Password Protection

How safe are your accounts? Do you cycle through the same set of passwords or use the same two for all your accounts? If you answered yes to any part of the last question, you might want to step up your online security game.

According to research done by the Ponemon Institute for CNNMoney, in 2014, a whopping 47% of adults had their personal information exposed by hackers. With nearly everything we do moving into the digital realm, such as shopping or paying bills, it has attracted more attention from possible hackers, giving them the chance for easy money. With the data that's stolen, it could be enough to get tracked down by an abusive ex, an easier target for scams, and even if it's only your basics, that can be paired easily with stolen credit card data, strengthening imposters efforts.

On a scale a bit smaller than identity theft, two significant social media accounts have recently been hacked.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, recently had his Twitter and Pinterest accounts hacked. Experts suspect it may be because he used an old password, one that had been hacked and linked to his LinkedIn leak from 2012.

The NFL Twitter account was also recently hacked, proclaiming that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell had passed away at age 57.

However, the hack did not last terribly long, with the first tweet being deleted almost immediately along with the two rapid-fire following tweets.

With all our information being increasingly moved to the online sphere, it is important we take the necessary steps to protect what we put out there. By following these tips from connectsafely.org, hopefully less will leak or at least you'll make a hacker's job much more difficult.

Stanford Case

While he might not be referred to as such in some headlines, the Stanford Rapist, Brock Turner, is in the spotlight for multiple reasons.

Lots shared this and similar memes online.

The first of which being the incredibly light sentence he received following being convicted of three felonies, including "assault with intent to rape an intoxicated woman and sexually penetrating an unconscious person with a foreign object." For his crime, he was only sentenced to 6 months in a county jail and then 3 years probation. The reason for this leniency? The judge determined that, "a prison sentence would have a severe impact on him. I think he will not be a danger to others." While no amount of time can undo what he did to the woman he raped, this sentence is truly laughable, especially considering the length of time others have been put in jail for lesser crimes. My Facebook feed was filled with scathing remarks regarding the proceedings.







The other reason for outrage regarding Turner is thanks to his father. After the trauma of the whole rape ordeal on his son, his father took to the internet to pen a letter which has been circulating the internet. Within the letter, he describes how his son will never be his "happy go lucky self" and how his "every waking minute is consumed with worry, anxiety, fear, and depression." He chooses to paint his son as the victim in the event, despite it being his son's own actions that caused him to be in this position today. Not to mention how it's a slap in the face to the actual victim, the woman who he raped.





In stark contrast to his letter is the one the victim read to Turner in court. Currently trending with over 10 million views on Buzzfeed, the unnamed victim recounts the horrors of the night and how she was violated. Dubbed Emily Doe, she makes a powerful statements including, "we can let this destroy us, I can remain angry and hurt and you can be in denial, or we can face it head on, I accept the pain, you accept the punishment, and we move on."

Without social media, this case might not have made its way onto my radar, as I'm sure is the case with many other people. Such widespread outrage across the internet might even lead to a positive outcome, bringing reform to the Justice System.

Cyberbullying

In our day and age of technology, the term "cyberbullying" has become an unfortunate necessity in our vocabulary. Now, children (adults included!!!) must fear not only those that prey on others in the school yard, looking to take others' lunch money, but also those that lurk in the depths of the internet. The site stopbullying.gov reports that 7% of students in grades 6-12 experienced some form of cyberbullying in the 2013-14 school year. And that's just the students that seek help and report what they went through!

In 2009 when I was a freshman in high school, the site formspring.me was incredibly popular amongst students. The now nonexistent site was a question-and-answer-based social networking site where people, either anonymously or through their Formspring account, could ask each other questions. As with most things where anonymity gets involved, people abused the question site, choosing to bully and harass users. A girl who I had a few classes with and was a bit of a Luna Lovegood-type received some of the nastiest messages that I've had the displeasure to read. Obviously hurt by what she encountered online, "Luna" eventually deleted her account.  Thankfully, she bounced back, brushing off the haters and moving on with her life. Others who were more troubled were not as lucky, possibly pushed over the edge because of the harassment they received online.

