Software can produce great good but with it come the ability to do great harm

Background

There are both advantages and disadvantages to the software we use in our daily lives, from apps on your mobile phone to self service terminals at supermarkets. However there are some services the majority of people won't have heard of in their lives never mind used, these are services like the TOR project which aims to make tracking of users much harder in order to allow private communications across a less open internet. Although TOR was initially created for use by the us military it was released to the wider public in 2004 raising many concerns to its reliability.

How it can be beneficial:

One of the main benefits of advancement of software is that we can utilize it in such a way in that we can advance the medical field. For example, we will be able to use software to create a 3D representation of the human anatomy that we can then implement into people who need replacements like hip and shoulder joints. Another one of the major benefits of software is that we can augment what we actually see. This is good in different fields like construction, health care and military. An example of this is in the army, This is because they use a device like a Microsoft HoloLens and they can then augment vision with a heads up display of nearby motion detectors that alerts the user. The lens itself displays, but does not detect. This also results in more powerful weapons and therefore more death which is a downside.

TOR

TOR enables users to browse the web and post things anonymously, this is accomplished by using encryption to hide the information, this can be a good thing because journalists can use this to post anonymously however TOR can be used for many bad things such as sales of illegal items, child predators, pornography and counterfeiting.

BitCoin

Bitcoin (₿) is a cryptocurrency, a form of electronic cash. It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user to user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain.

Disadvantages

There is a real vulnerability of Bitcoin wallets when it comes to hacking attacks and theft. A report by a team of researchers from Edinburgh University said they found weak spots in hardware wallets that can be exploited. According to the same research, even the heavily encrypted hardware wallets were still vulnerable due to that loophole. Using malware, hackers were able to intercept communication between the wallet and PCs. This security breach affects the privacy of Bitcoin users because their funds can easily be diverted to different accounts.