Journal Entry #1: Computer Use Policy

In the first week of taking this course, we discussed the Computer Use Policy. After going over the nine rules, we were instructed to write a little skit that talked about one of the policies, and quite frankly, ours did not turn out that well. Which is not the writers fault! Definitely not. Even the thought is bizarre, isn't it?

Our group decided to use Policy Four (hacking) as our inspiration, and since bickering is our favourite and most frequently done past time, we didn't get to finish. I took it home over the weekend though, and we presented (messed up) on that following Monday.  In a nutshell, it was about a student who was going to hack into Facebook under another students name, and he debated with himself whether or not it was the best thing to do. He ended up doing it anyway, and the other student was suspended for violating the computer policies.

We selected this specific policy because it was something interesting and easy to work with. There is a lot you can do with hacking, from hacking into Facebook to hacking into the Pentagon and starting World War Three. It was just an easy topic to come up with a skit idea in a short period of time, and it could easily be understood.

Besides the bickering and the two know-it-alls constantly debating, I think the group worked fairly well. We are all friends and hang out together a lot more often than I would sometimes like, so we were comfortable with each other and got a long better than we might have if we didn't.

I think policy five (computer viruses) and policy seven (spam) are kind of interesting, or at least as interesting as computer policies can possibly get.  The sending of computer viruses can range from teasing to deadly. Some viruses are designed to steal passwords and identities, and that can cause major problems, while others just cause your computer to act up until you can get rid of it. The same with the sending of spam. Some people can take it a lot more serious than others, and it too can cause problems.

I think all of the policies are equally important, but we chose policy four because it can easily become bigger than hacking into Facebook. Lives and people's identities can even be at risk when big name companies are hacked, and when government files are attempted to be accessed. It is a lot more serious than what some people believe, and it is usually never thought of as people go out their day-to-day lives. Remember when Snapchat's server files were leaked? That can happen a lot more after than most people think.