Portfolio-Problem solution essay

Syria has been associated with Muslim terrorists and their effort to build an Islamic state for decades. However, recent shocking news from Syria states that they are trying to recruit females from Western countries. And the success of ISIS recruitment can be seen from the following news: Two Austrian girls, ages 15 and 16, went to Syria in April (Jihad?, 2014). At least one Canadian woman (Cbc.ca, 2015) and two teenage Somalis from Norway (English.alarabiya.net, 2015) are known to have joined jihadist groups in Syria as well. 

Allured by the terrorist online recruitment, these few Western women, especially the young ones, start to find like-minded followers from social media to build a community. They think coming to Syria and joining ISIS might bring new opportunities or equal rights. However, they are not aware of the actual situation in Syria. ISIS promotes their recruitment using platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp to reach their target audience in a language they can understand. Their methods include exploiting popular hashtags to disseminate their message, and using their Western recruits to promote the cause to other people in the home country. These militants only promote the excitement and fulfillment breeding a new generation of believers. They neglect the reality of forced marriage, sexual enslavement and women trafficking.

To protect young women from the terrorists’ ploy, Western governments have tightened their control over social media. They censor any sites promoting terrorism and punish those responsible for the existence and growth of such sites. However, it’s easier said than done because social media is becoming an essential part in the lives of many people. Censoring these sites has become impossible as it incurs the wrath of the public. The only solution the governments can resort to is shutting down growing social media web pages and punishing people, who have created, promoted and maintained them. However, there are always new upcoming web pages, and the government censorship becomes a wasted effort.

Another way to protect young women from terrorism is through education. Early education is a more appropriate and effective way to prevent women from joining these terrorist groups. The authority has the responsibility to equip students with more background knowledge of Islam even though they may not see its relevance in a Western setting. The knowledge that is taught to the young women should include the history of Islam and the Muslim views of women as cited in Kur-an. This is to provide young women with a knowledge foundation, enabling them to think, analyze and evaluate when they come into contact with the false information concerning ISIS recruitment. They should possess the ability to discern information that is provided to them before acknowledging it. Context about the knowledge basis should be incorporated into teaching materials and campaigns should be organized in order to raise the awareness among the youths. These efforts could help to train young women to be critical thinkers. This would allow them to be more conscientious and better informed, and would not act impulsively and join the recruitment of ISIS just based on the social media information.

While false information mainly floods the social media, the most effective way to tackle the problem is to post information about the actual situation in Syria on social media. While youth may not pay attention to what is taught in schools about Syria, they may learn more when such information is posted on social media. Youths tend to pay more attention to things posted on social media; therefore, posting the information on social media will be a better way to convey the messages to the youths. Efforts can be made to share about experiences and feelings from girls who already made it to Syria for ISIS recruitment. They are the most effective examples of having false expectation and being lured to Syria due to the misleading information on social media. These girls and their experience are the most persuasive ones to wake up the other Western young women from their female fighter dreams. For example, al-Khanssa, whose Tumblr photo blog is full of guidance for would-be female jihadists, girls like her and their experience can be made use of to alert the other young women and to remind them what the actual situation is in Syria. To any woman who thinks coming to Syria and joining ISIS might bring new opportunities or equal rights, al-Khanssa’s message is clear: “The main role of the muhajirah [female migrant] here is to support her husband and his jihad and [God willing] to increase this ummah [Islamic community].”

In conclusion, this issue deserves more attention as when ISIS starts their Western women recruitment, we should be aware that this is part of their strategy to expand internationally. We may end up helpless when ISIS will be finally extending its control to other countries if this problem is not tackled in time. Awareness should be raised among the Western young women and they should realise what the difference between their expectation on ISIS and the actual situation in Syria is.

(839 words)

References

Cbc.ca,. (2015). The life of a jihadi wife: Why one Canadian woman joined ISIS's Islamic state. Retrieved 19 April 2015, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/the-life-of-a-jihadi-wife-why-one-canadian-woman-joined-isis-s-islamic-state-1.2696385

English.alarabiya.net,. (2015). Retrieved 19 April 2015, from http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/12/06/Two-missing-Norway-sisters-are-in-Syria-lawyer-confirms.html

Hui, L. Y. (2010). Fastest growing Asian countries in Facebook. Grey Review: The Social Web Journal. Retrieved from http://www.greyreview.com/2010/06/02/fastest-growing-asian-countries-on-facebook/

Jihad?, T. (2014). Teenage Girls Seduced by the Syrian Jihad?. The Daily Beast. Retrieved 19 April 2015, from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/21/teenage-girls-seduced-by-the-syrian-jihad.html

Portfolio-Problem solution essay

Syria has been associated with Muslim terrorists and their effort to build an Islamic state for decades. However, recent shocking news from Syria states that they are trying to recruit females from Western countries. And the success of ISIS recruitment can be seen from the following news: Two Austrian girls, ages 15 and 16, went to Syria in April (Jihad?, 2014). At least one Canadian woman (Cbc.ca, 2015) and two teenage Somalis from Norway (English.alarabiya.net, 2015) are known to have joined jihadist groups in Syria as well. 

