Compsci 82, Fall 2009, Final III Questions

These are the class answers to the third set of online final questions.

Question 1 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.75 points

Third party cookies can be used to track a browser-user going to different sites. Which of the following is a characteristic of third party cookies.

Answers Percent Answered

Third party cookies cannot be deleted by users because they come from a third party, not the site whose URL is entered in the browser.
3.521%

Third party cookies are often disseminated in email messages as 1-pixel image files that don't appear visible to the user, but email programs like Outlook save the cookies. Using gmail or other webmail protects against this "cookie-dissemination" by a third party.
10.563%

Third party cookies can track a user over multiple sites only when the same third party site is used by the multiple sites, e.g., as when a tacoda.net cookie is served by jcrew.com, jjill.com, and bluefly.com.
75.352%

Third party cookies use a different text format than "regular" cookies, it's this different text format that makes the cookies potentially dangerous in terms of tracking a user across multiple sites during a session of online shopping and browsing.
9.155%

Unanswered 1.408%

Question 2 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.69 points

Some URLs include information coded into the URL about the content that should be served as in the Youtube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbKmDGpZrYE&feature=related

Which of the following is true about this kind of URL?

Answers Percent Answered

Encoding information into the URL via parameters separated by question marks or ampersands will not work in Google's Chrome browser because the browser uses unicode rather than ASCII to process the characters in the URL.
5.634%

Information encoded into the URL can help the website know not only what content to serve, but where the link came from, or which user sent the link --- lots of different information can be encoded/represented in the information that's part of the URL.
69.014%

URLs that contain embedded/encoded information only work because both the IETF and the w3c (world wide web consortium) have approved standards that permit such URLs. Browser software is required by law to conform to these standards to ensure interoperability across platforms, operating systems, and countries.
11.268%

URLs containing embedded/encoded information do NOT serve as a potential privacy threat since no personally identifying information can be encoded into the URL because the U.S. congress passed legislation making this illegal in any country or company serving content to the United States.
11.972%

Unanswered 2.113%

Question 3 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.75 points

Latanya Sweeney and other researchers have identified supposedly anonymous individuals by using databases of information when given a person's birthdate and zipcode. Which one of the following is NOT true about this kind of privacy research?

Answers Percent Answered

Although Prof. Sweeney was able to identify individuals in Cambridge, MA this kind of research has been replicated elsewhere, so this kind of "invasion of privacy" is a concern in many areas.
9.859%

Social security numbers can be partially revealed just by knowing where a person was born, e.g., by their zipcode, because the SSNs are allocated in chunks, e.g., sharing several digits in common by geographic area.
9.155%

Facebook and other social networking sites can exacerbate these privacy concerns because users post personal information without realizing the information can reveal more about them than they may intend to be revealed.
3.521%

When encryption is embraced by Internet users these kinds of privacy concerns will essentially disappear since encrypted information cannot reveal information without the key that "unlocks" the encryption.
75.352%

Unanswered 2.113%

Question 4 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.7 points

Which one of the following is NOT true about Bittorrent and its use?

Answers Percent Answered

Bittorrent is only used for downloading music, videos, and software in violation of copyright laws. The legal use of Bittorrent as a protocol has been contemplated, e.g., by Activision/Blizzard, but never actually used by any company for legal distribution of copyrighted materials.
70.423%

A file downloaded via a Bittorrent client will download more quickly if the person downloading also shares part of the file for uploading by others interested in the same file as it is being downloaded.
9.859%

The Bittorrent protocol is not protected by patent or other intellectual property restraints --- anyone can write a Bittorrent client if they have the ability and the desire without fearing legal sanctions from the inventor of Bittorrent.
13.38%

Bittorrent files can download more quickly than other p2p networks because the downloading comes from multiple bittorrent users, not from a single user on a network as is the case with Kazaa, Limewire, and most other p2p clients.
6.338%

Unanswered 0%

Question 5 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.82 points

Which one of the following is NOT true about SPAM (unsolicited email)?

