Class 8, The Bitcoin Blockchain

Many people have heard of Bitcoin, a popular virtual currency used in multiple countries, but not many know how it works or its methods of security such as the bitcoin blockchain. Bitcoin can be used as money, energy, shares of stock, pretty much anything that can be bought and traded on the internet can be done using bitcoin. Although these security measures have not convinced a lot of people that bitcoin is safe, mostly because of Mt. Gox, a massive bitcoin failure that took place last year leaving an estimated 450 million dollars of people's money lost or unaccounted for. More info on Mt. Gox can be seen below.

The Bitcoin Blockchain is what is supposed to prevent things like this from happening. It is basically a public record of all transactions, where they came from, where they went to and when all of it took place. If there is any discrepancy, it will (theoretically) be easy to spot because a public record of transactions will show what happened. https://blockchain.info is a website that anyone can access and see real bitcoin transactions being made in real time, as soon as they happen. A screenshot of the website can be seen below.

Bitcoin, and specifically the blockchain are a bit confusing to understand, so I had to look through a few videos before I found one that broke it down into understandable layman's terms. This video that I found was published recently, around 1 year after the events that occurred at Mt. Gox, so hopefully what we are learning in the following video has had some previous bugs worked out of it, and is a more stable security measure for virtual currency.

Class 8, P2P and BitTorrent

Peer to Peer, or P2P for short is a method of computer networking and distributing workload. This happens a lot in companies that do most of their work with computers and departments. In a peer to peer network, "peers" are all equally privileged and can share information with other "peers" on the same network, to help collaboration and increase productivity. This is all done without a server or host, an example of this could be people in our class collaborating and sharing information to complete a paper, but doing so without using one main platform or server.

BitTorrent is popular when dealing with peer to peer networks, it is a protocol that is used in P2P file sharing when dealing with sharing files that are very large in size. To do so, a BitTorrent client must be installed (examples of popular ones can be seen in the picture below). The client is what is used to help deconstruct and send these large files (files are typically broken into smaller pieces when sent over the internet) and then reconstructed when they reach their final destination. Some more basic information about BitTorrent can be seen below.

File sharing using P2P and things like BitTorrent can be very helpful if done correctly, but as with just about anything on the internet, doing it wrong can cause a crazy amount of headaches. There are also some risks involved with using P2P file sharing, but nothing catastrophic. Most average internet users could easily figure out how to use peer to peer and have it help them out in their work or studies. Below is a video on how to use P2P, as well as some involved risks

Class 8, Botnets and Zombie Networks

Botnets and zombie networks pose a huge danger on the internet for the common user that would have no idea what these things are or how to get rid of them. A botnet is multiple programs working together to perform a task, the problem is that these tasks can just as easily be unwanted rather than something you installed onto your computer yourself. If an illegal botnet infects your computer in the form of malware, the controller of that botnet is able to direct what happens by using things like HTTP. An example of this would be launching a web browser and malware asking "(botnet name) would like to use Yahoo instead of Google as your default search engine". Below is a screenshot of the difference between legal and illegal botnets, and what to look out for.

Another big issue along these lines are zombie networks, or just a "zombie" computer. A zombie is a computer that has a connection to the internet and has been taken over by either a hacker or virus via the internet. Downloading things without caution can easily cause this to happen, many downloads from non-credible sites on the internet might have a virus attached to them, which then takes pricy anti-virus software to remove, or the tedious task can be done yourself, if you know how to but that leaves much room for error. Below is a wiki article I found on zombie networks/computers.

These issues are quite common, and never an easy time to deal with. The most proactive thing that can be done is to research a bit about malware and the other negative things that happen on a daily basis to people all over the world. Sticking to prominent sites is a good way to protect yourself from downloading one of these things previously mentioned (a download from an unknown site is much more likely to have malware attached to it than a download from apple.com, for example). Below is a video on "how to survive botnet attacks" and it contains some useful information about botnets and what to do if you ever encounter one.

Class 8, 2c: Facebook and Twitter

Here are some screenshots of me sharing/liking/commenting the post on Facebook, and favoriting/re-tweeting the post on twitter.

Class 8, 2b: Google+

Here are some screenshots of me joining groups on google+ to share posts from iED.

Class 8, 2a: Facebook Groups

Here are some screenshots of me posting to Facebook groups.

Class 8, The YouTube Network and ISPs

From the link in the lecture notes I learned that a youtube video takes a long journey via Internet Service Providers before it gets to your computer. Here are some screenshots

 At first the page kept saying this, but I got it to work!

 The info was interesting, documenting the process a video goes thru to get to your computer screen. It is basically directed to your computer from your internet service provider in the most efficient way, and delivered to your computers IP address.

This was my quality test