Network Security

            Information and system security is essential for individuals and organizations to protect data confidentiality against breaches, fraud, and malicious codes. Without cyber security, everything could be leaked, and anyone who can find where you live, work, etc., can know everything about you. 

            The type of attack that can be executed using ping commands is DoS. It occurs when an attacker overloads a computer, service, or system with oversized data packets, which “denies service.” In Chapter 8, when DoS is explained, there is an article about a 16-year-old boy who was arrested for one of the world’s most significant DoS attacks.(https://www.rt.com/news/uk-boy-arrested-ddos-attack-411/)  It was fascinating how he did it, but obviously, there were some red flags, and he got arrested.

    There are many computer security incidents stories out there. For example, my personal experience is when I was being phishing. I thought a Microsoft person called me when I was a teenager, and I said something was wrong with my computer. They told me to do certain things and got into my computer to access items, and I could see them moving the mouse around, so I quickly turned off the computer. They tried calling back multiple times, and I did not answer. A couple of days later, I turned on the computer, and there was a lot of computer virus on my laptop and different things that did not make sense. Unfortunately, I had to factory reset my computer then and was aware that no one from Microsoft would call me. 

            Every day, any computer system is vulnerable to each kind of threat. The damage that each breach can inflict after compromising a system is they probably did or did not get all my personal information on the laptop. Two recommendations for protecting my computer system or network are downloading antivirus software and firewalls. That way, it can help protect my computer. Also, I search online to ensure each website has a digital certificate with secure website connections. That way, I know it is a legit website.     

            Reading chapter 8 in this assignment has made me more aware of different things that can happen anywhere and at any time of the day. You must be careful of what you do online and ensure you have the correct antiviruses and firewalls.

Computers in the Workplace

Based on my current understanding of information technology that I have learned, the specific industry I chose is sales with T-Mobile since I worked here for a while now and have a good understanding of sales. Employees in this type of environment need to be computer literate because every other month, new devices come out, and there is always new software, system updates, operating systems, etc., that are onto devices that are different from the prior devices. Also, there are about 20+ devices to learn from and compare with customers, which can be overwhelming for customers because they always want to compare the different types of operating systems. How we differentiate and explain to the customer what they need is talking to them about their lifestyles and how they want to use their devices. When they tell us what they want, we would have to make sure we sell the product to all their needs. That way, they don't come back and have complaints about the devices, which would create a poor experience for them. The historical trends of computing and the evolutions in computer hardware, operating systems, and networking will impact the chosen industry over the next ten years. Since technology is slowly taking over with apps, everyone will be ordering things online instead of coming into stores. We will see fewer people with sales, and it might transition over to online support and sales. Sadly, there will be less face-to-face interaction in the future.

Traveling Through a Network

Understanding ping and traceroute is a troubleshooting network tool. Ping is a command to test the website's connectivity and how fast you can access it. Once reached, it will send the same replies consistently. For example, in all my ping compared to Google and Sanrio, it is consistent, which means it is online and ready to go. In contrast, Zara had a time-out request while pinging the website, which gave an error. While learning and i posted my discussion with this issues my classmate gave me a great suggestion that worked for him, which was to add the "www," and it worked! (Displayed with the screen shots down below). Traceroute is the command to see all messages from the network to the computer. When accessing a traceroute, the "hops" are the numbers on the right-hand side; a packet passes until it reaches its destination and has a router stop. With Google, it took seven hops to get to the website. The other two traceroutes in a different region took over ten hops to get onto the websites. With the different areas of the website for the Sanrio website after the 11th hop, there was a constant packet loss, as well as Zara's website. When I was completing my traceroutes, the traceroutes were not appropriately completed for some reason. It may be an error out or not continue. Ping and traceroute commands are used to troubleshoot internet problems and for any number of other things. The configuration can be offline or offline or not responding to the ping request. The traceroute will show all the hops, and you will determine where the hop ends and the following steps to fix it. It might time out or return with an error response because a firewall can block the request. Another reason might be the return path from the target of the system. With ping and traceroute, it will help people know what the issue might be, and it is a great tool to ensure the network works properly.

Ping Activity
1. Google.com
Ping Google.com
2. Sanrio.co.jp
Ping Sanrio.co.jp
3. Zara.com.au

https://share.icloud.com/photos/0efPDYhNv5951WHrmC1-NinCA 

Traceroute Activity 
1. Google.com
Traceroute Google.com 
2. Sanrio.co.jp
Traceroute Sanrio.co.jp 
3. Zara.com.au
Traceroute Zara.com.au

Documenting a Day

With all of the functions of word processors, spreadsheets, presentations, and database applications, they all have their purpose. A word processor is an application for creating formatted text. The spreadsheet represents tables of different data using text or numbers. It also has formulas to calculate data from other data and makes various graphical charts from the spreadsheet. The presentation application is used for creating slideshows of different graphics. It can have a series of individual slides. Last but not least, database applications are data collection within themselves. 

With any application, each of them has its advantages and disadvantages. The word processor can type all your notes, stories, etc, in a formatted text. Penalties of words could be they never use more than 50% of the function because there are many ways to use it. For example, schools require APA styles, and it's not as complex. The spreadsheet has its significant advantages of using data to input in the spreadsheet and has a formula you can calculate to ensure they are correct with their data. One disadvantage is they are not easy to share. Sometimes, the files must be fixed, and printing things out is difficult. A presentation is a great tool to present to a large audience and to showcase what needs to be shown. A disadvantage with PowerPoint is sometimes, when you add animations or play your PowerPoint, it has technical problems. Database application is an excellent tool for inputting all your data into one. Sometimes, the database system can be complex and challenging for a user. 

