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The Diverse World of Cybersecurity Teams
In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, organizations face a constant battle against cyber threats. To defend their assets, they rely on skilled cybersecurity teams, each equipped with unique approaches and expertise. Like the colors of a rainbow, these teams represent various perspectives and play critical roles in safeguarding digital assets. In this blog, we’ll delve into the world of cybersecurity teams and explore the strengths and specialties of the Red, Blue, Purple, Orange, Yellow, Green, and White teams.
The Red Team
The Red Team is the aggressor, simulating cyberattacks to identify vulnerabilities in an organization’s defenses. Their main objective is to find weaknesses before malicious actors do. Red Team members employ ethical hacking techniques to launch attacks such as penetration testing, social engineering, and network exploitation. Their findings help organizations patch vulnerabilities and enhance their security posture.
The Blue Team
On the other side of the spectrum is the Blue Team, responsible for defense and incident response. They focus on monitoring networks, identifying potential threats, and swiftly responding to security incidents. Blue Team members use tools like SIEM (Security Information and Event Management) to detect and mitigate attacks. Their ability to identify and neutralize threats is crucial in minimizing the impact of security breaches.
The Purple Team
The Purple Team is a combination of the Red and Blue Teams, emphasizing collaboration and information-sharing. In essence, they facilitate communication between the offensive and defensive teams, ensuring that both sides benefit from each other’s insights. By working together, they can develop more comprehensive security strategies and ensure the organization is better prepared to face sophisticated threats.
The Orange Team
The Orange Team focuses on threat intelligence and proactive threat hunting. They gather data from various sources, including cyber threat intelligence feeds, to understand the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by potential adversaries. This information allows them to preemptively adjust security measures and proactively seek out potential threats before they become imminent risks.
The Yellow Team
In contrast to the Red Team’s offensive approach, the Yellow Team focuses on creating robust security awareness training programs. They educate employees about cybersecurity best practices, the importance of strong passwords, recognizing phishing attempts, and other security-related topics. The Yellow Team plays a pivotal role in building a security-conscious culture within the organization, reducing the likelihood of successful social engineering attacks.
The Green Team
The Green Team is the sustainability arm of the cybersecurity effort. They concentrate on ensuring that the organization’s cybersecurity practices adhere to industry standards, regulations, and compliance requirements. Green Team members continually assess the organization’s security posture, conduct audits, and make recommendations to maintain compliance and minimize risk.
The White Team
Last but not least, the White Team oversees security assessments and exercises to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the cybersecurity program. They coordinate simulated cyber incidents and red teaming exercises to stress-test the organization’s defenses. The White Team’s findings and recommendations drive continuous improvement in the organization’s cybersecurity capabilities.
The cybersecurity landscape is complex and ever-changing, requiring a multi-faceted approach to protect valuable assets. Each color-coded cybersecurity team has its unique role, and they work in synergy to ensure a robust defense against cyber threats. The Red Team tests the organization’s vulnerabilities, the Blue Team stands guard, the Purple Team fosters cooperation, the Orange Team hunts for threats, the Yellow Team educates employees, the Green Team ensures compliance, and the White Team assesses and improves overall security.
In this vibrant rainbow of cybersecurity teams, collaboration, communication, and continuous improvement are the keys to success. By understanding and appreciating the contributions of each team, organizations can build a strong cybersecurity strategy that protects against the diverse array of threats that exist in the digital realm. Contact ITAdOn for your cybersecurity consultation. | <urn:uuid:2362b36f-c2e5-4170-873b-cef4c5566f45> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://itadon.com/blog/the-cybersecurity-team-showdown/ | 2024-09-08T12:40:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651002.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908115103-20240908145103-00598.warc.gz | en | 0.920237 | 791 | 2.640625 | 3 |
What is Cloud Data Security?
Cloud data security refers to the technologies, policies, services and security controls that protect any type of data in the cloud from loss, leakage or misuse through breaches, exfiltration and unauthorized access. A robust cloud data security strategy should include:
- Ensuring the security and privacy of data across networks as well as within applications, containers, workloads and other cloud environments
- Controlling data access for all users, devices and software
- Providing complete visibility into all data on the network
The cloud data protection and security strategy must also protect data of all types. This includes:
- Data in use: Securing data being used by an application or endpoint through user authentication and access control
- Data in motion: Ensuring the safe transmission of sensitive, confidential or proprietary data while it moves across the network through encryption and/or other email and messaging security measures
- Data at rest: Protecting data that is being stored on any network location, including the cloud, through access restrictions and user authentication
How secure is the cloud?
Theoretically, the cloud is no more or less secure than a physical server or data center so long as the organization has adopted a comprehensive, robust cybersecurity strategy that is specifically designed to protect against risks and threats in a cloud environment.
And therein lies the problem: Many companies may not realize that their existing security strategy and legacy tooling, such as firewalls, do not protect assets hosted in the cloud. For this reason, organizations must fundamentally reconsider their security posture and update it to meet the security requirements of this new environment.
Another big misconception about the cloud is that the cloud provider is responsible for all security functions, including data security. In fact, cloud security follows what is referred to as the shared responsibility model.
Hence, cloud security — and, by extension, cloud data security — is a shared responsibility between the cloud service provider (CSP) and its customers.
Why should businesses store data in the cloud?
Organizations have shifted to the cloud because it is a key enabler of almost every digital business transformation strategy. When it comes to cloud data storage, specifically, organizations can unlock valuable benefits, such as:
- Lower costs: Cloud storage is generally more affordable for businesses and organizations because the infrastructure costs are shared across users.
- Resource optimization: Typically speaking, in a cloud model, the CSP is responsible for maintaining cloud-based servers, hardware, databases or other cloud infrastructure elements. In addition, the organization no longer needs to host or maintain on-premises components. This not only decreases overall IT costs but allows staff to be redeployed to focus on other issues, such as customer support or business modernization.
- Improved access: Cloud-hosted databases can be accessed by any authorized user, from virtually any device, in any location in the world so long as there is an internet connection — a must for enabling the modern digital workforce.
- Scalability: Cloud resources, such as databases, are flexible, meaning they can be quickly spun up or down based on the variable needs of the business. This allows the organization to manage surges in demand or seasonal spikes in a more timely and cost-effective way.
Business Risks to Storing Data in the Cloud
Though storing data within the cloud offers organizations many important benefits, this environment is not without challenges. Here are some risks businesses may face of storing data in the cloud without the proper security measures in place:
1. Data breaches
Data breaches occur differently in the cloud than in on-premises attacks. Malware is less relevant. Instead, attackers exploit misconfigurations, inadequate access, stolen credentials and other vulnerabilities.
Misconfigurations are the No. 1 vulnerability in a cloud environment and can lead to overly permissive privileges on accounts, insufficient logging and other security gaps that expose organizations to cloud breaches, insider threats and adversaries who leverage vulnerabilities to gain access to data.
3. Unsecured APIs
Businesses often use APIs to connect services and transfer data, either internally or to partners, suppliers, customers and others. Because APIs turn certain types of data into endpoints, changes to data policies or privilege levels can increase the risk of unauthorized access to more data than the host intended.
4. Access control/unauthorized access
Organizations using multi-cloud environments tend to rely on default access controls of their cloud providers, which becomes an issue particularly in a multi-cloud or hybrid cloud environment. Inside threats can do a great deal of damage with their privileged access, knowledge of where to strike, and ability to hide their tracks.
6 Cloud Data Security Best Practices
To ensure the security of their data, organizations must adopt a comprehensive cybersecurity strategy that addresses data vulnerabilities specific to the cloud.
Key elements of a robust cloud data security strategy include:
1. Leverage advanced encryption capabilities
One effective way to protect data is to encrypt it. Cloud encryption transforms data from plain text into an unreadable format before it enters the cloud. Data should be encrypted both in transit and at rest.
There are different out-of-the-box encryption capabilities offered by cloud service providers for data stored in block and object storage services. To protect the security of data-in-transit, connections to cloud storage services should be made using encrypted HTTPS/TLS connections.
Data encryption is by default enabled in cloud platforms using platform-managed encryption keys. However, customers can gain additional control over this by bringing their own keys and managing them centrally via encryption key management services in the cloud. For organizations with stricter security standards and compliance requirements, they can implement native hardware security module (HSM)-enabled key management services or even third-party services for protecting data encryption keys.
2. Implement a data loss prevention (DLP) tool.
Data loss prevention (DLP) is part of a company’s overall security strategy that focuses on detecting and preventing the loss, leakage or misuse of data through breaches, exfiltration and unauthorized access.
A cloud DLP is specifically designed to protect those organizations that leverage cloud repositories for data storage.
3. Enable unified visibility across private, hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
Unified discovery and visibility of multi-cloud environments, along with continuous intelligent monitoring of all cloud resources are essential in a cloud security solution. That unified visibility must be able to detect misconfigurations, vulnerabilities and data security threats, while providing actionable insights and guided remediation.
4. Ensure security posture and governance.
Another key element of data security is having the proper security policy and governance in place that enforces golden cloud security standards, while meeting industry and government regulations across the entire infrastructure. A cloud security posture management (CSPM) solution that detects and prevents misconfigurations and control plane threats is essential for eliminating blind spots and ensuring compliance across clouds, applications and workloads.
5. Strengthen identity and access management (IAM).
Identity and access management (IAM) helps organizations streamline and automate identity and access management tasks and enable more granular access controls and privileges. With an IAM solution, IT teams no longer need to manually assign access controls, monitor and update privileges, or deprovision accounts. Organizations can also enable a single sign-on (SSO) to authenticate the user’s identity and allow access to multiple applications and websites with just one set of credentials.
When it comes to IAM controls, the rule of thumb is to follow the principle of least privilege, which means allowing required users to access only the data and cloud resources they need to perform their work.
6. Enable cloud workload protection.
Cloud workloads increase the attack surface exponentially. Protecting workloads requires visibility and discovery of each workload and container events, while securing the entire cloud-native stack, on any cloud, across all workloads, containers, Kubernetes and serverless applications. Cloud workload protection (CWP) includes vulnerability scanning and management, and breach protection for workloads, including containers, Kubernetes and serverless functions, while enabling organizations to build, run and secure cloud applications from development to production.
CrowdStrike’s Cloud Security Solutions
CrowdStrike has redefined security with the world’s most advanced cloud-native platform that protects and enables the people, processes and technologies that drive modern enterprise. The industry continues to recognize CrowdStrike as a leader, most recently with CRN naming CrowdStrike a Winner of the 2022 Tech Innovator Award for Best Cloud Security.
Powered by the CrowdStrike Security Cloud, the CrowdStrike Falcon® platform leverages real-time indicators of attack (IOAs), threat intelligence, evolving adversary tradecraft and enriched telemetry from across the enterprise to deliver hyper-accurate detections, automated protection and remediation, elite threat hunting and prioritized observability of vulnerabilities.
Learn more about CrowdStrike’s Cloud Security Solutions, including our services specific to AWS, GCP and Azure, below: | <urn:uuid:2bfa1fef-a746-4c00-b469-b8f50bd4c45e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.crowdstrike.com/cybersecurity-101/cloud-security/cloud-data-security/ | 2024-09-08T12:19:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651002.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908115103-20240908145103-00598.warc.gz | en | 0.920015 | 1,842 | 2.8125 | 3 |
This article takes a look at DKIM Selectors in particular, and we explain:
- What DKIM Selectors are
- Where to find your own DKIM Selector
- Third-Party providers and DKIM Signing
How does DKIM work?
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an email authentication method that allows an email receiver to check that an email that claimed to come from a specific domain was indeed authorized by the owner of that domain and received without any unauthorized modification to its content during transit. This is achieved through the use of cryptographic authentication with the use of a cryptographic key pair—a private key and a public key.
The Mechanics of DKIM
- Digital Signature Creation: When an email is sent, the originating email server generates a unique digital signature for the message. This signature is based on the content of the email itself, including headers and body, ensuring that any alteration of the email during transit can be detected. The signature is created using a private key known only to the sender’s domain.
- Adding the Signature: The digital signature is then added to the email as a header, known as the DKIM-Signature header. This header includes several pieces of critical information for the verification process, such as the DKIM version, the domain claiming responsibility for the email (d= tag), and the actual signature (b= tag).
- Email Transmission and Reception: Once the email is sent, it travels through the internet to reach the recipient’s email server. Along the way, it may pass through intermediary servers, each of which has the opportunity to inspect the DKIM signature if configured to do so. It is common for emails to be relayed through several servers. For instance, an organization may send an email from their Microsoft 365 account, relayed through a third-party security gateway before being delivered to the intended recipient. Automatically forwarded emails are also relayed, such as when someone with a university email address configures their mailbox to forward all incoming emails to their private Gmail account.
- Verification Process: Upon receiving the email, the recipient’s server extracts the DKIM-Signature header and uses the information within to perform a DNS query. This query looks up the public key published in the sender’s DNS records under the specific DKIM selector. The public key is then used to verify the digital signature added to the email.
- Authentication Check: If the signature matches the content of the email, it not only verifies the email’s authenticity but also ensures its integrity during transit. However, for the DKIM signature to be fully relevant in affirming the sender’s legitimacy, the signing domain specified in the DKIM-Signature header (the d= tag) must match the domain in the email’s “From” header. This alignment is critical because it ensures that the entity claiming responsibility for the email through DKIM is the same as the one indicated in the “From” address. Without this match, it would be possible for anyone to spoof the “From” header while signing the email with their own domain, undermining the trust mechanism intended by DKIM.
What are DKIM Selectors?
DKIM selectors enable the receiving email server to locate and validate the sender’s public key. A DKIM selector is essentially a method used to distinguish between multiple keys published in a single domain’s DNS records. This is particularly useful for organizations that send emails from multiple servers or services, allowing each to have its own unique DKIM signature.
How do I find my DKIM Selector?
Discovering your DKIM selector is a straightforward process that involves inspecting the headers of an email sent from your domain. Here’s how you can view these headers in two popular email clients, Gmail and Outlook. Keep in mind that these steps can vary depending on the version of your email clients, and that the steps will be different from one provider to another.
Finding your DKIM Selector in Gmail
- Open the email in question.
- Click on the three dots in the top-right corner of the email window to open the menu.
- Select “Show original” from the dropdown menu.
- A new tab or window will open, displaying the full headers and original message. Scroll or use the search function (Ctrl+F or Cmd+F) to find the “DKIM-Signature” section.
Finding your DKIM Selector in Outlook
- Double-click the email to open it in a new window.
- Go to the “File” menu and select “Properties.”
- Under the “Internet headers” section in the Properties window, you’ll find the email headers. Scroll to locate the “DKIM-Signature” line.
Sample DKIM Signature Header
Suppose you’ve sent an email from example.com, and you’re now looking at the email’s headers. You might find a DKIM-Signature header that looks something like this:
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; d=example.com; s=dkim1; c=relaxed/relaxed; …
In this fictitious example, the d=example.com part specifies the domain responsible for the email, and s=dkim1 is the selector. The selector dkim1 indicates where in the DNS records of example.com the public key can be found, specifically in a record at dkim1._domainkey.example.com.
Finding the Selector
In the DKIM-Signature header, the s= tag directly follows the domain (d= tag) and precedes other parameters. The value associated with this tag is your DKIM selector. In our example, dkim1 is the selector you’re looking for.
Once you’ve identified your DKIM selector, you can use it to verify your DKIM records, and look for it in your DMARC data to measure its use and to confirm it is working as expected. Tools like the DKIM Inspector or the DKIM validator can help you check that your public key is correctly published in your DNS and accessible for email verification purposes or verify that the public key record you are about to publish in DNS is syntactically accurate.
Third-Party Providers and DKIM Signing: TXT vs. CNAME Records
When integrating DKIM signing through a third-party email service provider, such as Microsoft Exchange Online or Salesforce.com, the provider may require you to add either a TXT record or a CNAME record to your domain’s DNS settings. This addition is necessary for verifying the emails sent on behalf of your domain using the provider’s DKIM signature.
Here’s an overview of why each type of record might be used and examples of what they may look like:
TXT Record for DKIM
Why: A TXT record is used to directly store the DKIM public key in your domain’s DNS. It allows email servers receiving your messages to find and use this public key to verify the DKIM signature of emails sent from your domain.
Example: If your third-party provider gives you a TXT record for DKIM, it might look something like this:
dkim1._domainkey.example.com. IN TXT “v=DKIM1; h=sha256; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSqGSIb3DQEBAQUAA4GNADCBiQKBgQD…
Here, dkim1 is the DKIM selector, and the p= part contains the public key.
CNAME Record for DKIM
Why: Some providers use a CNAME record to reference a DKIM public key hosted on their infrastructure. This approach allows the provider to rotate DKIM keys without requiring changes to the client’s DNS. It effectively delegates the lookup for the DKIM key to the provider’s domain.
Example: If your provider recommends using a CNAME record, it might look like this:
dkim1._domainkey.example.com. IN CNAME dkim1.exampleprovider.com.
In this case, querying dkim1._domainkey.example.com in DNS will return a CNAME record pointing to dkim1.exampleprovider.com, where the actual TXT record with the DKIM public key is hosted.
Choosing Between TXT and CNAME Records
The choice between TXT and CNAME records for DKIM depends on your provider’s infrastructure and their policy for managing DKIM keys. CNAME records can offer more flexibility for key management, especially for providers that handle key rotation on behalf of their clients. However, TXT records give domain owners direct control over their DKIM keys in their DNS.
Implementing Provider’s DKIM Records
Follow your provider’s instructions carefully when adding DKIM records to your DNS. Ensure that the records are correctly formatted and published, and verify their propagation using DNS lookup tools. A service provider will often have a tool of their own, or even require that the record be verified within their application or by their support team before enabling the use of the key.
Remember to update these records as advised by your provider, especially if they use TXT records for DKIM and periodically rotate keys.
We’re Here to Help
With a team of email security experts and a mission of making email and the internet more trustworthy through domain security, dmarcian is here to help assess an organization’s domain catalog and implement and manage DMARC for the long haul.
Want to continue the conversation? Head over to the dmarcian Forum. | <urn:uuid:8f546f33-f048-4f3a-9182-e23aab35f4d2> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://dmarcian.com/dkim-selectors/ | 2024-09-12T05:00:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651422.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912043139-20240912073139-00298.warc.gz | en | 0.889932 | 2,057 | 3.046875 | 3 |
Cloud technology has done wonders for the healthcare industry. It's enabled medical professionals to get aspects of their jobs done more quickly, easily and flexibly and it's allowed hospitals and private practices to scale their IT in an efficient, cost-effective manner. The cloud has also provided patients with the ability to instantly and continually access their personal health records and better communicate with providers.
According to recent research from HIMSS Analytics and Level 3, 35% of healthcare provider organizations are already using the cloud for patient engagement and empowerment tools. What's more, a MarketsandMarkets report found the global healthcare cloud computing market is expected to reach $9.48 billion by 2020. The rate at which cloud adoption is accelerating in the medical industry is undeniably impressive, however it raises a crucial concern: Can healthcare organizations maintain control of all the cloud-based applications employees introduce?
Shadow IT, or the concept of computer systems, applications or devices being used without explicit organizational knowledge or approval, is a common phenomenon amongst growing medical practices, and it can introduce serious cybersecurity concerns, especially given the sensitivity and rising black market value of patient health data. A nurse using their personal iPhone to communicate patient updates to a primary care physician via unencrypted iMessage may appear harmless, for instance, but such behavior can drastically increase the likelihood of a catastrophic data breach.
To protect your medical practice from the dangers of Shadow IT, particularly as your business scales, consider the following five best practices:
To read the full article, head over to HIE Answers. | <urn:uuid:1accb4a0-8deb-47ca-a129-92bc54568eb5> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.cyberpolicy.com/press/shadow-it-the-achilles-heel-of-growing-medical-practices | 2024-09-14T17:48:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651580.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914161327-20240914191327-00098.warc.gz | en | 0.94048 | 307 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Table of Contents
Threat modelling is a systematic & proactive approach to identifying, assessing, & mitigating potential security risks within a system, application or network. It involves the structured analysis of assets, both tangible & intangible, to ascertain their value & attractiveness to potential threats. Through categorising & profiling threats & conducting vulnerability analysis, the process aims to pinpoint weaknesses in the system early in the design & development phases, fostering a preemptive rather than reactive security strategy. As we delve deeper, we will explore the significance of integrating security into the design process, recognizing the contemporary security challenges that underscore the need for a paradigm shift from reactive to proactive security measures.
Understanding the scope of security within the context of threat modelling is crucial for developing a comprehensive & effective defence strategy. Security, in this context, extends far beyond traditional notions of protecting sensitive data; it encompasses a multifaceted approach to safeguarding the integrity, confidentiality, & availability of information, systems, & processes.
The role of threat modelling in the design process is pivotal, serving as a proactive foundation for creating resilient & secure systems from their inception. By integrating threat modelling into the early phases of design, organisations can systematically identify & address potential security risks, fostering a security-by-design approach that is fundamental in today’s complex digital landscape.
Types of Security Threats
a. External Threats: Examining risks originating from outside the system, such as cyberattacks or unauthorised access attempts.
b. Internal Threats: Investigating potential risks arising from within the system, including actions by employees or authorised users with malicious intent.
a. Hackers: Assessing the motivations, capabilities, & techniques employed by external malicious actors.
b. Insiders: Recognizing the potential threats posed by individuals with insider knowledge, whether intentional or unintentional.
c. Competitors: Understanding the competitive landscape & potential risks associated with intellectual property theft or industrial espionage.
The Need for Threat Modelling
a. Proactive Risk Identification: Emphasising the importance of identifying vulnerabilities before they are exploited.
b. Reducing Attack Surface: Minimising the potential points of entry for attackers through careful design & risk mitigation.
Proactive Security Measures
a. Preventing Security Incidents: Shifting from a reactive to a proactive stance in addressing security concerns.
b. Cost-Effective Security: Demonstrating how early threat identification & mitigation can save costs associated with incident response & recovery.
Key Components of Threat Modelling
A. Assets Identification
To fortify a system’s security, the initial step is a meticulous examination & classification of assets. These assets, whether tangible or intangible, serve as the building blocks of the digital landscape. By defining & valuing data assets such as sensitive information, intellectual property, & infrastructure components, organisations can lay the groundwork for a targeted threat modelling process.
B. Identifying Threats
Once assets are delineated, the focus shifts to recognizing potential threats that could compromise their integrity. This involves an in-depth analysis of external & internal factors, including the motivations of threat actors. By categorising & profiling threats, ranging from traditional cyberattacks to more nuanced insider threats, organisations can tailor their security measures to address specific risks.
C. Vulnerability Analysis
With assets & threats in focus, the next critical component is vulnerability analysis. This step involves identifying weaknesses within the system that threat actors might exploit. By conducting a comprehensive assessment of both known & potential vulnerabilities, organisations can proactively address weak points, reducing the risk of exploitation & fortifying the overall security posture.
Threat Modelling Techniques
A. STRIDE Framework
- Spoofing: Delving into the potential for identity deception & unauthorised access, assessing the susceptibility to impersonation & false authentication.
- Tampering: Evaluating the risks associated with unauthorised alterations to data or system components, focusing on data integrity & ensuring resistance against tampering attempts.
- Repudiation: Addressing concerns related to the denial of actions or events, emphasising the importance of traceability & accountability in system activities.
- Information Disclosure: Investigating vulnerabilities that may lead to the unauthorised exposure of sensitive information, emphasising the need for confidentiality safeguards.
- Denial of Service: Assessing the system’s resilience to denial-of-service attacks, ensuring that it can withstand attempts to disrupt or degrade its functionality.
- Elevation of Privilege: Analysing potential pathways for unauthorised users to escalate their privileges, focusing on maintaining the principle of least privilege.
B. DREAD Model
- Damage Potential: Quantifying the potential harm that could result from a successful exploitation of a vulnerability, ranging from minor inconveniences to severe consequences.
- Reproducibility: Evaluating how easily a vulnerability can be replicated by a threat actor, considering factors that may contribute to the widespread exploitation of the same vulnerability.
- Exploitability: Assessing the likelihood of a threat actor successfully exploiting a vulnerability, considering factors such as skill level & resources required.
- Affected Users: Identifying the scope of impact by determining the number & role of users who could be adversely affected by the exploitation of a vulnerability.
- Discoverability: Gauging how easily a potential vulnerability can be discovered by threat actors, considering factors such as visibility & public knowledge of the system.
To Use threat modelling effectively in designing for security
Begin by identifying and categorising the assets within your system. These can include sensitive data, intellectual property, and critical infrastructure components.
Recognize Potential Threats:
Consider both external and internal threats. External threats may come from hackers, while internal threats could involve employees with malicious intent. Profiling potential threat actors helps in anticipating and addressing specific risks.
Conduct a thorough analysis of vulnerabilities in your system. Assess both known and potential weaknesses that threat actors might exploit. This step is crucial for understanding where your system may be susceptible to attacks.
Choose a Threat Modelling Technique:
Select a suitable threat modelling technique that aligns with your organisation’s needs. Popular frameworks include the STRIDE model and the DREAD model. These frameworks provide structured approaches to identifying and prioritising threats.
Integrate into the Design Process:
Incorporate threat modelling early in the design process. Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including security experts, developers, and architects, to ensure a comprehensive analysis. This integration ensures that security considerations are embedded in the initial stages of development.
Utilise Threat Modelling Tools:
Leverage automated threat modelling tools or manual techniques, depending on your organisation’s preferences and capabilities. Tools like Microsoft’s Threat Modeling Tool or collaborative sessions like brainstorming can enhance the effectiveness of threat modelling.
Iterate and Update Regularly:
Recognize that threat modelling is an ongoing process. Regularly revisit and update threat models, especially during system changes or advancements in technology. This iterative approach ensures that security measures stay current and adaptive.
Align with Agile Practices:
Integrate threat modelling seamlessly into agile development practices. Align threat assessment sessions with sprint cycles to ensure security doesn’t hinder the agility of your development process.
Integrating Threat Modelling into the Design Process
A. Early Design Phases
Incorporating Security Requirements: The foundation of secure design lies in establishing explicit security requirements from the project’s inception. By defining security expectations early on, designers set the stage for a systematic approach to threat modelling.
Collaborative Design Sessions: Fostering cross-functional collaboration is essential. Inclusive design sessions that involve security experts, developers, architects, & other stakeholders enable a holistic perspective. Through collective brainstorming, potential threats & vulnerabilities are identified, laying the groundwork for subsequent analysis.
B. Iterative Process
Continuous Threat Assessment: Threat modelling is not a one-time event but an ongoing process. Regularly revisiting & reassessing potential threats ensures that security considerations remain up-to-date in the face of evolving technology & threat landscapes.
Adapting to Changes: In the dynamic realm of technology, change is inevitable. Whether it’s adopting new technologies or responding to emerging threats, threat modelling should be adaptable. Integrating changes seamlessly into the design process allows organisations to stay ahead in the ever-evolving landscape.
By weaving threat modelling into the fabric of the design process, organisations can instil a security-first mindset. This approach not only identifies & mitigates risks early on but also establishes a culture where security is an integral part of the design philosophy.
Tools for Threat Modelling
A. Automated Threat Modelling Tools
Microsoft Threat Modeling Tool: Microsoft’s tool provides a structured approach to identify threats & vulnerabilities in the design phase. It assists in creating threat models, documenting risks, & generating reports to facilitate collaboration among development teams.
OWASP Threat Dragon: An open-source threat modelling tool, OWASP Threat Dragon enables visual threat modelling & supports collaborative sessions. It assists in creating interactive threat models, helping teams to identify, prioritise, & mitigate potential risks.
B. Manual Threat Modelling Techniques
Brainstorming Sessions: Human intelligence is invaluable. Conducting collaborative brainstorming sessions involving security experts, developers, & architects allows for the collective exploration of potential threats & vulnerabilities.
Data Flow Diagrams: Visualising the flow of data within a system through diagrams aids in understanding potential points of vulnerability. Analysing data flow helps identify areas where sensitive information may be at risk & allows for the development of targeted security measures.
Challenges & Best Practices
A. Common Challenges in Threat Modelling
Resistance to Change: Overcoming resistance within organisations to adopt threat modelling can be challenging. Addressing misconceptions & highlighting the long-term benefits is crucial to fostering acceptance & integration.
Lack of Expertise: Inadequate understanding of threat modelling concepts & methodologies can hinder its effective implementation. Providing training & resources to team members helps bridge knowledge gaps & enhances the overall proficiency in threat modelling.
B. Best Practices for Effective Threat Modelling
Involvement of Cross-functional Teams: Threat modelling is most effective when it involves diverse perspectives. Collaborative efforts that include security experts, developers, architects, & other stakeholders bring a comprehensive understanding of potential threats & vulnerabilities.
Regular Training & Awareness: Continuous education on threat modelling concepts & evolving security landscapes is essential. Conducting regular training sessions ensures that team members are equipped to adapt their threat modelling strategies to changing environments.
By addressing these challenges & adhering to best practices, organisations can optimise their approach to threat modelling. Recognizing that effective threat modelling is not just a technical endeavour but a cultural shift, these insights will contribute to creating a resilient security framework that adapts to the ever-evolving threat landscape.
Future Trends in Threat Modelling
A. Evolving Threat Landscape
Automation & AI Integration: The integration of automation & artificial intelligence (AI) in threat modelling is expected to grow. Automated tools can assist in processing vast amounts of data, identifying patterns, & predicting potential threats, providing a more proactive & adaptive defence mechanism.
Quantum Computing Challenges: As quantum computing advances, threat modelling will face new challenges. The potential for breaking current encryption standards will necessitate innovative approaches to security, prompting a reevaluation of threat models to address quantum-related risks.
B. Integration with DevOps & Agile Processes
DevSecOps Integration: The convergence of development, security, & operations (DevSecOps) is becoming integral. Future threat modelling trends involve seamlessly integrating security into the DevOps pipeline, ensuring that security measures are not only proactive but also aligned with the rapid pace of development.
Agile Threat Modelling: Agile methodologies are gaining prominence, requiring threat modelling to adapt to shorter development cycles. Quick & iterative threat assessments aligned with agile processes will be essential to maintaining security without impeding development speed.
It becomes evident that threat modelling is not a static practice. It must evolve to meet the challenges of an ever-changing digital landscape. From leveraging cutting-edge technologies to adapting methodologies to agile frameworks, staying ahead of emerging threats requires a forward-thinking & dynamic approach to threat modelling.
In conclusion, threat modelling emerges as a proactive & strategic cornerstone in the realm of cybersecurity. It goes beyond a checklist exercise, embodying a holistic approach that spans from the early design phases to the integration of cutting-edge technologies. Recognizing the expansive scope of security & understanding the interconnected nature of assets, threats, & vulnerabilities, organisations can systematically fortify their digital ecosystems. The exploration of key components, techniques, & tools provides a comprehensive toolkit for identifying, assessing, & mitigating security risks, empowering organisations to embed a security-first mindset into their design philosophies.
The trends in automation, artificial intelligence, & the integration of threat modelling with agile methodologies illuminate the evolving landscape of security practices. By fostering a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, & proactive threat analysis, organisations position themselves not only to navigate the current threat landscape but to anticipate & mitigate the challenges that the future holds. In essence, threat modelling stands as a dynamic & essential practice, equipping organisations to build & maintain secure digital environments in an ever-changing cybersecurity landscape.
What is threat modelling, & why does it matter?
Threat modelling is a method to identify & address security risks in digital systems early. It’s crucial to proactively protect sensitive data & ensure system resilience.
How can I start with threat modelling without being a cybersecurity expert?
Begin by categorising assets, understanding threats, & assessing vulnerabilities. User-friendly tools like Microsoft’s Threat Modeling Tool can guide you.
Is threat modelling beneficial for specific industries?
Yes, it’s valuable for any industry dealing with sensitive data or intellectual property, such as finance, healthcare or technology.
How often should we conduct threat modelling?
Regularly, especially during design phases & significant system changes, to stay aligned with evolving technologies & threats.
Can threat modelling fit into our agile development without slowing us down?
Absolutely! Integrate shorter, focused sessions aligned with sprint cycles to make security a seamless part of your agile development. | <urn:uuid:1c448b13-daac-4b39-86ab-d133d407deed> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.neumetric.com/threat-modelling-to-design-for-security/ | 2024-09-14T17:09:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651580.73/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914161327-20240914191327-00098.warc.gz | en | 0.883278 | 2,915 | 2.640625 | 3 |
By Paul McGuire, Co-Founder and CEO of tru.ID
We all use email, and we all use passwords – which means we are all vulnerable to phishing attacks.
The frequency and success rates of phishing attacks is skyrocketing as criminals become more effective, and opportunities for attack greatly multiplied during the pandemic. Global losses from cybercrime are now around $1 trillion – staggering amounts of money that could be better spent elsewhere.
So far, the answer has been patching extra layers of security on top of emails and password logins – Captcha forms, SMS codes, confirmation emails.
These standard multi-factor authentication (MFA) approaches are sticking plasters that don’t address the core problem. They still fall back to shareable credentials such as passwords and OTP codes, and remain vulnerable to phishing because they rely on knowledge only.
As long as credentials can be shared, they can be intercepted and misused. Stolen credentials are still the most common attack vector leading to data breaches.
What is needed is a shift from knowledge-based credentials to possession-based security – which doesn’t rely on information that can be duplicated, like passwords or codes. This can sit on top of other other strong security such as biometrics.
Now, for the first time, the possession factor security built into mobile networks is available by API – minimising the possibility for phishing and protecting your users from attack.
Why is phishing a still-growing problem?
Phishing and other types of social engineering rely on human behaviour to breach an organisation’s weaknesses. They make use of the convenient, knowledge-based email & password method most of us use to access services online, by tricking us into sharing those credentials.
Criminals use these methods because they are low-risk, scaleable, and fully remote. And they’re only getting more successful – tools available on the dark web can help attackers automate cyberattacks, and run a criminal operation as a full-scale business.
Phishing scams increased by 59% in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, according to INTERPOL Secretary General Jürgen Stock, who commented “Cyber-criminals are developing and boosting their attacks at an alarming pace.”
2FA codes are part of the problem
Passwords are a knowledge factor that involve a shareable credential, and so can be easily phished. This is why most services require a further step, or second-factor authentication (2FA).
Unfortunately, most 2FA methods also involve a shareable credential which can itself be phished – typically a one-time password (OTP) or PIN code, sent via SMS or email. Even worse, criminals are specifically targeting these methods: researchers found that over 1,200 phishing kits designed to steal 2FA codes are out in operation.
And while purpose-built hardware for MFA exists, it’s prohibitively expensive and not owned by the average person.
The answer, therefore, cannot lie in adding more layers of friction that kill the user experience without truly keeping out attackers.
Seamless, stronger security can only work with a possession factor that is widely available, easy to use, easy to integrate, and cost-effective. Now, for the first time, this is possible – using the SIM cards that already exist in over 5 billion mobile phones worldwide.
The new phishing-resistant possession factor
SIM authentication is the new solution that the security world has been waiting for. SIM cards are the same highly secure, proven microchip technology that is built into every credit card. There is a SIM card in every mobile phone – everyone already has this powerful hardware in their pocket.
Using the cryptographic security of the SIM card can deliver strong, multi-channel authentication that is easy to use and simple to deploy. Now, at last, there is an easy, cost-effective way to stop relying on shareable credentials and make possession-factor verification available to all.
How does SIM-based auth work better?
When we use our mobile phones (to browse the internet, make a video call, or use data on an app) we don’t need to type our email and a password to log in – the mobile network operator performs a cryptographic check of the SIM card, silently in the background, to prove it is valid. From that point forward, all communication between the device and the network is fully encrypted.
This strong, cryptographic security is built into the SIM card in every mobile phone, and it happens silently in the background every time we use our mobile device. But until recently, it wasn’t possible for businesses to program the authentication infrastructure of a mobile network into an app as easily as any other code.
Now, for the first time, this authentication capability is available as a possession factor API. Simply add the tru.ID SDK into your existing mobile app to instantly make possession-factor security available to all your users.
Secure app registration, login, step-up checks and more…
In the past, when a new user registered for your app, you had very little data you could trust. Now, with SIM-based authentication, you can use the mobile number together with a secure SIM card possession check as a strong, trusted credential.
The same can be applied to step-up checks – when a customer is about to perform a higher risk action (for example making a payment or accessing sensitive data). You can now use a SIM check to ensure the user still has the valid SIM card in their possession before allowing the transaction to go ahead. Unlike other MFA, it happens silently, with no need for additional data entry by the customer, and can even detect potential SIM swap fraud.
Ready to learn more?
To find out how to implement next-gen authentication and deliver high security, low friction authentication experiences to your users, simply book your free 30-minute demo or visit the tru.ID website. For developers, the tru.ID API documentation is all online: sign up and start testing for free at https://tru.id/signup.
tru.ID helps businesses to reduce the threat of cybercrime with a range of mobile identity and authentication solutions for customers and employees. tru.ID offers passwordless authentication solutions that leverage the cryptographic security of the SIM card already present in every phone. This revolutionary approach delivers hardware-grade security at scale – delivered via API without the need for separate hardware. tru.ID is already live in 20 markets covering over 2bn mobile accounts.
About the Author
Global mobile verification platform tru.ID is Paul’s third venture, building on over 20 years of entrepreneurship in telecoms, mobile and financial services. Prior to tru.ID, Paul founded Paymo Inc which was acquired by Boku, where he became a Board member and ran worldwide business development. Prior to Paymo, Paul was co-founder and COO of mBlox, pioneers of mobile messaging, building a business active in over 50 countries that was acquired by Sinch. Paul’s early career was at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. Paul holds an MBA from INSEAD and an Engineering degree from Cambridge University. | <urn:uuid:17bf022d-1462-408e-a664-be503545ab19> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com/mobile-possession-factor/ | 2024-09-17T02:59:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651722.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917004428-20240917034428-00798.warc.gz | en | 0.941118 | 1,486 | 2.625 | 3 |
MITRE ATT&CK® explained
With an aggressive-sounding name that brings to mind cyberattacks or ransomware, the MITRE ATT&CK® is actually similar to a “shield” against cyberattacks. Created by The MITRE Corporation, a private, not-for-profit company that provides engineering and technical guidance for the United States Air Force, “MITRE ATT&CK® is a [free] globally-accessible knowledge base of adversary tactics and techniques based on real-world observations”.1
The ATT&CK acronym stands for “Adversarial Tactics, Techniques and Common Knowledge, which is the basis for the framework and accompanying ATT&CK knowledge base”.2 A resource that helps enterprises to strengthen their cybersecurity strategies, ATT&CK is often leveraged for the “development of specific threat models and methodologies in the private sector, in government, and in the cybersecurity product and service community”.1
The MITRE ATT&CK® framework is leveraged “across multiple fields and disciplines, including intrusion detection, threat hunting, red teaming, security engineering, threat intelligence and risk management”.2
- Intrusion detection - A system that monitors network traffic for anything suspicious and sends out alerts when any suspicious activity is detected.
- Threat hunting - The process that cybersecurity experts leverage when looking for signs of potential breaches or existing breaches instead of responding to alerts indicating that a breach has already occured.
- Red teaming - A practice used to evaluate the strength and effectiveness of security strategies that applies an adversarial approach to rigorously assessing plans, policies, systems, and assumptions.
- Security engineering - The process of incorporating security controls into an information system, making the security control an essentail part of that system's operational capabilities.
- Threat intelligence - Data that is collected, processed, and analyzed to understand a threat actor's motives, targets, and attack behaviors
- Risk management - The process of leveraging risk management methods to manage IT threats.
The framework and knowledge base continue to grow as organizations leverage it and then add their own knowledge of cyberthreats to the knowledge base. Contributions like these helpshelp to inform the framework and to foster a stronger overall cybersecurity community online. MITRE notes that “with the creation of ATT&CK, [MITRE] is fulfilling its mission to solve problems for a safer world — by bringing communities together to develop more effective cybersecurity”.1
History of the MITRE ATT&CK®
Cybersecurity is one of MITRE’s focus areas, and the company has stated that cybersecurity research is in the public interest. MITRE has a 50-plus-year history of creating cybersecurity tools, standards, and similar content to benefit the expanded information technology and cybersecurity communities.
In 2013, MITRE launched ATT&CK “to gather this data for a research project on detecting threats in enterprise networks post-compromise, such as after adversaries had broken in, and to document common tactics, techniques and procedures that advanced persistent threats used against Windows enterprise networks”.2
“The [initial ATT&CK] framework has its roots in work MITRE was carrying out for a sponsor organization. The company had asked MITRE to help improve its ability to detect adversaries within its IT environment [that] would require understanding of how adversaries behave once they breach the enterprise perimeter”.3
Creating a testing environment that was named the Fort Meade eXperiment (FMX), MITRE leveraged the company’s network environment to perform “adversary emulation tests that mimicked the behaviors cybercriminals had undertaken in historic attacks”.3
“MITRE ran red team operations on this network, meaning it had designated teams to act as attackers using known techniques to penetrate the network. A blue team then attempted to detect and mitigate these simulated attacks. By simulating the complete cybersecurity landscape from perspective of both the attacker's and the defender's perspective, MITRE formulated the following key insights that it uses as the basis of its ATT&CK framework:
- Focusing on adversarial behavior enables MITRE to develop behavioral analytics and better techniques for defense.
- Many existing cybersecurity lifecycle models were too abstract and unable to efficiently detect new threats.
- To work, threat behaviors and tactics must be based on real past observations of adversarial behavior.
- Terminology for describing tactics must be consistent across different adversarial groups to enable businesses to compare and contrast them”.2
On Halloween (October 31) 2023, MITRE ATT&CK v14 launched as “a release so hauntingly powerful that it [would] send a chill down the spine of even the most formidable adversaries”3 with “detection enhancements, ICS assets, and mobile structured detections”.4
In addition to ATT&CK, MITRE also offers of frameworks including Engage™, D3FEND™, and CALDERA™ and many other cybersecurity tools. These frameworks and tools all support MITRE’s cybersecurity focus and efforts to help increase global cyber defense by providing vital information to thwart network intruders, build resiliency against future attacks, and develop assurance to overcome possible vulnerabilities.
Benefits of the MITRE ATT&CK®
The MITRE ATTACK® framework helps enable threat-informed cyber defense for anyone who leverages it as a resource. It is freely available, so anyone from the cybersecurity product and service community to governments and to the private sector can use it to develop specific threat models and methodologies.
Yasar and Lutkevich offer cite several broad benefits that of the MITRE ATTACK® framework offers:
- Offers a concrete account of adversarial behaviors.
- Provides an account of threat indicators as well as threat groups. Businesses can use MITRE to detect behaviors, make educated guesses about who is performing them and track behaviors across different attacker groups. Its attack page features group-based info.
- Includes sector-specific threat information that's widely used and trusted across many industries.
- Provides a communal approach to threat reporting that ensures info is up to date and checked by the public as well as MITRE.
- Improves an organization's security posture as it aligns its security strategies with the tactics and techniques outlined in the framework.
Using the framework, a business can do the following:
- Associate attack behavior to different groups.
- Pen test its network.
- Also known as a penetration test or ethical hacking, a pen test is an authorized simulated cyber attack on a computer system used to test the security of the system. This is different from a vulnerability assessment.
- Find vulnerabilities in its network and map ATT&CK methodologies to threats.
- Discover network misconfigurations.
- Share its cybersecurity knowledge with the broader community.
- Standardize disparate security tools and techniques to create a more cohesive security strategy.2
- MITRE ATT&CK®, The MITRE Corporation, 2023.
- Mitre ATT&CK framework, Kinza Yasar and Ben Lutkevich, TechTarget, December 2023.
- MITRE ATT&CK at Seven: The Seven Biggest Milestones, AttackIQ, 31 May 2022.
- ATT&CK v14 Unleashes Detection Enhancements, ICS Assets, and Mobile Structured Detections, Amy L. Robertson, Medium, 31 October 2023. | <urn:uuid:51e9a75d-00fa-44b3-8f6e-ad8f1758d90e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.kyndryl.com/us/en/learn/what-is-mitre-attack | 2024-09-17T01:33:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651722.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917004428-20240917034428-00798.warc.gz | en | 0.932536 | 1,548 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Short answer: It’s bad and getting worse.
Long answer: Research continues to confirm we’re falling behind in efforts to protect the privacy of our personally identifiable information (PII) online. Data privacy is an exploding issue because the amount of digital data we’re generating is increasing exponentially, we’re moving more data and services to the cloud, and privacy regulations are still a way off being a comprehensive fix. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic is forcing more remote work, which exposes companies to greater risks, and cyberattacks are becoming more frequent and sophisticated. The data economy is flourishing, on and off the dark web.
Data privacy is a global issue. Gartner predicts the worldwide information security market will reach $170.4 billion in 2022 as companies globally respond to increasing threats. Some countries are more affected than others though, and the United States is among the worst hit. Internet-connected computers are attacked every 39 seconds in the US and 45 per cent of Americans have had their personal information compromised by a data breach in the last five years. In 2019, the US had the highest average cost per data breach in the world, at $8.64 million, and healthcare data breaches alone affected 40 million people—a number that’s growing with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The US still does not have a national consumer privacy law, despite ongoing efforts to enact one, particularly in light of trailblazing regulatory advances in California.
The picture is similar in the United Kingdom where the cost per data breach is slightly lower than the global average but 88 per cent of companies have been caught up in a breach, mostly phishing attacks. High levels of data breach are also reported in nearby Germany (92 per cent), France (94 per cent), and Italy (90 per cent). Small UK businesses suffer an attempted hacking attack every 19 seconds, and nearly 40 percent of UK companies reported a data breach in the 12 months to May 2020.
In Australia, seven in 10 respondents to the Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey 2020, by the Office of the Australian Information Commission (OAIC), nominated privacy as a major concern for them, while 87 per cent wanted more control and choice over the collection and use of their personal information. These consumer sentiments are reflected in those of users worldwide, which we recently reported were that:
- High profile, significant, and regular data breaches have spooked consumers.
- Consumers generally get that they have to trade certain personal information for services, but are now warier of sharing their personal data.
- Consumers want to control their own data and will act to do so if they can.
- Levels of consumer trust for brands is generally low.
- Consumers will abandon brands or delay purchases where they perceive a risk to their personal data.
- The regulatory screws are tightening to protect consumers.
Privacy laws are trying to stem the data privacy crisis and put the brakes on surveillance capitalism, but there’s still a way to go. California has the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and its successor, the California Privacy Rights Act 2020, which reins in the powers of Big Tech, preventing them from sharing consumers’ personal information and closing a loophole that meant companies could keep targeting ads with user data even when those users opted out.
Beyond the US, there is also solid progress being made in consumer privacy legislation, with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Brazil’s new General Data Protection Law, for example. And we hope, in the coming decade, we will see a simplification of the current patchwork of privacy regulations in the US.
What you can do right now to protect your privacy
There’s no such thing as perfect privacy, but that doesn’t mean you give up. You have to do the best you can with the knowledge and tools at your disposal and keep taking steps to protect your personal data. One privacy tool that’s right at your fingertips is MySudo, the world’s only all-in-one privacy solution.
MySudo is built on the concept of compartmentalization, widely regarded as the most powerful data privacy strategy around today. Compartmentalization means ‘siloing’ your personal information and activity into different compartments or profiles (we call them Sudos and you get up to nine in the app) to limit the damage in the event of an attack. If one Sudo profile is breached, the others aren’t affected. The military call it ‘containing the blast radius’.
This blog has masses of information on the features and benefits of MySudo. But to get started, you might want to watch our 90-second explainer video or see how a MySudo user applies the app to their busy life.
