The Internet Muggles Project by Re-lab

The development of malware has become more and more unpredictable in recent years. This indicates that the prevention of malware infection would become more difficult. It draws attention with turmoil and chaos, it leads to criminal acts and grand loss, but it stays underestimated for most individual Internet users. With all these trends and facts, it is surprisingly how the mainstream media reveal and discover so little of related information.
As the phenomena in this high-tech era trigger our interests to scrutinize deeper, we have read and searched a quantity of materials, e.g. reports from Anti-virus software developers, instruction and introduction videos, news on malware infections, etc. We would briefly state that the project has enlightened us in two main perspectives. First, the reliable, systematic, and profession information of malware is not easy to attain. Second, it is nearly impossible to find user-orientated contents. Thus, we have concluded that most people would have little motivation and desire to learn more about malware-related information, and even if they have some, the suitable and feasible resources are still out of their reach.
Sensing the fact that people pay little attention to prevention and protection when using computer, we have consulted a senior information security engineer, in hope of finding solution to raise people’s consciousness and comprehension of malware. The consultancy assured our determination to bring about this project. The engineer described how depressing it was the public’s refusal to acknowledge the importance of malware prevention. Her opinions motivate us to carry out this project, which starts with the interviewing Internet users, and concludes with some afterthoughts.
The project initiates with the setting of one engineer, Randy, who has tolerated too much disturbance from his friends with constant requests of malware problems. He deems that most people are ignorant of malware, and he calls them “Internet Muggles” to declare his observation of these people. The whole project, from the engineer’s narrative, will suggest the common how to know and get along with malware, and above all, it will be user-orientated to interest the audience.
Interviewing engineers and Internet users with malware-infected experiences, the project explores the risks according to the user’s habits, psychological cognition, and analyses on their crisis management. Among all interviewees, we have chosen six subjects and visualized all data related to the research. As the procedures go, we find it interesting that most subjects become more concentrated in the topic. They beware of the risks from data visualization of their user habits, and this approach succeeds catching their attention and anticipation to malware.
In the end, the project further prompts useful advice to the subjects, regarding the development of malware as an inevitable issue and existence that modern people should beware of. This project, however, serves as our enthusiasm to study more, and hopefully we will continue execution next year, to prolong our research and build a more comprehensive project.