Is the Internet really safe?

Hi there, after a two weeks hiatus, I’m back with a double dose of information!

This week, we’re gonna explore two interesting things, Internet Tools and Internet Security.

So, throughout my years living in the Internet world, I always thought that Google was a big umbrella is able to do everything and anything for us, something like… THIS:

Source: http://innov8tiv.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/alphabet.jpg

And I thought it was a “what you see is what you get” thing, and that there was nothing else created by Google other than the ones we see above (in which I took some time to recognise some the icons also...)

But low and behold, this is just the tip of the iceberg.
There’s a long list of tools that Google came up with over the years, some sunk to the bottom of the seabed and ‘retired’, some still floating along with not much recognition, and the ones we see above are those who are soaring and surviving in this era.

This week, we shall look into a few cool Internet tools from Google, that went very much unnoticed (at least for me) over the years.

Presenting to you, 

1. Google Moon
   
   Okay we all probably heard of Google Earth, Google Street View and what not. But, GOOGLE MOON?! Like seriously?
   Basically, it works just the same as Google Earth, where you can just observe the Moon from where you are, with a click of your mouse! Check out some of the images!
   
   
   
   On the ‘interactive’ map, albeit not as fully developed as Google Earth, it is supplemented with information about the various missions by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to the moon, like the Apollo 11 as shown above.
   
   
   And of course, you wouldn't want to miss out snippets of information that happened before we were even born!
   
   
   
   See? The craters! And each point has some pretty cool stories to tell, provided by NASA.
   Think this would be a good place to explore virtually, even if you’re not done exploring Google Earth.
   
   
2. Google Music Timeline
   
   Being a music lover, sometimes I find it hard to keep track about the year certain albums were released. One thing good about this, is that you get to see a visual map of the different genres of music spanning across the years from 1950 till date! Each stripe on the graph represents a genre, and the thickness tells us the estimated popularity of that particular genre in that particular year.
   Like wow. 
   
   
   
   It isn't extensive, however. The list is solely based on music from Google Music, which means if your music isn't uploaded on that platform, chances are it would not be featured on this timeline map. Which to put it simply, people won't know what you're doing if your music isn't there!
   Nonetheless, it's a great map for you to explore the various genres, singers, and music that you probably have never come across in your life.
   When you don't know where's a good place to get started in music, here's the place to go!
   
   
   
3. And so, while looking at this music timeline, I found something even better!
   A DIGITAL ATTACK MAP!
   Yes, you heard me right. But first, do you think your Internet is really safe?
   

Source: http://www.trendmicro.co.uk/infographics/are-you-safe-online/

The Internet has integrated itself into our lives, and we perform a myriad of tasks on the internet, from the most trivial like chatting with friends, to the more confidential like performing bank transactions. How sure are we that the information we share through the Internet is safe, and not lying in the hands of others?

Even as we live in a safe country here in Singapore, things might be happening right now as you’re reading this post.

See? Our small little SG also has some form of digital attack going on.

The site is part of a Google Research group that explores how to make data accessible to the public visually for our own usage.
Apart from the map, useful information about Distributed Denial of Service, and preventive measures against attacks are also found on the website, serving as a informative guide for readers to learn from, to protect themselves on the Internet.

Here’s some information that I learnt from it and thought it would be good to share!
1. There are four types of attack, mainly Transmission Control Protocol Connection, Volumetric, Fragmentation, and Application attacks.

2. There are two ways in which the attacks can be amplified (which I found rather interesting)

The first method is through DNS reflection, where the attacker can send a small request to the DNS server, before sending an amplified volume to the victim, leaving the victim overwhelmed.
The next method is through Chargen reflection, which involves the reply of steady stream of random characters using an outdated testing service, Chargen.

See, how easy it is to fall victim to DDoS attacks? 

I guess we all learnt some important lessons in class and through our own exploration, especially the fact that we think we are good in our own world, when there’s so much more happening beyond us!

The moon, the music timeline, and the digital attack was certainly a great exploration I found for this week! Perhaps you could find more interesting Internet tools out there and explore it too!

Stay tuned for more next week!