MySudo is available for iOS and Android. | <urn:uuid:f24f0923-69d0-4c44-93e8-6164d4e41958> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://mysudo.com/2020/12/how-bad-is-the-global-data-privacy-crisis/ | 2024-09-18T07:35:39Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651886.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918064858-20240918094858-00698.warc.gz | en | 0.946138 | 1,003 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Winchester Star: Local coverage of BIML
- By MICKEY POWELL The Winchester Star
- Mar 30, 2021
- 13 hrs ago
BERRYVILLE — When thinking about Clarke County, farms and rolling hills generally come to mind, not sophisticated gadgets or high-tech wizardry.
In fact, many parts of the county still lack high-speed internet service.
But hidden away in the countryside is a small group of researchers trying to find ways to make technology safer so hackers cannot breach vital — or even secret — information.
The Berryville Institute of Machine Learning (BIML) was established in 2019 to address security issues associated with machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI). Recently, the institute received a $150,000 grant from the Open Philanthropy foundation to help further its work.
BIML, a think tank, was founded by software security expert Gary McGraw plus Richie Bonett, a computer scientist from Berryville; Harold Figueroa, director of Machine Intelligence Research and Applications Lab at Ntrepid, a Herndon-based cybersecurity firm, and Victor Shepardson, an artist and research engineer at Ntrepid.
Artificial intelligence is brainpower demonstrated by emotionless machines, in contrast to that of humans and animals which involves consciousness and, in certain instances, sensitivity.
Machine learning, on the other hand, involves developing computer programs that help machines access data and use it for their own benefit. The intent is to help computer systems develop the ability to automatically learn and improve their functions from experience without being specially programmed along that line.
“Usually, computers are programmed with a bunch of rules telling them what to do,” McGraw said. “Machine learning involves enabling machines to recognize certain inputs and outputs so they can do certain tasks themselves.”
An example of such a machine, he mentioned, is Alexa, a device developed by Amazon that uses speech recognition abilities in performing tasks.
“When you’re talking to Alexa, you’re interacting with a machine learning system,” McGraw noted.
Automatic banking machines are another example of the technology, he pointed out. So are some types of video games.
Technology is ever-evolving. And, “when technologies catch on fast, people forget to secure them properly,” McGraw said.
That can lead to trouble.
“A bad person may intentionally trick a system into doing the wrong thing” for personal gain or harm, said McGraw. “What we’re trying to do at BIML is to make it harder for bad people to misuse systems.”
Each computer system is unique, “so they learn in unique ways,” he said. As a result, unique solutions must be created to prevent potential problems with them.
BIML’s research and recommendations are placed into the “creative common” so people have free access to them, McGraw said.
According to its website, BIML has become well-known within ML circles for its pioneering research document, “Architectural Risk Analysis of Machine Learning Systems: Toward More Secure Machine Learning.”
McGraw said the Open Philanthropy grant will be used for various purposes, including research, recruiting interns and making presentations on cybersecurity issues at colleges and universities nationwide.
The institute already has recruited its first High School Scholar: Nikil Shyamsunder, a sophomore at Handley High School in Winchester. He will be involved in curating the “BIML Annotated Biography,” a resource for ML security workers providing an overview of research in that field, including a “Top 5 Papers” section.
As part of his internship, Shyamsunder will receive a $500 college scholarship.
BIML is based in the Berryville area largely because McGraw lives there — much of its work is based at his home — and Bonett is from there.
“It doesn’t really matter where this type of work is done,” McGraw said. “You don’t have to be physically present somewhere with people to get the work done. The majority of the work is done over the internet,” consulting with researchers and AI and ML practitioners.
As technology evolves, “it’s hard to anticipate” what BIML will be doing in the future, he said. But the machine learning field is growing, so demand for services that the institute provides is increasing, he asserted. Therefore, he expects the institute to be around for many years to come.
More information about the institute is online at berryvilleiml.com.
— Contact Mickey Powell at email@example.com | <urn:uuid:5cff774c-3d62-4cab-828a-30028b924e6d> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://berryvilleiml.com/2021/03/30/winchester-star-local-coverage-of-biml/ | 2024-09-20T21:13:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701423570.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920190822-20240920220822-00498.warc.gz | en | 0.952575 | 991 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Data privacy regulations and practices serve a critical purpose in today’s tech-centric, digitally focused and hyperconnected world.
Headline Sponsor - The Data Protection and Privacy Hub
Outlining strict rules on the collection, processing, storage and sharing of sensitive data, privacy laws exist to ensure personal information isn’t used in an unfair, irritating, malicious or potentially harmful manner.
To achieve this, they stipulate that any organisation can only use data for the purposes for which individuals have given consent – otherwise it must be deleted or removed from storage systems.
For businesses today, adhering to these privacy laws is business critical. Indeed, it is becoming increasingly clear that consumers demand ethical and proper data management practices.
According to a recent survey from KPMG, 86% of consumers revealed they are becoming increasingly concerned about data privacy, while 78% expressed fears about the amount of data being collected. Equally, four in 10 stated they do not trust companies to use their personal data in an ethical manner.
Further, the financial penalties for failing to comply with privacy regulations can deal a hugely damaging blow to any business, the $5 billion non-compliance penalty issued to Facebook in 2019 being a prime example.
The expectations of consumers and governments surrounding the ways in which organisations manage data are growing, and meeting these obligations and fulfilling those expectations is not optional.
With compliance critical to retaining consumer confidence and avoiding hefty fines, it must be made a priority. However, adhering to data privacy laws is becoming an increasingly complex task.
Geographical disparity brings complexity
There are many basic data privacy principles which organisations will typically need to consider and meet. These include:
- Informed consent: Organisations must obtain affirmative, explicit consumer consent to collect, use and share their data.
- Data minimisation and Retention: Develop operational plans designed to minimise risks with data that is held.
- Purpose limitations: Consider the purpose of data to ensure that it isn’t collected and stored unnecessarily.
- Data subject requests: Produce, correct, and potentially delete all data associated with an individual upon request.
- Data protection obligations: Obligation to secure data and inform individuals and regulators should it be compromised in the event of a data breach.
- Vendor management: Data shared with a third party must be protected under the provisions of the applicable regulations.
However, complexity arises when organisations are having to meet varied privacy laws across multiple jurisdictions where the actual responsibilities and requirements can differ significantly.
The most far-reaching and renowned data privacy laws currently in place are the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the US’s California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and California Privacy Rights Act (CPRA). Yet today, almost all major economies now have comprehensive data protection laws that apply with extraterritorial effect, and those that don’t will have one soon.
Equally, within individual countries, organisations often face a complex mix of sectoral privacy laws. In the US, for example, more and more states are passing their own unique privacy laws that are leaving entities with a complex mix of sectoral privacy laws to face up to.
So, how can organisations achieve best practice for managing an effective and effective privacy program across multiple jurisdictions? Thankfully, despite these challenges, there are several fundamentals that will make privacy programmes more adaptable and responsive to differing and changing privacy requirements.
Three steps to embracing a privacy-first culture
Taking a centralised approach to data management is an effective, efficient, and scalable way of ensuring your organisation meets privacy laws.
By making data privacy and protection a priority, it becomes woven into the DNA of the organisation, ensuring the alignment of all parties with clear policies when collecting, processing, using and/or managing data.
Of course, this isn’t a quick switch. Embracing a holistic data management and privacy strategy can often entail significant cultural change backed by meticulous planning and interdepartmental cooperation. Yet there are three key steps to follow in pursuing this strategy adaptation.
1) Start with a data inventory
To align with privacy rules, entities first must gain a comprehensive understanding of exactly where data is kept, what it consists of and how it is being used is vital. Improving this understanding requires a data inventory – a neatly organised central platform containing accurate and detailed information on all your organisation’s data. These can play a vital role in helping to identify data that isn’t being used, is sensitive, or is subject to regulatory or policy controls. Further, they also outline how risky an organisation’s storage practices are. To both build and maintain a data inventory without placing a massive strain on resources, automated technologies can be used, helping you to find, identify and classify personal information as well as assess data compliance and calculate risk across the entire data landscape quickly, accurately and securely.
2) Only keep the data you need
Organisations should equally only keep the data they need. If it’s duplicative, outdated, doesn’t serve a specific and explicit purpose, and isn’t linked to a lawful purpose, it shouldn’t be processed. To understand the value (or lack of value) of data, key documentation principles need to be adopted. Outlining key parameters will allow the business to determine what is relevant or excessive, which can then be applied to the elements of personal data and each proposed use.
3) Work with trusted partners
A key challenge stems from the fact that organisations are responsible for what their third-party vendors do with personal data. Data shared with a third party must be protected under the provisions of the applicable regulations, so entities must ensure they perform due diligence and audits on all partner vendors so that they are not held accountable for data breaches or regulatory violations. Indeed, it is vital to work with trusted partners – if you wouldn’t trust them with your personal data, why would you trust them with your customers’ data?
The first mover advantage
Evolving and expanding privacy regulations across various jurisdictions can make compliance a daunting task. Yet with the right changes and appropriate policies, data privacy programmes can become streamlined and scalable to meet changing regulatory requirements.
Embracing these need not be a burden. By remaining ahead of the curve, organisations will be able to better break down organisations siloes and use data to innovate, collaborate, unleash creativity more effectively.
Indeed, to ensure compliance in the future, it is critical that firms get their houses in order today.
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#RISK is where the whole ‘risk’ community comes together to meet, debate, and learn, to break down silos and improve decision-making. Five content hubs with insightful sessions, case studies, networking, high level thought leadership presentations and panel discussions. | <urn:uuid:2533b4e8-3ec4-41ea-9a9d-37805f0caab8> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.grcworldforums.com/news-and-insight/exterro-managing-a-privacy-program-across-multiple-jurisdictions/7103.article | 2024-09-20T20:10:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701423570.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920190822-20240920220822-00498.warc.gz | en | 0.920966 | 1,487 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Artificial Intelligence (AI) encompasses all capabilities that enable machines to mimic human behaviors, particularly regarding cognitive functions. It’s about equipping machines with the essence of human-like decision-making and problem-solving skills.
While AI is a standalone concept, it’s intricately linked with disciplines such as Machine Learning (ML) and Data Science. In the contemporary landscape, AI has ascended to a pivotal role, poised to redefine efficiency and precision in various tasks.
Within AI, six critical branches underpin the creation of intelligent systems capable of tackling intricate challenges. Each branch brings distinct attributes to the table, coming together to fuel the sophisticated AI-driven solutions that are becoming increasingly prevalent.
The omnipresence of AI in our daily lives is subtle yet profound, and understanding these six branches is crucial to grasping the full impact AI will have on the future of technology.
By the end of this article, you will have an understanding of the following:
- What Artificial Intelligence (AI) is and the various stages it goes through
- The multiple types of AI, like the theory of mind AI
- The six main branches of artificial intelligence
What Is Artificial Intelligence (AI)?
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a subfield of computer science that aims to create systems capable of performing tasks that would normally require human intelligence.
These tasks include pattern recognition, learning from experience, drawing conclusions, making predictions, or taking action to achieve specific goals. AI systems are powered by algorithms and fed by data, which they use to build a mathematical model of the world that allows them to act intelligently.
What Are The Stages Of AI?
Artificial Intelligence can progress through three stages of development rather than being categorized into types—which we’ll discuss in the next section.
Let’s delve deeper into each developmental phase of AI:
Artificial Narrow Intelligence (ANI)
Commonly referred to as Weak AI, this initial stage of Artificial Intelligence encompasses systems designed to execute a narrowly confined array of tasks. At this juncture, machines lack genuine cognitive abilities and are programmed to follow a specific set of instructions.
Weak AI is evident in technologies like Siri, Alexa, autonomous vehicles, AlphaGo, and humanoid robots like Sophia. Presently, nearly all AI implementations are within this initial stage of development.
Artificial General Intelligence (AGI)
Often termed Strong AI, this evolutionary phase marks a period where machines can reason and make choices analogous to human intelligence.
While Strong AI has not yet been actualized, advancements suggest the possibility of developing machines with human-equivalent cognitive skills in the foreseeable future.
Artificial Super Intelligence (ASI)
This phase represents a point in AI development where computer intelligence will greatly exceed that of humans. ASI remains a speculative notion, predominantly portrayed in cinematic and literary works of science fiction where machines dominate humanity.
Given the rapid progression in this field, it’s conceivable to speculate that the emergence of ASI might not be a distant reality.
What Are The Types Of Artificial Intelligence?
The following types of AI all fall somewhere on the scale of different stages previously mentioned, particularly the former, where rudimentary developments characterize the current class of AI systems.
Along these different stages of development, emerging solutions can be categorized according to their operational capabilities.
Here are the functional categories of AI systems:
Reactive Machines AI
This class of AI systems operates based on current data, addressing immediate tasks without the ability to use experience to influence future decisions. Reactive AI is programmed for a limited range of functions.
An illustrative example is IBM’s Deep Blue, the chess-playing computer that defeated the world champion Garry Kasparov.
Limited Memory AI
As the term suggests, this AI can learn from historical data to make better decisions. This kind of AI has transient memory that helps use previously gained information to inform future decisions.
Autonomous vehicles represent this category. They interpret sensory data to navigate safely, drawing from recent driving experiences to avoid obstacles or traffic.
Theory of Mind AI
This advanced AI category is still under research and aims to understand and interpret human emotions and mental states, potentially transforming interactions between technology and people.
Theory of Mind AI, while not yet realized, is being pursued to enable machines to understand and react to human emotions and thought processes.
This type of AI, which involves machines gaining consciousness, is speculative and currently resides in science fiction. Self-aware AI would be capable of understanding and recognizing its existence and state of being.
6 Major Branches of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence spans multiple specialties, including Machine Learning, Robotics, and many others.
In this section, we will explore the six main branches of AI:
- Machine Learning (ML)
Machine Learning stands at the forefront of technological innovation, capturing attention with each novel application company’s launch. ML empowers systems to learn and improve from experience without explicit programming.
It’s become an integral part of our lives, often operating behind the scenes. ML is the scientific study that allows machines to process, interpret, and use data to solve real-world problems.
ML algorithms are crafted using advanced mathematical computations, encoded in machine-readable language, forming the backbone of a complete ML system. These algorithms enable deep learning systems to classify, decode, and predict outcomes from vast datasets.
Recently, ML has gifted us with autonomous vehicles, proficient image and speech recognition systems, predictive demand forecasting, enhanced internet searches, and various other sophisticated applications.
Its primary focus is developing applications that improve their decision-making and predictive capabilities over time through experience.
The choice of ML algorithm—supervised, unsupervised, or reinforcement learning—depends on the nature of the data at hand and the predictive tasks to be performed:
- Supervised Learning involves training algorithms with labeled data, specifying both the inputs and desired outputs, allowing them to find relationships between variables.
- Unsupervised Learning comprises algorithms that learn from unlabeled data, finding intrinsic patterns or groupings, like cluster analysis, which identifies hidden structures in data.
- Reinforcement Learning is used for tasks requiring a sequence of decisions, where algorithms learn to achieve a goal through rewards and penalties, sometimes autonomously deciding the next move.
- Neural Networks
Neural Networks merge cognitive function with computational models, drawing inspiration from the neurological structures of the human brain. These artificial neural networks imitate the brain’s interconnected neuron structure to process information and recognize patterns.
A neural network possesses layers of interconnected nodes or ‘artificial neurons.’ Each one is designed to perform specific mathematical operations. They use statistical methods, like regression analysis, to carry out tasks.
Neural networks are pivotal in fields ranging from finance in terms of fraud detection and risk management to sales forecasting and market research.
Robotics has rapidly evolved into a dynamic AI field, centering on creating robots. It’s a multidisciplinary arena involving mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science, among others.
Robots are created to perform tasks that may be repetitive or dangerous for humans. They’re prevalent in manufacturing assembly lines, space expeditions, and even social interaction settings, guided by machine learning algorithms.
- Expert Systems
One of the earliest successes in AI, expert systems, emerged in the 1970s and flourished in the 1980s. These systems emulate the decision-making ability of human experts by leveraging knowledge from a specific domain and applying inferential rules to user queries.
An expert system’s performance hinges on the richness of its knowledge base—the more comprehensive the knowledge, the more adept the system. These systems excel in providing spell-check suggestions or error identification, like those seen in Google’s search engine.
- Fuzzy Logic
Fuzzy logic provides individuals with a process for dealing with uncertain and imprecise information, assessing degrees of truth rather than the binary, true or false. It’s a way of processing data that reflects the complexities of real-world situations, allowing machines to emulate human reasoning more closely.
Fuzzy logic systems are beneficial where information is ambiguous or incomplete, providing a more nuanced approach to problem-solving.
- Natural Language Processing (NLP)
Natural Language Processing, a fascinating and challenging domain, is central to AI’s ability to interact fluently with human languages. NLP involves computational techniques for the processing and understanding of human speech, allowing computers to interpret text and spoken words in a valuable way.
NLP facilitates various applications, including text summarization, machine translation, and sentiment analysis. It is also the technology behind personal digital assistants and has enabled advancements in customer service through chatbots and improved user experience by interpreting customer feedback.
Key Takeaways Related To Branches Of Artificial Intelligence
As we navigate through the burgeoning AI landscape, the advancements in AI are embedding themselves more deeply into the fabric of our everyday lives. For example, bleeding-edge NLP capabilities have led to the emergence of ChatGPT—a radical AI-powered chatbot reimagining the means of workplace productivity.
In time, the notion of manually programming computers could become obsolete as they gain the ability to engage in dialogue with us and learn autonomously from ongoing streams of data. This paradigm shift can redefine our interactions with digital systems, enabling computers to shoulder increasingly intricate tasks easily.
The spectrum of AI encompasses diverse approaches, each tailored to tackle complex problems and distill meaningful insights from vast datasets.
Each AI discipline possesses unique advantages and constraints. The optimal approach for a specific task necessitates meticulous analysis involving an in-depth assessment of the task’s particular prerequisites and limitations to fully harness AI’s potential for a specific use case.
For example, fuzzy logic is employed in various domains, including modifying vehicle braking systems based on parameters like acceleration, velocity, and wheel rotation rate. Conversely, Natural Language Processing (NLP) equips machines with the capacity to understand human language, both spoken and written.
This proficiency is exploited in numerous applications, ranging from driving conversational chatbots and spam filtering to scrutinizing textual sentiment and more. | <urn:uuid:947d167b-27a5-413a-8ce7-a5b05b98f2a8> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.digital-adoption.com/branches-of-artificial-intelligence/ | 2024-09-08T16:28:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651013.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908150334-20240908180334-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.912436 | 2,086 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Government uses Elon Musk’s low-orbit Starlink satellite system to make high-speed broadband available in remote countryside
The Government has begun trialling Elon Musk’s low-orbit satellite system Starlink to deliver high-speed broadband to remote rural areas.
Enabling superfast broadband will boost growth, says the culture department, enabling anybody to start-up and run a business of any size from anywhere in the UK – from the Highlands to the Norfolk Broads and the Welsh Valleys to the Lake District.
A mountain rescue base in Snowdonia National Park, North Wales and a 12-century abbey in the North Yorkshire Moors National Park are among the first test sites.
Starlink was chosen mainly for its availability and low cost, the Government said, although it added that it had not closed the door on using other suppliers and distributors, including British satellite broadband pioneer OneWeb, in future satellite trials.
Less than one per cent of sites in Great Britain, such as mountainous areas or small islands, are too difficult to upgrade via physical cables.
The Government’s goal is to deliver gigabit-capable broadband infrastructure to 99 per cent of premises by 2030.
Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are positioned around 550-1,000km above the Earth’s surface and, in contrast to larger geostationary satellites, travel along their own orbit.
The fact they are closer to Earth than previous generations of satellites makes more applications possible, including video calls and real-time collaboration, while also making activities like web browsing much smoother. The limited ground infrastructure required means they can provide additional resilience to critical networks in remote, often dangerous, environments.
LEO satellites can deliver speeds of up to 200 megabits per second, well above the speeds capable via copper cables commonly used in hard-to-reach areas today.
Digital secretary Michelle Donelan said: “High-speed broadband beamed to earth from space could be the answer to the connectivity issues suffered by people in premises stuck in the digital slow lane.
“Ensuring everyone can get a quality internet connection is crucial to our levelling up plans and these trials aim to find a solution to the prohibitively high cost of rolling out cables to far-flung locations.”
Meanwhile, the Government has signed a £108m contract with Northern Ireland-based provider Fibrus to connect up to 60,000 rural homes and business in Cumbria, as part of its £5bn Project Gigabit programme to reach the final 20 per cent of the UK without access to ultrafast broadband.
Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme
Meanwhile, the Gigabit Broadband Voucher Scheme to help businesses get help with costs of installing gigabit-capable connection in hard-to-reach areas is to be tripled in value to £4,500.
Business that are eligible for gigabit vouchers can access the scheme through a registered supplier. In turn, suppliers can put together a proposal to supply gigabit broadband in remote areas where there is demand, and apply for vouchers on their behalf.
Overall, more than 111,000 vouchers have been issued through the Government’s voucher schemes, and to date, more than 77,000 of these vouchers have been used to connect businesses to gigabit-capable broadband.
More on high-speed broadband
Brexit hampering rollout of superfast broadband, says BT – CEO of BT’s Openreach blames ‘tortuous’ Home Office process preventing skilled engineers coming over from Portugal and Spain to help government meet its target of all businesses having superfast broadband by 2025
Broadband delivered via water pipes being trialled in South Yorkshire – The UK Government is trialling deployment of full fibre broadband via water pipes located in South Yorkshire
One in six UK households can’t afford broadband — 16% of UK households have struggled to pay their broadband bills between March 2020 and January 2021, while over a quarter (28%) of participants on means-tested benefits said they have found paying such bills difficult | <urn:uuid:7a3f2cf7-e3fe-4ab4-a82e-d0e80d46bb38> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.information-age.com/government-trials-elon-musks-starlink-for-high-speed-broadband-123500886/ | 2024-09-08T16:18:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651013.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908150334-20240908180334-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.942822 | 838 | 2.515625 | 3 |
By Nicole Limpert
The Health Resources Services Administration (HRSA) defines telehealth as “the use of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration.
Technologies include videoconferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.”
One of the most common forms of telehealth is a nurse hotline. Most U.S. health insurance companies offer a toll-free nurse advice hotline to their customers. Other types of telehealth services include virtual appointments, medical staff consults, remote health monitoring, and nonclinical services.
Removing Barriers to Healthcare
Telehealth not only makes access to healthcare easier for the public, it also has proven to be a necessity for both large organizations and niche markets.
Members of the United States military and their families are stationed all over the world. The Department of Defense’s (DOD) Military Health System (MHS) provides healthcare to more than 9.4 million people through a network of fifty-six hospitals, 365 clinics, and other facilities worldwide.
Telehealth programs connect military patients to providers across the world to deliver direct access to quality healthcare, tele-radiology, and tele-pharmacy services.
The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is heavily involved with providing telehealth services to rural communities and administers telecommunications telehealth grants through two major programs: the DLT Program and the Community Connect Program.
Similarly, the United States’ Indian Health Service uses telehealth to assist with accessing health services for American Indian and Alaska Native populations living in outlying communities.
Other isolated niche markets use technology to improve healthcare. Alaska’s maritime industry uses a telehealth platform to enhance access to care for those who work in the dangerous waters off Alaska. Internet connections are unreliable, so they primarily use a phone-based system to instantly connect with doctors.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) uses telehealth to expand their internal healthcare program by consulting with external healthcare providers via collaborative practice agreements.
Telehealth and Medical Call Centers
Regardless of where people are located, telehealth is a critical tool that brings the best possible care to patients. Medical call centers play a significant role by providing the technology and medical expertise needed to bring remote healthcare to patients.
Technology enables medical call centers to effectively become an extension of a hospital or medical center’s operation.
The communication software used by medical call centers can securely access a patient’s electronic medical record (EMR), update EMRs with notes, and record calls needed for insurance claims and workers’ compensation. Because everything is documented, detailed reports can be generated for reporting purposes.
Medical call center operators can coordinate care, make follow-up calls, schedule visits, contact on-call medical staff, and manage referrals. Some healthcare call centers staff licensed medical professionals who are qualified to make health assessments, give medical advice, and escalate critical concerns.
The services provided by medical call centers are available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Medical operators can work different hours and be located anywhere in the world, in any time zone. For example, if a medical center on the East Coast of the United States is closed, operators on the West Coast are still available.
Telehealth Benefits Hospitals
In the 2017 American College of Healthcare Executives’ (ACHE) annual survey, hospital CEOs ranked their ten biggest challenges for the year. Telehealth services can address six of these ten concerns—specifically, financial challenges (first), personnel shortages (third), quality of care (fourth), patient satisfaction (fifth), access to care (seventh), and population health management (ninth).
Multiple small- and large-scale studies cite the use of telehealth as a cost-effective method to deliver quality care, improve outcomes, enhance the patient experience, and expand access to healthcare. The patient’s experience with their healthcare team plays a critical role in their satisfaction. Patients are asked to provide information about their care experience via the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey. Unacceptable survey results can result in hospitals losing some reimbursements. In 2017 alone, approximately 1.7 billion dollars in reimbursements were withheld from hospitals.
The cost savings are also passed along to patients. Call center data from Health Navigator cites that the top five reasons for calling a nurse hotline are fever, vomiting, stomach pain, cough, and head pain. Less than 10 percent of the cases were high-risk. On average, telehealth appointments for nonemergency reasons cost approximately forty-five dollars, as opposed to one hundred dollars for an in-person visit at a doctor’s office or 160 dollars at an urgent care clinic.
The Future of Telehealth
The population growth for the United States from 2008 to 2030, is estimated at 20 percent, totaling 363 million people. This spike in population will exacerbate an already strained shortage of healthcare professionals. Telehealth services may become more of a healthcare necessity rather than a convenience.
As technology advances, telehealth can become more complex by not only connecting patients with expertise in real time, but also by enabling computer-assisted medical procedures in remote locations by specialists thousands of miles away, thus creating global care teams for patients.
Nicole Limpert is the marketing content writer for Amtelco and their 1Call Healthcare Division. Amtelco is a leading provider of innovative communication applications. 1Call develops software solutions and applications designed for the specific needs of healthcare organizations. | <urn:uuid:804edf08-9b9a-4e50-bee3-8ce39782d5f6> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://connectionsmagazine.com/article/telehealth-services/ | 2024-09-09T21:52:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651157.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909201932-20240909231932-00662.warc.gz | en | 0.935337 | 1,157 | 3.3125 | 3 |
What Is Cloud DevOps?
DevOps is a software development approach that combines cultural principles, tools, and practices to increase the speed and efficiency of an organization’s application delivery pipeline. It allows development and operations (DevOps) teams to deliver software and services quickly, enabling frequent updates and supporting the rapid evolution of products.
Cloud computing is a powerful technology that helps organizations implement DevOps strategies, enabling the crucial cultural and technological transformation needed to compete in the modern software marketplace.
There are three important ways DevOps and cloud work together:
- DevOps leverages the cloud—DevOps organizations manage and automate infrastructure using cloud computing technology, enabling agile work processes.
- CloudSecOps (cloud security operations)—an organizational pattern that moves processes to the cloud while tightly integrating security into the entire development lifecycle. It’s like DevSecOps, only in the cloud.
- DevOps as a Service—delivering integrated continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines via the cloud, in a software as a service (SaaS) model, to make DevOps easier to adopt and manage in an organization. We’ll describe this model and also introduce DevOps as a Service offerings from Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud.
In this article:
1. How DevOps Leverages the Cloud
DevOps processes can be very agile when implemented correctly, but they can easily grind to a halt when facing the limitations of an on-premise environment. For example, if an organization needs to procure and install new hardware in order to start a new software project or scale up a production application, it causes needless delays and complexity for DevOps teams.
Cloud infrastructure offers an important boost for DevOps and facilitates scalability. The cloud minimizes latency and enables centralized management via a unified platform for deploying, testing, integrating, and releasing applications.
A cloud platform allows DevOps teams to adapt to changing requirements and collaborate across distributed enterprise environments. Cloud services and tools also help address some of the limitations of legacy systems, accelerating the development process. Most cloud service providers offer CI/CD tools to automate DevOps processes.
Cloud DevOps solutions are often more cost-effective than on-prem automation solutions. They facilitate governance by unifying the environments and reducing the security burden on teams. The cloud offers greater control and application-specific tools to help DevOps teams maintain components from different locations.
DevOps teams can provision and manage cloud resources using code or via an automated infrastructure provisioning service, ensuring their projects maintain the desired momentum. The high level of automation provided by cloud-based DevOps services helps minimize human error and streamlines repeatable tasks. Cloud services and tools let developers automate specific tasks to use their time more efficiently.
Related content: Read our guide to infrastructure as code
2. What Is CloudSecOps (Cloud, Security, and Operations)?
SecOps is a merging of security and IT operations in a unified process. SecOps involves a team that combines skilled software engineers and security analysts that can assess and monitor risk and protect corporate assets. The SecOps team typically operates from an organization’s security operations center (SOC).
SecOps is a growing movement within the broader world of DevSecOps that integrates security with development and operations processes. SecOps is still a distinct part of DevSecOps that focuses on securing an organization’s underlying development infrastructure.
Cloud security operations (CloudSecOps) is an evolution of the SecOps function that aims to identify, respond to, and recover systems from attacks targeting an organization’s cloud assets. Security operations must reactively respond to attacks that the security tools detect, while proactively seeking out other attacks that ordinary detection methods may have missed.
CloudSecOps teams have several roles and functions:
- Incident management—identifies security incidents, responds to them, and coordinates the response with communication, legal, and other teams. In a cloud environment, incident management moves faster and involves many more moving parts than in an on-premise data center.
- Prioritizing events—this requires calculating risk scores for cloud systems, accounts, and devices, and identifying the sensitivity of cloud applications and data.
- Using security technology—traditional SOC tools include security information and event management (SIEM) solutions and other reactive systems. SOC teams are shifting from static log analysis using conventional tools to advanced analytics driven by new solutions such as extended detection and response (XDR). These solutions leverage behavioral analysis, machine learning, and threat intelligence capabilities to identify and respond to abnormal behavior.
- Threat hunting—a proactive effort to discover advanced security threats, usually triggered by a hypothetical threat scenario. Threat hunting involves tools that filter out the noise from security monitoring solutions, enabling advanced data investigation.
- Metrics and objectives—the role of a SecOps team requires keeping track of key performance indicators like mean time to detect, acknowledge, and remediate (MTTD, MTTA, and MTTR, respectively).
3. What Is DevOps as a Service?
DevOps as a Service is a set of cloud-based tools that enable collaboration between an organization’s development and operations teams. The DevOps as a Service provider provides a toolset that covers all relevant aspects of the DevOps process and provides them as a unified platform.
DevOps as a Service is the opposite of a “best of breed” toolchain, where teams select the tools they like best for each purpose. It can make DevOps easier to implement for organizations new to agile processes because it does not require learning and integrating multiple-point solutions.
A DevOps as a Service platform enables tracking and management of every action taken in the software delivery process. It enables organizations to set up continuous integration / continuous delivery (CI/CD) systems and pipelines to increase development velocity and provide continuous feedback to developers.
This platform approach hides the complexity of managing data and information flows across a complex DevOps toolchain. Individuals and teams involved in the DevOps process can access any relevant technology without having to find, adopt, and learn multiple tools. For example, a DevOps as a Service solution provides access to source code management (SCM), build servers, deployment management, and application performance management (APM) in one interface, with centralized auditing and reporting.
DevOps as a Service Tools and Solutions
Here are DevOps as a Service offerings provided by the world’s leading cloud providers. Each of them provides an end-to-end environment for DevOps teams, which eliminates the need to download, learn, and integrate multiple point solutions.
Related content: Read our guide to DevOps tools
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides services and tools dedicated to supporting DevOps implementations, including:
AWS CodeCommit is a managed source control service for hosting private Git repositories. There is no need to provision or scale the infrastructure or install, configure, or operate software—the service handles these tasks for you.
CodeCommit is ideal for storing code, binaries, and other components. The service is secure and highly scalable and can work seamlessly with existing Git-based tools. It also provides online code tools you can use to edit, browse, and collaborate on private projects.
AWS CodeBuild is a fully-managed service for continuous integration (CI) in the cloud. The service can compile your source code, run tests, and create deployment-ready software packages. The service handles the infrastructure, so there is no need to provision, scale, or manage the build servers. It scales continuously and can process several builds concurrently.
CodeBuild provides two options for your environments:
- Pre-configured environments—the service provides various pre-configured environments, including Linux and Microsoft Windows.
- Customized build environments—you can bring your custom environments, including Docker containers.
CodeBuild supports various source providers, including BitBucket, GitHub or GitHub EnterpriseAWS, Amazon S3, and CodeCommit. It also integrates with various open source tools, including Spinnaker and Jenkins.
AWS CodeArtifact is a fully-managed service that lets you centrally manage artifact repositories. It lets you publish, share, and store software packages securely. It provides pay-as-you-go scalability that enables you to flexibly scale the repository to satisfy requirements. The service handles the infrastructure, so there is no need to manage software or servers.
You can configure CodeArtifact to automatically fetch your software packages and their dependencies from various public artifact repositories to ensure you have access to up-to-date software versions. It also lets you set up and enforce controls that help ensure the quality and security of various software components, including open source software.
AWS CodeDeploy is a fully-managed service for automating software deployments. It supports deployment to various environments, including on-premises servers, AWS Lambda, Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), and AWS Fargate.
Once you automate your deployments, you are free from manual operations—CodeDeploy scales to satisfy the needs of your deployment. The service facilitates rapid releases of new features, handles complexities associated with application updates, and can help you avoid downtime during deployment.
AWS CodePipeline is a cloud service for continuous delivery (CD). It provides functionality for modeling, visualizing, and automating software delivery steps. You can employ CodePipeline to model the entire release process, including code builds, deployment to pre-production environments, application testing, and releasing into a production environment.
Once you create a model, CodePipeline can begin automatically building, testing, and deploying your application. It follows your predefined workflow during each code change. The service lets you integrate tools from the AWS Partner Network (APN) and your existing tools into all applicable release steps to create an end-to-end CD solution.
Microsoft Azure provides cloud-based services and tools that support the modern DevOps team. Here are notable services that help DevOps teams plan, build, and deploy applications:
Azure Repos provides version control tools to help you manage code. It offers the following version control types:
- Git—a popular open source distributed version control. Azure Repos lets you use Git with various tools and operating systems, including Windows, Mac, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, and Git partner services and tools.
- Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC)—Azure’s centralized version control system lets you store code components in one repository.
Azure Pipelines is a cloud service that builds and tests code projects automatically. It utilizes continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) when testing, building, and shipping your code to the environment of your choice. Pipelines support numerous programming languages and project types.
Azure Boards is a cloud service that provides interactive and customizable tools for managing software projects. It offers various capabilities, such as calendar views, native support for Scrum, Kanban, and Agile processes, integrated reporting, and configurable dashboards. You can leverage these features to scale as your project grows.
Azure Test Plans
Azure Test Plans is a browser-based test management solution that provides tools for driving quality and collaboration across the development lifecycle. It includes capabilities for various types of testing, including planned manual testing, exploratory testing, user acceptance testing, and feedback reviews.
Azure Artifacts provides a cloud-based, centralized location for managing packages and sharing code. It enables you to publish packages and share them publicly or privately with your team or the entire organization. The service lets you consume packages from various feeds and public registries, including npmjs.com and NuGet.org. It also supports a range of package types, including npm, NuGet, Python, Universal Packages, and Maven.
Google Cloud DevOps
Google Cloud provides various services and tools that support DevOps implementations, including:
The Cloud Build service executes builds on Google Cloud’s infrastructure. It imports source code from a location of your choice, such as GitHub, Bitbucket, Cloud Source Repositories, or Cloud Storage, and uses your specifications to execute the build. It can produce various artifacts, including Java archives and Docker containers.
Code Build uses a series of steps when executing your build, running each build step in a Docker container. The build step can perform any action that is possible to run on a container regardless of the environment. The service lets you use Cloud Build steps or write custom build steps tailored to your specific needs.
Artifact Registry is a cloud-based service for centrally managing artifacts and dependencies. The service is fully integrated with Google Cloud tools and runtimes and supports native artifact protocols. It provides simple integration with existing CI/CD tools so you can set up automated pipelines.
You can employ Artifact Registry to secure the container software supply chain and protect repositories within a VPC Service Controls perimeter. The service lets you create multiple regional repositories in a single Google Cloud project and control access at the repository level.
Cloud Monitoring is a service that collects events, metadata, and metrics from various sources, including Google Cloud, AWS, application instrumentation, and hosted uptime probes. You can use it alongside the BindPlane service to collect data from more than 150 application components, hybrid cloud systems, and on-premise systems. Google Cloud’s operations suite ingests this data, generating insights as charts, alerts, and dashboards. You can use BindPlane as part of your Google Cloud project at no additional cost.
Google Cloud Deploy is a managed cloud service for automating application delivery. It uses a defined promotion sequence when delivering applications to target environments. You can deploy an updated application by creating a release, and the delivery pipeline will then manage the entire lifecycle of this release.
Securing Cloud DevOps with Aqua CSPM and CNAPP
To ensure cloud-based DevOps environments are secure, you need to scan, monitor, and remediate configuration issues according to best practices and compliance standards. Aqua Cloud Security Posture Management (CSPM) can help you identify security issues and remediate them across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud.
Aqua CSPM continually audits your cloud accounts for security risks and misconfigurations across hundreds of configuration settings and compliance best practices, enabling consistent, unified multi-cloud security. Get detailed, actionable advice and alerts, or choose automatic remediation of misconfigured services with granular control over applied fixes.
In addition, it is crucial to enforce policies consistently across all your cloud native deployments, combining cloud workload protection for VMs, containers, and serverless. Aqua’s Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP) provides full stack security and lets you enforce cloud infrastructure best practices, automate compliance, and improve the security posture of public cloud and Kubernetes infrastructure.
Aqua leverages modern microservices concepts to enforce immutability of applications at runtime, establishing zero-trust networking, and detecting and stopping suspicious activities, including zero-day attacks.
Lastly, Aqua offers several open source projects that can help you secure cloud environments: | <urn:uuid:32e64df0-fe79-4223-8a15-4f59cb0e565e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.aquasec.com/cloud-native-academy/devsecops/cloud-devops/ | 2024-09-11T02:21:34Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651343.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911020451-20240911050451-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.903134 | 3,103 | 2.8125 | 3 |
It is no secret that humans are the weakest link in any security program, but the extent of the problem can be underestimated. In the most recent Verizon Data Breaches Investigations Report, it suggests that some 90% of breaches start with a phishing or social engineering attack.
This is not a new phenomenon, yet most of the investment in cybersecurity over the last 10 years has been focused on securing computers and networks through technical defenses. But the fact that our IT systems are more secure and companies like Microsoft have got better at patching and preventing physical vulnerabilities has made it even more attractive to exploit human weaknesses.
It’s time that the focus of security programs shifted. By making employees smarter about different types of attacks, they can be transformed from a weak link into one of your biggest assets – a human firewall. You can do this by building a comprehensive phishing protection program that intrinsically links technical controls with human behavior and interaction.
It has been shown that good phishing education programs can reduce click rates on malicious links from 40-50% down to below 10%. These programs don’t need to be built around sophisticated and costly tools but they should always comprise four key components: protection, education, evaluation and reporting.
Preventing the phishing cycle must start with protection as click rates continue to be so high. This means getting in-between the attacker and the victim to remove or neutralize the malicious links before they can do any damage. But to simply stop the attack is a wasted opportunity.
By automatically detecting and blocking rogue DNS requests, users who choose to click on a fake Office 365 or Dropbox link, for example, can be redirected to a safe page instead of where the attacker wants them to go. This means that the employee is protected but is also given a dose of education after they’ve clicked.
It’s a bit like going on a safe driving course after been caught speeding! Once bitten, users are more inclined to listen and learn from their mistakes, so they can stay safe in the future. This could simply be a conversation about the serious implications of clicking on a malicious link and how to spot them.
Education is the kernel of any anti-phishing program, so as well as reacting to user actions, it is also important to be proactive. This could involve sharing education materials with your co-workers and/or sending out fake phishing emails to see which ones users recognize and avoid, and which ones drive the most clicks.
Evaluation focuses on sending these fake phishes and counting the clicks. Based on the results, IT managers can better understand the click rates for different types of user and attack, to more accurately target education and resources.
No one is suggesting it is easy to spot a dodgy link; after all, the level of phishing and social engineering is getting ever more sophisticated. Attackers are gathering more intelligence on their victims, friends and colleagues and interact with them.
In one recent phish, the email appeared to come from a co-worker in the same office. There is also an increase in so-called CEO fraud where the attacker impersonates senior management.
Fundamentally, we need to change the culture in organizations around phishing. We need to move away from the blame culture, so it is OK to make a mistake and learn from it. If people are more aware of the risks and implications, they will start to have more conversations and ask questions, be it with an IT person or work colleague at the water cooler. These conversations with one another are a key element to any good anti-phishing program.
These conversations drive the final stage of the model - reporting. This encourages people to say something either to their peers or their IT helpdesk if they feel that a message is suspicious. We recommend setting up a shared phishing reporting email box or you can use one of the paid services such as KnowBe4’s phish alert button. And simply encourage people to talk to one another.
These phishes are ‘gold’ for linking the reporting and protection steps in the cycle. By taking indicators out of the phishes such as URLs and malicious files, you can feed these back into your defensive mechanisms. It only takes one user to spot and report a phishing email to protect other users in the company. Any employee can go from ‘zero to hero’!
Reporting phishes also enables you to understand attacker trends. When users report phishes, pay attention to which parts of your company are getting targeted. What are the attackers after? Are they trying to steal passwords? Are they sending you malicious files? Whatever they are doing, focus your security program there.
With cyber-attacks on the increase, everyone needs to play their part to protect themselves and their employers. It’s a bit like a Neighbourhood Watch scheme for the cyber world. Protection, education, evaluation and reporting all contribute to an effective anti-phishing program; but it is when they all work together with technology that makes the outcome greater than the sum of the parts. | <urn:uuid:77f3347f-a4fc-4e36-9104-f4a2d2925b0a> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/opinions/started-with-phish/ | 2024-09-12T08:23:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651440.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912074814-20240912104814-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.960194 | 1,035 | 2.875 | 3 |
A blockchain is a distributed database that maintains an ever-growing list of data records secured from tampering or revision. It is decentralised, avoiding a single point of failure with the group working together to confirm legitimate new transactions. It is composed of data structure blocks where each block holds batches of individual transactions and the results of any blockchain executables. These blocks contain a timestamp and a link to a previous block. The blockchain therefore serves as a public ledger of transactions which cannot be reversed (or without great difficulty). Blockchain technology can, and is already transforming key aspects of society and industry.
How to perfect your blockchain strategy
Tracing manufacturing accessories
It could be argued that the most compelling use cases for blockchain are in areas such as cryptocurrencies, supply chain or harvesting unused computer processors, where in each case, all parties involved are untrusted and transactions must be immutable. But, within industry, manufacturing and infrastructure, there are plenty of areas in which this is needed.
For factories, blockchain can be used for tracing the source of manufacturing accessories. Here, for example, information on goods such as clearance certificates, origin, proof of purchase or a bill of lading can be made part of a block and be easily accessible to suppliers, transporters, buyers, regulators and auditors. However, many still argue that a properly implemented blockchain could lead to lower transaction, auditing and accounting costs. Plus, the addition of ‘smart contracts’ could automatically calculate new tariffs.
The pharmaceutical supply chain
A sector which is researching the use of blockchain in the supply chain is the pharmaceutical industry. Moving medicine through a supply chain in accordance with strict global regulations means item-level tracking. This is primarily to protect against the serious counterfeiting problem of medicines. In the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and in EMEA, the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), all play a major part in standardisation of the pharmaceutical supply chain, which is tasked with delivering secure traceability of medicines worldwide. The main technologies used for this are 2-D Data Matrix bar codes, and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) UHF passive tags. All of this data can be linked to the blockchain for decentralised verification.
Blockchain can help the pharmaceutical industry better manage its transactions and improve record keeping across the whole supply chain. This helps combat counterfeit drugs and makes compliance and traceability more efficient. The key property that blockchain has is that any recorded information is immutable. As blockchain is distributed and serving as an open ledger, the industry can trace a product through the whole supply chain and lifecycle.
Achieving critical supply chain visibility during the Covid-19 pandemic
Blockchain for IoT
There are already blockchain-based Internet of Things (IoT) frameworks that include layers of access to keep out unauthorised devices from the network. Some enable IoT devices to send data to blockchain ledgers for inclusion in shared transactions with tamper-resistant records. It also validates the transaction through secure contracts.
A potential barrier to blockchain and IoT is that most IoT devices have a limited memory size and limited battery life along with restricted processors. Traditional ‘heavy’ cryptography is difficult to deploy on a typical sensor, hence the deployment of many insecure IoT devices. As such, IoT devices are more vulnerable to the ‘51% attack’ where hackers control 51% of the processing power in the blockchain. This also raises a more important point in that IoT devices may simply be too underpowered to be part of the blockchain.
The blockchain does require participating nodes to perform relatively complex computations in a ‘proof of work’. It is necessary for integrity of data. Blockchain has the potential to enable the IoT to finally provide true machine-to-machine interactions with automated price negotiations through smart contracts taking human preferences into consideration. This allows us to fulfil the final vision for a true IoT blockchain framework, which is IoT nodes verifying the validity of other IoT transactions without relying on a centralised authority, such as an IoT device monitoring soil conditions validating payments to the local water supply utility based on moisture readings.
As time goes on, these application areas will increase for society and industry, allowing the industry to move blockchain far beyond the coin. | <urn:uuid:5c81e2d2-c846-44c6-a898-ed66aa9ef0e4> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.information-age.com/transforming-industry-society-blockchain-beyond-coin-16407/ | 2024-09-13T15:11:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651523.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913133933-20240913163933-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.925004 | 869 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Many organizations today have either already created or are in the process of creating a data lake. There are of course multiple configurations of a data lake including:
- A centralized data lake typically on a single data store such as Hadoop or cloud storage like Amazon S3
- Multiple stand-alone data lakes
- A logical data lake where the data in the lake is distributed across multiple data stores but is managed as if it is centralised
From the global data lake survey (Figure 1) I have been conducting, it is clear that the logical data lake is the configuration that dominates.
The logical data lake consists of multiple data stores including data warehouses, master data management, cloud storage, NoSQL databases and Hadoop systems. However, it is managed as if it is a single system and so we have the flexibility to ingest, prepare, analyze and provision data in any or all platforms. To cater for this degree of flexibility, data management software has to rise above the multiple data stores in the data lake and be able to connect to all of them in order to allow data to be ingested into one or more data stores, prepared, integrated and analyzed.
Data virtualization plays an important role in simplifying access to the trusted data and insights produced in this environment. This is shown in Fig. 2.
However even if your data lake is a single centralized data store and not a logical data lake, it is the combination of the information catalog together with data virtualization that is important.
The role of the data catalog is to discover, profile, tag and classify data and also to map it to a business glossary so that people know what the data means. It also provides lineage and helps organize data in the data lake making it easy to find. Increasingly the information catalog is being plugged into data preparation tools, data science workbenches and self-service BI tools so that people working in data and analytics projects can easily see across the logical data lake to find the data they need.
The question is, how does the information catalog work with data virtualization to improve agility when provisioning data in a data lake?
There at least are two ways to make use data virtualization with the catalog:
- The first way is to be able to browse the catalog and find the data you need. The catalog can then be used to launch data virtualization to allow you to preview that data from within the catalog. This allows data virtualization to fulfill the role of a virtual data connector and requires the data virtualization server to support automatic schema discovery (schema on read).
- The second way is once you have found the data you need, then data virtualization can be used to provision it, giving you a virtual view over the logical data lake so that you can easily access the data you need even if it is in multiple data stores within the data lake. This means that there is no need to copy data in the data lake somewhere else. It provisions it via virtual views so that the data remains governed and managed in the data lake. Multiple virtual views can then be published to the catalog to quickly provision data on demand. So this is a powerful combination virtual views of trusted data available in the catalog to quickly provision data. This is shown in Figure 4.
