Sunday, July 5, 2020

Explanatory Speech Cyber Crime - Free Essay Example

Introduction (Approximately 1min.) Attention Getter: Have you or someone you know gotten a call from IRS asking for money? They may start to threaten you that you will go to jail. If so, it is very likely that it is scammer. Background and Audience Relevance: According to The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) report in March 6, 2018, there have been over 12,716 victims that fell for IRS phone scams and paid more than $63 million since October 2013. These people are unaware that IRS officials do not call their client for confidential information through a phone call. They will always mail to taxpayer and they will never threaten to arrest the taxpayer for not paying taxes. This is just one example of cybercrime. With more advanced technology, this will result the online community to be more dangerous. Since technology is becoming an important part of us, it is crucial that we know how to protect ourselves from cybercrime. Speaker Credibility: As a Cyber Security Engineering major, I am here to inform you about the most common cyber-crimes that is happening around us and how common it is to be the victim of cyber-attacks. Thesis: In this speech, you will learn about three common types of cybercrimes, which are phishing, hacking and identity theft. Preview of Main Points: First, I will talk about phishing and different types of phishing attacks. Second, I will discuss about hacking and how someone can become a victim. Finally, I will talk about identity theft and how it impacts an individual and other online company. Transition to first main point: To get started, I am going to talk about what phishing is and different types of phishing attacks. Body (Approximately 3 ?-5 ? mins.) A. Main Point 1: Phishing is a fraudulent way of getting confidential information from the user through email. These emails are written so eloquently that it can trick anyone if you dont look carefully. 1. Sub point 1: There are multiple kinds of attacks caused by phishing. Some includes Deceptive attacks, Malware attacks and DNS-based attacks. Deceptive attacks are when the users are asked to give out their personal information in the scam messages. Malware attacks is when malware is downloaded after opening the email. DNS-based attack is when users look up websites, but it will redirect to an unsafe website. Based on the book, Phishing and Counter-Measures, published in 2006 by Markus Jakobsson and Seven Myers, the author stated that most scammers send the call to action email and tell the user that there is something wrong with their information and ask them to click on the fraudulent website to correct their information. 2. Sub point 2: In December 2015, the Intel created a quiz to see if the users can distinguish the phishing emails with safe emails. Out of 19,458, majority of them of choose at one of the phishing emails and only 3% of them got all correct. This suggest that it is very difficult to find the difference between spam email and original company email. scammers will use phishing emails to have user click on it to get to access to the computer. 3. Sub point 2: Transition (summary, signpost, preview): Now that you learned about the different types of phishing. I will now move onto my next points, which will cover different types of cybercrime which is hacking. Main Point 2: Hacking is when someone goes into another persons computer without the permission of the owner and get in the server by damaging the weakest point of the operating system. This can result the leak of confidential information. 1. Sub point 1: The three types of hackers are white hat hacker, grey hat hacker and black hat hacker. White hat hackers are cyber security specialists, who work on advancing their security system to make cyberspace a safe place for users. Grey hats hackers are also cyber security experts, but they may sometimes, go against the laws or try unethical approach to improve the protection of user. Black hats are hackers who practice unethical way to get into server by attacking and damaging the server for their personal gain. 2. Sub point 2 According to Professor Fonash, a Cyber Security Professor in George Mason University and worked with National Security Association stated in September 21, 2018 that one of the big issues with regulation with hacking is that each country has their own laws and regulations for cybercrime. In some cases, nations like third world countries do not have any strict laws. So, one way to deal with cybercrime is by having consistent laws internationally. He also suggested that to be in safe in internet, one should be careful and not provide lots information about their personal life in social media. Another best way to secure yourself in internet is by having unique password