What are the major
threats within the world of Online/Internet Security and how do they affect our
lives?
Search
Information
CSU LIBRARY
DATABASES
PROQUEST
Why the Search Resource was used: I used “Proquest” for this particular search, as I find it to be a user-friendly search tool, as opposed to some of the other database engines available. As I wanted to search for more than one word, Proquest allowed me to continue adding search windows, and I was able to individually search 4 words. I also found it to be very specific.
Syntax Used: Internet AND Security AND Online AND Hackers
Number of Hits: 6
Comments on result
quality: 5 out of the 6 results obtained were very
specific and informative and focused on the topic. The disadvantages were that
they were more than 2 years old.
Why the Search Resource was used: My aim within this particular search was to locate information regarding Internet Security and Threats. This is why I specified that I wanted to find out about Viruses AND Trojans AND NOT Hackers. By refining my search in this way I was able to filter out, any materials that contained the word “Hacker”, and concentrate on articles that related to Viruses and Trojans. I used Proquest again, because It allowed me to be very specific, with my search.
Syntax Used: Internet AND Security AND Virus AND Trojan AND NOT Hackers
Number of Hits: 28
Comments on result quality: Overall,
the results of this search where quite poor. I believe that they were not
specific enough to retrieve viable information to contribute to my report.
Why the Search Resource was used: I used Proquest because it enabled me to specify the dates of my search. I was able to tell the engine to search for information within the last 2 years. I was also able to use the (*) asterisks “wildcard” feature to tell Proquest to search for plurals as well as singular words. I.e. Hacker and Hackers.
Syntax Used: Online OR Internet AND Security AND Threat* OR Hacker* AND Virus AND Trojan AND PDN (>5/12/2003) AND PDN (<5/12/2005)
Number of Hits: 30
Comments on result quality: This is the
most complicated search I have performed using “Proquest”. I used a very refined
data set, restricting my search results to a very small amount. Although I
believe that my first search using Proquest, (proquest1.html) is still the most
specific, yet the syntax used is the least complicated.
SCIENCE
DIRECT
Why the Search Resource was used: I
used this particular resource to see how it differed from the other database
engines available.
Syntax Used: Online OR Internet AND Security AND Hackers AND Threats
Number of Hits: 8
Comments on result quality: Produced a
quality result, with a small number of hits.
ONLINE NEWSPAPERS and NEWS WEB
SITES
Washington Post, Newspaper
Why the Search Resource was used: I used an American newspaper for this search called the “Washington Post”. I decided to use an online newspaper because it represents another person’s view of the topic, and doesn’t necessarily contain scientific facts as articles such as scholarly journals do.
Syntax Used: Internet Security AND Threats AND Hackers
Number of Hits: 1
Comments on result quality: This was a very precise search as only 1 hit was returned. Although an important factor that has to be taken into account is that, Online Newspapers have a smaller amount of sources (relating to a specific topic) than other search tools. So the number of hits will generally be smaller for specific search queries.
The New York Times, Newspaper
Why the Search Resource was used: I decided to use and American Online Newspaper again. But
I targeted a different location (and newspaper!), for this search. I was
interested to see the difference between news papers in
Syntax Used: Internet + Online + Security - Cell phones
Number of Hits: 29
Comments on result quality: Firstly, I performed a search with the syntax “Internet + Online + Security”, but I noticed a few of the topics where concerning mobile phones. So I performed another search NOT including the syntax “cell phones”, and it produced more focused and quality results.
Why the Search Resource was used: I used this resource because it provides information that is recent and up to date. Rather than Online Newspaper web sites that will search through older archives for information, this web site will provide the latest information it can locate.
Syntax Used: Internet AND Security AND Hackers
Number of Hits: 3
Comments on result quality: The quality of this search query was overall quite poor, due to the fact that one article was basically a repeat of the previous one. Although, the search engine did provide quality hits.
ONLINE
NEWSGROUPS
TPG Newsgroups
Why the Search Resource was used: Newsgroups are opinions and information directly posted from the user, and I thought that it would be beneficial to me to read a few postings, and gain an insight to what actual users are saying in regard to this matter.
