Beyond the Skyline by LASA Ezine

beyond the skyline Why your grandchildren wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t need to go to driving school How robots have traversed 33.9 million miles to explore a potential habitat for humans

letter Ffrom the editors At the end of August, as students returned to school, we were overwhelmed with the idea of compsosing an online magazine. During the process of choosing a topic for the magazine, we were able to find a matter that interested all of us, technology. We started the year as students who were driven by the topic of technology and the opportunity to create an enternaining and interesting magazine for readers with the same interest towards technology. We wrote our stories based off of research and interviews to provide you with a factual and reliable story and it has been an honor to work with each other to create, design, and perfect this magazine for you. Our goal was to provide information to readers about the amazing field of technology. Throughout the magazine, you will have the ability to learn about the future of technology through self-driving cars and artificial intelligence. Technology and how it interacts with astrology, as we write about the New Horizons Satelllite and the Rovers in Mars. And the role that cybersecurity plays in protecting the software that makes up the internet. We are overjoyed to show you the magazine we have been working on for the past three months.

table of contents FEATURES

Exploration on Mars

Your Grandchildren Wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t Need to go to Driving School

Satalites Reaching Pluto have Futuristic Technology

Worldwide Usage of Technology

The Amount of Money our Technology Consumes

Exploration of Mars Advances

The Evolution of Transportation on Earth

How A.I. Will Take Over the World

Worldwide Usage of the Internet

How to Protect Yourself on the Internet

Computers Over The Ages

STORIES Robots Are Controlling Our Cars

The Evolution of Computers

contributors Elijah Hannah EJ has always had a fascination for space science and all the different things that could exist in the void of space. In astronomical research we have only reached the surface and we keep moving forward to find all the magnificent things that are all around us.

Adamaris Cruz Adamaris enjoys learning about the different fields of technology, especially in regards to the dark web and security issues that are present within objects that are used by large audiences, such as smart phones. She also has an interest in graphic design and journalism, which she had the opportunity to practice this year. She is grateful that she had the opportunity to write an article that attracts an audience with the same interests.

Alex Hochstein Alex Hochstein is an aspiring engineer interested in science and technology. He also enjoys designing in the Adobe programs, especially making creative edits to photos via Adobe Photoshop.

Emma Arce Emma enjoys music and programming and has always had an interest in technology and graphic design. In the future she hopes to work as a software engineer or in another similar career. She is fascinated by the way cars affect our modern day society and was curious to find out how self-driving cars could affect the future of transportation.

Zachary Lee Zachary Lee has always been fascinated by space technology and computer science, and all the things that make up the electronics of our daily lives. In those two fields of research we had only touched the tip of the iceberg, and could push farther to find the mysterious void that surround us.

Cars drive along a freeway in early morning traffic. Photo Credit: Pexels

The General Motors Austin IT Innovation Center is where two of the interviews took place. Photo Credit: Emma Arce

self-driving cars of tomorrow How they will affect the future of transportation Story by Emma Arce Self-driving cars, also known as autonomous cars, such as the Chevrolet Bolt EV are already cruising the streets of the San Francisco Bay Area and other cities in America. These are test cars not available for purchase, but people believe self-driving cars will become the norm in a not-so-distant future. Questions surrounding self-driving cars have come up, including how the world could change when people have the option to buy a self-driving car. Others include whether people still need to own a car once an autonomous vehicle can come pick people up and take them wherever they need to go, what would happen if a self-driving car got hacked, and whose fault it would be if two self-driving cars were involved in an accident. These are just a few of the questions that will have to be answered by both consumers and the car manufacturing industry in the coming years. In June 2016, GM launched a fleet of over 50 automated Bolt EVs, following the passage of legislation to enable public-road testing. On June 13, 2017 GM announced that it had finished making 130 additional autonomous Chevrolet Bolt test vehicles at its plant in Lake Orion.

