Comparing Mitnick and Levy

Compare the writing styles of Levy with Mitnick. Which do you find more engaging? Which is easier to read? Which informs you more quickly? If you were to master one style, which would it be like and why?

While both authors do much/all of their writing in a mode of story-telling, they differ most greatly in the fact that Mitnick writes several short stories from different people including himself, while Levy writes in the style of a novel.

Mitnick's book teaches us about many ways of deception on and off the internet through short stories and examples that are individually different, but join together to give the reader a clear idea of the concept being taught. I like the way he organized the book in that it is divided into chapters, but then divided several more times into subcategories. This format is similar to a text book, but more specifically an interesting text book. It has an interesting look  and readability to it that reminds me of some of the textbooks from elementary and middle school because of it's short sections which aren't overwhelming to read as well as the captions, notes, and vocabulary words that pop up throughout the text. The dialogue also keeps things interesting. I enjoyed reading this book more-so than Levy's because of this fun, easy-to-read format.

Levy's book teaches us about cryptography and the part it has played in our privacy and lack thereof. Rather than short stories and examples, Levy tells the story in the form of a novel. I do like reading novels usually, but I had a hard time getting into this one after the first few chapters. At first, I really liked the story, but as it continued, some of the vocabulary became more difficult for me to follow smoothly and it became more boring for me to read rather than interesting.

In my own writing, I think I am more likely a novel-type writer. I have always enjoyed writing long stories from a single perspective. Even as a child I spent a lot of my spare time writing my own stories and books (of course when I say books, I mean pages of paper staple together to make a "book" back in those days). Although I have found that to be my writing preference, I do prefer Mitnick's style in these two examples for reading, and Mitnicks book actually inspired me to try writing in this style some time. I think his style would be much better accepted from students in an elementary school classroom should I ever make my own instructional books for something I may be teaching.

First part of my Final Paper: So far

Deception on the Internet

            Whether or not we know it, or whether or not we like it, deception is everywhere and it affects every one of us who use the internet. We commonly use websites like Google and Facebook, considering them great, free tools for researching and keeping in touch with friends and family. In fact, a lot of people go out of their way on the internet to protect their privacy on websites that obviously collect important, personal information, but they still use the seemingly harmless websites like Facebook and Google because they don't seem threatening. The unfortunate truth is that these tools do, in fact, come at a cost. "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold" (Pariser, 2011). What is it that is being sold that is so important? Our personal information right down to our credit information and what search items you entered into Google last night; Enough information to cause an individual to lose their job, their credibility, their reputation, and potentially everything you own.

            Many internet users are very cautious when it comes to putting their personal information online. This most commonly refers to account information or social security numbers, but there is much less care put toward protecting a name or interest. In an article by Adam N. Joinson, Ulf-Dietrich Reips, Tom Buchanan, and Carina B. Paine Schofield, they stated, " A recent poll by UPIZogby (2007) found that 85% of respondents said that the privacy of their personal

information was important to them as consumers. The Oxford Internet Institute survey

(Dutton & Helsper, 2007) found that 70% of U.K. Internet users agreed or

strongly agreed with the statement that “people who go on the Internet put their privacy

at risk,” and 84% (up from 66% in 2005) agreed that “personal information is being

kept somewhere without my knowledge.”" With so many people being concerned with their privacy, one might think that those people are sparing themselves from having their information taken, but as the final line of the quote stated, " personal information is being

kept somewhere without my knowledge.”

            There is now a company out there called Spokeo. I hadn't heard of it until I read Lori Andrew's book I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did. In her book, she talks about this company and several others like it that gather and store information on everyone they possibly can. This information can be a bit more personal than what movie you went to see last week, however. When I looked up my name on this site, it gave me several location options for my name and there I saw my parent's home address along with one of the options. Upon clicking on this person, I was shocked to find that it had my cell phone number, a map of where my house was, my gender and approximate age, an estimated value of the property my parents live on and apparently had plenty more information to share if I was willing to pay less than $4.00 a month to get their full service. I didn't pay to see what other information they had on me, but the fact that they had what they did already out on the table for anyone to see along with the fact they had MORE, scared me.

