Introduction!

Hello! and welcome to my blog, I have undertook some research and put together a blog which will help you understand factors which may affect the performance of a website! If you are getting frustrated or annoyed about waiting ages for a webpage to load, your answer could be right here! This blog is split into 5 different sections that you will find are on the right hand side of the blog, by viewing the blog pages in this order will help to improve your understanding of factors which may affect website performance:
1) Serverside
2) Userside
3) Security risks
4) Security protection mechanisms
4) Cases of security breaches

Cases of security breaches!

• Hackers:

MAFIA BOY DAMAGES TOP LEADING WEBPAGES!

What was the threat?
The threat which occurred in this scenario was that in 2001 17 year old named Mafiaboy committed a criminal act which cause a tremendous $1.7bn in damages. The criminal act that Mafia boy had done was that he severely damaged major sites, and he admitted that he was involved in several attacks against websites which belonged to different companies

What was the impact?
The impact of this threat was that Mafiaboy had affected the websites of major companies such as Amazon, Yahoo, Dell and Ebay. These sites were bombarded with over thousands of occurring messages which stopped users from accessing the websites for over 5 hours!  This impacted the websites hugely as users were unable to make purchases or view information that they needed to get hold of through these websites, therefore there were loses which were made to companies such as Amazon and Ebay as users were unable to go on the website to purchase items. 
 
How was the issue resolved?
Mafiaboy was sentenced to 8 months in a youth detention centre for the crimes he had commited.

Source: 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1541252.stm

15-YEAR OLD ADMITS HACKING NASA COMPUTERS!

What was the crime?

A crime was commited by a youngster aged only 15 years old! As he hacked the NASA computers causing them to shut down for 21 days, this caused massive distruption as the computers helped to support the international space station. The 15 year old also  invaded a Pentagon weapons computer system to intercept 3,300 e-mails, steal passwords and cruise around like an employee.

What was the impact?

The impact which this caused was tremendous as "NASA responded by shutting down the computers for 21 days to determine the extent of the attack at a cost of $41,000 in contractor labor and replaced equipment." 

This therefore meant that the foolishness of the 15 year old led to a high amount of money being needed in order to replace equipment for the computer network to be operated again. 

How was the issue resolved?

 The 15 year old pleaded guilty to a juvenile deliquency and had been sentenced to ix months in a state detention facility. He became the first young hacker to be incarcerated for computer crimes, the Justice Department in Washington said in a summary. 

“Breaking into someone else’s property, whether it’s a robbery or a computer intrusion, is a serious crime,” said Attorney General Janet Reno.

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=119423
 
Identity Theft: 

 ABRAHAM ABDALLAH ATTEMPTS IDENTITY THEFT!

What was the crime?

Abraham Abdallah, aged 32 admitted to stealing the identities of America's most richest people to attempt to raid their bank accounts. Abraham used the internet in order to attempt this, he also used a magazine rich list which he used to gain personal data for over 200 people, which included well known famous people such as  film director Steven Spielberg and chat show host Oprah Winfre. 

What was the impact?
The impact of this crime was huge as Abdallah had gained confidential information of famous people and was using the details without their consent. This affected the celebrities of which Abraham Abdallah attempted to raid their bank accounts and steal the money, as they could of had millions of pounds taken away from them if Abdallah was successful at committing this crime.

How was the issue resolved?
The way in which this issue was resolved was that Abraham was taken to court as he did attempt to steal over £14m however was largely unsuccessful but he did please guilty to wire, credit card and identity theft fraud in court. Prosecutors believed that Abraham could of been sent to prison for 11 years for the crime he had committed.

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2298661.stm 

SONY PICTURES ENTERTAINMENT HACK:

What was the crime?

Confidential data was hacked by the "Guardians of Peace" or "GOP" from Sony Pictures Entertainment, this data belong to the company and included personal information about Sony Pictures employees and their families, e-mails between employees, information about executive salaries at the company, copies of unreleased Sony films, and other information.  The demand from the hackers was that they wanted the release of the film ‘The Interview’ to be cancelled as this was about a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un; it was reported by US intelligence offers that the attack was sponsored by North Korea. However, North Korea has denied all responsibility, and some cybersecurity experts have proposed that current or former Sony employees may have been involved in the hack.

What was the impact?

The impact of the Sony Pictures hacking attack was huge as private data not only about employees but also celebrity has been leaked. For example, celebrity gossip and embarrassing details about Hollywood and film industry business affairs have been hacked and this included private email messages, released by the computer criminals. Among the information revealed in the e-mails was that Sony CEO Kazuo Hirai pressured Sony Pictures co-chairwoman Amy Pascal to "soften" the assassination scene in the upcoming Sony film The Interview.

