How Pervasive is the Internet in your Life?

Q.1 How pervasive is the internet in your life? How much do you think society has come to depend on the Internet?

Answer:

When it comes to how pervasive the internet is in current life, my answer is that the internet has almost influenced each event of our daily life every day. Of course, we can’t deny that there may be some people, around our side, who never heard about the internet, for example, those elder people who has less education skill; we also can’t deny that there may be some location where the internet is not supported, for example, the less developed areas in China.

Therefore, the pre-condition of discussion in my rest article is based on the people who are familiar with the internet in the developed location where has the strong fundamental support with network infrastructure.

Now, let’s look back to the question, as regarding to the pervasiveness of internet, I will discuss from following aspects (What I have to remind is the comparation I mentioned below which is compared between the time when internet is popular and it previous period, since I can’t compare the current world with the world 100 years ago):

Positive:

1. Change of working mode

The way we work has been largely different with the way we worked twenty years ago. In the past, there were paper and documents on the desk in the office, people usually use the paper documents to process and record the business, but when internet is developed, the first biggest difference is that computer will appear on each one’s desk, people will use the email/online chat tool to discuss the job, to delegate the assignment, which can provide faster communication between colleagues, people will use various management application to perform all kinds of business, which is more efficient. Right now, almost all the industry can’t leave the internet.

2. Change of information collection

The internet’s occurrence also changes people’s the style of information collection. In the past, people usually collected the information through reading newspaper, the only way for students to get the resource was the library. But now, people can obtain the newest news through various websites and apps, students can search any study material from google.

3. Change of entertainment

The style of people’s entertainment become more abundant because of internet. In the past, if we would like to play video game with friends, the only choice was to sit together to play one game machine, if you would like to watch the newest move, you would have to go to the cinema, but now, as long as there is network connected on your laptop, PS4, xbox360 etc. we can play with any other player in the world, and once you pay the money in some movie website such as Amazon Video, NetFlex etc , you can watch any newest movie at home.

4. Other

Besides the positive aspects above, the internet will benefit many other parts of society, such as payment of public service, doctor appointment etc.

Negative:

Although the internet will improve our daily life a lot, it will also bring some bad influence. The typical case is dark web, there are full of criminal and violence in the dark web, from drug to gun, from kidnapping to kill. The dark web provides an easy platform to the criminal to trade each other.

If we move our attention to how much the society depends on the Internet, still focus on the scenario based on the pre-condition in paragraph 1, the answer is the running of current society can’t leave the internet any more, the reasons are following:

1. Network is everywhere

The apparent reason is that network is everywhere, network has become one of utilities such power, gas, water etc., we can easily find the wireless signal in the airport, university and government office.

2. Website becomes official channel

When I was young, I still remembered that every year we would receive the Yellow Page which including all the local business, address and contact information. But now, you can find official website of these business online, besides address and contact, you can also find the more introduction of these company. And if you want to search some official information such as business hour, the first option is to login their official website instead of looking for their contact info in the Yellow Page.

3. No industries can run business without internet

Can you imagine what will happen if there is no internet in the business? The order of society will be disordered. Because the modern transportation such as airport, railway station depends on the internet to arrange the in and out of the plain and train. Because the modern hospital depends on the internet to store and retrieve the patient information. Because post office depends on the internet to distribute the mails and track status. Whatever the commercial company or government has been pervasive closely connected with the internet.

In conclusion, the internet is everywhere in our society and the running of modern society highly depends on the internet.

Q.2 Which do you think transformed human society more, that Industrial Revolution and steam power or the Information Revolution and the Internet?

Answer:

I don’t think it’s easy to distinguish the industrial revolution and steam power or the information revolution and internet transformed human society more, like the famous saying “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people’s eyes”, the different people standing on the different position will have different opinions on this question. However, from my opinion, they are both playing an important and indispensable role on the development of human society. So, the question will be changed to, what are the similarities and what are the difference between Industrial Revolution and steam power or the Information Revolution and the Internet?

The common point1: they are both freeing the labor force

Whatever Industrial Revolution or Information Revolution are freeing labor force, Industrial Revolution made the transition of labor force from handicraft to modern machine industry, people didn’t need to perform the production by their hands directly and they can control the machine to produce the product. Information Revolution made the transition of labor force from controlling the machine to controlling the computer. Both revolutions will help human to have more time to turn attention to other business.

The common point2: they are both improving the productivity

Obviously both revolutions are improving the productivity of business, for example, the invention of Spinning jenny during the Industrial Revolution times, which can spin 16-18 spindles at the same time, increasing the work efficiency by 15 times; In addition, the cases which Information Revolution benefits the productivity are still affecting our daily life.

The common point3: they are both causing great changes in social relations

The Industrial Revolution led to the emergence of two opposing classes: the industrial bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the colonial expansion of the powers caused the East to belong to the West. The Information Revolution promoted the adjustment of the international economic structure and change in society structure and life structure as well as changes in people’s daily clothing, food, housing, transportation, and use.

The different point1: The development background is different

The Industrial Revolution has a relatively peaceful international environment, but the Information Revolution began during World War II and continues to today. From the inventor’s point of view, the Industrial Revolution is developed by the laborer with experience or skills as the guide. However, the Information Revolution is based on the scientists and engineers.

The different point2: The influenced place is different

The Industrial Revolution began in the United Kingdom, and it spread to other countries half a century later. But Information Revaluation were multi-sourced.

The different point3: The influenced range is different

The Industrial Revolution took light industry as the leading factor and took the steam power as the main symbol. However, the Information Revolution represented by the application of atomic energy technology, aerospace technology and electronic computer, including high-tech such as synthetic materials, molecular biology and genetic engineering. Science and technology promote the development of productivity and accelerate the transformation into direct productivity. And Science and technology infiltrate each other in various fields.

Although the Information Revolution has influenced modern people more, it still can’t jump the conclusion to say it transformed human society more. The relationship between the Industrial Revolution and the Information Revolution is like that the Information Revolution “standing of the should of giants”, the Industrial Revolution is that giants. Without the Industrial Revolution, whether the information Revolution will happen or not is hard to tell.

Q.3 Please read and prepare an extensive summary report about Symantec-W32 Stuxnet Dossier.

Before starting the extensive summary, report reading Symantec-W32 Stuxnet Dossier, let me have a short summary how the Stuxnet was found.

1. The “restart” and the use of 0 day was found (however, it did not attract many attention)

2. 22000 of the 38000 infected machines in Iran were found (People started to pay attention on the malware)

3. 217 machines including Siemens-step7 software were found (People started to try to find what the purpose of this malicious program)

4. More 0days were found

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