Who governs the Internet?

No one governs the Internet, but they have bodies which are maintaining the Internet.


Internet Society (ISOC) - It is a voluntary organization which promotes global information exchange through Internet.


Internet Corporation for Assigning Numbers and Names (ICANN) - It is an International self-governing bodies not a government agency. It was being established to represent a wider range of countries and interests. It begins to address emerging public policy issues in the E-Commerce I period.

The bodies that are maintaining the Internet:

1. Internet Architecture Board (IAB) - a group of volunteers invited by ISOC to come out with standards and allocate resources, such as addresses. It is divided into 2 groups, which are Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and Internet Research Task Force (IRTF). IETF develops and maintains the Internet communication protocols. It addresses the problems and coordinates new services. Working groups are appointed to define the standards and coordinates all the activities. IRTF research on the long-term research problems which will be critical in 5 or 10 years.
2. Internet Network Information Center (InterNic) - It is a project sponsored by NSF and is conducted by AT&T and Network Solutions. Various registry services needed for the Internet to operate effectively is provided by InterNic.
3. World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) - The laboratory for Computer Science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology manage the W3C. It is a joint initiative between MIT, CERN and INRIA. It is forms to develop standards for the evolution of the web.

Refence:
http://www.mkatoh.net/who-governs-the-internet

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing is a modern technology model for enabling convenient network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources such as networks, servers, storage, applications and etc that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.

         One of the benefits of cloud computing is that it does not require a user to be in a specific place to gain access to it and thus, it is convenient to be used in any places. As for companies, set up cost is almost zero because all the expenses that the company would have incurred do not exist. 

For examples, cloud computing allows them to reduce the cost of information management since they are not required to own their own servers and can use capacity leased from third parties. There will be no hardware purchases for servers and spending on labour man. Besides that, since such cloud computing applications can be accessed from anywhere and at any time, it would be easier to collaborate with employees who are not in the same country and makes it easier to manage a global workforce.

          However, there are some drawbacks which arise in accordance the cloud computing technology. Although it is true that there is no upfront cost to many cloud computing applications, there are other ‘soft’ cost that cannot be ignored and the server do have an ongoing monthly subscription to pay. Moreover, the limitations for mobile cloud computing with wireless carriers are not totally reliable while offices and homes are fine so it is quite unstable for those who use cloud applications through mobile. 

Meanwhile, the loss of data and the risk of unauthorized access have cause cloud computing lack in security as the data is important to any business and organization. For examples, as cloud computing is about keep data on a web based, when it comes to security of data in a country, the country won’t be able to risk even a little of the confidential data within a country such as citizenship and monetary banking records to be exposed to computer crimes likes hacking.

          As a summary, there are no exact ways to measure whether cloud computing bring more harm than good or vice versa.

Related link:

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Cloud-Computing/Deploying-OpenSource-Cloud-Systems-5-Pros-and-5-Cons-295321/

Phishing : How can me PROTECT ourselves

                                                             Fishing = Phishing???   (o.O)??

PHISHING is pronounce like FISHING, however, it is not some relax, good like fishing.

Phishing is a broadly launched social engineering attack in which an electronic identity is misrepresented in an attempt to trick individuals into revealing credentials. In other word, phishing is THEFT.

                    




         PHISHING   =

Phishing is a technique used to gain others' personal information for purpose of identity theft using fraudulent phone call, website and e-mail message that sent by a legitimate firm. 

How does a phishing email looks like?

 As shown in the picture, a phishing email can be identified by looking in few ways. First, there is always some grammar error, secondly, there must be a threat contain in email and usually they will said that they are from some popular company like bank, government or some other well known website.

How can we as a internet user protect ourselves from phishing?

There are few suggested ways for us to learn.

1. Be skeptical

Internet is a place where everything can be virtual, whereby there is nothing real online. People pretend that they are not who they are in real life, doing everything that they are not going to do in real life via internet. Hence, as a internet user, we have to be skeptical. Never trust anything easily even the email or the private message is sent by some of your close friend because their account might be hacked. Besides, if the company send you an email with threat and you really worry about it, do call to the office of that particular company to double confirm the situation. Never think that we will never hurt in internet since it is virtual. Yes, Internet is virtual, yet people are real. Analyze everything clearly and carefully to prevent ourselves get trapped.

2. Using website to warn us 

Latest version of browsers like Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome is now come with built in phishing protection. We can protect ourselves by surfing internet via these browsers. These browsers will analyze web sites and compare them against known or suspected phishing sites and warn you if the site you are visiting may be malicious or illegitimate. 

3. Use the keypad, not the mouse

If you really afraid of the threats that stated in email, do type in the URL by ourselves instead of clicking it direct;y with the mouse. We cannot guarantee that the link provided in email is real one, so instead of taking risk by clicking with mouse, please use your keypad and type the URL of the particular company manually.

4.Look for the lock

Valid sites that use encryption to securely transfer sensitive information are characterized by a lock on the bottom right of your browser window, NOT your web page. They also have addresses that begin with https:// instead of the usual http://. Do observe carefully.

5. Different is the keyword here

Use DIFFERENT passwords for different sites; I know it’s tough task as most functions of the brain are being passed on to technology, but this is a good way to prevent phishers from getting at all your sensitive transactions, even if they’ve managed to compromise one.

The five ways mentioned can be a good ways for us to protect ourselves from phishing threat. Do remember, Do not trust what you see online. Do not trust what you think it is true. Pick up phone and make a call to confirm is always the best way.

Here are some others websites that provide opinion on how to protect ourselves from phishing.

1) http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505144_162-57388953/5-ways-to-protect-yourself-from-phishing-attacks/

2) http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/phishing-fraud/phishing-protection/

3) http://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/phishing.htm