of your confidential information. It should be long with special characters but must be personal to you. Due to the increasing population of users, the cyberspace more dangerous place so, having unique password is important. Transition (summary, signpost, preview): Now that we talked about hacking and ways to deal with it, let move on to our final points, which is about identity theft and how it impacts the victim and the third party. B. Main Point 3: Identity theft is when someone steal your personal information to have financial gain or something that will profit them. 1. Sub point 1: Most common information that identity theft steal, bank information, your social security number or simple thing as your email. Then, they make an account or service such as telephone service or bank account under the victims name. The worst part of this is sometimes, the victim does not even realize that they are victim of identity theft until they apply for loan or paying new house. 2. Sub point 2: Not only does it affect the consumer, but it also has impact on the online company because consumers are less likely to trust them and make them avoid making any transaction online. In long run, people are going to stop making any purchase due to suspicion. 3. Transition and signal closing: Now that I have covered all my main points, let wrap thing up Conclusion (Approximately 30 seconds-1 minute) Restate Thesis: By listening to this speech, hopefully everyone here will now have a deeper understanding of the cybercrime and how it does not only affect famous people, but it affects ordinary people like us. Review Main Points: In this speech, we learned about cybercrime and three common cybercrimes, which are phishing, hacking and identity theft. We also learned about the ways we can protect ourselves in virtual world. Memorable Closer: So next time, when you get a call from IRS or any government officials that ask for personal information or money, you can simply hang up the phone. References Global Issues in Context. (2018). Hacking. Retrieved from https://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?resultListType=RELATED_DOCUMENTsearchType=tsuserGroupName=mcle14741_einPS=truecontentSegment=prodId=GICdocId=GALE|CP3208520475it=r IR-2018-40. (2018, March). Phone scams pose serious threat; Remain on IRS Dirty dozen list of tax scams. Retrieved from https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/phone-scams-pose-serious-threat-remain-on-irs-dirty-dozen-list-of-tax-scams Jakobsson, M., Myers, S. (2007). Phishing and countermeasures: understanding the increasing problem of electronic identity theft. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience. Morgan, S. (2017). Cyber crime damages $6 trillion by 2021. Cybersecurity Ventures. Schupak, A. (2015, May 12). Majority of americans fall for email phishing scams. CBS News.

Wednesday, July 1, 2020

Women and Their Downfall Feminism in Midaq Alley - Literature Essay Samples

Naguib Mahfouz’s novel, Midaq Alley, is a story about a group of people living in an alley in Egypt in the 1940’s. Already, from that description, the reader can see that the women of this tale have a significant disadvantage in equality. Surprisingly enough, the women prove to be very strong, independent, and powerful, despite the novel’s setting and time. But, is that altogether true? There are many instances where the women rise above and take things for themselves when they want it. They beat their husbands, call the men out on their sins, swindle their way toward a higher rank, and try to escape the reality of their alley life, yet, no matter their dominance, they are always defeated or put back in their place by the male characters of the book. Midaq Alley is a representation of feminism in the 1940’s, signifying that even in a male-led society in Africa, women can and will do what it takes to be equal, or, in a sense, be the dominant sex. Women have powerful attributes that allow them to do this, but, in the end, their powers turn out to be their own downfall, because it is still a male-led society. Midaq Alley entails the stories of many people living in the alley, but, arguably, the main focus is on the character of Hamida, an independent and ambitious young woman living with her foster mother. She is described as a very pretty girl with â€Å"black, beautiful eyes, the pupils and whites of which contrasted in a most striking and attractive way.† (Mahfouz 14). Yet, â€Å"†¦she could take on an appearance of strength and determination which was most unfeminine.