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Internet Safety and Search Techniques

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Primary Objective

Given this course material and internet safety tools, participants will be able to conduct safe research and apply advanced search techniques. Participants will apply internet research tools and analysis techniques to refine academic research.

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Evaluating Internet Sources

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For USG Official Use Only

Internet Analysis

Internet has experienced an astronomical increase in the use of

specialized content delivery systems, such as content delivery

networks and peer-to-peer file sharing systems. Therefore, an

understanding of content delivery on the Internet now requires a detailed understanding of how

these systems are used in practice

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What is WWW Information?

Publicly available

Editable materials, personal sites, business, government, friendly and un-friendly sites.

With a web browser, one can view web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them via hyperlinks.

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Step #1: Research

There are four very important questions you should answer before engaging in internet

research:

1. Who are you trying to engage?

2. What communication tools are you using?

3. Where are you getting the information?

4. How are you vetting your internet sources?

For USG Official Use Only

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Step #2: Understanding the tools

Based on the answers to the previous questions you then can take a look at your options, including:

1. Traditional Media Radio

Newspaper

Television

Press Release

2. Social Media Social Networks

Mobile

Online Chats

Blogs

Virtual Worlds

Wikis

3. Web siteFor USG Official Use Only

When deciding to use a internet site/tool make sure it has Terms of

Service agreement and “about us” link. It is ok to use a tool without Terms of

Service in place, but it is important that a site must have an “about us” link.

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Step #3: Resources

Internet/World Wide Web (WWW) Use the internet to conduct preliminary searches

Use links that looks valid and credible

Use a librarian to ask for safe sites/links

Use online resources .edu; .gov; .org

Network with colleagues

Field researchExample: Sit in a café and observe how people are interacting

with others. Are they text messaging? Are they on Facebook on their computers? You can learn a lot from life study observations.

For USG Official Use Only

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Step #4:Putting the answers into action

When conducting internet research you must have a plan.

1. What are your objectives?

2. What are you trying to achieve?

3. Who are you engaging?

4. Why?

5. How do they communicate?

6. Which tools do they use?

For USG Official Use Only

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Be aware before using social media

1. Legal issues

2. Privacy Read the Privacy Terms for more information

3. Records management Check with the librarian for additional information

4. Security

5. Accessibility

For USG Official Use Only

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Benefits

Ask yourself:

What am I going to get out of using these tools?

Make sure to list your reasons!

For USG Official Use Only

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QUESTIONS?

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Internet Persona

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The World Wide Web–Online Footprint

Who sees you (your IP) on the Internet

Website Administrators

Security Personnel

Internet Service Providers

Proxy Sites

Records that can be retained indefinitely

Computer Configuration (e.g. browser, operating system, Internet Services)

A profile of your interests based on surfing habits

Patterns about subjects and searches of interest

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Persona–What it is & What It Reveals

Identifies:Where you appear to connect from

Who you say you are when accessing sites

Reveals:Type and version of your operating system and browser

Your Internet Service Provider Name

Email Verification

Your time zone and location

Your organizational affiliation

Cookies

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Who Does It Reveal This To?

EVERY WEB SERVER

EVERY WEB PAGE

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Internet Persona Concerns

Should you be concerned about:

Searches on sensitive topics that reveal organization interest?

Accessing personal accounts to perform research or while performing research?

Research on foreign sites?

Don’t Do it!

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Anonymizer–What is It?

A tool that attempts to make activity on the internet untraceable

Accesses the Internet on the user's behalf to try and protect personal information by hiding the source computer's identifying information

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ARE NOT ENTIRELY SECURE

Capable of man in the middle attacks

Cannot filter out malicious code that may reveal the identity of user

Present a high value target to opponents

Anonymizers–Things to Consider

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Cookies–What are they?

Small text files stored on the hard drive and used to recognize a user when the return to a particular site

May contain a wide range of information about previous visits to a web site

Can be used to track surfing habits and to build a demographic profile

Remember: Clear your Cookies after every search topic!

