Impact of Information Technology on Society

This assignment requires you to analyze the Verizon data breach incident that occurred in July 2017. Focus on how this event demonstrates the potential negative impacts of information technology on society. Discuss the vulnerabilities exposed by the breach, the harm caused to users, and the broader implications for cybersecurity.

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:
Student Name
Student Number

Tasks
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 the elements of modern computing architecture however is largely silent
on the individuals who played a role in its development. Find and summarise a resource that
describes ONE such individual. The individual should have had a significant influence on the
development of computers and/or components of modern computing architecture.
Title and Reference:
Title: Professor John McCarthy
Reference: McCarthy, J. 2017. Professor John McCarthy - Artificial Intelligence.
[online] Jmc.stanford.edu. Available at:
http://jmc.stanford.edu/artificial-intelligence/index.html [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].
URL: http://jmc.stanford.edu/artificial-intelligence/index.html
Summary:
This article describes the life and contribution of John McCarthy. He was known to be
a legendary scientist in the computer science field. He had a significant contribution
in the development of modern architecture of computer. I have chosen this article
because it describes an influential individual who had contributed in modern
computing. John McCarthy played a significant role in the development of time-
sharing method. He had invented LISP and had founded the Artificial Intelligence
field.
In this article the author describes the significant role played by John McCarthy in the
invention of new scientific field and in the transformation of technology. He was
behind the concept of artificial intelligence. The commonsense reasoning and human
level artificial intelligence were the key contributions of Professor John McCarthy.
John McCarthy is the father of AI. This article gives a brief overview about the
awards as well as the prizes that were won during his lifetime.
The most interesting fact about this article is that it gave detailed information
regarding several papers on programming languages and the fictional stories that
were written by John McCarthy. This article said that John McCarthy had won Kyoto
Prize in the year 1988, ACM Turning Award in 1971 and two more medals. John
McCarthy’s achievements is said to have a long lasting impact on the society.
I found this article interesting because it gave an idea about artificial intelligence. AI
is the science of developing intelligent programs. This article also spoke about the
applications and branches of AI.
Week 2
The text discusses the components and activities of operating systems however is largely

silent on the individuals who played a role in their development. Find and summarise a
resource that describes ONEsuch individual. The individual should have had a significant
influence on the writing or development of operating systems.
Title and Reference:
Title: Ken Thompson
Reference: Linfo.org. 2017. Ken Thompson: developed UNIX at Bell Labs. [online] Available
at: http://www.linfo.org/thompson.html [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].
URL: http://www.linfo.org/thompson.html
Summary:
This article describes about the life and achievements of Ken Thompson. Ken
Thompson is known for playing a significant role in the development of UNIX
operating system. I have chosen this article because this article gives a clear
overview of the development and success of the UNIX operating system.
In this article the author describes the way in which UNIX operating system was
developed. Ken Thompson is known to be the principal inventor of the UNIX OS. Ken
Thompson was an electric engineer and had been hired by the Bell Labs in the year
1966. The birth of UNIX took place in 1969. Ken Thompson had withdrawn himself
from MULTICS for the purpose of creating UNIX operating system.
The most interesting part of this article is that it explained exactly how UNIX was
developed. Ken Thompson had developed a game called Space Travel to run on
MULTICS. Later on he thought of rewriting the game so that it can be used on PDP-7
computer at the Bell Labs. Space Travel was the first game developed by Ken
Thompson and it had a huge contribution behind developing UNIX operating system.
Ken Thompson had become proficient in developing programs for PDP-7 that made
the development of the UNIX OS possible.
I found this article interesting because it gave a clear description regarding the
development of UNIX. Ken Thompson had written B programming language. He had
rewritten UNIX in C language in 1972 for making it portable, adaptable in different
platforms and successful in future.