Has the issue been resolved?

As the hacking attack by GOP has just happened there has been no final outcome on the situation. However in December 2014, Sony requested that the media stop covering the hack and they also threatened legal action if the media did not conform. In addition to this, Sony then threatened legal action against Twitter if it did not suspend accounts of people who posted the hacked material. These threats can result to legal action being made against anyone who attempts to release the data.

KEVIN DAVID MITNICK

Kevin David Mitnick has been seen as a threat to public companies as he is an American computer security consultant and a hacker. Mitnick hacked into public companies to steal confidential information that was only for the use of the business. He had a record from the age of 15, as he used social engineering to bypass the punch card system used in LA bus systems, this allowed him to have free bus rides at no expense to himself.

Shortly after this act, at the age of 16 Mitnick gained unauthorized access to a computer network called DEC and then used their software to copy exactly what they had. Not only did he do this to one company but he carried on doing it to several companies by gaining access and stealing files. This act was ongoing for several years as David Mitnick didn’t ever get caught as no major damage had occurred but he carried on harassing companies for many years.

After all the events that did occur by Mitnick he was given a prison sentence of 12 months and three years supervised release, however towards the end of the three years release Mitnick commited another hack as he hacked into pacific bell voice mail computers. As a result of this hack he had done he was given a prison sentence for another two and a half years.

Security protection mechanisms

Introduction:
In order to keep your information and your desktop machine safe, there are several security protection mechanisms that will help minimize the risks a crime occuring such as identity theft but most importantly all the information you input into your websites or onto your desktop machine will be kept safe! On this page you will find ways in which you can help prevent yourself from security risks and be aware of what steps you can take to ensure you have a high level of security on your machine.

Firewall:

Firewall is part of a network  which is designed purely to block unauthorized access (this could be done through hacking)  Firewall is a device, which is used to reject or allow network  transmissions; if someone was to have there own web company it is crucial that they have firewall as this will help prevent a virus spreading throughout the network;  so if one computer is to become infected it won’t spread to the rest.

CLICK HERE: to understand fully how firewalls work!!

Secure socket layers (SSL):

A SSL provides communications security over the internet, one main function which Secure Socket Layers encrypt are different sections of network connections, this is done by using a keyed message authentication code to ensure message reliability. In order to make customers feel secure when giving there details, websites should have a certificate to ensure customers that they are a secure website.

Digital certificate:

A digital certificate is basically a electronic passport, that allows a computer, person or a organization to swap information over the internet securely.  In the same way of how a passport provides identifying information, so does a digital certificate, the certificate contains several pieces of information – such as:

• The name of the certificate holder
• A serial number 
•  Expiration dates 
• A digital signature - so that a recipient can verify that the certificate is real.

Legal Considerations:

Data Protection Act:

The Data Protection Act 1998 provides a structure to ensure that when personal information is captured it is stored and handled correctly. This also means that individuals have the right to know about any information that is store about them; the Data Protection Act 1998 works in two ways; any individual that provides personal information must register with the DPA registrar and meet the terms of the eight principles.

Computer Misuse Act: 

The Computer Misuse Act was introduced in 1990; under this law there are offences that are stated, these offences can not be broken by any individual as that certain individual would be in breach of the Computer Misuse Act. This act involves the use of computers; one of the offences that is stated under this act is that no one can use unauthorised access to gain access into a computer or private data – one way in which people do tend to gain access is through using someone else’s user ID and password. For anyone to gain unauthorized access this is seen as a serious crime. The Computer Misuse Act 1990, was basically mainly introduced to protect people who have had there information hacked/damaged or stolen by people who misuse the purpose of computers for personal use or fun.

Security Risks

Introduction:
Have you ever been in a situation when you have come across a fake email from a company you know but not able to recognize the difference?... This could be phishing!! Read this page to see the security risks which could occur!!

Hacking:

Hacking is what refers to the access of a un-

Beware of the hacker!!!

authorized user making changes to a system without any consent. If a website becomes hacked this may cause several issues, for example – the hacker will be able to see all the users customer details or confidential information such as bank details – when a website has been hacked, the hacker can provide false information to all the users who use the website!

Pagejacking:

This is the procedure of illegally copying genuine website content to a different website, which is designed purely for the purpose to replicate the original website.

Phishing:

Phishing is the sending of fake emails in the form of reputable companies to customers/clients to get them to reveal personal information such as passwords and credit card numbers, online.

Viruses:

If a users website becomes infected with a virus, this will cause a major security risk as it will mean that not only will the users computer be affected but also the end user who is viewing the website, there may also be effects to the website e:g – it may freeze continuously or not respond.