Syntax Used: Internet Security
Number of Hits: 1
Comments on result
quality: Quite poor. The results received from the search were hard to
understand and the Newsgroup would only accept “Internet Security”, as the
search syntax. Most other searches I performed returned zero results. Thus the
reason I only performed 1 search using this search tool.
SEARCH ENGINES – ALTA
(Please note: ALL searches
performed with this search tool were set from Jan 1, 2003 to present.)
http://www.altavista.com SEARCH 1
Why the Search Resource was used: I used this particular search engine, because it offers a separate search window which allows the user to enter a string of syntax, containing Boolean keywords. (AND, OR, NOT).
Syntax Used: Online AND Internet AND Security Hackers AND Trojan OR Virus NOT Cell Phone
Number of Hits: 71, 700, 000
Comments on result quality: Number of
hits has literally “sky-rocketed”, in comparison to the other search tools used.
I will refine the search, in order to reduce this figure. I have disregarded the
term “cell phone”, once again.
http://www.altavista.com SEARCH 2
Syntax Used: Online AND Internet AND Security Hackers AND Trojan OR Virus NOT Cell Phone title: Online AND Internet AND Security URL: Online AND Internet AND Security
Number of Hits: 4, 160, 000
Comments on result quality: Compared to
the previous search, this syntax has shown a serious improvement, in the number
and quality of hits. I have specified that I only want to see results, which
contain “Online AND Internet AND Security”, within the URL and Title, of the
page. Although, there is still more work to be done, as the number of results,
is far from my target (0 to 100).
http://www.altavista.com SEARCH 3
Syntax Used: Online AND Internet AND Security AND Hackers AND Trojan OR Virus AND Windows NOT Cell Phone domain: gov title: Online AND Internet AND Security URL: online AND Internet AND Security
Number of Hits: 2,130,000
Comments on result quality: I have
specified the domain of the search and also that I want to search for pages that
include the word “Windows” (because the focus operating system in my report is
to be Windows). The number of results was literally cut in half, from the last
search, but is still far too high. Note: The fourth hit within this particular
search, will be used as a reference in my essay. It had an appealing title and I
found that it was relevant to my topic once read.
http://www.altavista.com SEARCH 4
Syntax Used: Online AND Internet AND Security AND Threats AND Hackers AND Trojan OR Virus AND Windows NOT Cell Phone domain: com title: Online AND Internet AND Security URL:
Online AND Internet AND Security
Number of Hits: 1,700,000
Comments on result quality: Once again,
I refined the results, and the number of hits has become lower. I’ve included
the word “Threats” which had a significant affect. I believe now, that this
search engine is not capable of refining this topic to the extent that I receive
my target result. I have learnt that it is a very large area of information and
such a small result may not be accessible, using a BOOLEAN type search.
http://www.altavista.com SEARCH 5
Syntax Used: (all of these words…) Security, Online, Internet, Threats, Hackers, Virus, Trojan, Worm, Lives (this exact phrase…) Online Security (and none of these words…) Cell Phone, Mobile Phone, Advertisement
Number of Hits: 5
Comments on result quality: By using the “build a query with”, function, AltaVista’s engine was able to give me a much better search result. My number of hits, was out of the hundreds of thousands range. By including the word “Lives”, the number of hits decreased dramatically. It also gave me web sites that related to the way in which online threats, affected peoples lives. All in all, I found that using the Boolean feature of a search engine, was more complicated and returned a poor result.
FINAL COMMENTS
I found that overall, the best search tool used, was the “CSU Databases Facility”. More specifically, I found that “Proquest”, returned the most informative results for my topic. I found that using search engines is good, as the number of results to select is always very high, but generally not specific enough, contains a lot of advertising and may to a few queries, to actually locate quality information. The newsgroups were very poor, and I don’t believe that the information posted in newsgroups, is really quite relevant to be used as research. I would personally only make use of a newsgroup, if I had a specific question to ask someone.
I found that the online news web sites and online newspaper web sites, were very similar, but provided quality information. Although I found that the search facility was not very technical. Overall, the information I found, was quality and contributed well, to giving me a good understanding of the topic.