Mandatory Life Sentences, the Constitution and the European Convention of Human Rights
There are a number of issues raised in my chosen blog which are of interest to me; I will express my thoughts on those issues in this blog. Firstly I will briefly outline the facts of the High Court Challenge which my chosen Blog is entirely based on.
Two convicted murderers lost their High Court challenge to the constitutionality of the mandatory life sentence for murder. They were Peter Whelan, who was jailed for life in 2002 for the murder of
Cork student Nicola Sweeney (20); he was also jailed for 15 years for the attempted murder of her friend, Sinead O’Leary, on the same evening. Paul Lynch was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1997 after pleading guilty to the murder of Donegal pensioner William Campbell (77) at Mr Campbell’s home in September 1995.
The two men claimed the sentence breached their rights under the Constitution and under the European Convention of Human Rights.
Each claimed the mandatory life sentence interfered with the role of the judiciary and offended the independence of the judiciary enshrined in the Constitution. They also claimed their rights under the Convention were breached because they had no way of knowing how or when they are likely to be released.
Were the outcome to be in the favour of the claimants, this could have created a precedent but as events turned out Ms Justice Mary Irvine rejected the men’s claims on all grounds. The law in the Republic of Ireland that provides for the mandatory life sentence for murder is an Act of the Oireachtas or legislation, that being the Criminal Justice Act 1990(Section 2 of this Act). The Judge stated that the act breached neither the Constitution nor the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003. The 2003 act brought the provisions of the Convention into Irish law.
Ms Justice Irvine found the Oireachtas was entitled under the Constitution to provide for a mandatory life sentence, and disagreed that such a sentence unconstitutionally interfered with the role of the judiciary in sentencing matters and breached the doctrine of separation of powers.
I will now voice my opinions on the case. Firstly the doctrine of separation of powers where the judiciary interpret the law as produced by the legislature has been followed. The Criminal Justice Act 1990 has been interpreted correctly in this case and so the independence of the judiciary follows. The mandatory life sentence for murder was the right one in this instance and was proportionate to the public good, there was a clear intention to kill and so the sentence was appropriate. Dangerous driving could be dealt with more leniently as there is not an intention to kill. The right to life a constitutional right was reflected in the sentence also.
Given the brutal nature of the crimes these sentences are lenient in my opinion.
The crimes committed by Peter Whelan where he savagely stabbed a young woman with her life ahead of her and the attempted murder of her friend were most serious crimes, murder is at the top range of the list of crimes and especially given that of a young woman.
The crime committed by Paul Lynch where he struck the elderly Mr Campbell seven times over the head with a saucepan during a robbery was just as horrendous a crime, to rob and kill someone as vulnerable as this is cowardice and the law is not strong enough in this area. We must get tough to protect the most weak and vulnerable in our society and have laws that act as real deterrents.
By Colm Jordan
A popular and important topic among many, students, healthcare specialists and undoubtedly most people, is the issue of the standard of hospital care we receive and who can we trust to give it to us? Should we really question the role of key opinion leaders? We often here stories in the news about the mistreatment of patients and more often than not, we find that it is some higher authority that is at fault. It can be a burden to society when we hear these stories. We trust these people with our lives and when we see that they are abusing there authority it can be an overwhelming shock.
One particular article describes one doctor who gave herpes to two patients and only lost his licence for three months! Apparently his Oklahoma licence was suspended and not his Nevada one, which meant he could still practice medicine. It was found, that the reason for Nevada not suspending his licence was due to their policy as a state where anything goes. A scary thought is that this person works on patients with conditions like Alzheimer’s, Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder!
Even if we are lucky enough to get a nice doctor, are we sure that they are giving us the proper treatment? This blog suggests they mightn’t be. An interesting topic highlights that antidepressants have little benefit over a placebo. They used clinical trials to prove their case. This has the potential to alarm a lot of people “given the large number of patients treated for depression and the significant burden of illness associated with the disorder”. There is no denying that there is publication bias, for example, destroying negative results on anti-depressants. Of course, these anti-depressant drugs have side effects, so are they worth taking if there is minimal effect? A suggested method of helping prevent this is to get the media more involved than they previously have been. Maybe if other trivial stories about famous people were replaced with stories involving these issues we would see more people taking action. I believe everyone should have some amount of information about their particular case before getting all of the info from the doctor. This way, you can voice your own opinion. It was suggested that more exercise or counselling can be a method of curing depression, rather than going straight on the drugs.