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Cookies–The Reality

Cookies cannot:

Give your computer a virus

Access anything on the hard drive

Cookies can allow personal and organizational information to be:

stored - the more information given the more information accessible

accessed by/sold to third parties without consent or knowledge

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Online Threats–Spyware/Adware

Spyware

collects demographic and usage information and sends the information to a third party

usually bundled as a hidden component of freeware and shareware applications

Adware

A software package or application that automatically plays, displays, or downloads advertisements

often bundled into other software - user may be unaware it is being downloaded and installed

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Online Threats–Phishing

“Faking” a webpage or online form to deceive the user into taking action to their detriment, for example:

Visiting a rogue site

Loading software or running an application

Slightly modifying the name of a website or the domain extension

To reduce the risk:

Directly type in website address

Don’t click on a link in an email

Look up URLs carefully and verify authenticity

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Online Threats–Malicious Code

Viruses

Transfers malicious code to other programs or files by

modifying or “infecting” them

Typically requires human interaction to initiate

• May be designed to activate on a certain date or

when specified conditions occur

Typically downloaded inadvertently, for example by

opening an e-mail message attachment

Often in the form of executable files or embedded in

Microsoft Word macros

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Online Threats–Malicious Code

Trojan Horses

Malicious code that does something other than, or in

addition to, what the victim expects

• May use a clever name to disguise its true

purpose,

• Possibly embed the malicious portion within a

desirable program, such as a computer utility

Often imported via email attachments

Typically requires the user to run the program

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Online Threats Countermeasures

Virus protection

Set automatic operating system security updates

Know who has access to the network, system, site, or page

Delete cookies often

Change browsers often

Do NOT provide or use any personal information when conducting open source research

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Email–Things to Consider

Do:

Use an approved pseudonym to create a work only email account – change account every quarter or six months

Delete e-mail from unrecognized senders

Log in ONLY from work

Do not:

Interact with users from sites you are collecting from

Send emails to government or work affiliated sites

Conduct personal business

Create mailing lists of colleagues unless authorized

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Online Searches–Things to Consider

Search engines retain the terms you search on

Intermittently search for unrelated topics

Use multiple search engines

Do NOT click on a link from a search result – copy and paste it into another window

Do NOT use classified search terms

Protect yourself (personally and professionally)

The less information online – the better

Don’t search on your name and your organization

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Social Networks–Things to Consider

If you access social networking sites to conduct open source research and collection – Do not use personal account

Never comment or post:

Material that affiliates you with your organization

Information obtained through official business

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QUESTIONS?

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Internet Research and

Google Techniques

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Googlebot - Web crawler that finds and fetches web pages

Indexer - Sorts every word on every page and stores the resulting index of words in a huge database

Query processor, which compares your search query to the index and recommends the documents it considers most relevant

How Google Works

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How Google Works (cont)

PageRank - How Google “Recommends” Results

Over a hundred factors in computing PageRank

Numeric value representing importance of that page. More links to a page the more important (and Google believes

relevant) the page

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Google ignores punctuation, except in: Popular terms (C++; C#)

Search operators

Capitalization does not matter, except in: Search operators (site: not SITE)

Remember - No spaces before or after colons!

Google General Rules

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Expanded Google personal search

Search results based on 180 days of search activity

To disable:

• Signing In

• Click on “Web History”

• Click on “Disable customizations”

Best Practices

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Interface language: English

Search language: Tick Applicable Languages

Safe Search filtering: Tick “Do not filter my search results”

Depending on cookie settings, this may be reset

Best Practices - Search Settings

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Do not click on titles of your results

Do copy & paste URL in the address line of a new page or tab

Do right click and use Copy Shortcut into a new window or tab

Best Practices–Security & Privacy

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Search terms AND order they’re entered affect both the order and the pages that appear in your search

Use words likely to appear on the pages you want Avoid using questions

USE: [pakistan fertilizer production] NOT: [paper on pakistan fertilizer production] Google limits search terms to 32 characters…use

them to focus your search!