Week 3
The Internet didn’t just appear – it was an evolution from earlier networks. Find and
summarise a resource that describes ONEof the networks that led to the development of the
modern Internet.
Title and Reference:
Title: ARPANET
Reference: SearchNetworking. 2017. What is ARPANET? - Definition from
WhatIs.com. [online] Available at:
http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/ARPANET [Accessed 25 Sep.
2017].
URL: http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/definition/ARPANET
Summary:
This article describes about one of the networks that paved the way for developing
modern Internet. I have chosen this article because it has described about
ARPANET that was developed before the invention of Internet. ARPANET stands for
Advanced Research Projects Agency. The main aim of the research project was to
find out the ways in which investments could be utilized in computers.
In this article the author describes about ARPANET as an important network that
paved the way for the development of modern Internet. ARPANET is considered to
be the basis of Internet. This project had started in 1969 by interconnecting four
different computers present in the university. The motive behind this development
was to allow communication as well as interaction among a group or number of
users.
The most interesting part of this article is that it gave a clear idea about how
ARPANET played a significant role in developing modern Internet. ARPANET is
considered to be the first interconnection of networks that was developed in order to
facilitate communication among the scientific users so that they could exchange
important resources among various connected institutes. ARPANET took advantage
of data packets for sending information to the destinations by using the most feasible
path.
I found this article interesting because it discussed how the first network called
ARPANET was developed along with its features. In 1970s, the TCP/IP protocols
helped to expand the network size which now became Internet. ARPANET had
become DARPANET in the year 1971. Therefore it is sometimes referred to as
DARPANET.
Week 4
Ethernet is an example of a Layer Two (L2) data link protocol that is discussed in the text.
Find and summarise a resource that describes the features and uses of ONE other L2
protocol that is not discussed in the text (i.e. NOT Ethernet).
Title and Reference:
Title: High Level Data Link Control (HDLC) Protocol
Reference: : Erg.abdn.ac.uk. 2017. High Level Data Link Control (HDLC) Protocol. [online]

Available at: http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gorry/course/dl-pages/hdlc.html [Accessed 25
Sep. 2017].
URL: http://www.erg.abdn.ac.uk/users/gorry/course/dl-pages/hdlc.html
Summary:
This article describes about the features and uses of High Level Data Link Control or
HDLC protocol. I have chosen this article because it discusses about one such L2
protocol like Ethernet. HDLC protocol is known to operate at the second layer or data
link layer present in the OSI model.
The author of this article describes about HDLC protocol in details. OSI reference
model consists of seven different layers. All the layers present in the OSI model are
associated with different protocols. Data link or the second layer of OSI model has
several protocols but the most commonly used protocol is the HDLC protocol.
The most interesting part of this article is that it gives a clear idea about HDLC
protocol. It is known to be a connection oriented protocol. This protocol can be used
for the transmission of data between the points or nodes that are present in network.
HDLC receives and encapsulates the frame from layer 3 of the OSI model by adding
a header and trailer. HDLC flags are responsible for separating the frames. HDLC
variations are used in public networks. HDLC services depend on the mode of
HDLC.
I found this article interesting because it explained several interesting facts about
HDLC protocol. It said that the header contains HDLC address along with HDLC
control field. It also said that the end of the frame consists of trailer that consists of a
CRC or Cyclic Redundancy Check for detecting any type of error that can take place
at the time of transmission.
Week 5
The text mentions the role of hackers in attacks on networked infrastructure. Find and
summarise a resource that describes ONE famous or well-known hacker.
Title and Reference:
Title: Hacker for the Hell of It: The Adventures of Kevin Mitnick
Reference: Bigthink.com. 2017. Hacker for the Hell of It: The Adventures of Kevin Mitnick.
[online] Big Think. Available at: http://bigthink.com/think-tank/hacker-for-the-hell-of-it-the-
adventures-of-kevin-mitnick [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].
URL: http://bigthink.com/think-tank/hacker-for-the-hell-of-it-the-adventures-of-kevin-mitnick
Summary:
This article describes about a famous and well known hacker named Kevin Mitnick. I
have chosen this article because it gives a description about the adventures and
journeys of a hacker who is famous around the entire world. FBI had considered
Kevin Mitnick to be the most wanted hacker in 1995 in America.
The author of this article described the way in which Kevin Mitnick compromised
computer systems, computer networks and databases in the nation. At the age of 12,
Kevin Mitnick had become an expert in social engineering. He was able to social
engineer a bus driver in the area of Los Angeles. Few years later Kevin Mitnick was
able to tap phone lines and make long distance phone calls for free.

The most interesting fact about this article is the “FBI Donuts” incident that took
place. Kevin Mitnick had developed a system that would give him a warning signal
whenever the FBI approached him for investigation. At present Kevin Mitnick is a well
known security expert and he continues his hacking in a legal way. He has even
written a book called “Ghost in the Wires” where he has described about his hacking
incidents and hacking skills.
I found this article interesting because it gave an insight of the adventures of Kevin
Mitnick who is a famous hacker across the world. He was once able to control the
Pacific Bell network by using his hacking skills. This article discussed interesting
facts about a most wanted hacker who is a security expert at present.

