CHAPTER 14 Computers in Society: Tomorrow
Students to Vote Online
Online It is only fitting that the e-generation be given an opportunity to vote online in the next presidential election. Election.com, the organization that ran a successful Democratic primary in Arizona is sponsoring Youth-e-Vote that will permit 10 million secondary school children to cast ballot online. The results of this unofficial election will be tabulated at the speed of light, perhaps pointing the way for elections in the future. Perhaps the greatest benefit of the election is that it will acclimate students to the voting process and encourage them to be good citizens in the future. It is interesting to note that ninety percent of the respondents (mostly large corporations and government agencies) detected computer security breaches within the last twelve months, including common ones such as computer viruses, laptop theft, or employee net abuse. Seventy percent reported a variety of serious computer security breaches including theft of proprietary information, financial fraud, system penetration from outsiders, denial of service attacks and sabotage of data or networks. Seventy-four percent acknowledged financial losses due to computer breaches. Forty-two percent were willing and/or able to quantify their financial losses. The losses from these 273 respondents totaled $266 million. The most serious financial losses occurred through theft of proprietary information and financial fraud. Seventy-one percent of respondents detected unauthorized access by insiders. More respondents (59%) cited their Internet connection as a point of attack than their internal systems (38%).