What Your Mobile Devices Know About You

Have you ever wondered what personal information of yours your device is keeping track of? Many don't. Be it a computer or a phone there are lots of personal data retained in the device. And be careful because cybercriminals are looking for those information. Many times, I have heard people saying "what information can I have that could be of interest to Criminals?" One word IDENTITY. You are who you are!!! Think it this way, Cybercriminals wants identity of someone to impersonate. Because in case of detected crime it could easily be directed to someone else as they have concealed their identity and they get time to find their ways.

If you look at the statistics of cybercrime you can find that on an average $128 is the monetary cost to  victim. Some other stats:

Emails scams sent daily	75 millions
Daily victim of such scams	2000
% of Americans who have experienced cybercrime	73

Having said that, I'd like to list the information retained in different devices like Windows PCs, Macs, Android Tablets and Smart Phones based on category of information. Read this and stay alert. Be careful what you do online. Here goes the list.

Information	How	Windows PCs	Mac	Android Tablets	Smart Phone
Name and Address	Web browser autofill, contacts, address book and other contact managers	√	√	√	√
Passwords	Web browser autofill, stored in the file system	√	√	√	√
Credit Card Numbers	Web browser autofill or downloaded credit card statements	√	√	√	√
Social Security Number	Downloaded tax documents	√	√	√	√
Bank Account Info	Downloaded bank documents	√	√	√	√
Contacts	Contacts, address book or other contact managers	√	√	√	√
Pone Calls	Call log stored in phone	x	x	x	√
Text Messages	Text log stored in phones	x	x	x	√
Recently Accessed Files	List kept by OS or various applications also keep records of recent list of files accessed	√	√	√	√
Deleted Files	Until physical storage space is overwritten, all deleted files can be recovered. And this means files in recycle bin/trash	√	√	√	√
Recently Visited Sites	Browser's history/chache/cookies	√	√	√	√
Current Locations	GPS	x	x	√	√
Recent Locations	GPS/Photo navigation app	x	x	√	√

A Cybercriminal's Path To Your Data

Common Online Threats

Traditional Crime Vs CyberCrime

Cyber Conflicts: Future Battles - Threats to Critical Infrastructure

The cyber warfare incidents to date have not generated mass panic, and are driven more by citizen groups, rather than the overt government sponsored national campaigns. These past attacks were meant to send a political message. However, future attacks could have serious consequences, pitting nation against nation and requiring political as well as military intervention. One concern shared by all governments is that threat to critical infrastructure through electronic control systems.

The critical infrastructure is an easy target for enemy countries and rogue transnational since groups it is widely distributed geographically and left largely unprotected. The systems and manage water supply, power, oil and transport are all a part of the national critical infrastructure. Each represents different threat levels. The significant interdependencies can lead to unintended consequences during an attack.

The critical infrastructure is also increasingly under the control of SCADA systems. A supervisory control and data acquisition system. Probably through ease of remote monitoring and management. However, increased accessibility correlates with increased vulnerability to breach security. And as SCADA has become more and more homogeneous. The potential of breaches is further exacerbated since a single exploit could be used to attack multiple systems. They draw graphic distribution of critical infrastructure, the government recognizes as inability to protect everything. A key concern is that interdependence of infrastructure elements could mean a failure in a single element could cause devastating widespread damage in multiple critical infrastructure elements. The power grid is one of the most vulnerable including transmission lines, transformers, power stations and suppliers.

In 2009 actually authorities found that many segments of the U.S. power Ggid had experienced and suspected hacker infiltration. Software tools are to be used to disable infrastructure while identified on the machines. Interdependencies in the power grid alone were evident from the blackouts throughout the Northeast US and Canada in August 2003. A failure of a single Ohio power plant led to complete blackout of the Northeast US, along with nearby connected portions of Canadian National Power System.

Given some fragility in the system, we need to be very careful in protecting our critical infrastructure from cyber attacks. In 2008, the US power grid in multiple regions was disrupted purportedly for the purpose of extorting money.

The water supply is another critical infrastructure.