Allured by the terrorist online recruitment, these few Western women, especially the young ones, start to find like-minded followers from social media to build a community. They think coming to Syria and joining ISIS might bring new opportunities or equal rights. However, they are not aware of the actual situation in Syria. ISIS promotes their recruitment using platforms like Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp to reach their target audience in a language they can understand. Their methods include exploiting popular hashtags to disseminate their message, and using their Western recruits to promote the cause to other people in the home country. These militants only promote the excitement and fulfillment breeding a new generation of believers. They neglect the reality of forced marriage, sexual enslavement and women trafficking.

To protect young women from the terrorists’ ploy, Western governments have tightened their control over social media. They censor any sites promoting terrorism and punish those responsible for the existence and growth of such sites. However, it’s easier said than done because social media is becoming an essential part in the lives of many people. Censoring these sites has become impossible as it incurs the wrath of the public. The only solution the governments can resort to is shutting down growing social media web pages and punishing people, who have created, promoted and maintained them. However, there are always new upcoming web pages, and the government censorship becomes a wasted effort.

Another way to protect young women from terrorism is through education. Early education is a more appropriate and effective way to prevent women from joining these terrorist groups. The authority has the responsibility to equip students with more background knowledge of Islam even though they may not see its relevance in a Western setting. The knowledge that is taught to the young women should include the history of Islam and the Muslim views of women as cited in Kur-an. This is to provide young women with a knowledge foundation, enabling them to think, analyze and evaluate when they come into contact with the false information concerning ISIS recruitment. They should possess the ability to discern information that is provided to them before acknowledging it. Context about the knowledge basis should be incorporated into teaching materials and campaigns should be organized in order to raise the awareness among the youths. These efforts could help to train young women to be critical thinkers. This would allow them to be more conscientious and better informed, and would not act impulsively and join the recruitment of ISIS just based on the social media information.

While false information mainly floods the social media, the most effective way to tackle the problem is to post information about the actual situation in Syria on social media. While youth may not pay attention to what is taught in schools about Syria, they may learn more when such information is posted on social media. Youths tend to pay more attention to things posted on social media; therefore, posting the information on social media will be a better way to convey the messages to the youths. Efforts can be made to share about experiences and feelings from girls who already made it to Syria for ISIS recruitment. They are the most effective examples of having false expectation and being lured to Syria due to the misleading information on social media. These girls and their experience are the most persuasive ones to wake up the other Western young women from their female fighter dreams. For example, al-Khanssa, whose Tumblr photo blog is full of guidance for would-be female jihadists, girls like her and their experience can be made use of to alert the other young women and to remind them what the actual situation is in Syria. To any woman who thinks coming to Syria and joining ISIS might bring new opportunities or equal rights, al-Khanssa’s message is clear: “The main role of the muhajirah [female migrant] here is to support her husband and his jihad and [God willing] to increase this ummah [Islamic community].”

In conclusion, this issue deserves more attention as when ISIS starts their Western women recruitment, we should be aware that this is part of their strategy to expand internationally. We may end up helpless when ISIS will be finally extending its control to other countries if this problem is not tackled in time. Awareness should be raised among the Western young women and they should realise what the difference between their expectation on ISIS and the actual situation in Syria is.

(839 words)

References

Cbc.ca,. (2015). The life of a jihadi wife: Why one Canadian woman joined ISIS's Islamic state. Retrieved 19 April 2015, from http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/the-life-of-a-jihadi-wife-why-one-canadian-woman-joined-isis-s-islamic-state-1.2696385

English.alarabiya.net,. (2015). Retrieved 19 April 2015, from http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/world/2013/12/06/Two-missing-Norway-sisters-are-in-Syria-lawyer-confirms.html

Hui, L. Y. (2010). Fastest growing Asian countries in Facebook. Grey Review: The Social Web Journal. Retrieved from http://www.greyreview.com/2010/06/02/fastest-growing-asian-countries-on-facebook/

Jihad?, T. (2014). Teenage Girls Seduced by the Syrian Jihad?. The Daily Beast. Retrieved 19 April 2015, from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/04/21/teenage-girls-seduced-by-the-syrian-jihad.html

Portfolio-Reader's Response

In the article "The Perils of Over-sharing", Emm (2014) asserts that precautions should be taken to prevent personal information from being leaked out. He explains that we might focus too much on the convenience of Internet and neglect the danger of sharing unnecessary events online. Emm stresses that over-sharing might not only cause personal consequences, but might also threaten the organization we work for. The author also states that users might not be careful when using mobile devices as they are not typical targets of cybercriminals. In conclusion, they should be cautious when using the Internet.

While I agree with the author’s view on our over-reliance on the Internet, I believe that Emm is exaggerating the issue. Emm states that the providers of the applications are able to access users’ information when the applications are being used, and that reliance on the Internet and applications “exposes the minutiae of our daily lives”. However, the users provide their personal information only because it’s promised to be kept confidential. Users are merely providing limited information to gain the access, but the providers of the applications and Government are the ones snooping and intercepting. Thus, this should not be the consequence of over-sharing, but rather the result of snooping and intercepting by the authorities.

I think that Emm also overstates this point: “if someone steals your smartphone or tablet, they get access to all your information too.” This is not likely to happen, as there are security settings designed to prevent such problems. For example, users may set up “two-factor authentication” for their iCloud, which means they have to supply two factors to log in, instead of logging in with a password using mobile device only (Miller, 2014). For social media, there are self-destructing platforms availabe for users. For example, Snapchat is a popular and typical example of self-destructing services for photos and videos. The shared photos can only last for about ten seconds. And Secret.li allows you to decide who can view your photo, and a self-destruct timer can be set for the image to delete automatically (Kimachia, 2014).

However, I do agree that “conscious over-sharing”, which is sharing unnecessary events without filtering or setting access restriction, does cause terrifying consequences, as which is suggested by Emm. In terms of personal consequences, Emm states that “what prying eyes can see as our data travels over the Internet”. A burglary victim Lavern Cheatheam shared that "You think posting and checking in wherever you go is fun, but you are actually letting people know -- hey I am gone. Go over there and take what you want." Experts comment on social media-burglary cases that sharing too much online could make us targets for burglars (abc7NEWS, 2014).

“Our over-sharing in social networks could also jeopardise the security of the organisation we work for.” Emm asserts. In short, over-sharing causes non-personal consequences too. It is true as data stored in the corporate network is also at risk because it is more accessible than ever. In addition to that, some employees might not be alert and could easily leak out these important details and this can tip off the would-be attackers then put their company at risk (Cisco, 2008). In February 2011, Hewlett-Packard showed off its new tablet computer, which it hoped will be a rival to Apple's iPad but this did not gain much popularity due to the leakage of its design in mid-January 2011 (The Economist, 2011).

In conclusion, I do have to agree with Emm that over-sharing indeed will cause the leakage of personal information. The consequences and impacts of personal information leakage are more that what one could think of. Personal, non-personal including the organisations the users work for could be harmed. Therefore, users should pay more attention when providing personal information on any platforms. Think twice before act.

(636 words)

References

abc7news,. (2014). Burglars use social media to find next victims. Retrieved from http://abc7news.com/travel/burglars-use-social-media-to-find-next-victims/448107/

Cisco,. (2015). Data Leakage Worldwide: Common Risks and Mistakes Employees Make. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/solutions/collateral/enterprise-networks/data-loss-prevention/white_paper_c11-499060.html

Kimachia, K. (2014). Self-Destruct: The Future Of Personal Communication. MakeUseOf. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/self-destruct-the-future-of-personal-communication/

Miller, D., & Miller, D. (2015). How to set up two-factor authentication for iCloud. Macworld. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from http://www.macworld.com/article/2449450/how-to-set-up-two-factor-authentication-for-icloud.html

The Economist,. (2011). The leaky corporation. Retrieved 18 April 2015, from http://www.economist.com/node/18226961

Portfolio-Summary

In the article "The Perils of Over-sharing", Emm(2014) asserts that precautions should be taken to prevent personal information from being leaked out.He explains that we might focus too much on the convenience of Internet and neglect the danger of sharing unnecessary events online. Emm stresses that over-sharing might not only cause personal consequences, but might also threaten the organization we work for. The author also states that they might not be careful when using mobile devices as they are not typical targets of cybercriminals. In conclusion, they should be cautious when using the Internet.

(95 words)

David. E. (2014, March 21). The perils of over-sharing in social networks. Huffpost Tech. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/