Understanding Bots and Their Impact

The assignment involves analyzing the concept of bots and their potential negative effects on society. It requires finding a resource that describes what bots are and how they can be used to spread misinformation and influence human behavior. The summary provided is based on a Norton resource, which explains that bots can be used for both good and bad purposes, including indexing search engines, gathering information, and spreading spam.

COIT 20246 ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION
Due date: Thursday Week 11 (2PM AEST)
Part: Written Assessment
Weighting: 30% of total assessment.
Submission: Electronic (see course website for details)
Instructions
It will be necessary to use literature/online resources to complete this
assignment, please ensure you cite and reference any such materials using
the Harvard format.
DO NOT copy content directly from either the text or Internet resources: this
assignment is to be in your own words. You will lose marks if you do not
use your own words!
Please complete your assignment using this submission template file,
inserting your responses where indicated.
DO NOT delete the marking criteria page – changes are permitted to the
formatting of other pages including the headers and footers.
Please fill in the following details:

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Student Name
Student Number
Tutor’s Name
Tasks

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There are ten (10) tasks, one for each week: the tasks are detailed below. There is a
table to complete for each task. Please fill in the information required.
Note: Each resource summary should be around 200-300 words.
Week 1
The text discusses how modern CPUs function. Recently a critical flaw in microprocessor
design has been discovered that allows two extremely serious security exploits: Spectre and
Meltdown. Find and summarise ONE resource that describes how either of these exploits
work. The resource (and your summary) should focus on what is occurring in the CPU that
allows these exploits to occur.
Title and Reference:
Title: Meltdown and Spectre Exploit
Reference: Meltdown and Spectre. (2018). Meltdownattack.com. Retrieved 2 April
2018, from https://meltdownattack.com/
Summary:
The main aim of selection of the resource is due to the factor that it gives a direct overview of
the concept of the meltdown and spectre and what are the different aspects which are related
to the concept.
Meltdown: The attack, which is relating to the meltdown, breaks through the most
fundamental isolation, which is between the operating system and the application of
the user. The attack majorly allows the attacker to access the memory and indulge into
the secrets of the system and other programs and the operating system. If a computer
system has a processor, which is vulnerable and executes on an operating system,
which is unpatched, it is very much unsafe to work with critical information. This is
due to the factor that the hackers can easily indulge into the system and get the vital
information. This concept can be applied to the sector of personal computers as well
as infrastructure related to the cloud. The attack can be considered very much vital in

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the working of the network due to the factor that it can directly possess threat into the
working of the network. The exploit can directly affect the system, which possess
system threat, which disrupts the normal working of the system. There are different
types of precaution which can be involved into the concept like involvement of
firewall and implementing different security measures into the concept.
Week 2
Prior to 1985, there were very few Operating Systems (OSes) that used Graphical User
Interfaces (GUIs). Find and summarise ONE resource that describes ONE of these GUI
operating systems. The OS must have been release prior to 1985 so cannot be Microsoft
Windows.
Title and Reference:
Title: GUI Operating system
Reference: Operating System Interface Design Between 1981-2009 | Webdesigner Depot. (2018).
Webdesigner Depot. Retrieved 2 April 2018, from
https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/03/operating-system-interface-design-between-1981-2009/
Summary:
The article directly states the concept, which is applicable in the GUI of the operating system.
The GUI operating system, which is taken into consideration, is the Visi On, which was
released in the year 1983. The Visi Crop Visi On was a short time period operating system
but was very much influential in the sector of the operating system program, which was
developed by the IBM compactable personal computers, which run on the environment of the
MS –DOS. IT can be stated that it was a major influence factor in the development of the
Microsoft windows. The main disadvantage of the operating system is that it had a very high
system requirement according to the standard of the 1982. The requirement was 512
kilobytes of RAM and a hard disk in that period when IBM did not offer any type of hard disk