Encompassing both fresh water supply and wastewater collection. The US has more than a 170,000 public water systems, including weather wise dams, wells, aquifers, treatment facilities, pumping stations, aqueducts, and transmission pipelines. Waste collection includes 19,500 sanitary systems and 800,000 miles of sewer lines. In October 2006, an unknown hacker gained control of water filtering plant in Harrisburg, installing software that affect the plant operations. Though the US water supply is well distributed for the country, presenting multiple soft targets.

Interdependencies are weak and the effect of any single attack would be localized affecting at most a few hundred people.

A fail bomb is easily repaired or restarted leading to quick recovery without any serious long term devastating consequences but again the potential is here.

The financial of, the failure of financial institution infrastructure is however, more serious. It could undermine public confidence in financial institutions, as well as the government.

Less clear is how to compare these financial losses to the loss of life or to injury. Not all infrastructure attacks are perceived as equally devastating.

The risk and interdependency analysis are needed to accurately determine the risks. There's a lot of work that needs to be done.

Cyber Attacks in a Global Context

All right, so let's sort of wrap things up here and try to think in terms of trying to explain the different types of hackers that exist and why. The motivation question, why they hack. Searching this model here by Nir Kshetri, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

He developed this model of cyber attacks using theories of human motivations that I've just described. But also putting it into a more global context and focusing on cultural aspects,

cultural factors may influence the motivation of the attacker. And also looking at the profile of the organization that is being attacked.


This is useful because the theories that I was explaining before really focus on just individual perceptions in individual motivation. But, you can't really take individuals out of their cultural context, okay. So that hacking should be seen as partly culturally determined as well as individually determined. What Kshetri has done is looked at some of the characteristics of source nations. So you know where the source being where the hacking is originating, where is it coming from.

In certain countries probably would be more conducive to hacking. All countries have people good at computer skills. Why do some countries produce more hackers than others? Well, could be due to something about the nation itself, or the country. When economic conditions are poor, jobs aren't plentiful. Those with good computer skills who normally could be highly employed in many countries, they have a difficult time getting legitimate employment. They may then use those skills for criminal purposes. Also countries vary in terms of the regulations and social norms. In some cases hacking is not seen as as much a criminal activity as it is, say, in some western countries. So there's characteristics of the source nation that will influence the motivation for attackers. There's also characteristics of the attacker. But in the middle here, ad we're looking at it under motivation for the attack, what Kshetri has outlined are sort of three primary sources of motivation that relate to the continuum I had on an earlier slide. There's extrinsic motivation.
And then there's pure intrinsic motivation, enjoyment base. We do it because it is fun, gives us autonomy, provides a challenge.

Then there's a sort of middle one, the sort of obligation we're doing it because we feel obligated whether to a country, to an organization or to a group that we belong.

But the motivation for the attack may actually determine what type of attack ends up occurring.

Earlier we talked in an earlier lecture, we talked about targeted attacks, carefully planned out and opportunistic attacks. Those that sort of just present themselves.

Well when in a state of flow or when operating out of intrinsic motivation, people may be more likely to pursue opportunistic attacks. What's available now? Whereas extrinsic motivation, looking for a financial gain for example, or obligation to social groups you belong to, they'd be more targeted. More carefully planned out.

Also, the profile of the targeted organization is gonna influence the type of attack, especially if you're looking at it sort of for political purposes, or for financial gain.
 
You're gonna look at the symbolic and financial significance of the organization. And also any sort of weaknesses that they may have in their organization. And this sort of then explains the different types of hacking that we see.

Your positive deviance, if you will, the whitehat hackers are probably gonna be operating perhaps more out of enjoyment-based interests and motivation.

Your hacktivists may be operating more out of community. They're obligation based intrinsic motivation.

Those who are motivated most by financial outcomes or gain, extremes of motivation, would be targeting organizations. And finding those that will maximize their outcomes. In all cases though, you can bring it back to expectancy value theory. Okay, they're attacking and they're performing a behavior striving for some goal based on the outcomes whether its enjoyment or financial gain.
 $30 off Norton Security Premium 1 Year. Use code NSBUCA30OFF. MSRP $89.99

And when they think that its likely there's a chance that they will attain value to outcomes whether they're intrinsic or extrinsic the motivation to hack will be quite high.