One of the questions regarding the implementation of autonomous vehicles is how they could improve the future and potentially solve some of the problems that cars today cause. “Self-driving cars can reduce the amount of accidents that are happening…they will reduce a lot of human error,” said Gabriela Gil, a software developer at the General Motors Austin IT Innovation Center. This seemed to be a recurring thought. “I think the biggest advantage they see coming from self-driving cars is just the whole driver error and the help that computers can do to help solve that,”said Ian Brand, who is a project manager at General Motors.

number of accidents that happen, but they can also be hacked and controlled by malicious users. “I think that some of the challenges that people have with cars are commute times, the more cars we have the longer it takes to get anywhere. Cars are expensive, so it can be a drain on people’s budget,” said Jorge Luna, a software developer manager at General Motors. These cars will likely disrupt businesses like car insurance companies and the car manufacturing industry. Some of these companies are already preparing for a future where self-driving cars become standard. “In the case of fully-autonomous vehicles, people will not have a

“They will reduce a lot of human error.” Self-driving cars have the potential to solve several worldwide car-related issues. People face several other challenges with cars today, including several factors such as commute times, flow of traffic, and expenses.

need to get insurance anymore because again, it’s not the driver’s fault. Once people start trusting the autonomous vehicles, they aren’t going to be getting insurance as much as they are today,” said Gabi.

Self-driving cars offer several potential benefits, but they also have drawbacks. They can, for example, make roads safer by reducing the

According to her, automation is the wave of the future. Self-driving cars have the potential to significantly

A sign in front of the Austin IT Innovavtion Center Main Entrance where the interviewees work. Photo Credit: Emma Arce

useful because you can easily call an autonomous car with an app and it can come pick you up and take you everywhere,” said Gabi. Other thoughts regarding the use of cars in the future was that they could be rented out while not in use.

Cars driving through a tunnel in the darkness. Photo Credit: Pexels decrease risks of driving as well as commute times, and the more they begin to be used, the better traffic condition will become. “Once you automate everything, in theory it should be safer; from a traffic perspective I think you can also improve the flow of traffic; but you have to have every vehicle be automated,” said Jorge Luna. The implementation of automated cars in our modern day society have the ability to greatly improve everyday conditions in driving and traffic. “I think a lot of our traffic problems just come from aggressive drivers or people either speeding up or just come from aggressive drivers or

people either speeding up or braking unnecessarily and if you get computers, kind of monitoring that, then it would have a better flow of traffic so maybe we could get places faster,” said Ian Brand. Another benefit of self-driving cars is that they never have to sit idle in a parking lot. They can potentially drive other people around while the owner is at work or out of town. In addition to this, ride-sharing services could use autonomous cars. “Self-driving cars will be able to be used for ride-sharing, like Uber, Lyft, those kinds of companies. So I feel like in the future those cars like Uber are going to consume a lot of autonomous vehicles, which is very

Ian Brand said, “Maybe you do buy a car, but while you’re at work you rent out your car and it just drives around and picks people up and you make money from your car. Instead of going to the airport and parking it while you’re on vacation, you just have your car driving around the city for that week, picking people up and you just tell your car to come pick you up at the front of the airport.” Luna had similar thoughts on how cars are just left around during the day and could potentially have a beneficial purpose when autonomous. “Go look at the parking lot of any company during the day, the cars just sit there. So yeah, you could have more utilization of resources while things are idle,” said Jorge Luna. Although it is true there are some potential drawbacks, self-driving cars will have overall positive effects on the future and significantly transform how transportation works.

A rearview mirror of a car that is in motion. Photo Credit: Pexels

surpassing horizons A scientific adventure of breaking the horizon

When most people think of space, they think of the U.S. moon landings, or the U.S.S.R.’s first Sputnik, which was one of a series of Soviet artificial satellites, and was the first satellite to be placed in orbit. What they might not think of is of the New Horizons project which sparked the beginning of new thinking when it came to space travel and technology. As Anita Cochran from the University of Texas in Austin says “it influenced things in the sense of pushing the miniaturization of equipment”.

“The New Horizons project which sparked the beginning of new thinking when it came to space travel and technology.”