Why I Would Recommend Levy's Crypto to a Colleague...

Right off the bat, reading Steven Levy's preface to Crypto he draws us in. He brings up the daunting privacy issues that Pariser and Andrews both brought to us (except in a more diluted fashion by Levy in the preface) but then brings hope for sabotaging others' efforts to steal our privacy. "a potential antidote exists: cryptography..." (pg 1). He scares us a little and then lures us into a nicer place which doubles as a brilliant introduction to his topic.

Another thing I love about this book is the style it is written in. Levy could have written a book simply listing off facts about how codes are made and broken or some other monotonous, boring way of depicting cryptography, but instead, he writes a story, about real people, and in it is included real human thoughts and even a little romance. Beginning on pg 3, Levy begins the story of Whitfield Diffie and a woman named Mary Fischer. It starts of simple, an nice story for the reader and then he twists it right into the subject matter without losing the reader's attention. "His rudeness appalled Mary. But she hadn't yet cracked his code" (pg 4). From there he really begins to talk about how he found his interest in cryptography, how he came to know his partner  Marty Hellman and their partner Ralph Merkle, and how he came to get involved in creating such codes to protect privacy on the internet.

The story shows the ups and downs of their research. I really enjoyed the portrayal of excitement Diffie had as he discovered digital signatures on pgs 73-75. I've definitely felt the disappointment of finally figuring out a great idea and then forgetting the whole thing, fortunately, he regained his memory of it and shared his excitement with his wife the second she got home from work before rushing to Hellman's house soon after.

Overall, I would suggest this book to my colleagues from what I've read so far simply because it tells a story while also showing just how important it is to stand up for our privacy.

Privacy and Security Principles for a Principal New to Technology

Hello, I'm Ms. Misty Hill, newly hired 3rd grade teacher at Washington Elementary School in Medford, Oregon and I'm sitting here with our School Principal, Jeff Graham. Jeff has invited me to lunch today to discuss the prospect of getting more involved in online activity for our students and what we can do to promote security and privacy for our students as they begin using these resources.

One very important rule of thumb to keep our privacy is to keep our information anonymous. Although it was written concerning a much broader, more serious topic, Lori Andrews' mention of anonymity on page 65 of her book I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did can be applied right here in our elementary school computer lab. Andrews talks about our right to freedom of press and further our right to publish these things anonymously.  This can be done quite simply for things like emails, blogs, and other sites that require usernames. Email accounts can  be created quite easily these days and there's nothing saying your name has to be real. Creating a list outside of the computer which assigns students to a nickname or number can be a great starting point. Create an email account through Gmail or Yahoo for each student using their assigned nickname or number rather than their actual name. This email can now be used to sign into other websites including blogs which can be used for class writing assignments anonymously to everyone except those who know the nicknames.

Social networks should not be used in schools. Many schools have internet filters that prevent access to inappropriate websites as well as to social networks. Even my high school didn't allow access to Facebook or MySpace. Andrews states on page 6 that, "Not only does Facebook make the private public, it makes the public private." Throughout her book, she also talks about Facebook's part in the death of our privacy. Facebook is something to be played with at home, not in school, not only for distraction reasons, but because it jeopardizes our efforts to keep privacy in our school's internet usage.

Something else to consider when moving to an online teaching method is to set specific sites for students to go to rather than always having them search. In the filter Bubble, Eli Pariser talks about how our searches and online activity change the way we see the internet. Two people may sit next to each other and type in the exact same search items and get very different results. Since this is true, our students may find different websites than we intend on them viewing and they are unfortunately not always appropriate. Teachers should preview and select specific websites  for students to go to and/or teach students methods for weeding out good and bad information on the internet. 

As long as we do these things, we will hold onto our privacy for our school and our students.