The frequency of new editions of this book is indicative of the rapid and tremendous changes in the fields of computer and information sciences. First published in 1995, the book has rapidly gone through three editions already and now we are in the fourth. Over this period, we have become more dependent on computer and telecommunication technology than ever before and computer technology has become ubiquitous. Since I started writing on social computing, I have been advocating a time when we, as individuals and as nations, will become totally dependent on computing technology. That time is almost on us. Evidence of this is embodied in the rapid convergence of telecommunication, broadcasting, and computing devices; the miniaturization of these devices; and the ever increasing storage capacity, speed of computation, and ease of use. These qualities have been a big pulling force sucking in millions of new users every day, sometimes even those unwilling. Other appealing features of these devices are the increasing number of applications, apps, as they are increasingly becoming known, and being wireless and easily portable. Whether small or big, these new gizmos have become the centerpiece of an individual’s social and economic activities and the main access point for all information. Individuals aside, computing technology has also become the engine that drives the nations’ strategic and security infrastructures that control power grids, gas and oil storage facilities, transportation, and all forms of national communication, including emergency services. These developments have elevated cyberspace to be the most crucial economic and security domains of nations. US President Barack Obama has classified cyberspace security and cyber threat as one of the most serious economic and national security challenges the United States is facing as a nation.1 He, in particular, classified the country’s computer networks to be the national security priority. What led to this has been a consistent and growing problem of cyber threats. In 2007 alone, the Pentagon reported nearly 44,000 incidents of malicious cyber activities carried out by foreign militaries, intelligence agencies, and individual hackers. In April 2009, the US government admitted, after reports, that the nation’s power grid is vulnerable to cyber attack, following reports that it has been infiltrated by foreign spies. According to reports, there is a pretty strong consensus in the security community that the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition), an industrial control system that is used to monitor and control industrial, infrastructure, or facility-based processes, has not kept pace with the rest of the industry; it needs, if not total replacement, at least a detailed update to keep abreast of rapid changes in technology. According to the Wall Street Journal, the intruders had not sought to damage the power grid or any other key infrastructure so far, but suggested that they could change their approach in the event of a crisis or war. The motives behind these potential attacks are undoubtedly military, economic, and political.2 There are almost similar stories with other countries. The rising trend in cyber attacks, many of them with lightening speed, affecting millions of computers worldwide and in the process causing a loss of billions of dollars to individuals and businesses, may be an indication of how unprepared we are to handle such attacks not only now but also in the future. It may also be a mark of the poor state of our cyberspace security policies and the lack of will to implement these policies and develop protocols and build facilities that will diminish the effects of these menacing activities if not eliminating them altogether. It is encouraging though to hear that at last governments have started to act. For example, the US government has started to take all aspects of cyber crime very seriously and the department of defense (DoD) has formed an entire cyber command to handle online threats to the country. The United Kingdom (UK) has also launched a cyber defense program and both countries are in possession of and are building more effective cyber warfare capabilities. They are not the only one. This is not limited to the United States and the United Kingdom alone; a number of other countries including China and Russia are also building their own capabilities. There is a growing realization that the next big war may probably be fought in cyberspace. One hopes, though, that as these governments prepare defensive stances, they also take steps to protect the individual citizens. As we look for such defensive strategies, the technological race is picking up speed with new technologies that make our efforts and existing technologies on which these strategies based obsolete in shorter and shorter periods. All these illustrate the speed at which the computing environment is changing and demonstrate a need for continuous review of our defensive strategies and more importantly a need for a strong ethical framework in our computer, information and engineering science education. This has been the focus of this book and remains so in this edition.

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