I mean whose to say the drug companies aren’t paying off doctors and physicians to sell their drugs. More often than not, when these cases are brought to the surface, the company gets the full blame. However, in my opinion, the physicians and doctors are the root of the problem Clearly, they shouldn’t be accepting these bribes. This could potentially lead to patients trusting their own decision on health issues and this could ultimately lead to further consequences. It must be difficult turning down a bribe like a large sum of money or a car but the fact of the matter is that it is their duty.
We could continue showing examples of higher authorities recieving bribes and not treating patients properly, but the fact of the matter is that we need to get more involved and not leave it up to these people alone. It seems that not only do we need doctors helping patients but also patients helping doctors.
U.S Presidential Election (by Áine Ní Dhonnacha)
The Race to the White House:
Many of the posts on this blog are about the upcoming presidential election in America. The election which will take place in November this year is one of the biggest presidential elections in the last few decades. The reason for this of course is that it looks as if the country is going to either have their first ever African American president, Barack Obama or their first ever female president, Hilary Clinton.
While John Mc Cain has been well ahead in the Republican contest for some time, it is another story for the Democratic contest. Here Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama have been head to head for quite a while. It was thought that after Super Tuesday 2, Hilary would be backing down if she lost any more States to Obama but surprisingly she came out with three victories and is now full of hope again. This is enough to keep her in the race and it was certainly needed after Obama had twelve straight wins in a row and seems to be taking many of Clinton’s core supporters as well as some Super Delegates who were previously supporting her. These three candidates are the front runners for the American presidency, and it looks as if it is going to remain a close race between Clinton and Obama right up until the end. With it being such a close contest the Super Delegates (party officials and Democratic party politicians who have a free vote in the party’s convention in August) could have the final say as to who will be be the Democratic nominee.
A Democratics canditate needs 2,025 delegates to secure their nomination at the party convention in August and the most recent count of pledged delegates is Obama 1,168 and Clinton 1,018. For the Republican candidates, 1,191 delegates are needed, Mc Cain has been well ahead of both of his oppenents, Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee for a while, and after Super Tuesday 2 he is now the Republican canditate that will be running against either Obama or Clinton for presidency in November. Both of his opponents backed out as it became clear that they had no chance of winning. It has always looked very likely that the Democratic nominee would be facing John Mc Cain in the presedential election in November and now it is true. If Mc Cain gets elected he will be the oldest first-term president in U.S history at 71 years of age.
If it is change that the American people are looking for, then in my view the Democratic nominee will become the next President. With either Obama or Clinton becoming President, it will be a huge change for the country. If like me you can’t seem to make much sense as to how the election works in America, here is a link which explains how it all works. Also the Sky News website is very helpful as it has loads of information about the election including the latest reports and results.
On reviewing the Ars Mathematica blog, I was overcome by the range of areas that are covered by mathematics. As well as the dozen or so topics covered in the course I am doing, there are so many more, some new, some expansions on other subjects, that I never took the time to read up on before. Some of these topics I have never heard about until visiting this blog, and reading the articles on it was incredibly interesting, albeit a little confusing.
Of the vast range of subjects covered by the users of this site, one stuck out. Not only did it stand out to me, but also to other users as the article has the most comments not only this month, but since the site was opened in May 2005. The article in question is titled “Statistics not sadistic” and is written in response to another user, John Armstrong, of another weblog (The Unapologetic Mathematician) who referred to statistics as sadistic, in a seemingly harmless fashion. But this was seen as a insult and this article followed, defending the usefulness of statistics in mathematics.
Although the subjects I’m currently covering barely dent the surface of the world of mathematics, they give me a fair understanding of the core fundamentals which are needed to apply onto other areas of mathematics to understand them better. In my opinion, probability and statistics is one of the most useful and interesting areas of mathematics. Understanding it can give us an advantage in taking ‘calculated risks’ in everyday life, based on the knowledge of experience. It can help us use information in a way that can determine how an individual can act, even if only sub-consciously understanding it.
A more in depth look at the subject provides all sorts of graphs, confusing formula and pages full of seemingly insignificant numbers and information that people tend to discard after looking at it due to the complexity of it. Only after being shown the uses of this information can people start to appreciate its value. Many charts are designed to turn what seem to be irrelevant numbers, into interesting statistics, like a percentile of a persons placing in a test, compared to the rest of the people who sat this test. This sort of information is not only valuable, but far more interesting than other areas of mathematics in my own opinion.
