Law Enforcement and SNS

As you may or may not realize, SNS's are becoming a medium for criminals. They may send messages, perform transactions, or just post their criminal behavior on their pages. Some SNS's work very well with Law Enforcement Officers (LEO). They will provide the information on the bad guys site to LEO. Some other SNS's (I will not name any names), do not work well with LEO. They will abide when a subpoena is sent (court order to provide the information), however, some of them will inform the individuals that LE is watching them, or just delete the profile all together. This can severely  hinder an investigation!! 

What do you think? Do you think SNS's should work with LEO's?? Do you think that SNS's should delete profiles or leave them up?

Social Networking

Over the past two weeks, I have been at training for work. It was the Federal Law Enforcement Analyst Training. It was a great two weeks! We learned so much, from Social Networking, to charting, to crime trends, to everything involving drug investigations. We had a two day seminar on Social Networking. It was fabulous. I loved it in part, because my boss was the presenter. But also because I learned SO much from him!! A lot of the lecture revolved around investigations.

One of the main things that I wanted to blog about, was about Facebook. He presented on how Facebook start, which anyone who loves SNS's and has viewed the movie The Social Network, knows how FB started. However, he talked about how FB really aims to be the "Franklin Planner" of SNS's. I thought that this was a great analogy!! Franklin Planners have calanders, to do lists, phone numbers, etc. It's a handy way to keep everything you need in one location. Well, as the presenter had stated, that is FB's goal. They want to have a central way for people to keep track of friends, phone numbers (if you put it on your page), birthdays, etc. This central "do all" that FB provides really sets it apart from other SNS's. 

Internet

For the last two weeks I have been at training for work. I got to stay at my parents house, instead of a hotel. It was awesome being able to visit with my parents, however, they have.....DIAL UP!!!! Therefore, the only Internet access I had was my phone!! I attempted to use their Internet, but it was so slow that I gave up and didn't even attempt to log on. I have been thinking how high speed Internet has really become a part of our daily lives. You don't realize how much you appreciate wireless, and high speed until you don't have it!!

Where my parents live, I also had fairly bad reception. It would take SO long to send a text or a tweet!! It really is crazy how we depend on the Internet. It feels so nice to sit here right now and type this blog with wireless Internet!!!

Videos

A lot of videos have been made on the Internet and on tv, poking fun of Internet dangers. As funny as they are, they do tap into the reality of what goes on online. Please enjoy these videos. I think you'll enjoy them!

Mad TV Sesame Street skit 
I can be your Facebook Stalker
Mad TV To Catch a Predator


...and my favorite of all time: SNL Myspace Class


ENJOY! :)

Identity

I am currently working on my literature review for class. I am going through various readings and just finished a great article titled "Mastering the Dark Arts of Cyberspace: A Quest for Sound Internet Safety Policies" by Harry Valetk, which was published in Standford Technology Law Review. A large portion of the paper talks about online privacy and identity theft. This really got me thinking how easy it is for a criminal to steal your identity. The article talks about how criminals can use sites such as http://www.anybirthday.com/ to find out your name, birthday and even address! How scary is that?! As well, sites like this, is just asking for people to have stalkers!! The Internet can really be a scary and creepy place!! I really wonder what goes through someones mind that makes them think that cyber stalking, identity theft, any crime really, is a good idea?

How many times do you go to school, dentist, doctor, banks, loan offices, etc and give them your name, date of birth, Social Security Number, etc??? It would be so easy for these people to take this information and go online and begin their fraud against you. Not to mention, those tech savvy people who can find your SSN and other personal information just using open source searches?? Be careful people!

Research Project pt 2

This weekend I have been doing more reflection on what I should do research on for Tech 621. I have also gathered research that is already out there. I do feel that there is chatter about internet safety and dangers, however, I think that there needs to be much much more.

Therefore....I propose that I do a needs analysis for the project. Displaying the small amount of data and chatter that is taking place on the topic, alongside with the statistics on Internet crimes, can provide a view of what is needed.

What are your thoughts?

Research Project

For Tech 621, we have to do a research project. I would really like to stay  in line with the Internet Safety topic. However, I have been looking through Radian6 (our outlet to measuring the topic), and not finding much in regards to Internet Safety. Does anyone have any ideas to narrow the topic??? Thanks!