This report
will narrate how I conducted research on the subject of “security on the web” using various
information search tools available.
Within this broad area, I have narrowed the subject to the issue of
identity theft as it relates to large organisations.
This
narration will take you through the logical steps taken to find the needed
information. It will describe the tools
used and why they were chosen. It will
also include the keywords used for the searches and any variation in syntax
used to refine the results. Comments
are given for the search results. You
may view the results using the links placed within this document.
Firstly,
the subject matter had to be defined. Wikipedia was chosen because
past experiences with it had been successful.
Wikipedia provides concise information from which one could expand on.
The search
was started with the keywords [identity theft]. This produced a single result and it was the exact definition
required so no further refinements were issued in the search syntax. The definition found was satisfactory and
even included links to other related articles.
Click here to view
it.
Dogpile has been chosen because it is one of
the better metasearch engines around which gives the best results from leading
search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, About, FindWhat, and
LookSmart.
To gather
material for the body of my report, I needed to obtain detailed information on
the subject. The keywords [identity
theft] were typed into the search field and Dogpile returned eighty-five
results. This provided an excellent
base to launch from because the results did not focus on any specific aspect of
the subject, giving the opportunity to sample the information without being too
restricted. Click here to view them.
Dogpile’s
advanced search facility offers the option of refining the results using date
ranges. Using the same keywords used in
the paragraph above, an additional criteria was entered as after 1st
of January 2003 and before 10th of May 2005. This filtered the results down to
sixty-six. Click here to
view them.
Another
search was done using [corporate identity theft] as after 1st of
January 2003 and before 10th of May 2005 using the advanced search
facility to get information specific to enterprises. Sixty-four results were obtained. Click here
to view them.
To zero in
on some of the specific points needed, the keywords [Phishing Pharming] were
entered. This brought back sixty
results. The results provided the
additional information needed to discuss methods of conducting identity
theft. Click here to view them.
In
addition, [Dumpster diving Database theft] were also entered. This produced sixty-six results. Click here to view them.
To obtain
insights into what others are saying on the topic, a search using Google was conducted. Google was used because it is a very popular
search engine and has the new feature called Groups. It is mainly for sharing of ideas and as the
name suggests, for discussions on a wide range of topics. Groups allow unregistered users to conduct
searches. The keywords [identity theft]
was entered and returned one hundred and thirty six thousand results. Click here to see them. Needless to say, the volume of returned
results was overwhelming, so it had to be refined.
To fine
tune things, Google offers Related Topics which breaks down the results by
topics. Computers was chosen from the
list and the results were brought down to two.
The results could also be categorized as Internet and Society Law, very
much relevant to the chosen topic.
Click here
to view them.
The results
obtained from the search techniques used were ample to write a report on
identity theft relating to web security in large organisations. Due to the rapid advancements in the field
of information and communications technologies, online resources are the
preferred means to gather the latest information an the chosen topic. It is deemed that traditional sources of
information such as books and publications may not offer an advantage when
conducting research on an evolving issue such as the one chosen in this report
mainly because information may be obsolete or irrelevant by the time
information is printed.