For more information on the data catalog and the capabilities of data virtualization, please take a look at the following resources:
- Fast Data Strategy Virtual Summit 2018: Leap to Next Generation Data Management with Denodo 7.0
- Data Management Reimagined Panel
- Data Virtualization or SQL-on-Hadoop for Logical Data Architectures
- Denodo Platform 7.0: Bridging the Gap Between IT and Business Users
- Enabling a Customer Data Platform Using Data Virtualization - August 26, 2021
- Window Shopping for “Business Ready” Data in an Enterprise Data Marketplace - June 6, 2019
- Using Data Virtualisation to Simplify Data Warehouse Migration to the Cloud - November 15, 2018 | <urn:uuid:cf5aad3b-ba47-42b6-be85-f2ee9a439998> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.datamanagementblog.com/data-virtualization-information-catalog-agile-data-provisioning-data-driven-enterprise/ | 2024-09-16T02:16:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651668.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916012328-20240916042328-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.902525 | 813 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The impact of evolving AI in cybercrime [Q&A]
Artificial intelligence (AI) has been an evolving trend at the very center of cybersecurity in recent years. However, the release of a wave of new tools such as ChatGPT and Microsoft's Jasper chatbot have sparked fresh concerns about the potential for cybercriminals to leverage increasingly sophisticated technologies for nefarious purposes.
We spoke to Zach Fleming, principal architect at Integrity360, to explore whether AI can be used to create sophisticated malware and hacking tools capable of bringing down entire networks. We'll consider which concerns are valid by highlighting the current state of AI, and we'll explore how security teams can best combat the use of AI in cybercrime.
BN: What are some common cybersecurity concerns surrounding the impact of evolving AI?
ZF: From writing complex essays to producing operational code, new AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Bard and Bing have truly broken new ground, completing a range of tasks in a highly sophisticated manner.
Naturally, however, there are now worries that threat actors may abuse those tools -- and their ability to harness huge amounts of data and expediting processes in particular -- for nefarious means.
Specifically, we're hearing several concerns around the potential for AI to be used to generate malicious code and create even more dangerous malware.
BN: Are these concerns valid?
ZF: We must remember that most cyberattacks aren't technically advanced, instead carried out by amateur 'script kiddies' who rely on repeatable scripts and pre-built tools.
Of course, there are some more sophisticated attackers capable of uncovering novel vulnerabilities and developing tailored attack methods to effectively exploit them. However, the truth of the matter is that current AI tools aren’t advanced enough to create new strains of malware that are more dangerous than those we’re currently facing.
Despite advances, AI tools are still limited in several ways. They struggle to navigate situations where there isn't a single definitive answer; they are limited by the data they ingest; and they still require the support of experienced individuals to work effectively.
We still need a combination of technology and skilled people in cybersecurity, and this is no different in cybercrime. Therefore, AI models alone won't suddenly facilitate the creation of the kind of malware that people fear.
BN: What are the genuine threats of AI that people should be aware of?
ZF: This isn't to say there is absolutely nothing to worry about. Indeed, there is the potential for ChatGPT and similar tools to further democratize cybercrime.
Phishing-as-a-service (RaaS) providers have been enabling attackers with limited-to-no technical skills to carry out attacks for some time through the use of pre-built toolkits. And with new AI platforms being publicly available, there is the potential that they may exacerbate this issue.
As an example, attackers could use ChatGPT to write text impersonating a trusted source more convincingly as they carry out spear-phishing attacks.
BN: How should cybersecurity professionals look to respond to advances?
ZF: There are reasons for concern. However, current AI tools are not sophisticated enough to create advanced malware capable of evading detection and causing serious damage in their current state.
We're not saying that AI won't play a more serious role in cybercrime in the future. But at present, the threat posed by AI remains largely theoretical.
Now is not the time to panic. By combining effective security tools with trained professionals and supplementary programs such as employee cyber education initiatives, networks and systems can be protected against most AI-led attacks.
Typically, I would advise organizations to get ahead of the game by embracing AI and machine learning in their own defenses. This will improve familiarity, and such tools are very effective at helping to identify and respond to threats such as malicious behaviors in a network at speed.
By working with a trusted cybersecurity partner, AI-led cybersecurity tools can be implemented and optimized with ease. | <urn:uuid:42d47f66-a49b-41f5-b1a7-f4edeb14416a> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://betanews.com/2023/10/02/the-impact-of-evolving-ai-in-cybercrime-qa/ | 2024-09-19T17:42:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652055.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919162032-20240919192032-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.960283 | 818 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The “From” field in an email–or even in snail mail–is just an address line that the sender types in. Just like anyone can go to a post office and send a card that comes from Santa, anyone can do that with email.
Most users never actually do this–it’s done automatically by their email program. You open up Gmail to send an email and it’s assumed it’s coming from your email.
However, it’s not a guarantee that it will match.
A program can easily send emails from some.server.com and write in the address line anything they like. For example, the program can write in something like From: firstname.lastname@example.org
For the end-user, they will check the from field and think that is the sender, often without thinking twice about it.
Naturally, security tools on the receiving end will try to check whether the ‘From’ address is legitimate. If they see an email received from some.server.com having the address line of email@example.com, it would be rejected by the recipient’s server because the sender server(some.server.com) has nothing to do with avanan.com.
However, hackers have found a new way to get around this, by inserting a relay in between the server and the inbox.
An SMTP relay service can be a valuable service for organizations that like to send out mass emails. Essentially, businesses use SMTP relay services--of which there are many-- to send marketing messages to a vast database of users without being blocklisted. Utilizing trusted SMTP relay services ensures messages get delivered.
Many organizations offer this service. Gmail does as well, with the ability to route outgoing non-Gmail messages through Google.
However, these relay services have a flaw. Within Gmail, any Gmail tenant can use it to spoof any other Gmail tenant. That means that a hacker can use the service to easily spoof legitimate brands and send out phishing and malware campaigns. When the security service sees avanan.com coming into the inbox, and it’s a real IP address from Gmail’s IP, it starts to look more legitimate.
Starting in April 2022, Avanan researchers have seen a massive uptick of these SMTP Relay Service Exploit attacks in the wild, as threat actors use this service to spoof any other Gmail tenant and begin sending out phishing emails that look legitimate. Over a span of two weeks, Avanan has seen nearly 30,000 of these emails. In this attack brief, Avanan will analyze how hackers are using exploits in this service to get into the inbox.
In this attack, hackers are taking advantage of Google’s SMTP Relay service to send spoofed emails.
Hackers can utilize any Gmail tenant, from small companies to large, popular corporations. This works when DMARC=reject is not set up.
Once spoofed, they can send out phishing emails that are more likely to get into the inbox, as it leverages the inherent trust of legitimate brands.
Once in the inbox, hackers hope that end-users will click on a malicious link or download a malicious document, to steal credentials.
- Vector: Email
- Type: Credential Harvesting
- Techniques: SMTP Relay Exploit
- Target: Any end-user
In this attack, threat actors are utilizing the SMTP relay service to spoof brands and get into the inbox.
Email Example #1
The key is using smtp-relay.gmail.com as the SMTP service. This email is sent through one domain, but is delivered into the inbox from venmo.com
Here are the details:
Received: from 184.108.40.206 ([220.127.116.11]) by smtp-relay.gmail.com
From: firstname.lastname@example.org <email@example.com>
Email Example #2
This email is sent from Trello.com, but the text has nothing to do with Trello, instead inviting the user to click on a link that’s malicious. The actual domain was jigokar.com
Hackers are using the SMTP Relay Service of Gmail to spoof domains and send phishing emails into the inbox.
firstname.lastname@example.org wouldn’t want to send their email from that domain. They would want the legitimacy of a major brand. So, using this service, they instead send their email from, say, paypal.com (assuming paypal.com uses Gmail). Email scanners see that it’s coming from Gmail’s trusted relay service–and for good measure, often a trusted brand–and it sails right through to the inbox. One bad domain is able to send emails from another good domain.
Think about it this way: Company x sets up a Gmail Relay. They can use it to send emails from any other Gmail tenant. This ensures an SPF pass when the recipient runs a check. This ensures that the phishing email will reach the inbox, assuming DMARC=reject is not enabled.
Companies–and individuals–use the SMTP Relay Service precisely because it’s trusted and its purpose is to ensure an email doesn’t end up in the junk folder. And depending on the Google plan, they can send a maximum of 4,600,000 million emails in a 24-hour span (although that would only truly apply to large companies).
This works only if the impersonated brand has its DMARC policy set to none. That's because Google, along with other systems, will point out an explicit mismatch on the email from headers when there is one. (For example, if phisher.com sends out a message from google.com, there will be an indicator of such discrepancy for downstream email systems to see.) Most companies will have a DMARC=reject policy, as Netflix does:
(MX Records, shown above, are public knowledge and can be accessed via sites like MXToolbox.) Following strong DMARC policies like the one seen above is essential and will help protect from these attacks. For example, we haven't seen any spoofs of Netflix while researching this attack, in large part due to their DMARC=reject setup.
Trello, spoofed above, does not have its DMARC reject policy enabled.
One of the reasons they may have disabled DMARC is because they have Proofpoint, a Secure Email Gateway, installed.
All the attacker had to do was send emails from Gmail’s IP address, and SPF would be passed.
It's important to note that any SMTP relay could be vulnerable to this attack. There are a number of SMTP relay services out there.
Avanan has seen a massive increase in these attacks. Through two weeks of April, we’ve seen over 27,000 of these emails.
Avanan notified Google of how hackers were using this relay on April 23rd, 2022.
Best Practices: Guidance and Recommendations
To guard against these attacks, security professionals can do the following:
- Check sender address before interacting with any email
- Set DMARC policy to reject
- Always hover over any link to see the destination URL before clicking on it
- Ensure your email authentication standards are up to par, utilizing best practices from the Messaging, Malware and Mobile Anti-Abuse Working Group, found here. | <urn:uuid:38fcb015-81d1-4168-bb58-0b8b446e2c13> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.avanan.com/blog/the-gmail-smtp-relay-service-exploit | 2024-09-21T00:41:34Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701425385.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920222945-20240921012945-00662.warc.gz | en | 0.928602 | 1,561 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Scammers are finding more and more creative ways to steal your personal information. The Federal Trade Commission claims that impostor scams were the most commonly reported scam in America in 2022. Over 36,000 people reported being conned by those pretending to be friends and family. And artificial intelligence, or AI chatbots, are making it even easier for hackers.
While chatbots are commonly used to help customers solve issues online, they can also be used with bad intentions. Learn more about how technology is making it easier for bad actors to mimic voices, convincing people their loved ones are in distress.
What are AI chatbots?
You probably hear about AI all the time, but what are AI chatbots? And why are they so dangerous? AI chatbots are trained to have human-like conversations using a process known as natural language processing (NLP). With NLP, the chatbot is able to interpret human language, enabling the bot to operate on its own. Programmers teach chatbots how to understand the context of a person’s words, allowing them to answer questions and carry on a conversation.
Because AI chatbots are able to simulate human conversation, they have become a tool for hackers and scammers to trick innocent victims. Learn more about how to avoid online scams.
Types of AI chatbot scams
Many of us can spot scam messages because they look like they’ve been written by a robot. However, advances in AI technology are making it harder to identify scams. Hackers are improving their lure by using AI to eliminate spelling and grammatical mistakes and generate email threads, making their scams more believable. This makes many people more likely to fall for scams.
Let’s go over some common types of AI chatbot scams and how you can avoid them.
Many people today turn to the internet during their search for romance. Dating sites and apps offer the exciting opportunity to meet people everywhere, from down the street to the other side of the world. But not everyone who sweeps you off your feet should be trusted. Scammers are using AI chatbots to write convincing messages to unsuspecting people searching for love.
This new version of a popular scam lets AI do all the mundane work, leaving bad actors with more time on their hands. Learn more about how to stay safe on dating apps.
Phishing is the most prominent type of cyberattack used by criminals today. Cybercriminals cast a wide net with many different types of phishing attacks. Scammers use AI to make their phishing scams more successful by making them harder to detect. Make sure to read emails carefully, check for spelling and grammar errors, and look at the web address before clicking on any links. Always check the sender’s address and double-check with the sender if you have any doubts.
Imagine meeting someone online and forging a beautiful relationship—only to find out they were a robot the entire time. While this might have seemed unbelievable at one point in time, this is a harsh reality for some people today. Scammers are using AI chatbots to trick you into thinking they’re a real person. Once they’ve gained your trust, the chatbot will ask you for personal information or for money.
AI chatbots are even able to mimic voices by using audio samples to create a replica that can say anything they want. You might think you’re getting a call from your grandson when in reality, a chatbot has catfished you. However, this scam takes a lot of planning and can be avoided by confirming the message to a human in person.
Can you protect yourself against chatbot scams?
With so many dangerous scams out there, how can you protect yourself and your personal information? The best way to stay safe is by using technology with caution and staying alert online. Learn what to do if you’ve been scammed online, so you can report cybercriminals to the proper authorities and have a chance at getting your money back. Make sure to visit the CenturyLink Discover blog for more information about technology and the future of AI. | <urn:uuid:61465548-6359-498f-bacb-d14a0fc0b744> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://discover.centurylink.com/scammers-ai-chatbot.html | 2024-09-12T11:47:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651457.35/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912110742-20240912140742-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.958324 | 831 | 3.3125 | 3 |
Making sure your password is strong yet memorable can be challenging and stressful. However, following best practices – like using passphrases, incorporating acronyms and relying on
Cybercriminals use a variety of cyber attacks to steal your sensitive information. However, a password manager can help prevent you from falling victim to them. Password managers protect your sensitive information from being stolen by unauthorized users by ensuring that your passwords are strong and unique. They also protect your sensitive information from getting stolen by using autofill features and encryption.
Continue reading to learn more about the common cyber attacks and how password managers can help you avoid them.
What is a password manager?
A password manager is a tool that helps you store and manage your personal data in a secure digital vault. Your login credentials, credit card information, Social Security number and other sensitive information can all be stored in your personal digital vault. The vault is encrypted and can only be accessed using a strong master password. With a password manager, you can easily manage all of your passwords and sensitive information in one place, securely share any of the records in your vault and prevent cyber attacks that allow cybercriminals to steal your information.
Common cyber attacks you can avoid with a password manager
Here are the common cyber attacks cybercriminals use to steal your sensitive information and how they can be avoided with a password manager.
Simple brute force attack
A simple brute force attack is a type of password-related cyber attack in which cybercriminals use trial and error to try different combinations to guess your login credentials. Cybercriminals will use an automated tool to go through every letter, number and symbol combination they can. This type of cyber attack exploits people who use sequential numbers or letters, keystroke patterns and repeated numbers or letters.
A password manager helps prevent brute force attacks by creating strong and unique passwords that are completely random and omit any common sequences or combinations. You won’t have to worry about remembering your passwords with a password manager because they’re securely stored and accessible in your personal vault.
A dictionary attack is another type of password-related attack in which cybercriminals use common dictionary words and phrases to crack a person’s login credentials. Cybercriminals will use an automated tool to go through a wordlist of the most commonly used words and phrases. The tool will also input variations of the common words and phrases that may add numbers or symbols or substitute letters with numbers.
A password manager can help you avoid using commonly used dictionary words and phrases by generating strong passwords with random strings of characters.
Some password managers allow you to create strong passphrases. Passphrases are a string of random words that can be used as a password. They are secure because the words included in a passphrase are completely random, do not correlate with each other or the user, and when combined, are at least 16 characters.
Password spraying is a type of cyber attack in which cybercriminals use a list of usernames and try to match one with a commonly used password. Cybercriminals will gather a list of usernames from a public directory or open source. They will then go through the entire list of usernames with one commonly used password and repeat the process with a different password. The goal of this method of attack is to access multiple people’s accounts on one domain.
Password spraying relies on people using commonly used passwords like “password” or “12345” to protect their accounts. However, a password manager can help prevent the use of common passwords. It will identify weak passwords and allow you to strengthen them using the built-in password generator.
Credential stuffing is a type of cyber attack in which cybercriminals use a verified set of login credentials to compromise multiple accounts. Cybercriminals will obtain verified login credentials from a data breach, previous cyber attack or the dark web. They will then try the login credentials to access other accounts that reuse those credentials, knowing that people often repeat the same passwords across multiple accounts. The goal is to compromise multiple accounts from the same user.
Credential stuffing is effective because 56% of people reuse their passwords for multiple accounts. Password managers help identify accounts that reuse passwords and encourage users to take action to change their passwords. Password managers will assist users in generating unique passwords with the built-in password generator.
Keyloggers are a type of malware that secretly installs on a victim’s device to record all of their keystrokes. Cybercriminals secretly deliver keyloggers by exploiting security vulnerabilities, or through Trojans or phishing attacks. They use keyloggers to record the victim’s login credentials and other sensitive information when they type it into their device.
If you have a keylogger installed on your device without your knowledge, cybercriminals can steal your sensitive information every time you type it. However, password managers can protect your sensitive information from keyloggers through the autofill feature. Whenever you need to log in to your accounts, your password manager will automatically fill in your login information, meaning you won’t need to manually type it.
Spoofing attacks are a type of cyber attack in which cybercriminals try to impersonate someone else to trick people into revealing their sensitive information. One of the most common types of spoofing attacks cybercriminals use is website spoofing. Cybercriminals create malicious websites that look almost identical to legitimate websites to trick people into revealing their sensitive information such as their login credentials or credit card information.
Many people cannot tell they are on a spoofed website as they look almost identical to those of legitimate businesses and may unknowingly reveal their sensitive information. However, password managers can help detect and prevent you from giving up your sensitive information on a spoofed website.
Password managers store your login credentials along with the URL associated with those credentials. Whenever you land on a page that matches the URL of the login page for your account, the password manager will automatically fill in your login information. However, if you land on a spoofed website, the password manager will not fill in your login credentials because the URL doesn’t match what’s stored, and you will know to exit out immediately.
Man-in-the-Middle (MITM) attacks are a type of cyber attack in which cybercriminals intercept transmitted data between two exchanging parties. Cybercriminals often rely on fabricated or public WiFi networks because they are unencrypted. Unencrypted WiFi networks allow cybercriminals to eavesdrop, steal or modify the connected internet traffic.
Cybercriminals can use MITM attacks to steal passwords and documents that were sent through email or text messages because these methods of sharing are unencrypted. However, password managers encrypt all of your information, allowing you to securely share your passwords and documents with others, and prevent cybercriminals from being able to intercept and view them.
Use Keeper® to protect you from cyber attacks
Although a password manager cannot protect you from every cyber threat, it can protect you from cyber attacks including brute force, dictionary attacks, password spraying, credential stuffing, keyloggers, spoofed websites and MITM attacks. A password manager ensures your passwords are strong and unique so they don’t get easily cracked. It also uses autofill features and encryption to protect your information from unauthorized access. | <urn:uuid:918cffbb-bb3d-4716-91b2-e309c471bead> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2024/04/24/how-password-managers-protect-you-from-cyber-attacks/ | 2024-09-13T18:21:49Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651535.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913165920-20240913195920-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.926595 | 1,504 | 3.046875 | 3 |
What is data lifecycle management?
Data lifecycle management describes the processes, policies, and procedures of managing data throughout its entire life—from the first entry into your system (data capture) all the way through its retirement (data deletion). All data has a lifecycle, and data lifecycle management ensures that your data function is proactive in managing each step of that journey.
Here’s a synopsis of the typical data lifecycle:
- Data capture/creation – All data, regardless of the type, has to be created. The capturing of particular information and the format it takes depends on the nature of your organization and its data needs.
- Data management and storage – Once data is created, it is sent to data storage, which may be on-premises, cloud-based, or a hybrid of the two. The storage may consist of a data lake, data warehouse, or data lakehouse approach, depending on the needs of the organization. In this stage, data is cleaned, processed, and prepared for the next stage.
- Data usage – At this stage, data scientists perform analysis to transform the raw data into a resource that’s valuable for the organization. The advanced analytics allow improved insight into what is happening at the data’s creation point or see the data combined into larger datasets to get a macro picture. Then, DataOps teams compose this data into readable datasets for other users.
- Data sharing – The composed datasets are then disseminated downstream to front-line teams or C-suite decision-makers. Analyzed data may also be used to inform real-time dashboards. Despite its challenges, there is a growing movement to harness the potential of greater data collaboration.
- Data archival – The more recent the data, the more useful and valuable it is. However, older data may also be archived in case it’s needed later on. To store data, it is usually kept in cheaper, slower storage locations, with complete metadata catalogs necessary for easy future access.
- Data deletion – After data is no longer deemed useful, or under the consent terms of its collection, data ends its lifecycle with deletion. This is a very important stage, both in terms of reducing costs for the organization as well as meeting their data security and privacy obligations.
Essentially, data lifecycle management means planning and building architecture for data integrity around all of these stages to make sure they are functioning optimally and reaching their expected outcomes.
Why is data lifecycle management important?
Data lifecycle management is a critical process for data operations, as it ensures that data processing, analysis, and sharing are all streamlined. The flow of data is considered and data friction points are reduced to increase data value and ROI. An effective data lifecycle management process can identify and smooth obstacles as soon as they appear.
Additionally, data lifecycle management is important for delivering on several key functions and responsibilities of your DataOps team, including regulatory compliance and data interoperability.
There are a number of data regulations that place strict obligations on data processors about how they can collect and use existing data. Data lifecycle management ensures a consistent approach to data usage throughout its lifecycle and helps ensure compliance. Among these, the final stage of the lifecycle, data deletion, is essential for reducing the chance of data breaches or contamination of datasets with data whose permission has expired.
Data breaches can incur major fines and cause considerable damage to consumer trust. A good data lifecycle management policy takes a unified approach to data security and data protection, which minimizes this risk.
With varied data collection points that could number in the millions, data lifecycle management helps data functions create and maintain interoperable data architecture that reduces friction and improves the usability of all collected dataflows.
Availability of data to users is a core competency of a data function, but it is also complicated by data access and security issues. Data lifecycle management makes data simple to locate and access while also enforcing identity and access management protocols.
Features of an effective data lifecycle management plan
An effective data lifecycle management plan is one that allows your data function to deliver on everything that is expected of it at each stage of the data’s lifecycle while also minimizing organizational risk by adhering to data regulations and ensuring data security best practices. Creating the best plan for your needs requires some core features to ensure it works as expected now and in the future. These include:
Data governance: Data governance policies determine how data is collected, stored, and secured, and are closely aligned with data lifecycle management. Strong data governance clearly outlines what should be done with an organization’s data in specific situations and gives administrators the tools to ensure these policies are adhered to. Effective data governance allows data lifecycle management to implement relevant plans at each lifecycle stage.
Iteration and improvement: Applying Agile methodologies through different data iterations is an expectation. Data needs and capabilities constantly change, so only by designing your data lifecycle management plan with the capacity to reiterate and adapt to new circumstances will organizations be able to consistently smooth dataflows at any stage of their lifecycle.
Data custody plan: Data custody is the process that ensures obligations are met in terms of how data is secured and used while with your organization. Data security and privacy introduce significant organizational risk at various stages of the data lifecycle, though at some more than others. A clear data custody plan informs your data lifecycle management by clarifying privacy and security expectations all along data’s journey so as to minimize this risk.
Data lifecycle management ensures that the correct policies are applied at every stage of data’s lifecycle within your organization. It also ensures that data flow friction points are identified and resolved. One of the most effective ways to implement a comprehensive data lifecycle management policy is to use a virtual data platform, which creates an interoperable virtualized layer between storage and use. This allows all processes to be performed virtually without the need for migrations, ETL processes, or the creation of multiple copies of data. Through the use of metadata catalogs, data which has reached the end of its purpose can be easily identified for deletion, ensuring completion of the data lifecycle.
Intertrust Platform allows all governance and lifecycle management policies to be enforced and adhered to by administrators, improving their function and reducing risk. To find out more about how our solution helps organizations improve their data lifecycle management, ensure compliance, and improve data ROI, you can read more here or talk to our team.
About Prateek Panda
Prateek Panda is Director of Marketing at Intertrust Technologies and leads global marketing for Intertrust’s device identity solutions. His expertise in product marketing and product management stem from his experience as the founder of a cybersecurity company with products in the mobile application security space. | <urn:uuid:ea39c53d-239e-4cc3-97e0-ea879786fdee> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.intertrust.com/blog/data-lifecycle-management/ | 2024-09-15T00:57:19Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651601.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914225323-20240915015323-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.92897 | 1,398 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Prompting Patterns-structured prompts for AI guidance.
Empower AI with smart prompts.
Load MoreMaster Prompt
Expert en ingénierie de prompts pour ChatGPT, spécialisé dans l'optimisation et l'évaluation des requêtes.
Optimizes prompts for clarity and effectiveness.
iterativer Prompt Generator
Dieser Chat hilft Dir für Schritt für Schritt den besten Prompt in ChatGPT zu erstellen für Dein Thema oder Vorhaben.
Enhance prompt using best techniques.
Générateur de prompts Midjourney. Dites lui ce que vous voulez, il vous créera un prompt parfait !
Prompt Generator V3
Drag and drop an image - receive 2 optimized Midjourney Prompts | By Design Maverick
20.0 / 5 (200 votes)
Introduction to Prompting Patterns
Prompting Patterns is a structured methodology designed to enhance the interaction between users and language models like GPT-4. By leveraging various patterns, users can elicit more precise, relevant, and contextually appropriate responses from the model. The design purpose is to guide users in crafting prompts that cater to specific needs, whether it's generating creative content, explaining complex concepts, or solving intricate problems. For example, using a 'Clear Instruction' pattern ensures that the model receives a concise and unambiguous prompt, leading to more accurate outputs.
Main Functions of Prompting Patterns
Clear Instruction, Emotive Prompting, Constraint-Based Prompts
These patterns are used when users need to generate new content or ideas. For instance, 'Emotive Prompting' can be employed to generate motivational speeches by incorporating emotional language into the prompt.
Meta Prompting, Simplification Prompts, Summarization Prompts
These patterns are useful for altering or adapting information. For example, 'Simplification Prompts' can be used to explain complex scientific theories in simple terms suitable for children.
Brainstorming Prompts, Historical Perspective Prompts, Socratic Method Prompts
These patterns focus on making complex information more understandable. 'Historical Perspective Prompts' can provide context by explaining the historical background of a current event, enhancing the user's comprehension.
Ideal Users of Prompting Patterns
Educators and Students
Educators can use prompting patterns to generate educational content, quizzes, and explanations, while students can use them to better understand complex subjects and generate study materials.
Content Creators and Writers
Content creators and writers can benefit from prompting patterns to brainstorm ideas, generate creative content, and refine their writing. Patterns like 'Clear Instruction' and 'Emotive Prompting' can help in producing engaging and emotionally resonant content.
Business professionals can use these patterns for generating reports, conducting market analysis, and creating presentations. Patterns like 'Summarization Prompts' and 'Design Thinking Prompts' can streamline their workflow and enhance productivity.
How to Use Prompting Patterns
Visit aichatonline.org for a free trial without login, also no need for ChatGPT Plus.
Start by accessing the tool through the provided website. No login or paid subscription is required for the trial version, making it easy to explore the tool’s functionalities.
Understand the pattern categories.
Familiarize yourself with different pattern categories like Creational, Transformational, and Explainability to determine which ones suit your use case.
Choose the right pattern.
Select a pattern based on your specific needs, such as content creation, summarization, or step-by-step explanations. Each pattern serves a unique purpose.
Craft your prompt.
Based on the selected pattern, write a detailed and context-specific prompt. Tailor the input to guide the AI towards the desired outcome.
Iterate and refine.
Review the AI's output and adjust your prompts as necessary. Use iterative refinement to achieve the most accurate and relevant results.
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Common Questions about Prompting Patterns
What are Prompting Patterns?
Prompting Patterns are structured approaches used to guide AI responses. They include different categories like Creational, Transformational, and Explainability, each designed to achieve specific outcomes through targeted prompts.
How do I choose the right pattern for my task?
Choose a pattern based on the goal of your task. For example, use Creational patterns for content generation, Transformational patterns for modifying existing text, and Explainability patterns for clarifying complex ideas.
Can I combine multiple patterns in one prompt?
Yes, combining patterns can yield more nuanced and comprehensive results. For instance, you might use a Creational pattern to generate content and an Explainability pattern to clarify the generated content.
How do I refine a prompt if the output is not as expected?
Refine your prompt by providing more context or adjusting the pattern used. You can also try different patterns or combinations to better align the output with your expectations.
Are there limitations to what Prompting Patterns can achieve?
While powerful, Prompting Patterns are dependent on the quality of the input and the AI’s capabilities. Some tasks may require multiple iterations or combining different patterns to achieve the desired result. | <urn:uuid:30d543ef-d0c4-4ca1-b1a4-ad0fc9a9c50b> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://theee.ai/tools/prompting-patterns-2OToEoeMNe | 2024-09-17T11:33:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651773.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917104423-20240917134423-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.741224 | 1,319 | 2.796875 | 3 |
What is a network switch?
Network switches play an instrumental role in the functioning of local area networks (LANs), the networks that connect devices together within homes, workplaces, public spaces, and institutions.
What do network switches do?
A network switch is a piece of hardware with the primary role of sending data packets within a network. It ensures that data sent from different devices reaches the appropriate destination. To understand this, one could draw an analogy to a postal sorting center. In the same way that a sorting center receives letters from various sources and sends them to the correct addresses, a network switch receives data packets and ensures they are sent to the correct device.
When a data packet arrives at a switch, the switch examines the destination address of the packet, consults its address table (which keeps a record of which devices are connected to which ports), and directs the packet straight to its destination. This level of strategic operation saves unnecessary data transmission, thus improving the network's speed and efficiency.
Network switches, much like other network components, come in different types to cater to varying network needs. In this article, we talk about unmanaged, managed, and smart switches – devices with different levels of functionality for different network needs.
What are unmanaged, managed, and smart switches?
Unmanaged switches are the simplest type of network switch, embodying the essence of plug-and-play functionality. With no configuration required, they are perfect for straightforward networking needs, such as those found in home networks or at the edge of small business networks. Once connected, these switches immediately begin sending data between devices. However, the simplicity that makes them attractive also limits their adaptability. Unmanaged switches offer no option for customization or optimization, which can be a disadvantage in more complex networks.
In contrast, managed switches are designed for network systems that demand high levels of control and customization, such as the heart of enterprise-grade networks.
With managed switches, network administrators can adjust settings and controls to meet specific needs, including controlling data flow for improved performance and enhanced security measures. These switches also offer many advanced capabilities, providing tools for segregating network traffic, ensuring secure data transmission, and prioritizing certain types of data. Some commonly-used features of managed switches include:
- Virtual Local Area Networks (VLANs): These partition a physical network into multiple, separate networks, each functioning as its own entity. This segregation allows for improved network management and security by controlling traffic between devices, even if they are in the same physical location.
- Power over Ethernet: PoE allows network cables to carry electrical power over an Ethernet connection, along with data. This simplifies the process of powering devices like IP cameras or VoIP phones, which can be put in locations without direct access to electrical outlets, as they receive both data and power through the same cable.
- Link Aggregation: Also known as port trunking, this combines multiple network connections in parallel. For example, two 10GbE links can be combined into one 20GbE link. This increases the throughput beyond what a single connection could sustain and provides network redundancy in case one link fails.
- Redundancy: Managed switches support protocols like Rapid Spanning Tree Protocol (RSTP) or Allied Telesis’ Ethernet Protection Switched Ring (EPSR), which prevent loops in a network and provide path redundancy. Redundancy is essential in increasing network reliability and features like ERPS let networks recover from a lost link in milliseconds. Redundancy is also important at the switch level, and can be achieved, for example, by stacking multiple switches. If one switch fails, the presence of the other switches means that connectivity is not lost.
- Access Control Lists (ACLs): ACLs provide more granular control over network traffic by allowing or denying packets based on source and destination addresses, port numbers, or even specific protocols.
- Network Management: As well as easy-to-use web-based management interfaces, managed switches have powerful command-line interfaces for detailed control of networks, and support a range of standards-based management options, including the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). They also support sophisticated network management, visualization and automation systems, which reduce network administration time and effort.
- Cybersecurity: Managed switches offer robust security features, including port security, 802.1x network access control, and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) snooping, amongst others.
Smart switches, like the Allied Telesis WebSmart switches, strike a balance between unmanaged and managed switches. They offer more control than unmanaged switches, with features such as VLANs and port security. Configuration of smart switches tends to be simple, making them an approachable option for businesses that need network customization, but do not require the granular control or advanced feature set of managed switches.
In conclusion, network switches play a critical role in ensuring the smooth operation of our networks. They manage data traffic strategically, preventing congestion and improving efficiency. Whether you're browsing the internet, streaming videos, or working remotely, network switches work quietly in the background, making your digital interactions seamless and efficient. | <urn:uuid:9bbde642-3d5b-43c1-88d0-c7e25627f423> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.alliedtelesis.com/us/it/foundations/what-is-a-network-switch | 2024-09-19T20:44:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652067.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919194038-20240919224038-00862.warc.gz | en | 0.924745 | 1,050 | 3.640625 | 4 |
We’ve often heard it said that generative AI will affect many of the jobs people do today. But they won’t all be affected equally. We are increasingly seeing that certain occupations will be changed more than others. Recent research carried out by Indeed’s economic research team, Hiring Lab, found that some of the most commonly-posted jobs – including nurses, care workers and chefs – are among the 35 percent of roles that will be least affected. However, if your job is something that can be done remotely or involves software development, there’s a much higher chance you’ll use AI to augment your work. Or, in a worst-case scenario, make you redundant.
So, what does this mean for the future of work? On the one hand, those in the 20 percent of jobs that are highly likely to be transformed by generative AI are in a position of privilege. The ability to adopt generative AI into their workflow will make them more efficient, productive and valuable.
On the other, as many of these roles – which include doctors, lawyers, and software engineers – command salaries at the higher end of the scale, this could be seen as leading toward growing inequality in society.
A job description is generally presented as a selection of necessary skills. This was used as a jumping-in point to start analyzing the potential impact of generative AI across workforce roles.
The aim was to answer a question that’s been on everyone’s mind but certainly isn’t unique to this latest wave of technological disruption.
Chris Hyams, CEO of Indeed, tells me, "Frankly, it's a very old question of whether technology will help or hurt jobs. That question goes back a couple of hundred years to when the Luddites first smashed looms in the UK because they thought those jobs were going away.”
It’s easier to assess the impact of generative AI on individual skills than on entire jobs. For certain skills, including driving vehicles, construction skills and veterinary skills, It’s fairly useless. For others, like accounting skills, legal tasks and software development, it’s great.
When broken down like this, however, it seems likely that just about every job will be affected in some way, as nearly all involve skills to some extent that can be enhanced with generative AI.
Educators, researchers, project managers, healthcare professionals, content creators and clerical workers all use these skills, too.
“We think that AI is going to transform almost every job, how they’re done, not necessarily eliminate those jobs, but they will transform,” Hyams says.
As well as changing existing jobs, new jobs are likely to emerge to enable businesses and governments to benefit from the emergence of generative AI – hopefully in a safe and ethical way!
AI scholar and Google Brain co-founder Andrew NG was among the first to offer a balanced evaluation of how this will happen.
He believes that transforming the way we do existing jobs will lead to the creation of many new jobs as well. And we’re already starting to see this happen, with openings appearing for positions like AI prompt engineer or AI auditors.
But it’s widely acknowledged – by Ng and others – that it could also lead to job losses. Again, this will largely affect roles where many of the skills can be augmented or automated. However, it seems likely that a disproportionate impact could be on jobs paying lower salaries. This might include customer service advisors, translators, assistants and back-office clerical staff.
The Evolution Of Skills
Rather than needing to develop new skills (or change profession entirely), I think this shows that skills are evolving.
Remember, when the pocket calculator was invented in the 20th century, many thought that it would lead to a decline in our ability to do basic mathematics. What actually happened was that lots of people – school children in particular – became capable of solving more complicated math problems more quickly.
But as well as enhancing our technical skills, delegating routine elements of work – scheduling, drafting reports – to machines means we have more time to focus on the human aspect of our work.
For lawyers and doctors, this means spending more face time with patients and less time reading charts and reports. Teachers will spend less time grading papers and more time one-on-one with pupils. Real estate agents will use generative AI to create property listings or sales reports while they focus on understanding buyers' unique needs.
It’s also important to point out that employers have a responsibility to help out with this evolution. It's in the interest of their employees, who will benefit from the personal development. But it's also in the interest of their businesses that will grow thanks to the advances in efficiency and innovation driven by the adoption of generative AI.
The Ethical Impact
As with any discussion on the impact of AI, there are ethical considerations that can’t be ignored.
The changing nature of work, the income disparity between roles that can be augmented and those that can’t, and the intrinsic need for human-centric services in many professions all need to be addressed.
Cooks, cleaners, and laborers will have fewer chances to use generative AI to increase their value, while for financial analysts, lawyers, and software engineers, the opportunities are significant.
This has the potential to exacerbate existing inequalities, and this can only be addressed by continued focus on improving opportunities. This means ensuring that the chance to move into positions that can benefit are available regardless of economic, social, class, racial or gender grouping that has traditionally created barriers.
It’s also vital to make sure that aspects of human behavior that are critical to day-to-day well-being are not augmented out of society. A doctor’s ability to alleviate anxiety with their bedside manner is an important part of the healing process, for example. This could be lost if elements of the work that seem routine – like communicating non-urgent updates on how a patient is recovering – are delegated to AI.
What is becoming clear is that the impact of generative AI on jobs is only going to grow, and over the coming year or two, we’ll start to get a better picture of how this will impact our lives and society as we face up to these important challenges.
Right now, from an individual perspective, the most important thing to do is develop an understanding of how our own roles – or the roles we hope we will have in the future – can benefit from this hugely transformative opportunity. | <urn:uuid:4bdc9289-78c6-47ec-b118-1e2f3f8f04c3> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://bernardmarr.com/generative-ai-and-the-future-of-jobs/?paged1119=2 | 2024-09-07T20:35:34Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650920.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907193650-20240907223650-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.968588 | 1,357 | 2.671875 | 3 |
You know Microsoft Word as the great word processor that your business relies on to compose documents of all kinds. However, Microsoft Word is much more flexible and versatile than you might think. Did you know that you can perform simple calculations in your Microsoft Word document in a quick and efficient way?
To get started, just open up a new document in Word. You’ll want some space to play around with this feature and try it for yourself.
You’ll find this Calculate command in the All Commands tree. Click on File and make your way through Options.
Next, select the option Quick Access Toolbar and select All Commands. You want to add the Calculate command to your Quick Access Toolbar. Once you’ve done this, you can solve any equation that you’ve typed out simply by highlighting it with your cursor.
To test this tip out, type out something basic like =4+4 in your document. Next, highlight the equation with your cursor and click the Calculate command in your Quick Access Toolbar. You should then see the result of the calculation in the lower left-hand corner of your document–where you would normally see the number of words that are in your document.
So, there you have it; not only do you have a calculator application on your PC, but you have other apps that can function in a similar way. For example, Microsoft Excel was practically created to perform various mathematical functions in spreadsheets, making it yet another great way to solve equations and perform advanced math with the click of a button. This cross-functionality is just one great reason why Microsoft Office 365 is such a spectacular investment for a small business.
What are some of your favorite hidden features for Microsoft Word? Let us know in the comments, and for more tips and tricks, be sure to subscribe to our blog. | <urn:uuid:9fa1fcda-a5b1-421f-9c0c-2db6455ef8fa> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://ctnsolutions.com/tip-of-the-week-how-to-calculate-basic-math-problems-using-microsoft-word/ | 2024-09-09T02:44:16Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651053.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909004517-20240909034517-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.931503 | 379 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Lithium batteries are disposable (primary) batteries that have lithium metal or lithium compounds as an anode.
Depending on the design and chemical compounds used, lithium cells can produce voltages from 1.5 V to about 3.7 V, over twice the voltage of an ordinary zinc-carbon battery or alkaline cell battery.
The most common type of lithium battery today is the lithium-ion battery, a rechargeable battery in which lithium ions move from the negative electrode (anode) to the positive electrode (cathode) during discharge, and from the cathode to the anode during charge.
The three primary functional components of a lithium-ion battery are the anode, cathode, and electrolyte, for which a variety of materials may be used.
Commercially, the most popular material for the anode is graphite. The cathode is generally one of three materials: a layered oxide (such as lithium cobalt oxide), one based on a polyanion (such as lithium iron phosphate), or a spinel (such as lithium manganese oxide), although materials such as TiS2 (titanium disulfide) originally were also used.
Lithium-ion batteries are common in portable consumer electronics because of their high energy-to-weight ratios, lack of memory effect, and slow self-discharge when not in use.
Nearly all pure EVs and plug-in hybrids on the market today require a lithium-ion battery of some sort. Compared to other rechargeable battery types, namely nickel-metal hydrides and lead-acid batteries, lithium-ion batteries offer greater energy density, lower self-discharge, and a longer useful life span.
But even the lithium-ion battery is evolving. Researchers have now invented the lithium-air battery that uses a solid electrolyte instead of the usual liquid variety. Batteries with solid electrolytes are not subject to the safety issue with the liquid electrolytes used in lithium-ion and other battery types, which can overheat and catch fire.
The lithium-air battery has the highest projected energy density of any battery technology being considered for the next generation of batteries and could be very useful for EV owners who would like more than getting 1,000 miles per charge.
Want to learn more? Tonex offers Overview of Lithium Battery Technology, a 1-day course that provides participants with a comprehensive understanding of lithium battery technology, including its principles, applications, advantages, challenges, and future developments.
Participants will gain the knowledge necessary to make informed decisions regarding the use and management of lithium batteries in various industries. | <urn:uuid:012c939d-55f9-4d6d-a1f8-f26324c6649f> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.ciocoverage.com/lithium-battery-technology-will-lithium-air-replace-lithium-ion/ | 2024-09-09T02:12:27Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651053.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909004517-20240909034517-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.926592 | 536 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Routing device optically switches data at gigabit rates
Building on time-domain multiplexing technology, researchers at British Telecommunications Laboratories in Martlesham Heath, United Kingdom, have developed an all-optical high-speed routing device for fiber-optic networks. Built entirely of optical components, the routing device can switch data at speeds to 100 gigabits per second.
The routing device comprises two major circuits--an ultra-fast gate circuit based on a non-linear loop mirror process and a clock-pattern recovery circuit based on an optically frequency-modulated mode-locked erbium laser process. Working in tandem, or separately where required, the dual circuits optically direct time-domain multiplexed data through the routing device. In essence, the all-optical routing device enables system designers to multiplex several data channels. Data is delivered to networks via two output ports--one on the gate circuit and one on the clock circuit.
According to Julian Lucek, engineer at British Telecommunications Laboratories` network research unit, this type of optical-domain data processing has never been accomplished before. He adds, however, that the devices are still in the research and development phase and are not likely to be manufactured in volume or deployed in new systems for five years. "We are looking at 5- to 15-year time scales with projects like this," notes Lucek. He cites that the devices will probably not be used to upgrade existing networks, but would be best used in new systems built to handle 100 gigabits per second.
Typically, the routing process in networks involves electronic devices that convert optical inputs into an electronic format. Then, electronic switching devices separate the data channels and deliver them to separate ports, where they are converted back to light by electronic devices.
Both the non-linear loop mirror gate and the optically, frequency-modulated mode-locked erbium laser were developed at British Telecommunications Laboratories. The erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, isolators and couplers are commercially available products.
British Telecommunications Laboratories operates fiber-optic networks at rates to 2.5 Gbits/sec. Theoretically, the routing device should allow system operation to 100 Gbits/sec. One possibility is a 100-Gbit/sec data stream comprising 10 channels, each running at 1 Gbit/sec.
An exclusive feature of the router device is remote programmability. The sequence of circuit settings is conducted by sending optical pulses across the system. The settings of the router device can be changed almost instantly because switching occurs in an optical format on fiber cable.
Optical fibers are not used to full capacity in telecommunications routing operations because electronic switches are relatively slow, complex and inflexible. The optical router device holds the promise of exploiting more fiber capacity.
To describe routing device operation, consider the delivery of five optically time-division-multiplexed channels to the ultra-fast gate. This gate optically routes the first, second and fourth data channels to the clock-pattern recovery circuit; it routes the third and fifth data channels to the ultra-fast gate.
The ultra-fast gate delivers optical data bits to the clock circuit only when optical gating pulses are received. For example, a repeated 11010 control input pulse sequence is required by the gate to transmit the first, second and fourth data channels.
Data routed out the ultra-fast gate goes directly to the clock-pattern recovery circuit. Here, the data passes through the clock`s fiber-ring laser and out to the connected network. In passing through the clock circuit, the bits mode-lock the laser. As a result, the laser generates the gating pulses necessary to control the gate`s non-linear loop mirror by recovering an optical-clock signal from each data channel. The clock`s pattern output is fed back to the ultra-fast gate.
Lucek says that the ultra-fast gate contains an erbium-doped fiber amplifier that boosts the incoming data signal power to several milliwatts. The fiber amplifier, a general-purpose optical type commonly used at British Telecommunications Laboratories, provides gain in the 1510- to 1580-nanometer window.
The gate also incorporates two wavelength-dependent couplers. These couplers combine or split either the data wavelengths or the gating pulses, when necessary. The router data and the gating pulses run at 1514 and 1560 nm, respectively.
The clock-pattern recovery circuit is structured in a ring configuration. The circuit`s laser generates a clock pattern from the data received from the non-linear loop mirror. The data passes through dispersion-shifted fiber-optic cable that is shared by the laser cavity. Because a specific data pattern goes through the erbium-ring laser, the laser is forced to generate a pattern of clock pulses. This pattern is used to gate the non-linear loop mirror.q
Dave Wilson writes from London. | <urn:uuid:0d92f363-3077-457a-97ff-eee3b9482f19> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.lightwaveonline.com/home/article/16661657/routing-device-optically-switches-data-at-gigabit-rates | 2024-09-09T02:39:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651053.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909004517-20240909034517-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.911034 | 1,017 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Researchers at Columbia University claim to have discovered a security vulnerability in “tens of millions” of HP LaserJet printers that could allow a remote hacker to install malicious firmware.
In a demonstration of the physical damage that could be done by the hack, Columbia researchers Professor Salvatore Stolfo and Ang Cui showed how a compromised PC could tell a hacked printer to continually heat up a component, eventually causing paper to turn brown and smoke.
"In that demonstration, a thermal switch shut the printer down - basically, causing it to self-destruct - before a fire started, but the researchers believe other printers might be used as fire starters, giving computer hackers a dangerous new tool that could allow simple computer code to wreak real-world havoc." – Source: MSNBC
The chances of printers being used as firestarters may be overhyped – but there are genuine security concerns raised by the vulnerability.
In another demonstration, Cui showed how printing a tax return on a compromised printer could lead to the information being sent to a second computer under the control of a hacker. The second PC then scanned the document for sensitive data and published it to a Twitter feed.
How would a printer be compromised? The most obvious way would be by tricking a computer user into printing a booby-trapped document, but if a printer is configured to accept jobs via the internet then the firmware could be updated with a malicious version remotely, without the printer’s owner necessarily realising.
According to the researchers, Hewlett Packard’s LaserJet printers check to see if a firmware upgrade is included in the data being sent to them everytime they receive a print job.
But, crucially, the printers do not look for a digital signature to verify the firmware update’s authenticity opening the door for attackers to install malicious code onto the devices.
According to MSNBC, who broke news of the vulnerability, HP claims that since 2009 their LaserJet printers have required digitally signed firmware updates and the researchers must have used older models.
The researchers, however, maintain that they bought one of the hacked printers in September at a major office supply store in New York City.