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with the personal computer. The operating system would be working well in new personal
computers but the requirement in this case would be a hard disk partition under 15 MB as
only the file format of FAT 12 files would be supported and a compatible mouse would be
required. The writing of the Visi On would be requiring a Unix environment relating to the
development environment. The target system during the development of the Visi On was the
high-end PC workstation, which were relatively expensive.
Week 3
Low-Powered Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs) are wireless communication networks that are
characterised by linking devices over large distances. Devices (including simple sensors)
typically can only communicate at very low bit rates, however, the communication and
associated electronics consume very little power. As such, LPWAN devices can be battery
powered and operate independently for many months or even years. Find and summarise
ONE resource that describes ONE platform or technology that implements a LPWAN.
Title: Technology that implements LPWAN
Reference: LPWAN – 5 letters in the heart of the IOT revolution – IOT Factory.
(2018). Iotfactory.eu. Retrieved 2 April 2018, from https://iotfactory.eu/lpwan-5-
letters-in-the-heart-of-the-iot-revolution/
Summary:
the main aim of the report is to take into consideration different aspects which are related to
the technology of LPWAN. The technology which is taken into consideration relating to the
implementation of the LPWAN is the internet of things (IoT). If the concept of the internet of
things revolution is considered still infancy, it can be stated as an undeniable fact. LPWAN
technology can be considered as a history and a turning point in the concept of the
networking of the objects whether the citizen and consumer (smart cities, smart homes) or
any organisation using the concept (Smart metering and smart industry). Until recent times
when it comes to connecting, an object to get the information of the location, status and
interact with it a global geographical, national coverage SIM card can be used using the

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3G /GPRS network of the telecom. There are many problem which can be faced in this
scenario for example difficulty in finding a 3G model, energy consumption problem and large
footprint. In order to mitigate the problem the concept of the LPWAN (Low power wide area
network) was invented. The concept of the NB-IoT for narrow band IoT has a same concept
attached to the scenario in order to obtain the objectives; The NB-IOT offers a solution of
connectivity with a throughput, which is of very low power consumption. It offers a bit rate of
20 knits/second.
Week 4
Voice over IP (VoIP) is a group of hardware and software technologies that allow users to
communicate via voice and video over the Internet. VoIP uses a number of different software
protocols, depending on the application. Find and summarise ONE resource that describes
ONE of these VoIP protocols.
Title: VoIP Protocols
Reference: What is Session Initiation Protocol (SIP)? - Definition from WhatIs.com. (2018).
SearchUnifiedCommunications. Retrieved 2 April 2018, from
http://searchunifiedcommunications.techtarget.com/definition/Session-Initiation-Protocol
Summary:
The main aim of the article is to take into consideration different aspects which are related to
the concept of the Voice over IP (VoIP) The protocol which is taken into consideration is the
Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). The Session Initiation Protocol can be considered as a
signalling protocol which can be used for the concept of maintaining, initiating, modifying and
terminating sessions which are in real time that mainly include voice, video and other types of
communication. The concept can also be related to two or more end on the IP network. The
Internet engineering task force (IETF) which can be used to address the needs of the IP
based communication developed the SIP. The concept of interoperability, multimedia and
mobility are considered as the drivers behind the SIP’s development. The SIP complements

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other protocols of the communication for example Read time transport protocol (RTP) and
real time streaming protocol (RTSP) which are used in the IP based sessions. The
communication, which is related to the SIP, has mainly five attributes, which are user
availability, user location, user capability, session management and session setup. The SIP
session may include different types, which may include video conference, internet telephony,
and different types of communication, which are unified. The protocol can be used for
creating multicast and unified sessions that may not need the initiator.
Week 5
One of the many uses of cryptography has been the development of the blockchain.
Blockchains are commonly used as the basis for maintaining the data integrity of crypto
currencies, though have many, many more applications. Find and summarise ONE resource
that describes how blockchains work. Note that the resource should focus on the blockchain
mechanism, NOT crypto currencies.
Title: Block chain working Principle
References: How the Blockchain Works. (2018). Rubygarage.org. Retrieved 2 April 2018, from
https://rubygarage.org/blog/how-blockchain-works
Summary:
The article is chosen due to the factor that it gives an overview of the concept of the
blockchain. The concept of block chain can be considered as a shared ledger that directly
stores information relating to any organisation in a distributed manner. The transaction are
performed between two people within the concept of the block chain, which are formed by the
participant computers. These type of computers provide the power of computing in order to
constantly maintain the concept of the block chain. Such types of computers are termed as
nodes and each of the node in the peripheral of the network has a copy of the block chain.
Technically stating a block chain can be considered as a network of non-trusted peers. Each
of the directly references the previous one and consist of data, the hash and the hash of the
previous block. In this concept, the block stores the encrypted details about the parties