Cyber Attacks in a Global Context

All right, so let's sort of wrap things up here and try to think in terms of trying to explain the different types of hackers that exist and why. The motivation question, why they hack. Searching this model here by Nir Kshetri, a researcher at the University of North Carolina, Greensboro.

He developed this model of cyber attacks using theories of human motivations that I've just described. But also putting it into a more global context and focusing on cultural aspects,

cultural factors may influence the motivation of the attacker. And also looking at the profile of the organization that is being attacked.

This is useful because the theories that I was explaining before really focus on just individual perceptions in individual motivation. Testive Symantec Corp. Symantec CA But, you can't really take individuals out of their cultural context, okay. So that hacking should be seen as partly culturally determined as well as individually determined. What Kshetri has done is looked at some of the characteristics of source nations. So you know where the source being where the hacking is originating, where is it coming from.

In certain countries probably would be more conducive to hacking. All countries have people good at computer skills. Why do some countries produce more hackers than others? Well, could be due to something about the nation itself, or the country. When economic conditions are poor, jobs aren't plentiful. Those with good computer skills who normally could be highly employed in many countries, they have a difficult time getting legitimate employment. They may then use those skills for criminal purposes. Also countries vary in terms of the regulations and social norms. In some cases hacking is not seen as as much a criminal activity as it is, say, in some western countries. So there's characteristics of the source nation that will influence the motivation for attackers.
There's also characteristics of the attacker. But in the middle here, ad we're looking at it under motivation for the attack, what Kshetri has outlined are sort of three primary sources of motivation that relate to the continuum I had on an earlier slide. There's extrinsic motivation. And then there's pure intrinsic motivation, enjoyment base. We do it because it is fun, gives us autonomy, provides a challenge.

Then there's a sort of middle one, the sort of obligation we're doing it because we feel obligated whether to a country, to an organization or to a group that we belong.

But the motivation for the attack may actually determine what type of attack ends up occurring.

Earlier we talked in an earlier lecture, we talked about targeted attacks, carefully planned out and opportunistic attacks. Those that sort of just present themselves.

Well when in a state of flow or when operating out of intrinsic motivation, people may be more likely to pursue opportunistic attacks. What's available now? Whereas extrinsic motivation, looking for a financial gain for example, or obligation to social groups you belong to, they'd be more targeted. More carefully planned out.

Also, the profile of the targeted organization is gonna influence the type of attack, especially if you're looking at it sort of for political purposes, or for financial gain. You're gonna look at the symbolic and financial significance of the organization. And also any sort of weaknesses that they may have in their organization. And this sort of then explains the different types of hacking that we see.

Your positive deviance, if you will, the whitehat hackers are probably gonna be operating perhaps more out of enjoyment-based interests and motivation.

Your hacktivists may be operating more out of community. They're obligation based intrinsic motivation.

Those who are motivated most by financial outcomes or gain, extremes of motivation, would be targeting organizations. And finding those that will maximize their outcomes. In all cases though, you can bring it back to expectancy value theory. Okay, they're attacking and they're performing a behavior striving for some goal based on the outcomes whether its enjoyment or financial gain.

And when they think that its likely there's a chance that they will attain value to outcomes whether they're intrinsic or extrinsic the motivation to hack will be quite high.

Quiz 1: Introduction to Cybercrime

1.

From the options below, select the two fundamental issues that make solving international cyber conflicts difficult?

Problems with attack attribution due to anonymous nature of Internet
Jurisdictional issues due to Internet transcending national boundaries
Technical difficulties in operating the Internet
All of the above



2.

Identify a recognized type of cyber crime from the following options.
Hacking
Extortion
Identity theft
Cyber bullying
Child soliciting and abuse
All of the above


3.

Which of the following could be an example of "positive deviance"? Select all that apply.
Testing security vulnerabilities of a security system
Stealing and selling intellectual property
Gaining unauthorized access to a computer
Threatening national security



4.

What types of hackers promote their political goals or ideas using non-violent hacking?
Hacktivists
Crackers
Black hat hackers
Cyber-punks



5.