The New Horizons was a part of a certain area of NASA’s projectiles known as the New Frontiers. It’s goal was to travel to Pluto, and eventually a Kuiper Belt Project. The New Frontiers was ground in between the all time highest mission called the Flagship missions and the lower tier missions known as the Discovery Missions. It was not quite as expensive as the Flagship missions, but it also had more of an impact than the Discovery missions. “NASA likes to find instruments which have what they call heritage, other words, if its earlier version was used successfully on some other space mission, NASA would take that instrument, improve it a bit, then send it back out again, and that one affects the next one and that builds up NASA’s confidence.”

That is how Bill Cochran from the University of Texas puts the heritage of the different space crafts in the sense that if the first one works, than they use that model, fix it up then send it back out again as the next one. If they continue working, it gives NASA, as he says confidence that the next ones will work. Him and his wife, Anita, both have worked in this field for a long time, and although they didn’t work with the New Horizons specifically, they have some insight on the effect and importance of the New Horizons Project. Technology wise it “it influenced things in the sense of pushing the miniaturization of equipment”, but it did more than influence miniaturization. It like most models “has a mode called Safe Mode which tells it what to do if it hasn’t heard from the Earth in a while”. Its safe mode was different as it had more miniaturized parts, for example, its energy source and its build were meant for a longer trip. This proved a challenge for the astronomers of its time because they had not made very many miniature models before, so they followed up similar to that of European space probes. “Well they were always in radio contact or well they hope they’re always in radio contact with the spacecraft.” Those are the Cochrans who talk to me about how we communicate from Earth to it and the complications with that system. There are certain factors in pinpointing the location of the space probe, the distance they are from Earth, where they are in that range of distance, and at what speed they are traveling away from Earth at.

To figure this out, they have to use all sorts of different technological mechanisms. To find that circle of distance that they are from them, they look at the waves that the probe sends out. It sends the waves at a certain frequency and they can look at how it changes to see how far it travelled. To find its exact location within that circle, they use what is known as a “star tracker” which takes pictures of the stars around it so we know the relative position that it’s at. Finally they have to figure out how fast it’s going away from the. To do that they set a certain frequency that they send out their waves at. It gets Doppler Shifted when it moves, as Bill puts it, “When sound is coming toward you everything sounds at a higher pitch, like a car horn going and then when it goes away it’s at a lower pitch, well the same thing happens with light and with radio waves. If something is coming towards you you would detect it at a higher frequency than if um what it was sent out at, it would be a lower frequency.” This means that when they receive the signal they just need to see how it has been shifted from that preset frequency. All of this from just a radio, and a star tracker.

However, there are complications. “One of these complications you’ll get into as the spacecraft goes further and further from Earth, is that there is a finite time, so if the spacecraft to Jupiter takes about, for it to send a signal along, a week, now Pluto is 8 times further away so it takes even longer to get there 8 times further. So it will send something and we will listen and go ok it told us this, that time ago and now we send a signal and we have to wait for it to get it, so that’s great for you know know how to figure out where it is, but if the spacecraft gets in troubles it has to be smart enough to get it out of troubles or atleast tell you it’s in troubles and ask for help”, says Anita. This means that it takes a certain amount of time for us to receive the messages and also for it to receive our messages. She also talked about how it needs to be able to take care of itself when it gets in trouble. It goes into what they call “Safe Mode”.

A diagram showing all of the components of the New Horizons Spaceprobe which includes the star trackers and more.

This shows the different concentrations of certain gases on Pluto’s surface and atmosphere.

“If you look at the various elements on the periodic table, and you ask what ones are the most abundant in your universe, you know what were the ones that formed are univers, what were the five ones, it was hydrogen, helium, oxygen, carbon and nitrogen, and guess what we have, we have carbon hydrogen and nitrogen, the carbon is in the form of methane so its carbon and hydrogen, and nitrogen is N2 , and oxygen is in the form of water, H2O.” That is what Bill says about the gases found on Pluto is that they are mainly in solid form so what you have is, dry ice glaciers and water ice glaciers. The “Safe Mode” would make first priority be to keep the probe alive by making sure it has a good and convenient source of energy, and that the health of all the components were safe. It then sends an S.O.S signal to the Earth, or at least where it thinks the Earth is relative to the sun. Bill and Anita help explain how it checks the health of the components, “You know it’s like your car has this service engine soon light on it what happens then it that it has recorded in its computer what it thinks is malfunctioning, and you can take it into the repair shop and they plug in a computer and say oh it’s this thing here that has the problem, well the spacecraft basically does the same thing, except though that the computer in your car is much bigger than the computer in the spacecraft.