Week 6
Society is increasingly reliant on networks and network technologies but they are evolving at
a rapid pace. Find and summarise a resource that describes ONE example of a future
networking technology or trend that will impact society.
Title and Reference:
Title: The Future Of Mobile: 5G Networks And Their Revolutionary Impact On
Business
Reference: Forbes.com. 2017. The Future Of Mobile: 5G Networks And Their Revolutionary
Impact On Business. [online] Available at:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2016/11/04/the-future-of-mobile-5g-networks-
and-their-revolutionary-impact-on-business/#58aa1bff126f [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].
URL: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesinsights/2016/11/04/the-future-of-mobile-5g-
networks-and-their-revolutionary-impact-on-business/#7f1c7740126f
Summary:
This article describes about 5G networks along with its impact on the society as well
as business. I have chosen this article because it gives a clear overview of one of the
networking technologies that is supposed to have an influential impact on the
community and society in the near future.
The author of this article describes about the future technology that will help the
mobile networking. The present generation has understood the need of wireless
technology and realized its importance in business. A company will be able to
flourish in the future only if it incorporates the concept of wireless technology in its
business processes.
The most interesting fact about this article is that it tells us that 5G technology will be
able to fulfill the requirements of the businesses in the future. This technology will be
able to increase the connectivity, capacity as well as the speed of the mobile
devices. Wireless technologies are becoming better through the process of
innovation. The idea of communication is changing over the years. Several
innovations are taking place in the field of wireless technology that will help to
improve the communication process.
I have found this article interesting because it gave a clear overview of how 5G
technology will help in the improvement of the business productivity. Mobiles will be
able to connect at a faster speed. We got to know that 5G technology will help to
generate high throughput along with high speed of connection. 5G technology will
help to improve business processes and providing huge customer satisfaction.
Week 7
The text mentions social business and the impact of the use of social networking platforms.
Find and summarise a resource that describes the history of the development of ONE such
social media platform.
Title and Reference:

Title: A brief history of Facebook
Reference: Phillips, S. 2017. A brief history of Facebook. [online] the Guardian.
Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia
[Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].
URL: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2007/jul/25/media.newmedia
Summary:
This article describes about the development as well as history of Facebook. Mark
Zuckerberg and his roommates in Harvard University had developed this social
media platform in 2004. I have chosen this article because it describes the history of
the development of one of the most famous websites of social networking.
The author of this article describes the success journey of Facebook. At the age of
23, Mark Zuckerberg had founded Facebook. He had developed several social
networking sites for the student that allowed the users to find people and rate their
attractiveness. After the launch of Facebook, 1200 students of Harvard had
registered within 24 hours. This website was then extended to Boston Universities
followed by Ivy League and the universities of US. Facebook had had got the dot
com extension (.com) in 2005.
The most interesting fact about this article is that it informed us that this website was
extended beyond educational institutes. This article informs us about the fact that
there have been rumors that Google and Yahoo were interested in buying this site for
around 2 billion dollars but mark Zuckerberg had rejected the offer. The features of
this website have been developing over the years starting from 2007. The popular
features during 2007 were giving gifts to all friends, posting free advertisements and
developing customized applications scrabble and graffiti.
The most interesting fact about this article is that it showed the gradual development
of Facebook. The number of users had become 30 million in the year 2007.
Week 8
With the advent of mass data collection and storage has come data mining. Find and
summarise a resource that describes ONE example where data mining has been used
successfully by a business. You should not use any examples covered in the textbook.
Title and Reference:
Title: Facebook uses data-mining company to track consumers' retail purchases
Reference: Now, G. 2017. Facebook uses data-mining company to track consumers' retail
purchases | Gadgets Now. [online] Gadget Now. Available at:
http://www.gadgetsnow.com/social/Facebook-uses-data-mining-company-to-track-
consumers-retail-purchases/articleshow/16533516.cms [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].
URL: http://www.gadgetsnow.com/social/Facebook-uses-data-mining-company-to-track-
consumers-retail-purchases/articleshow/16533516.cms
Summary:
This article describes about Facebook and how successfully it has incorporated data