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whose interaction result in the data, which is stored in the block. Each of the block also has a
hash attached to it. The hash is generated by means of a text string, which is generated using
a mathematical function. The hash can be considered very much similar to the concept of
fingerprint, as each of the hash is unique in its characteristics.
Week 6
One controversial practical application of network traffic management is in the contravention
of the principle of “net neutrality”. Find and summarise ONE resource that describes what net
neutrality is and how its contravention could impact on individual and business users of the
Internet.
Title: Functionality of Net Neutrality and its impact
Reference: Finley, K., Karabell, Z., Thompson, N., Finley, K., Vogelstein, F., & Hempel, J. et al.
(2018). Net Neutrality: Here's Everything You Need To Know. WIRED. Retrieved 2 April 2018, from
https://www.wired.com/story/guide-net-neutrality/
Summary:
Net Neutrality and its impact is the main consideration which is taken into aspect in the report.
The net neutrality can be considered as a principle which governs the internet server provider
to treat different types and all the types of data in a same manner and there should not be
any type of discrimination involved into the concept. Under this principle the service provider
of the internet are unable too intentionally block any data, which is in the process of
execution. They are not also eligible for the slowing down the speed of the data or initiate
unwanted charges for the data of a particular website content. One of the best example
relating to the violation of the net neutrality is the internet service provider Comcast’s secret
concept of slowing of uploads from the peer to peer file sharing application by the use of
forged packets. The impact of the net neutrality on individual and business can be in many
sectors. Few of the impact sectors are the blocking, throttling, paid prioritization. One of the

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sectors, which was impacted by the concept, was the E –Commerce, the sector feared that
they could end losing the paid prioritization where their services and the websites load slower
when compared to the ones, which are running in the internet behemoths.

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Week 7
Information Systems have led to greater and greater degrees of automation in the workplace.
There is currently extensive speculation on which jobs will cease to be performed by humans
in the near future. Find and summarise ONE resource that discusses jobs that are likely to
not exist in the future due to ICT based automation. Note that the resource must clearly link
the loss of the job(s) to advances in ICT.
Title: Job loss due to automation
Reference: Automation threatens 800 million jobs, but technology could still save us, says report.
(2018). The Verge. Retrieved 2 April 2018, from
https://www.theverge.com/2017/11/30/16719092/automation-robots-jobs-global-800-million-forecast
Summary:
The article takes into consideration the different aspects which is related to the job loss due
to the automation of the technology. In recent times there is a huge loss of business due to
innovation in the different sector of working within an organisation. One of the most important
sector is the system automation sector. In recent times, updating of the system is manual and
does not involve any type of manual activity. Taking into consideration this sector the IT has
developed extensively so that the system are kept updated all the time so that intruders
cannot indulge in any sort of activity such as hacking and taking control of the computer
system. Most the people tend to loss their job because of the online facility, which is available
in the sector of updating of the system involved in the working. The innovation in each sector
of the working involved in any organisation is gathering importance and the whole concept is
being taken to the concept of the internet. This is due to the factor that it would result in less
mistakes and faults, which are human, oriented. When a business approach is taken to the
concept of the internet, it can be expected that there would be less errors involved in the
overall working.
Week 8
With the advent of mass data collection and storage has come the use of these datasets for

