Week 5 Blog Post

How has increased adoption of the Internet increased cyberattacks?

Kim, W., Jeong, O., Kim, C., & So, J. (2011). The dark side of the Internet: Attacks, costs and responses. Information Systems, 36(3), 675-705. doi:10.1016/j.is.2010.11.003.

This weeks paper looks at the dark side of the Internet and the damages that result including items such as Loss of money, Defamation, Invasion of Privacy, Physical harm, Loss of time, Mental anguish or psychological damage, and increase in crime.  The introduction starts with “The Good the Bad and the Ugly” of the internet.  Most of this is glossing over the good to focus on setting up the bad and the ugly portions.  The paper then goes on to supply a taxonomy of the negative aspects along with a summary of the damages caused.  This taxonomy covers a broad set of the negative aspects which will be useful in my overall research paper.  From the taxonomy the paper moves on to the causes of the Internet’s dark side.  This section was a bit weaker than the others.  The focus is primarily on psychological driven aspects akin to bullying.  It covers very little of the ease of exploitation (e.g. stealing small amounts from very large volumes of users) Much has been done to try and protect against the dark side both technical and non technical.  This is covered in the penultimate section before moving to a brief prognosis of the future which concludes the paper.  Overall I believe the paper will be useful in adding background to my greater research paper.


What new ideas, arguments, and/or phenomena have you been introduced to?

Most of my research has been focused on the facts and figures of Internet usage and the growth of cyber attacks.  This paper focused quite a bit on the psychological aspects of Internet usage.  This would add a good section to the overall research paper.

From what you’ve discovered in these research articles, are you reconsidering the focus of your research question?

I would likely have not added a section to the overall paper had I not found this piece.

Were other studies or resources mentioned in the literature review and references sections that you want to look into? 

This paper more than any of the others had a very long list of reference materials.  In reviewing this for the CRAAP review I did find and examine a few.  I would very likely use some of those references in a longer paper.

How do you feel your research skills are developing so far?

I think the greatest increase I have experienced is having access to review academic papers.  I am using many of the same research skills I use in my day to day life and career.  I am however applying those skills to catalogs I don’t normally have access to.  Additionally, with the number of catalogs available I am using more of the filter components than I would normally.  With a standard Google search I often just tweak my terms and limit the time to the last X days.