Smart phones under attack

With the increasing popularity of smart phones, hackers have found an opportunity to attack our perhaps most regularly used device. I use my smart phone all day, every day to some extent. A breach in my phone's security would cause a wide range of issues from misunderstandings with my friends to missing responses to job applications. Since smart phones are essentially just a smaller version of desktop and laptop computers, it is obvious that they deal with the same security issues. We need to realize that our phones could be subject to hackers. This is an opportunity for us as students of computer science to find ways to prevent such problems. For more information visit http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100222121624.htm.

The Internet is Real

The Internet is a real part of life and it needs to be treated as such. Many people lower their values on the Internet because it can seem like a virtual world where the rules do not apply. However, as can be seen in Cliff Stoll’s The Cuckoo’s Egg, malicious behavior does cause problems somewhere down the line. This does not only apply to the case of hackers, but to the mainstream society that downloads files illegally, that makes ridiculously rude comments to others, that views pornography, and that participates in a variety of other immoral activities on the Internet. The Internet is full of real people and there are real consequences to every action that we take while using it.

Using the Internet is a test of our integrity. Most people do not walk into a supermarket and begin stealing anything that is not secure, but many people are invigorated when they find a normally expensive file on the Internet free to download illegally. Because the likelihood of someone that we directly know will ever find out about, or even care about what we have done secretly on the Internet, our moral sense of what is right is dulled and we behave differently while using it. We need to awaken to the reality of the Internet; bad behavior on the Internet is just as bad it is off the Internet.

If we want to change the behavior of Internet users across the world, we must start by taking action ourselves. Cliff in The Cuckoo’s Egg gives a good example of taking action. He not only spent many hours every day trying to stop a hacker, but perhaps more importantly, getting the world to wake up to the problem. We need to do the same. First we have to make sure that we correct our own use of the Internet, and then we can begin helping others use the Internet in the way that they normally behave when not using the Internet. Let’s start today by letting people know that the Internet is a real place, and that all of our values do apply when using it.

The LDS Church's family history efforts show faith

Extensive genealogical research done by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is evidence of the strength of the testimonies of its members. Spending millions of dollars and countless hours uncovering information about dead ancestors would seem ridiculous to someone without the faith of a Latter-day Saint. We as Latter-day Saints really believe in what we preach; we don't just profess to believe in the salvation of the dead, we demonstrate that we have real faith by actively researching genealogy. As we continue with this work we invite everyone to join and find out what all the fuss is about.