, LinkedIn).
◦ Media-sharing sites: Online social networks in which members share media
such as photos, videos, music, ideas (e.g., YouTube, Flicker, Shutterfly).
◦ Social-network aggregators: Collect content from all of a user’s various social network profiles into one
place, then allow him or her to track friends and share other social network activiti es (e.g., Mugshot,
Readr).

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Web 3.0: Computer-Generated Information
In Web 3.0, information will be computer-generated with less human interaction required to
discover and integrate that information.
Two ideas might form the basis for Web 3.0— semantic markup and a personal browser.
◦ Semantic markup: Data interchange formats that will allow machines to understand the meaning—or
“semantics”—of information on the web.
◦ The Web 3.0 browser will probably act as a personal assistant because every user will have a unique
Internet profile based on his or her browsing history. The more you use the Web, the more your
browser learns about you and the less specific you'll need to be with your questions.

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2.6 The Intrusive
Internet
SNOOPING, SPAMMING, SPOOFING, PHISHING, PHARMING,
COOKIES, SPYWARE, & MALWARE
The Intrusive Internet
Snooping
◦ Email is not private
◦ Corporate management has the
right to view employees’ email.
◦ Friends can send email anywhere.
◦ Not all ISPs protect their customers’ privacy.
◦ Deleted emails can be retrieved from a hard disk.

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The Intrusive Internet
Spam: Electronic Junk Mail
◦ Unsolicited email that takes up your time.
◦ Delete it without opening the message.
◦ Never reply to a spam message.
◦ Do not click on “unsubscribe” at the bottom of an email.
◦ When you sign up for something, don’t give your email address.
◦ Use spam filters.
◦ Fight back by reporting new spammers to www.abuse.net or www.spamhaus.org.

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The Intrusive Internet
Spoofing
◦ Using fake email sender names so the message appears to be from a
different source, so you will trust it.
◦ If you don’t know the sender, don’t open it.

Phishing
◦ Sending forged email directing recipient to fake website.
◦ Purpose: to entice people to share personal or financial data.
◦ Fake website looks like real website, such as a bank’s.

Pharming
◦ Implanting malicious software on a victim’s computer that redirects the user to an impostor web page
even when the individual types the correct address into his or her browser.
◦ Use websites with URLs that begin with “https://
◦ Some spyware removal programs can correct the corruption.
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 Phishing Examples

Phishing examples

"YOUR NET ID ACCOUNT" Phishing

Scam (3/31/2013)

https://wiki.library.ucsb.edu/display/SYSPUB/Latest+Phishing+Attempts
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Cookies
◦ Little text files left on your hard disk by some websites you visit.
◦ Can include your log-in name, password, browser preferences, and credit card
information.
◦ Every time you load a particular website, the browser sends the cookie back
to the server to notify the website of your previous activity.
◦ Can make visiting these websites next time more convenient and faster.
◦ But cookies can be used to gather information about you and your browsing habits and history; this
information can be used without your consent.
◦ A first-party cookie is a cookie from a website that you have visited. Third-party cookies are placed by
trusted partners of the websites you visit. (Third-party cookies are frequently placed by ad networks.)

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Spyware : Adware, Browser & Search
Hijackers, & Key Loggers
Spyware is software surreptitiously installed on your computer via the web.
Spyware hides on your PC/device and captures information about what is on the it, such as
keystrokes and passwords

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 Spyware : Adware, Browser & Search
Hijackers, & Key Loggers
Adware, or pop-up generator, is a kind of spyware that
tracks web surfing or online buying
so that marketers can send you targeted
and unsolicited pop-up and other ads.
Browser hijackers change settings in your browser
without your knowledge, often changing your
browser’s home page and replacing it with another
web page.
Spyware : Adware, Browser & Search
Hijackers, & Key Loggers
Search hijackers intercept your legitimate search requests made to real search engines and return
results from phony search services designed to send you to sites they run.
Key loggers, or keystroke loggers, can record each character you type and transmit that
information to someone else on the Internet, making it possible for strangers to learn your
passwords and other information.
Malware
There are many forms of malicious software—so-called malware—that can
harm a computer system, a common danger being viruses.
A virus is a rogue program that migrates through the Internet or via operating
systems and attaches itself to different programs that spread from one
computer to another, leaving infections.
The principal defense is to install antivirus software, which scans a computer to
detect viruses and, sometimes, to destroy them.
How to Reduce Malware Risks
Download virus protection software, such as McAfee VirusScan ( www.mcafee.com ) or Norton AntiVirus (
www.symantec.com/nav ); then follow instructions for installing it on your machine. (Don’t use antivirus
software from companies you know nothing about.)
Scan your entire system with antivirus software the first time it’s installed; then scan it regularly after that.
Also scan any new CDs and drives before using them.
Don’t open, download, or execute any files, email messages, or email attachments if the source is unknown
or if the subject line of an email is questionable or unexpected.
Delete all spam and email messages from strangers. Don’t open, forward, or reply to such messages.
How to Reduce Malware Risks
Use webmail sparingly, since viruses can hide in the HTML coding of the email. Even
the simple act of previewing the message in your email program can activate the virus and infect your
computer.
Don’t start your computer with a flash drive, USB thumb drive, or CD/DVD in place.
Back up your data files regularly, and keep at least one backup device in a location separate from your
computer or use an online (cloud) backup service.
If you discover you have a virus, ask McAfee or Norton to scan your computer online; then follow its
directions for cleaning or deleting the virus. (A computer tech person can do this, too.)
Passwords
Never choose a real word or variations of your or your family’s name, address,
phone number, Social Security number, license plate, or birth date.
Don’t use passwords that can be easily guessed, such as “12345” or “password.”
Avoid any word that appears in a dictionary. Instead, mix letters, numbers, and punctuation
marks in an oddball sequence of no fewer than eight characters, such as 2b/orNOT2b% and
Alfred!E!Newman7. Or choose a password that is memorable but shift the position of your
fingers on the keyboard, so that, for instance, TIMBERWOLVES becomes YO,NRTEP;BRD when you
move your fingers one position right. For sensitive sites, such as financial accounts, create long
passwords, such as 15-character passwords.
Don’t use the same password for multiple sites, so that if someone obtains the password to one
account, that person won’t have access to your entire online life.
Don’t write passwords on sticky notes or in a notebook or tape them under your keyboard. Don’t
carry the passwords in your wallet. If you have to write down all your passwords, find a safe
place to put the paper, or use a software password manager, such as Kaspersky Password
Manager, RoboForm Everywhere, or Last Pass Premium.