Regardless of whether HP is right that newer LaserJet printers are protected against the vulnerability or not, it’s clear that there may be many devices which are potentially at risk of attack.
HP says it is currently investigating the issue and that it is too early to say which products are affected or what consumers should do about it.
Update: HP has now issued a press release pouring cold water on the claims that printers might catch fire, and advising that it is working on a firmware upgrade to resolve the security vulnerability. Read what Naked Security’s Paul Ducklin has to say on the developing story in “FLAMING RETORT: Putting out the HP printer fires”. | <urn:uuid:52970bd2-c584-489a-88b7-5ef9f826fc74> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://grahamcluley.com/hp-laserjet-printers-at-risk-of-fiery-hacker-attack/ | 2024-09-10T03:09:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651196.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910025651-20240910055651-00862.warc.gz | en | 0.944873 | 585 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Hydrogel-based fiber-optic sensor detects water ingress in cables
By combining three technologies--optical time-domain reflectometry, chemically sensitive water swellable polymer and fiber-optic cable--opto-electronics division researchers at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland, have designed a sensor that makes distributed measurements of various chemicals, including water.
According to Craig Michie, university senior research fellow, many applications could benefit from such distributed measurements. For example, early detection and location of water ingress could prevent premature damage to fiber and copper cables in communication and power distribution ducts.
Optical fiber sensors that modify a backscatter signal in the presence of a target under measurement prove to be convenient devices for performing distributed measurements. In this environment, OTDRs are able to resolve changes in backscatter signals of 0.01 decibel with a spatial resolution of less than one meter.
With such accurate measurement techniques available, university researchers decided to investigate the development of mechanically perturbing, or bending, fiber to modify its backscatter signal in the presence of water to develop an accurate sensor.
Microbend transducers have been available for years. But the university`s sensor approach involves the achievement of mechanical bending by employing a range of polymer materials, or hydrogels, as the active detection medium.
Hydrogels are materials that swell in water without dissolution. The selected hydrogel for the sensor design is a poly (ethylene oxide)-co-poly (propylene oxide) block co-polymer polyurethaneurea (PUU) gel that undergoes a volumetric expansion of 5% to 250% when wet. The present formulation swells volumetrically by 40% when wet.
The idea for the sensor emerged from joint discussions among Michie, Brian Culshaw and two other researchers--Neil Graham and Chris Moran--in the university`s chemistry department. "When they explained what the hydrogel did, it seemed an obvious thing to do," says Michie. The successful sensor design has since been patented by this research team.
To fabricate the sensor, the hydrogel and a graded-index optical fiber are arranged in a geometrical configuration that allows for the swelling of the gel. Acting through a microbend transformer, the configuration influences the loss of light within the fiber. The induced losses can be readily detected, located and measured using an OTDR instrument.
For its composition, the hydrogel material is dissolved in an alcohol solvent and deposited onto a central supporting former. A coated rod is then held in contact with the optical fiber by a helically wound thread with a 2-millimeter winding pitch. In the presence of water, the hydrogel swells and exerts a microbending force onto the fiber through a Kevlar wrap.
The microbending effect causes a loss of power, thus enabling the detection of water. A coating layer of 40-micron-thick hydrogel produces a signal loss of approximately 110 decibels per kilometer when the gel is in a swollen condition.
The sensor responds rapidly when initially wetted, producing a loss of 60 dB/km in less than 30 seconds. The equilibrium swelling of the gel, where the fiber reaches its maximum loss condition, is attained after approximately 40 seconds. The swelling is reversible when the water is removed. Depending on the surrounding conditions, the sensor can take as long as 10 minutes to dry and recover its original state.
The device`s construction enables the adaptation of the fiber-optic sensor to detect chemicals without modifying the basic design. The active component in the sensor is the hydrogel. Gels have been shown to be sensitive to various parameters, including pH, amino compounds, ionic strength, photo-irradiation and temperature. In fact, the university researchers are presently using a sensitive gel to fabricate a pH detector for medical applications.
Gels that swell in water only in the presence of a particular ion, as well as gels that swell in the presence of a specific value of pH, have been constructed at the university. These gels are compatible with the processes used to construct the sensor cable.
According to Michie, the university is negotiating a licensing agreement with Ericsson to commercialize the sensor. In addition to the successful trials of the sensor in civil engineering applications, Michie states the primary research goal is to develop the product for use in the communications industry.
In such applications, the sensor would be used to detect water ingress into communication cables. "Obviously, water will corrode either electrical conductors or fiber-optic cables, says Michie. "If you detect what`s happening, you can repair it. If you don`t, then the first thing you know about it will be when the entire communications system goes down."
Locating water ingress in fiber-optic cables has proven challenging. Presently, the sensor`s signal strength works for just a few kilometers of cable. This limitation rules out usage in transoceanic cables at this time. However, says Michie, "It`s likely the sensor will find use in critical areas where cables run under rivers or where it`s important to monitor an important cable section."
The sensor has been applied successfully in experimental trials aimed at assessing its suitability as a distributed water monitor. This sensor, as part of a monitor, can determine the extent of grouting fill of reinforced tendon ducts in civil engineering structures.
In these structures, steel tendons located in the ducts are used to apply a reinforcing compressive loading force to sections of a structure. The ducts are then filled with a cement-like grout to provide a protective seal from environmental influences. A major structural problem, until this sensor approach, has been the lack of a technique to effectively assess how the grout fills in along the duct length. Without adequate grout, the steel tendons could be left exposed to water ingress.
Through the use of fiber-optic sensors, the position of grout along a tendon duct can be accurately determined. When buried in grout, the sensor`s hydrogel becomes exposed to any water ingress and locally deforms the fiber. This approach provides a means of assessing the quality of the grouting process during construction. q
Dave Wilson writes from London. | <urn:uuid:6550fdb6-c5ed-4358-bf9b-899a0a460f81> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.lightwaveonline.com/home/article/16662202/hydrogel-based-fiber-optic-sensor-detects-water-ingress-in-cables | 2024-09-10T03:46:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651196.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910025651-20240910055651-00862.warc.gz | en | 0.931517 | 1,310 | 2.6875 | 3 |
While your business may already have data at its disposal, it’s important to take a step back and evaluate the collection of it. Depending on the data you want to source, collection methods may vary; to ensure data quality and utility, data linking can be deployed to create a unified view of customer or product data from multiple sources, while avoiding unnecessary duplication or incomplete data. Additionally, if the data is going to be used for Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning (AI/ML) in the future, then having a statistically significant volume is crucial and should be planned for.
Classifying data is all about understanding what you have and the most appropriate ways to use it for business. While customer data can be useful for developing AI that can predict preferences or buying patterns, not all pieces of customer data will be necessary for that goal. When it comes to AI/ML, using the most relevant data is going to help ensure stronger AI and better business insights in the end. Additionally, classification streamlines your data security approach, ensuring that the most private data is given the rigorous treatment it needs. Lastly, classifying data allows businesses to prioritize certain collection methods, ensure its quality and determine proper storage.
With data properly classified, organizations can approach data storage with a holistic understanding of their needs. Some types of data may require easier access, while others might require that additional security or backup measures are in place. For example, data that will be used for quick decision-making (like with intelligent edge technology) is going to find a better fit in local storage rather than in the cloud. Additionally, determining the proper storage method helps keep expenses in check by eliminating situations where data might be stored in a more costly location than necessary.
Data curation ultimately comes down to the management and governance of data and is crucial for being able to meaningfully use business data. However, inadequate data governance is currently considered the number one barrier to achieving business value from data. Organizations should focus their data management by segment, which is why each previous step is necessary before tackling this one effectively. Data management and governance should include the following:
These data management measures are poised to ensure that your data is not only organized and accessible but is also ready to be activated for meaningful use. | <urn:uuid:4c791f20-37e8-4645-a78f-985bdb8605cd> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://mobilena.insight.com/en_US/content-and-resources/2023/take-control-of-your-data-with-this-data-management-process.html | 2024-09-12T16:19:10Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651460.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912142729-20240912172729-00662.warc.gz | en | 0.929512 | 453 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Data science can be just a numbers game if it is not used to its full potential.
A key part of digital transformation and the move to digital services is data science. Data science enables people to respond to problems in a better way, and to also understand those problems in a way that would not have been possible 50 years ago.
But data science can be just a numbers game if it is not used to its full potential. Utilised properly, data science can help people and decisions to become ‘predictive’. In the case of cybersecurity, IT professionals may be able to predict bad events before they occur. Forcepoint’s Asia Pacific strategic business director Nick Savvides explains more.
“There is one thing that security teams, firewalls, antivirus programs, email protection, intrusion detection systems have in common – they’re all tasked with determining if an action or event is ‘good’ or ‘bad’. This is a classification problem, and one that has advanced over time.” Savvides says.
Machine learning and artificial intelligence have been key to the data science revolution because they approach these classification problems in a way that can lead to predictive behaviour.
Here are five critical steps in applying data science to cybersecurity, and how they come together to create an action plan.
Signals is another way of describing inputs such as data from applications and users. “Obtain as many signals as you can from the things that you can control,” says Savvides. The more signals an organisation has, the easier it is to understand what’s going on.
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Indicators of compromise (IoCs) are related to a particular security threat, which act as ‘fingerprints’ or traces that attackers leave behind. These can help businesses determine whether they have been – or may soon be – compromised.
“We can take those signals, apply data science and then say, ‘I predict that this IoC might be a risk to the organisation’. A system can then can automatically implement controls that stop an unwanted action before it happens.”
“A system can also take signals from devices and the cloud, analyse them, and form a predictive approach. It could go even further and integrate at the network layer – not just at the points where the user and data leaves, but also in the transit in between.”
Solutions based on the Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) architecture sit at the edge of the cloud between the user and the application data. SASE solutions can capture signals from the user, the machine, applications, internet connections, and connectivity. It’s a powerful way to use signals to shape prediction.
Indicators of behaviour (IoBs) focus on events generated by users interacting with data and applications. They outline how a user or a threat behaves in an environment.
By understanding how an employee or contractor typically behaves, it’s possible to identify high-risk behaviour that could indicate a malicious insider or compromised account. These work in conjunction with signals to determine different behaviours from different actions. […] | <urn:uuid:587f3937-63dd-4443-a910-7f90d84dfbaa> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://swisscognitive.ch/2020/09/24/5-ways-to-use-data-science-to-predict-security-issues-forcepoint/ | 2024-09-13T21:04:46Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651540.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913201909-20240913231909-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.938805 | 666 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Mobile RASP continuously monitors the behavior of mobile apps to protect them from data breaches, runtime security threats and app tampering without human intervention.
As organizations rely increasingly on mobile applications to facilitate their business processes, the need for comprehensive and reliable mobile application security solutions has grown in parallel. To meet this demand, a new technology has emerged: mobile RASP (Runtime Application Self Protection).
Mobile RASP continuously monitors the behavior of a mobile app to protect it from data breaches, a plethora of runtime security threats (e.g., debugger, emulator and simulator attacks, function hooking or method hooking attacks, leveraging jailbroken or rooted devices, etc.) and app tampering (e.g., app repackaging, app renaming, etc.) without human intervention.
Mobile RASP is an invaluable tool in the fight against malicious activity on mobile devices. By self-monitoring its runtime environment for attacks, a mobile app with RASP can detect attempts to exploit vulnerabilities, modify the mobile application’s code, or bypass security measures.
This article explored what mobile RASP is, how it works, and the various benefits it offers for mobile application security.
What is Mobile RASP?
Runtime application self-protection (RASP) is a security technology that aims to protect applications from being exploited by attackers.
RASP is a complement to other security measures, such as firewalls and antivirus software, which are typically focused on protecting the network and the underlying operating system.
RASP is different from other security technologies in that it is integrated directly into the application, rather than being installed as a separate layer of protection. This means that it cannot be bypassed or disabled by malicious actors.
RASP provides protection at runtime, when the application is actually being used, rather than just when it is being developed or deployed. RASP works by monitoring the behavior of an application in real time and looking for suspicious activity that could indicate an attack. If it detects such activity, it can take action to prevent the attack from succeeding, such as blocking malicious input or shutting down the application. By focusing on the application itself, RASP can provide an additional layer of protection against attackers who may be able to bypass other security controls.
Mobile RASP encompasses the technologies that allow a mobile app to continuously protect the runtime. Since mobile apps may have to operate in situations where there is poor or no network connectivity, mobile RASP must provide protections even when the mobile app is unable to “phone home.” This means that for a mobile app that is enabled with mobile RASP, security has been moved into the app. A RASP-enabled mobile app should have all the needed capabilities built-in so that it is able to monitor inputs and block those that could result in live attacks, while protecting the runtime against unwanted changes and tampering.
Benefits of Mobile RASP
There are many benefits to using mobile runtime application self protection to secure running mobile applications. The most prominent benefits include:
Mobile RASP can detect malicious activity as it is happening, making it much more effective than traditional security solutions which rely on signature-based detection.
Mobile RASP can be easily integrated into mobile applications, and can be customized to meet the specific needs of each mobile app.
Mobile RASP does not require additional hardware or software to be installed, making it much more cost-effective than traditional security solutions.
Mobile RASP can improve the performance of an application by reducing the amount of resources needed to monitor for malicious activity.
Mobile RASP provides detailed logs that can be used to quickly identify attempts to exploit vulnerabilities.
Runtime Attack Methods
There are many ways that attackers use to compromise a mobile app and, given the fact that cybercriminals continue to innovate, that list will only grow.
Below are the current common methods that hackers will use on the runtime of a mobile app. While not comprehensive, it provides a good overview of the threat landscape for an executing mobile app.
A debugger allows a developer to monitor and control the execution of an application, allowing them to identify and fix bugs or other issues.
An attacker can use a debugger to perform a variety of malicious actions. The attacker uses a debugger to attach to a running mobile app to gain access to its internal state, including memory, registers, and other sensitive information. The attacker can then use this information to perform various actions, such as modifying the program's behavior, injecting malicious code, or extracting sensitive data.
Emulators & Simulators
Emulator is software that allows one computer system to mimic the functions of another computer system. This can be useful for testing and development purposes, as it allows developers to run and test their mobile app code on different platforms without having to physically access those platforms. For example, a mobile app developer could use an Android emulator on a Mac.
Simulator is software that also allows a computer to mimic the behavior of a different system. Like an emulator, a simulator can be used to run software or applications that were designed for a different platform or operating system. However, while an emulator aims to reproduce the exact behavior of the original system as closely as possible, a simulator is more focused on modeling the behavior of a system, and may not be an exact replica.
An attacker could use an emulator or simulator to observe how a mobile app functions while it is executing because knowing how the mobile app behaves enables the attacker to build more effective attacks. A cybercriminal could use an emulator or a simulator to observe how the mobile app authenticates to backend systems. Or the emulator or simulator could be used to see how the mobile app reads and writes to the filesystem, if any encryption is used and, if so, how strong it is. Emulators and simulators can also be used to modify mobile OS behavior. For example, sending false signals from the mobile app; modifying system calls and libraries of the underlying mobile operating system; and removing security controls.
App renaming is the process of changing the name of a mobile application.
A cybercriminal can use app renaming to give a malicious mobile app a more appealing or trustworthy name, making it more likely that users will download and install the mobile app. For example, an attacker might rename a malicious mobile app to mimic the name of a popular mobile application or game, in order to trick users into downloading it because they think it is legitimate.
Mobile app renaming can also be used to create confusion among users, by giving multiple mobile apps similar or identical names. This can make it difficult for users to identify the mobile app they are looking for, and can lead to them accidentally downloading a malicious mobile app.
Function or Method Hooking
Function hooking or method hooking is a technique used by developers to modify or extend the behavior of an existing function or method. It involves the interception of function calls, systems events or messages. The code snippets that perform these interceptions are the “hooks”. Method swizzling is a method hooking technique that is used on iOS.
In method hooking, a developer defines a new method with the same name and function signature as the original method, but with different behavior. When the code is executed, the new method is called instead of the original method, allowing the developer to modify or extend the behavior of the original method. This technique can be useful for debugging, testing, and extending the functionality of existing code. For example, a hook could be written to intercept the keyboard or mouse event messages before those inputs reach an application.
A hacker can use function hooking, method hooking, or method swizzling to insert malicious code into a mobile app’s executable, without modifying the original source code. This allows the hacker to gain control over the mobile app’s behavior, and to perform various actions, such as stealing sensitive data, modifying the program's output, or injecting malware into the program. To protect against this type of attack, it is important to use security measures, such as code signing and obfuscation, to make it more difficult for hackers to access and manipulate a mobile app’s code.
Jailbreaking and Rooting
Jailbreaking is the process of removing the limitations imposed by Apple on iOS mobile devices, such as iPhones or iPads. Apple puts these limitations in place in order to prevent end users from modifying the iOS operating system or installing unapproved mobile apps.
Rooting is similar but for Android devices. Rooting is the process of allowing users of smartphones, tablets and other devices running the Android mobile operating system to attain privileged control (known as root access) over various Android subsystems. Rooting is often performed with the goal of removing limitations that carriers and hardware manufacturers put on some devices, thereby providing the latest versions of Android to devices that no longer receive official updates, or unlocking features which are otherwise unavailable to the user.
By jailbreaking or rooting a device, an attacker can gain access to the filesystem and make changes to the operating systems. With a jailbroken or rooted device, an attacker can install malware or other malicious apps, which can steal sensitive data. Attackers also use jailbreaking or rooting to get access to sensitive data on the device, such as passwords or financial information.
Easy Mobile RASP
Register to get a free Blue Cedar demo to learn about Blue Cedar's mobile RASP features and see how easy it is to integrate our RASP into your mobile apps.
Dynamic binary instrumentation (DBI) is a technique used in computer programming to modify the behavior of a program at runtime. It involves inserting code into a running program, without modifying the original source code, to monitor or modify the program's behavior. This is typically done by using a DBI framework, which provides tools for inserting code into a running mobile app. There are a variety of legitimate applications of DBI, including performance analysis, debugging, security analysis and reverse engineering. While dynamic binary instrumentation is commonly used by software developers and security researchers, it can also be used by attackers to insert malicious code into a program.
Man-in-The-Middle (MitM) Attacks
A man-in-the-middle (MitM) attack is a type of cyber attack where an attacker intercepts communication between two parties, impersonates both parties, and relays messages between them, without either party knowing that they are being attacked.
In an MitM attack, the hacker effectively sits in the middle of the communication, acting as a "man in the middle" to steal sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, or to inject malicious code into the communication.
In the context of mobile, consider that most mobile apps need to communicate with remote servers in order to function. HTTPS is most commonly used for these communications. Opportunities for hackers to initiate man-in-the-middle attacks arise when a mobile app fails to use standard authentication methods properly. For example, a mobile app may not reliably check the certificate that proves a server is what it says it is. Or it fails to properly verify its server’s hostname.
Forged certificates, session hijacking, cookie hijacking, SSL stripping, and malicious proxies are examples of MitM attack techniques. Toolkits such as Charles Proxy, Burp Suite, NMAP, mitm, Wireshark, Metsaploit are used for Man-in-The-Middle attacks.
App tampering is the act of modifying an application or its components in order to change its behavior or bypass security measures. Attackers do this for a variety of reasons, including to remove advertising, unlock paid features, or gain access to sensitive information.
App tampering can lead to security vulnerabilities.For example, an attacker may download a popular mobile app from a public app store, modify it using app tampering techniques, and use app renaming to mimic the name of a popular mobile app in order to trick users into thinking it is legitimate. Anti-tamper techniques are available to counter runtime attacks that rely on app tampering.
Mobile app repackaging, which is sometimes called a cloning attack, is a technique adopted to generate fake versions of legitimate mobile apps. Repackaged mobile apps are usually infected versions of popular mobile apps, carriers of malware, adware or spy-ware. Attackers download a popular mobile app, access the source code using reverse engineering, add their code–often malicious–to it, and then repackage and release the mobile app. Being able to detect app repackaging will be a necessary anti-tamper mobile RASP technique.
Common Mobile RASP Techniques
Listed below are some of the many mobile RASP techniques that can be incorporated into mobile apps to ensure that they can counteract runtime attacks.
With this capability, an executing mobile app will detect if its name was changed after it was released by its original app developer. One way to do this is for the app developer to encode the name of the APK/IPA into the mobile app before it is released and ensure that the name of the mobile app at runtime is checked against the encoded name within the API/IPA.
A mobile app with emulator detection/simulator detection enabled will be able to determine if it is running on an emulator or simulator rather than a real device. One way to do this is to have the executing app look for private or hidden system properties that give a strong indication that the system on which the app is running is an emulator.
An iOS app with jailbreak detection will be able to determine if the device on which it is running is jailbroken. Similarly, an Android app with root detection will be able to determine if it is executing on a rooted device. There are numerous ways to enable jailbreak detection and root detection such as: performing a boot time check to determine if the processes, apps, and data are in accordance with Apple or Google guidelines; detecting modifications to the permissions for certain files and folders.
Enabling DBI detection in a mobile app will make it very difficult for attackers to realize the benefits of memory based attacks and will not be able to perform code tracing; alter values; game point and currencies; bypass restrictions; spoof user credentials; or reuse sessions;
A mobile app in which MitM detection has been enabled will be able to discover attack techniques that rely on forged certificates, session hijacking, cookie hijacking, SSL stripping, malicious proxies, and other network-level attacks.
With this RASP capability enabled a mobile app will detect if it has been repackaged since the app developer released the original app, including detection whether it has been signed by the original signing certificate. App repackaging detection is often included as part of anti-tamper techniques.
With anti-tampering enabled, a mobile should be able to self-verify that it has not been modified since being released by the app developer. A way to do this is by using checksum validation.
This feature should check a mobile app’s composition, data structure, data elements, and communication paths to validate the integrity and authenticity of the app, as well as to detect elements within the app, such as unknown URLs or malicious URLs, that could be used as an attack vector.
Mobile RASP technologies provide a layer of protection against common attack vectors such as man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks, memory based attacks that leverage DBI frameworks, debugger, emulator and simulator based attacks, app tampering and reverse engineering. Additionally, RASP can detect attempts to root or jailbreak the device, which can be a major security risk.
The benefits of mobile RASP are clear - it provides real-time detection, increased visibility, improved performance, and cost-effectiveness. Organizations can use mobile RASP to protect their mobile applications and users from malicious activity, and ensure that their applications are running securely and reliably.
If you’re looking to enhance the security of your mobile applications, mobile RASP is a great option. It provides comprehensive protection at runtime, and can detect and block malicious activity as it is happening. Blue Cedar app security provides mobile RASP. Try Blue Cedar mobile RASP today and revolutionize the security of your mobile applications! | <urn:uuid:5564a2ca-003b-4b04-b06b-f349e941a6d0> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.bluecedar.com/mobile-app-security-technical-glossary/mobile-runtime-application-self-protection | 2024-09-15T03:30:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651614.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915020916-20240915050916-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.927188 | 3,337 | 3.140625 | 3 |
As a kid, my two favorite television shows were The Flintstones and The Jetsons. While I liked the idea of having a dinosaur as a pet, I knew that was never going to happen. But that stuff in the world of George Jetson – the flying cars, zipping off to Mars for dinner, having a robot maid named Rosie – were how millions of us envisioned our future.
We know the flying cars and Mars dining experiences aren’t quite here yet, but robots are very much a part of our everyday lives. Earlier this year, the Chicago Tribune considered the idea of replacing workplace leadership with artificial intelligence:
It would not require too much for AI to outperform average managers, let alone bad ones. It is as if the automation of drivers would have to outperform a majority of inept drivers, who crash and cause injuries to themselves and others on a regular basis.
On the surface, it would make sense, especially as more of our manufacturing and other tasks are completed by robots. However, there is a problem with the rise of robots and AI that goes beyond taking away jobs from human beings. Robots have security vulnerabilities that could create an untold number of risks. Trend Micro and Polytechnic University of Milan recently looked at how robots can be compromised, stating in a report:
In industrial devices, the impact of a single, simple software vulnerability can already have serious consequences. Depending on the actual setup and security posture of the targeted smart factory, attackers could trigger attacks that could amount to massive financial damage to the company in question or at worst, even affect critical goods. Almost all industry sectors that are critical for a nation are potentially at risk.
A hacked robot arm could be programmed to throw off the dimensions of a vehicle, for example, just enough that it could go undetected on the production line but result in a catastrophic structural problem resulting in accidents. Robots have similar vulnerabilities to other connected devices – passwords either aren’t used or the default passwords are kept in place, making it easier for hackers to gain access; software is outdated or unpatched; or the internet connection itself is unsecure.
The real problem is that these aren’t unique or even new security problems. They are the types of issues that all of us face (or ignore) across industries, across devices. The report said its goal was to find out why security for robots hasn’t improved over the years. The researchers did an impressive job of listing a variety of attack scenarios and where the vulnerabilities are most likely to be found, and yes, it did come up with a list of reasons on why security continues to be a problem – I recommend you take a look at the report because it is comprehensive, but I’ll give you a preview. Human behavior has a role to play in robot security. But robotic security is a very complicated issue, and as Mocana CTO Dean Weber told me in an email comment:
The ease by which attackers can make their way into industrial systems underscores the need to secure devices at their core, by embedding defense in the hardware and firmware used to operate things like robotic arms. There is simply no way, as this report shows, to stop cybercriminals from finding ways into manufacturing plants and other industrial facilities via the Internet. There, are, however, ways to stop intruders from taking control of devices they find.
Sue Marquette Poremba has been writing about network security since 2008. In addition to her coverage of security issues for IT Business Edge, her security articles have been published at various sites such as Forbes, Midsize Insider and Tom’s Guide. You can reach Sue via Twitter: @sueporemba | <urn:uuid:fbcd740b-38e7-446d-a8b0-d1d4653aa5cb> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.itbusinessedge.com/security/study-finds-serious-security-concerns-with-robots/ | 2024-09-17T14:58:16Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651800.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917140525-20240917170525-00262.warc.gz | en | 0.966953 | 756 | 2.6875 | 3 |
The digital age, marked by instantaneous communication and complex global supply chains, underscores the need for optimised data flow between businesses. Invoices can get lost in the mail, purchase orders are riddled with errors, and shipping notifications arrive weeks after the goods. Thankfully, for decades, a specific solution has ensured smooth data exchange between businesses. This is electronic data interchange (EDI).
While terms such as “cloud computing” and “blockchain” dominate tech headlines, EDI operates behind the scenes, quietly orchestrating the seamless flow of information that keeps the wheels of commerce turning. But EDI is more than just a relic of a bygone era. While newer technologies such as APIs (application programming interfaces) are emerging, EDI remains a vital tool for businesses seeking secure, reliable, and standardised data exchange.
Continue reading to explore EDI’s mechanics, benefits, and challenges. Let’s compare EDI with APIs to help you understand which approach best suits your business needs.
Remember, the key to successful data exchange lies in combining the reliable core process handling of EDI with the dynamic flexibility of APIs.
From paper trails to digital highways: The birth and evolution of EDI
The story of EDI begins not in the gleaming server rooms of today, but in the cluttered desks of the 1960s. Back then, businesses relied on paper-based communication – invoices, purchase orders, and shipping notices – all prone to errors, delays, and lost documents. The need for a more efficient and reliable way to exchange this critical information made way for EDI.
Early EDI systems were clunky and often required proprietary hardware and software. However, the benefits were undeniable. Businesses that adopted EDI saw a dramatic reduction in errors, faster processing times and lower administrative costs. As technology evolved, EDI standards became more widespread, enabling smoother communication between businesses using different systems. Today, EDI has become an indispensable tool for countless industries, from manufacturing and retail to healthcare and finance.
How EDI works: The magic behind the exchange
Think of EDI as a secure digital handshake between businesses. Unlike the physical world, where two people can directly exchange documents, businesses often operate on different software systems. EDI bridges this gap by acting as a translator.
Here’s a breakdown of the magic behind EDI:
- Standardized formats: EDI uses pre-defined formats, like a common language, to structure data. These formats ensure that both parties understand the information being exchanged, regardless of their internal systems. Common EDI standards include for example UBL, X12, and EDIFACT.
- Communication channels: EDI data can be exchanged electronically through various channels. Traditionally, value-added networks (VANs) acted as secure intermediaries, but today, businesses can also use the internet or direct connections for EDI communication.
- Mapping and translation: Software plays a crucial role in EDI. EDI messages from a company’s internal system need to be mapped to the messages in the formats and standard required by their partners’ systems and vice versa. This translation ensures seamless information flow between different systems.
Five benefits of using EDI
- Reduced costs: Automation eliminates manual data entry, minimizing errors and streamlining processes. This translates to lower administrative costs and faster transactions.
- Enhanced accuracy: Standardized formats minimize errors and ensure consistent data quality. This reduces order fulfillment issues, expedites dispute resolution, and improves overall supply chain efficiency.
- Improved communication and collaboration: EDI fosters seamless communication between trading partners, leading to better collaboration and stronger relationships. Real-time data exchange allows businesses to react to changes quickly and adapt to market demands more effectively.
- Increased security: Solutions such as Comarch EDI utilize secure communication channels and data encryption to protect sensitive information. This is particularly important for businesses in regulated industries like healthcare or finance.
- Reducing environmental impact: Eliminating paper usage, minimizing paper waste pollution, and promoting operational efficiency strengthens ESG performance by minimizing resource consumption.
Challenges on the road: Three considerations when implementing EDI
While EDI offers significant benefits, it’s not without its challenges:
- Complexity and cost: Setting up EDI can be complex, requiring mapping data formats and establishing secure communication channels. Ongoing maintenance adds to the expense. Smaller businesses might find the initial investment prohibitive.
- Integration challenges: EDI needs to integrate seamlessly with existing business systems, which can be a technical hurdle for some companies.
- Limited flexibility: EDI excels at exchanging standardized data, but it may not be ideal for dynamic or non-standard data formats.
APIs vs. EDI
The rise of APIs has introduced a new entity in the data exchange game. APIs act as intermediaries, allowing applications to communicate with each other and share data. Unlike EDI’s pre-defined formats, APIs offer more flexibility. They can handle a wider range of data types, including multimedia and real-time data streams. This makes them well-suited for modern applications and services that require constant data exchange. However, APIs can also be more complex to manage and often require developer expertise for customisation.
Choosing the right tool: When to use EDI vs. APIs
The decision between EDI and APIs depends on your specific business needs.
Use EDI for:
- Exchanging large volumes of standard business documents (invoices, purchase orders, shipping notices)
- Established partnerships where security and reliability are paramount (e.g., supply chain management)
- Businesses in regulated industries with strict data exchange requirements
- Businesses with limited technical expertise
Use APIs for:
- Real-time data exchange between applications
- Integrating with modern web-based services and platforms
- Exchanging non-standard or dynamic data formats
- Businesses prioritizing flexibility and customization
The Future of Data Exchange: Collaboration, Not Competition
The future of data exchange likely holds a space for both EDI and APIs. EDI will continue to be a vital tool for industries with well-defined data exchange standards and a need for security and reliability. Meanwhile, APIs will play a growing role in facilitating communication between modern applications and enabling real-time data exchange.
The key is not competition but collaboration. Businesses can leverage the strengths of both – EDI’s reliability for core processes and APIs’ flexibility for dynamic data exchange. Here’s how this hybrid approach might unfold:
- Hybrid integrations: Businesses can implement EDI for core business document exchange and utilize APIs for integrating with external services or applications that require real-time data exchange.
- Standardization of APIs: As API usage grows, efforts are underway to establish more standardized API formats, making them easier to manage and integrate with existing EDI systems.
- Cloud-based solutions: Cloud-based EDI and API platforms are emerging, offering businesses a more cost-effective and scalable way to implement these technologies.
Optimize Your Data Exchange in the Digital Age
EDI has served as the backbone of business communication for decades. While newer technologies like APIs offer exciting possibilities, EDI remains a vital tool for ensuring secure, reliable, and standardized data exchange.
By understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both EDI and APIs, businesses can choose the right approach or even leverage a hybrid solution to meet their specific needs and thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of data exchange.
Making sure you’re choosing an experienced vendor, like Comarch with their EDI platform, can ensure a smooth implementation and ongoing support for your data exchange needs. With the right tools and professional support, businesses can enter the new era of data exchange with confidence, maximizing efficiency, security, and scalability.
Click below to share this article | <urn:uuid:cb9b3542-3640-48fe-9f24-6039982700c5> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.intelligentcio.com/apac/2024/09/05/edi-vs-api-the-evolution-of-edi-and-its-role-in-modern-business-from-paper-to-pixels/ | 2024-09-18T22:14:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651941.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918201359-20240918231359-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.927993 | 1,616 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Blockchain is being touted around the world as a disruptive technology that could revolutionize finance, trade, legal systems, digital media, and much more. But blockchain tech has one big obstacle: it’s hard to wrap your head around.
To help laymen better understand blockchain, we reached out to Bitcoin experts around the globe. We issued each of them a challenge: explain blockchain in 150 words or less. As it turns out, even they can struggle to explain blockchain in simple terms.
Blockchain tech is fairly complex, so condensing it down into a one or two paragraphs is no easy task. Comparitech took a stab at the challenge as well, but in video form. Here is our animated explanation of blockchain in less than 150 seconds.
And here are 10 explainers from our gracious experts. We’ve ordered them as best we can from simple and plainly worded to complex and thorough.
Ron Hose, founder of Coins.ph
The Blockchain is a decentralized ledger. In the same way the internet facilitates direct exchange of information (think Skype, WhatsApp vs. traditional telco model), Blockchain facilitates direct exchange of value between parties, without the need for a trusted intermediary.
Drew Ivan, Healthcare Solution Strategist
Blockchain is an immutable, public, distributed ledger that anyone can read or write. Here’s a breakdown of what that means.
IMMUTABLE – data written to a blockchain can never be changed, so readers can be sure it was never altered.
PUBLIC – data on a blockchain is visible to everyone, which makes it perfect for storing public records like bitcoin transactions, land titles, and asset tags.
DISTRIBUTED – unlike a centralized ledger that is kept by a trusted institution, blockchain runs on an entire network of computers, meaning there is no single system that can fail or be compromised.
LEDGER – blockchain is suited to storing small transaction records, not large files.
Taken together, these characteristics allow two parties to trust one another based on the strength of the blockchain network without the need for a third party institution like a bank or government.
Jameson Lopp, Software Engineer at BitGo
A blockchain is a history of events (transactions or otherwise) that uses cryptography to link timestamped batches of events together in order to make it evident if tampering has occurred. This type of data structure enables the creation of new applications that use a blockchain as a trustworthy public database. The first major usage of a blockchain was in Bitcoin as a currency, but many non-payment applications are now being developed on top of Bitcoin and other systems such as Ethereum. Eventually you can expect blockchain-based systems to be used under the hood to power applications that enable users to prove and transfer ownership of digital and physical assets.
Andy Singleton, founder of MAXOS.ai
Bitcoin is a database or “ledger” that shows how much money you have in bitcoins. It simplifies a lot of things because the database is shared. You don’t have to make a special request to your bank to find out how much money you have. It’s all visible in the shared database. You can transfer this money with a digital signature – a sort of instant check. This is a lot faster than a wire transfer where multiple banks have to update multiple databases and then check or “reconcile” them over the course of several days. This type of shared database or “blockchain” will also greatly simplify stock records and trades, tracking and paying for goods, paying musicians for their music, and even medical records. We won’t have to call around to find out where the goods are, when the stock will arrive, or who played what music.
Anatoliy Okhotnikov, financial and cryptocurrencies expert at SoftJourn
Blockchain is an open decentralized database – a distributed ledger. Every participant on the network has a copy of the transaction ledger. Ledger entries are secured by strong cryptography and each transaction must be agreed to by the most of the participants in order to make it into the ledger. This allows for better security, transparency, and trust. Blockchain is a disruptive technology in a sense that it can be used to store any value information like money, goods, property, work, or even votes without the need of a central authority to verify or prove it. The authenticity is verified by the entire community, by everybody who has a copy of the ledger. Cryptography makes sure it is not possible for a single individual or minor group to tamper or forge the ledger records. The future economy is seen to be moving to a distributed and trusted environment and the possibilities with blockchain are endless.
George Harrap, founder of Bitspark.io
Blockchains are a ledger that keeps track of data and the owners of the data. One can use a blockchain to transact data between any connected participant using the blockchain and all participants have the most up to date version of that ledger, ensuring everyone is constantly up to date with the latest. Usually one needs to trust some third party to maintain records of events, but blockchains enable you to transact with people you don’t trust and yet still ensure that their inputs into the blockchain are true. Complex cryptography ensures nobody can falsify a record to try to include data which the other participants haven’t seen or agreed to. Blockchains are open for anyone to track the provenance of the data and simple to audit with no single point of failure by design.
Thomas Glucksmann, Head of Marketing at Gatecoin
Blockchain is an open source value transfer protocol that runs on a distributed peer to peer network and secures transaction records through cryptography. Blockchain was first conceptualized through the release of bitcoin, a decentralized cryptocurrency that stores and verifies transactions on a distributed ledger, known as “the blockchain” designed by a pseudonymous individual or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto.
Since the emergence of bitcoin, many technology and financial institutions have worked to improve upon bitcoin’s blockchain resulting in the development of public and private blockchains, which provide different levels of read and write access to network participants.
Blockchain applications are helping financial institutions to improve the efficiency of many back-office processes through automatic verification, transaction execution and settlement. The technology’s utility extends far beyond finance with use cases for industries as diverse as supply chain to creative rights management that can be disrupted with secure, self-executing trustless value transfers.
Jad Mubaslat, founder and former CEO of BitQuick.co
In 2009, a first-of-its-kind decentralized digital currency program, called “Bitcoin”, was released. Bitcoin utilizes an ongoing immutable cryptographic chain of transactions that acts as a decentralized peer-to-peer ledger. This underlying distributed database has been referred to as “blockchain” technology. All the participants in a blockchain system retain a copy of the ledger, so that if there are any inconsistencies, they will be consolidated against the other copies retained by other participants in the network. In this manner, trust is no longer needed between the entities.
Blockchain can be applied to a variety of use cases where the exchange of value or information is needed between separate entities; this could be the exchange of information in a supply chain, medical information, financial transactions, land ownership and more. Blockchain technology may enable solutions where data can be shared in a distributed manner that increases interoperability, security, immutability and privacy.
Andrew Hinkes, Esq., Partner at Berger Singerman LLP
The Bitcoin Blockchain is a decentralized peer-to-peer network operated over the Internet that relies upon cryptography (called “proof of work”) instead of a trusted third party to confirm transactions of bitcoins between network participants, and that tracks confirmations of those transactions on by circulating constant updates to a chronological ledger of transactions among its participants. A “blockchain” (also called private blockchain, or distributed ledger) is a version of Bitcoin’s blockchain used to control and track transactions of other data. Private blockchains typically rely on a trusted third party or other method of confirmation instead of participant consensus to confirm a transaction. Although both Bitcoin’s Blockchain and private blockchains share may attributes (both are relational databases), the Bitcoin Blockchain’s consensus mechanism makes it economically infeasible to retroactively change the ledger, while private blockchains typically use different confirmation mechanisms that do not offer the same protection.
Marc Kenigsberg, founder of BitcoinChaser
A distributed database composed of a network of interconnected computers that are used to keep a distributed ledger of information. Information exchanges between computers in this kind of database, take on the characteristics of a transaction. These computers use the connection between them to validate these transactions according to a set of parameters, using different kinds of encryption to protect them. As a result, information security on these databases depends on validating data on various computers simultaneously.
This type of decentralized database allows for the programming of smart contracts, essentially complex conditional statement that allow the network to react to predetermined inputs in an autonomous nature without the need for human intervention. The parameters that govern this type of network, will determine the degree to which information is publicly accessible, and the speed at which it travels between computers.
Think you can explain blockchain better than the experts? Give us your <150 word explanation in the comments! | <urn:uuid:32cfbe35-9181-4039-8b2a-611b29d3400f> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/what-is-blockchain-experts-explain/ | 2024-09-20T04:43:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652130.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920022257-20240920052257-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.933964 | 1,921 | 2.796875 | 3 |
What is a Linear Nonhomogeneous Recurrence?
Have you ever wondered about the general form of the solution of a linear nonhomogeneous recurrence relation and how it differs from a linear homogeneous recurrence?
A linear nonhomogeneous recurrence refers to a recurrence relation where the right-hand side is not equal to zero. This type of recurrence relation involves terms that are not homogeneous, unlike linear homogeneous recurrences where the right-hand side is zero.
Linear nonhomogeneous recurrence relations are essential in various mathematical and computational contexts. These relations often arise when modeling real-world phenomena that involve non-zero external influences or input.
The general form of the particular solution of a linear nonhomogeneous recurrence relation can be expressed as follows: an = α2n + 3n+1, where α is a constant and n represents the index of the recurrence relation.
It is crucial to understand the distinction between linear nonhomogeneous and homogeneous recurrences, as the presence of external influences in nonhomogeneous recurrences can significantly impact the behavior and properties of the system being modeled.
By delving deeper into the analysis and solution of linear nonhomogeneous recurrence relations, one can gain valuable insights into the underlying dynamics and patterns of complex systems. | <urn:uuid:da12f4c5-523b-4d33-9d79-a7e0d0f71d6e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://bsimm2.com/sat/exciting-insights-into-linear-nonhomogeneous-recurrence-relations.html | 2024-09-09T04:17:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651072.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909040201-20240909070201-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.916341 | 267 | 3.28125 | 3 |
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon wants to get more kids thinking about become computer engineers.
The company launched a program Thursday that aims to teach more than 10 million students a year how to code. Amazon said it will pay for summer camps, teacher training and other initiatives to benefit kids and young adults from low-income families who might not have learned to code otherwise. Amazon declined to put a price tag on the program, called Amazon Future Engineer, but said it will take up a big chunk of the $50 million that it committed to spend on computer science education last year.
Other corporations, including Microsoft and Facebook, have also committed cash to bring coding to schools, which could ultimately benefit the companies. There's a shortage of computer engineers, and teaching students to code will ensure a pipeline of future talent to hire.
Jeff Wilke, Amazon's chief executive of worldwide consumer, said he hopes some of the students who go through the Amazon Future Engineer program will work for the company, creating skills for its Alexa voice assistant or programming its delivery drones. But he said other companies are increasingly relying on technology, and coding has become a valuable skill to more employers.
"We're pretty confident that knowing how to code will be as important as knowing how to read for the jobs of the future," Wilke said.
Amazon Future Engineer will offer kids in kindergarten through eighth grade free summer camps and after-school programs that will take place in Amazon offices around the country. Amazon employees will volunteer, and online classes, lessons and games will be provided by Amazon's partners, such as Code.org and Coding with Kids. The company also said it plans to pay for online training for teachers at 2,000 low-income high schools around the country. In addition, it will offer college students scholarships and internships. Schools, teachers and parents will be able to apply through AmazonFutureEngineer.com.
Amazon said some schools have been testing the program, including Monsignor Scanlan High School in New York. Science teacher Jennifer Tulipano began taking coding classes online in September and started teaching two computer science classes that month where the students learn how to create games and make animated characters dance. It's the first time the school has offered computer science classes.
Tulipano said the school applied for the Amazon program because more students were getting feedback from colleges saying they needed some background in computer science.
"So much is now online," Tulipano said. "It's a skill set they need moving forward if they want to go into these fields." | <urn:uuid:54c5e8a5-2d5f-4d82-b641-ec86f40071aa> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.mbtmag.com/home/news/13247305/amazons-new-goal-teach-10-million-kids-a-year-to-code | 2024-09-10T11:24:42Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651241.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910093422-20240910123422-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.972224 | 518 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The company says this is the first ever deployment of reinforcement learning in a production aerospace system
For years, Google’s sister company Loon has operated a growing fleet of helium-filled balloons that traverse the globe, beaming down Internet connectivity to select regions.
But navigating these balloons, and ensuring they take advantage of the prevailing winds to reach their required location, is an immense task.
The company already shifted management that to an automated system, but this week revealed that it has put self-learning software in charge.
The balloons have no external propulsion, instead inflating an airbag that helps them rise or fall – taking advantage of air currents at different altitudes.
99 Loon baloons
The company clocked up more than one million hours of stratospheric flight back in July 2019, but realized it needed more data to develop a navigation system that uses deep reinforcement learning (LR).
"These days, Loon’s navigation system’s most complex task is solved by an algorithm that is learned by a computer experimenting with balloon navigation in simulation," Loon CTO Salvatore Candido explained in a blog post.
Loon believes that this is the world’s first deployment of reinforcement learning in a production aerospace system, built out of a collaboration with Google AI.
"To prove out the viability of RL for navigating stratospheric balloons, our first goal was to show we could machine learn a drop-in replacement for our then-current navigation controllers," Candido said. "To be frank, we wanted to confirm that by using RL a machine could build a navigation system equal to what we ourselves had built."
The company simulated tens of millions of hours of flight to train the system. This approach is popular in RL systems, but can cause issues when transitioning from simulation to the real system due to any discrepancies between simulation and the real world.
To see if issues would arise, Loon flew a balloon with the machine learned controller back in July 2019, pitting it against a nearby balloon with the older generation navigation system using an algorithm called StationSeeker.
"In some sense it was the machine – which spent a few weeks building its controller – against me – who, along with many others, had spent many years carefully fine-tuning our conventional controller based on a decade of experience working with Loon balloons," Candido said.
The RL system outperformed the conventional one, staying closer to the region it was told to cover. It also had a smoother flight path, Candido explained. "We were amazed by some of the elegant behaviors we observed from this early RL test. Seeing the system had learned to smoothly tack through a highly localized wind pattern made it clear to us that the RL worked."
Another test at a greater scale, with an updated version, proved even more successful. "Overall, the RL system kept balloons in range of the desired location more often while using less power," Candido said.
In a research paper in Nature, the team explained that they tried to optimize time within a radius of 50km (TWR50), with an eye to beating Station Seeker's average 40.5 percent TWR50. "A one percent gain corresponds to 14.4 additional minutes of station-keeping in a 24-hr period," the paper stated.
The RL controller managed 55.1 percent, "so the difference amounts to a substantial 3.5hr per day average improvement in time spent near the station."
Next came the full deployment. "The key difference in approach is that instead of engineers building a specific navigation machine that is really good at steering balloons through the stratosphere, we’re instead (with RL) building the machine that can leverage our computational resources to build the navigation machines that were originally designed by engineers like me," Candido said.
With Loon facing intense competition from other approaches to providing Internet to remote places, from drones to the Low Earth Orbit satellite constellations planned by SpaceX and Amazon, it is not clear how useful Loon will prove.
However, in their paper, the researchers argue that the capability marks a more profound shift in autonomous control: “In designing intelligent agents that carry out tasks autonomously in the real world, we encounter the issue of domain boundaries – for instance, what a plate-grasping robot does once its dishwasher is empty.
“Currently, in between bouts of cognition, scripted behaviors and engineers take over from the agent to reset the system to its initial configuration, but this reliance on external agency limits the agent’s autonomy. By contrast, station-keeping offers an example of a fundamentally continual and dynamic activity, one in which ongoing intelligent behavior is a consequence of interacting with a chaotic outside world,” they state.
“By reacting to its environment instead of imposing a model upon it, the reinforcement-learning controller gains a flexibility that enables it to continue to perform well over time. In our pursuit of autonomous intelligence, we may do well to pay attention to emergent properties of these and other agent–environment interactions.”
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Deduplication is an approach that is based on multiple usage of identical data in several places.
This functionality is supported in the new backup format only
The new backup format is based on the client-side deduplication. Deduplication on a local computer brings the following benefits:
- Client-side deduplication is much faster compared to a server deduplication
- Absence of internet connection issues: data is deduplicated locally
- Significant decrease in internet traffic
- Ability to purge an unnecessary data
- Storage costs: server deduplication database constantly grows, so this can cause a significant expense increase. Client-side deduplication uses local capacities only
How It Works
The first backup is always full. In most cases, it is enough to have a full backup with subsequent incremental backups. Thus, after a full backup, the next backup plan executions are usually incremental and depend on full backup and previous incremental backups as well.