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machine learning. Find and summarise ONE resource that describes what machine learning
is and how it is being used.
Title: Machine learning.
Reference: What is Machine Learning? A definition - Expert System. (2018). Expertsystem.com.
Retrieved 2 April 2018, from http://www.expertsystem.com/machine-learning-definition/
Summary:
Machine learning can be considered one of the most vital aspect in the article. Machine
learning can be considered as application relating to the artificial intelligence that provides
system the direct ability to learn automatically and improve from the experience without being
programmed explicitly. The concept of machine learning directly puts focus on the computer
program development that can be directly be access the data and it for the concept of
learning. The start of the process of learning is done using the concept of observation or data
for example direct experience or instruction aiming at looking for patterns of data and make
the decision in the future based on the example, which is provided. The focus point would be
allowing the computer to learn automatically without any intervention of human being or any
sort of assistance from them and accordingly react to the actions. The use of the machine
learning can be in the sector of banks, financial service and other business in the industry of
finance. They use the concept of the machine learning due to two factors mainly for
identifying the important insight in the data and prevent any type of fraud and the insight can
identify the opportunity of investment or help investors know when to conduct the trade.
Week 9
Critical to application development are the languages used to implement the specifications.
Find and summarise ONE resource that describes ONE programming language that has
been developed since 2008. The resource (and your summary) should include information
on the principle uses and features of the language.
Title: Pure programming Language
Reference: Purelang.bitbucket.io. (2018). Pure Programming Language. [online] Available at:

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https://purelang.bitbucket.io/ [Accessed 14 May 2018].
Summary:
The main focus of the selection of the article is to take into consideration the basics of the
Pure programming language. The programming language which is taken into consideration is
the Pure programming language. The main reason for the selection of the language is due to
the factor that it has a high level constructs; it can directly handle activity, which are low level,
the programming, which is created, is very much efficient. One of the most important sector,
which is involved into the concept, is that the program can be executed in a variety of
computers. The main features of the C language is that it is a robust language which involve
rich set of build in functions and the operators which can be used to write any type of complex
programs. The programming language can be considered to give extensive collection which
is related to most important add on. This directly makes the pure programming language
easily adoptable for most of the developers and a huge amount of benefit can be achieved
from the concept of computation. The system support which is related to the programming
language mainly include FreeBSD, Mac OS X and window just to name a few.

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Week 10
While information systems and technology deliver many benefits to society, they can also
result in negative effects and outcomes. One recent controversy, the propagation of fake
news and its influence on elections, has been linked to a type of software called a “bot”. Find
and summarise ONE resource that describes what bots are and how they can be used for
disseminating misinformation and affecting human behaviour.
Title: Bots
Reference: What Are Bots?. (2018). Us.norton.com. Retrieved 2 April 2018, from
https://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-malware-what-are-bots.html
Summary:
Bots or internet robots can also be considered as crawlers, spiders and web bots. The bots
can be used in two ways one in a good way and one in a bad way. One of the good way in
which the bots can be used is the indexing of a search engine, which usually come in the
form of malware. Malware bots can be used to gain the overall control over the computer. On
the other hand, the bots can be used to disseminating misinformation and affect the
behaviour of human being in many ways. The way it basically involve in are gathering of
information, relay spam, obtain financial information, capture and analyse the packets, open
back door of the computer which is infected, exploiting the back door which is opened by
worms and viruses. The bots can be usually used to infect large number of systems of
computer. This action result in the computer forming a botnet or a bot network. One of the
most important thing which can be stated relating to the bot is that they can go unidentified as
a result of which they are not preventive measures which can be taken into consideration.

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MARKING SHEET - DO NOT DELETE
Criteria
0 No Response
<=1 Poor resource selection; resource is too broad or lacks relevance to the
task; summary fails to explain what the resource was about; the relevance
and/or usefulness of the resource has not been explained.
<=2 Good resource selection; resource is relevant to the task; summary is
adequate but may require either more detail or is too long; the relevance
and/or usefulness of the resource has been explained to some extent, but
needs additional information.
<=3 Excellent resource selection; resource is highly relevant to the task (the
resource is probably highly specialised); summary is detailed yet concise;
the relevance and usefulness of the resource selection has been clearly
explained.
Key
Deductions
-3
-2
-1
Reference/URL provided does not link to resource (and resource cannot
be located or determined from details provided) OR
Reference/URL provided does not relate to the summary (i.e. summary is
not of resource content / contains content not contained in the resource)
Resource is generic AND/OR covers multiple technologies/examples
rather than focuses on a single technology/example
Resource not referenced correctly/not in Harvard format
Week Marks Awarded
1