The 44 comments that followed said article were mainly questions, answers, contradiction to the given answers, links to correct the contradictions, etc. Even as a maths student, I found there conversations/observations straying off into realms that were beyond my understanding. I happened to find myself spending countless hours in what seemed like a ongoing loop, following links to try and understand something said in an article beforehand, not knowing if it would ever end. Eventually it did, but without me obtaining the knowledge of the subject to understand what some of these people where ranting/talking about.
In conclusion, following this blog for a month helped me come to terms that spending a lifetime studying mathematics, still might not be enough to be able to understand an advanced conversation covering one of the many obscure areas of mathematics. Being constantly sent from pillar to post to try and gain an understanding of a blog entry can be rewarding, but this depends mainly on whether you can gain an understanding on a subject, or whether you are torn to pieces through frustration and the thought of one more link will drive you over the edge. If this is the case with this entry and its links, I apologize, I guess some people can be hypocrites just by trying to prove a point!
Daniel Fripp
Coding Horror (by Mark Sims)
Coding Horror is a web log written by Jeff Atwood, a software developer at Vertigo Software in California. The title is taken from a programming book, Code Complete, to introduce sections on bad programming practices. Most of the posts are about things that interest him in the areas of software development and computing. There have also been posts on subjects as disparate as road signs and his cats. There have been approximately forty posts so far this year, which is fairly frequent considering the length and detail of many posts.
In terms of writing style, Atwood is generally fairly casual but posts remain properly presented and always informative. Since 2004, he has produced many posts that cover an area in computing in great detail. Posts can also contain many links to both previous posts and external articles to fully set the context. Hyperlinks are generally presented where they are part of a sentence and do not give much information, if any, on the articles linked to. Some posts contain lengthy quotes from external posts and articles when Atwood is commenting or expanding on a subject recently discussed by someone else.
He works in an almost completely Microsoft development environment, including various iterations of Visual Studio and the .Net Framework. This would include C#, Visual C++ and SQL Server. Articles that are specific to these are far less frequent recently than in earlier archives. One post I found particularly interesting was one covering the changing performance of some programming languages. It is rare to see actual source code posted. This is probably because of the variety of programming languages used by his readers while concepts like version control and team programming are more universal. He has often stressed the importance of working well with others in commercial software development as well as understanding users.
How people use and interact with software is a major focus of Atwood. While there are a decent number of articles covering programming, many posts focus on the front end of software and web sites. It is not enough for the back end (calculations and workings not fully visible to the user) of a program to run efficiently if the user struggles with obfuscated GUI and must give more feedback than necessary to get work done.
An area that is particularly interesting to me regarding UI is keyboard navigation; using software as much as possible with only the keyboard. Atwood, like many people using computers extensively, considers it important that software and web pages are as usable as possible without the user having to move their hands from the keyboard. While the mouse is intuitive to use with modern GUIs and relatively easy to learn, they have presented RSI risks and can often be slower than well defined key combinations. One example Atwood used is the eBay login. An example familiar to many is the Google front page. When it is opened, the user simply has to type their query (the “focus” is set to the text box) and hit the enter key. This doesn’t require the user to move a hand from the keyboard until the results page. They are also looking into keyboard shortcuts for results.
Another topic Atwood has expressed an interest in is typography and font rendering. This is an interesting area that affects everyone using computers yet is covered very little due to its slow progression. One post that affected the IDE I use was his roundup of monospaced fonts suitable for programming. I found Consolas and Inconsolata more readable and easier on the eyes than Courier New.
On a closing note, most posts are followed by much discussion in the comments for the article. The comments can often be as informative as the post itself. Atwood generally replies to these to clarify points or address further questions and continues to be enthusiastic about computers in general.
Pursuing Happiness (by Gemma Burke)
Happiness, defined in the dictionary as a state of well being is one of psychology’s greatest mysteries. Positive psychology is a popular new psychology that has set out to uncover fascinating evidence based answers to questions surrounding happiness. For much of its history psychology has seemed some-what obsessed with human feelings and pathology. (The scientific study of the nature of disease and its causes, processes, development, and consequences, also called pathobiology.) Positive psychology is a recent addition to the world of psychology that studies the strengths and virtues that allow communities and individuals to thrive.