What are the fundamental parameters of motivated behavior?
Intensity
Persistence
Direction
Initiation



6.

It is true to say that motivated behavior is __________.
More like a trait, varying based on personal characteristic
More like a state variable, varying from situation to situation



7.

Which of the hacking motives below is related to the psychological drive of mastery?
Ideology
Recognition
Financial gain
Challenge
Curiosity
None of the above



8.

Which of the outcomes below are driven by both internal/intrinsic and external/extrinsic motivations? Select all that apply.
Pride
Fun
Mastery
Monetary gain
Fame
Status
Self satisfaction



9.

What are some of the motives for hacking? Select all that apply.
Ideology
Greed
Challenge
Status
Curiosity
None of the above



10.

What does IP stand for?
Interest Protocol
Internal Packets
Internet Protocol
Internet Packets

Actors of Cybercrime

https://www.coursera.org/learn/cyber-conflicts/lecture/Qlu34/actors-of-cybercrime


In this module, we're gonna be looking at theories of human motivation, and how they may be used to explain cyber crime. Cyber crime is sort of a unique business, okay? The perpetrators or attackers, often operate in anonymity, and have low probability of being caught or detected.

Like many crimes,

those who perpetuate cyber crime do it for many different reasons, as we'll see. So it's not easy to lump all cyber criminals into one box and explain their behavior neatly. So we'll be looking at theories of human motivation that can explain the different types of cyber crime.

Let's start, first though, by looking at the behavior that we're trying to explain, all right? Cyber attacks occur in many different situations, many different contexts. Let's just use for now a look at hacking, because most cyber crime at some point deals with an individual attacking a computer network and on having unauthorized access to it. Cyber attack can be seen as deviance, but according to different perspectives, the term carries both positive and negative connotations.

When research first started on cyber criminals, there was a distinction made between black hat and white hat hackers. It's probably an old, outdated term, but it's useful to explain this difference between negative deviance and positive deviance. Negative deviance you can think of as your typical computer criminal. They can be national security threats, they're after intellectual property. They're gonna steal secrets and they're gonna sell information, things that we see as bad. Positive deviance refers to hackers who break into systems, unauthorized access to computer systems, but the intent is seen in more positive light. White hat hackers, initially portrayed themselves as pioneers of public access. They were the people who were arguing and keeping open source out there, keeping the Internet free for everybody. They would also be claiming to just test out the security of systems for organizations. So they would sort of break in. It's like the thief that comes into your house and leaves a note on your refrigerator and says, hey, your house is insecure. I didn't take anything, but I just wanna let you know that your house is insecure. Similar here in positive deviance. Breaking in, unauthorized access, but just testing out the security of systems. They see themselves as performing an important service. Many of us, or many people still this as deviance, but obviously it's not as negative as stealing secrets and selling them.  This distinction between positive and negative deviance carries over into the typologies of cyber attackers that have developed over the years. I have a list of them here. I'll run through them quickly. We have the old school hacker, these are the computer programmers primarily interested in lines of code, programming, and analyzing systems. For the most part, these are what are referred to as the white hat hackers. There's no malicious intent or criminal activity. However, you can also say that they aren't concerned about privacy or proprietary information. They also, as I mentioned before, are likely to believe that the Internet is an open system that should be used by all.

These actually were the first known hackers in the early 60s. These were computer programmers at MIT and Stanford.

Shortly after, as the Internet evolved I should say, you saw a different type of hacker occurring, and these are the cyber-punks, or what have been labeled cyber-punks. These are predominantly young males. They like to break things. Okay, they hack into systems to vandalize or disrupt.

They also like to brag about their accomplishments, which often gets them caught by authorities.

Another set of hackers, in fact these have been growing at a fast rate, are professional criminals. The term has been used crackers to refer to this set of attackers.

They break into systems to steal information and then sell it. They may be hired by governments, or they may be hired to do corporate spying. The idea is to get intellectual property or to get information and then to sell it.

