Oregon State University

CS 101: Applications and Implications of Computers

Oregon State University, College of Engineering

Chapter 5 ~ How Privacy and Security Works

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When Facebook added open graph sharing of user data to its application in 2010, it allowed third-party vendors like Cambridge Analytica (UK) to scrape personal user data so it could target their news feeds with political ads. In 2011, the USA Federal Trade Commission (FTC) required Facebook to get the user's consent before sharing that data. However, that didn't happen. Consequently, 87 million users were targeted by Cambridge Analytica with misleading political ads paid for by politicians, which experts say unfairly swayed many presidential elections around the world.

ABC News bar graph showing the number of people from the USA and 9 other countries affected by the FA/CA scandal.
Learn more: A timeline of trouble: Facebook's privacy record and regulatory fines. (2021)
In 2017, the USA Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to rescind new online privacy laws, which could have protected users better. In 2018, the European Union began regulating user consent when websites gather data. As of 2021, the USA still doesn't adequately regulate user data though many states are working on it individually.

How do we ensure our privacy and security online when companies and governments may not care?

These kinds of issues and new regulations arise when companies are not fully invested in keeping our personal data safe (learn more from the FTC's Data Breach Responses: a guide for businesses in the USA). In addition, most people are not careful with their data.

In this chapter, you'll explore malicious acts, privacy, security, and prevention topics while working together in a collaborative document. In discussion, you'll tell us how you personally tightened up your digital footprint based on recommendations from Consumer Reports.

This chapter's skills and discussion will take between 4 and 12 hours to complete.

In this lesson, you'll be contributing to the development of a Cybersecurity Manual by writing about a single topic, making recommendations to your classmates, and implementing their recommendations. The goal is to write and format the document so it has zero mistakes!

Read the detailed instructions provided in the Collaboration document (large green buttons in step 5.2, below) before you begin.