In fact the very idea of psychotherapy, which was first formalised by Freud, rests on a view of human beings as troubled creatures in need of repair. Freud with his pessimistic outlook on human nature, which he believed to be governed by deep dark drives that could only tenuously be controlled, shared parallel views with those of a German philosopher Arthur Schropenhauer. Schropenhauer also an extreme pessimist believed that happiness was an illusion. Through his opinions that happiness is the absence of pain, frustration and dissatisfaction, Schropenhauers extreme hedonism installed in himself that the answer was not to seek happiness but to get through life with the minimum amount of suffering. In short the key to making life bearable for the German philosopher was simply to have extremely low expectations.
It has also been shown that there is a strong correlation between happiness and success, generally people with a good income and a high status in a community tend to be, more often than not, happiest. But which comes first happiness or success? The two are without doubt inter-related but in complicated ways, and to only talk about how success leads to happiness is ignoring half of the story, as Sonja Lyumbomirsky and colleagues have uncovered that there is potential evidence that points to happiness leading to success. These studies have produced a raft of fascinating findings that demonstrate that people in a positive mood are more likely to talk to others, to be interested in leisure activities, enjoy social interactions, resolve conflicts easily, help others, feel healthier, perform tasks better and more often attribute success to their own skills. This then links to materialism, which in psychology is deemed to be a dirty word. Studies consistently show that people who agree with statements like “You will buy things just because you want them” tend to be: less satisfied with life, less happy, more likely to be depressed, more paranoid and more narcissistic. Unfortunately for us 50% of our happiness is predisposed in us through our genetic make-up. The other 50% can be made up by our overall circumstances like our demographics, money education etc. Sheldon & Lyumbomirsky (2007) estimate circumstantial factors at only 10%, which is dwarfed in comparison to our genetic contribution. In other words, your happiness consists of how happy you naturally are, plus whatever is going on in your life to affect your happiness.
In the end philosophy and science converge on the fact that thinking about your own happiness doesn’t make it any easier to be happy. In fact many say we are at our happiest when we are absorbed in what we are doing and the trouble is that asking yourself about your frame of mind is a sure way to lose your flow. So in few words if you want to be happy, don’t constantly ask yourself if you are.
This blog entry for the class CT244 is a review of the online blog www.slashdot.org.
Slashdot.org the blog which provides “News for nerds and stuff that matters” does exactly what it says on the tin and little more.
Unlike most blogs which have a single moderator who decides what to put on the blog, slashdot has several moderators which decide on stories to be placed on the site based on stories which are contributed to the site by any user.
These stories cover a huge range of subjects from general news in the technology world such as IBM releasing news on there new mainframe
Other article types which feature regularly are new developments in the law which affect your rights online. Two examples of such stories are the decision that spamming is not protected by America’s first amendment (i.e. freedom of speech)
Or the story that a man who hacked into a computer system and used the information he found for his own financial gain and was allowed keep the money.
Frequently on Slashdot you will find stories’ coming up over and over as new information arises on the topic. For example the story relating to facebook and mysapce being vulnerable to hacking was updated later when it was confirmed that it had actually happened.
Slashdot is not solely a computer based site it does provide news for technology in general and safety precautions that should be observed in our day to day lives. For example this story about the flaws in chip and pin credit cards.
As I said at the beginning slash dot is not simply a news site it also provides technology reviews and recommends safe secure products for people to use. For example which USB hard drives are the safest to use. These reviews are not limited to technology.
They have a section of there site dedicated to book reviews
which is updated on a weekly if not sooner basis. On top of all this Slashdot offers a price comparison section for quality products which are on the market as well as an email service that will inform you of any new products on the market which relate to your personnel areas of interest.
One section of Slashdot which is quite unique for a blog is the jobs section. This allows employers looking for people with IT experience to post the job description on the site and allow anyone to view it and apply for the job.
Features such as this job board and the fact that all the stories are submitted by users of the site, make slashdot a very community orientated board. The down side to this Slashdot community is that it is directed mainly towards American people and features such as the job search are of very little use to anyone outside America.
When asked about whether they would create international versions of the site they said they have no plans to do so but they are not opposed to it happening. They also point out that there is a Japanese version of the site which they helped set up but no longer have any involvement in.