There are also coders and virus writers. These are individuals with a strong programming background, they write code that others will use to create havoc or to break into systems. They tend to see themselves as the elite. They actually don't do the hacking but they write the code, and write the programs that allow others to do it. Finally, more recently in the last decade or so, you see an increase in activists and patriots.

The term hactivists that has been used for social activists who use the computer and use their hacking skills to promote their goals of their organization. They tend to be political and they see themselves as non-violent activism.

They see themselves as perhaps a tool against oppression. The group Anonymous, many of you are aware of them. That is perhaps the best example of this. Others however see them as cyber terrorists.

And then final group is patriots, these are the individuals that take action on the basis of nationalism or patriotism, sort of like defending their country. In a way, they could be the old codebreakers of World War II as an analogy. The point here is that there's a diverse set of actors out there, perpetuating these cyber crimes, or hacking.

And this diverse set of actors has different underlying motivation. So to fully understand the sets of actors and why they're doing what they're doing, we need a better understanding of motivated behavior.

Evolution and Types of Cybercrime

https://www.coursera.org/learn/cyber-conflicts/lecture/MeWFG/evolution-and-types-of-cybercrime


We've had a history of crime in this world. And all kinds of crime from murder to other capital crimes, to basically forgery and fraud. And basically, bullying, all of these are different kinds of crimes at different levels.

So, why is the internet important today? Why is cyber crime so important? What the cybercrime has done is, it has taken a lot of the crimes that we had in the street. And they have or given them another vector in which they can be coveted.

Cybercrime today is defined as a crime that utilizes computers and networks.

However, there are three distinct acts of crimes where the computer is a target, weapon, or just a facilitator.

In the first case, computer is a target. It involves activities such as theft, destruction, disruption of data services and software. In the second case, the computer is a weapon which involves using a computer to launch attacks such as cyberbullying, pornography, child pornography, spam, ect.

And in the third case, computer is a facilitator which involves supporting traditional crime such as robbery, murder, and terrorism, ect. Support of that crime, either through recruitment or through trying to find out what they can, learn about the victims, and using this for solicitation.

Cybercrime is generally considered as a regular crime with a new

in the internet, but it differs quite a bit. Well, the difference is the scale and the reach of the crime using automatic scanning tools and bots attacks can be launched across millions of peoples within minutes. And within hours, the entire globe could be covered with the same virus, worm, or anything else.

How did it evolve? Cybercrime really started as a hobby of bored computer scientists and young students, whose primary goal was to demonstrate their prowess and show their hacking abilities to the community of their peers. And if there were hacking groups, underground clubs, that provided support to these activities. And they were basically trying to outdo each other. Even though some of the attacks caused serious financial damage, the perpetrators seldom gained any financial remuneration from the attacks. And in most cases, the victims are random without any specific targets. However, since the 2000s, there had been a gradual shift towards more organized crime and criminal networks, rather than individual hackers.

Cybercrime has become big business. And as you can see from a spate of cybercrimes and the breaches that have happened recently. They are getting targeted toward companies which have deep financial pockets from which they can make money.

What are people using the cybercrime for? For stealing passwords. For stealing credit card numbers. For stealing financial information. So that they can actually benefit from this. There's a huge market out there where you can buy stolen credit card numbers. And to the extent that in case of credit card does not work or have been closed, you can actually get a refund back. So, it is a real business today.

There are several way in which cybercrime can occur. You know, one of the most attacks of information in which computer and networks have reached in order to collect information such as credit card, trade secrets, information about dissidence, and information involve large corporations where hackers break in by breaching security or from individual where hackers have it inside the organizations.

And they use all kinds of information like social engineering, phishing messages, just to con employees of organizations into revealing information that will allow them to break in. The second type of priming involves extortion, where criminal gangs breach the security and threaten to destroy the data and infrastructure. Or reveal private information in case hush or protection money is paid.

And the third involves fraud on the Internet, and this can take many forms. It usually involves providing false information to a specific individual or to the entire community. For instance, stock prices can be manipulated by fabricating positive or negative information, and then disseminating widely among market participants. And it has happened before. It has led to markets going up and going down, and specific stocks crashing.

