WILD CARD!!!!! –Stolen Identity August 5, 2008

Assignment 7  Write about one experience you’ve had with communication on the internet that happened outside of this course. Explain what happened, why the situation was exacerbated or eased because the situation occurred in the realm of cyberspace. How would the situation have been different had it happened outside of cyberspace? This situation could be a mis-communication because the words written were misinterpreted, something didn’t happen because of the technology, etc. .

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The “wild card” situation that I have chosen to write about is my recent situation with cyberspace hackers.  About a month ago, despite my triple firewall/virus/spyware protection, my computer was hacked into.  I am an online student, so I do a lot of things on the internet. One of those things is shopping around and purchasing school books and supplies.  I try not to store my personal data in cyberspace, but sometimes it cannot be helped.  Ultimately, all of my credit card information was stolen.

The hackers used my credit cards to purchase 900 dollars worth of I-tunes. They also routed other their in the amounts of 700 and 342 dollars respectively, through various other job hunting sites. These, as far as I know, are just fronts for transferring money to far away places.

In this case, technology both exacerbated and eased my problem.  The purchases made in cyberspace caused me a lot of problems but because they were also out of the norm for my spending habits, my credit card company notified me immediately when it happened and were able to take care of crediting me back my “funds.”  I can only thank technology for this quick response. Also, I was able to monitor my bank account online, and I do so every day….this also helped to ease my frustrations. 

If this situation had been done to me outside of cyberspace, I am not sure how easy it would have been to track all of the illegal dispersements of money.  The credit card company was able to pinpoint the users “identities” so they could be flagged in case they made any other attempts at illegal purchases and I do not know, but maybe they will ultimately be caught. It was because the credit card company had cyberspace on their end, that they were able to do this.

In the end it was the criminals who used technology for their advantage that helped perpetuate this issue. They are incredibly intelligent and use it for unfair gains.  It feels very violating to know that someone can be spying on me through my PC over the internet.  But as Postman asks, even with all of the pain and frustration I went through, “what really is the solution to my problem,” (181).  According to him it begins with the, “individuals response” to “the world around them,” (182).  And how will I respond…

I will continue purchasing books on line, because more often than not it is cheaper when I research the costs through many different venues.  I will also still use cyberspace despite the risk.  I can protect myself and my property to a point, but I cannot fear those who use a great tool for horrible means.  Hopefully this never happens again, but I am sure not betting my life on the idea that it will not.  I also hope that this blog helps you to understand how important it is to have firewalls/virus scanners/spyware trackers. Even though these people got through my defenses, it has only be once in eleven years…so something has to be working pretty darn well for them to be deterred for such a long period of time.