Kory
Chinn
3/1/16
MIS
441
Tech
Musing 2
Google launches
Project Shield to protect news sites
The article describes the reasoning
behind the launch of one of Google’s new ventures called Project Shield. Project
Shield’s purpose is to protect independent news sites from cybersecurity
threats such as DDOS attacks. It shields news websites by redirecting its
visitors to a Google server which can filter out malicious traffic and cache
parts of the site to lighten the load on the website’s own computers. Previously
an invite-only beta phase service, Google is now offering its cyberattack
protection to almost any news site that requests it. Already, the service is
being used to safeguard sites about human rights, election monitoring, and
independent political news.
One of the most interesting aspects
to this new project is that Google is providing this service for free. Project
Shield comes out of Google’s technology incubator called Jigsaw, which aims to
use technology to tackle the toughest geopolitical challenges. The president of
Jigsaw, Jared Cohen, states that it isn’t about revenue, but about giving
people access to information. Project Shield is focusing on news organizations
due to their dependence on their web presence for disseminating information. It
hopes to prevent the DDOS attacks that have been used as a form of political
censorship. For example, DDOS attacks seemingly launched by the Iranian
government have been used to shut down Iranian sites to stifle photos and
videos of civil unrest there. So when asked if it is worth it to spend the
money and the bandwidth capacity to protect the world’s news sites from getting
DDOS attacked so that information is online for searchers, Cohen states that
the answer is an obvious yes.
Relevance to MIS 441
Recently, our class has had
discussions about the free flow of information (net neutrality), as well as
government interaction with technology (FBI-Apple case). This article relates
to both of these topics. In terms of free flowing information, Project Shield
has everything to do with upholding an open internet. Much like the net
neutrality issues that have been brought up in class, internet censorship
through distributed denial of service attacks definitely violates the concept
of an open internet. In terms of government interaction, this topic is related to
class discussion because the FBI wants access to information and the Iranian
government wants to restrict access to information. While these desires may
seem opposite, they both have roots in serving political interests. Likewise,
both actions have serious implications and could set undesired precedents.
Importance as an MIS
student
As an MIS student, this is
important to be aware of because it involves new use of technology, sharing of
information around the globe, and cybersecurity. Google is using its technology
and infrastructure to try and solve geopolitical problems and it is important
to keep up to date with the different ways tech is being utilized. The article
also brings up the fact that information is censored in places like China and
Iran. As potentially global business people, this article is a reminder for MIS
students to keep a global perspective because information, tech, and IS might
not behave the same abroad as in the United States. Lastly, the article also brings up the
importance of cybersecurity, a key field for MIS students to follow and
monitor.
Thank you for the awesome article! As an MIS student that has chosen to focus more on the Information and Cyber Security aspects of the MIS program, I was highly interested in this topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you said regarding the relevance and importance to MIS students. This service that Google has provided news outlets is almost unheard of up until this point. As more and more companies and nations push for net neutrality, I really think that this service epitomizes the push for the free flow of information. Google continuously pushes the limits in the services that they freely provide their customers in order to leave a positive impact in today's society.
The thing that resided with me the most in this article was Google's approach to promoting free speech and limiting outside censorship. No matter what side you are on in any scenario, there is a basic sense of Civil Rights that need to be adhered to. And in this case, Google is helping protect those rights of people and news organizations all over the world. Now, some of those organizations may not always be truthful in their posts, but that is for their viewership to decide. DDoS attacks creating censorship reduced the information available for readers to inform themselves of what should be heard...not what governments want to be heard. I am excited to see what comes of this new service!
Very good article and write-up. I think Google and other tech companies are going to show that they are not the company they used to be, but are paving the way to better protections (instead of less). It'd be better if they could work with news agencies in other countries that do not have freedom of the press, right?
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