The new backup format reckons for a full backup plan independence, so each separate backup plan has its own deduplication database. Moreover, backup plan generations (generation is a sequence of full and incremental backups that follow this full one) also have their own deduplication databases.
Once a backup plan is run, Backup for Linux reads backup data in batches multiple (2x, 4x,...) to block size. Once a block is read, it is compared with deduplication database records. If a block is not found, it is delivered to storage and is assigned with a block ID, which becomes a new deduplication database record. The block scanning continues, and if a block matches any of the deduplication database records, a block with such ID is not backed up.
This approach significantly decreases a backup size, especially in virtual environments with a large number of identical blocks.
If a deduplication database is manually deleted or corrupted, a full backup type is always initiated | <urn:uuid:3d3e619b-2b66-4518-a204-c9576311b77b> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://help.msp360.com/cloudberry-backup-mac-linux/backup/about/client-side-deduplication | 2024-09-12T19:37:15Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651491.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912174615-20240912204615-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.927861 | 410 | 2.953125 | 3 |
We have been discussing the latest technologies in our blogs. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, the Internet of Things, and many other technologies are being leveraged by businesses. All these technologies work together to make our lives easier. Isn’t it fascinating when we can switch off our lights without needing to step out of the bed? This is just one of the many conveniences which have been made possible with the help of technology. Machines are on their way to become more intelligent and efficient.
Also Read: Information Technology, its functions and why is it important?
Machine learning is the technology that is concerned with teaching computers different algorithms to perform different tasks, and making machines capable of taking care of themselves. Different ideas are framed and fed to machines. There are mainly three recognized categories of framing ideas, which we reckon as the three types of machine learning.
Machine Learning (ML), is simply the field of study that deals with teaching computer programs and algorithms to keep improving on a particular task. Machines make use of insights extracted from data. In a world where machines complete most of the tasks, they need to learn how things are done and also anticipate. This is where machine learning steps in. It teaches machines to learn on their own and make predictions based on previous insights.
“Machine Learning is the science of getting computers to learn and act like humans do, and improve their learning over time in an autonomous fashion, by feeding them data and information in the form of observations and real-world interactions.”
- Emerj, The AI Research and Advisory company
Machine Learning is a part of artificial intelligence that aims at feeding computers or machine learning systems knowledge through data, observations, and interactions with the surroundings. There are different ways of doing it that we will explore in this blog.
3 types of Machine Learning
In times of excessive use of artificial intelligence and machine learning, it becomes necessary to differentiate the types of machine learning. As everyone perceives everything differently, for an average computer user, this can be about the exhibition of these different types of ML in several applications.
While for a programmer, who is creating such applications, it is essential to know about the different types of ML so that they can create a proper learning environment, and also understand the purpose of creating such applications.
The three major recognized categories of machine learning are: supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and reinforcement learning.
3 types of machine learning
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1. Supervised Learning
Supervised learning is reckoned as the most popular and typical example of machine learning. It is the easiest and simplest form of machine learning that is easy to understand. It is like teaching a child to recognize things with the help of flashcards.
Algorithms are taught like a child to identify the given data. For an instance, let us consider the given data as examples with labels. So, what is done in supervised learning is that the algorithms are presented with example-label pairs one by one, allowing the algorithm to predict the label for each example.
The person feeding these example-labels to the algorithms gives feedback on every prediction, whether it was correct or not. This practice is repeated over time until the algorithms start predicting the exact nature of the relationship between the examples and their respective labels. When fully-trained, the supervised learning algorithm will be able to observe a new, never-before-seen example and predict a good label for it.
Supervised learning is often described as task-oriented as it needs to perform a task several times before it is accurate. This is the learning we are likely to encounter most of the time.
Some common applications of this are:
Advertisement Popularity: Selecting an advertisement that will gain more popularity is often decided by supervised learning. The ads we see while surfing the internet are there because some learning algorithm predicted that they could gain reasonable popularity and clickability. We often encounter some ads on a specific platform or a certain site and when we search for a query. This is just because a learned algorithm suggested that the matching between that ad and placement will be effective.
Spam Classification: Spam mails were a big stress for users. However, they no longer bother us. Modern email systems like Gmail have a spam filter. This spam filter is nothing else but a supervised learning system. These systems are fed email examples and labels (spam/not spam) and are taught to differentiate them. These supervised learning systems learn to pre-emptively filter out spam and malicious emails. Many of these systems also allow its user to provide new labels so that it can learn user preference.
Face Recognition: Facebook is able to recognize faces and suggest us to tag them. How is it made possible? Most likely our faces are used in a supervised learning algorithm that is trained to recognize our faces. A supervised system is able to find faces in a photo, recognize them and suggest us to tag them. Google Photos also uses this supervised system. If you have used it you can remember the application suggesting to share the picture with the people in it.
Recommended Read: What is an Algorithm? Types, Applications, and Characteristics
2. Unsupervised Learning
Unsupervised learning is totally opposite to supervised learning. There are no labels used in unsupervised learning.
In unsupervised learning, the algorithm is given a lot of unorganized data and the tools to identify the properties of the data. The algorithm then leverages these tools to group, cluster, and organize the given data in a way that any intelligent algorithm or a human can make sense of the output i.e. the newly organized data.
The ability to organize massive amounts of unorganized and unlabeled data makes unsupervised learning a demanding and interesting area. This is so because there is an overwhelming majority of unlabeled data present around us. If we can make anything sensible out of this data, it can prove highly beneficial. Unsupervised learning algorithms make it possible and bring huge profits.
Working of unsupervised learning
Since unsupervised learning makes use of data and its properties, we can call it data-driven. The outcomes of unsupervised learning tasks depend on data and its formatting. Some applications of unsupervised learning are:
Recommender Systems: In the times of binging shows on Netflix and other such OTT platforms, unsupervised learning is being utilized subtly. When we watch and wishlist our favorite shows on these platforms, we provide data to the learning system. These platforms have a video recommendation system.
The unsupervised learning system takes into account the uncategorized data in the form of our watch history, genres of shows, their length, and organizes this data. It then matches with other shows available and prepares a list of such shows that a user can be interested in. YouTube also uses this kind of unsupervised learning system.
Also Read: Review-based Recommendations System
Buying Habits: We are now almost used to shop online and we all have our shopping preferences. Some people prefer shopping on a specific platform. We wishlist items and also have purchasing history. This is all data. It is possible that all our buying habits are contained in a database and it is being actively traded at the moment you read. These buying habits are used in unsupervised algorithms to group customers into similar purchasing segments. This is used by companies to market specific products among suitable segments.
Grouping User Logs: Unsupervised learning can also be utilized to group users’ logs and issues. Unsupervised learning is considered as less user facing but it is still relevant enough to be utilized. Companies use this as a tool to understand the central theme of issues faced by their users and then work on it to rectify such issues. It can also be used in the designing of a product and preparing FAQs. When you report an issue or a bug, you may have possibly fed the data to an unsupervised learning algorithm which then clusters it with other similar issues.
3. Reinforcement Learning
Reinforcement learning is distinct in many ways when compared to supervised and unsupervised learning. We can differentiate supervised and unsupervised learning on the basis of labeled and unlabeled examples. However, reinforcement learning uses no such labels. The relationship to reinforcement learning is a bit murkier. Some people try to make unnecessary ties by calling it a type of learning that relies on a time-dependent sequence of labels.
Reinforcement learning is very much behavior-driven. It has some impact from the fields of neuroscience and psychology on it. In psychology, we are taught about Pavlov’s dog. It gives us the idea about reinforcing an agent. Therefore, we can also look at reinforcement learning as the one that learns from it mistakes. When a reinforcement algorithm is placed in any environment, it makes a lot of mistakes in the beginning. It starts improving the moment some sort of signal to the algorithm, that associates good behaviors with a positive signal and bad behaviors with a negative one, is provided. Over time, it learns to make less mistakes.
Some of the applications of reinforcement learning are:
Video Games: One of the most common places where reinforcement learning is video games. Examples include Google's reinforcement learning application, AlphaZero and AlphaGo which learned to play the game Go. The game of Mario is a prime example of reinforcement learning application.
In the game, the agent is learning algorithms and the game is the environment. The agent has some set of actions. There will be button states and every new game frame behaves as the updated status. The change in the score is our reward signal. So as long as we keep connecting all these components together, we will keep forming a reinforcement learning scenario.
Industrial Simulation: In the industries where robots are being utilized to perform different tasks, it becomes vital to make them capable of completing their tasks without having to monitor. It is a cheaper and efficient option and more than that it reduces the chances of failure. The machines can be programmed to consume less electricity and hence reduce costs.
Resource Management: Google’s data centers use reinforcement learning to balance the need to satisfy our power requirements, but do it as efficiently as possible, cutting major costs. How does this affect us and the average person? Cheaper data storage costs for us as well and less of an impact on the environment we all share.
Now, since we have discussed the three different types of machine learning, it is important to note that sometimes the difference between them may not be clear or sometimes even they may seem the same. For instance, take a recommender system. We know it as an unsupervised learning task. It can also easily be rephrased as a supervised task. We would just need to label the data.
The all three types of machine learning aim to teach computers algorithms that make them capable of performing tasks with more efficiency. | <urn:uuid:be34b4fc-bc0b-4497-b71a-0fe5ae0e30f4> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.analyticssteps.com/blogs/types-machine-learning | 2024-09-12T19:08:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651491.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912174615-20240912204615-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.956243 | 2,238 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The GNU GPL is the software license that helped bring free and open source software to the mainstream. In recent years, however, the GPL's prominence has waned as more permissive licenses, like Apache, have taken its place. That begs the question: Does the GPL have a future, or is it a relic of free software's past? And how did the open source community come to this pass, anyway?
A Brief History of the GPL
The GNU General Public License, or GPL, was crucial to the emergence of free and open source software as we know it. As the first software license designed explicitly to require that source code remain freely available with an application, the GPL provided a legal framework for upholding the user and developer freedoms that the free software movement sought to protect starting in the mid-1980s.
The GPL became famous as the license that governed Richard Stallman's GNU operating system starting in 1986. It then became even more famous as the license adopted by Linus Torvalds for the Linux kernel in 1991.
Fast forward to the present, however, and it can be easy to forget just how central the GPL once was to the world of free and open source software. Today, dozens of other licenses are available for programmers who want to make the source code of their software open but don't want to use the GPL. Licenses like Apache, the MIT License and the BSD family of licenses are the most famous, but there are dozens of others (including my personal favorite, the WTFPL, whose full name I can't spell out here).
GPL in Decline
For years, folks who keep track of the popularity of free and open source software licenses have noted a clear decline in GPL use. The introduction in 2007 of the GPLv3, the latest update to the GPL, seemed to please the community, but the GPL is no longer the dominant license that it once was in the world of free and open source software.
Instead, the MIT License tops the list of most popular free and open source software licenses today. The GPL comes in second.
What's more, although the GPL is still beating the Apache license, it's worth noting that virtually all of the big-name open source projects that have appeared in the past decade have chosen Apache as their licensing scheme. (I'm thinking of Docker, Hadoop, Spark and TensorFlow, though I'm sure I'm forgetting some other examples of newish Apache-licensed platforms.)
Meanwhile, I'm at a loss to think of major open source projects of recent incarnation that have adopted the GPL.
Explaining the State of the GPL
What accounts for this state of affairs? Why is the GPL no longer the go-to software license for open source projects, despite its storied history?
That's a complex question and the answer surely involves several factors. One might be that today's developers don't remember how important the GPL was in making open source possible, and so it does not feature as prominently on their radar. Another might be a perception, fair or not, that the GPL actually stifles the creativity it was designed to protect because it places strict limits on the conditions under which software can be redistributed. Specifically, it requires that developers share the source code of any GPL-licensed application or a derivative of that application; being held to this standard may feel like the opposite of freedom for some developers.
Yet the most important reason for the decline of the GPL, I think, is simply that we're living in a new age of open source. Today, open source has become the "default" approach to software development, according to one study. For a developer or company, choosing to make your source code open source no longer signals a brave commitment to an innovative, ideologically driven mode of software distribution. Instead, open-sourcing your code (or some of it, at least), is just the thing you do. After all, even Microsoft is now riding the open source bandwagon.
Under these circumstances, new companies like Docker--or old companies that want to look like they are with the times--can't really avoid applying an open source license to their model. If they didn't, they'd not only look weird, but they might lose business. Third-party developers would be less likely to work with them, and prospective clients might worry about lock-in.
For these companies, permissive open source licenses like Apache provide an easy out. They're a way to brand yourself as an open source company without having to take as strong a stance about open source software as GPL adoption implies.
Sure, choosing the Apache license or most other permissive licenses requires that companies make the source code of their products publicly available, and that counts for something. But it doesn't signal ideological commitment to the ethos of the free and open source software movement. Nor does it place many restrictions on what partners or third-party developers can do with your code.
In short, the GPL's decline can be explained by the fact that choosing to join the open source ecosystem does not mean what it once did. Licenses other than the GPL offer an easy way for developers and companies to cultivate an open source image while avoiding the strong commitments required by the GPL.
If the GPL were still the only major open source licensing option around, it's hard to imagine open source software being so popular today. But, in an ironic way, the move away from the GPL is a reflection of just how successful the open source ecosystem has become: Open source is thriving so much that we no longer need the GPL.
About the Author
You May Also Like | <urn:uuid:74eded3a-5012-4fca-8264-7db3a7ba7b70> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.itprotoday.com/regulatory-compliance/open-source-licensing-why-the-gpl-s-heyday-is-over | 2024-09-12T20:03:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651491.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912174615-20240912204615-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.955047 | 1,143 | 3.171875 | 3 |
Your internet search and browsing history can be seen by search engines, web browsers, websites, apps and hackers. You should protect your search and browsing history
Spyware is a type of malware that can be installed on your device without your knowledge. The main goal of spyware is to spy on you and gather your private information, like passwords or credit card information. Despite spyware being elusive and undetectable at times, you can tell if there is spyware on your laptop by recognizing common signs. Some of these signs include unwanted pop-up ads, slower performance, shorter battery life and redirections on your browser.
Continue reading to learn more about the common signs of spyware and how to remove it from your laptop.
1. You receive unwanted pop-up ads
If you have many unsolicited pop-up ads during your browsing experience, you may have adware, a common form of spyware, on your laptop. Adware, known as advertising-supported software, installs on your device through pop-ups or advertisements. Sometimes, these pop-up ads are customized to your interests if the spyware tracks your online activity. For example, if you search online for a new microwave, the spyware may display ads and pop-ups related to kitchen appliances to increase your interest and likelihood of clicking on them.
2. Your browser’s homepage has changed
Once your laptop is infected with spyware, cybercriminals can change your browser settings, including your default homepage, extensions, apps and more. If you notice that your browser’s homepage has changed and you did not change it, this is a sign that your laptop may have spyware. Cybercriminals could even change your default search engine from your usual one to a suspicious-looking website or something entirely different from what you would want your homepage to be.
Typically, changes to your browser through spyware are done through a browser hijacker, which is a type of malware that infects your internet browser without your knowledge. A browser hijacker allows criminals to redirect you to malicious websites and access your private information while spying on your online activity.
3. Your laptop runs slower than usual
Because spyware uses your laptop’s resources, such as storage and energy, it can cause your laptop to run much slower than usual. Spyware can make your laptop take longer to load certain web pages or conduct simple tasks. This slower performance can even cause your laptop to crash and freeze. If this happens often, it may be a sign that spyware is running in the background.
4. Your laptop has a short battery life
In addition to your laptop functioning slower, spyware significantly drains your laptop’s battery life. Spyware in the form of apps or programs running in the background can cause your battery to deplete quickly. Since older laptops generally experience reduced battery life over time, a rapid battery drain on a newer device may indicate that your laptop is infected with spyware.
5. Your browser keeps redirecting you
Another sign that your laptop is infected with spyware is if your browser keeps redirecting you to websites you didn’t intend to visit. Certain spyware can redirect you to spoofed websites, which are designed to appear as legitimate websites that trick you into entering personal information, like passwords or credit card numbers. By falling for these spoofed websites, you hand over your personal information directly to the cybercriminals who created them. Even if you aren’t redirected to spoofed websites, spyware can still redirect you to unsafe websites that could contain malware if you click on or download anything from them.
6. Malicious programs run in the background
Since spyware is intended to go unnoticed, it typically runs in the background of your laptop without your knowledge. However, there are ways to detect if malicious programs are running on your PC or Mac. If you use a PC, open Task Manager and inspect apps and programs under the Processes tab. After you find any apps or programs you don’t remember installing or using, right-click on each of them and select End task. If you use a Mac, open the Activity Monitor, check the list of programs for ones you don’t recognize, double-click on each then select Quit.
How to remove spyware from your laptop
Luckily, you can remove spyware from your laptop by following these simple steps.
1. Enter into safe mode
Safe mode is a feature on most computers that gives access to diagnostic programs so you can figure out what is stopping your laptop from functioning normally. When your laptop is in safe mode, it will only launch essential files, programs and apps to narrow down the possibilities for troubleshooting.
To enter safe mode on your Windows computer, hold down Shift at the same time that you select Power, then hit Restart. After letting your computer restart, hit Troubleshoot, then Advanced options and Startup Settings. Let your computer restart again, and after it restarts, select F4 to enter safe mode.
For Apple users, your laptop can enter safe mode by shutting down your Mac. Once it shuts down completely, press and hold your laptop’s power button until the words Loading startup options appear. Select a volume, then press and hold Shift. Click Continue in Safe Mode, which will cause your laptop to restart automatically. Once it restarts, your laptop will display Safe Boot in the menu bar to show that it is in safe mode.
2. Remove any suspicious files and applications
Delete any programs or applications you don’t remember downloading because they could contain spyware or other types of malware. If you regularly go through your app library or clean out old files, you should notice if anything new and suspicious has appeared. Make sure to delete any file, app or program you don’t recognize, even if it doesn’t seem like it would contain malware, just to be safe. You should also clear your browsing history, cache and cookies to ensure no malware is lingering on your web browser. After you’ve deleted any suspicious files and cleared your browser data, restart your laptop to ensure the spyware infection is gone.
3. Run antivirus software
If you don’t already have antivirus software installed, you should immediately download it, as it detects and removes malware before it can infect your computer. Antivirus software constantly scans your laptop, searching for viruses and malware by comparing your device’s contents to information from a large database of known viruses. If there is a match between a file on your device and a known virus, the antivirus software will delete the file before it infects your laptop. Even if you don’t suspect your device has a virus or malware, you should install antivirus software in case you open a malicious link or attachment from an unsolicited email or spoofed website.
4. Factory reset your laptop
If all else fails and spyware still remains on your laptop, you might have to resort to factory resetting your laptop. Remember that factory resetting means your laptop will have all its data erased, so before you factory reset your laptop, you should back up your data. If you regularly back up your laptop, you can factory reset your laptop and restore its data from a backup made before the spyware infected it.
To complete a factory reset on your PC, go to Start and click Settings. Select Update & Security, then Recovery. Once you see Reset this PC, select that option and go through the steps. When the directions give you an option of Keep my files, choose cloud or local, change your settings, and set Restore preinstalled apps?, select No because that could keep spyware on your laptop, even after resetting it.
For Mac users, you can factory reset your laptop by going to System Settings. Click General, then Transfer or Reset. You should see an option to Erase All Content and Settings. Before you click this, make sure your data is stored somewhere in a backup; otherwise, you will lose all your data.
Even after completing a factory reset, you may need to buy a new laptop if you find that spyware remains on it.
Protect your laptop from spyware
Keep your laptop protected from spyware by removing any suspicious files, apps or programs. Make sure you have antivirus software running on your laptop at all times so that it can detect and remove any viruses or malware before they infect your laptop. | <urn:uuid:f81f2214-5d4e-4f5d-b523-64f7fbac669f> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2024/08/29/how-to-tell-if-there-is-spyware-on-your-laptop/ | 2024-09-14T00:13:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651540.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913233654-20240914023654-00662.warc.gz | en | 0.907397 | 1,730 | 3 | 3 |
Nowadays, economic fluctuation adversely affects a country’s well-being, making the economy a concept of supreme importance. To look over a nation’s progress, we need to study their economy and that would be ample to determine whether the country is flourishing or experiencing depression.
Growth and development are synonyms for each other but when ‘economic’ is prefixed to each of the words, then both of them contradict the similarity. Adding economic to the words creates fundamental differences between growth and development which are very important and become even more prominent when countries start depending on them.
Our discussion during this blog will focus on concepts and characteristics of economic growth and development and some key differences that isolate the terms and their functions.
(Must read: Largest economies of the world)
Economic growth is considered to be an increase in the production of goods and services by per person in a population, compared from one time period to another. An increase in capital goods, labour forces, new territories, technology, and human capital can also contribute to economic growth.
Depiction of economic growth
Economic growth is commonly measured by the increase in the average market value of additional goods and services produced, using GDP (Gross Domestic Product).
How is GDP calculated?
GDP can be calculated by adding up all of the money spent by consumers, businesses, and the government in a given period of time.
It can also be calculated by summing up all of the money received by all the earning members of the country.
In either case, the number is an approximate value of "nominal GDP."
Real GDP is then calculated by removing any changes made due to inflation.
In easy words, economic growth refers to an increase in gross production in an economy. That leads to an increase in incomes of the people, hence persuading them to spend more and increase their quality of living. For example, India has recorded a 24% shrink in its GDP in the last four decades during the COVID-19 span.
Factors affecting Economic growth
Technology- Technology allows working to become more efficient and more output-yielding. New technology helps in creating more output even with the same stock of capital goods as its primary goal is to reduce time and increase outcome. Also, all the technologies have a role in the business in their entirety.
Human capital- It is the expertise and skills provided to unskilled labour to convert him into skilled labour through skill training, trial and error, or simply more practise. This skill development helps in raising the productivity out of the labour.
(Related blog: Elasticity of Demand and its types)
Economic development is the increase in the standard of living from a low-income economy to a high-income economy. It considers factors such as health, education, working conditions, domestic and international policies, and market conditions with a focus on improving conditions in developing countries. For example, all such factors were affected during the COVID-19 times, even coronavirus has impacted the global economy adversely,
Economist Amartya Sen proposed that development is about creating freedom for people and removing obstacles to greater freedom, Greater freedom enables people to choose their own destiny.
Obstacles to freedom, and hence to development, include poverty, lack of economic opportunities, corruption, poor governance, lack of education and lack of health.
A glimpse of economic development
Economic development focuses on health, education, working conditions, and market conditions. The application of economic development is complex and varied as the cultural, social, and economic background of every nation is different.
For a common audience, economic development is the improvement in the quality of life which has a direct and positive effect on the economic growth of the country as a whole.
The HDI(Human Development Index) is used to measure a nation’s economic development. The HDI tracks the course of development of countries over periods of time.
(Learn about capitalism vs socialism)
How is HDI calculated?
The HDI has two main features:
A scale is taken from 0 which denotes no development to 1 which denotes complete development. An index, which is based on three components:
Longevity, measured by life expectancy at birth.
Knowledge, measured by adult literacy and the number of years children are enrolled at school.
Standard of living, measured by real GDP per capita at purchasing power parity(PPP).
Factors affecting Economic Development
Life expectancy- Many factors affect the Life expectancy of people living in a certain region, like eating habits and the occurrence of war, pandemic or natural disasters. Pollution-level checks also determine the average life of the people. The coronavirus pandemic is supposed to cause a decrease in Life expectancy by 1-9 years.
Adult literacy- According to WHO, It is the percentage of people who are aged 15 and above and can read and write a simple statement in their everyday life. As per the survey provided at Wikipedia, the global literacy rate for all people aged 15 and above is 86.3%. The global literacy rate for all males is 90.0% and the rate for all females is 82.7%.
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Levels of infrastructure – e.g. transport and buildings. For example, in recent years, economic development in parts of Africa and Asia have been improved due to increased investment in roads, railways and seaports. These upgrades in transportation and infrastructure determine that the flow of traffic remains smooth. Thus, making people residing in such neighbourhoods happy.
Now that we have established the basics of Economic growth and economic development. We shall move forward to differentiate between both of them.
(Recommended blog: Scope of Managerial Economic)
Economic growth vs development
Economic development is a broader concept than economic growth. The development reflects social and economic progress and requires economic growth. Growth is a necessary condition for development, but alone it cannot guarantee development.
Even in order to calculate the HDI we have to calculate the real GDP per capita so as to determine the standard of living, which is just a small ingredient in the recipe of HDI.
Also, Economic development is considered to be a broader concept than economic growth because economic growth only takes monetary development into account whereas economic development requires social development and monetary development to go hand in hand.
(Also read: Factors affecting PED)
Economic development covers more ground than economic growth and that is why economic development is the one which takes more time and resources.
This is why economic development can happen with economic growth but it is not necessary if economic growth is taking place then economic development will also happen. Economic growth can be termed as a subset of economic development.
Economic growth is a uni-dimensional approach to the growth of a country whereas Economic development is a multi-dimensional approach to the growth of a country as it takes many significant conditions into play.
As it might be clear that Economic growth is a quantitative analysis and Economic development is a quantitative as well as qualitative analysis and can be conducted using various statistical data analysis techniques.
Economic development is a quantitative as well as qualitative analysis because it shows the sustainable increase in real GDP that implies increased real per capita income, better education and health as well as environmental protection, legal and institutional reforms and an efficient production and distribution system for goods and services.
Economic growth on the counter-hand shows only the sustained increase in the real GDP of a country over a period of time and hence a quantitative analysis.
Economic growth can be considered a weak approach to measure growth as not only growing economically is necessary but also social well-being is just as important. Economic growth is measured in terms of GDP, whereas Economic development is measured in terms of HDI.
(Also read: Big data in economics and policy)
Economic growth is used in developed countries as a measure of growth as it is assumed if a nation is developed then the quality of life would already be imminent.
Economic development is applicable in developing countries as this measures economic growth and the quality of life which are simultaneous processes. It would be very difficult to maintain a good lifestyle if the money is not good enough.
Economic growth is a short term process as GDP is calculated every year to find out the income of the country. Economic development is a long term process to improve the quality of life. It takes many years to build resources and apply them.
Economic growth is also a short term process because it is an automatic process that may or may not require intervention from the government whereas economic development requires intervention from the government as all the developmental policies are formed by the government. Thus, becoming a long term procedure.
Economic development seems to be the overall champ in calculating the progress of a country but Economic growth provides easy and reliable stats of development in developed countries. Both of them have their flaws and advantages and clearly both appeal to different target audiences.
(Suggested read: Microeconomics vs macroeconomics)
Economic development appeals to countries that are developing and knows that it will be a long process. Economic growth attracts developed countries who want fast and easy stats about the increase in the income of the nation. Both measure development but in different ways and with different mediums. It can be said they are very similar and also very distinctive simultaneously.
Economic development can not be measured without measuring Economic growth but Economic growth need not depend on Economic development. Besides that, the economic calendar can be deployed for measuring both simultaneously. | <urn:uuid:9e7b4a5b-a31a-4a6d-ac8f-594cceb670c7> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.analyticssteps.com/blogs/difference-between-economic-growth-and-economic-development | 2024-09-16T11:35:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651697.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916112213-20240916142213-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.960677 | 1,928 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Managing modern networks means taking on the complexity of downtime, config errors, and vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit. Learn how BGP Flow Specification (Flowspec) can help to mitigate DDoS attacks through disseminating traffic flow specification rules throughout a network.
Network administrators need to make sure your users have secure and efficient connectivity to their applications and data. With that in mind, our networks have also become increasingly complex. This is partly due to the pure volume of data needed to run everyday business plus our growing reliance on the public internet. Add in technologies like cloud and SaaS, AI, big data, and the continuous addition of users and devices, and you can see that the subsequent threat landscape is always changing.
It can be incredibly difficult to manage any modern network with this sort of complexity, and that difficulty is compounded when the risk of downtime, configuration errors, security loopholes, and vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit grows with that complexity.
One specific threat to our network security is the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack. From a high level, a DDoS attack floods a website or a system with fake requests making the system unavailable for legitimate users. There are several different variations of DDoS attacks, but regardless of the form, DDoS attacks are more of an issue today than they’ve ever been because of our reliance on the public internet and internet-based services.
DDoS attacks — they are everywhere
There are several notable examples of DDoS attacks in the news in recent years. For example:
- During the Winter Olympic Games in February 2018, the official website of the Olympic Organizing Committee was forced to shut down due to a DDoS attack.
- GitHub also fell victim to a DDoS attack in March 2018 after experiencing a maximum peak traffic of 1.7 TBPS.
- Amazon Web Services experienced a similar attack in October 2019, with an outage affecting many websites for several hours.
And this is just the tip of the iceberg — many other significant examples have been reported, with the number growing yearly.
These attacks are often carried out by a network of devices, either computers or IoT devices, which hackers infected with malware. These infected devices, known as bots, form a network called a botnet. In a volumetric type of DDoS attack, these bots, or “zombies,” simultaneously send requests to the target IP address, overwhelming the system and leading to a service degradation or even a shard down scenario.
As noted in one research source, there were over 174,000 DDoS attacks just in the USA alone in 2021. These attacks result in downtime, transaction loss, reputational risk, and real dollar impact on your service or product sales.
In other words, the impact of a DDoS is both a financial and business risk.
Overview of Flowspec and Adaptive Flowspec
What is BGP Flowspec?
BGP Flow Specification (Flowspec) is a powerful technology to mitigate DDoS attacks. It’s an extension to the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) that allows for disseminating traffic flow specification rules throughout a network.
BGP policies using Flowspec help mitigate DDoS attacks by rapidly filtering traffic across an entire network. In light of the ever-growing DDoS attack network administrators have been dealing with as we move to a cloud network model, the IETF RFC5575 proposed Flowspec explicitly as a DDoS mitigation protocol to work on top of BGP.
Using BGP Flowspec, we have granular control to match a particular flow with a source and destination, and also match parameters such as packet packet length, fragment, and so on. With Flowspec, we can dynamically perform three different actions:
- Drop the traffic
- Inject it in a different VRF (virtual routing and forwarding) for analysis
- Allow it, but throttle it at a defined rate
BGP directs a specific flow format to border routers, prompting them to generate access control lists (ACLs) which can be used to manage packet forwarding from external sources. In this way, filtering policies can be pushed to edge devices to mitigate a DDoS attack. As traffic matches a rule pushed by BGP Flowspec, routers take the prescribed action.
Does BGP Flowspec prevent all DDoS attacks?
While BGP Flowspec offers volumetric DDoS attack mitigation, it struggles against some advanced forms attacks. In volumetric DDoS attacks, clients apply Flowspec rules at border routers, then inform the service provider to block specific traffic types targeting the affected IP addresses and ports for filtering.
However, for other types of DDoS attacks, such as amplification DDoS attacks, clients must understand the ISP’s network to effectively mitigate the attack which means much more coordination between the client and the ISP.
What is Adaptive Flowspec?
Adaptive Flowspec improves upon Flowspec by dynamically adjusting or modifying flow specification parameters based on changing network conditions or requirements, or in other words, the “adaptive” part of Adaptive Flowspec. This adaptability allows for more flexible and efficient traffic management in response to varying network conditions, ensuring optimal performance and resource utilization.
The dynamic nature of Adaptive Flowspec is its power, and this ability to update rules based on changing network conditions, or in the case of this discussion, DDoS attack traits, can be completely automated relying on a programmatic workflow and real-time network and traffic analysis.
With traditional Flowspec, a subscriber to a distributed filtering service can request filtering for detected DDoS flows. However, while filtering DDoS traffic based on protocol, TCP flags, and destination is straightforward, source-based filtering is more complex.
Remember the Flowspec policy actions mentioned before:
- Discard all traffic from an IP prefix.
- Discard all traffic from a specific IP.
- Discard traffic from an IP with a particular source port.
Adaptive filtering lets subscribers switch between these granularities as required. This enhances the dynamic nature of responding to what are likely adaptive attacks.
For an IP prefix producing DDoS traffic, if its legitimate traffic is minimal, filtering the entire IP prefix might be suitable, especially during intense attacks. Otherwise, evaluate each subprefix, create rules for subprefixes sending DDoS traffic, ignore those mainly sending legitimate traffic, and recursively apply this strategy to subprefixes with mixed traffic.
Adaptive Flowspec uses distributed filtering across network nodes. This model works at various scales: internet-wide, within ISPs, or with DDoS-scrubbing services. DDoS traffic filters at different autonomous systems (ASes) across the internet (Figure 1), inside ISP routers or programmable switches (Figure 2), or within DDoS-scrubbing service data centers (Figure 3).
Adaptive Flowspec employs feedback loops to refine its filtering policies. However, one issue that can arise is that while aiming to filter DDoS traffic, it sometimes blocks legitimate traffic. Thus, it uses feedback loops to better distinguish and target only malicious traffic.
Mitigating DDoS attacks using Adaptive Flowspec
Once a DDoS attack is detected, reactive DDoS mitigation strategies are employed. Ultimately, the DDoS attack has already begun, so these strategies are about minimizing the damage caused by the attack. Common mitigations include rate limiting and traffic scrubbing both of which focus on mitigating a DDoS attack in real time.
Adaptive Flowspec adaptively generates rules at a more granular level so the mitigation is more precise with less unintended traffic blocking. It deploys rules at the most appropriate filtering nodes on the path of the actual DDoS traffic, which implies a great deal of network visibility is required to understand where the malicious traffic is flowing.
Because traffic classification can be done on a granular basis, or in other words, flow-by-flow, it’s essential to run adaptive filtering on top of DDoS classification. Network administrators can then fine tune traffic rules based on actual real-time traffic information and threat detection.
This BGP-based strategy is used because BGP is so customizable and ubiquitous in modern networking. It’s an excellent tool to easily propagate and apply traffic rules in normal operations and in the event of malicious network activity.
Challenges and considerations
Thousands of DDoS flows can stem from only a few IP prefixes, millions from a group of IP addresses, and even more from combined IP and port numbers. Monitoring and determining filtering rules for each very granular scenario can be costly in terms of the time and resources it takes to figure out what’s going on and how to mitigate the attack properly. There’s also the risk of collateral damage if and when good traffic is inadvertently dropped, and managing an inordinate number of classification and mitigation rules.
Nodes on the DDoS traffic path must distinguish and filter DDoS from legitimate traffic to avoid real source traffic loss; however, Adaptive Flowspec addresses these challenges by counter DDoS attacks proactively and dynamically.
Is Adaptive Flowspec the optimal DDoS mitigation tool?
The BGP Flow Specification (Flowspec) and its adaptive counterpart, Adaptive Flowspec, present formidable tools against DDoS threats. Flowspec disseminates traffic rules across a network, providing a method for traffic control, rapid deployment, and dynamic responses to DDoS attack variations.
Meanwhile, Adaptive Flowspec can dynamically recalibrate these rules based on evolving network conditions and attack characteristics, providing a proactive, adaptive mitigation method. And of course, both solutions therefore require deep and broad network visibility to monitor, identify, and filter traffic during an attack. | <urn:uuid:bda68244-d279-426f-89f3-d188dd48662c> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.kentik.com/blog/what-is-adaptive-flowspec-and-does-it-solve-the-ddos-problem/ | 2024-09-16T11:55:53Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651697.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916112213-20240916142213-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.917998 | 2,008 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Network Monitoring: Ensuring Optimal Network Health and Performance
What is Network Monitoring?The Evolution of Network MonitoringThree Pillars of Modern Network MonitoringNetwork Traffic Analysis (Flow Analysis)Synthetic Testing (Digital Experience Monitoring - DEM)Network Infrastructure Metrics (Network Monitoring Systems - NMS)Why is Network Monitoring Important?Key Components of Network MonitoringNetwork Devices and NodesNetwork Traffic AnalysisMonitoring Network Health MetricsNetwork Monitoring Alerts, Reports and NotificationsTypes of Network Monitoring TechniquesModern Challenges in Network MonitoringTools and Technologies in Network MonitoringNetwork Monitoring Best PracticesConduct Regular AuditsAdopt a Proactive Approach to MonitoringEngage in Continuous LearningThe Future of Network MonitoringEvolution to Network ObservabilityAI and ML in Automated Network MonitoringUser Experience MonitoringNetwork Monitoring with Kentik
Network monitoring has evolved from its humble beginnings as a basic troubleshooting tool utilizing Internet Protocol (IP) to a sophisticated system essential for maintaining optimal network health and performance. Understanding and managing their complexities becomes crucial as networks grow in complexity due to digital transformation, IoT, cloud migration, and Software as a Service (SaaS) platforms. This article provides an overview of network monitoring, highlighting its significance, techniques, challenges, and future.
What is Network Monitoring?
Network monitoring is the systematic oversight of a computer network’s health and performance. Using specialized software or services, it proactively detects issues like slow traffic and component failures. Analyzing real-time network data helps administrators pinpoint potential problems, ensuring optimal network operation.
Beyond offering immediate alerts, comprehensive network monitoring tools provide an overview of the network’s topology and interconnected components. These visualizations, including the flow of packets and NetFlow data, help network administrators make timely interventions and data-driven decisions to improve network reliability and efficiency.
In this short video, Kentik technology evangelist Leon Adato explains the basics of network monitoring and the three technology pillars of modern network montioring.
The Evolution of Network Monitoring
The concept of network monitoring isn’t new. Early networks used basic tools like the ping command, which operates on the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP), to check the reachability of devices. However, as networks grew in size and complexity, so did the tools designed to monitor them, incorporating technologies like SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), NetFlow, and IPFIX.
The advent of the internet, TCP connections, and cloud computing brought new challenges. Traditional networks, which were limited to a company’s physical premises, expanded to include multiple locations, cloud environments, container networking, and even global infrastructures. This expansion called for more sophisticated monitoring methods to understand these complex environments.
Modern network performance monitoring metrics go beyond simple up-down checks. They include granular performance details, ensuring that every aspect of the network performs at its best, from bandwidth to latency.
Three Pillars of Modern Network Monitoring
Network monitoring is a complex and evolving field and today’s modern network monitoring tools can be grouped into three “pillars”: Traffic Analysis, Synthetic Testing, and Network Infrastructure Metrics. In a holistic approach to network monitoring, each of these three monitoring technologies offers specific capabilities to ensure the health, performance, security, and reliability of modern networks. Modern network monitoring solutions like Kentik incorporate all of these components, offering an alternative to siloed, legacy tools.
Network Traffic Analysis (Flow Analysis)
The first pillar, Network Traffic Analysis (also known as NTA or Flow Analysis), involves passively monitoring network traffic, typically represented by network flow data. This approach offers granular insights into real-world network usage and is critical to understanding network dynamics.
Data Sources: NTA uses flow records, such as those from NetFlow protocols, VPC flow logs from cloud services, and packet traces via Deep Packet Inspection (DPI).
Event Analysis: NTA captures and analyzes network events and changes through log records.
Pros of Network Traffic Analysis:
- Provides a detailed view of actual network usage.
- Offers insights into network performance and user behavior.
- Essential for detecting anomalies and potential security threats, such as DDoS attacks.
Cons of Network Traffic Analysis:
- Primarily limited to existing traffic flow.
- May not provide immediate, real-time data.
- Can be data-intensive, requiring effective data management strategies if deployed on-premises.
Synthetic Testing (Digital Experience Monitoring - DEM)
The second pillar of modern network monitoring, Synthetic Testing, is a proactive approach that tests network functions to emulate real user experiences. A primary goal of synthetic testing is to anticipate and mitigate performance issues before they impact actual users. Synthetic testing is part of the broader discipline of Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM).
- Testing and Data: Synthetic testing involves creating scenarios that mimic user actions to collect data on network responses and performance. Tests are typically performed auotmatically and at regular intervals.
- User-Centric Focus: This technology aims to predict how the network will perform under various user conditions.
- Pros of Synthetic Testing:
- Identifies potential issues from an end-user perspective before they impact actual users.
- Allows for frequent, regular, and automated testing, enhancing preparedness.
- Assists in capacity planning and optimizing user experience.
- Cons of Synthetic Testing:
- Limited to the specific targets and scenarios set up for testing.
- May not capture all real-world conditions or spontaneous/anomalous network events.
- Requires careful scenario design to ensure the relevance and accuracy of each test.
Network Infrastructure Metrics (Network Monitoring Systems - NMS)
The final pillar, Network Infrastructure Metrics, often managed through Network Monitoring Systems (NMS), is about maintaining and optimizing the physical and virtual devices in a network.
- Monitoring Tools: NMS tools uses protocols such as SNMP, Streaming Telemetry, and other advanced monitoring technologies to collect network device health metrics such as up/down status, bandwidth usage, memory consumption, and CPU utilization.
- Event Handling: Includes mechanisms like SNMP Traps for real-time alerts on network conditions.
- Pros of Network Infrastructure Metrics:
- Provides direct insights into the health and status of network devices.
- Essential for preventative maintenance and rapid issue resolution.
- Facilitates strategic planning for network upgrades and expansions.
- Cons of Network Infrastructure Metrics:
- May offer limited context regarding end-user experience or specific application performance.
- Requires integration of diverse monitoring tools for a comprehensive view in many cases.
- Protocols like SNMP require polling and not all network monitoring systems are capable of high-frequency polling or offer alternatives such as streaming telemetry.
In this short video, Kentik product manager Chris O’Brien gives Packet Pushers host Ethan Banks an overview of Kentik’s network monitoring system, discussing the how collecting network infrastructure metrics via SNMP polling differs from the more real-time nature of streaming telemetry. They explore some of the benefits and challenges of both approaches:
Why is Network Monitoring Important?
The importance of network monitoring extends beyond mere oversight. In today’s hybrid-cloud, multicloud, and web application environments, a minor network hiccup can translate to significant business losses in revenue and reputation. Here’s why network monitoring is indispensable:
- Ensuring System Health, Reliability, and Uptime: Downtime isn’t just inconvenient—it’s costly. Network monitoring ensures that potential issues are identified and rectified before they can cause significant disruptions.
- Detecting and Mitigating Potential Security Threats: Monitoring becomes essential as cyber threats grow in number and sophistication. Network traffic analysis tools provide insights into suspicious activities, allowing for timely interventions. DDoS detection and mitigation, a use-case that Kentik specializes in, ensures that potential denial-of-service attacks are swiftly identified and dealt with, safeguarding the network’s integrity.
- Enhancing Overall System Performance: Networks aren’t static; they evolve. By understanding how network resources are utilized, administrators can optimize configurations, ensuring that current and future demands are met efficiently. Techniques like synthetic monitoring and real user monitoring provide insights into user experience, ensuring that the network not only functions optimally but also meets user expectations.
Key Components of Network Monitoring
Network Devices and Nodes
Every network comprises myriad devices, including routers, switches, servers, and more. Network device monitoring ensures that each of these components operates optimally. Network administrators can preemptively address issues by keeping tabs on device health, performance, and availability, reducing the risk of network downtime or service degradation.
Network Traffic Analysis
A network’s traffic patterns can offer invaluable insights. Network administrators can pinpoint bottlenecks, optimize data flow, and ensure that resources are allocated efficiently by understanding network topology, mapping, and visualization. Real-time network traffic analysis also aids in detecting unusual patterns, which could indicate security threats or system malfunctions.
Monitoring Network Health Metrics
Monitoring key device health indicators such as latency, bandwidth, uptime, and error rates provide a comprehensive view of the network’s health. Network teams can continuously track these metrics to ensure performance standards are met and maintained.
Network Monitoring Alerts, Reports and Notifications
Timely intervention can be the difference between a minor hiccup and a major outage. By setting up thresholds for real-time alerts and integrating with tools like API monitoring and network automation, administrators are instantly notified of potential issues, allowing for swift troubleshooting and remediation. For a more in-depth look at network alerting strategies, see “Network Monitoring Alerts: Best Practices for Network Alert Management”.
Types of Network Monitoring Techniques
There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to network monitoring. Though we can think of network monitoring technologies as belonging to one of the three broad pillars discuessed previously, there are a wide variety of application-specific techniques known by different terms. Some of the most common types of network monitoring include:
Synthetic Monitoring: This method (also known as synthetic transaction monitoring) involves simulating user interactions with applications or services to measure performance. It’s beneficial for preemptively identifying issues before they affect end-users.
Real User Monitoring (RUM): While synthetic monitoring simulates user interactions, RUM captures and analyzes the actual experiences of real users. It provides insights into how real users interact with applications, helping businesses optimize for better user satisfaction and improved user experience.
Digital Experience Monitoring: An evolution of both RUM and Synthetic Monitoring, this technique provides a holistic view of user experience, combining metrics and insights from both real users and synthetic tests to ensure optimal digital interactions.
Bandwidth Utilization Monitoring: As the name suggests, this technique focuses on how bandwidth is consumed. Understanding the traffic patterns and usage spikes ensures that network resources are used efficiently without overloads.
NetFlow Analysis: Using the NetFlow protocol, this technique captures and analyzes network traffic flow data. It provides insights into traffic patterns, helping administrators understand where traffic is coming from, going to, and why. Beyond NetFlow, there are other flow protocols like sFlow and jFlow and cloud-based equivalents such as VPC flow logs. NetOps professionals can get insights into traffic patterns and trends by sampling and analyzing network traffic flows.
Network Device Monitoring: This technique focuses on the health and performance of individual network components, such as routers, switches, and servers. Monitoring each device’s functionality ensures optimal network performance and early detection of potential issues.
SNMP Monitoring: SNMP monitoring leverages the Simple Network Management Protocol to oversee and analyze the health and performance of network devices. It’s a standardized approach enabling network engineers and administrators to collect crucial data from various types of networking equipment such as routers, switches, and firewalls.
Cloud Network Performance Monitoring: As more businesses migrate to the cloud, monitoring the performance of cloud-based resources becomes essential. This technique ensures that cloud services, applications, and infrastructures perform optimally and securely.
SD-WAN Monitoring: Supervises Software-Defined Wide Area Network operations, optimizing cloud and on-premises connectivity, enhancing application performance, and ensuring network security.
Network Performance Monitoring (NPM) or NPMD: Network Performance Monitoring and Diagnostics focuses on a network’s overall health and speed. It assesses various metrics such as latency, bandwidth usage, and packet loss to ensure a seamless network experience. It’s essential for detecting, diagnosing, and resolving network performance issues.
DNS Monitoring: Monitoring Domain Name System (DNS) services ensures that domain name requests are being resolved quickly and correctly, which is crucial for the smooth functioning of internet-based services.
Quality of Service (QoS) Monitoring: For networks that prioritize certain types of traffic (like VoIP or video streaming), QoS monitoring ensures that these priorities are being met and that high-priority traffic gets the bandwidth and performance it needs.
API Monitoring: Focuses on the performance and availability of Application Programming Interfaces, ensuring that APIs respond quickly, correctly, and securely.
Modern Challenges in Network Monitoring
Today’s network environments are more dynamic and complex than ever, introducing a new set of challenges:
- Scale and Bandwidth: With the proliferation of IoT devices and high-data applications, networks face unprecedented demands. Effective bandwidth utilization monitoring is essential to handle this surge without compromising performance.
- Security: In an era of increasing cyber threats, monitoring for anomalies, DDoS attacks, and potential breaches is crucial. Detecting and mitigating network threats requires sophisticated threat detection mechanisms that go beyond simple traffic analysis.
- Complexity: Multicloud deployments, hybrid environments, and distributed architectures introduce layers of complexity. Navigating this requires advanced tools and strategies, with network capacity planning playing a pivotal role. Integrating protocols like SNMP, streaming telemetry, and technologies like NetFlow adds to this complexity, demanding a holistic approach to network monitoring.