I wish I could have done something to help "Luna" but I did not realize what was happening until it was too late. We need to look out for one another on the internet as best we can. As in real life, there's creepy people out there who take pleasure in other's misery. Only we can stop them. If you notice something not quite right online, most sites have a report feature. Do what you can to ensure that the internet's a welcoming place!

"Big Brother" Online

Long time, no post, blog! It seems I have fallen off the posting-wagon for a bit but never fear--I'm back and I've got a lot to say.

One of the biggest issues online today is user-privacy. Time and time again, we hear about situations where someone's personal information or pictures are shared online without their consent (one of the biggest scandals of the past five years, crudely referred to as "The Fappening") or even someone who had the great idea to post their questionable and sometimes illicit activities online, only to be fired from their job or caught by the police.

#yikes

Author Lori Andrews argues that we need a Social Network Constitution to protect our rights online saying, "It should say that social networks are private spaces and that employers, schools and other institutions are prohibited from accessing social network pages or taking adverse actions against a person based on anything they post on a social network. A similar rule is being considered in Germany, which would forbid employers from using information from social networks in the processes of hiring or judging employees."

While I think we deserve some sort of protection from what occurs online, because there's not much stopping your archenemy from creating an unflattering online presence for you, I do think that some good things can be learned from scanning someone's social media. For example, if you have a crush on someone, you may or may not choose to do a little "investigating" on your own to figure out what they like and dislike. During this time, you might stumble upon a page they're associated with that might not be the best (a hate group, perhaps?) which will probably influence you to move on, probably for the better.

However, the argument could also be made that you have changed as a person since you originally created your online presence. For example, I posted a lot of dumb stuff when I first had social media as a Freshman in high school in 2009. I definitely look back on some of that stuff and cringe. Because of this, I've gone back and tried to blast the worst-of-the-worst into oblivion but I'm sure there's something out there somewhere, because it's the internet and nothing ever really goes away. Since that's the case, I'd definitely not want someone to judge me on whether or not to give me a job, based on something stupid I wrote back in the day.

Why did I feel the need to post this??

Basically, there needs to be some middle ground between the two sides. I think online privacy needs to be improved greatly with tighter security features to protect people. In addition to this, people really need to think about what they share online.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Have you heard of Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog? No? Well, you should definitely get on that because it's delightful.

For the uninformed, Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is an award-winning, 2008 musical/comedy/drama/miniseries that was formatted and produced for consumption on the internet. It was written and created during the 2007-2008 Writer's strike by Jed, Zack, and Joss Whedon (yes, the Whedon of Avengers (among many other things) fame) along with Maurissa Tancharoen.

The show, broken into three acts and initially uploaded in three parts, tells the story of Dr. Horrible (Neil Patrick Harris), an aspiring supervillain; Captain Hammer (Nathan Fillion), the Dr.'s nemesis; and Penny (Felicia Day), their shared love interest.

Without spoiling too much, the show follows the life of Dr. Horrible through musical "blog updates" that he posts on his site, showing how he works to be accepted into the Evil League of Evil, struggles against his arch enemy, and attempts to grab the attention of the love of his life. It's short, sweet (less than 45 minutes), full of quotable lines, and has been conveniently uploaded to YouTube since it's departure from Netflix.

Happy Blogging!

Google And Its Grip

With nearly 30 years in the comedy business, The Simpsons has had the chance to poke fun at nearly everything under the sun. That being said, despite their joking nature, they've managed to make some uncanny predictions that have come true (to an extent). There was the time they suggested that horse meat was being added as a secret ingredient (5x19) or the time famous Las Vegas performers were mauled by their own tiger (5x10). They also predicted a Trump presidency but hopefully that'll be one that stays in the realm of fiction (11x17)...