5.1 Research a cybersecurity topic.

5.1.1 Research, write, and illustrate.
  1. Explore the World's Biggest Data Breaches & Hacks infographic (2004 to present). Do you see an interesting topic you'd like to explore further? Use links in the infographic to learn more about a malware incident.
    David McCandless, Tom Evans, Paul Barton, Dr Stephanie Starling, Duncan Geere, sources: databreaches.net, IDTheftCentre and media reports
  2. Choose one malware or cybersecurity term from the list below:
    To avoid duplicate topics, do not write about a topic until you view the collab doc in step 5.2...!
    • Acoustic Cryptanalysis
    • Ad Fraud and Malvertising
    • Advanced Persistent Threats (APT)
    • AI Transformers
    • APT Side Hustle or Privateering
    • Astroturf
    • ATM Skimming
    • Backdoor, Exploit
    • Bluejacking
    • Bots, Botnets, Bot Master, Bot Herder
    • Browser Hijack, Session Hijacking
    • Brute Force attack
    • Bug
    • Catfishing
    • Cloaking
    • Click Bait, Engagement Bait, Malvertising
    • Credential Stuffing
    • Cross-site Scripting (XSS)
    • Cryptojacking
    • Cyberflashing
    • Cyberwarfare
    • Dark Patterns
    • Data Breach and Spillage
    • Deep Fake
    • Dedicated Denial of Service Attack (DDoS)
    • Differential Fault Analysis Attack
    • Domain Fluxing
    • Domain Spoofing
    • Doxing
    • Drive-by Downloads
    • Electromagnetic attack
    • Encrypting, Hashing, Public Key Encryption, Private Key
    • Erasure Coding
    • Evil Twin and Rogue Access Point
    • False Flag
    • Fileless Malware
    • Firewall
    • Form Grabbing
    • Geotagging, geolocation
    • Ghosting
    • Grayware
    • Hacker, White Hat Hacker, Black Hat Hacker, Cracker
    • Intrusion Detection
    • Injection Attack
    • Juice Jacking
    • Keylogging
    • Logic Bomb
    • MaaS (Malware as a Service)
    • Man-in-the-Middle attacks
    • NAND Mirroring
    • Network Telescope
    • Pharming
    • Phishing, Spear Phishing, Whaling, Angler-phishing
    • Rainbow Table Attack
    • RAM Scraper
    • Ransomware and Crypto-Malware
    • Robocall
    • Rogue Security Software
    • Remote Access Trojan (RAT)
    • Rootkit, Bootkit, Rooting
    • Smishing
    • Sniffing, Password Sniffing, Packet Sniffing
    • Social Engineering, Pretexting
    • Sockpuppet
    • Spam and Blacklisting
    • Spoofing
    • Spyware, Stalkerware, and Snooping (sound, video, webcam)
    • Stalkerware
    • Stingray
    • Super-cookies, Evercookies, Zombie Cookies, Sidejacking
    • SYN Flooding
    • Tailgating, Shoulder Surfing, and Dumpster diving
    • Threat, threat actor, threat agent
    • Traffic light protocol
    • Trojan Horses
    • Typosquatting
    • Virus, Macro Virus
    • Vishing
    • Vulnerability, vulnerability assessment and management
    • War Dialing
    • Web Skimmers
    • Whitelist, Blacklist
    • Watering Hole attack
    • Worms
    • Zero-Day Exploit
    • Zombie computer
    • Zoombombing
  3. Launch a word processing document and save the file as How Privacy and Security Works First and Last name. Summarize your chosen topic in 300 words or more, written in the third-person style. Include:
    • A definition of the term.
    • A summary of an actual case where the concept was used.
    • A solution to the problem, such as how software developers could prevent the problem, or how users could prevent or fix the problem.
  4. Apply the Styles > Normal style to your paragraph (do not add indents or any other formatting).
  5. Cite all sources by hyperlinking their titles in a sentence in the paragraph.
  6. Bold key concept names (not long phrases).
  7. Illustrate the concept you wrote about to show how it works.
    1. Place your cursor at the start of your paragraph.
    2. Choose Insert > Image > Search the Web.
    3. Search for a diagram, chart, or photo that illustrates the concept you wrote about. simple decorative images are not allowed. Illustrations must include written information, such as how the technology works.
    4. Select your choice and click the blue Insert button at the bottom of the search pane. Wait patiently while the image loads onto the page.
    5. Review it to ensure it relates; it is very hard to tell from the small search pane. If necessary, search again from a different browser tab and Insert > Image > By URL.
    6. Click the image to access the text-wrapping menu and blue resizing handles. Click the middle text-wrapping option. Use the blue handles and shift key simultaneously to proportionally reduce or enlarge the image, so it is no taller than the paragraph you wrote about.
  8. Capture the bibliographic data for each source of research and illustration using your Bibliography tool.
5.1.2 Save and submit your file.

Save your document as a PDF file. This is the primary file you will submit in Canvas.

  • File > Export as PDF/XPS. Save the file to your CS 101 folder on the hard drive.
  • File > Download as PDF. Save the file to your CS 101 folder on the hard drive or Google Drive.

Each assignment must be submitted before the Due date and time as specified on the Canvas Home tab. The Available Until date and time constitutes a grace period, which can be used in an emergency, or if you are ill (it cannot be used for every assignment). Students who submit using the Available Until date may incur score reduction. Students on a DAS Flexibility Contract: there is no need to notify the instructor. All of your Available Until dates will be set to 72 hours past the Due Date, which can be used up to 3 times. Abuse of the Flexibility Contract will be reported to DAS.

  1. Click on the Canvas Home button and scroll down to the Ch 5 ~ How Privacy and Security Works assignment. Click the assignment link.
  2. Upload the PDF file you created (not the entire Collaboration document). Confirm that it uploaded.
  3. TurnItIn logo Check the TurnItIn Report for plagiarized phrases and sentences. Review how to use TurnItIn. Edit or add quote marks in your original file to ensure the second draft of the file will pass the TurnItIn inspection. Resave the PDF file. Upload the newer version in the assignment's Submission Details screen. If you made revisions based on the TurnItIn report, then make those same changes to the collaboration document.
  4. Within 3 days of submission, be on the lookout for Rubric feedback and Comments from the TA and Instructor.
  5. Ask questions about the score and feedback in the assignment's Commenting box.