We don’t put very sophisticated computers in space, and the reason is because space is really a rough environment, there’s, well, its a vaccum first of all you’ve got a lot of sources of energy um magnetic field, cosmic rays so there’s all those things that can do damage so they run very very simple computers because those have been hardened so we know that they will survive in space,and the Voyager spacecrafts are very old, they’ve been in space for a long time and they’re still talking to us very slowly.” To sum it up, the space crafts are set up for rough environments, and are very similar to our cars on Earth except for that miniaturization. They also mention the Voyagers still being out there meaning the space crafts even from long ago have a relatively long lifespan. So the technology of the New Horizons changed the perspective by shining a light onto the miniaturization of instruments, and using many familiar things that we use every day on Earth such as cars, radios, even using sound to understand if something is closer or farther from us. This shows that it had an impact on technological thinking even if it wasn’t the most important.

92 %

of teens go online daily, with

24%

of teens saying they go online almost immediately."

Facebook is the most used social media app with 71% of teens, 13 to 17, having reported to use it most frequently.

Nearly

75%

of teens have access to a smartphone while

30%

have access to a basic phone.

71% of teens use

multiple social network sites.

66%

use Facebook, 13% use Google and Instagram, and

3% use Snapchat.

technology use in teens

how much money does the us spend on technology? Government-wide spendings on IT investments have increased significantly over the years by Emma Arce

Every year, the US government spends billions upon billions of dollars on Information Technology (IT) investments. The United Statesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; IT spendings are expected to increase over $10 billion in 2018 from what they were in 2011. These expenses cover a wide variety of categories including hardware, software, operation services, and telecommunication services that make up todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diverse technology industry.

Government-wide IT Spending

100

80 IT spendings ($ in billions)

75.4

75.5

73.2

75.6

80.4

82.8

84.7

86.3

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Year

This graph displays the government-wide spending trends on IT investments over the past few years.

mars the next frontier The Road to Colonization Written and created by Elijah Hannah

ars has amazed astronomers for millennia. Since the dawn of humanity, humans have been looking at the sky; wondering what lives in the void that we call space. “It’s quite possible that evidence for microbial life will be found on Mars, and possibly evidence for past life. This would be a huge leap in our understanding of how common or uncommon it is for life to evolve on planetary bodies other than Earth,” Said Professor Jack Holt. “The thought of discovering extraterrestrial life in our own solar system would be incredible but also scary. There are many things to take into account.” Said Professor Don Winget.

“If we find life and it’s the same, first we’re all excited that we found life, and second, is it the same because it’s contaminated, and that’s sort of why we’re in an awkward historical time because one of the things you insist on before you go colonizing Mars is that you won’t wipe out

martian life no matter what form it might have, even if it’s just microbial life, will we bring it back to Earth which is kind of a science fiction scene, but it’s also not that crazy anymore”, said Dr. Winget. “There are so many possibilities when it comes to finding extraterrestrial life anywhere. Space is so vast and expansive that who knows there may be a whole other species sitting right under our noses, but if it is the same then was a result of us?” “The problem is that they said they wouldn’t go to the area with flowing water to prevent contaminating the water, but later they realized that they had already crossed one of these flowing waters. And that’s a little scary because if they happened to find microbial life on Mars would it be very different from Earth cause if so no harm no foul ,or if it is similar to Earth, did we put it there?” said Dr. Winget. In what he says, he names several concerns he has for the discovery of other life forms, if there was microbial life on mars, does that mean that if other life can exist there, can we colonize and live on Mars? “