Tools and Technologies in Network Monitoring
A plethora of tools exist in the market, each offering unique functionalities. Whether it’s synthetic transaction monitoring that simulates user interactions or comprehensive platforms that provide end-to-end visibility, the right tool can make all the difference. When selecting tools, scalability, real-time insights, and integration capabilities should be top considerations. Kentik, for example, offers a suite of solutions tailored for modern network monitoring needs, ensuring that businesses stay agile, informed, and ahead of potential issues.
Network Monitoring Best Practices
To maximize the benefits of network monitoring and ensure a robust and resilient network, consider the following best practices:
Conduct Regular Audits
Network environments are dynamic and evolve over time. Conducting periodic audits helps ensure that the monitoring configurations and thresholds remain relevant and effective. It’s essential to monitor new devices, applications, or services that might have been added to the network and ensure they’re properly monitored on an ongoing basis.
Adopt a Proactive Approach to Monitoring
Instead of merely reacting to problems, a proactive approach aims to predict and prevent them. This entails setting up alerts for potential issues before they escalate, analyzing trends, and making data-driven adjustments to avoid future problems. For example, if a server consistently hits 80% capacity during peak hours, it might be time to consider an upgrade or optimization before it becomes a bottleneck.
Engage in Continuous Learning
The field of network management and monitoring is constantly evolving. New threats emerge, technologies advance, and best practices adapt. Staying updated with the latest developments, attending workshops, and participating in relevant communities can provide invaluable insights and keep your network monitoring strategy sharp and effective.
The Future of Network Monitoring
As technology advances, so does the landscape of network monitoring:
Evolution to Network Observability
While monitoring provides insights into the health and performance of a network, observability dives deeper. It’s about understanding the “why” behind performance metrics, allowing for a more in-depth analysis and a holistic view of the network. Network observability uses diverse data sources to understand what is happening inside a network, and how the internal state of the network impacts business objectives and user experience.
AI and ML in Automated Network Monitoring
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are set to revolutionize network monitoring. These technologies can analyze vast amounts of data in real time, detect patterns, predict potential issues, and even automate remediation processes. Imagine a network that can self-heal and optimize with minimal human intervention.
Recent advances in generative AI have already been incorporated into modern network monitoring systems such as Kentik NMS. Kentik AI allows NetOps professionals and non-experts alike to ask questions—and immediately get answers—about the current status or historical performance of their networks using natural language queries. This tool allow administrators to understand on-premises, hybrid, and multicloud networking environments from a single query engine. Because it combines network data from all sorts of protocols—including flow data, SNMP, streaming telemetry, containers, and cloud flow logs—Kentik AI enables unprecedented visibility into modern networks.
User Experience Monitoring
As businesses become increasingly digital, ensuring an optimal user experience becomes crucial. Traditional network health metrics will remain essential, but understanding how users interact with services and applications will gain prominence. Techniques like Synthetic Monitoring and Real User Monitoring will play pivotal roles in this transition.
Network Monitoring with Kentik
In an era where businesses are so intricately tied to their digital infrastructures, the importance of network monitoring can’t be overstated. It’s not just about preventing downtimes or optimizing bandwidth—it’s about ensuring businesses can operate seamlessly, innovate, and deliver value to their customers.
Kentik offers a suite of advanced network monitoring solutions designed for today’s complex, multicloud network environments. The Kentik Network Observability Platform empowers network pros to monitor, run and troubleshoot all of their networks, from on-premises to the cloud. Kentik’s network monitoring solution addresses all three pillars of modern network monitoring, delivering visibility into network flow, powerful synthetic testing capabilities, and Kentik NMS, the next-generation network monitoring system. | <urn:uuid:d115b995-f805-4119-8787-430c9391b6fe> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.kentik.com/kentipedia/network-monitoring/ | 2024-09-16T12:42:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651697.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916112213-20240916142213-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.886613 | 3,785 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Figures in a research paper conducted by Trend Micro indicate that 91% of cyber-attacks and subsequent data breaches began with a spear phishing email. In 2020, some 66% of organizations worldwide suffered a spear phishing attack.
What is Spear Phishing?
Spear phishing is a form of cyber-attack in which the perpetrator uses email or other messaging media to coax a desired response from a specific individual or organization. That response may be the revealing of sensitive personal or corporate data, the release of funds, the following of a link to a bogus website where the attacker can extract valuable information or install malicious software (malware) on the victim’s system, or the direct download of malware from a message attachment.
In a typical spear phishing attack, the perpetrator will have conducted some quite extensive research using Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) to gather relevant information on the potential victim, their associates, and dealings. OSINT may originate from corporate websites, social media accounts, search engines, and other publicly available data sources. This information, once gathered, is used to make the language, pitch, and premise of a spear phishing message appear more genuine.
There are also variants on this basic idea.
For example, in whale phishing or whaling, the intended victim is usually a top-level executive of a commercial organization. It is assumed that these individuals have a higher level of access to corporate networks, company funds, industrial secrets, and intellectual property. This type of attack is also referred to as CEO fraud.
In what is known as Business Email Compromise or BEC, information gathered on senior executives of an organization enables the perpetrators to effectively impersonate them in urgent messages to lower-level officials or employees. This can allow the attackers to order the urgent release of funds, the disclosure of corporate network access codes and credentials, and other valuable information.
Spear Phishing Targets:
As we have seen, spear phishing is a targeted form of attack, which can zero in on both individuals and corporate bodies. So attackers can draw their spear phishing targets from both customers and businesses.
At the individual or consumer level, cyber-criminals may set their sights on high spending customers of online catalogues or payment platforms, gleaning information on their recent purchases or transactions from a range of sources. They can then pose as an institution that the intended victim trusts, such as a credit card company, bank, or eCommerce provider.
In a typical attack on an individual, the spear phishing communication might be framed as an account verification exercise, delivery notification, or confirmation of a transaction. A link to a bogus website or infected attachment may unintentionally lead the victim to install malware on their system. Alternatively, the attackers may be looking to gather personal information that can assist them in committing fraud or identity theft.
For businesses and institutions, spear phishing will usually begin with an individual target, such as an employee with privileged access to payroll, inventory, or network access codes or a senior executive with access to higher-level corporate data and funding.
An objective of the attack may be to entice the individual to release confidential information or to authorize the release of payments on a bogus transaction. Alternatively, the attacker may use the person as a channel of access to the broader corporate network — either through the disclosure of access codes or by infection of their system with spyware.
Difference Between Spear Phishing vs Phishing
The main differentiator in the spear phishing vs phishing comparison is targeting. Whereas a spear phishing attack focuses on a particular individual or organization and has a specific objective in coaxing information or action from them, phishing is broad-based and hit or miss. Perpetrators of phishing scams will cast a wide net, sending messages out to hundreds or even thousands of potential victims at a time. Their assumption is that, even if only a small percentage of the recipients respond in the desired manner, they can still make substantial gains.
How Does Spear Phishing Work?
To a large extent, spear phishing depends on its success in human nature and psychology. People are naturally inclined to trust individuals and organizations with whom they have had previous dealings. They also tend to sit up and take notice when contacted by a figure of authority.
Spear phishing perpetrators understand this — which is why they go to such great lengths to acquire information relevant to their potential targets, such as their names, preferred nicknames, job positions, recent transactions, and frequently visited websites or online resources. Knowing this enables the attacker to craft messages that the victim will perceive as relevant and to impersonate a sender that their target is familiar with.
Posing as a senior authority figure or influential organization enables spear phishing attackers to create a greater sense of urgency in their requests for data or immediate action on the part of the recipient. Again, they can draw on the natural human tendency to act instinctively without thinking, in the presence of a crisis situation or an “act now, reap great benefits” scenario.
With growing success over the years, attacks have been increasing in sophistication to the extent that modern spear phishing campaigns can be extremely difficult to spot. There’s a large pool of Open Source Intelligence from which attackers can draw information to entice victims into believing their stories. And by the time the victim realizes that they’ve been fooled, they may have given out data that enables the attacker to commit fraud, obtain money, steal a victim’s identity, or even gain access to a corporate network.
How to Protect Yourself Against It?
If you want to know how to stop spear phishing, there are several precautions you can take to prevent a successful attack from occurring. They include:
Limit the amount of personal information you put out on the net. Much of the success in crafting effective spear phishing messages comes from the accuracy of data available on social media, company websites, and other sources. If you keep this information to a minimum, there’s less chance that an attacker can frame a message accurate enough to fool you.
Verify all urgent requests for information or action. Don’t trust the content of the message alone. Contact the sender (or rather, the person the sender is claiming to be) by phone, via Instant Messaging, or other channels, to confirm that they are actually the source of the request.
Use up to date security and anti-phishing software. This can help to block a proportion of the malicious messages circulating on the web. Some systems use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to detect signs of company or brand impersonation.
Have an organization-wide data protection policy. This should include data protection software and systems, plus user education on cybersecurity best practices.
This last point is particularly relevant for businesses and institutions. For organizations, what helps protect them from spear phishing? Cyber awareness. This extends from security awareness and best practices such as strong password management and not clicking on links or attachments in email messages to formalized training, incident response and reporting mechanisms, and attack simulation exercises.
What is a Spear Phishing Simulation?
A spear phishing simulation is a realistic but non-malicious attack staged by IT security professionals, intending to assess the vulnerability or resilience of an organization and its employees to spear phishing tactics. It may be considered a form of penetration testing (pentesting), or ethical hacking.
In a typical scenario, the attackers will assemble Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) of a type that would be readily accessible to hackers in the wild. Using this information, they will craft various messages as spear phishing lures for one or more members of the contracting organization. Their degree of success in landing their targets may be taken as a measure of the level of security awareness within the company or institution.
For organizations and their personnel, spear phishing simulations provide an educational and interactive real-time method of demonstrating how well prepared or otherwise they are for encountering and countering real spear phishing assaults.
The results of these exercises can demonstrate the extent to which personal and business data or intellectual property housed within an organization are vulnerable to threats and throw a light on how well-positioned the organization is regarding its regulatory compliance obligations or industry standards. The results can also indicate where interventions such as security awareness training, the installation of security software, and increased data protection methods are needed.
CG Technologies – Expert Cyber Consulting in the GTA
Consult an expert IT professional service if you’re worried about the dangers of spear phishing or would like to stage a simulation to test your corporate resilience. CG Technologies can work with you to educate your staff and help to protect you from cybersecurity threats. To find out more, get in touch with us. | <urn:uuid:64037e9f-851b-4312-9c63-05a3d1a0f3f0> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.cgtechnologies.com/security/spear-phishing-attacks-do-you-know-what-to-look-for/ | 2024-09-17T17:39:49Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651829.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917172631-20240917202631-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.933675 | 1,780 | 3.125 | 3 |
How is RBAC different from ABAC and ACL?
RBAC differs from attribute-based access control (ABAC) because it’s based on employee roles rather than user characteristics, such as environment, action types, and more. ABAC attributes tend to fall into four categories: subject, action, object, and contextual. These attributes cover things like age, clearance, and department as well as the action being taken, the object being accessed, and other relevant environmental attributes.
ACL, or access-control list, technology is a user-specific list of permissions that determines which users have access to specific files, systems, processes, and resources. An ACL also determines which actions that user can take. Unlike RBAC, which clusters users together and determines access privilege based on their role, ACL is done at the user and resource level. Typically, ACL works better for individual users while RBAC works better on a company level. | <urn:uuid:8153bce1-8a68-40f0-bac5-d9edd9467aff> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.lumos.com/guide-rbac | 2024-09-17T19:55:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651829.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917172631-20240917202631-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.948246 | 190 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Mon, Aug 5, 2024
The concept of Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) has gained serious traction in recent years, emerging as a critical element of software security frameworks. SBOM refers to a comprehensive inventory of all the components and dependencies, or the software supply chain, that make up a software application.
The influence of SBOM on modern software and application security programs is so compelling that government organizations like the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have dedicated entire web properties to the concept. This focus is also apparent in recent government legislation and presidential executive orders targeting “secure by design” software and other facets of cybersecurity.
The growing importance of SBOM lies in its capacity to enhance software security by enabling organizations to identify and address potential vulnerabilities and risks, especially with open-source or third-party libraries. By gaining a clear understanding of the software's composition, developers and security teams can effectively manage and mitigate security threats. SBOM allows for better vulnerability management, as it enables organizations to track and monitor the security of each component throughout the software development lifecycle (SDLC).
Software Bill of Materials (SBOM) is a comprehensive inventory that lists all the components and dependencies of a software application. It provides a detailed breakdown of the software's building blocks, including open-source libraries, frameworks and third-party modules used in its development. By documenting these components, SBOM helps organizations to understand the software's composition and potential vulnerabilities.
This proactive approach supports the prompt identification and mitigation of vulnerabilities, thereby reducing the risk of security breaches and ensuring the software's overall integrity. As software supply chains become more complex, SBOM plays a crucial role in ensuring transparency, accountability and trust in software development and deployment processes.
The components of a SBOM typically include information such as the component's name, version and origin. It also includes details about any known security vulnerabilities associated with each component. This is critical information for enabling software developers and security teams to accurately assess potential risks and take appropriate measures to mitigate them. An SBOM may also include licensing information, which helps organizations ensure compliance with open-source licenses and avoid legal issues.
SBOM has a critical role to play in software security. First, it enables organizations to proactively identify and address vulnerabilities in their software applications. By having a clear understanding of the software's components, developers can quickly assess if any known vulnerabilities exist and take necessary actions, such as applying patches or updates. This helps to reduce the risk of security breaches and ensure that software is built on a solid foundation.
Furthermore, SBOM also plays a crucial role in supply chain security. Software developers must carefully consider how updates and modifications may affect the software's functionality and stability, including any changes to essential third-party components. SBOM allows organizations to trace the origin of each component and assess the security practices followed by suppliers. This transparency helps in making informed decisions about the trustworthiness of the components and selecting reliable vendors.
Another benefit of SBOM is that it assists in vulnerability management and incident response by providing a comprehensive view of the software's ecosystem, making it easier to identify and address specific security issues promptly. Overall, SBOM enhances software security by promoting transparency, enabling risk assessment and facilitating effective vulnerability management.
The proactive evaluation of software changes is essential for ensuring reliability and security. By continuously assessing and adapting to evolving components, developers can reduce risks, enhance performance and deliver high-quality solutions.
Given the reach and complexity of SBOM in the development cycle, there are a variety of SBOM best practices to consider when starting a program. Many of these best practices focus on the people and processes supporting the program.
One effective strategic approach for integrating SBOM within development cycles is to establish a dedicated team responsible for following SBOM best practices . This team, sometimes referred to as a “security champions team,” can consist of individuals with expertise in software development, security and compliance. By putting a security-focused team like this in place, organizations can ensure that SBOM is given the necessary attention and resources throughout the development process.
Another approach is to incorporate SBOM best practices into the organization's SDLC . This can be achieved by integrating SBOM generation and management tasks into existing development tools and processes. For example, organizations can leverage automated tools capable of generating SBOMs based on the software components used in the development process. By making SBOM generation a part of the SDLC, organizations can ensure that it becomes standard practice and is not overlooked.
Organizations can also enhance security and compliance by fostering collaboration between development teams and security/compliance teams. This can be achieved through regular meetings, workshops and training sessions, where developers can gain a better understanding of security and compliance requirements. By involving developers early in the process, they can proactively address and incorporate security and compliance issues during the development cycle. This collaboration can also help to identify potential vulnerabilities or noncompliant components early on, reducing the risk of security breaches or noncompliance with relevant industry or legal regulations.
There are clear benefits related to the implementation of SBOM in software development. SBOM has a direct and tangible impact on the transparency and security of an application development program and its software supply chains.
However, it’s important to emphasize that simply having an SBOM in place doesn’t make an application secure. Having an SBOM in place empowers organizations to make informed decisions about application security. Organizations need to be proactive in implementing necessary security measures to mitigate any potential threats and safeguard their applications from security breaches.
Recent legislative measures and executive orders have had a major impact on the requirements and implementation strategies for SBOM. These have been introduced to address the growing concerns around cybersecurity and the need for greater transparency in the software supply chain.
One of the primary ways in which these legislative measures and executive orders have influenced the requirements for SBOM is by mandating its use in certain sectors. For example, in the U.S., the Cybersecurity Executive Order issued in May 2021 requires federal agencies to produce and maintain SBOMs for all software they develop, procure or use. This requirement ensures that there is a clear understanding of software components and dependencies, making it easier to identify and address vulnerabilities or potential risks. It also includes the use of third-party software, extending its application to the many vendors doing business with the U.S. federal government.
In addition to mandating the use of SBOMs, these legislative measures and executive orders have also had an influence on implementation strategies. They have prompted organizations to adopt standardized formats and practices for creating and sharing SBOMs. This standardization ensures consistency and interoperability across different software products and suppliers, making it easier to analyze and compare SBOMs from various sources. These measures have also encouraged collaboration among software developers, suppliers and users to improve the accuracy and cohesiveness of SBOMs, ultimately enhancing the overall security and resilience of software systems.
Take a moment to evaluate your existing software security strategies and explore the potential benefits of incorporating SBOM best practices. By embracing this approach, you can gain valuable insights into the components and dependencies of your software, enabling you to make better-informed decisions about security measures.
Some organizations may choose to adopt SBOM but do so by leveraging an experienced and fully resourced service provider. This can be particularly advantageous for organizations that lack experienced staff or are generally under-resourced. Engaging a service provider with a strong track record of helping clients implement SBOM practices can also streamline your organization’s approach to both internal security practices and client requirements.
The Application Security “AppSec” services team at Kroll is well-versed in SBOM best practices and can guide your team through the process, ensuring that your software is fortified against potential vulnerabilities. Our extensive appsec expertise allows us to thoroughly analyze your applications, identify potential vulnerabilities and implement robust security measures.
To learn more about our comprehensive application security solutions, we invite you to visit our dedicated AppSec page. This resource provides detailed information about our services, methodologies and success stories, providing an in-depth understanding of how our application security capabilities can benefit your organization and ensure the security of your software. Don't miss out on the opportunity to strengthen your software security strategy—visit our appsec page today.
Incident response, digital forensics, breach notification, managed detection services, penetration testing, cyber assessments and advisory.
Kroll’s product security experts upscale your AppSec program with strategic application security services catered to your team’s culture and needs, merging engineering and security into a nimble unit. | <urn:uuid:b42bb73a-900a-4800-882b-b454c3e9ac4a> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.kroll.com/en/insights/publications/cyber/software-bill-of-materials-best-security-practices | 2024-09-19T01:42:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651944.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918233405-20240919023405-00262.warc.gz | en | 0.941576 | 1,752 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Semiconductor chip manufacturing in the US is in a critical place as the country pours billions into domestic chip production to ease the burden of dependence on importing chips from Asian markets.
This is the US’ biggest push into industrial policy since World War II. However one crucial asset to succeed in domestic semiconductor ship manufacturing is lacking: a skilled labor force. As manufacturers make big pledges to help the US in this endeavor, a shortage of employees from engineers to electricians to pipe fitters is slowing down progress of building microchip fabrication plants—or fabs—before semiconductor manufacturing can begin.
According to Bloomberg, unemployment in the US is at the lowest it has been in more than half a century, while the number of job openings is near an all-time high. The deficit of available US based workers could cause a new wave of offshoring jobs, which is what the Chips and Science Act of 2022 from the Biden-Harris Administration is meant to prevent.
The growing talent shortage
In a study on the 2023 semiconductor industry outlook, in2021, the semiconductor workforce was estimated at more than two million worldwide, but the workforce will need to grow by more than one million additional skilled workers by 2030.
If the US focuses on meeting domestic demand for critical semiconductor applications, another report found that the US will need between 18 and 20 additional fabrication facilities staffed by 70,000 to 90,000 highly skilled personnel.
Micron Technology, a memory and storage solutions producer, is planning to invest $100 billion for a semiconductor manufacturing campus in Clay, New York and is scheduled to start construction next year. A major problem, however, is the lack of skilled workers in the area. Even the nearby Syracuse University might not be able to provide a big enough pipeline for workers to stay in an area with a declining population.
“They’re looking for engineers—lots of different engineers—and so these are folks that are going to have to have a college degree in engineering and there’s going to be various types of engineers that they’re going to be looking for,” said Wall Street Journal reporter Joseph De Avila.
De Avila says that Micron is working with different training centers to try and assist with workforce development. Companies have recently been establishing programs or partnerships to help address skills gaps in the technology field, beyond just semiconductor production. Overall, there’s going to be a 20% increase in demand for engineers over the next five years across the US, according to the Journal.
Remediating the issue
When seeking a solution for closing the skills gap, organizations have begun looking into various training programs and best practices. Investing in programs that promote diversity and provide opportunities for marginalized groups is one way for organizations to close the gap.
Traditionally, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields have been dominated by men, but in recent years this has shifted to be more inclusive and has opened up more opportunities to fill positions of need.
HCLTech CEO and Managing Director C. Vijayakumar notes that gender diversity is a key strategic priority and that it needs to be integral to the strategy of the company.
“Gender diversity must be viewed as a very important tool to make significant progress in business,” Vijayakumar said, adding that HCLTech has increased its percentage of women in the workforce from 23-24% six or seven years ago to more than 30% today.
Vijayakumar also stated that it’s not enough to simply hire more women, rather there must be a conscious effort to hire women in important roles and functions.
Along with HCLTech’s Women Lead Mentorship Program, the company also provides other programs to increase diversity in IT roles and up skill workers, including the Find Your Spark internship program and HCLTech’s TechBee Early Career Program. | <urn:uuid:a3147b46-36e6-440e-8aaf-0047a9fc0fc9> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.hcltech.com/trends-and-insights/semiconductor-manufacturing-impacted-lack-skilled-workers | 2024-09-20T06:27:57Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652138.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920054402-20240920084402-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.959852 | 805 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Viruses, spyware, and malware – it’s no secret that all three are problematic, but few people can actually tell these hazards apart. A little knowledge could benefit us all; the more we know about these threats, the better we can arm ourselves and keep them at bay.
Keep reading to learn how to identify computer viruses, spyware, or malware, and how you can best prevent a computer virus or remove computer malware if your machine has been affected.
Defining Viruses, Malware, and Spyware
While viruses, spyware, and malware hold several commonalities, their differences are worth examining. Many threats can be accurately categorized as both viruses and malware. However, some attacks can be defined as malware without meeting the criteria for a virus.
What is A Computer Malware?
Malware is an umbrella term used to identify a myriad of threats involving malicious code. These may include:
What is A Computer Virus?
Technically, viruses are malware – they are, by their very nature, malicious and unwanted. Unlike some forms of malware, however, computer viruses are designed to replicate and spread. This makes them uniquely threatening, as the effects of a single attack can prove especially pronounced.
What is Computer Spyware?
Spyware is also a specific type of malware. As its name implies, it is inherently covert. By sneakily infiltrating devices, spyware is able to steal sensitive data from your personal machine. Depending on the attacker, this information can fuel identify theft or be sold to unauthorized third parties. Spyware victims are rarely aware of the infiltration until long after they’ve been targeted.
How To Protect Your Computer from Malware
Cybercrime is becoming increasingly sophisticated and more difficult to avoid than ever. A report from Cybersecurity Ventures suggests that, on a global scale, cybercrime will cost a shocking $6 billion by 2021. Often, small businesses are most adversely impacted by viruses, spyware, and other malicious behavior.
The good news? Many cybercriminals can be kept at bay through the implementation of a few basic security measures. Not sure where to start? Consider implementing the following computer safety tips.
Step Up Your Computer Password Game
Passwords remain one of the most effective defenses against malware. While many attackers gain access through phishing emails and problematic plug-ins, some prefer brute force attacks, in which they correctly identify both usernames and their attached passwords. To prevent these types of attacks, opt for difficult-to-guess sequences of numbers, letters, and other characters. Avoid complete words, especially if they reference an important part of your life. Rotate passwords regularly and avoid using the same password for multiple accounts.
Identify and Avoid Suspicious Emails
Employees often unleash devastating malware attacks by opening seemingly ordinary emails. The nature of these attacks has changed considerably in recent years. These days, most people know better than to respond to emails from Nigerian princes – but they might fall for man-in-the-middle attacks or other efforts in which hackers disguise themselves as employees or vendors. When in doubt, avoid emails that exhibit the following warning signs:
- Requests for Personal Information (Such as Login Credentials or Banking Data)
- Suspicious or Unexpected Attachments
- Messages Designed to Instill Panic
- Lack of Valid Contact Information in the Email’s Signature
Spam filters can play an integral role in malware prevention. If employees never see suspicious emails, they need not risk accidentally opening them.
Don’t Haphazardly Download Computer Plug-Ins
Plug-in risks continue long after the initial download. Authors sometimes move on to greener pastures, failing to provide the updates that users so desperately need. Assess your existing plug-in situation every few months to ensure that all remain functional and up-to-date. Abandon any plug-ins that fail to stay on top of security concerns with regular code improvements.
Backup Your Data onto an External Hard Drive
Ransomware is another form of malware that involves extortion via blocked access to computer systems. Data backup can provide an element of relief in the event of a ransomware attack. Already equipped with the data you need, you can address threats rationally and without compromising your company’s future. Likewise, if your virus ordeal results in a complete data wipeout, you can take solace in knowing that your key data is perfectly preserved elsewhere.
How NerdsToGo Can Help Prevent & Remove Computer Viruses
While the average computer user may struggle to identify malicious behavior, the NerdsToGo team knows what it takes to keep your devices free of malware, spyware, and viruses. We can help you recover files from a broken computer, remove viruses, or speed up devices mired in spyware.
No matter the nature of your current computer issues, you can depend on NerdsToGo to restore your computer to full functioning condition in a timely manner. In addition to assisting everyday computer users, we also handle commercial malware concerns. Our Nerds can assist you in computer malware removal and data protection for your business. | <urn:uuid:47ead7b2-c123-497a-a2e3-bcb676ee46f4> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.nerdstogo.com/blog/2019/may/the-difference-between-a-computer-virus-spyware-/ | 2024-09-08T03:27:42Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650958.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908020844-20240908050844-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.929602 | 1,049 | 3.203125 | 3 |
December 13, 2022
High-performance computing (HPC) is entering a new era, which is characterized by customer needs for power efficiency in advanced computing, greater accessibility to the technology, and partnerships on artificial intelligence projects.
Three key trends come into focus as a result:
Exascale computing, which drives high-performance computing to a new threshold of performance and power efficiency
Artificial intelligence, which is converging with HPC to help solve some of the toughest problems facing humanity such as climate change
High Performance Computing as a Service (HPCaaS), which opens up HPC to a new audience
These trends are going to define the potential of HPC through this decade and beyond. When it comes to the biggest problems facing humanity, from disease to climate change to weather prediction, HPC is working hand-in-hand with AI to provide solutions.
Why exascale computing matters
Exascale computing refers to systems that can perform a quintillion − 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 − calculations per second. It has been widely hailed as heralding a new age in HPC, allowing scientists to achieve ever greater insights, such as modelling the climate and understanding the human brain more efficiently than ever before.
Exascale computing focuses on efficiency − how to squeeze the best possible performance at the very boundaries of the laws of physics. But a major challenge is its energy use and issues of sustainability that require efficient cooling systems for better reliability and performance.
The best solution is through ‘exascale to everyscale,’ where breakthroughs from exascale computing would cascade down into other levels of HPC. Most businesses do not need an exascale system costing hundreds of millions, but can still extract value at petascale, for example (a mere 1,000,000,000,000,000 calculations per second).
Why HPC is built for AI
When it comes to cutting-edge research, there is a convergence between AI and HPC; the two technologies work symbiotically a lot of the time. One of the main HPC uses is for training AI models, which has seen demand for compute power soar. There also is a crossover where AI is deployed in a traditional HPC workflow to make the research more productive.
Powered by HPC, AI and machine learning (ML) are helping researchers to deal with some of the biggest problems humanity faces. From discovering ways to feed the global population in the coming decades to diagnosing sight-threatening retinal disorders, HPC systems are offering universities and global companies the computing horsepower to drive cutting-edge AI and ML research.
For example, research powered by AI and HPC is solving the problem of reduced food yields caused by climate change. Food crop yields are already falling and global food production will have to increase by 50% to keep up with increasing demand as populations grow.
The end result is that humanity needs new, more efficient ways to grow food. HPC will be central to solving this problem, using powerful, efficient computing infrastructure aligned with AI to crunch enormous amounts of data harvested from sources such as satellite imagery, weather reports and even sensors in fields to boost crop production.
In medicine, AI powered by HPC could open up a whole new way of treating illness, delivering the insights required to tailor treatments genetically to each individual patient. ‘Personalized medicine’ is predicted to reshape the way we treat illness, but unlocking its potential requires an enormous amount of computing power.
Genomics optimization that relies on super-powerful HPC resources has accelerated the sequencing of the human genome from more than 150 hours to just 18 minutes, bringing the dawn of personalized medicine within reach.
HPC as a service
Just as in most other areas of computing, ‘as a service’ models are changing the way HPC is consumed and making it more accessible to researchers around the world. Cloud-based HPC is its fastest-growing area, allowing organizations to rapidly add additional capacity.
With HPCaaS, customers can pay monthly with a very minimal capital investment, reducing total cost by eliminating over-provisioning. Customers are able to get the best and newest tech in HPC, refreshing it when it becomes obsolete.
Making the world better
All three trends combined mean HPC can make the world a better place: The sheer power of exascale computing provides new breakthroughs to empower the discoveries of the future, AI provides the intelligence and analytics to yield superior insights, and ‘as a service’ models will offer greater economic access to this technology than ever before.
It is an exciting time for HPC.
About the Author
You May Also Like | <urn:uuid:59c23518-a6b0-41f4-af3f-eb98808f43c3> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://aibusiness.com/verticals/3-trends-defining-the-future-of-high-performance-computing | 2024-09-09T08:13:55Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651092.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909071529-20240909101529-00262.warc.gz | en | 0.948942 | 963 | 3.140625 | 3 |
How to spot and avoid fake apps
What are fake apps?
Fake apps are apps created by cybercriminals to cause harm to users and their devices. They are designed to resemble legitimate apps but instead carry out malicious activities. These activities include monitoring your activity, installing malware, showing annoying ads, or stealing your personal information.
How do fake apps work?
Fake apps can be distributed in various ways. They can be hosted on third-party app stores or fake app stores. Cybercriminals can even use official app stores to distribute fake apps, despite the security measures in place.
A cybercriminal can register themselves as a developer on any app store, download a legitimate app, and rewrite it using malicious code. Then, they can upload their fake app to the app store.
While Google says it reviews all apps and developers, it is still possible for malicious apps to appear in the Google Play Store. Google constantly removes fake Android apps from the Play Store, including fake antivirus, browsers, and games. While Apple's App Store only allows vetted applications, it is reported to sometimes still host fake apps. From the point of view of the attackers, mobile devices are ideal targets – they travel almost everywhere with their owners, contain details about their private lives and the infections are very difficult to prevent or detect.
Sometimes, fake apps are circulated through social engineering campaigns. For example, scammers may use emails or SMS messages that appear to be from your bank, credit card company, or other brands to trick people into downloading applications that will compromise their data. Sometimes fake apps may pose as a fake Android update or a security update, but clicking on the links may lead to your information being stolen.
There are many third-party app stores – i.e., non-official stores. These have fallen victim to a higher concentration of malicious apps than Google Play or Apple’s App Store.
Types of fake apps
Fake apps fall into two broad categories:
These are fake apps that imitate a real one. They may feature a logo, screenshots, and artwork similar to the app they are trying to copy. The description may be stuffed with keywords that the average user might use when searching for the genuine version of the app. The name may sound similar to the original but contain a changed letter or two.
Sometimes, developers make their apps open source – which means the source code is accessible and can be modified by anyone. Taking an open-source app and repackaging it – for example, by adding ads – is much easier than developing your own app. It isn’t illegal to do so – if an app is open source, then people are free to modify it – but the addition of ads is annoying to the end-user. These types of apps can be challenging to spot.
Fake app threats
While some may be harmless, fake apps are often dangerous apps. Fake app examples include:
Repacked apps often come with ads that the legitimate free version doesn’t have, and your phone might start showing unexpected ads as well.
Billing fraud occurs when fake apps automatically charge purchases to your phone bill without your consent. These could include making collect phone calls, sending premium SMS messages, or making purchases in an app store.
The dangerous app covertly uses the smartphone as a part of a DDoS (distributed denial of service) attack, mining cryptocurrency, or sending spam.
This can take various forms, but a typical example would be a fake app that includes inappropriate content, such as hate speech or violence.
These are dangerous apps that don't contain malicious code but initiate the download of other harmful applications onto your device without your consent.
A fake app may direct you to input your login credentials or go to a website to do that (or infect you via that website). Criminals then steal your login information to use for malicious purposes.
Privilege escalation apps aim to bypass the number of privileges allowed on your device. This results in access to elevated privileges or the disabling of core security functions.
Some fake apps are used to infect your device with ransomware. As a result, your data becomes encrypted and unreadable. To re-gain access to your data, hackers will demand money from you.
Rooting apps contain code that roots the device, typically known as jailbreaking. Not all rooting apps are harmful, and legitimate apps can perform rooting—but genuine apps require user consent and don’t carry out harmful actions against your device.
Spam apps contain code designed to send unsolicited messages to your contacts or involve your device in an email spam campaign.
Spyware apps send personal data to third parties without your consent. Exploited data may include text messages, call logs, contact lists, email records, photos, browser history, your GPS location or data from other apps on your device.
Trojan apps are those that seem harmless, such as a simple game, but secretly perform undesirable actions in the background. They include a benign component that allows the app to function as intended and a hidden harmful component, such as sending premium SMS messages from your device without your knowledge.
How to spot fake apps
Check the reviews:
If an app has a low rating and numerous user complaints, be wary. However, uniformly positive reviews could be a red flag also, since fake app creators often generate fake reviews to trick users into downloading their app. If the reviews sound too good to be true, trust your instincts and look for an alternative instead.
Look out for grammar mistakes:
Legitimate app developers will usually take care to avoid typos and errors in their app descriptions. If you spot grammatical errors in the app description, tread carefully.
Check the number of downloads:
Legitimate apps can have millions or even billions of downloads. If you see a popular app with only several thousand downloads, it could be a fake.
Research the developer:
Google the name of the developer to find out information about them. This will give you a sense of whether they are reputable or not. Sometimes, a counterfeit app may have the same developer name as its original counterparts, with one or two letters changed to trick users into believing they are the real deal. Look closely at the details, especially if there are other reasons to be suspicious.
Check the release date:
When was the app released? If it shows a recent date but with a high number of downloads, it's likely a fake. This is because legitimate apps with high downloads have usually been on the market for a while.
Review the permission agreement:
Read the permissions agreement before you download the app. Fake apps often ask for additional authorizations that are not strictly necessary. This can easily go unnoticed because most people don’t read the fine print.
Check the update frequency:
If an app is updated too frequently, that may point to a significant number of security vulnerabilities.
Check the icon:
Fake apps may display an icon that looks similar to the icon of a real app it is copying. This is often the case with game imitators that mimic popular games. Look closely and don’t be deceived by distorted, lower-quality versions of the real icons.
How to protect yourself from fake apps
If you discover a fake app on your phone, protect yourself by:
- Deleting it
- Restarting your phone
- Running an antivirus
- Reporting the fake app to the relevant app store to protect others
Other steps you can take to protect yourself from fake apps include:
- Think before you download – only choose apps that will be useful to you.
- Be mindful of where you download apps from:
- Go to official app stores where possible.
- If you are looking for a particular app, use a reputable search engine to search for it. The search results should point you to the real one.
- If you are looking for a popular app, visit the developer’s official website and look for a link to it there.
- Always check the app details before you download to filter out fake or malicious apps – look at who the developer is, user reviews, number of downloads, and so on.
- Never click on links with promises that are too good to be true. If you are an Android user and you receive an unexpected SMS, a strange alert or notification, or unusual requests from what may seem to be your bank or another familiar brand, proceed with caution.
- Read the small print and review what permissions are requested by apps you download.
- Familiarize yourself with the security features installed on your mobile devices.
Kaspersky can protect you from all major online threats, including malware, spyware, and trojans. Find out how Kaspersky can help you stay ahead of cybercriminals: | <urn:uuid:c99da1b3-a416-41eb-ba1f-32c3c45558bb> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://me-en.kaspersky.com/resource-center/preemptive-safety/identifying-and-avoiding-fake-apps | 2024-09-09T08:42:31Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651092.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909071529-20240909101529-00262.warc.gz | en | 0.931844 | 1,798 | 3.0625 | 3 |
A data breach is defined as a break in security that leads to the unlawful or accidental destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorised access to or exposure of personal data stored, sent or processed when connected with ‘the provision of a public electronic communication service’.
A data breach can refer to incidents where an individual or group other than the designated data controller acquires access without authorisation to personal data. However, a breach can also take place when unauthorised access is given within an enterprise or institution, or when a data controller’s staff member accidentally deletes or alters a personal data file.
When a data breach occurs in the UK, companies may need to notify the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and any individuals whose personal data has been disclosed during the breach.
When and how to notify the ICO
Businesses suffering a data breach should notify the ICO inside of 24 hours of discovering an incident.
The essential details required by the ICO in the notification include the company name and contact details for the personnel member charged with overseeing the incident. Enterprises affected must also state the estimated date and time of the breach and when it was first detected. Some basic information regarding the breach should be given, including details on the nature of the personal data exposed.
Wherever possible, full details of the breach should be submitted, including how many people are affected and what the long and short-term impact of the disclosure may be on them. Any measures adopted to mitigate these harmful effects and details of customer notifications should also be listed. If such information is not instantly available, it should be included in a second notification within three days of the first completed form. The second notification should include missing details or outline the time frame of when they will be made available.
The breach notification form requiring completion is available from the ICO website and supporting documents can be attached.
When and how to notify impacted individuals
If a breach might negatively affect an individual’s personal data, they must be notified quickly without delay.
Those impacted should be informed of your company name along with how to contact you. They should also be given an estimated date for the incident and a summary of the breach, including what kind of personal data was exposed and the potential negative effects associated with this occurring. You should state what steps have been taken to address the incident and how they can personally avoid any potentially adverse effects.
Safeguarding data against a breach
If a company can demonstrate effectively that the personal data involved in a breach was made unintelligible by a security measure, such as encryption, the ICO states that individuals involved do not need to be notified of an incident.
At Galaxkey, we have built a secure platform complete with a powerful encryption option. Using a cutting-edge three-layer encryption that is easy for users to employ, we can ensure the personal data you retain is always safe from prying eyes, whether it is being sent or stored. Contact us today for a free 14-day trial. | <urn:uuid:56cecdac-895d-4817-8b4e-c103fd3bc19e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.galaxkey.com/blog/correct-notification-process-following-a-data-breach/ | 2024-09-11T20:46:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651400.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911183926-20240911213926-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.946672 | 611 | 2.75 | 3 |
Where do old supercomputers go after the new machines are installed? At Durham University in the UK, they move on to a whole new mission in computational discovery for space science.
Researchers specializing in astrophysics and cosmology, particle physics and nuclear physics at Durham University and from across the UK can now take advantage of an extended HPC service. The DiRAC Data Centric HPC system installed at Durham University has been enhanced by the deployment of COSMA6, a machine with 8,000 Intel Sandy Bridge cores and 4.3 petabytes of storage ‘upcycled’ from another system previously located at the Hartree Centre in Daresbury. This additional resource was needed to maintain the international competitiveness of the research community served by DiRAC for the next 12 months. In recognition of this, DiRAC was able to secure funding from the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) to make use of the generous gift from Hartree and transfer and re-install the system at Durham University.
COSMA6 enables researchers to extend large-scale structure simulations of the evolution of the universe, analyze data from gravitational wave detectors, and simulate the Sun and planets in the solar system. COSMA6 is live and operational from April 2017.
The University’s COSMA6 service, combined with its existing COSMA5 service, now contributes over 14,000 cores to the national computing facility, DiRAC 2.5. DiRAC is a facility for theoretical modeling and HPC-based research in particle physics, nuclear physics, astronomy and cosmology, areas in which the UK is world-leading. Since its launch in 2010 DiRAC has received £29 million in funding from the Government.
The upcycled cores of COSMA6 added to the DiRAC Data Centric system installed at Durham University began life as a HPC machine at The Hartree Centre, Daresbury in 2012, but, as a consequence of upgrades, the Centre no longer had space to house the machine in its data centre. The staff of the Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) at Durham University worked with HPC, storage and data analytics integrator OCF, and the specialist server relocation and data centre migration specialist Technimove to dismantle, transport, and rebuild the HPC machine at its new home.
We had a very similar setup to The Hartree Centre; we had an IBM machine as did they; both of our older systems arrived in the UK within a day of each other in April 2012; we have a new machine room in Durham so we had the space, cooling and power and we also needed the cores to help boost our contribution to the national DiRAC system,” explains Lydia Heck, Technical Director at the Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) based at Durham University.
The rebuilding of the machine and its integration into the current DiRAC systems was an excellent example of collaboration between the customer and the IT partners. As half of the storage runs on DDN’s own Lustre parallel filesystem, Exascaler, and the other half on Intel’s Enteprise Lustre, the storage elements had to be installed in three racks that were re-cabled by OCF (and supported by DDN), and three re-cabled, and supported by the University. This complex integration of the different storage elements has been successful and the users see a seamless storage service.
Heck continues: “While it was quite an effort to bring it to its current state, as it is the same architecture and the same network layout as our previous system, we expect this to run very well.
The new HPC system at Durham University is a testament to the skills of all involved in the project who were able to re-install a second hand cluster, add to it new RAM memory and design a solution that will prove invaluable to the research community”, comments Julian Fielden, Managing Director of OCF. “We have a long history of working with Durham University so we’re really pleased to have been involved in such a unique project.” | <urn:uuid:42956dea-f391-424e-a607-34e105aa12c8> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://insidehpc.com/2017/08/upcycled-cosma6-supercomputer-finds-new-life-durham-university/ | 2024-09-14T03:01:57Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651548.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914025441-20240914055441-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.96086 | 852 | 2.609375 | 3 |
API architecture is really a natural evolution of early service oriented architectures that came to prominence in the last ten or fifteen years. It retains the basic concept of some sort of ‘back-end’ business service that can be driven externally, but the API approach carries the independence of the service consumer further. Previous approaches depended on relatively technical and complex programming to invoke a back-end or legacy service, making it something that was normally done in-house, within the same company boundaries as the business services themselves.
By contrast, in the API world, while the building blocks for the services are still provided by the business service owner, the consumers of those services are often components built by third party developers, possibly with specific device expertise for example, with the invocation often being as simple as a call to a URL. Since they are easier to use, developers can go to an online marketplace to view available business services and build them in to the solutions they are providing. The API approach has much less restrictive skills requirements and offers greater opportunities for flexibility and innovation.
However, even the simpler and more flexible API approach has specific challenges that must be addressed. For example, once the service request has been passed to the service provider, the service provider still needs to handle all the necessary activities such as managing security, controlling traffic volumes, orchestrating the legacy components to deliver the requested service and delivering the results. These are just the practical challenges of course; there are also the usual challenges around what functionality a company is prepared to expose externally and to whom, and how to keep any external activities from interfering with internal systems of record.
An API architecture is therefore an essential requirement for successful, enterprise-class API enablement, and this is particularly important for core systems users who rely on their enterprise-class reliability, scalability, security and performance. It is worth spending a few moments considering what types of functionality and supporting activities will be required to deliver a successful API deployment. These include:
- Support for a wide range of delivery channels (e.g. phone Apps, IoT chips)
- An environment to attract and enable API-based solution developers
- An API middleware layer to make desired and authorized business functionality available to API consumers safely and reliably
- Strategy and planning activities to make the optimal set of APIs available
- Governance activities to manage partner involvement and to ensure business cases are met
The diagram below illustrates the make-up of a generalized API architecture; the specifics of a core systems API architecture are discussed later.
Why API-enable your legacy systems? The reality is that API-enabling is becoming a key topic for most major companies – indeed, IBM itself now places the API model firmly in the core systems world as an important and relevant development.
There are a number of reasons for the appeal of the API model to legacy systems-oriented companies. The benefits that attract these companies can be summarized as:
- Improved return on assets
- Wider and deeper market reach
- Faster time-to-market / increased agility
- Opportunities for new revenue streams
- Mitigation of disintermediation
The first point has already been touched upon. Over the years, companies have invested heavily in their core systems environments, and financial executives in particular are keen to ensure that these investments bring the maximum possible returns. But legacy system assets in general are fairly difficult to access from the outside. There are connectivity issues, syntactic and semantic issues at the invocation level, and a huge skills chasm between core systems and other IT staff. An API approach offers a way to overcome these issues. It addresses the connectivity and invocation problems, and cunningly bridges the skills chasm by enabling each skills group to concentrate on developing services. This is a key point – instead of telling a COBOL programmer that he has to work with OAuth and JSON, or a phone App developer that she must work with COBOL, each person is enabled to develop in his or her own environment.
One of the main reasons for creating APIs is to make them available to solution developers working in modern delivery environments. By enabling these developers to rapidly build new solutions that bring business to the company through APIs, innovation is greatly accelerated. Whether the work is done by third party developers or inhouse departments, new solutions can be quickly brought on line, delivering new channels and ways for customers to buy. New revenue streams may be created by offering an innovative new solution to customers and consumers and companies can respond much more quickly to both new opportunities and threats.
It is even possible that an API approach can mitigate the threat of disintermediation. By providing APIs to drive business activities as close as possible to the buyer, it reduces the risk of some other party getting into the gap and cutting the provider out.
-Steve Craggs, Lustratus Research
Want to find out more about API integration? Download the complete ebook from Lustratus Research. | <urn:uuid:97e850ed-2bcc-4eaa-8764-e2b3306bf99c> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.adaptigent.com/blog/implementing-api-architecture/ | 2024-09-15T09:42:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651622.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915084859-20240915114859-00662.warc.gz | en | 0.95223 | 999 | 2.59375 | 3 |
“Imagine this – your computer is running smoothly, and suddenly it starts acting up, slowing down, or displaying weird pop-ups. You might be thinking that it’s just a minor issue that can be fixed with some troubleshooting. But what if I told you that these symptoms could indicate the presence of a Trojan horse malware on your computer? In this blog post, we’ll dive into the world of malicious software and help you understand what Trojan horses are all about and how they can wreak havoc on your digital life.”
What is a Trojan horse?
A Trojan horse is a type of malware that tricks users into thinking it is a harmless application or file, when in reality it is a malicious program that can cause significant damage to a computer. Once installed on a system, a Trojan horse can be used to steal sensitive information, install additional malware, or allow an attacker to gain remote access to the victim’s machine. Trojans are often spread via email attachments or by downloading pirated software from untrustworthy websites.
How do Trojan horses work?
Trojan horses are malicious computer programs that pose as legitimate software in order to trick users into downloading and install them. Once installed, they can provide attackers with access to the victim’s computer system. There are many different ways that Trojan horses can work, but they all involve some form of deception to get the victim to download and install the malware.
One common tactic is to distribute Trojan horses through email attachments. The attacker will send an email appearing to be from a trusted source, such as a friend or a legitimate company, with an attachment that contains the Trojan horse. When the victim clicks on the attachment, the Trojan horse is downloaded and installed without their knowledge. Another common method is to host the Trojan horse on a website and trick victims into downloading it by disguising it as something else, like a free game or a piece of software. Once again, when the victim runs the program, the Trojan horse is installed on their computer without their knowledge.
Once installed, Trojan horses can give attackers complete control over the victim’s computer system. They can be used to steal sensitive information, like passwords and financial data, or destroy files and cause other damage. In some cases, they can even be used to create a backdoor into the victim’s system that allows attackers to remotely access and control it.
Trojan horses are extremely dangerous and can have devastating consequences for both individuals and businesses. It’s important to be aware of how they work and take steps to protect yourself from them
The destructive impact of Trojan horses
A Trojan horse is a type of malware that is designed to look like a legitimate program or file in order to trick users into downloading and installing it. Once installed, a Trojan horse can give hackers access to your computer, which they can use to steal personal information or damage your system.
