Electronic Security Have you ever wondered what happens to your credit card number when it is sent through a "secure" server to Yahoo or Amazon? Have you ever wondered: is my data safe? Unfortunately, no activity on the Internet is private or secure. Everything stored on a home system is completely vulnerable to the outside world (unless, of course, the system is isolated from the Internet). Another thing to think about is the fact that any data on any type of disk can be recovered. Therefore, if a damaged disk is discarded, the data can be recovered with the right tools. The same goes for computer hard drives, flash memories, compact discs, etc... In reality, there are people who recover data for their own income. These people usually don't discriminate against one customer or another, they just extract data and hand it on a silver platter. In the movie The Net, Mrs. Bennett (Sandra Bullock) works for a software company. He beta tests and debugs programs. She finds dangerous information that ultimately launches her into an epic battle against a group of terrorist hackers with her life and identity at stake. Could this really happen? In theory, someone's life could be ruined and/or stolen. To gain control of an entire country's databases and networks would require a better plan than the movie's plot. To have access to secure national data; a very powerful decryption program would be needed, as well as a way to hide the entry point. Having contact "from the inside" wouldn't hurt either. The plot of the film seems a little far-fetched. Dominating the world is not as easy as Hollywood seems. In the real world most network hacking is used to hide secret events and information, which could be... middle of paper... the choice is to be careful about the information released to the public, forcing anyone who wants doing harm works for information. Electronic security is a false concept, because humans created the code or encryption. So other humans might also come up with ways to disrupt or change other people's work. It's impossible to create code so amazing that it becomes indestructible. If it is invented by a human mind, in time it can be understood and used by another human mind. Works cited online. Screenplay by John Brancato, Michael Ferris. Director Irwin Winkler. Perf. Sandra Bullock, Ray McKinnon, Jeremy Northam. Columbia Pictures, Winkler Films. 1995. Holeton, Richard. Composing cyberspace: Identity, community, and knowledge in the electronic age. New York, San Francisco, St. Louis: Stanford University, 1998 (Wolves of the Highlands. 132-142)