5.2 Collaborate in a cybersecurity manual.

Now that your contribution is written and edited, add it to the Cybersecurity Manual collaboration document. Login to your OSU Google account then open your section's collaboration file:

Spring 2024 Cybersecurity Manual
Winter 2024 Cybersecurity Manual

Follow instructions in the file to complete the pasting of your writing and illustration. If your illustration did not paste, then use the procedure in step 5.1.7 to insert it into the collaboration document.

5.3 Review

You and your classmates will take on the role of editor to help improve the document you did not already contribute to.

  1. Review the Cybersecurity Manual collaboration document. Read the entire document (even if not everyone has collaborated yet) and Insert > Comments where appropriate, to suggest improvements to:
    • Grammar
    • Spelling
    • Formatting of styles. If added an indent; remove it.
    • Writing consistency (all entries are written in the third-person style with hyperlinked titles)
    • Illustration formatting. None of the illustrations should be taller than their paragraphs and text should wrap on the left or right.
    • Bibliography placement and consistency (each entry should be in the Bibliography section (last section of the document) and use the same order of author, title, publisher, year, and URL).
  2. When you receive comments via email related to your paragraph, go back to the collaboration document to make the revisions suggested by your classmates.
  3. Click the doneCheckmark button for each comment you resolve.

5.4 Extra Credit Designs.

To improve the design of the collaboration document, add one of the following components to the document (if they have all been implemented, you can implement future extra credit options later):

  1. Add a Table of Contents.
    Ideally, this option is completed after the deadline, so that all entries are provided beforehand.
    1. Under the instructions on page 1 of the collaboration document, Insert > Table of Contents.
    2. From the resulting list, replace the redundant headings in the first two or three lines with Table of Contents and apply Heading 2.
    3. Select the list under the new heading and change the line spacing to Single and remove the space after so the list doesn't take up more than 2 pages.
    4. Leave a comment in the Canvas Assignment Details page letting the Instructor and TAs know you completed this option.
  2. Add a footer with page numbering, counting, and line.
    1. From the Insert menu, choose Footer.
      Add a footer from the Insert menu.
    2. Place the cursor in that new footer area and from the Insert menu, choose Page Numbers and the option that starts numbering on page two (so the Table of Contents cover page isn't numbered).
      Number the pages in the footer.
    3. Double-click into the new footer and place the cursor after the number. Type a slash / or vertical bar |. From the Insert menu's Page Numbers option, choose the Page Count option.
      Add a horizontal line to the footer.
    4. From the Footer's Options link, update the Footer margin to 0.
      Add a horizontal line to the footer.
    5. From the Insert menu, choose Horizontal Line. The footer should look like this now:
      Add page count after the page number.
    6. Leave a comment in the Canvas Assignment Details page letting the Instructor and TAs know you completed this option.
  3. Sort the bibliography alphabetically.
    Ideally, this option is completed after the deadline, so that all entries are provided beforehand.
    1. Remove all quotation marks from the bibliography entries.
    2. Copy the entire list to another document when logged into your own personal Google Account or a Microsoft Word document.
      • If using Google Docs, use the Add-on menu > Get Addons and search for Doc Tools by Ablebits. Add it. Select all of the entries and from the Add-on, choose Sort A to Z.
      • If using Microsoft Word for sorting, select the list and apply the Home tab's AZ↓ button. You many also need to sort the text by paragraph and choose in ascending order. Note that when using Word on Mac, the sorted list will not paste properly into the Google Doc...so proceed with caution.
    3. Copy the newly-sorted list. Select the old list in the collaboration document and paste the new entries to replace the old list.
    4. Leave a comment in the Canvas Assignment Details page letting the Instructor and TAs know you completed this option.