mining in its business processes on order to keep a track of the consumer purchases
that take place. I have chosen this article because it has described one example
where a business has successfully used data mining. Facebook is known for utilizing
the process of data mining in a tactful manner for handling the information of 200
million users.
The author of this article describes that Facebook utilizes the services that are
provided by Datalogix for collecting and analyzing information about the shoppers
starting to find out the number of buyers whose purchasing decisions are based on
several advertisements that are displayed on the social media platforms.
The most interesting fact about this article is that it tells us the process by which
Datalogix tracks the customer details. It collects the user details from Facebook
accounts and loyalty cards and matches it with the customer details that are present
in the store to find out whether they have bought the items after getting influenced by
the advertisements that were put up on Facebook. This article also informed us
about the fact that Facebook had purchased data of 70 million households from
Datalogix.
I found this article interesting because it helped me to understand about the concept
of data mining and how it helps business to grow. It helped Facebook to understand
the impact of advertisements on the buying behavior of the consumers. This article
gave an insight about the usefulness of data mining in running a business.

Week 9
One of the greatest success stories in application development in recent times has been the
popularity of mobile apps. Find and summarise a resource that describes the story of ONE
successful mobile app developer.
Title and Reference:
Title: Ben Silbermann Success Story
Reference: Successstory.com. 2017. Ben Silbermann Story - Bio, Facts, Networth, Family,
Auto, Home | Famous Entrepreneurs | SuccessStory. [online] Available at:
https://successstory.com/people/ben-silbermann [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].
URL: https://successstory.com/people/ben-silbermann
Summary:
This article describes about the story of success of Ben Silbermann. He is the
developer of the Pinterest application. I have chosen this article because it describes
about a successful mobile application developer. Pinterest can be used for the
purpose of uploading, saving, sorting as well as managing images and different
media articles and contents.
The author of this article described the success journey of Ben Silbermann. It gave
us information regarding fact that Ben Silbermann did not have a technical
background. He was hired by Google for the purpose of designing applications. Later
on he wanted to grow in life even more and left Google. Initially he had failed to
develop an iPhone app. After that Ben Silbermann had successfully developed
Pinterest. It helped people in sharing their interests via pin board.
The most interesting fact about this article is that it gave us an idea about how the
Pinterest app was developed. When he worked in Google, he used to give innovative
ideas regarding products and applications by seeing the other people who were
working in Google but his ideas were not entertained by the people of Google
because he did not have an engineering background.
I found this article interesting because it showed how Ben Silbermann did not give up
after the failure of iOS app. It said that even after 9 months of the launch of Pinterest
there were only 10,000 users. This article said that the main motto of Ben
Silbermann was to make Pinterest work but his hard work and confidence led to its
success.
Week 10
While information systems and technology deliver many benefits to society, they can also
result in (sometimes inadvertent) negative effects and outcomes. Find and summarise a
resource that describes ONE example of where the use of an information system or
technology has led to negative consequences for humans.
Title and Reference:
Title: Verizon data of 6 million users leaked online
Reference: Larson, S. 2017. Verizon data of 6 million users leaked online. [online]
CNNMoney. Available at: http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/12/technology/verizon-data-leaked-
online/index.html [Accessed 25 Sep. 2017].

URL: http://money.cnn.com/2017/07/12/technology/verizon-data-leaked-online/index.html
Summary:
This article describes about the Verizon Data Breach incident that had occurred in
July, 2017. I have chosen this article because it gives a description about one such
example which showed the negative impact of information system and information
technology on the society. Information technology provides several benefits to the
society but at the same time it imposes certain threats on the society.
The author of this article described about the Verizon incident. The data and
information of around six million users had been leaked over the Internet. This
company provides telecommunication carriers as well as components to the
subscribers. NICE, its third party cloud vendor was responsible for the breach of
data. NICE had not configured the cloud database and this led to the data leakage of
the Verizon Company.
The most interesting fact about this article is that it gave us an idea of the negative
side of cloud computing. In this incident sensitive data like addresses, pin codes as
well as phone numbers had been leaked that harmed millions of users of Verizon
Company. Cloud has the capacity to store huge information. This article gave a clear
overview of the fact that if there is digital service then there will be high chances of
cyber risk as well.
I found this article interesting because it gave an insight about the negative impacts
of technology. In this era of technology, security risks and threats are increasing at a
fast pace. Information technology has several vulnerabilities that can be exploited by
the attacker to harm the users of the data.

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
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
TOTAL
Comments: