Introduction to Computer

1. Introduction to Computer What is Information Technology? It is the use of computers & software to manage information. In some companies, this is referred to as “Management Information System” (or MIS) or simply as “Information System” (or Is).

2. Developments of Information Technology • In the 1960’s & 1970s, the term information technology (IT) was a little known phrase that was used by those who worked in places like banks & hospitals to describe the processes they used to store information. • In the early days of computer development, there was no such thing as a college degree in IT. • Great technological advances have been made since the days when computers were huge pieces of equipment that were stored in big, air condition rooms, getting information from punch cards.

3. Information Technology Companies With the rapid pace of technological development, many companies feel overwhelmed by the need for reliable, secure information services for themselves and their customers. This means trying to ensure customers satisfaction & build relationships w/ the customers, rather than simply doing the work as quickly as possible & billing the customer w/o further communication.

4. Business Information Technology Is becoming special trend in the society where an individual is trained to adept at business and IT, and to bridge the gap between the two. The concept is applicable across all business domains such as accounting, economics and marketing.

5. Information Systems Are environments that intend to provide the most accurate, up-to-date, and relevant information to individuals within a particular system. Information systems capitalize on the advantages and hardware combination that hope to create the most efficient environment for sharing information.

6. Elements of a Computer System Users(or people ware) Hardware Software Data Procedures Types of Computers Desktop Computers Laptop, Notebooks & Netbooks Servers Mainframes & Supercomputers Other types of computers: (Tablet Computers, Mobile phones, Game consoles, Internet-enabled television, Embedded computers) Common uses of the Computer In Home use In business organization In education field In medical field In industry In computer science

7. On Saturday, December 1st, 2012 Philippine internet registrar dotPH was hacked and as a result the largest Philippine website, Sulit.com.ph, was unavailable for several hours. Hacktivist group Anonymous Iligan claimed the hack, which used a well-known exploit possibly giving anyone access to the dotPH domain control panel for users.The hack was discovered by a worm which dates back to as early as 1998. Local classifieds site Sulit.com.ph became the cross-fire victim of the hack, as the Anonymous hacktivists switched the DNS settings for the site to another URL, to enforce their claim on the severity of the dotPH vulnerability. This could also have been done for other URLs such as Google.com.ph or Microsoft.com.ph, such is the severity of the security vulnerability. dotPH is the sole Philippine country domains registrar, a privately owned monopolist which only allows other internet URL providers in the Philippines to act as a reseller.Domain resellers do not have the opportunity to build their own DNS control panel, with extra features, since dotPH requires all services offered to be functional with its own feature set[1]. dotPH only offers its users a limited feature set, a feature set severely lacking in options and security[2]. A feature set not updated to 2012 and certainly not prepared to protect in an era where everything online can be hacked and worldwide active hacktivist collectives such as Anonymous. We reached out to Anonymous Iligan, who confirmed us the hack and said they were surprised by the security threat posed by the exploit. AnoymousIliganmembersouljagirl also claimed there was no malicious or commercial agenda, beyond ‘hacking for fun’ and exposing poor security to system administrators. They confirmed it would be very easy for them to hack and change the nameserver settings for all domains registered under dotPH. The exploit was discovered by using a worm which dates back to as early as 1998, and was an accidental discovery, not a planned hack of dotPH. dotPH, who promote themselves as being local and quickly accessible to its users, thanks to their local presence was not available during the hack since its office was closed over the weekend and normal operation would resume on Monday, December 3, 2012.

8. As of writing the exploit has not been patched yet, nor has dotPH released an official statement concerning the hack and its security settings.  Update: Read the reply of Emil Avancena, of dotPH, as lef tin the comments and on other articles about the issue, at the end of the post. dotPH is not a stranger to controversy and was caught in a battle with the (now defunct) Commission on ICT in 2005, when the CICT threatened to ask ICANN to revoke dotPH’s control rights on the country’s top level domains. And of course there is still the debate about the prices commanded by the webhoster, and Philippines registrar. A long standing issue too and a price still the same as in 2000, at $35,00/year per domain.Complaints about unfair administration of .ph domains go much further back. After yesterday’s hack, and considering the poor features for the most important external point for local webmasters: their URL, and the local presence of the monopolist that is dotPH we need to consider whether dotPH is armed, and the right partner, to help the local internet and technopreneurship evolve in our fast moving era and with the explosive economical growth the Philippines have seen in recent months. Is dotPH the partner we internet professionals want to power, and control, the Philippine top level domains? Should ICANN intervene or can dotPH restore confidence? I’m sure everyone can live with the ridiculously expensive price commanded by dotPH if at least we receive a service worth paying and features and domain control options updated to the times and era we live in rather than a company which delivers poor to no service, nor publicly communicates with its customers in times of security breaches. Update: Sulit.com.ph was also hacked in 2008. Again the hack was due to a dotPH issue. Update 2: Emil Avancena, of dotPH, replies to the issue (a comment also left on other articles about the issue). “dotPHis conducting an extensive security check and will release information as it becomes available.” And the longer version as left on the Sulit post about the hack.

10. References - Business IT for students - Internet Security Case that happened in the Philippines: http://thebobbery.com/philippine-internet-registrar-dotph-hacked-sulit-com-ph-cross-fire-victim/  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  -  - 