Web/Mobile App Critique

One of my favorites, which I use frequently every Tuesday, is T-Mobile Tuesdays. T-Mobile Tuesdays is a program that thanks T-Mobile customers with free stuff, great deals, and exclusive offers every Tuesday just for being a customer with T-Mobile. And every so often, you can win epic prizes like amazing vacations, the latest smartphones, gift cards, and more! The T-Mobile Tuesday application has won over 50 awards and saved customers over $1 billion. Listening to customer feedback is part of what makes the program great.

T-Mobile Tuesday App front page 

You need to use and download this app for a smartphone with Android 7 or higher / Apple iOS 13 or higher. To activate it, you would need an eligible T-Mobile phone number—and a connection to Wi-Fi or T-Mobile's fast data network (cellular data). How to use the app: you will open the app, sign in with your T-Mobile phone number, accept the terms and conditions, and get a 4-digit PIN code in a text message to complete the set-up process and proceed with the app.

Once in the app, you have a few options for redemption during that time of certain things that are available to you during that week. For example, in the screenshots provided, there are discounted rates for shows. How to redeem the offer: you select the request to view the details. For instance, my screenshots show exclusive deals on select shows. Once I click that, it opens a web browser, and you can select which guides you would like to see in your area. Or you can click "GET A CODE" and get exclusive code and up to 25% off the selected shows.

How to redeem show discounts  

Second step on saving show discount  

Final Step for Redemption 

 

The app's usability is straightforward on how to log in and redeem this great free stuff, great deals, and exclusive offers every Tuesday. The design of the app is also simplified. That way, users are clear about how to navigate this app. Functionality: at the bottom of the app, it shows the home page, my stuff, messages, and profile, and whichever tab they tap on, they make it easy to navigate that tab during that time.

The three recommendations I would propose to this application for improvement is the usability of the tab "My Stuff." It is excellent that you can save your weekly things to my stuff tab, but there needs to be a notification during that week that the offer is ending. So that part makes it difficult because sometimes people need to remember to go back into the app to redeem it before the following Tuesday, or they lose that offer.

The second recommendation for this application for improvement is for some of the offers to be local or geofencing to users' locations. For example, some suggestions are unavailable in my area or partnering up with a place. One of the offers would sometimes be free Dunkin Donuts coffee, and in Washington or near me, there is no Dunkin Donuts at all. They should partner with a geofencing team to configure the app to offer nearby offers, and that way, they can grow their app and have users use it more frequently if they have more suggestions that are for them locally.

The third recommendation for this application for improvement is to remove the travel part on the main page and put it in its category at the bottom of the page with all the other tabs. It makes the app look very clustered and overwhelming for everyone. The offers are for those with a percentage off travel, plane, hotels, cruise, and rentals. Also, those offers are on there every week.

Recommendation on App  

This application is an excellent source for deals and free things if you have a T-Mobile service. It's a great way of giving back to customers.

Programming Languages

My project was straightforward but challenging for me with the program Scratch. How I overcame the challenges was to keep re-watching the tutorials and reading online about how to use Scratch. I can’t believe kids are starting coding, and I am in my 30s, but it is never too late to start learning! The insights I have gained about programming for this exercise is that this is like a play. You start with the characters and tell them what to do, and it becomes a neat show. Comparing my experience programming in Scratch to the partition activity is two different programs.

How I overcame the challenges was to keep re-watching the tutorials and reading online about how to use Scratch. I can’t believe kids are starting coding, and I am in my 30s, but it is never too late to start learning! The insights I have gained about programming for this exercise is that this is like a play. You start with the characters and tell them what to do, and it becomes a neat show. Comparing my experience programming in Scratch to the partition activity is two different programs.

            The textbook activities showed how to read it correctly. Using Scratch it was hands-on and more simplified. A computer understands Machine language and only contains numbers 0’s and 1’s, which the computer understands. Assembly language is also 0’s and 1’s, which is a textual human-understandable representation of the machine language, so when it is humanly readable, it converts to machine language. High-level languages are pretty much a converter to the systems. None of the languages I found were easy to use; they all have different meanings. While participating in the textbook, I found machine language more straightforward to learn than the other two programming languages. With machine learning, the best scenario, I believe, would be in the medical field, where it can analyze data and search through large volumes of health data to make sure things are correct with each patient learning the algorithm of each patient. Assembly language would be the point of sales systems. Even though it is a low language, it works fast. High-level languages would be 3D movies, which can handle lots of data and transcribe it onto the screen of 3-D glasses. Python is the most popular programming language because Python also is considered a high-level language that is easiest to learn and use for newcomers.

            In conclusion, learning with Scratch and the textbook was a rough assignment for me as a beginner. It took me a few hours to complete, but I did it with the help of the internet and steps on how to use Scratch. This course so far has taught me more about coding and all the programming languages to learn. It is a learning curve for me since I am in the telecommunications industry. This course explains how computers, devices, etc., are made more in-depth. 

Here is the link to my scratch program:  https://scratch.mit.edu/projects/910865186 

About PV

Hello, my name is Phuong, but I go by PV for short. I am from Washington State. Growing up, I have always been intrigued by technology and computers. In my family, I was always the technology guru, and they would come to me with questions or concerns about certain things. Fast forward to now, I am a Retail associate manager at T-Mobile currently. I have been with T-Mobile for ten years! Being in this telecommunications industry, I have learned a lot about the different devices we offer. Every day is always a learning experience for me. There are many other software, apps, etc., on these electronic devices to learn from. I love to problem solve every day, and helping my customers learn every day makes me happy. My career aspiration is to acquire the skills to learn about cybersecurity/technology. That way, I can grow with my current company to help others and my company. What I hope to gain from this course of study is to ensure I have the knowledge and the ability to continue with cyber security/technology. Technology grows every day, and it can be a challenging class.