Another part of crime is called Identity theft, in which, hackers can assume the entity of the victim and assume their persona on the internet to make online transactions. People have bought cars on other people's identities, they have run debts to hundred of thousands of dollars. And the problem becomes for the victim then to go and clear their name out, to get their credit history restored, and it's a horrendous problem. One key issue which is not really a part of traditional crime, a cybercrime that is considered today is media virus and distribution. This has always been a controversial topic with a societal divide on the culpability of the perpetrators and the morality of such practices. On one hand, people are offended by the greed and the ability to make money for the large corporations which are selling music. And on the other hand, we have the people who are objecting to this as a theft of information, theft of intellectual property.

And so given that this is such a prevalent means of getting music and other media, this is becoming a very societal and a social issue. In the long run, laws are created by the societal norms. And in this case, the societal norms seem to have changed. So, this is another thing that we'll discuss in depth and figure out where public opinion on this lies.

The cybercrime can also be classified based on sophistication of technique that are used, and can vary from highly technical to highly social. Technical crimes involve intruding into computers, the networks, and including phishing, identity theft, denial of service, spoofing attacks, manipulation of data services, or committing fraud. And the characteristics of these crimes include, generally, a singular or discrete event from the prospective of the victim.

And it's usually facilitated by malicious software such as keystroke loggers, bots, spyware viruses, backdoor, or trojan horses. These are all the means in which crime can be done.

But it can be facilitated by exploiting different vulnerabilities.

And the characteristics of the social crime include, generally, using legitimate tools such as forum social media, messaging applications and dating websites, and they are generally repeated contacts or events from prospect of the user. And the activities such as stalking, harassment, child predation, extortion, blackmail, complex corporate espionage, and cyberterrorism. All of these are a part of the social crime or the social way they literally can do crime.

And having talked about this, in the next segment, we will talk about the active motivations of cybercrime. How do we solve cybercrime and solve the International issues in cybercrime? Thank you. This is the end of the first module in lecture one.

Introduction to Cybercrime and Fundamental Issues

https://www.coursera.org/learn/cyber-conflicts/lecture/xndSq/introduction-to-cybercrime-and-fundamental-issues

Greetings, welcome to the International Cyber Conflicts course. Thank you all for participating in this course. We have students in this course from all around the world including the United States, India, Russia, China. This course is designed for discussing international cyber conflicts that have grown and intensified over the course of time, especially since 2000. 

As the Internet becomes inextricably integrated into the society, both for social interaction and business transactions, the stakes are getting higher for ensuring the continuity for the internet in its current form. However, the forces against it are attempting to split it and fragment it into pieces. There are two fundamental issues that make solving international conflicts difficult. The first, there is anonymity on the Internet and identities can be spoofed. Which means that people can hide behind the group of anonymity and commit crimes and other negative activities without revealing themselves to others. 

The second issue is that the Internet transcends national boundaries where as the laws are applicable within national boundaries and the Internet is across boundaries so somebody in China could be doing interaction with somebody in the United States. That makes enforcement of laws very difficult. 

So the citizens in one country can launch attacks while the victims can be citizens of another country making jurisdiction very difficult. The stakes are very high, countries are also jockeying to gain a strategic leverage on the Internet, both politically through treaties as well as through surveillance and intelligence gathering. 

And concerned by the impact that free flow of information can impact political stability, a lot of countries have started viewing Internet as a threat. Threat to the political order, threat to the society. And they have been propagating censorship and separation of the Internet. 

And the countries which feel that the information should be freely flowing on the Internet while other countries are opposing that in all international forums. 

Not only that, there are several international conflicts associated with the Internet. On a wide range of issues including governance of the Internet, cyber warfare, the censorship of information, and espionage. Remember, as these stakes on the Internet are growing, so are the concerns that the countries have. 

Internet has become a sphere of strategic warfare among countries that is figuring prominently in the military strategies, and companies are investing billions. On all of them is really driven by the increased dependence on the Internet, from controlling our armed forces, to trade, e-commerce, social communication. Everything relies on the Internet. We are in In some ways dependent on the Internet today. 