Mars Climate Photo by NASA

Phobos, Mars’ closest moon Photo by NASA

“Mars is not very habitable at all relative to Earth, due to the thin atmosphere comprised mostly of carbon dioxide, the cold temperatures, and especially the radiation. It does not have a strong magnetic field like Earth, so it is not shielded from the Sun’s charged particles like Earth is. Earth would have to be in extremely bad shape in order to make it worth colonizing Mars. Perhaps if a large asteroid were going to hit Earth, that might be sufficient motivation,” said Dr. Holt, but if we found sufficient means to move to Mars,then what will be the most dangerous factors of living there? “Radiation protection, mainly. But also a very reliable source of water, which likely means ground ice rather than short-lived seeps of saline water. And of course contained atmospheres in order to breathe. It will be a huge challenge,” said Dr. Holt “So, even if we found a solution to the radiation problem worries about water would still be present. But many other questions come from thi, and there are so many other possibilities.” Dr. Winget said “we’ll have to see how briny is the water ice because it’s frozen so part of it may already be desalinated or it may not be because the temperatures are pretty extreme there.” All kinds of questions are possible and there all kinds of possibilities for colonization.

Diemos, Mars’ farthest moon Photo by NASA

Maven Mars satellite Photo by NASA

Curiousity: Mars Rover Photo by NASA

McDonald Observatory in Austin, Texas Photo by the San Antonio Express News

Possible Evidence of water on Mars Photos by NASA

evolution of transportaion timeline By Zachary Lee

1783 CE First Manned hot air balloom

559 CE First Manned Hang glider

1400s CE Use of horse-draw coaches

2000 BCE Chariots were used as transportation

750 BCE Earliest form of mast ships

1770s CE Steam engines were used to power boats

1852 CE First Engine Powered Airship Flight

1908 CE Ford Model T went into production

2002 CE First cruise ship to serve as a residential community

2004 CE First privately funded human spaceflight in SpaceShipOne

1980s CE Europe and the US use driverless cars

replaced by robots The future of self-progression by Alex Hochstein

Photo from Innomag. This is a representation of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;brainâ&#x20AC;? of a machine with artificial intelligence.

This is a computer database, which holds massive amounts of information.

wave of monumental technology is just beyond the horizon. Programs have become better at detecting problems, remedying them without human aid, and repeating this process until they inevitably reach their goal. But, like most, this leap in progress could come at the cost of the jobs of hundreds of millions of people around the globe, who work as cashiers, truck drivers, factory workers, and dozens of other jobs that provide essential consumer goods. An estimated 47% of all employment opportunities will be taken by machines within the next 20 years. In recent years, the workforce involved in manual labor, specifically in more developed countries, has been threatened by machines, who could replace them if the technology progresses enough. Programmers have developed software such as Watson from IBM, which outperformed in a round of Jeopardy against former Jeopardy winners, Brad Rutter and Ken Jennings. Government officials have started to pay attention to these technological advancements because of the fact that they could affect the jobs of hundreds of millions of workers. Along with artificial intelligence, there came an extensive list of questions that are yet to be answered such as the dilemma of whether machines should be implemented into the workforce of factories. “It can either be something that can actually enhance the abilities that they have for their job, making certain parts of their job easier for them, or it can just lead to simple automation of the job completely,” Dylan McKibban said, a student at the University of Texas at Austin. “So, I think both of those options are probably good for society as a whole, but one of those options can really hurt most of the people that have those jobs.” As a whole, factories with tasks that could be automated will likely see a positive effect as machines are implemented into the workforce.

“Really, any sort of industry that heavily relies on any sort of factory work will probably see a very good benefit,” McKibban said. Companies will benefit from automating their labor because they won’t have to continually pay their workers; it will become a one-time payment, and unlike their human counterparts, machines will not require breaks throughout the day. Another way artificial intelligence will affect society, which has already been seen in progress, will be with its ability to access people’s information and use it to predict what a customer would like to watch on Netflix or buy on Ebay. “I think it’s good to an extent,” said Bruno, another student attending the University of Texas at Austin. “Obviously whenever you’re trying to figure something out like if something is recommended for you, it’s nice to have a recommendation based on what your interests are, however, again, it definitely should be regulated on the extent of how A.I. is used. I guess they shouldn’t really be tracking all of your behavior.” Companies often use their customers’ information to specify which advertisements are sent to that customer, and one such method by taking aerial photographs of their customers’ homes; these photographs reveal which homes have solar panels, giving the companies good intuition as to which households would most likely invest in new technology focused on keeping the environment. Some companies also use data to create profiles of their employees which can roughly predict their performance in the workplace. Google Ads uses information analyzed from the emails sent through their service, Gmail, and targets customers with advertisements for products that they predict the customer will most likely buy. “I don’t think it’s inherently bad,” McKibban said. “I’m sure it has some redeeming qualities to it, however, I don’t know just how much I trust society at large to be able to use it properly.” With machines that are able to “think” on

their own comes the innate fear that humans will one day get in the way of these powerful, emotionless machines. The popular science-fiction film The Matrix explores this idea, with machines who have essentially conquered humankind, harnessing the energy of the humans so they can keep running. “I think we have the ability to do many great things and one of those probably could be one day, creating an A.I. that has the ability to go forward on its own,” McKibban said. “Which is really, for a lot of people, what A.I. should be. And I think one of the possibilities with that is A.I. eventually becoming a dangerous aspect. I don’t think it’s likely, but I do think it is a possibility.” Scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have speculated that full artificial intelligence could mean the end for mankind. Hawking believes that if given enough artificial intelligence, a machine could redesign itself millions of times faster than a human could through genetic evolution, which is the danger machines pose. Though some believe there is imminent danger through programming machines to be able to progress on their, others have held faith in their software developers. “I like to think that people in control of it would be able to foresee the future, and provide restrictions on whoever is in charge of this technology to cut out the possibility of that,” Bruno said. Without proper care and built-in off-switches, these machines could become so good at self-sustainability that they would progress out of our reach. On a lighter note, a technological advancement that is generally seen as positive in the world of artificial intelligence is the invention of the self-driving car, which could prevent tens of millions of deaths caused by car accidents by the end of the century. In the process of programming self-driving cars, dozens of moral questions have been found that would be major ethical decisions. Researchers at M.I.T. have created an online survey with 13 of these questions

Screenshot from moralmachine.mit.edu. This is the online survey with dilemmas involving self-driving cars.

questions presenting dilemmas where the user decides whether they believe the passengers of a self-driving car should survive or the pedestrian should survive in a scenario where a self-driving car is moving full-speed ahead and cannot stop, but can turn as to spare the lives of people outside the car. It will soon become necessary for us to come to an agreement on who decides how self-driving cars are programmed. “Whoever it is, you yourself could not be the one that decides, or should be the one to program it just because I think it should be more centralized,” McKibban said.

“Whatever algorithm it is should probably be implemented for… ideally, all the self-driving cars.”

“Just so that way it’s at least somewhat standardized and I believe with that standardization it may at least help prevent some more of those deaths.” Some have also predicted that artificial intelligence could prove to be useful in our legal systems. According to McKibban, it could eliminate some of the burdens of our legal system. “I’ve heard some say that it would be used as, almost like a point of reference for actual lawyers to work, and then I’ve heard some say that it would just completely erase the idea of needing a lawyer, even needing a court system whatsoever,” he said. “Personally, I like the first way that that would be implemented just a bit more because I do think the human aspect of our legal system is important, but, the way I see it would probably be almost like a helper for the actual people doing the research.”

Similar to in legal systems, artificial intelligence could be used to boost the education of students across the globe. “I think it could definitely make for a more personalized education system,” McKibban said. “I certainly don’t think it should remove the human aspect of it just because I personally feel like it’s very nice to keep that human aspect in education. Sort of like how I thought it could be implemented in the legal system: a resource that could be used by people in those professions to not only make their jobs easier, but also make them more efficient, and help individualize each person’s education.” The progress of artificial intelligence can already be viewed at your local H.E.B.’s, with self-checkout stations, and even in things such as chess grandmasters, defeated at the hands of a computer program. Though some workers will be left

unemployed as their jobs are automated, on a large scale, factories, schools, industries, and courts will become more efficient and produce better results. The future will only hold more innovations for the human race to discover as scientists venture into deeper territory, territory that could become entirely out of our control.

