The Commited JUNE 2022 | Page 154

TED POLATLI COLLEGE / 12-A

Privacy , Huh ? Give Me 5 !

Görkem asLaN

While chilling in the breaktime , someone challenged me to do the craziest-coolest stuff on the class computer . I bet that I could get every IP Address of the computers which were connected to the school ’ s network .
With any Terminal or Command Prompt , I could implement this task in under 30 seconds .
Give me 1 minute and I ’ ll find the response times ( Pings ) of those machines and specify the engines which slow the connection most .
Give me 5 … Probably you should not . Privacy ? That word gives me hearty laughs .
You don ’ t have to be a prodigy to understand ARP protocols or there is no need for a PhD in Computer Science to execute the procedures which I implemented . In contrast , my learning process began with me owning my first computer at the age of 17 . I encourage you to consider what I ’ d be capable of doing in those 5 minutes , meanwhile dream the limitations of what can be accomplished by someone proficient in computing at that moment .
I rephrase , if a 17-year-old guy can access your ports and IP addresses , how easy it is for a fully-educated black hat cybersecurity engineer to gain control of your online accounts , passwords ; in a nutshell , your identity as a whole ?
In the world we live in , we see big companies such as Amazon and Facebook getting breached ; the CIA getting hacked . Even the world ’ s greatest engineers cannot build impenetrable firewalls , can we speak about our privacy ?
My hope is that I brought awareness to you about our so-called security .
We are digital citizens . We ’ re drawn to share all of our information , from our birthday cakes ( Come on , we ’ ve seen these people on Instagram ), to passwords of our credit cards ( you may not “ share ” it on Facebook ; however don ’ t tell me you ’ re not shopping online ) via plethora types of networks .