According to Forrester, the B2B commerce has exceeded $550 billion, and business-to-consumer commerce has already exceeded $250 billion. That's a huge amount of business transaction, and critical infrastructure is becoming increasingly dependent on the Internet. Now we have this smart grid, where we have our power grid on which we have an overlaid information technology grid. Which means that anybody who can break into the communication grid on the smart grid, will be able to disrupt the power supply on the country around the world. And now we are looking at connected vehicles, where we have vehicles communicating with each other both for collision avoidance and for communication. 

So, given the increased dependence, we need to be very careful and cautious in how we address some of these issues. 

Country that definitely jocking for supremacy on the Internet. 

So this class starts with the basic overview of information security and then is split into multiple teams. You know, we discussed a conflicts that arrive among nations related to cyber threats including cyber crime, cyber warfare, information censorship, media piracy, cyber espionage, critical infrastructure threat, and the control of the Internet. 

And then we go on to discuss efforts to improve cooperation among nations in cyber security, including treaties, confidence building measures, regional cooperation, the role of transnational bodies, such as the UN and the OSCE. 

And finally, we begin to understand the psychological factors in the cyber conflicts. Both, at an individual level and at international level. What is it that is prompting is that still the existence of the Cold War or the remnants of the Cold War that are coming through or are the new conflicts that are arriving in the modern age. 

And as we try to resolve some of these disputes on the internet, we need to start looking at the impediments that we have. And, for instance, if your looking at critical infrastructure threats, we need to find out who the enemies are, what their motivations are, and where they need to go next. 

And the course will deal all of the conflicts that we talked about including internet governance, cyber warfare, critical infrastructure, cyber espionage and the applicability of law that an international level including the law upon conflict. 

A key thing that is happening today Is that we're working on confidence-building measures in a lot of transnational bodies. We know that treaties are difficult so we are taking a step back and trying to build confidence before we go on to build treaties. And we are aiming for regional cooperation rather than having cooperation across the entire board, across the entire world. 

There are other related area that we will cover in this course as well, including copyright protection and the terrorist's use of the Internet. 

These are both important an they are being exploited in some countries for leverage against other countries. 

In topics such as these there is no right or wrong answer. They all depend on the perspective of the person analyzing them. So the goal of this class is going to be to explain the issues and create a free and fair discussion on the class participance. A moderated blog has been set up for class discussions to encourage student to discuss the issues. We hope that the issues will elicit a passionate debate amongst students, especially across different countries where opinions have been shaped based on norms and societal expectations. 

For instance, in some countries, it is okay to have some censorship but in other countries it's enigma to have censorship on the internet or anywhere else. 

And this course is designed for supporting a very large number of students literally hundreds of students across the world. And each class will have material online for students to absorb including short recorded segments form the instructors. 

Each class will also have recordings that accompany the lectures that the students are expected to read ahead of class. 

There will be a quiz at the end of each class to test the student competency in the material. 

The class is available to any student to take and students who need to get credit for the class will need to register for the class at the University at Albany State University of New York. Which has developed this class for a wide audience. 

For students who are taking this class for credit there will be assessments exclusively for those students. And the students who are not taking this for credit will not be allowed to take these assessments. Each lecture will have about four modules with 10 to 15 minutes of instructor video, and the rest of the material will be readings, cases and quizzes putting into the topic of the class. 

Students will be able to post questions for the instructor or other students in the class. And we hope that given the large number of students, a lot of the questions will be addressed by the students by answering each other. 

So the first lecture that we have covers one of the oldest problems, that of cyber crime. 

There are multiple issues that we talk about here including the evolution of cyber crime. Where did it start and where it is headed, the types of cyber crime that we have today, the actors and the motivations of cyber crime. 

And then what are the efforts in solving cyber crime including the laws that we have on cyber crime. And then we talk about some international issues in cyber crime that we have to resolve. And each of this again will be 10-15 minutes of instructor presentation and then associated readings. Students are expected to listen to the lectures, study from the readings, and then work on the international cyber crime case as part of the overall learning for this specific lecture. 

There will be quizzes at the end of this class, which is really for students to make sure they've understood the material, rather than for evaluation.