Another way that robots were speculated was as cars that could transform into humanoid shapes. This is the future of artificial intelligence; the common computer.

92.5% of people use 88.1% of people use

internet in Greenland

internet in North America

80.1% of people use internet in Europe

31.2% of people use internet in Africa

65.3% people in South America use internet

<-100% of people use internet

<-0% of people use internet

When was the internet first invented? â&#x20AC;&#x153;The first workable prototype of the Internet came in the late 1960s with the creation of ARPANET, or the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network. Originally funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, ARPANET used packet switching to allow multiple computers to communicate on a single networkâ&#x20AC;? (Evan Andrews 3).

44.7% of people use internet in Asia

What made the internet explode?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The hyperlink... because the hyperlink essentially gave a method to crawl and search through a ton of web pagesâ&#x20AC;? (Chase Willden 1).

88.2% of people use

Iinternet

internet in Australia

around the world Created by Elijah Hannah

http://www.internetworldstats.com/

The caution cone is placed on the enter key, which processes the actions that could lead to cyber security issues Photo Credit: Fernando Arcos

beyond a click The many fields within cyber security Written by Adamaris Cruz 78% of people who are aware of the risks of unknown links still click them regardless. Cyber security problems such as phishing, identity theft, and hacking attack internet users daily. Cyber security is the protection of networks and softwares through technologies and services against unauthorized access and attacks. Fields within the cyber security community include marketing managers who produce and sell products to assist customers as well as those who deal with the problem directly, such as security, or white-hat hackers.

Facebook is the most used social media application. Photo credit: Pixabay.com Cyber security involves every internet user, as of April of 2017, there are approximately 3.8 billion internet users, which increased by 42% since 2014. There are 1,209,600 new data producing social media users each day, according to the web blog, Microfocus. Social media users share heaps of information each day, while creating an email, or by simply tweeting their location. Sharing an extensive amount of information on the internet may result in one of the various consequences and issues that are present in the cyber community. One of the most common issues is phishing. “Phishing emails are essentially emails that are sent by people, usually to a large group, to try and get them to click on a link, on a bad link, that essentially, there’s some that if you click on it or download a file and open it, it could install a virus or a backdoor on your computer,” says Paul Jauregui, one of the security hackers that works

at Praetorian. Phishing can then later lead to spear phishing, which is more targeted. In this situation, an attacker impersonates an address of a trusted source or person, attached may be a link or file that can cause issues. The internet does not contain of just

According to him, the many security problems present on the internet could also cause life-threatening issues, especially regarding to the Internet of Things. The Internet of Things, or IoT, is created by embedding sensors or actuators to physical items and connecting them to

computers and smartphones but as well as everyday objects that people use. Jauregui explains the Internet of Things: “If you’re familiar with the concept of the Internet of Things, it is basically every day normal things being connected to the internet so it’s no longer your computer or ecommerce or banking or networks, its economists and connected vehicles or it could be the lights in your home or your washer and drier,”

the internet through wired/wireless networks which allows for data within these objects to flow through the computer for further analysis. IoT can also possibly become a cyber security problem, depending on the object connected. According to Paul, he has worked with a cyber security problem that involved the Internet of Things: “One of the most interesting ones that we worked on recently was a

“We found vulnerabilities that could essentially be life threatening.”

project with a connected medical device manufacturer and what they did was make these pacemaker that were being connected to the internet. And so what we did is we took a look at these devices and found several vulnerabilities that could essentially be life threatening and so what we were able to do is identify those and provide recommendations to the manufacturer on how to fix them”. Situations like these allow one to see how objects that are used on a daily basis can be related to the internet and cyber security in general. Within the internet there are three different types of webs. The surface web, which is anything that can be reached through a search engine. The deep web, which can not be accessed through a search engine, this includes medical records, legal documents, as well as other private information. The dark web, which is a location on the internet that consists of illegal information, drug trafficking sites, private communications, and other illegal activity. The dark web can only be accessed through certain browsers such as TOR. “It’s this really kind of underground counterculture thing and it’s real and it exists and for whatever reason it’s because it’s so decentralized that there’s just really no way that one kind of person or one organization or one kind of virtual world can actually turn that stuff off,” says Renee Curfman, one of the I.T directors at Silicon Labs.

