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It’s easy to explain how a key principle of cryptography works. Just watch this two-minute video.

I could look at a Wikipedia article to learn how dual-key cryptography keeps email messages and web pages secure in transit. But video often helps explain complex concepts quickly… and this example has a nice soundtrack!

Thanks to BoingBoing for the link!

Organized crime is big business, so it’s no surprise that phishers have developed their own sets of best practices.

It’s easier to get an unwitting victim to click a URL when that URL is short. ZDnet has a fascinating article that describes how phishers are moving towards shorter URLs in their email messages and on their web pages.

Cnet posted an article in April 2006 with more clues about creating an effective phishing campaign. There are some other good articles about this study at securityfocus.com site and the Register.

However, as I suggested to Larry Rowland’s IS 6000 students last week, it’s a good idea for master’s students to find and read at least one peer-reviewed academic article a week. Why Phishing Works is a good example of such an article.

One of my favorite blogs, Passive Aggressive Notes, provides two examples of neighborly wireless network management. Many students, roommates and neighbors think nothing of borrowing or piggybacking someone else’s wireless Internet connections, with or without consent.

Changing the SSID on your wireless router is one way of marking out some wireless territory. I have a better idea: turn on encryption and use a strong password. I’m always amazed at how many people run their wireless access points wide-open, without any security measures at all. In many cases, they’re using the default SSID and password that was set at the factory. About.com has a good list of tips and links here.

This is not a new issue

Here’s a good October 2006 interview with Corey O’Donnell. He discusses various issues with WiFi security. CNet ran this discussion in 2005 – I’ve often used a phrase from this article to describe how an unsecured WiFi network is like an unlocked front door. Mark Rasch discussed it in 2004, for example. InformationWeek had a good article on this topic in 2003, also.

As I promised on Monday, I have posted a brief example of the reference list format for Paper 4 and the final exam. It’s the second PDF document link on the Paper 4 web page.

When I graded the Paper 2 assignments for my courses, I tried a feature in TurnItIn.com’s GradeMark system. It’s a scoring matrix that helps me calculate assignment grades.

I usually have a scoring matrix in my assignments. It’s printed at the end of the assignment document, after the questions and requirements. This is an example from the IS 6100 Paper 2 assignment for the Fall 2007 term.

In previous courses, I would append a completed matrix to the graded assignment.

When I started using GradeMark last year, I just typed scores into the TurnItIn.com general comments box. There’s no way for me to append a page to an existing document in a TurnItIn.com assignment.

The matrix lets me allocate points to each row or item in my grading scheme. The columns represent a grading scale. After I type in my remarks and fill in the general comments screen, I can check the approriate cells in the matrix to calculate a grade.

I’m a visual person, and I’ve used a similar format in printed scoring tables.

I didn’t connect the vertical scale to the letter grades.

Also, the draft and peer review items are scored in those assignments, so I did not include them in the scoring matrix shown below.

This screenshot of a TurnItIn.com scoring matrix is from my instructor account, so it might be different from the student view.

This matrix is available in the printable version of the GradeMark report, and the total grade will appear in the TurnItIn.com gradebook. See my article from 5 February 2007 for more information on viewing GradeMark reports.

During the term, the point value of each assignment increases. I’ll add more rows to the scoring matrix to distribute the points in reasonable amounts.

One issue I’ve run into is the scoring matrix editor. It tends to crash for no reason. I had to close the editing window, but at least the crash didn’t take down my web browser or the operating system. It took me 3 attempts to create the matrix shown above.