16 TV&Satellite Week

has beeninvestigating our internet-related habits in order toexplore the potentialbenefits and concerns thatthey bring; Virtual Plug is aone-off documentary thataims to teach the Britishpublic the possibilities thatarise thanks to the synergybetween the virtual andphysical world. “The things that can beachieved through cohesionbetween man and machineare incredible,” states theyoung Brit, “but as ever, thetools are there forindividuals to manipulatefor questionable - evencriminal - purposes.”

Millen’s journey sees himexplore the issue of hackingin contemporary society,which sees him visitUniversity of London RoyalHolloway to discuss suchthreats with InformationSecurity Professor Keith

CYBERSPACE

Here’s a few tipsto get you started...

Are you virtuallysafe?

Using complex passwords canbe difficult as it is easy to losetrack of passwords fordifferent things. However,one technique is to have asystem, for instance using asystem of related words andascending/descendingnumbers; this means thateach individual password willbe complex and the safe, butit will be easier for you toremember.

Password complexity is asimple, easy way to makeyourself safer online; using amixture of lower and uppercase letters, numbers and (ifpossible) punctuation pointsmakes it much more difficultto guess a password, andoften websites will nowencourage you to make alonger, more complexpassword when signing upfor an account.

Martin during thedocumentary. “Royal Holloway is a hugelyprestigious university,” hesays “so discussing suchimportant and urgent issueswith Professor Martin was oneof the highlights of thisinvestigation. We discussed theemergence of cyberspace crimeand hacking incidents amongindividuals and corporations,and the prevalence of suchcrime is alarming to say theleast.”

Piracy is a huge issue forindustries such as film,television and music; an issuethat Millen confronts head onduring the course of the hour. “Most people hear littleabout internet piracy,especially the impact it has onIndustry; if anything, it’soften glorified online andamongst young people, but itcould realistically cause hugeproblems in those industries

if it continues. Piracy leads to less salesand therefore less income, andif its not financially viable forthe individuals and companiesto produce media texts, it’severyone who loses out.”

Another online issue ispersonal wellbeing in thevirtual reality. This is oftenhighlighted in cases ofbullying across socialnetworking platforms such asask.fm, as Millen studied. “We came across someextremely desperate cases, itwas very saddening andworrying how young peoplecan act when they’re behind ascreen. Hacking and piracy havehuge financial implications,but this was by far the mostemotionally challenging partof the investigation.”

Catch the documentary onChannel 4 , Wednesday at 8.

PIRATES OF THE WEB

ANTI-SOCIAL NETWORKS

17TV&Satellite Week

“It is quitescary;

you’ve gotto be

carefulwhenyou’re

online.”

Is about using more than oneidentifiable ‘key’ to unlock anAccount or device; this can beknowledge (such asmemorable data in onlinebanking), an object (such as aphysical key) or biometric(such as fingerprinttechnology on mobile phones).This means that youraccounts can only be accessedthrough combined means thatyou own.

Aside from passwords inthemselves, it pays to keepyour secrets and detailsprivate when using theinternet, especially socialmedia; this means nopasswords, addresses orphone numbers being postedonline, even in an ‘About’section or privateconversation; better safe thansorry!

Jarrett Millen has been akeen user of social mediaand other areas of theinternet, but maybe notanymore...

It certainly crossed mymind once or twice; I’dhear stories frompeople I spoke tofrom all over thecountry, and someof it is quite scary;you’ve got to bevery careful whenyou’re online,otherwise you canget into quite a bitof trouble beforeyou even know it.

I wouldn’t say‘worth it’ as such: morelike, the dangers arelargely avoidable, and youshouldn’t be put off by thepotential risks, just makesure you’re not makingyourself an easy target.

Personally? No! [laughs] Ithink a lot of people whowere teenagers when I wasprobably experiencedsomething of some kind,you know, it’s not really allthat different for young

people to tease someoneonline as it is to in the yard.But in terms of the seriousstuff, I’m realising now howlucky I’ve potentially been inthe past.

I think probablywhen we wereinvestigating theeffectiveness of two-factorauthentication; Iknew about it, butwhen we tested itout towards the endof the programme, itreally opened myeyes... suddenly itseemed so blindinglyobvious to me howuseful it is to havethis extra protection.

I think for me, I’m a Twitterguy! I love how connectedyou can be with everyoneand anyone and the greatmoments and conversationsyou can have. One momentyou can be discussingpolitics, and the nextcatching up with your mates! As for least, I’ve neverreally liked ask.fm; evenmore so after what welearned in the documentary.