† (Mafouz 14). It is very evident that the narration of Hamida’s beauty is written from a male perspective, drawing out the way Hamida uses or, perhaps to state it more clearly, does not use her femininity to prove her feminist way. In his article, â€Å"Narrating the marginalized Oriental female: silencing the colonized Subaltern,† Saddik Gohar states that â€Å"Even in episodes in which [Hamida] was given focus, the readers see her through the spectacles of the male imperial narrator em bodying the voice of the author or via the eyes of the male characters in the novel† (Gohar 52). Already we can see how Hamida’s sexually pleasing attributes sway the narrator and the male character’s even before she begins her journey or proves the descriptions we see of her. As an established beautiful and strong woman in this alley, Hamida’s story is revealed. She has a difficult time finding a husband that suits her independent ways and desire for wealth above love and affection. She longs to marry for riches, and she hates the idea of the domestic life of raising children. â€Å"†¦the most commonly said thing about her was that she hated children and that this unnatural trait made her wild and totally lacking in the virtues of femininity† (Mahfouz 22). She wants to see the world, but the only way she can think of following her dreams is to marry a rich man. In this era and location, that truly is her only escape. She wishes she had been ed ucated as a young child like the Jewish women in her town, but, â€Å"her age and ignorance had deprived her of their opportunities† (Mahfouz 22). According to Sheridene Barbara Oersen, in her thesis essay from the University of the Western Cape, the feminist movement of western culture was just spreading its wings toward the East, announcing that women are capable of receiving a proper education. It soon became policy, but in Oersen’s words, â€Å"government policy and societal beliefs are seldom harmonious and most families did not see the necessity of having their daughters educated. The crucial aspect of raising a girl was to ensure that she would make a good wife, and because Hamida is from the poorest class of society, she has not been afforded the opportunity of a basic education† (Oersen 62). Because of Hamida’s independence and unfeminine-like attitude, she soon realizes that she can take her life into her own hands. When she is discussing marriage with her mother, she says, I am not the one who is chasing marriage, but marriage is chasing me. I will give it a good run, too!† (Mahfouz 15). This indicates that she feels trapped in a situation that she wants to get out of. She feels as if she is above the alley and the people that live there. She first reluctantly accepts a proposal from Abbas, the barber, after he promises to get a job outside the alley, but later in the book, she finds other means of escaping her alley prison. She, and other women in the book, escape their plights by using their cunning deception and sexual charm. Hamida, when starting her love affair with Abbas, finds ways to manipulate the man so she can get what she desires. She deceives the one that actually loves her, because she knows he won’t give her the wealth and adventure she longs for. She forces him into leaving the place he enjoys living in and to becoming a man he wasn’t meant to be. Stephanie Hasenfus puts it quite simply in her article, â€Å"Destroy or Be Destroyed: Contending with Toxic Social Structures in Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley.† She states, â€Å"[Hamida] transforms marriage into a tactical endeavor from which she hopes to maximize potential luxury in her life† (Hasenfus 99). Hamida does this by purposefully displaying her beauty and comparing herself to other women. According to the text: â€Å"She was well aware of her attire; a faded cotton dress, an old cloak and shoes with timeworn soles. Nevertheless, she draped her cloak in such a way that it emphasized her ample hips and her ful l and rounded breasts. The cloak revealed her trim ankles, on which she wore a bangle; it also exposed her black hair and attractive bronze face† (Mahfouz 21-22). And, â€Å"She walked along with her companions, proud in the knowledge of her beauty, impregnable in the armor of her sharp tongue, and pleased that the eyes of passersby settled on her more than on the others† (Mahfouz 23). Hamida is not only a beautiful girl with an unfeminine attitude, but she also knows how to attract men with these attributes. Hasenfus powerfully acknowledges this by saying, â€Å"For Hamida, remaining single inevitably means letting old age steal her beauty while she remains stranded in the alley. She recognizes that her beauty is her only advantage, her only source of power. Her beauty allows her to seduce men, and thereby, to control them† (Hasenfus 99). Along with sexual charm, women have other ways of proving themselves superior to men in the novel. Beauty is a strong asset used to dominate, but being able to tactfully use it as a ruse for the ultimate goal requires cunning and deceptive strength. In Hamida’s story, we already know that she is