Another example of a social media application that is used often. Photo Credit: Adamaris Cruz

Secuirty hackers are also present in the cyber security community. Photo Credit: Chris Breitigan

The dark web is not solely illegal activity, but it can also consist of sites that are used so that the information of some websites or anonymous users aren’t publicly accessible. These websites are networked together with special software that does not allow access unless you have been given this software and an ID. “That software also scrambles all communications over the network so that others cannot trace who you are, or who is running the websites. So, you basically need an invitation to join this private network,” says Robert Hamilton, the marketing manager at Imperva. This can turn to a security problem, especially referring to the illegal activity that occurs in the dark web. In the cyber security community, white hat hackers, or security hackers, are hired to find vulnerabilities in a software or network, and they are often times connected to the dark web as well. What can you do to be safe on the internet? Be cautious, especially when choosing passwords. “Its very important to choose a password that is long and complex. Typically a good way to do it [is creating] a passphrase,” says Paul. A passphrase is typically a short phrase that is important to you, or that you can remember. This phrase can then be used

Many companies, such as Duo Security, makes cyber security software that can be used by other companies to be secure. Photo Credit: Pixabay.com

as a password when creating an account on a website or application. It is also important to have a different password for each account, especially with a bank account or other information you may need to keep confidential. Another way to create a password is through a password manager. Password managers such as LastPass or 1Password make it so that you no longer have to remember passwords, these managers will generate the password for you. In addition to this, another piece of advice is install anti-virus software on your computer. This prevents viruses, spyware, malware, adware, and other malicious software that can harm your computer. With common problems

such as phishing, always be aware of what links you click on or what files you download. There are several problems present in the cyber community, so it is always recommended that you are cautious about what information you share, what you click, and what files or games you decide to download. How you decide to act on the internet can affect you greatly, nearly everything has vulnerabilities, from your email address to your bank account, the password you choose and your awareness of their safety can determine what and how this information can be accessed.

computational evolution Created by Alex Hochstein

On March 8, 1955, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory revealed their Whirlwind Machine, the first computer with magnetic core RAM and real-time graphics.

This is an artistic rendition of the control panel of the Whirlwind I.

Invented at the MIT Lincoln Laboratory

1955 The Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer, or ENIAC, was one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s first computers. It weighed a massive 50 tons and took up 1,800 square feet, using about 18,000 vacuum tubes.

This photograph demonstrates the massive scale of the ENIAC.

Invented by J. Presper Eckert and John Mauchly

1946

This photograph of the Programma 101 shows how small it is compared to older computers.

In 1964, the Programma 101 was released at the New York World’s Fair. Each of about 40,000 desktop computers were sold for $3,200.

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This is an image of the Surface Pro 4, which is less than an inch thick.

Released in 2015, the Surface Pro 4 is literally thousands of times smaller and faster than older computers such as the ENIAC, and can be purchased for under a thousand dollars.

P r e s e n t D a y

Invented by Microsoft employees

Invented by Pier Giorgio Perotto

The PC Convertible was the first laptop computer released by IBM.

The photograph of this Micral Computer shows that it is roughly as large as the Programma 101, while almost half the price.

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The Micral Computer was developed in 1973. It used the Intel 8008 processer and was the first “micro-computer,” costing $1,750.

This was one of the first laptops, though it doesn’t look so comfortable to rest on one’s lap.

Invented by André Truong Trong Thi

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Invented by André Truong Trong Thi Images from: history-computer.com royal.pingdom.com www.microsoft.com computerhope.com

The Apple I, created by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, was auctioned in past years for a whopping 250,000 euros.