#Yikes

Another prediction from the minds of the writers for The Simpsons was Google's world domination. While not necessarily to the comically extreme extent shown in the 2011 episode "Holidays of Future Passed," with most of the population enslaved by the technology company, Google has definitely become a prominent feature in the lives of many.

I'd definitely have the same reaction...

Ultimately, it can be argued that Google is too prominent in our lives. With its reputation for being a reliable search engine, nearly anything with the Google branding attached to it does well. While not everything can be a success (I'm looking at you, Google Hangouts...), programs such as Google Maps, Google Earth, and Google Docs have become wildly popular, strengthening our dependence and reliance on the company. I'm definitely guilty of this, as I surf the web using Chrome, utilize Blogger to post this update, and prior to that, use Google to find the images and articles I have linked above, and I honestly don't know what I would do if one day I woke up to find Google had been wiped from the face of the planet.

There was a world before Google, before even the internet, but I'm not sure how well I'd fare. While I wouldn't spontaneously combust, I would definitely have to rethink how I do things in life. Google's interface is so easy and readily available to users. It provides a network of services that work in tandem, making it much easier to go about your daily life. While this is incredibly convenient for me as a user, it has the potential to also be catastrophic were that information to fall into the wrong hands. On the milder end of the spectrum, your data can be sold to advertisers who then use that to send you spam messages about a product you'll never use. On a much worse end of that same spectrum, personal and sensitive information could be leaked, compromising your identity, bank account, or even your life.

While I'm not advocating everyone go off the grid and adopt the tin foil hat lifestyle, I think it would be good to at least have everyone on the same page about the relationship Google has with their information and the potential risks it poses to our privacy and independence. We may joke about the hold Google has on our lives but it has definitely embedded itself into our lives, much like an un-skip-able ad at the beginning of a YouTube video. Hopefully, if more people realize this, some boundaries can be set and higher standards for privacy can be achieved.

Until then, stock up on the foil... it won't keep Google from being able to access your personal information but it might keep you away from its servers so that you don't provide it with any more!

Warning: Tin foil hats are not understood by all.

Bloggers Who Blog

Skimming through the various interviews Rebecca Blood has conducted with bloggers, the one for Tiffany B. Brown (tiffanybbrown.com) grabbed my attention.  Not only does she keep that blog for "Web technology and design, internet life, stuff that catches my eye, and whatever is rumbling through my head at the moment," she also runs BlackFeminism.org where she discusses issues of gender, race, and politics along with CulturedWino.com, where she documents her interest in wine (although upon further investigation, it appears as though the latter two sites no longer exist).

Looking at the time stamp on when the interview was conducted, I had immediate flashbacks to middle school and getting our first "high speed" internet connection at home. I was so excited to be able to play games online and be able to do some studying from home, of course. Granted, it would probably take at least a half hour to get the picture and even longer to get a simple Flash game to load, but it was totally worth it. I felt so high tech. To see that Tiffany B. Brown was making a name for herself on the internet, more specifically the in the blogosphere, while I was just barely dipping my toes into the depths of technology and the internet, is sort of surreal for me.

Looking at the interview more in depth, it seems very familiar, somehow. While at the time, especially for those unfamiliar with the jargon, it might have seemed like Brown was answering in another language, but nowadays, even if those aren't necessarily familiar with the sites she lists, the context and tone in which she responds is relatable and understandable because of the role the internet now plays in our everyday lives. I especially found Brown's comments about her blogging being a hobby but wishing she could survive off of revenue from her blog relatable. While I don't necessarily run a blog, it would be really neat to be able to be paid to do something that you love and consider a hobby.

All in all, the interview was really interesting to read and it was neat to stroll down memory lane because of it. I think blogging is a very engaging media source and the interview further proved that for me, with good questions and down-to-earth answers. I'm looking forward to continuing my blogging adventures and finding my own blogging voice!