Social Engineering

This task somewhat annoyed my personal ethics, as the task I was required to perform was to obtain the phone passwords of 4 people by means of "shoulder surfing".

I considered the easiest way to accomplish this was to target a make and model, where actual tapes to the keypad would be used, and not finger swipes. This meant that I needed to target Apple iPhone users and the larger iPhones would be easier to see the screen due to the larger size.

I targeted several areas for one hour each.

The first area I targeted was the student lounge at the junction between the E and G buildings on the 2nd floor. I casually strolled around and looked for people who would pick up their phones, and type in a passcode, and then for me to move away from. I also did not look direct at them, but rather looked down and forward with my head, and cast my eyes to the side to look at the face of the phone as they reached for it.

I also went to on of the student lounges on the 2nd floor of the B building and perform the same method, and then the library.

All of these were public spaces, with no expectation of privacy by the users, and the phone face, and entry on the keypad

My yield of passcodes was far in excess of the required 4, as I was able to harvest 29 passcode, and 17 cases I watched the same phone more than once to confirm the passcode, during the three hours I spend slowly performing this task.

I did not feel that it was morally or legally permissible to record these passcodes as the "permit access to private data" so I would commit them to memory merely to acquire an accurate tally, and to try to confirm when I watched them login on 2-3 times of more in some cases. I did not videotape or photograph their passcodes, nor did I commit these to paper for legal and moral reasons.

With this information, gained through shoulder surfing, I could feasibly obtain their phones, login, copy the content to inflict a malicious software app, and then return the phone to them in the manner in which it was taken.

I also observed that student login to the BHCC networks and that through shoulder surfing I could obtain usernames and passwords.

Final Project Proposal

For my final project I would like to focus on a computer espionage case, in regards to cryptographic codes being stolen (the cryptographic codes were to be used in a computer network). The case will be in regards to John A. Walker, and the similarities of the Edward Snowden theft of computer files. These cases are similar as to motive and damage, and the moral stakes that I will explore will be the ethics of betrays motivated my greed, which inflicted heavy damage on the nation. I will endeavor to condemn both men by presenting an argument that what they did was not merely motivated by greed, but rather by a desires to inflict deliberate harm and that they both falsely claimed a high moral position behind their betrayals.

Ethical Hacking Lab 11 Works

Today I gave Lab 11 another try and finally got to it to work after repeating some of the steps in section 2. I don't know if the problem was something I did or an issue with the lab. Since I followed the documentation and it worked, I have to say it must have been something I did wrong but I don't know what. There was only one error in the directions: Section 2, Step 7. In the SQL.htm file the address should be changed to 216.6.1.100 not 216.6.1.200.

Final Project Case Selection

The case I want to select is the United States Department Justice versus Apple Incorporated. This case concerns the matter of Apple defying a court order to help the FBI decrypt the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino terrorist shooters.  I realize that the actual court case has been dropped because the FBI has been able decrypt the phone with the help of a cyber security company from Israel. Those of us that are students of criminal justice and cyber security knew that it was a matter of time before a case like this would come forward. Although the case has been dropped, the questions and issues of the case are still a matter of debate. The issues at stake are security, privacy, and ethical quandaries of this kind of case. In ethical dilemmas such as this, where the answer is not straightforward, one should consider the impact on all stakeholders and weigh all the possible outcomes and their probabilities before making a decision.

Social Engineering Task 9

This week’s task was to do ten good deeds for strangers and provide evidence.

My strategy was to simply go through my daily routine and take things as they come. As a former Cub Scout and Boy Scout leader, I try to follow the Scouting motto which is “Do a good turn daily.”

My strategy was fairly effective but I was only able to document 8 of 10 good deeds as of this writing. It was very difficult to provide evidence in many cases because some people get very upset when you take their picture. In one instance it got rather nasty so excuse me if I leave out the details.

My usual routine of work, come home, do homework and hang out with my wife does not provide many opportunities to do good deeds for strangers other than on the T or at work. I will list the tasks I performed and let you all be the judges:

1.       Help guy with baby carriage get on the T during evening commute

2.       Tell person from out of town how to save money with a Charlie Card verses a Charlie Ticket.

3.       Give seat to mother with two young children. She turned out to be a psycho.

4.       Tell person that his backpack strap was hanging outside the door of the T.

5.       Gave a quarter to the old panhandler at the BHCC T stop.

6.       Returned lost package to someone at work that I don’t know.

7.       Told woman where to stand so the door will open in front of her on the T to get a seat.

8.       Gave a quarter to the young panhandler at the BHCC T stop. He walked away while taking the photo. He must of thought I was an undercover T policeman.

9.       No Photo. Gave a dollar to a real homeless person on the T.

10.   No Photo. Gave a quarter to real homeless woman on Washington Street.

As far as the moral stakes I have to ask myself if I would have done some of the deeds if they were not part of an assignment. It’s one thing to do something nice just for the sake of it and another because you are also getting something out of it. I did not gain any information or skills with this assignment that I didn’t already have. It did amaze me how many opportunities to help people on the T present themselves. I was glad to help people out and most likely would have done the deeds anyway except for two of them which was giving money to the two panhandles that work the front of the Community College T stop. I learned that the older guy that poses as a homeless vet and the young kid that poses as a homeless person have a scam going on. Those two take in more per day then I do at work. Plus they probably get entitlements worth more than my benefits package. If you want more information leave a comment after this post with your hacker email and I will provide you the details.  

Ethics Final Project 1

For my final project, I’d like to discuss similarities and differences between Edward Snowden’s release of NSA information and Socrates philosophical views. Their persistent questioning of authority and public figures led one to death, the other to flee persecution. One considered fleeing to be contrary to his moral principle; the other believes fleeing is necessary to safeguard civil liberties. Some argue Snowden’s escape from the US Government is an act of cowardice, while others see it as a heroic act of defiance.

Moral Analysis

Oracle has put in a lawsuit against Google for over $9.3B in reparations because of copyright infringement of Google over its using of Java in Android. Oracle charged Google over six years ago stating that they need a license in order to use parts of the Java platform in the Google's mobile operating system. In the trial in 2012, there was a dilemma in whether Google's use of Java was acceptable as copying is allowed under certain circumstances. On May 9th, 2016, there is to be a new trial in the federal district court. The damage money asked by Oracle increased by 10 times because of the increase of smartphones and Android since 2012. This new trial will include the six new versions of Android. The first trial concluded with the verdict that Google had violated Oracle's copyright by copying the "structure, sequence, and organization" of 37 Java application programming interfaces onto Android. The trial judge later stated that APIs are not protected under the U.S copyright law. This trial will initiate again on May 9th, 2016. The moral dilemma with this trial is that the APIs were copied, which are not included under copyright protection, but they were created by Oracle. The API format was copied by Google exactly from that of Oracle, and that is unfair to Oracle because it was made by them. Google contradicted the allegations of Oracle by stating that "Java is covered by fair use, which allows copying in limited cases." There is other factors that are included in this, such as the fact that the usage of the APIs was used to construct something new, rather than the same exact applications as Oracle.

http://www.computerworld.com/article/3048774/android/oracle-wants-93b-for-googles-use-of-java-in-android.html