In short slashdot is a great site which will keep you up to date with anything and everything to do with technology and the world we have built around it.
Chilling Acceptance of Gender Bias (by Edel Mee)
For the first time in American history, this year’s race for Presidential nomination sees a woman – Hillary Clinton- and a man of colour – Barack Obama – in contention. Both candidates are high profile, strong characters, and as such have been the subject of much discussion, debate and challenge. However the treatment they have received from both the media and a surprising amount of people has been very different.
· Obama’s main political agenda is centred upon the premise that it is time for a change in America, time for the working people of America to be looked after and he will bring that change.
· Clinton’s campaign similarly is centred around the need for change and more of a focus on providing services and employment at home.
So, one would expect that both candidates, both making history, both speaking for change and “the ordinary man on the street”, would be treated similarly. The reality though is that Obama has been lauded for his humble upbringing, his honesty and his avoidance of mudslinging for political gain. But Clinton- much is being made of her husband, Bill, and there are constant references to his leadership. Sadly it looks like we are seeing an exercise in modern day sexism.
For example; compare the reactions to the two following real incidents:
1. Obama sees a doctor for a hoarse throat. He does not have an infection, is advised to rest his voice.
· Media Reaction: the scenario is mentioned, followed immediately by the phrase “just a mere ten hours later, at an am rally, Obama addressed the crowd….” Thereby making much of the fact that Obama continues against all personal problems.
· Other candidates reactions: none
2. Clinton answers the question: “Personally speaking; how do you keep upbeat and continue to look so wonderful?” She answers with emotion in her voice.
· Media Reaction: Headlines states: “Clinton Gets Emotional On the Campaign Trail.” A video is taken. The tone of the article is then centred around her emotional response.
· Other candidates’ reactions: there is a follow up article outlining each candidate’s reaction to Clinton’s emotionalism. They immediately react by questioning whether Clinton has the mental strength to deal with a Presidency.
In other debates, all of the candidates invoke emotion to sway voters and at times they raise their voices. Of all of the candidates Clinton alone stands accused of “having a meltdown”. Most disturbingly is the number of websites, including a Facebook website, dedicated to getting Hillary Clinton out of politics and “back to the kitchen” where supposedly she, and all woman-kind belong. With titles such as “Hillary Clinton: Stop Running for President and Make me a Sandwich” – frighteningly this site has nearly 40, 000 members – they attack her right to run in a political race because she is a woman, not because they disagree with her politics. Unfortunately it is not a joke site and feature’s charming (cue sarcasm) comments such as this: “LOL WHAT A JOKE! CRYING LIKE A LITTLE BABY THE OTHER DAY. ALL CLAPP OBAMA 08. DON’T GET ME WRONG I LOVE WOMEN BUT NOT TO RUN OUR COUNTRY!”So, is there an outcry over this obviously misogynistic tirade? No. Imagine if the media or any group really started a “Barack Obama: Stop Running for President and Shine my Shoes” blog. There would be a furore and possibly criminal prosecutions.Instead we are seeing an alarming acceptance of double standards, an acceptance and promotion of gender bias in the twenty-first Century.
Sources:
“I.T. Law in Ireland.” Blog Review.
The blog I have chosen to review is called “I.T. Law in Ireland.” The blog is composed by a lecturer of law in UCD and it mainly focuses on legal issues of privacy and freedom of expression with regards to the information technology age. Updates occur often and in general originate from a variety of different legal resources, e.g. case law, current news topics etc.
The main focus of the blog revolves around the impact of technology on the privacy rights of Irish citizens. The author has posted several entries regards the invasion of privacy. Examples include an entry involving a Dutch technology entrepreneur in Tipperary. It included details on the Revenue Commission’s recent activities in searching through online networking sites (Facebook, etc) when making tax audits. The author puts forward a convincing argument, based on personal opinion, on why this type content shouldn’t be used. He shows how much of this content can often be unreliable, and secondly, much of the information on these profiles could be used in discrimination against some of these people, e.g sexual orientation etc. The author puts forward his argument in simple language and refrains from using excessive legal jargon. This makes the blog much more beneficial for the readers as they can leave the blog with a better understanding of the law in this area.