Identity theft:

ID theft is a type of fraud method which involves using a individuals identity, this would be done to gain access of resources,  or to make a claim. When being on the internet this is very dangerous as some people do share their details on several different websites, thinking that it is secure and that other members of the public wont be able to access it; however, it  is fairly easy to retrieve this information in some cases, as ID theft is mostly done through the use of the internet.

User Side

Userside factors can be reasons for why your upload speed or internet connection may not be as fast as you want it to be! On this page you are able to explore different reasons for why some userside factors effect the performance of your website. Userside factors refer to the client who is using the website, but not the person who has created it - therefore this could refer to the components such as there Wifi provider, and software (Browser used) that the client uses.

Connection speed:
Dial up: This is a temporary internet connection, that is made over telephone lines by dialling a internet providers number.    

Broadband: This is a form of digital communication technology in transfers data fast.

Mobile broadband: This term relates to wireless internet access to a portable device such as a mobile phone, tablet, or any other modern device.  

Wi-Fi: This term also relates to Wireless Fidelity, and this provides a internet connection to the local area.

Internet Browsers:

There are several different browsers, which have different speeds, the main ones are Internet Explorer, Google chrome. Google chrome is thought to be better than Internet explorer as it is much faster.

Internet Speed:

The speed of how fast your internet is will determine how quick websites load up, if the internet speed is slow this will take longer for information to receive the computer. In addition to this, the speed of internet connection will determine how fast the connection is as some internet providers do have faster download speed than other providers, so some users may have quicker access to websites then others depending on who there provider is.

RAM:

RAM is another factor that may influence website performance, this is because if a computer contains a small amount of RAM the computer will take longer to make temporary space for the website, this will therefore making it slower to upload the website. However, if the users computer has a large RAM space this will mean that less time is needed to the website as there is already cache space for the web files.

Server Side

Having problems with your Internet? Fed up of waiting for a long period of time for your webpage to load? This could be due to a variety of sever side issues affecting the website performance, below are different sever side issues that could be the reason for why you may be having problems with your Internet! Server side issues are to do with the host or how the website has been composed. 

Server storage space: 

This term refers to the amount of storage space a server has for a website, if the storage space is not large enough then the user will not be able to store the website.
Facebook - the content of what is on the website
the database should have the capacity to allow users to sign up

Bandwidth limitations

Bandwidth limitations refer to much data can be sent/received through the connection that the user holds. A user will need to pay a web host to purchase space on a server, however this will come at an expense and will the cost may vary per month. An example of this may be for £30 per month you receive 200GB, however if this amount of gigabyte is exceeded the website will shut down; this may happen if the website has a lost of traffic. If a plan that you take out doesn’t offer unlimited bandwidth it will cost a lot of money to have a business on a website that holds several pages. Not having sufficient amount of bandwidth will result in the website being shut down and removed from search engines which would be a disadvantage to the users business.

An alternative for users that users who are part of a large organisation may be to purchase a T1 line. The T1 line can handle several more users on it when compared to a normal modem, and it can handle up to hundreds of users for general browsing. If a companies financial position is stable they are most likely to choose this option instead of going for web hosts, however some companies wouldn’t be able to offer a T1 line therefore go with unlimited bandwidth packs provided by web hosts.

Pages with too many scripts:

A page which has too much scripts on it will not be able to open, this may then lead to the  information being displayed slowly as the webpage will take a long time too load up. The reason for why this page does not open is because the page scripts contain too much data to control on the server. For example: If you were to log into Facebook, a database would check the server side which would lead to a script being run - this would check your username and password to ensure that you are a registered user.

Website content:

• Images: (There are two type of images, bitmaps and vectors!)

Vector Image!

The difference between a bitmap and vectors are that bitmaps are made up of pixels – so this would be real life photos! But vectors use shapes and lines; this refers to cartoon like photos. Vector images can be rescaled and resized and the original quality of the image remains.

• Sounds: The two formats of sound are WAV and MP3

WAV -  This is a audio file format which is in the form of a Microsoft file.

MP3 – is an type of technology that allows a music or audio file to be compressed down into a very small amount of space and transferred onto a device e:g – mobile phone.

• Animations:

Animations are a illusion of movement which is presented in a film or a short clip, this is done through a technique of photography where drawings or the positioning of puppets create movement. An animation file size tends to be large, this therefore means that if the user was to publish their animation on a website the storage space would have to be fairly big, because if there isn’t enough storage space the end receiving user will not be able to view the web page.

The type of website content that is displayed on a website will depend how quick and effectively the web page is displayed. For example if a web page is full of textual information it will display quicker than a web page that is full of videos and pictures.