independent, strong, and deceptive with one goal in mind: to marry a man outside of the alley that has riches beyond compare. Hasenfus explains while describing Hamida’s goals and modernity of her ways that â€Å"in this forward-thinking fashion, she transforms marriage into a tactical endeavor from which she hopes to maximize potential luxury in her life† (Hasenfus 99). It is no mystery how Hamida cunningly deceives the men around her. Her beauty is used in a clever display of her dominance. Abbas is determined to marry her, and, because of her desire for riches, he feels obligated to leave the alley to work for the British Army though he is quite content with how things are. In the novel, Hamida is only interested in his proposed idea of working in the war to gain mo re money, and â€Å"if he were successful he could certainly provide some of the things she craved. A disposition like hers, no matter how rebellious and unmanageable, could be pacified and tamed with money† (Mahfouz 46). Hamida is a prime example of a woman using deception to get what she wants, but she is not the only woman in the alley. Yet another woman uses tact to reach her goal, despite her increasing age. Miss Afify and Umm Hamida trick a younger man into marrying Miss Afify by buying her gold teeth and giving the man a younger picture of herself. Miss Afify is an aging widow that recently decided to marry once again. The text does not specify exactly why she has decided this, but Oersen, has an astounding way of looking at it. She says, â€Å"It appears that over the years, Mrs Saniyya Afify has found herself increasingly isolated from society. Despite her wealth, she has no social status because she is an unmarried woman.† (Oersen 57). This makes a lot of sense when looking at women at the time. Women in that time and place could be very rich and prosperous, but without being married, they lack the title of a prosperous individual. A title comes with a man, so, to have a high place in society, a woman must be married. Sadly, Oersen relays that, â€Å"Through the character of Mrs Afify, it can be assumed that even wealth and the many political changes in favour of women are not enough to crush traditional societal mores† (Oersen 58). Saniyya Afify achieves this marriage a comical and unconventional way, however. Because she lacks her youthful beauty, she and Umm Hamida come up with a plan to deceive the match Umm Hamida found for her. The two begin by discussing the man and his job and wealth. Then Umm Hamida says that he wanted a picture of Miss Afify, to which this dialogue takes place: The widow fidgeted and her face blushed as she said, Why, I havent had my picture taken in a long time. Dont you have an old photo? She nodded toward a picture on the bookcase in the middle of the room. Umm Hamida leaned over and examined it carefully. The photo must have been more than six years old, taken at a time when Mrs. Afify still had some fullness and life in her. She looked at the picture then back at its subject. A very good likeness. Why, it might have been taken only yesterday. May God reward you generously, sighed Mrs. Afify. Umm Hamida put the photograph, with its frame, into her pocket and lit the cigarette offered her (Mahfouz 64). Not only are they giving the man an old photo of Miss Afi fy, but Umm Hamida also tells him that she is in her 40’s and not the late 50’s age she is. Along with this deception, Mrs. Afify buys a set of golden teeth to cover the fact that her teeth have been rotting and falling out with her age. For her part, Hamida not only deceives Abbas in the beginning, cunningly sending him off to make riches for herself, but also deceives him later after she becomes a prostitute. Gohar says that â€Å"when she encountered Abbas in part thirty-two, she cunningly moved him against Farag in order to get rid of both males according to critical allegations† (Gohar 56). Hamida wishes to get out of her situation, yet, she is disgusted by the thought of going back to the alley and living with Abbas for the rest of her life. Her deceptive strength takes a hold of her, and she, once again, brings Abbas to doing something he would never do. Hussain tries to warn Abbas, and being like a brother to Hamida, he can see through her beauty and deception. Oersen says, Hussain’s reaction is harsh but completely in line with traditional social values†¦. Abbas feels that the man should be punished and although Hussain agrees, his absolute disgust with Hamida is expressed as follows: â₠¬ËœWhy didn’t you murder her? If I were in your position, I wouldn’t have hesitated a minute. I’d have throttled her on the spot and then butchered her lover and disappeared†¦That’s what you should have done, you fool! [Mahfouz,1992: 279]’† (Oersen 59). Hamida’s deception can only go so far, and, though it works on Abbas, Hussain is