Trojan horses are often spread through email attachments or links to malicious websites. They can also be disguised as harmless-looking programs that you download from the Internet. When you run these programs, they may seem to work normally but behind the scenes they are secretly stealing your data or damaging your system.
The destructive impact of Trojan horses can be severe. They can give hackers access to your personal information, such as your passwords, financial data, and social media accounts. They can also damage your system by deleting files, corrupting data, or slowing down your computer. In some cases, Trojan horses can even allow hackers to take control of your computer and use it to launch attacks against other computers or networks.
If you suspect that you have downloaded a Trojan horse, it is important to take action immediately. Run a security scan on your computer using an anti-malware program and remove any malicious files that are found. You should also change any passwords that may have been compromised and update your security software to protect against future attacks.
How to protect your computer from Trojan horses
A Trojan horse is a type of malware that is designed to look like a legitimate application or file in order to trick users into downloading and installing it. Once installed on a victim’s computer, a Trojan horse can give an attacker complete control over the victim’s machine.
Trojan horses are typically spread via email attachments or files shared on social networking sites. They may also be bundled with pirated software or other illegal downloads. When unsuspecting users install these infected files, they unknowingly give attackers access to their computers.
Once installed, a Trojan horse can perform a variety of malicious activities, such as stealing personal information, deleting files, or even taking control of the victim’s entire computer. In some cases, Trojan horses can be used to create botnets – networks of computers that can be used to launch distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks or spam campaigns.
Fortunately, there are steps you can take to protect your computer from Trojan horses and other malware infections:
Install and update anti-virus software: Anti-virus software can detect and remove most malware infections, including Trojan horses. Be sure to keep your anti-virus software up-to-date with the latest definitions in order to maximize its effectiveness.
Don’t open email attachments from unknown senders: Email attachments are one of the most common ways that Trojan horses are spread. If you receive an email attachment from an unknown sender, do not open it. Delete the
Trojan horses can be a very destructive force for computers and it is important to take the necessary steps to protect your system against these malicious programs. By understanding how they work, you can implement firewalls, antivirus software and other security measures in order to keep your data safe. Additionally, being aware of Trojan horse activity on the web and conducting regular scans of your computer are also essential parts of staying protected from this type of cyber attack. | <urn:uuid:9edd6a2f-5b0a-4df4-8f44-7ea97dacb446> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://cybersguards.com/what-is-a-trojan-horse-in-computers/ | 2024-09-16T15:01:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651697.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916144317-20240916174317-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.940331 | 1,202 | 2.90625 | 3 |
A Virtual Local Area Network or VLAN is a way of partitioning computers on a network into cluster groups that serve a common business purpose. The LAN part indicates that we are partitioning physical hardware while the virtual part indicates we are using logic to accomplish it. In this article, we will see how you can create a VLAN and then configure it to allow data packets from another VLAN to cross over into it.
Note: while we have tried to make the whole exercise of setting up a VLAN as simple as possible, it is assumed that you, the reader, have a basic grasp of network configuration. We also assume that you have a working knowledge of the concepts, and purposes, of IP addresses, gateways, switches, and routers. In addition, you also need to know about navigating the interface and sub-interface configuration procedures on computers and networking devices.
Step-by-step – How to set up a VLAN
The best way to learn how to set up a VLAN – apart from going to networking school – is to actually do it in a practical exercise. And since we don’t all have routers and switches lying about, it would make sense to create our VLAN in a simulated environment.
Using Cisco Packet Tracer for VLAN Configuration
In this example, we will be using Cisco Packet Tracer to demonstrate how to set up our VLAN. It is one of the easiest, and most realistic, tools to use and allows for both GUI and CLI interfaces. This way you can see the commands that are being executed in real-time even though you are simply clicking and drag-and-dropping as you go about your configuration.
Downloading and Accessing the Tool
The tool can be downloaded, set up, and verified (by opening a learning account at Cisco Networking Academy). Don’t worry; you can simply sign up for the FREE Cisco Packet Tracer Course in order to gain full access to the design tool.
Also, and apart from the ease-of-use, with Cisco being the market leader, we think this is the appropriate choice to demonstrate how to set up a VLAN.
Alternative Tools for VLAN Configuration
Of course, you can use any other similar tool – because the concept remains the same. A quick online search will show you there are applications – desktop as well browser-based – for every brand of network interface devices out there. Find and work with the one you are most comfortable with.
Understanding the Router-on-a-Stick Configuration
While there are many ways of setting up a VLAN or inter-VLAN, the architecture we will be creating will be making use of what is known as a Cisco Router on a Stick configuration.
Physical and Logical Connections
In this network configuration, our router will have a single physical or logical connection to our network. This router will help bridge the two VLANs – that cannot communicate with one another – by connecting to our switch via a single cable.
Data Packet Journey
Here’s how it works: data packets that are sent out from a computer in the Accounting VLAN – and intended for a computer in the Logistics VLAN – will travel to the switch. The switch, upon recognizing the packets need to cross over to another VLAN, will forward the traffic to the router.
The router, meanwhile, will have one physical interface (a network cable, in our example) that has been split into two logical sub-interfaces. The sub-interfaces will each be authorized to access one VLAN.
Packet Forwarding Mechanism
When the data packets arrive at the router, they will be forwarded to the correct VLAN via the authorized sub-interface and then arrive at their intended destination.
Our Router on a Stick VLAN setup, with inter-VLAN capabilities, will look like this:
Planning your tasks
The whole task of creating our network architecture will be divided into four main categories where you will:
- Connect all devices to form the correct architecture
- Configure interfaces so all the devices can “talk” to one another
- Create VLANs and assign computers to their respective VLANs
- Confirm correct configuration by demonstrating the computers cannot communicate beyond their VLAN
So, without further ado, let’s start creating our VLAN. Remember, it will initially have a switch and four computers connected to it. You can bring the router into the design later if you choose to do so.
Connect all devices
Drag and drop a switch, a router, and four computers into the main design board. For our demo, we will be using a 2960 switch and a 2911 router. The switch will connect to four computers (PC0, PC1, PC2, and PC3) using copper straight-through wire connections (you will see the description of the hardware and connection types at the very bottom of the Tracer window).
Next, connect the switch to each computer using the FastEthernet ports.
Once all devices are connected you should have all-green traffic flowing between the devices. As the tool tries to emulate devices booting and connecting in the real world, it might take a minute or two. So don’t worry if the data flow indicators remain orange for a few seconds. If your connections and configurations are correct, it will all soon change to green.
To make things easier to grasp, let’s mark the two computers on the left as belonging to the Accounting department (blue) and the other two as belonging to the Logistics departments (red).
Now, let’s start assigning IP addresses so our computers can start communicating with one another. The IP assignments will look like this:
- ACCT PC0 = 192.168.1.10/255.255.255.0
- ACCT PC1 = 192.168.1.20/255.255.255.0
- LOGS PC2 = 192.168.2.10/255.255.255.0
- LOGS PC3 = 192.168.2.20/255.255.255.0
The default gateway for the computers is 192.168.1.1 for the first two in Accounting, and 192.168.2.1 for the last two computers in Logistics. You can access the configuration by going to the Desktop menu and then clicking on the IP Configuration window.
Once you’re there, start filling in the configurations for all the computers:
When you are done, we can now move on to the switch. First, though, we need to remember that there will be two types of ports on our switch:
- Access Ports: these are the ports that will be used to allow everyday devices like computers and servers to connect to it; in our example, these are the FastEthernet 0/1, FastEthernet 1/1, FastEthernet 2/1, and FastEthernet 3/1 – one for each computer.
- Trunk Ports: these are the ports that allow a switch to communicate with another switch – or in our example a VLAN-to-VLAN communication on the same switch (via the router) – to expand the network; we will use the GigaEthernet0/0 ports on both the connectivity devices.
With that in mind, let’s move on to the fun part – configuring the switch to run our VLANs.
Create VLANs and assign computers
So, let’s create the VLANs first – they will be named ACCT (VLAN 10) and LOGS (VLAN 20).
Go to the switch’s CLI to type in the commands:
Switch#config terminal Switch(config)#vlan 10 Switch(config-vlan)#name ACCT Switch(config-vlan)#vlan 20 Switch(config-vlan)#name LOGS
The commands in your CLI should look like this:
Or, if you’re not up to it, you can simply use the GUI to create the VLANs (and still see the commands run as they are being executed below). Go to the Config-VLAN Database menu and ADD the VLANs by entering their numbers (10,20) and names (ACCT, LOGS).
Next, we need to assign each port, which the switch uses to connect the computers, to their respective VLANs.
You can simply choose the interface and then check the box of the corresponding VLAN from the configuration menu on the right:
As you can see from the image above, you can alternatively go into the CLI interface of each port and use the command: switchport access vlan 10 to perform the same task.
Don’t worry; there is a shorter way of doing this in case there are a large number of ports to assign. For example, if you had 14 ports, the command would be:
Switch(config-if)#int range fa0/1-14 Switch(config-if-range)#switchport mode access
The second command makes sure that the switch understands the ports are to be ACCESS ports and not TRUNK ports.
Confirm correct configuration
And that’s it; we have created two VLANs on the same switch. To test it, and confirm our configuration is correct, we can try pinging P1 and P3 from P0. The first ping should be fine while the second one should time out and lose all the packets:
How to set up an inter-VLAN
Rationale Behind Inter-VLAN
Now, although we have divided the computers into two VLANs – as was required – it makes more sense that the two departments (Accounting and Logistics) would need to communicate with one another. This would be the norm in any real-life business environment. After all, logistics couldn’t be purchased or supplied without financial backing, right?
Objective of Inter-VLAN Setup
So, we need to make sure that ACCT and LOGS are able to communicate – even if they are on separate VLANs. This means we need to create an inter-VLAN communication.
Initial Setup Requirements
Here’s how to go about it!
We will need the help of our router; it will act as a bridge between the two VLANS – so, go ahead and add a router to your design if you haven’t already done so.
Router and Switch Configuration
Jumping into the configuration, we must understand that we will use one port on the router for both VLANs’ communication by “splitting” it into two ports. Meanwhile, the switch will only use one TRUNK port to send and receive all communications to, and from, the router.
Sub-Interface Creation and Configuration
So, going back to our router, we will split the GigabitEthernet0/0 interface into GigabitEthernet0/0.10 (for VLAN10) and GigabitEthernet0/0.20 (for VLAN20). We will then use the IEEE 802.1Q standard protocol for interconnecting switches, routers, and for defining VLAN topologies.
Assigning the Sub-Interfaces
Once done, these “sub-interfaces” – as they called – are then assigned to each VLAN that we want to connect or bridge.
Setting IP Addresses for Sub-Interfaces
Finally, remember the gateways – 192.168.1.1 and 192.168.2.1 – we added to the computers’ configurations earlier? Well, these will be the new IP addresses of the split ports or sub-interfaces on the router.
The CLI commands to create the sub-interfaces under the GigabitEthernet0/0 interface would be:
Router (config)#interface GigabitEthernet0/0.10 Router (config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 10 Router (config-subif)#ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
Repeating it all for the second sub-interface and VLAN we get
Router (config)#interface GigabitEthernet0/0.20 Router (config-subif)#encapsulation dot1q 20 Router (config-subif)#ip address 192.168.2.1 255.255.255.0
Once you close the CLI, you can confirm your configuration is correct by simply moving the mouse over the router to see your work, which should look something like this:
Now, we know that we can only connect our sub-interfaces (on the router) to our switch via its trunk port – and so, we will need to create it now.
All you need to do is go in the switch’s GigabitEthernet0/0 configuration and run: switchport mode trunk.
And there you have it; you have just created two VLANs that contain two computers each and which can still communicate with one another. You can prove this by pinging the first Logistics computer (PC2) with IP address 192.168.2.10 from the first Accounting computer (PC0) with the IP address 192.168.1.10:
Why set up a VLAN or inter-VLAN
At this point, some of you may be wondering why we would need to go through this exercise and bother with VLANs or inter-VLANs at all. Well, there are many reasons, some of which are:
- Security Breaking up a network into components ensures that only authorized users and devices can access a sub-network. You wouldn’t want your accountants to interfere with the work of your logistics department or vice versa.
- Safety In case there is a virus outbreak, only one subnet would be affected as the devices on one subnet wouldn’t be able to communicate – and thus transfer – the virus to another one. This way, clean-up procedures would be focused on that one subnet which also makes it easier to identify the culprit machine a lot faster.
- Ensures privacy by isolation If someone wanted to find out about your network’s architecture (with the intent of attacking it), they would use a packet sniffer to map out your layout. With isolated sub-networks, the culprits would only be able to get a partial picture of your network thus denying them critical information about your vulnerabilities, for example.
- Eases network traffic Isolated sub-networks can keep traffic usage down by keeping resource-intensive processes limited to their own scope and not overwhelming the whole network. This means, just because IT is pushing critical updates to the accounting machines, doesn’t mean the logistics department has to face a network slowdown too.
- Traffic prioritization With businesses that have various types of data traffic the sensitive or resource-hogging packets (VoIP, media, and large data transfers, for example) can be assigned to a VLAN with larger broadband while those that only need the network to send out emails can be assigned to a VLAN with lesser bandwidth.
- Scalability When a business needs to scale-up the resources available to its computers it can reassign them to new VLANs. Their administrators simply create a new VLAN and then move the computers into them with ease.
As we can see, VLANs help protect a network while also improving the performance of the data packets that travel around it.
Static VLAN vs Dynamic VLAN
We thought it would be worth mentioning that there are two types of VLANs that available for implementation:
This VLAN design depends on hardware to create the sub-networks. The computers are assigned to a specific port on a switch and plugged right in. If they need to move to another VLAN, the computers are simply unplugged from the old switch and plugged back into the new one.
The problem with this is that anyone can move from one VLAN to another one by simply switching the ports they are connected to. This means administrators would require physical security methods or devices put in place to prevent such unauthorized accesses.
This is the VLAN we have just created in the exercise we did earlier. In this VLAN architecture, we have software VLANs where the administrators simply use logic to assign specific IP or MAC addresses to their respective VLANs.
This means devices can be moved to any part of the business, and as soon as they connect to the network, they return to their pre-assigned VLANs. There is no need for additional configurations.
If there is one drawback with this scenario, it can only be that the business would need to invest in an intelligent switch – a VLAN Management Policy Switch (VMPS) – which can be on the expensive side when compared to the traditional switch used in static VLANs.
It can also be safely assumed here that businesses with a few computers and a smaller IT budget can choose to implement a static VLAN while those with a large number of devices and a need for more efficiency and security would be wise to invest in a dynamic VLAN.
We hope you have found all the information you needed to learn about how to set up a VLAN. We also hope that the exercise was easy to follow and that you can now go on to build upon the knowledge you have gained. Because, even as you continue to scale upwards, these basic steps remain the same – you simply continue to add hardware and configurations to the basics.
What is a VLAN?
A VLAN is a method that makes networks more efficient by reducing the scope of broadcast transmissions to just a section of the network. A broadcast goes to every part of the network, which can create a lot of traffic all over the system, including to areas that will never need to receive that broadcast or respond to it. Effectively, a VLAN divides up a network into sections.
How is a VLAN different from a LAN?
LAN stands for Local Area Network, which is the common name for a typical network inside an office. The virtual LAN (VLAN) creates sections of that LAN, which seem to be separate systems, even though they are actually all connected together. The segmentation of the LAN into VLANs happens at the Data Link Layer (Layer 2), so it is implemented on switches and bridges.
Routers are at the Network Layer (Layer 3). They operate for the entire network but use software techniques to distinguish between VLAN sections. The router can bridge between these sections with inter-VLAN routing.
What are the types of VLAN?
There are five types of VLAN:
- Default VLAN: Switches have settings that can implement VLANs but these are all initially set to VLAN1. As all switches have the same VLAN, there is only one VLAN operating, which effectively means that the technology is disabled.
- Data VLAN: Also known as a user VLAN, this strategy creates two groups: one for users and one for devices. This ill only carry data.
- Voice VLAN: Meant for the office telephone network and implemented with VoIP, this VLAN carries voice traffic. This traffic gets priority over data traffic to ensure a high quality of service.
- Management VLAN: Accesses the management functions of a switch for tasks such as logging, and extracting activity and status data for system monitoring. When other VLANs are set up, the management VLAN should be left as VLAN1.
- Native VLAN: Used for trunk ports that handle traffic from all VLANs, creating a common transmission channel that traffic can be split out of for individual VLANs. | <urn:uuid:4957c1ad-5ff4-462a-ba36-f232fb1719b8> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.comparitech.com/net-admin/how-to-set-up-a-vlan/ | 2024-09-16T15:14:52Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651697.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916144317-20240916174317-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.921788 | 4,125 | 3.3125 | 3 |
In this cloud training tutorial, I’m going to cover the four cloud deployment models as defined by NIST. These are the Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Community Cloud, and Hybrid Cloud deployment models. Scroll down for the video and text tutorial.
This is part of my ‘Practical Introduction to Cloud Computing’ course. Click here to enroll in the complete course for free!Cloud Deployment Models – Public, Private and Hybrid Cloud Video TutorialPublic CloudFirst, the Public Cloud. As NIST defined it, the cloud infrastructure is provisioned for open use by the general public. It may be owned, managed, and operated by a business, academic, or government organization, or a combination of them. It exists on the premises of the cloud provider. Public Cloud ExamplesExamples of public cloud are the well-known cloud providers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM Bluemix is a PaaS example, and Salesforce is a SaaS example. All of these are cloud providers, which sell their services to the general population. Public Cloud is by far the most common deployment model. Private Cloud |
NIST defines Private Cloud as the cloud infrastructure that is provisioned for exclusive use by a single organization comprising multiple consumers. For example, business units. It may be owned, managed, and operated by the organization, a third party, or some combination of them and it may exist on or off premises.
Private Cloud works the same way as Public Cloud, but the services are not provided to external public enterprises. They are provided to the organization’s own internal business units. How is Private Cloud Different than On Prem?There can be a bit of confusion about how is Private Cloud different than on premises then, if it’s just operated for a single company. |
The difference is that Private Cloud fulfills the cloud essential characteristics such as on-demand self-service, rapid elasticity, broad network access, resource pooling, and measured service.
Private Cloud will fulfill all of those characteristics, whereas an on-premises solution does not. The most obvious example with that is with a traditional on premises model, a business unit orders a new server by raising a ticket with the IT department. The server is then provisioned and configured by the server, network, and storage teams as separate manual processes. With Private Cloud, however, a business unit orders a new server typically through a web portal. The server is then automatically provisioned without requiring any manual intervention. |
If you remember the tutorial about on-demand self-service, I showed you about how we could provision a virtual server in AWS, through the web portal.
I configured all the settings that I wanted for my virtual machine. Then, in the background, automation software deployed everything automatically, and the virtual machine was up and running in 15 minutes. With a traditional on premises model, everything would be done manually and it would typically take a week or more to get the server up and running. But just like with Public Cloud, when the business unit provisions a virtual machine, it’s all going to be done in the back end automatically. It will be using automation software, like BMC, CA Technologies, or Cisco UCS Director. There’s a lot of other automation software available and if the company’s big enough, they can even end up developing it themselves. |
Private Cloud is most suitable for large companies where the long term ROI and efficiency gains that you’ll get from the solution can outweigh the initial effort and cost to set up the infrastructure and automated workflows.
A Private Cloud is an expensive solution because the data center is dedicated just for that one customer. All of the infrastructure there is just for one customer, so it’s going to be very expensive to get the data center set up. Also, for everything to be automated, this all needs to be set up ahead of time. That automation software will need to be deployed, all of the workflows will need to be written, and all of the integration between the front end and the back-end components such as the storage, the networking, and the server will all need to be developed and tested as well. It’s expensive and time consuming for Private Clouds to get up and running. But if a company is big enough, they can make long term cost savings from doing this. Private Cloud Examples |
There aren’t many well-known examples of Private Cloud, because companies with Private Cloud don’t usually advertise because it’s private. However, a well-known example is the US Department of Defense on Private Cloud, which is provided by AWS.
Not Really ‘Private Cloud’That’s an example of Private Cloud owned, managed, and operated by a third party, rather than the company that’s using it themselves. I also want to give you some information on something that’s sometimes called ‘Private Cloud’, but it is really not. Public Cloud IaaS providers will sometimes market dedicated servers as Private Cloud because the underlying servers are dedicated for a particular customer. It’s not a true Private Cloud because it is only the servers that are dedicated for the particular customer. The supporting network infrastructure, like the switches, the routers, the firewalls, etc., is shared. This is not a true Private Cloud. For a true Private Cloud, the entire solution is dedicated to a particular customer, not just the servers. Community Cloud |
The next deployment model is Community Cloud. NIST defined this as the cloud infrastructure provisioned for exclusive use by a specific community of consumers from organizations that have shared concerns, such as mission, security requirements, policy, and compliance considerations.
It may be owned, managed, and operated by one or more of the organizations in the community, a third party, or some combination of them. It may exist on or off premises. Community Cloud is similar to a traditional extranet. To give you an example of that, I worked for an oil and gas company before. We had private network connectivity with other oil and gas companies, such as BP and Shell, so that we could share information with each other. Community Cloud is a little bit different than that, it is full shared data center services instead of just network connectivity between the on premise offices. Community Cloud is also the least common deployment model. |
Hybrid CloudThe final model is the Hybrid Cloud. This is defined by NIST as the cloud infrastructure with a composition of two or more distinct cloud infrastructures that remain unique entities, but are bound together by standardized or proprietary technology that enables data and application portability, like cloud bursting for load balancing between clouds. You saw the term cloud bursting, what this is about? Companies with limited Private Cloud infrastructure may cloud burst into Public Cloud for additional capacity when required. For example, I’ve got my own Private Cloud infrastructure at my company and my data center, but I have limited capacity because I’ve got many servers. Now, a way that I could scale is by growing my own Private Cloud. I would have to pay for the hardware for that, which would be expensive. |
A way that I can make it more cost-effective is that, if I’m running out of capacity in my Private Cloud, then I can burst and expand into a Public Cloud. A company could also have a Private Cloud at their main site, and use Public Cloud for their disaster recovery solution.
That’s quite common because building the Private Cloud infrastructure is expensive. If we wanted to double that for a disaster recovery site, that’s going to take the cost even higher. We could bring the cost down by having the main data center as a Private Cloud, and then use Public Cloud for our disaster recovery site. Additional ResourcesPublic Cloud vs Private Cloud vs Hybrid Cloud: What’s The Difference?: https://www.bmc.com/blogs/public-private-hybrid-cloud/ Demystifying Clouds: Private, Public, and Hybrid clouds: https://hub.packtpub.com/cloud-deployment-models-private-public-hybrid/ Cloud Deployment Model: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/computer-science/cloud-deployment-model Text by Libby Teofilo, Technical Writer at www.flackbox.com With a mission to spread network awareness through writing, Libby consistently immerses herself into the unrelenting process of knowledge acquisition and dissemination. If not engrossed in technology, you might see her with a book in one hand and a coffee in the other. | | <urn:uuid:59954de1-9779-4635-bd5d-db5528bf38c5> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.flackbox.com/cloud-deployment-models-public-private-hybrid-cloud | 2024-09-19T05:10:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651981.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919025412-20240919055412-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.943021 | 1,783 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Data protection is a complicated endeavor that can make businesses shudder. This is not surprising, given the constant and exponential increase in data, the difficulty in tracking all of it, along with the various regulatory requirements and standards that organizations need to comply with.
However, there’s no backing off from the issue and it’s best to tackle it head-on. If you’re just getting started, implementing comprehensive data protection will likely require you first to take stock of your data, and classify it according to its importance and status.
These initial steps may seem very difficult and they can be, depending on the amount of data you have. Yet, they will significantly help you determine the best ways to protect the various types of data that you store. That said, here’s what you need to know about how to approach data discovery, data classification, and data protection!
First things first: data discovery
Data discovery is the process of locating and indexing the totality of an organization’s data in all of its forms: structured, semi-structured, and unstructured. It is the first step in the process of data protection because without adequate accounting for the data, it’s impossible to protect it.
This process typically goes through several different stages that can roughly be summarized as:
- Preparing the data: discovery begins by aggregating the organization’s raw data from all possible sources, filtering out the noise, and merging it into usable sets
- Visualizing the data: this step helps in the process of making sense of the different data streams and the relationships between them
- Analyzing the data: in this final step, analytics and reporting tools can be applied to summarize the findings during the discovery process and come to meaningful conclusions and decisions about how to handle the data
Ideally, the discovery process results in a system, such as a systematic data lifecycle approach, that continuously surfaces data and helps, in the long run, to organize and protect it in efficient ways.
Classifying data to determine what measures to take
Technically, discovery and classification frequently occur together, rather than as separate steps. Yet, for the purpose of greater clarity, they are presented as separate here.
Once the process of discovery is complete, you can proceed with classifying the data. This will help you determine what types of data you are working with, and what level of security they require. It will also help you eliminate duplicate versions which can constitute a source of leaks and take up unnecessary storage.
Data can be classified in a number of ways with the three most prominent being:
- Content-based: classifying data according to the type and importance of the content it holds
- Context-based: this classification relies on metadata such as application, location, creator tags, creation and modification dates, and other inputs as ways of determining its status
- User-based: data can also be classified manually by a user who determines how important and sensitive it is, based on what they know about the data
After you have classified data in one of the above ways, the next step is to determine what the effects would be if it were compromised. Accordingly, you can further classify data as public, private, and restricted to denote its importance and the risks associated with it.
Certain types of personal information may be frequently publicly available – such as one’s full name, and are unlikely to carry a great risk if revealed. Other types, such as one’s health records, financial information, or authentication information can cause harm, if revealed, and must therefore be secured with additional measures.
These classifications do not exhaust the process. Once you have ordered your data in the above ways, you can also think about data flows and data use to start narrowing down on the specific protection methods that you should implement.
Moreover, protection is also determined by vulnerabilities and risks that are inherent in how data is handled, rather than simply by the type of data. Data that is stored on-premise will require one type of protection when compared to data that is stored in the cloud.
Finally, data protection is also determined by regulatory requirements that you need to comply with. These will also determine the specific measures you will adopt for one or another set of data.
Protect your data intelligently
According to the 2022 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report payment card data continues to be the most breached type of data, followed by PII, and authentication credentials. At the same time, most breaches are still due to “the human element”, i.e. successful phishing attacks, stolen authentication data, or errors (actually a major factor).
So while data protection is certainly much more complex, there are few security principles that are meaningful to implement and that can significantly reduce the possibility of breaches. These include:
- Implementing a Zero Trust model that requires ongoing validation on the part of users in order to avoid leaving too many doors open
- Introducing an Identity Access Management (IAM) system to assess attempts at accessing your organization’s network in an ongoing way, regardless of the party that wants to access it
- Developing a comprehensive plan for data disposal that regularly either moves disposable data offline or completely disposes of it
- Introducing anonymization or pseudonymization, along with good encryption and tokenization, to obfuscate data and make it harder to decrypt and exploit, in the case of compromise
These are only some of the main data security approaches that make sense for you to consider when planning your data protection strategy. Moreover, if your company does not have the manpower to take care of all of your data protection needs, you can also consider making use of a Virtual Data Protection Officer (DPO) service like the one offered by AMATAS.
A Virtual DPO will allow you to work with a trusted and specialized security partner in protecting your data while not having to hire a whole team for the purpose. They will support you in your data discovery and classification efforts, as well as in picking the best approach toward caretaking your data, based on its status.
Want to know more? Get in touch and let’s discuss your data protection needs! | <urn:uuid:d57ebbbd-c386-4832-8dd7-9b8b00f0dbaa> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://amatas.com/blog/data-protection-how-to-decide-which-types-of-data-to-secure/ | 2024-09-08T07:32:10Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650960.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908052321-20240908082321-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.942464 | 1,265 | 2.953125 | 3 |
have promoted awareness of cybersecurity best practices. CISA acknowledges that cybersecurity is a collaborative effort between private companies, government agencies, and individual citizens. To increase cybersecurity awareness and ensure we all protect ourselves from phishing attempts and other attacks, CISA creates and publishes free resources on its site.
These resources cover everything from key behaviors associated with good digital hygiene so individuals can stay safe online to the latest advancements in data security so each company can protect itself from a devastating data breach. Each year, CISA also assigns a theme for National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. As we celebrate its twentieth year, the theme of this October’s Cyber Security Awareness Month is “Secure Our World: 2023 and Beyond.”
Read on to learn about how the Biden Administration plans to protect our critical infrastructure by investing more in cybersecurity, and how we can all take simple steps to safeguard our sensitive information from bad actors.
Federal Language and Actions Surrounding Cybersecurity
The Biden Administration has doubled down on the cybersecurity efforts of previous presidents and congresses–identifying cybersecurity as a national security priority in light of several high-profile cyber attacks that targeted U.S. infrastructure, businesses, and government agencies. Its proactive and comprehensive approach to cybersecurity recognizes the evolving threats in this landscape and acknowledges the critical importance of securing our nation’s digital infrastructure and assets.
This comprehensive approach involves strengthening international alliances, appointing officials with deep cybersecurity expertise, addressing threats from other nation-states, and amping up infrastructure investment. In May 2021, President Biden also signed an executive order designed to strengthen our federal government’s cybersecurity defenses.
This order includes measures designed to enhance software supply chain security, establish a cybersecurity safety review board, standardize the federal government’s response to cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and improve the detection of cybersecurity vulnerabilities and incidents on federal government networks.
Underscoring The Critical Importance of Enhancing Public-Private Collaboration
Notably, the Administration has also underscored the value of enhancing public-private collaboration. Previous administrations have also supported these partnerships–noting the importance of applying private-sector innovation and advancements to public-sector activities.
For example, consider the CSfC program—which enables the use of commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products in multi-layered solutions that protect classified National Security Systems (NSS) data. In essence, the CSfC program represents a shift in the government’s approach to securing classified data—moving from custom-built, government-specific solutions to flexible, commercial-based, layered solutions that can be deployed rapidly to meet the evolving needs of national security.
The Biden Administration not only acknowledges how the private sector can help protect public sector agencies from cybersecurity threats. It also recognizes that many critical infrastructures are owned and operated by the private sector. As such, the administration has stressed the importance of public-private partnerships in defending against cyber threats. This includes sharing best practices and threat intelligence whenever possible.
This Year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month Theme
The theme for this October is “Secure Our World: 2023 and Beyond.” According to this announcement from CISA, this year’s theme underscores the agency’s commitment to encouraging everyone “to take action each day to protect ourselves” against online threats. Themes for previous years also underscored the growing threat of bad actors in cyberspace and identified cybersecurity as a shared responsibility.
Our Shared Responsibility
The theme for 2018 was “Cybersecurity is Our Shared Responsibility and We All Must Work Together to Improve our Nation’s Cybersecurity.” This theme underscored the collective effort required to ensure a safer cyberspace, emphasizing that every individual and organization has a role to play.
2017’s theme was quite similar. “Our Shared Responsibility” reiterated the idea that everyone must accept their role in protecting data as well as observing appropriate digital hygiene. This includes how we use devices and networks.
Own IT. Secure IT. Protect IT.
The theme for 2019 was “Own IT. Secure IT. Protect IT.” This theme focused on consumer privacy, securing consumer devices, and e-commerce security. It highlighted the importance of taking ownership of one’s digital profile and being proactive in its protection.
The theme for 2020 and 2021 was “Do Your Part. #BeCyberSmart.” Again, this Cybersecurity Awareness Month theme emphasized the role individuals must take in protecting data. It stressed personal accountability and the critical importance of taking proactive steps to enhance cybersecurity.
Last year’s theme was “See Yourself in Cyber.” This emphasizes the fact that seemingly minor daily decisions about how we behave online can have serious consequences. As this resource from the University of Maryland notes, “an organization’s cybersecurity operation is only as strong as its people.” Once again, the Cybersecurity Awareness Month theme points to our shared responsibility and the constant need to raise awareness about this critical issue.
While CISA also seeks to raise awareness of cybersecurity threats and the importance of personal responsibility, it also seeks to empower us in achieving those goals.
To aid in this fight, CISA has released a series of recommendations and resources for everyone seeking to secure online data—thereby preventing identity theft, personally identifiable information, damage to shared infrastructure, and so much more. The importance of staying safe online cannot be understated.
With that said, CISA has identified “four key behaviors” that protect us as we navigate our increasingly complex digital world. It recommends using strong passwords, only visiting trusted internet sites, immediately reporting phishing attempts upon recognition, and updating software whenever prompted. CISA also recommends that all individuals and organizations enable MFA for online accounts—particularly financial accounts.
If each business, organization, and private individual implements these four key behaviors, we can prevent the next cyber incident from devastating our personal lives and the infrastructure upon which we all rely. As noted above, cybersecurity is a collaborative effort.
We must all do our part. | <urn:uuid:8164e932-d3c3-4cab-9499-23332c9031da> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://digistor.com/secure-our-world-cybersecurity-awareness-month-2023/ | 2024-09-13T04:58:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651507.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913034233-20240913064233-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.931898 | 1,246 | 3 | 3 |
Fraud is rampant on funds distributed by the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for the needy, and both state and federal governments are having a hard time mitigating it, according to The Economist.
According to estimates from Haywood Talcove of LexisNexis Risk Solutions, fraudsters could steal up to $20 billion from SNAP over the next six month, which amounts to a fraud rate of 15%. The actual amount of fraud is difficult to measure, as it is often underreported, and the government’s estimates of fraud rates vary widely. The USDA notes a much lower fraud estimate: 0.02%.
“Moving towards contactless payments creates a fully modern process to SNAP programs,” said Jordan Hirschfield, Director of Prepaid at Javelin Strategy & Research. “This combined with utilization of prepaid mobile phone programs establishes a fully universal mobile payment option, inclusive of prepaid debit cards, gift cards and benefit cards, for underserved and unbanked communities wrapped into a mobile wallet.”
There’s no doubt that fraud is increasingly rampant. Fraudsters typically gain access to the funds through phishing, card skimming, and finding customer information on the dark web. Fraud due to phishing and card skimming has become a significant problem in recent years, and the pandemic has only exacerbated the issue as the government distributed even more funds than usual.
Phishing, a tactic used by fraudsters to obtain personal information from individuals by posing as a trustworthy entity in electronic communication, is continuing to increase. This can include emails or messages that encourage people to reveal their account numbers, private identification numbers, and other important data. Once fraudsters have this information, they can use it to steal money from bank accounts or make fraudulent purchases.
Similarly, card skimming, is also evolving. It involves placing illegal gadgets over card readers and other devices to steal account information when someone swipes or inserts their card. This information can then be used to create counterfeit cards or make fraudulent purchases. Criminals can also sell this information on the dark web.
While it may be difficult to target phishing schemes, card skimming can be effectively made a non-issue by moving to contactless payments. A recent article in PaymentsJournal noted that the USDA is piloting contactless prepaid payment systems, which should help. | <urn:uuid:70d607df-c8a5-4edf-a359-10c6fe1ce286> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.akibia.com/state-federal-governments-struggle-with-snap-fraud/ | 2024-09-14T08:37:41Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651559.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914061427-20240914091427-00862.warc.gz | en | 0.938704 | 478 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Efficiencies improve as computing and storage functions move closer to the data source
Living on the edge is more than a top hit from the early 1990s; it’s how businesses maximize operational efficiency and improve performance for essential applications and cellular IoT connectivity. Edge computing solutions transform how data is handled, processed, stored, and ultimately delivered in environments that demand localized computing power to support IoT and real-time functionality. With multiple edges to choose from, businesses can automate their critical operational functions and decrease downtime through a trusted, scalable computing solution.
The nebulous edge: defining edge computing
The word “edge” may imply a strictly defined border, but edge computing refers to a much more indistinct threshold. The computing edge is a cloud-based network architecture that moves computing functions and storage closer to the data source. Without edge computing, companies must leverage computing resources in remote data centers or the cloud.
To illustrate how the edge works, consider a grocery distribution center. Within that center there are hundreds of applications, including a variety of inventory management systems that each process information through a bank of local servers. To stay online, those servers often require an on-site IT team to troubleshoot and provide ongoing performance updates to keep the servers running. Although there’s a significant cost associated with that upkeep, the servers must be housed locally in order to reduce latency.
Edge computing solutions move those application computing functions from local servers to local “edge” data processing capabilities. As a result, businesses experience improved processing speeds, reduced cost of contextual data storage, reduced cost of wide-area network (WAN) data transmission, and a decrease in costly local servers, all while improving transaction resiliency.
The types of enterprise edge computing
From autonomous vehicles and remote monitoring of gas and oil sensors to predictive maintenance and traffic management, 5G IoT applications are built to run on the edge. However, the edge is not a one-size-fits-all technology. When implementing an edge computing solution, there are three primary options to consider.
The Internet edge
Co-located at Internet points of presence (POPs), the Internet edge takes advantage of cloud-based data centers powered by large server environments such as Equinix. The POPs serve as links for the Internet on route to computing services like Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services (AWS) to the cloud.
The Internet edge typically reduces latency to tens of seconds and offers the additional benefits of improved processing speeds for cloud-centric applications, reduced volumes of contextual data storage, and reduced costs of operation.
Remember, because the Internet edge is “outside the firewall,” traffic has to flow through the routing and security stack on the edge router. This induces 1-3 milliseconds of latency right off the bat, before the network transit delay.
The 5G edge
Leveraging towers and remote telecommunication offices, the 5G wireless edge is colocated at cell towers, creating small clouds that are geographically dispersed. With an average latency of only a few seconds, the 5G edge provides the same benefits as the Internet edge, plus it supports end-to-end traffic and lowers costs of WAN data transmission in addition to a reduction of costs associated with operating and maintaining local servers.
Because of its widely distributed connection points, the 5G edge is most useful in environments that are similarly dispersed and require ongoing data collection through sensors. Consider a fast-food restaurant, for example: An average fast-food restaurant has dozens of sensors in each location monitoring grease levels, temperatures, refrigeration, cleanliness, and more. These sensors create a significant amount of chatter that doesn’t necessarily need to be shipped across the WAN. By employing 5G edge solutions close to their locations, a fast-food chain can reduce backhaul and become more efficient while saving money and improving their quality of food and service.
As with the Internet edge, the 5G edge is outside the customer premise firewall and subject to the same 1-3 milliseconds of latency incurred by just traversing the edge router.
The customer edge
The customer edge is an on-premises edge that utilizes specially equipped routers to run dynamic applications in virtual machines or containers. Because this edge is closest to the data source, latency is reduced to mere milliseconds and customers receive all the benefits of the Internet and 5G edges in addition to improved transaction resiliency.
Use cases that require immediate feedback — such as video surveillance and patient monitoring — are best suited for the customer edge. Older connected devices, like the handheld Telxon Terminals, that transmit a significant amount of data in each transaction using the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) will also be the most efficient on this edge.
An added benefit of the customer edge is that virtual edge computing platforms such as Cradlepoint’s NetCloud Service and cellular wireless routers are available in models capable of using containers to run edge applications. These routers are easy to set up, simple to monitor, and highly secure without the need for a separate server. In addition to containers, edge computing can be delivered through custom Python apps or connectors such as Microsoft Azure or AWS.
One of the real benefits of the customer premise model is that the edge computing happens inside the firewall, eliminating the 1-3 millisecond router transit tax.
Final considerations when choosing the best edge for your business
Depending on business requirements and objectives, an enterprise edge computing portfolio may include multiple solutions. Regardless of which edge is selected, it’s important to consider that each solution will have to go through security and Quality of Service (QoS) stacks in the router, which will ultimately add latency. That being said, 5G connectivity provides fiber-fast speed and ultra-low latency, allowing more applications to run at the 5G edge than ever before. | <urn:uuid:792b9783-f8aa-421d-be76-42160f7e9900> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://cradlepoint.com/resources/blog/choosing-the-right-edge-computing-solution-for-your-business/ | 2024-09-15T13:14:05Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651630.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915120545-20240915150545-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.909925 | 1,192 | 2.65625 | 3 |
The future lies in emerging technologies, and the healthcare industry has seen an abundance of innovations meant to improve patient lives, care, and experiences. The evolution of healthcare IT offers both exciting opportunities and daunting challenges, including the need to protect the data generated from these disruptive technologies.
New technologies in healthcare are understandably data heavy. Here, we explore four innovations that impact healthcare data security.
Telemedicine is already transforming the healthcare industry and is rapidly growing in popularity. The use of telemedicine rose from less than 1 million telehealth users in 2013 to over 7 million in 2018. Mobile apps that offer video or phone conferencing with a doctor or nurse are also becoming an increasingly adopted health plan benefit.
In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2023, virtual encounters will exceed face-to-face care delivery encounters, resulting in a dramatic realignment of clinical care and health IT.
Should these virtual systems go down or experience data loss, physical medical facilities might not be able to cope with the patient influx. Ensuring these systems are always available and protecting the data within these apps is critical to guaranteeing the highest quality of service for users.
The Human Genome Project was initiated in 1990 as an international scientific research project to identify and map all the genes of the human genome. Since the conclusion of the 13-year, $2.7 billion project, technological advances allow for faster, less costly genome mapping, which offers insight into variants within each person that cause or contribute to health conditions.
Researchers have found that variations in genomes can “influence if we develop a disease, how that disease progresses, and how we respond to medications.” Scientists use the information from genomic research to prevent and treat disease and ultimately improve health.
With The Human Genome project estimating that humans have between 20,000 and 25,000 genes, the amount of data involved in this space is astronomical. And the importance of protecting that data to ensure it isn’t breached or misused cannot be overstated.
The development of 3-D printing completely revolutionized the healthcare industry with the ability to cost effectively create prosthetics, organs and tissue. And 3-D printing not only helps improve the lives of patients who benefit from custom-made limbs or tissues, it can also help doctors prepare for surgeries by developing printed replicas ahead of procedures.
With so much potential to impact healthcare, the growth of 3-D printing is on the rise. According to the Medical Device Network, “it has been forecast that 3D printing in the medical field will be worth $3.5 billion by 2025, compared to $713.3 million in 2016.”
When it comes to blueprints for 3-D printed prosthetics or organs and the research and documentation on outcomes, the incredible amount of data generated through this transformative innovation must be safeguarded and available to ensure the benefits of 3-D printing are achievable by those who need it most.
Population health management
According to Philips Healthcare, population health management (PHM) “is the aggregation of patient data across multiple health information technology resources, the analysis of that data into a single, actionable patient record, and the actions through which care providers can improve both clinical and financial outcomes.” The definition alone references big data and data analytics. And with all this data being used to meet the ultimate goal of improving patient outcomes by maximizing population health, there comes the need to protect that data and ensure that it is available for its intended purposes.
Meet your data protection needs of tomorrow, today
As the wave of innovation accelerates, it’s more essential than ever that healthcare organizations have an up-to-date data protection solution that is able to support upcoming industry shifts and transformations.
Ensure that data generated by emerging technologies is safeguarded with a trusted data protection solution from Arcserve. Arcserve Unified Data Protection (UDP) offers better data protection for new, data-heavy healthcare technologies. | <urn:uuid:44d2629c-89c3-4b1b-9005-1c786c740c8f> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.arcserve.com/blog/healthcare-data-security-evolution-healthcare-it-four-innovations-impact-data-protection | 2024-09-18T01:40:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651835.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918000844-20240918030844-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.9297 | 812 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Optical interconnect modules, or data links, can simultaneously transmit 250 Mbits/sec over each of 12 parallel channels to a distance of 100 meters over optical fibers. These data links comprise a lightwave transmitter that generates 12 light signals, a lightwave receiver, an optical fiber cable containing 12 optical fibers and relay adapters. The 12 optical parallel channels simultaneously transmit clock, control and parity signals along with 8-bit parallel data. The 3.9-cubic centimeter units consume 200 milliwatts per channel. The transmitter operates at a threshold current of 2 milliamperes. A data link requires +3.3V from a single power supply. Receiver output skew is held to ۫.0 nanosecond. The device`s package is airtight and hermetically sealed with dry nitrogen. | <urn:uuid:aef1471a-b895-43f8-a1f4-799488eba5a6> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.lightwaveonline.com/fttx/cables-enclosures/article/16662103/data-links | 2024-09-09T14:14:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651103.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909134831-20240909164831-00462.warc.gz | en | 0.846302 | 166 | 2.671875 | 3 |
In the past, warfare was a physical affair. Armies clashed on battlefields, navies battled on the seas, and air forces dueled in the skies. But today, a new battlefield has emerged: the digital realm. This is the arena of cyberwarfare.
The Purpose of Cyberwarfare
So, what is the purpose of cyberwarfare? In essence, it’s about gaining strategic advantage. It’s about disrupting, denying, degrading, or deceiving an adversary’s digital capabilities.
Disruption is a key goal. A well-executed cyberattack can disrupt an enemy’s communication networks, crippling their ability to coordinate and respond effectively. Imagine the chaos if a military’s secure communication channels suddenly went dark during a critical operation.
Denial of service is another objective. By overwhelming an adversary’s digital infrastructure with traffic, cyberwarriors can effectively shut down key services. This could range from financial systems to power grids, causing significant disruption and even physical damage.
Degradation is a subtler approach. Rather than outright denial, the aim here is to reduce the effectiveness of an adversary’s systems. This could involve slowing down network speeds, causing systems to crash intermittently, or subtly corrupting data.
Deception is perhaps the most insidious goal. By infiltrating an adversary’s systems, cyberwarriors can manipulate data to mislead the enemy. This could involve altering intelligence reports, sending false orders, or creating phantom units on digital maps. | <urn:uuid:b6484d58-8259-4f4d-9f92-74b398a39703> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://cyberwarzone.com/what-is-the-purpose-of-cyberwarfare/ | 2024-09-10T20:20:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651318.34/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910192923-20240910222923-00362.warc.gz | en | 0.927749 | 314 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) continues to pose a significant global health threat, with the risk of severe health complications, including long COVID. As the world seeks effective strategies to mitigate, cure, or prevent COVID-19, lactoferrin (LF) and its derivative lactoferricin (LFC) have garnered increasing attention for their potential antiviral properties. These glycoproteins have demonstrated promising inhibitory effects against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus responsible for COVID-19.
The primary entry point for SARS-CoV-2 into human cells is the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2). The virus binds to ACE2 through its spike protein (S-protein), specifically the receptor-binding domain (RBD) within the N-terminal subunit (S1) of the S-protein. After attachment, the virus undergoes a priming process, predominantly facilitated by the host transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2). This priming is crucial for the fusion of viral and cellular membranes, enabling the virus to enter the host cell. Once inside, viral RNA is replicated and packaged into new virions. LF and LFC have shown potential in interfering with SARS-CoV-2 at various stages of this pathway.
Human lactoferrin (hLF), also known as lactotransferrin, is a multifunctional glycoprotein found in human milk and other body fluids, as well as in the secondary granules of neutrophils. It is a member of the transferrin family and is known for its antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, antiparasitic, antioxidant, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, and immunomodulatory activities. These activities primarily depend on LF’s ability to sequester iron ions and its potent binding capacity through its positively charged N-terminal region. Lactoferricin, derived from this N-terminal region through pepsin digestion, retains some of LF’s biological activities and exhibits additional functions due to its unique structural properties.