The author also draws from legal resources from different countries. There are several entries where he mentions cases from other jurisdictions and their impact there as well as the view from an Irish law perspective. On Feb 29th an entry was posted regards the German Constitutional court and its decision which constitutes a new “basic right to the confidentiality and integrity of information-technological systems.” This entry although quite short and void of much personal input from the author, is quite informative and contains many links for further reading on the topic. The author also draws on UK law with regards to privacy in other entries from the blog. However in some of these entries the author appears to portray some anti-government bias. On Jan 30th an entry details methods considered by the UK government in order to “coerce take up of voluntary ID cards.” Although the UK’s stance on ID cards is highly controversial the author fails to address any of the benefits of these cards in this or any previous blogs. Such benefits may include an effective method for the protection of identity fraud. As a result the blog, and this entry in particular, has attracted comments from extremists on one side of the argument who in one post refer to the UK as an “almost fascist society”. However to be fair the aim of the blog revolves around the protection of privacy in the I.T. age and ridiculous comments are generally kept to a minimum. With regards to comments, on many entries there are very few, if any, but on some entries readers often provide insightful opinions and extra information that compliments the authors blog entry.
Although blog entries are generally restricted to law there are some occasions of entries unrelated to that of the blog’s subject area. Examples include an excellent Youtube video found by the author which gives an amusing opinion of web 2.0. Although totally unrelated to the law it does provide a refreshing break from the extensive, albeit interesting, legal information.
With regards to the appearance of the blog the site is quite pleasing to the eye with a simple heading and entries well dated. The overall presentation of the site draws heavily on a simple Google-like appearance, using a white background and an attractive font. However it can be difficult to search through previous blog entries. Instead of using a simple “Previous” link on the bottom of the page, all previous blog entries are catalogued in the months they were posted so searching for a previous blog can get difficult unless you can remember the month it was posted in. This (minor) problem could easily be solved using a search bar.
Overall the blog is quite impressive thanks to the extensive research that goes into the entries. The author seems to be quite a reliable source and usually provides opinions regarding the information contained in the blog. The information is a good additional learning tool both for those inside and out of the legal profession. The simple but formal writing style combined with the interesting views the blog raises, means the blog is accessible and can be recommended to many audiences.
Barry Connolly.
IT Security (by Ceola Flannery)
Managing Intellectual Property & IT Security
IT security is a major concern for individuals and businesses that use web-based services. It is inevitable that there will be security holes considering the vastness of the internet. The blog on ‘Managing Intellectual property and IT security’ is concerned with exposing common hacks and malware for other security engineers.
I feel that this is useful information for anybody who works in IT security to have access to. As the internet is constantly growing, its vulnerability to hackers becomes greater and greater. To keep up to date with new security holes it is essential to have resources like these blogs which are constantly updated with current problems in security.
The internet’s whole purpose is for people to be able to share valuable information. So whose place is it then to decide that this information is inappropriate when it clearly is useful? Denying permission for these blogs to be posted is a denial of a basic human right to free speech. If we can’t find out information readily about security how are we expected to know how to keep ourselves safe in the area of the internet?
I can see the point that this information could encourage and enable potential hackers but the fact is that if a person wants to maliciously hack into a business or individual’s security system they will find other sources with more information as the information provided on these blogs would be insufficient to a hacker. But having the information so publically available on these blogs can highlight, to the potential victims, the holes in their security systems. This will enable them to create a more secure system.
However, some of the information in this blog is not completely credible. The posting on webcams is informative to the extent that it informs readers that it is possible that there are webcams watching them in unexpected places like bars and internet cafes. But it also encourages looking at the footage from these webcams for entertainment purposes.
In my opinion, this is not encouraging internet security by any means. Out of principle I would not watch these as I would not like someone watching me on this type of media. It is a huge invasion of privacy to have video footage of somebody on the internet without having their permission. The posting I am referring to also shows a site where one can manipulate the panning of a security camera while the unsuspecting security guard tries to keep the camera in place. This type of security breech could have serious implications if a potential thief got their hands on it.
For the most part though, this blog is a very useful tool. It is important for people to be aware of these types of security breaches. It would be easy for us to ignore them until we are affected by this malicious behaviour. The fallout after receiving a virus, downloading malware or an unwanted visitor hacking into your security system is very troublesome, worrying and extremely inconvenient. It is therefore our duty as internet users to inform ourselves in this area. Blogs like this one are a very useful tool for this task. When we are aware of something it is less likely that we will allow ourselves to fall victim to it.