If a classmate attempted to complete one of the three options above but did not finalize it, then you may complete it to earn credit.

5.5 Verify your work.

From the Canvas Home tab, click the Ch 5 ~ How Privacy and Security Works assignment. Scroll to the bottom to see the Rubric. Compare your work to the Rubric to ensure you've included all paragraphs and reviewed/edited your work. The rubric is based on the following scoring criteria, which are based on the instructions above: Check off each criterion to confirm you've completed them before submitting the file.

  1. Paragraph, illustration, and bibliography entries are submitted as a single PDF file.
  2. Paragraph is free of plagiarism.
  3. Cybersecurity writing includes a definition, a summary of an actual case, a solution, is properly cited, and bold is applied to key concepts.
  4. Illustration provides information, relates to the scandal/term and has text-wrap applied to the right or left.
  5. Formatting, grammar, and spelling recommendations were implemented in the collaboration document.
  6. Bibliography entries are numbered, properly formatted, and consistent with other entries in the collaboration document.

If you helped complete the design of the document by implementing one of the extra credit options, then verify your work:

  1. Extra Credit: Table of contents includes automatic up-to-date page numbering for each heading 2 and 3 (excluding the instructions and title).
  2. Extra Credit: Footer includes a horizontal line, a page number, and a page count aligned to the right.
  3. Extra Credit: Bibliography is sorted alphabetically and no entries have quotation marks.
Expert Advice from the FTC about when to shred which kinds of documents to prevent ID theft.

5.6 Tighten up your digital footprint.

Many of us don't take the time to secure our online accounts to ensure maximum privacy from third-party advertisers and bad actors. You'll do that now and talk about it in discussion.

  1. Using one or both of the following articles, pick two or more steps from their checklist to complete, document, and evaluate:
  2. For each step that you chose, describe, cite, justify, and evaluate it. Write between 200 and 400 words in each paragraph in the first-person style and focus on:
    • Name, describe, and justify the step you completed.
    • Evaluate the actions you took...were they easy enough to complete? What was difficult about them? Do you notice any improvement in security/privacy yet?
    • To earn full credit, you must complete actions now, rather than write about actions you've taken before.
  3. Hyperlink the titles of supporting articles and/or websites in your writing. (Do not cite the Protect Your Personal Information and Data article; cite original articles/sites found in the list, or from more research.)
  4. Extra credit: earn extra credit for completing additional steps from the list of 10. Describe, cite, justify, and evaluate each additional step to earn 3 points each.

5.7 Verify, post, and reply.

  1. From the Canvas Home tab, click on the Chapter 5 ~ Discuss Personal Security discussion. You'll automatically land in your assigned group (sec 400 online only).
  2. Click the 3-dot more_vert More menu to see the Rubric. Compare your work to the Rubric to ensure you've written about the correct topics. The rubric is based on the following scoring criteria, which are based on the instructions above. Check off each criterion to verify you've completed them before pasting your finished writing into the Discussion Reply.
    1. First paragraph describes, justifies, evaluates, and cites one of the privacy safety options.
    2. Second paragraph describes, justifies, evaluates, and cites another of the privacy safety options.
    3. Extra Credit: post describes, justifies, evaluates, and cites additional steps of the privacy safety options.
  3. Copy your writing from the document and paste it into a new Reply thread. Click Save.
  4. Reply to another student's thread with:
    1. Additional research about one of the specific steps in their thread. This encourages both of you to learn more detail.
    2. Do not repeat what you wrote in the initial thread. Cite the new source using a hyperlinked title.
    3. Click Save.
  5. Verify that your reply thread meets requirements:
    1. Reply post summarizes and cites additional research about one of the other student's privacy safety steps.
  6. Within 3 days of submission, be on the lookout for Rubric feedback and Comments from the TA and Instructor.
  7. Ask questions about the score and feedback in the assignment's Commenting box.