Answers Percent Answered

The term Spam for unsolicited email comes from a Monty Python skit about a meat product named Spam.
11.268%

SPAM is often delivered by botnets: thousands to millions of machines that have been corrupted by viruses/malware etc. so that they can help deliver email/SPAM when given commands to do so by command/control software run by groups that rent their services to Spammers.
4.225%

Spam is not rewarding in any economic sense. Spam is only sent to annoy users and to show it's possible by hackers and groups eager to show that they can be annoying to normal/regular users.
82.394%

Sending Spam that appears to come from a known friend/user is possible because many parts of an email message header can be faked or forged.
2.113%

Unanswered 0%

Question 6 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.92 points

Prof. Astrachan used a phishing campaign to see if Compsci 82 and other Duke students could be tricked into clicking on a link in an email message. Which one of the following is NOT true about this phishing experiment?

Answers Percent Answered

Prof. Astrachan conducted the phishing experiment because Trey Anastasio, one of the members of the musical group Phish, is married to Prof. Astrachan's cousin.
92.254%

The email messages came from what seemed to be knowledgeable Duke students, e.g., the email senders knew about compsci 82 and had an email address with 'Duke' as part of the address, like dukechickee@yahoo.com
4.225%

The phishing expedition required users to authenticate with their Duke netid, but for many of the users the website asking for authentication was faked, and not a real Duke/authentication page.
1.408%

Prof. Astrachan promised points on the final exam depending on how many people clicked the link in the email message that was part of the phishing experiment.
2.113%

Unanswered 0%

Question 7 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.9 points

Which of the following is NOT true regarding Internet censorship?

Answers Percent Answered

Users use TOR, a project initially sponsored by the U.S. Navy and Government, to bypass restrictions imposed by country-wide firewalls or censors.
3.521%

Software created by a Chinese group, Falun Gong, is used to send links via email that permit users to bypass filters based on IP addresses, because the links redirect the user to a filtered IP address through another IP address.
4.225%

The group 'Reporters Without Borders' at rsf.org works to ensure that news is spread despite the efforts of many governments to filter/censor internet-based news dissemination.
1.408%

China succeeds in censoring the Internet in large part because although the Chinese population is more than a billion, virtually no one in China is online, so filtering and censorship is not logistically difficult.
90.141%

Unanswered 0.704%

Question 8 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.48 points

DNS is the domain name system that allows users to map URLs to IP addresses. In addition to the standard DNS system, with its 13 root servers, there are other DNS resolution systems, e.g., OpenDNS, Google Public DNS, UltraDNS, and others. Which of the following is LEAST likely as a reason that there are alternatives to the standard DNS system? All systems map a given URL to the same IP address.

Answers Percent Answered

The standard DNS system uses servers that run the Unix operating systems because that's what was standard when the Internet started. The newer, alternative systems can deploy Windows or Mac systems that are custom built to handle DNS queries more efficiently than Unix systems.
47.887%

The alternative DNS systems may provide faster URL to IP address mapping since they don't have to use the 13 standard root servers but can make their own custom system of servers.
14.789%

The alternative systems may be more reliable or secure and thus able to offer their services for a fee to businesses willing to pay for reliability and security.
14.085%

The groups/businesses providing free, alternative DNS services to end-users, such as Google, may be able to gather information about users and the sites they visit from the DNS requests, thus providing the groups with information that could lead to profitability.
21.127%

Unanswered 2.113%

Question 9 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.82 points

When Duke alum Ge Wang Skyped into class to discuss his work which one of the following did NOT take place?

Answers Percent Answered

Ge Wang indicated that he had never used Skyped before, and 'it rocked!'
81.69%

Ge Wang used the phrase 'it depends' in his powerpoint slides as part of his presentation.
11.268%

Ge Wang sang to the class in demonstrating the "I Am T-Pain" app his company has developed.
4.225%

Ge Wang showed how the Ocarina app displays music from some place in the world to show what a randomly selected user is playing and to increase the social aspects of the app.
2.113%

Unanswered 0.704%

Question 10 Multiple Choice Average Score 0.68 points

Which one of the following is NOT true regarding the court case we discussed in class related to Perfect10 v Google?

Answers Percent Answered

Perfect10 sued many companies including Amazon and Visa in addition to suing Google.
2.113%

Perfect10 is a company that sells hair products like Clairol's Perfect 10 as well as selling what some would consider pornographic images.
68.31%

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) both filed briefs giving their support to Perfect10 in the lawsuits.
19.014%

The courts ruled that Google's use of thumbnail images was allowable under copyright law because this use was 'transformative', so not a copyright violation.
9.859%

Unanswered 0.704%