Selecting Search Terms

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Not sure what words might appear on the page you’re looking for?

Try www.googlefight.com

Selecting Search Terms

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AND Space defaults to AND on most search engines Middle East Terrorism Qaboos bin Said Al Said

OR Must be typed and capitalized MYM OR “al Shabaab” Hezbollah OR Hezballah OR Hizballah

Basic Boolean Search Operators

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-

Always a space before and never a space after Jordan Jordan -Crossing

" " “government of Syria“ “improvised explosive device” “Karzai said” “economic policy”

Basic Boolean Search Operators

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Basic Boolean Search Operators

.. digital camera 8 to 12 megapixels $1000 "digital camera" "8..12" megapixels ..$1000

*

Acts as a placeholder for unknown term(s) and then Google find the best matches

Works only on whole words, not parts of words

[Senate voted * to * Iraq bill]

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Other Useful Search Shortcuts

Definitions define:burka define:negus

Spell checking Gibooti

Calculator 25% of 79.99 (5 * 9) + (sqrt(10)^3)

Stock information stocks:intc

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Other Useful Search Shortcuts

Unit conversions 1 foot 3 inches in meters 100 USD in Euro

Base/notation conversions

1977 in roman numerals (0x0F + 0x0F) in arabic

numerals

Country codes 265

Global time time Doha, Qatar

Global weather weather Kabul

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Using Google for Research

Basic Search Techniques

Advanced Google Search Techniques

site

Inurl, intitle, intext

filetype

info

dates

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Searches within a specific Website Cnn.com and Kuwait

Site:www.cnn.com kuwait

Search top-level domains “Iraq NGOs”

“Iraq NGOs” site:com

“Iraq NFOs” site:edu

site:

Searching Google

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Site can narrow search to a country domain or specific site Your_search_terms site:xx

- “World bank statistics" site:jo

Country code does not mean server is in that country site:ng

- Why might some web sites be registered in Nigeria?

Searching Google

site:

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Search sites in a foreign language site:sa

Get specific types of indexed data from a web site site:usf.edu - then click on Images site:state.gov Hillsborough

site: and Google Tools

Searching Google

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Searches for specific file types

Heroin Mexico filetype:pdf

intext:"limited distribution“ terrorism filetype:doc

“crisis in Darfur” filetype:pdf site:gov

drugs afghanistan filetype:ppt

filetype:

Limiting Your Search

Limitations:

Only one file type per query

Limited file type choices

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Be aware of your search syntax: site:apple.com site:www.apple.com

Remember

Searching Google

http://www.google.com/help/cheatsheet.html

http://www.googleguide.com/help/calculator.html

Google Search Help:

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Tells Google to search for the provided terms in the URL

Can be useful after a pattern is discovered site:news24.com site:news24.com inurl:content inurl:2010

inurl:

Searching Google

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• What is the difference between site & inurl?

site:mako.co.il sports

inurl:mako.co.il sports

Inurl & site

inurl:cia.gov

site:cia.gov

Searching Google

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Examples of some basic inurl: search queries

inurl:AQIM

inurl:afghanistan site:cnn.com

inurl:blog site:xx (choose country code)

inurl:news site:mtrk.uz/en

inurl:

Searching Google

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intitle restricts query to web page titles

Search “political stability” Saudi Arabia intitle:“political stability” Saudi Arabia intitle:"political stability" site:sa

intitle:

Searching Google

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intext searches for text in bodyUseful for finding e-mail addresses, zip codes, and other

information that is URL-likeMay help with defunct websites

Search intext:“president" site:maktoob.com intext:gmail.com site:mako.co.il

intext:

Searching Google

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info: provides information about a site

info:www.searchlores.org

info:

Searching Google

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Querying information based on date is difficult No universal formatting No date info or daily time stamping standards Date created compared to date indexed

Don’t forget to account for culture

Information on methods for searching on dates is out there.

date

Searching Google

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1. Compare the differences between: a) inurl:media analysis b) inurl:"media analysis"

2. Find a presentation (PPT) on water management in Pakistan

3. Find a blog in Afghanistan that discusses health issues

4. Find quotes by Bashar al-Assad on the economy of Syria

Check on Learning 3

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Other Google Search Tools

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Because Google can’t do it all Search more of the web Get more options in results

More focused results (domain, topic specific, deep web, etc)

Take advantage of human selectivityLibrarians’ Internet IndexInfoMineGoogle Custom Search Engines (CSE) Malhalo (Human-powered)

Why Beyond Google?

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Beyond Google

www.yippy.com (formerly Clusty) Deep web search - Finds typically difficult to locate pages and databases Ex. Obscure government information, academic research, tough-to-find obscure news

www.exalead.com Excellent all around search engine Displays results with screen shots (timesaver)

www.bing.com (formerly Live Search) Answers the question – the “Decision Engine” Integrated with Facebook Soon to be integrated with Yahoo (2012)

www.webopedia.com Encyclopedic resource dedicated to techno terminology and computer information

www.completeplanet.com/ Deep web search Access dynamic databases Search within data range Well-documented help section

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Anyone can put up a web page

Many pages not updated

No quality control

- most sites not “peer-reviewed”

- less trustworthy than scholarly publications

Why Evaluate What You Find on the Web?

Critical Evaluation

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Look at the URL - personal page or site ? ~ or % or users or members

Domain name appropriate for the content ?

-Restricted: edu, gov, mil, a few country codes (ca)

-Unrestricted: com, org, net, most country codes (us, uk)

Published by an entity that makes sense ? -News from its source?

www.nytimes.com-Advice from valid agency?

www.nih.gov/www.nimh.nih.gov/

Before you CLICK!

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Can you tell who wrote it ?name of page authororganization, institution, agency you recognize

Credentials for the subject matter ?

Look for links to:

“About us” “Philosophy” “Background” “Biography”

Is it recent or current enough ?Look for “last updated” date

Scan the Perimeter of the PAGE

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Search the URL in alexa.com

Click on “Overview”

Who links to the site? Who owns the domain?

What did the site look like in the past?

(Archive.org (Previously Wayback Machine)

Do Some Detective Work

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Which blogs link to it? What do they say?

Try the URL in Google Blog Search

See what links are in Google’s “Similar pages”

Look up the page author in Google

Do Some Detective Work (cont)

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Was the page put on the web to

inform ?

persuade ?

sell ?

as a parody or satire ?

Is it appropriate for your purpose?

Does it all ADD up?

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Search a controversial topic in Google

nuclear Armageddon

prisons danger

“stem cells” abortion

Scan the first two pages of results

Visit one or two sites

evaluate their quality and reliability

Corroborate With other Sites

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Google™pedia: The Ultimate Google Resource

Second Edition, 2007

Web Search Garage

by Tara Calishain, 2004

Google® Power Tools Bible

by Ted Coombs; Roderico DeLeon, 2007

Available as e-books via Safari database on OpenSource.gov

Free Guides

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All available in e-book format via Safari

database on OpenSource.gov

Free Guides

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Invisible web content

Meeting Index (www.interdok.com) Migration Policy Institute (migrationinformation.org) World Research Institute (earthtrends.wri.org) International Freshwater Treaties Databases (www.transboundarywaters.orst.edu) OAIster (www.oaister.org) Archnet (www.archnet.org) National Geographic Publication Index (http://publicationsindex.nationalgeographic.com)

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Web Directories

Bubl.ac.uk

Intute.ac.uk

UMich Government Documents Center

UColorado’s Foreign Information by Country -

Librarian’s Internet

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QUESTIONS?