immune to it. There is another man that is immune to Hamida’s deceptive ways, and he leads us into the last section, revealing how although women in the novel try to be the dominant sex, they ultimately fail due to societal customs and beliefs. This man is Ibraham Farah. Hamida is the most prominent key to seeing the strength the women of this culture possess. She represents Egypt as a whole, and allows Farah to take advantage of her just to prove how strong she is. In allowing the man to dominate her every moment, she feels she is getting the upper hand and being the dominant one in the relatio nship. She, like many women, uses her body and sexual charm to lord over men, and, in return, she soon realizes her mistake. To get on top in the society that the novel depicts, women must sacrifice something. This could include freedom, virginity, innocence, happiness, morality, or dignity. Hamida loses her virginity, morality, and innocence when she runs off with Ibraham, though she feels she is dominant in the situation. She wants love from him, but all she gets is his love for the money she is making him. She tries to tie him down, but he won’t have it, and, in return, she falls into his trap. Gohar states that Hamida believed [Farah] fell in love with her like others and was intoxicated by his warm words: ‘This is not your quarter, nor are these people relatives of yours. You are completely different. You do not belong here at all. How can you live among these people? Who are they compared to you? You are a princess in a shabby cloak’ (143) (Gohar 55). Sadly, Hamida is simply receiving what she dished out to Abbas. Farah woos her with his kind words, promises, and wealth, bringing her to her ultimate downfall. No matter what the women of the novel do, however, the social order of the time and place simply can not allow a woman to dominate. It was clear from the beginning that Hamida would not get her way, and if she did, she would lose part of herself, but why was this so evident? Bede Scott, in his article, â€Å"’A Raging Sirocco’: Structures of Dysphoric Feeling in Midaq Alley,† sheds some light on the problem. He says: â€Å"The intervention of colonial modernity in the novel radically destabilizes the old social order, yet without implementing a new order that can be easily comprehended by the characters or assimilated into their lives. And because they are unable to understand fully the processes of transformation they are undergoing, because these processes are not entirely visible to their consciousness, many of the characters internalize a vague sense of social crisis which eventually resurfaces in the form of displaced angerâ⠂¬  (Scott 33). Because this time in Egypt is a huge moment in the transition between the old ways and the new ways, the people of Midaq Alley are agitated. They long for the new, but cannot let go of the old. The women face this in a way the men do not realize. They see progress and realize that this is their time to show their true colors, yet, because the men are still tied to old cultural traditions, the women get no further in their pursuit of equality. Women, specifically Hamida, in the novel Midaq Alley, are faced with a growing sense of the outside world, and a newfound means to reach their goals and find dominance in a relationship with a man. No matter the way they try, however, society can not allow them to reach these heights, and places them back down in a domestic situation, cooking and cleaning and raising children just as they have always done. Women have strong attributes that allows them to find ways around these societal norms, but, in the end, a valuable part of a woman can be lost when they try such feats. Works Cited Gohar, Saddik. â€Å"Narrating the marginalized Oriental female: silencing the colonized subaltern.† Acta Neophilologica, vol. 48, no. 1-2, 2015, pp. 49–66., doi:10.4312/an.48.1- 2.49-66. Hasenfus, Stephanie. â€Å"Destroy or Be Destroyed: Contending with Toxic Social Structures in Naguib Mahfouz’s Midaq Alley.† The Oswald Review: An International Journal of Undergraduate Research and Criticism in the Discipline of English, vol. 15, no. 1, 1 Jan. 2015, pp. 95–108. The United States Military Academy, West Point, New York. Available at: http://scholarcommons.sc.edu/tor/vol15/iss1/7 MahÃŒ £fuÌ„z, NajiÌ„b. Midaq Alley. Translated by Trevor Li Gassick, The American University in Cairo Press, 1966. Oersen, Sheridene Barbara. â€Å"The representation of women in four of Naguib Mahfouzs realist novels: Palace walk, Palace of desire, Sugar street and Midaq alley.† The University of the Western Cape, The University of the Western Cape, 2006. S cott, Bede. â€Å"â€Å"A Raging Sirocco†: Structures of Dysphoric Feeling in Midaq Alley.† Journal of Arabic Literature, vol. 42, no. 1, Jan. 2011, pp. 29–48., doi:10.1163/157006411575792.