Medical Concept | Simplified Explanation | Relevant Details | Examples/Additional Information |
Coronavirus (COVID-19) | A contagious virus causing respiratory illness, similar to the flu, but often more severe. | Spread through respiratory droplets, causing symptoms like fever, cough, and shortness of breath. | Symptoms can range from mild to severe, and in some cases, it can be fatal. |
Lactoferrin (LF) | A protein found in human milk and other body fluids that helps fight infections. | Has antibacterial, antiviral, and anti-inflammatory properties. | Found in high amounts in colostrum, the first form of breast milk. |
Lactoferricin (LFC) | A smaller piece of lactoferrin with strong antimicrobial effects. | Produced when lactoferrin is broken down by stomach enzymes. | More potent than lactoferrin in fighting infections. |
SARS-CoV-2 | The specific virus that causes COVID-19. | Uses a protein on its surface (spike protein) to enter human cells. | The full name is Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2. |
Spike Protein (S-protein) | A part of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that helps it attach to and enter human cells. | Binds to receptors on human cells to initiate infection. | Target for many vaccines and treatments. |
Angiotensin-Converting Enzyme 2 (ACE2) | A protein on the surface of many human cells that SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter the cells. | Acts as the main entry point for the virus into human cells. | Found in the lungs, heart, blood vessels, and other organs. |
Transmembrane Protease Serine 2 (TMPRSS2) | An enzyme that helps activate the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, enabling the virus to enter cells. | Essential for the virus to fuse with the cell membrane and infect the cell. | Target for some COVID-19 treatments. |
Heparan Sulfate Proteoglycans (HSPGs) | Molecules on cell surfaces that can also help SARS-CoV-2 attach to cells. | Provide an additional route for the virus to bind to and enter cells. | May influence the severity of the infection. |
Viral RNA | The genetic material of SARS-CoV-2, which it uses to replicate inside human cells. | Encodes all the information needed to make new virus particles. | Target for PCR tests used to diagnose COVID-19. |
Iron Sequestration | The process of binding and holding onto iron, which bacteria and viruses need to grow. | Lactoferrin can bind iron, making it unavailable to pathogens and limiting their growth. | Part of the body’s natural defense mechanism against infections. |
Antiviral Properties | The ability of a substance to prevent or treat viral infections. | Lactoferrin and lactoferricin can block viruses from entering cells and replicating. | Includes a wide range of substances, from drugs to natural proteins. |
Antimicrobial Activity | The ability to kill or inhibit the growth of microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi. | Lactoferrin has broad antimicrobial effects due to its ability to bind iron and disrupt cell walls. | Used in medical treatments and food preservation. |
Antioxidant Properties | The ability to neutralize harmful free radicals in the body, which can damage cells and tissues. | Lactoferrin helps protect cells from oxidative stress and inflammation. | Important for maintaining overall health and preventing chronic diseases. |
Immunomodulatory Effects | The ability to modify or regulate one or more immune functions. | Lactoferrin can enhance the immune response to infections and reduce inflammation. | Potential therapeutic uses in autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammation. |
In the context of SARS-CoV-2, LF and LFC are believed to interfere with the virus through multiple mechanisms. These include directly blocking the interaction between the S-protein and heparan sulfate proteoglycans (HSPGs) on target cell membranes, inhibiting virus priming, and hampering RNA replication. Previous studies have shown that synthetic peptide pLF1, derived from the N-terminus of LF, can inhibit the proteolytic activity of serine proteases, such as plasmin, elastase, and TMPRSS2. This inhibition is not observed with the full-length LF, suggesting that the unique conformation of free LFC contributes to this activity. Despite this, both the N-terminal LFC and full-length LF have been shown to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection by about 50%.
Further research has revealed that LF directly binds to the S-protein of SARS-CoV-2, with binding sites mapped to the N-terminal region of LF and the RBD of the S-protein. This binding may explain the observed protective effects of LF and LFC against SARS-CoV-2 infection and suggests that these glycoproteins could serve as cost-effective supplemental tools in managing COVID-19.
LF has been demonstrated to block the cell entry of many viruses, including herpes simplex virus, human immunodeficiency virus, dengue virus, and various coronaviruses. In SARS-CoV-2, LF has been shown to prevent the interaction between the viral S-protein and target cell membranes by binding to HSPG. Human LF, with approximately 700 amino acids and a molecular weight of around 80 kDa, consists of two homologous lobes and a highly positively charged N-terminal region, distinguishing it from other members of the transferrin family.
The synthetic peptide pLF1, derived from LF’s N-terminal region, effectively blocks the binding between the S-protein and target cells. The highly positively charged LFC, released from LF by pepsin cleavage in the gut, contributes to LF’s antimicrobial activity. Structural studies have revealed that the conformation of free N-terminal LFC differs significantly from its structure within intact LF. This unique structure, influenced by the high net positive charge and the position of cationic residues, plays a crucial role in the effectiveness of LF, LFC, and LF-derived peptides in blocking the S-protein of SARS-CoV-2.
Lactoferrins from different species exhibit high homology but may differ in their antiviral potencies due to slight differences in the tertiary structure and charge of their N-termini. For instance, bovine LFC (bLFC) is considered more potent than human LFC (hLFC). Most studies have focused on the antiviral properties of bLFC and hLFC, but limited research has also explored LFC from other species, such as pigs, mice, goats, and camels. Future molecular docking simulations could help identify LFC variants with the highest affinity for the S-protein, enhancing their effectiveness against SARS-CoV-2.
Interestingly, the C-terminal peptide pLF3 also partially blocks the interaction between LF and the S-protein, indicating that both ends of LF are involved in this interaction. The inhibitory effect of LF on SARS-CoV-2 infection appears to depend on its iron saturation state. However, since LFC, pLF1, and pLF3 lack iron-binding capacity, it is likely that iron saturation does not directly influence LF’s binding to the S-protein. Intact LF may block the infection through other mechanisms.
Direct binding between LF and the S-protein of SARS-CoV-2 has been suggested in previous studies. Using a pull-down approach, researchers identified LF binding to various S-protein variants. In silico molecular docking simulations proposed a model structure for this binding, implicating the RBD in the interaction. This model suggests that both the N- and C-lobes of LF are involved in contact with the S-protein. However, these studies used non-glycosylated forms of LF, raising questions about the suggested contact sites, as the corresponding parts of hLF and bLF contain glycosylation sites for relatively long sugar chains.
The antiviral properties of LF and LFC are further supported by their ability to bind to host cell receptors for various viruses. For example, LF binds to receptors for herpes simplex virus, human immunodeficiency virus, dengue virus, and coronaviruses. In the case of SARS-CoV-2, LF’s ability to block the interaction between the S-protein and HSPG on target cell membranes highlights its potential as a supplemental tool in preventing COVID-19 infection.
Overall, the multifunctional properties of LF and its derivative LFC offer promising avenues for mitigating SARS-CoV-2 infection. Their ability to interfere with multiple stages of the viral life cycle, coupled with their broad-spectrum antiviral activities, positions them as valuable candidates for supplemental pharmacological tools in managing COVID-19. Continued research into the molecular mechanisms underlying their antiviral effects, as well as the exploration of LFC variants from different species, could enhance our understanding and utilization of these glycoproteins in the ongoing fight against COVID-19.
reference : https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8247/17/8/1021 | <urn:uuid:101c9824-fef1-4240-8a68-e52898653728> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://debuglies.com/2024/08/05/exploring-the-potential-of-lactoferrin-and-lactoferricin-as-supplemental-tools-in-mitigating-sars-cov-2-infection/ | 2024-09-13T08:19:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651510.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913070112-20240913100112-00162.warc.gz | en | 0.92562 | 2,470 | 2.875 | 3 |
You will often hear people involved in data and analytics described as “data scientists”. But if you meet one, it’s unlikely he or she will be wearing a lab coat. And their office is likely to contain simply a single computer, rather than benches of apparatus and instrumentation. So are they really scientists? Or is it just a “buzz word” job title designed to make them look more intellectually worthy than they are?
Well, a “science” is a field of study in which it is possible to draw conclusions and advance knowledge through a process of theorising, experimenting and analysing results. If you’ve been involved with business analytical projects you’ll recognise that’s generally how they work, too. Therefore, a person collecting and analysing data and using it to increase their knowledge, is a data scientist.
It is a fairly new term – recorded as first being used in 1960 but not coming into widespread use until the 1990s. Before then, the work and study which is now carried out by what we would call a “data scientist” was simply thought of as a branch of statistics, and its practitioners were statisticians.
However during that same time period, another field of academic study rose quickly in popularity and prominence. And students of this other new science – computer science – found that the technologies and techniques they were developing could be merged very effectively with those being developed by statisticians.
This led to a huge increase in the amount of data that can be generated, stored and analysed, as well as the speed of that analysis, and therefore the rate at which knowledge could be generated from data. And the crux of the matter of data science is the extraction of insights from data.
Of course, simplifying matters to that extent, means that anyone simply turning any data into insights is engaged in data science – for example, reading a text book. And, to be honest, they are!
But to really qualify as a scientist, as I mentioned above, you should be putting the information through a rigid and formalised, scientific process, involving identifying a problem that needs solving, theorising how it could be solved, and experimenting using your data to attempt to find a solution. You should also record your results in a standardised way and present them for review and verification to others with knowledge in the field.
This closely reflects the processes carried out every day by professionals with the job title of “data scientist”. In business, the problems will be dictated by commercial goals, and the experimentation will take the form of model-building and simulation. The goal will be to create results that fit the goals, and are also repeatable because we understand exactly how they came to be. Just like a real scientist!
Generally speaking, data science represents the convergence of three previously separate (though closely related) scientific disciplines – statistics, mathematics and computer science.
So, in some ways it’s a patchwork of existing bodies of knowledge and methodologies. But the process of putting them together gives rise to possibilities beyond those offered by any one individual area.
Some still argue that data science is still just an extension of the study of statistics, boosted by better computing power and increased storage, and to be fair, they do have a good point. But as with everything today it’s largely a matter of branding, and “data scientist” certainly sounds sexier in my opinion than “statistician”. Universities and colleges are jumping on the band wagon, increasingly offering courses at undergraduate and post-graduate level titled “Data Science”.
So, there’s my overview of what exactly is meant by the term “data science”, why I feel it deserves the title of “science” (and why its practitioners deserve to be called “scientists”) and why it is so fundamentally important to this new 4th industrial revolution.
For more, check out these articles:
The 9 Best Free Online Big Data And Data Science Courses
The 6 Key Data Science Skills Every Business Needs Today
The 6 Best Data Science Master’s Degree Courses In The US
Forget Data Scientists And Hire A Data Translator Instead? | <urn:uuid:01d54220-eb6c-4320-adf5-768a607b1f9d> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://bernardmarr.com/what-really-is-data-science-a-super-simple-explanation-for-anyone/ | 2024-09-16T23:29:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651714.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916212424-20240917002424-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.963541 | 877 | 3.09375 | 3 |
If you have never heard of broadband over power lines it is probably because it represents the next generation of high speed broadband Internet connectivity. Broadband over power lines is also known as BPL and is currently available in only a handful of locations.
BPL offers the possibility to achieve high speed Internet service through an electrical outlet on the wall of your home. This is different than Internet access through coaxial cable because it utilizes the standard electrical outlets that you use to power your lamps, PC, appliances, and much more.
How BPL Works
Broadband over power lines works with your current power sources to deliver high speed broadband connectivity to a home. There are also a number of businesses that are catching on to the concept and deploying the technology in commercial buildings. BPL is a versatile connection because it can also be used as a source for establishing telephone and television services.
Broadband over power lines use a combination of three different technologies to establish connectivity which include radio waves, wireless networking, and a modem. When these technologies are used together data can be transmitted over power lines at rates of up to 200 Mbps (megabits per second). There are basically two types of BPL which include in-house which connects a network of machines within a building and access BPL which transmits high speed Internet over power lines and provides power companies with the capability to observe their power systems electronically.
BPL is implemented by modifying existing power grids with specially designed equipment. This means that the creators of broadband over power lines partner with power companies and Internet Service Providers to provide high speed Internet access to any location that is equipped with electricity.
Once the connection is established a BPL modem is used to extract the data from the electrical current. A BPL modem is approximately the size of a power adapter and plugs into an electrical wall outlet to complete the connection. The end result is being able to simply plug your PC into any electrical wall outlet in your home or business and gain immediate access to high speed broadband Internet.
The Advantages of Broadband Over Power Lines
By providing the capability to deliver high speed broadband Internet access to every electrical outlet in a building or home, the sky is the limit as far as the number of ways that you can use the connection. Additionally, it provides a solution for rural areas that currently do not have access to broadband due to the expense that is required to set the infrastructure in place through conventional DSL methods.
That said here are some of the advantages the broadband over power lines can bring for the future of high speed Internet:
- Landline Telephone VoIP: Broadband over power lines is capable of delivering a VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) system to an existing landline telephone configuration. This means that your telephone can be connected to the Internet for the purpose of using VoIP services such as Skype. If you have ever used VoIP then you are aware of how inexpensive the service is which means costs savings for both businesses and homeowners.
- Television Services: With broadband power lines service at every outlet in your home or business this provides you with access to television programs worldwide that you otherwise would not be able to experience. It works similar to current Internet TV except the configuration for BPL is not as complex as setting up Internet TV on your HDTV through the existing broadband Internet access.
- Anywhere Internet: With BPL you can access the Internet anywhere in your home or business without having to be concerned about the distance between you and the signal. There are not as many wires and cords and you simply plug into your electrical outlet and you are good to go.
- Device Communication: With a broadband connection in every electrical outlet in your home you can create a communication among your appliances and light switches. By plugging in your devices to a standard wall outlet they can communicate with one another over the Internet.
- Commercial Use: You may have noticed that the newest way to advertise is via digital signage. Digital displays are in malls, public transportation venues, billboards, elevators, and even over the sink in rest rooms. Broadband over power lines service will provide an easier way for digital signage to establish high speed Internet access which will reduce advertising costs and save time on maintenance. Additionally, security cameras in commercial venues that are equipped with BPL provide you with an easier and more cost effective solution for safety and surveillance.
These are just a few ways that broadband over power lines will change technology in the future. Hopefully the overview will give you an idea of all the possibilities that BPL will bring and the ways that it will improve daily life. | <urn:uuid:b6de327a-4a2d-42a6-a3db-e6ee0f240fea> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://internet-access-guide.com/an-overview-of-broadband-over-power-lines/ | 2024-09-16T23:53:19Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651714.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916212424-20240917002424-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.946798 | 925 | 2.953125 | 3 |
Who's Hijacking Internet Routes?
Attacks Increase, But There's No Easy Fix in SightInformation security experts warn that Internet routes are being hijacked to serve malware and spam, and there's little you can do about it, simply because many aspects of the Internet were never designed to be secure.
The Internet hijacking problem relates to Border Gateway Protocol, which is responsible for routing all Internet traffic. In the words of Dan Hubbard, CTO of OpenDNS Security Labs: "BGP distributes routing information and makes sure all routers on the Internet know how to get to a certain IP address."
BGP provides critical Internet infrastructure functionality, because the Internet isn't a single network, but rather a collection of many different networks. Accordingly, BGP routing tables give the different networks a way to hand off data and route it to its intended destination.
That assumes, of course, that no one tampers with BGP routing, in which case they could reroute traffic or disguise malicious activity. "The trouble is it ... all relies on trust between networks, so if someone hijacks an ISP router, you wouldn't know," Alan Woodward, a visiting professor at the department of computing at England's University of Surrey, and cybersecurity adviser to Europol, tells Information Security Media Group. "It's just another example of how people are forgetting that the Internet was never built to be a secure infrastructure, and we need to be mindful of that when relying upon it."
Spam, Malware, Bitcoins
Hijacking router tables could allow an attacker to spoof IP addresses and potentially intercept data being sent to a targeted IP address. Thankfully, Woodward says, that is "not a trivial task," and Internet service providers have some related defenses in place.
But some attacks get through. One four-month campaign, spotted by Dell Secureworks in 2014, involved redirecting traffic from major Internet service providers to fool bitcoin-mining pools into sharing their processing power - which is used to generate bitcoins - with the attacker. Dell estimates that the attacker netted about $84,000 in bitcoins, although it's not clear that such attacks are widespread.
What has been on the increase, however, are incidents in which malware and spam purveyors hijack an organization's autonomous system numbers, or ASNs, which indicate how traffic should move within and between multiple networks, says Doug Madory director of Internet analysis at Dyn Research, which was formed after Dyn last year acquired global Internet monitoring firm Renesys.
In a blog post, Madory describes six recent examples of bogus routing announcement campaigns, some of which remain under way, and all of which have been launched from Europe or Russia. By using bogus routing, attackers with IP addresses that have been labeled as malicious - for example by the Zeus abuse tracker, which catalogs botnet command-and-control servers - can hijack legitimate IP address space and trick targeted autonomous systems on the Internet into thinking the attack traffic is legitimate.
"These are not isolated incidents," Madory says of the recent attacks that he has documented. "First, these bogus routes are being circulated at a near-constant rate, and many separate entities are engaged in this practice, although with subtle differences in approach. Second, these techniques aren't solely for the relatively benign purpose of sending spam. Some of this host address space is known to circulate malware."
One takeaway, Madory says, is that any information security analysts who review alert logs should know that the IP addresses attached to alerts may have often been spoofed via BGP hijacking. "For example, an attack that appeared to come from a Comcast IP located in New Jersey may have really been from a hijacker located in Eastern Europe, briefly commandeering Comcast IP space," he says.
The security flaws associated with BGP that allow such attacks to occur haven't gone unnoticed. In January, the EU cybersecurity agency ENISA urged all Internet infrastructure providers to configure Border Gateway Protocol to ensure that only legitimate traffic flows over their over networks.
But ENISA's advice belies that while BGP can be fixed, it can't be done quickly. "There are efforts to cryptographically sign IP address announcements," Madory says. "However, these techniques aren't foolproof and until they achieve a critical mass of adoption, they won't make much difference."
No Quick Fix
"Why Is It Taking So Long to Secure Internet Routing?" is the title of a recent research paper from Boston University computing science professor Sharon Goldberg, who notes that any fix will require not just a critical mass, but coordinating thousands of different groups. "BGP is a global protocol, running across organizational and national borders," the paper notes. "As such, it lacks a single centralized authority that can mandate the deployment of a security solution; instead, every organization can autonomously decide which routing security solutions it will deploy in its own network." That's one reason why BGP hasn't gotten a security makeover, despite weaknesses in the protocol having been well-known by network-savvy engineers for the past two decades.
Lately, however, BGP abuse has been rising. "It appears to be more systematized now," Dyn's Madory warns. Pending a full fix, he says that service providers might combat these attacks by banding together and temporarily blocking Internet traffic from organizations that repeatedly fail to secure their infrastructure, thus allowing BGP attackers subvert it.
In the meantime, keep an eye on security logs for signs of related attacks. "There's no easy defense, but it is kind of possible [to spot attacks] by monitoring and watching for unexpected changes in routing," Woodward says. | <urn:uuid:6b984508-e82f-41d1-ba1c-6415987479f8> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.healthcareinfosecurity.com/whos-hijacking-internet-routes-a-7874 | 2024-09-16T21:58:54Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651714.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916212424-20240917002424-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.960839 | 1,153 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Cryptographers Already Working on Quantum-Resistant Security for Blockchain
(DriveInsider) It’s quite possible that by the time quantum computers are manufactured, blockchain technology would have advanced enough that they could counter the new threat according to author Joseph Resher. This is because cryptographers are aware of the theory behind quantum computing and are already working on developing quantum-resistant systems for better security.
To compromise the security of a blockchain, a hacker has to either decrypt the private key or hack at least 50% of the nodes simultaneously. Both of these methods are virtually impossible with existing computers. But, in theory, they are not beyond the scope of a quantum computer which are estimated to be 100 million times faster than the computers of today. | <urn:uuid:7c2d96c7-f8c0-40bd-b4d7-83a36a3a4758> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.insidequantumtechnology.com/news-archive/cryptographers-already-working-quantum-resistant-security-blockchain/ | 2024-09-16T23:31:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651714.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916212424-20240917002424-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.955046 | 150 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Challenges of Cooling a Data Center
If you’ve ever walked into a data center, you’ve probably noticed that the air feels significantly cooler than it does outside the server area. Depending on where you’re coming from, that cool air might feel pleasant — or you could start shivering almost immediately.
Maintaining the optimum temperature in a data center has long been a struggle for designers and center managers. Allowing the air temperature to get too hot increases the chances of heat-induced equipment failure — literally fried equipment. Keeping the temperature too cold, on the other hand, especially when the surrounding environment has relatively high humidity, can lead to condensation and salt buildup on sensitive circuits.
Depending on who you ask, the ideal temperature for a data center ranges from 66 degrees to 77 degrees, with some claiming that lower temperatures are better while others note that there is nothing wrong with setting the thermostat a little higher. While IT folks may not be able to agree on the exact ideal temperature, they can agree on one thing: maintaining something even resembling a “perfect” temperature can be a struggle.
The Basics of Data Center Cooling
Running servers, like most electronics, give off heat as they operate. The hot air from the servers, unless it is appropriately redirected, circulates into the air of the server room, raising the ambient temperature. The more servers in the space, the more hot air they produce, and the higher the overall temperature. This means the servers must work harder to run, and can quickly overheat.
Data center designers, therefore, have spent years looking at the design of their facilities to come up with ways to keep the machines as cool as possible. One of the most common solutions was to lower the overall temperature in the center, which accounts for the hot air exhaust being released into the atmosphere. Often, this is addressed by physically separating hot and cold aisles, or by installing airflow management systems that redirect the hot air away from the cold air intake, ensuring a stable and consistent cool temperature.
The problem is that these airflow management and containment systems don’t always work, creating what’s commonly referred to as a “hot spot and meat locker” effect. Essentially, when this happens, as you walk through the data center, you’ll notice areas where the temperature fluctuates noticeably. In one spot, the temperature will be warm to hot, while the rest of the surrounding area is overcooled to the point of feeling like a freezer or meat locker in comparison.
Problems With Overcooling
While overheating a data center certainly creates the potential for damage, so does overcooling, as demonstrated by the aforementioned humidity issue. Overcooling the data center also has another practical drawback: Cost. One of the primary reasons that customers migrate to the data center environment is to contain costs, since the expense of keeping an onsite server room at the appropriate temperature is often more than a small- or mid-size business can bear. Even large corporations deal with excess energy expenses because of overcooling; companies like Google and Facebook, which operate massive server farms, spend millions of dollars each year in energy costs to keep their data centers cool.
Some data centers are attempting to overcome the problem of energy consumption by turning to green construction methods, and, in what seems like an obvious move, turning up the thermostat. Studies show that in most cases, increasing the ambient temperature in server aisles has no discernable effect on their functioning while significantly reducing energy usage. Case in point? Microsoft raised the temperature in its California data centers by two to four degrees, and saved more than $250,000 in energy costs.
While turning up the heat a little bit can make a difference in energy costs, it doesn’t do much to solve the airflow and temperature regulation problems that plague many data centers. Much of that is attributable to the simple fact that each cabinet in the data center may have different density requirements, meaning that some will give off more heat than others (creating the hot spots), and more significantly impact the overall temperature. Other contributing factors include the design of the center itself, how well the flow of air is controlled, and even the location of the data center.
Some data centers are turning to more customizable solutions to manage cooling, developing systems that are capable of sensing temperature fluctuations on a cabinet-by-cabinet basis and adjusting accordingly. Other centers are looking for ways to redesign the airflow, and installing more efficient fittings to better redirect hot air. Given that the data center environment is always changing, and demand for green, cost-effective solutions is rising, the future undoubtedly holds many advances in the realm of temperature and airflow management. | <urn:uuid:fafea863-53d4-48c8-bb33-7487bf1de253> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://datacenterpost.com/hot-spots-and-meat-lockers-understanding-the-challenges-of-cooling-a-data-center/ | 2024-09-18T05:53:33Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651836.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918032902-20240918062902-00662.warc.gz | en | 0.945319 | 970 | 2.828125 | 3 |
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September 08, 2021 •
Did you know that 30,000 websites are hacked everyday? This is a result of a company’s website being more susceptible to everyday hackers. Now think about the last time you used an unsecured internet connection; maybe at your local cafe such as Starbucks. This is where most data breaches usually occur.
But what is the difference between a data hack and a data breach? While the terms are quite similar, there are a few substantial differences between them. Knowing these differences could save your company millions should you ever be a victim of cyber crime.
A hack is an intentional attack on a company and is more likely to occur when a person’s username and password is relatively the same across multiple platforms, or super easy to guess. More times than none, an employee is using either the same password that’s being used on another platform, or a combination that’s similar. A hack comes as an unauthorized access to private information and holds that information ransom in return for something such as payment.
Data hacks happen almost every 39 seconds. This means that by the time you take a selfie and post it to Instagram, a hack (or multiple) has already taken place. Believe it or not, hacks often take place more often than data breaches.
A hacker can either be a single person or a group of people. Normally, hackers have extreme talents where they can break down and penetrate systems to access private information. These types of hackers normally have malicious intentions and can only be stopped with a strong 2 factor authentication system in place.
Other forms of hackers are called “white hat hackers”. White hat hackers are known to be ethical in the sense that they are hired by a company to purposely hack their software to identify any weak spots in order to prevent outside hackers from intentionally breaking their system.
Unlike an intentional hack against a company, a data breach is unintentional, and more of a leak of personal information stored in an unsecure wifi network. A breach occurs when information is exposed or neglected and viewed by someone who shouldn’t have access to it. While there is no malicious intent against you personally, the consequences of a data breach can be severe and costly to any business.
If you’re using a public network that’s not secured with 2 step verification, such as push notifications, qr code, or verification code, you’re essentially giving your information away to that network and making it vulnerable enough for someone else to gain access to it.
According to an article written by Rob Sobers at Varonis.com, 54% of companies turning fully remote, data breach crimes have gone up significantly as many do not have any sort of extra layer of security to keep their information safe. Hacks are occurring more often due to the lack of account security, especially with employees passwords.
So how can you protect your information while also allowing employees to work from home?
First, you need an authentication method, and the best method by far is two factor authentication. Many authenticator apps such as LoginTC, require user authentication through a trusted device such as a mobile phone, hardware token, or a private mobile app.
Second, only use secure URL’s. To ensure only you and your employees have access to company information, you can utilize a VPN to protect certain URL’s from being accessed. This type of authentication can be used on company devices such as laptops, desktops, and any mobile device. To ensure your VPN is also secure, you should add two-factor authentication to the application as well.
Learn more about two-factor authentication and how it can secure your business from data breaches and hacks here Simple and Secure Two Factor Authentication Solutions (2FA) – LoginTC | <urn:uuid:43f200d4-1d53-4afd-a3f4-72f107884c03> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.logintc.com/blog/two-factor-authentication-data-hacks-and-breaches/ | 2024-09-19T10:32:52Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652028.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919093719-20240919123719-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.95298 | 786 | 3.125 | 3 |
We’ve compiled a full list of commonly encountered IT terminology that will help you better understand the industry and how it works. By familiarizing yourself with basic computer terms and definitions, you’ll allow yourself to understand manuals, descriptions, and everyday jargon necessary to fully grasp IT products and services.
You’ll find our tech glossary is conveniently laid out below in alphabetical order with an easy navigation interface so you can quickly reference words related to technology.
In addition to our tech terms, you can also find other resources to help you learn more about the role of technology in modern industry, including blogs, whitepapers, and case studies. Though our list of IT terms to know is expansive, if you have any further questions regarding things to know about technology, please contact us.
Infrastructure refers to the physical or virtual resources that together comprise the network. It includes servers, routers, switches, firewalls, ISP connections, etc.
Infrastructure as a Service refers to one of the platforms within a cloud computing model where hardware, usually physical servers, and other data center equipment, is provided by an external provider and is provisioned and managed for you over the internet.
An internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides access to the Internet and other related services such as website building and virtual hosting. It serves as the connection between your device(s) and all the other hosts on the Internet. | <urn:uuid:18d3a5cf-1dcf-4ebe-887f-b01e21b02d04> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.consultcra.com/index/i/ | 2024-09-08T13:54:24Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651002.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908115103-20240908145103-00662.warc.gz | en | 0.932677 | 293 | 3.15625 | 3 |
Caller ID Spoofing is when the Caller ID you see on an incoming call is not actually the phone number or company name associated with the caller's telephone.
There are a lot of legitimate reasons caller ID's are spoofed, for example a large company may have thousands of phones each with a different phone number, many companies choose to only display the company’s main number as the caller ID. One reason for doing this is if a person hits redial, they will be connected to the main number of the company and not the phone of the person who actually called them.
Of course, there are a lot nefarious reasons for "Spoofing" one's Caller ID. Telemarketers in far away lands may want to appear as though they are calling from your area code or a scam artist is trying to convince you that he is from your bank and needs information about your account. You might believe this person if the Caller ID said the name of your bank in your area code.
This is what Congress is trying to prevent with the passage of the Truth in Caller ID Act of 2010. | <urn:uuid:e318f13b-965d-492b-9b2f-c4c698de0450> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | http://blog.avadtechnologies.com/2010/04/congress-passes-law-banning-caller-id.html | 2024-09-09T17:21:30Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651133.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909170505-20240909200505-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.962607 | 224 | 2.859375 | 3 |
In 2022, 255 million cyberattacks were reported globally, a 61% increase on 2021. In a report by Deloitte’s Center for Controllership, 34.5% of executives said that in the last 12 months, their organisation’s accounting and financial data was targeted by hackers. Approximately 22% of that group experienced one cyber event with 12.5% experiencing more than that. Nearly half of all those polled expect the number and size of cyber threats targeting their organisations to increase during the year ahead.
While cybersecurity capabilities are improving all the time, the sophistication and prowess of hackers and cybercriminals is matching that progress. Here, we look at some of the latest cyber threats to emerge in 2023.
1. SaaS phishing
Phishing accounts for most of all cyber-attacks. This year, we’re seeing the emergence of SaaS-based phishing, whereby hackers hijack legitimate software and create a credential-stealing page that looks like a legitimate login page.
To do this, hackers send a fake invoice or other document as a pdf. As pdfs open directly into a browser, they are able to evade cybersecurity defences that disallow the opening of pdfs. Malware, such as Snake Keylogger is then able to record keystrokes to collect login data.
The hacker establishes a fake SaaS account using the victim’s name and deploys that account from a rogue device to target other members of the organisation, often in a whaling attack, a form of spearfishing, targeting C-suite and other high-level executives, in order steal sensitive information or money.
2. The dark side of ChatGPT
ChatGPT has become an important legitimate tool for businesses, but it’s also proving useful for hackers. Cyber criminals can use the AI chatbot to draft phishing emails and codes, generating multiple scripts easily with slight variations on wording. Complicated attack processes can also be automated using the Learning Management Systems (LLMs) APIs to generate other malicious artefacts.
With AI, creating malware is easier than ever. As far back as 2020, researchers found a new type of malware called Deeplocker that used generative AI to make malware difficult to detect.
QR codes and cashless payments are giving cybercriminals an open invitation to steal sensitive data. All attackers need to do is take a flyer released by a company or government agency and switch the existing QR code with their own infected with malware.
4. Developer account hacking
Developers are being increasingly targeted by hackers, posing real problems for cybersecurity experts. This is because companies tend to trust developers with too much access to their environment, and since these developer privileges tend to violate well-established access controls, companies that don’t follow cybersecurity best practices are easy targets. Infiltrate a developer’s account and hackers can insert malicious code virtually anywhere.
5. IoT hacks
Attacks on IoT devices saw a 98% increase in 2022, along with the rise in remote working. While home Wi-Fi networks can be monitored, IoT infrastructure doesn’t tend to receive much in the way of security updates. And users often don’t update default passwords on these devices either. Once a hacker has access to one, they can access data from other devices on the network. In fact, one cyber security expert claims to have been able to run commands on more than 20 automated Tesla cars in ten countries without the owner’s knowledge.
6. Encryption-less ransomware
Ransomware threats are evolving too. There has been a 40% increase in ransomware attacks this year with a distinct trend in hackers using encryption-less ransomware techniques. 25 new ransomware families have been identified using double extortion or encryption-less techniques. These attacks differ from traditional attacks in that the cyber criminals threaten to leak data but don’t use encryption. This takes less time and is more cost-effective for the hackers, typically resulting in faster, larger profits.
Tackling cyber threats in your organisation
Hackers are getting smarter. In this example from a Facebook post in 2023, at first glance, two web addresses look identical. However, a closer look reveals that the character ‘a’ is slightly different. What has happened is a Cyrillic character has been used to replace the Roman letter in the genuine web address.
The message here is security awareness within organisations is more important than ever. One way to avoid cyber threats such as this is to instruct staff not to click on links and, instead, type the web address directly into the browser. Another is to hover over links before clicking to see where the link directs to. If it’s an unfamiliar address, users should not proceed further.
The emerging digital ecosystem is treacherous. Every company is a target and potentially at risk from a breach. Hackers are using emerging technologies against companies using it for business gains. While the risk of phishing, ransomware and DDoS attacks remain high in 2023, cybercriminals are also actively searching for security patches that companies have failed to keep up to date – something that can be mitigated easily using a managed IT solution. | <urn:uuid:03e86a12-911a-470d-aff5-4063a7e793e3> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://digitalwell.com/blogs/6-cyber-threats-to-look-out-for-in-2023/ | 2024-09-09T19:23:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651133.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909170505-20240909200505-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.932124 | 1,067 | 2.53125 | 3 |
“Smart City” is a term we’ll hear a lot more of in the coming years. It’s estimated that by 2020, we’ll spend $400 billion a year building them. Cities being “smart” is not about algorithms only, of course; there are many things that can be done without too much monitoring. And, above all, there needs to be an overall strategy in place, otherwise, we might end up with tons of pilot projects that we don’t really know what to do with. As the population is growing, people are increasingly shifting to urban areas. According to a 2014 UN report, 54% of the world’s population resides in urban areas, and this share is expected to go up to 66% by the year 2050. “Smart Cities” is this umbrella initiative that is designed to make urban areas more livable, agile and sustainable.
Smart City platforms represent some of the more exciting and impactful applications of real-time, intelligent Big Data systems. An interesting trend is that people are becoming more proficient in the mining of diverse data sources — geospatial and spatio-temporal data, unstructured text from news sources, social media and images. A Smart City is described as one that uses digital technologies or information and communication technologies to enhance the quality and performance of urban services, to reduce costs and resource consumption and to engage more effectively and actively with its citizens. The idea is to embed the advances in technology and data collection which are making the Internet of Things (IoT) a reality into the infrastructures of the environments where we live. Already, large companies such as Cisco and IBM are working with universities and civic planning authorities to develop data-driven systems for transport, waste management, law enforcement and energy use to make them more efficient and improve the lives of citizens.
We will interact and get information from these smart systems using our smartphones, watches and other wearables, and crucially, the machines will also speak to each other. Garbage trucks will be alerted to the location of refuse that needs collecting, and sensors in our cars will direct us towards available parking spaces. Every object will have an IP address of its own via sensors that are connected to it. These sensors, in turn, will exchange data using cloud technology via the Internet.
Cities will be able to fetch responses using Big Data, like the amount of traffic rolling at a particular stoplight, areas where trash cans are full and ready to be picked up or how much water is used every day. This type of information can be collected through wearables, smartphones, cameras or sensors. These cities are seen as the cities of the future, with lesser waste, lesser pollution and fewer problems. These cities are also designed to save large amounts of energy in order to help solve power crises. From New York to Los Angeles, the IoT has helped tackle seemingly impossible problems like traffic congestion, water theft and lesser pollution. There may soon be cities completely covered by Wi-Fi because of IoT.
Technologists and analysts are on a path to discovery, obtaining answers on how technology and the data collected can make our cities more efficient and cost effective. The current model adopted for IoT is to attract businesses to develop software and hardware applications in this domain. The model also encourages businesses to put their creativity to use for the greater good, making cities safer, smarter and more sustainable.
Here are some of the most enchanting ways that cities are using Big Data and IoT to improve the quality of life.
We are in an early evolutionary stage in the way cities are designed and managed. There are several more Smart Cities across countries like China, UK, South Korea, Dubai and some parts of Europe which have adopted the idea of making their cities digitally smarter with the help of IoT technology.
It is important to remember that the Smart City is a world comprised of both the physical and virtual aspects of infrastructure, both of which need to be tied together to be able to manage cities in a more efficient way. New technologies like Big Data and IoT can save cities money from energy saving as well as create value for citizens when traffic is better regulated through collected data. With the integration of Big Data and IoT, our cities will become smarter, generate data that provides useful information and revolutionize our way of life. | <urn:uuid:e34edf87-7c24-4471-af25-dd152d6f1ad8> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://icrunchdata.com/blog/336/how-big-data-and-internet-of-things-build-smart-cities/ | 2024-09-15T22:50:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651668.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915220324-20240916010324-00062.warc.gz | en | 0.954402 | 883 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Artificial intelligence vs. intelligent automation: are they the same? These are two of the most popular buzzwords in the technology industry today. Touted as the next big thing in business process automation, people often use them interchangeably. But can they be used synonymously?
There are significant differences between the two terms. Whether you're a business leader, technology professional, or simply curious about the future of automation, you should understand the distinction to make informed decisions about using these technologies. In this article, we'll take a closer look at artificial intelligence vs. intelligent automation, exploring their definitions, benefits, challenges, and use cases.
Artificial intelligence vs. intelligent automation: Definition and differences
Let’s start by defining both artificial intelligence and intelligent automation. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a broad field encompassing a range of technologies and techniques for building intelligent systems that can learn from data, make predictions, and perform tasks that usually require human intelligence. These systems typically use machine learning algorithms, which enable them to identify patterns and insights in large datasets and apply those insights to new situations.
On the other hand, intelligent automation (IA) is a more specialized form of AI that focuses on automating repetitive or rule-based tasks using software robots or bots. These bots can perform various tasks, from data entry to invoice processing to customer service interactions. Intelligent automation aims to streamline business processes and free up human workers to focus on higher-level tasks that require creativity and problem-solving skills.
So, what are their differences? While AI and intelligent automation are concerned with creating more efficient and effective systems, they differ in scope and underlying technologies. AI is a more general-purpose technology that can be applied to many domains and tasks, while intelligent automation is more specialized and focused on specific business processes.
Artificial intelligence vs. intelligent automation: Benefits and challenges
Artificial intelligence and intelligent automation have distinct benefits and challenges, and choosing between the two technologies depends on the business's specific needs. AI is better suited for tasks that require complex decision-making and adaptability. At the same time, IA is better suited for repetitive tasks that can be automated to increase efficiency and reduce errors.
Benefits of AI
- Adaptability: AI can adapt to changing conditions and improve over time.
- Accuracy: AI can perform tasks with greater accuracy than humans.
- Speed: AI can perform tasks faster than humans.
- Scalability: AI can be scaled up to handle large volumes of data and tasks.
- Decision-making: AI can analyze data and make decisions based on patterns that humans may not be able to detect.
Challenges of AI
- Lack of transparency: AI systems can be opaque and difficult to understand, making it hard to identify errors or biases.
- Data bias: AI systems are only as good as the data they are trained on, so the AI system will also be biased if the data is biased.
- Job displacement: AI can potentially replace human workers, leading to job losses in certain industries.
- Security: AI systems can be vulnerable to cyberattacks, which can have serious consequences.
Benefits of IA
- Efficiency: IA can automate routine tasks, allowing employees to focus on higher-level tasks.
- Cost savings: IA can reduce labor costs and increase productivity.
- Reduced errors: IA can reduce errors that humans commonly make.
- Scalability: IA can be scaled up or down to meet changing business needs.
Challenges of IA
- Lack of adaptability: IA is less adaptable than AI and may struggle with tasks requiring more complex decision-making.
- Limited scope: IA is best suited for repetitive, routine tasks and may not be as effective for more complex tasks.
- Resistance to change: Employees may be resistant to the implementation of IA, fearing job displacement or job reconfiguration.
- Maintenance and upkeep: IA systems require ongoing maintenance and updates to remain effective.
Artificial intelligence vs. intelligent automation: Use cases
Different industries are applying AI and IA because they have the potential to transform the way businesses operate and provide significant benefits in terms of efficiency, cost savings, and improved customer experiences. Here are some examples of their use cases:
Use cases of AI
- Healthcare: AI is used to analyze medical images and identify patterns that can help diagnose diseases. It can also develop personalized treatment plans for patients.
- Finance: AI is used to analyze financial data and identify patterns that can help detect fraud and make investment decisions.
- Manufacturing: AI is used to optimize supply chain management and improve production efficiency.
- Customer service: AI is used to provide personalized customer service through chatbots and virtual assistants that can handle routine customer inquiries and requests.
- Marketing: AI is used to analyze customer data and provide insights that can help improve targeted marketing campaigns.
Use cases of IA
- Human resources: IA is used to automate routine HR tasks, such as onboarding new employees and managing payroll.
- Manufacturing: IA is used to automate assembly line processes and quality control inspections.
- Finance: IA is used to automate invoice processing and accounts payable/receivable.
- Supply chain management: IA is used to automate inventory management and order processing.
- Customer service: IA is used to automate customer service inquiries and provide self-service options.
In some cases, industries can use AI and IA together to achieve even greater efficiencies and outcomes. For example, in a manufacturing setting, IA can automate routine processes, while AI can optimize production efficiency by analyzing data and making adjustments in real-time.
The debate of artificial intelligence vs. intelligent automation is an important one for businesses to consider. While these technologies can potentially transform businesses and drive growth, they also come with significant challenges and considerations. It's essential for organizations to carefully evaluate their options and focus on building a collaborative environment between human and machine workers.
As technology evolves, the lines between artificial intelligence and intelligent automation will become increasingly blurred, and businesses will need to stay informed and agile to keep up with these changes. By embracing these technologies thoughtfully and strategically, companies can unlock significant benefits and achieve a competitive advantage in their respective industries. Ultimately, the key to success lies in finding the right balance between human and machine intelligence, leveraging the strengths of both to create innovative and efficient processes that drive business growth and success. | <urn:uuid:dcf23379-ae4b-4f5f-90b7-67a6376049da> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://blog.invgate.com/artificial-intelligence-vs-intelligent-automation | 2024-09-18T08:50:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651886.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918064858-20240918094858-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.934254 | 1,298 | 2.75 | 3 |
Graphene is a material made of carbon atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice with the thickness of a single atom. And according to experts, it may prove to be one of the most disruptive technologies of the coming century.
The material was first created in 2004, by Manchester University researchers Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who used adhesive tape to peel off layers of graphite until a flake with the thickness of a single atom remained.
Graphene, they found, has the ability to conduct electricity as efficiently as copper, is one of the strongest known materials and outperforms many others as a conductor of heat. In 2010, Geim and Novoselov won the Nobel Prize for Physics for their work.
The qualities of graphene have clear applications in electronics and information technology. Scientists predict that graphene transistors will be substantially faster than the ones found in silicon chips, as they can operate at a higher frequency. This, it is believed, will allow for substantially more efficient computers.
The material is also expected to replace electrodes, such as indium tin oxides, in devices with organic light emitting diode (OLED) touch screens due to being virtually transparent and possessing superior properties.
Small, inexpensive and sensitive photonic sensors used for environmental and health monitoring could also benefit from graphene due to the material’s ability to detect minute electrical and chemical changes in single atoms.
According to Tim Harper, a physicist and founder of emerging technology consultancy Cientifica, the case for graphene becomes more compelling as the so-called ‘rare earth’ minerals used in many electrical components become scarcer. “Graphene is simple to make, process and hook up electrically, which is why it’s suddenly getting more traction,” says Harper.
So far, however, graphene has proved difficult to mass-produce. But an initiative by Manchester University, the hopes to change that.
Last year, chancellor George Osborne announced that £50 million was being allocated to the University in order to fund the UK’s first purpose-built research facility dedicated to finding ways of commercialising research into graphene.
The University has now applied for a further £23 million from the European Regional Development Fund so that the Graphene Global Research and Technology Hub can open by early 2015. | <urn:uuid:33dbf661-8423-4b53-8352-3f79b36401a5> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.information-age.com/making-graphene-work-27532/ | 2024-09-18T09:02:38Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651886.88/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918064858-20240918094858-00762.warc.gz | en | 0.96298 | 476 | 3.59375 | 4 |
ISO 9001 is based on quality principles. ISO 19011 is based on auditing principles. Just as principles are important for many of the ISO standards, ISO 45001:2018 is also based on several principles, although they are not explicitly listed in the body of the standard.
A number of key principles underpin the field of occupational safety and health. These principles and the provisions of international labor standards are all designed to achieve a vital objective: that work should take place in a safe and healthy environment.
11 pillars of a safe working environment
Occupational safety and health is an extensive multidisciplinary field, invariably touching on issues related to scientific areas such as medicine – including physiology and toxicology – ergonomics, physics and chemistry, as well as technology, economics, law, and other areas specific to various industries and activities. Despite this variety of concerns and interests, certain basic principles can be identified, including the following:
- All workers have rights. Workers, as well as employers and governments, must ensure that these rights are protected and must strive to establish and maintain decent working conditions and a decent working environment. More specifically:
- work should take place in a safe and healthy working environment;
- conditions of work should be consistent with workers’ well-being and human dignity;
- work should offer real possibilities for personal achievement, self-fulfillment, and service to society.
- Occupational safety and health policies must be established. Such policies must be implemented at both the national (governmental) and enterprise levels. They must be effectively communicated to all parties concerned.
- Social partners (that is, employers and workers) and other stakeholders must be consulted. This should be done during formulation, implementation, and review of all policies, systems, and programs.
- Occupational safety and health programs and policies must aim at both prevention and protection. Efforts must be focused, above all, on primary prevention at the workplace level. Workplaces and working environments should be planned and designed to be safe and healthy.
- Continuous improvement of occupational safety and health must be promoted. This is necessary to ensure that national laws, regulations, and technical standards to prevent occupational injuries, diseases, and deaths are adapted periodically to social, technical, and scientific progress and other changes in the world of work. It is best done by the development and implementation of a national policy, national system, and national program.
- Information is vital for the development and implementation of effective programs and policies. The collection and dissemination of accurate information on hazards and hazardous materials, surveillance of workplaces, monitoring of compliance with policies and good practice, and other related activities are central to the establishment and enforcement of effective policies.
- Health promotion is a central element of occupational health practice. Efforts must be made to enhance workers’ physical, mental, and social well-being.
- Occupational health services covering all workers should be established. Ideally, all workers in all categories of economic activity should have access to such services, which aim to protect and promote workers’ health and improve working conditions.
- Education and training are vital components of safe, healthy working environments. Workers and employers must be made aware of the importance of establishing safe working procedures and of how to do so. Trainers must be trained in areas of special relevance to particular industries, so that they can address the specific occupational safety and health concerns.
- Workers, employers and competent authorities have certain responsibilities, duties, and obligations. For example, workers must follow established safety procedures; employers must provide safe workplaces and ensure access to first aid; and the competent authorities must devise, communicate, and periodically review and update occupational safety and health policies.
- Policies must be enforced. A system of inspection must be in place to secure compliance with occupational safety and health measures and other labor legislation.
Clearly, some overlap exists among these general principles. For example, the gathering and dissemination of information on various facets of occupational safety and health underlies all the activities described. Information is needed for the prevention as well as the treatment of occupational injuries and diseases. It is also needed for the creation of effective policies and to ensure that they are enforced. Education and training demand information.
While these key principles structure occupational safety and health programs and policies, the above list is by no means exhaustive. More specialized areas have corresponding principles of their own. Moreover, ethical considerations regarding such matters as individuals’ rights to privacy must be taken into consideration when devising an occupational health and safety management system.
To learn more about ISO 45001 implementation process and steps, download this free Diagram of the ISO 45001 Implementation Process. | <urn:uuid:09bf070d-0b54-43b9-8a9c-1d81f8b97ff0> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://advisera.com/45001academy/blog/2015/12/16/11-occupational-health-and-safety-principles-and-how-to-apply-them-in-your-iso-45001-project/ | 2024-09-20T19:48:22Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701423570.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920190822-20240920220822-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.95194 | 944 | 3.28125 | 3 |
Written by Peter Welcher and Fausat Ogunsanya
This is the ninth blog in an Internet Edge series.
Links to prior blogs in the series:
- Internet Edge:Simple Sites
- Internet Edge:Fitting in SD-WAN
- Internet Edge:Things to Not Do (Part 1)
- Internet Edge: Things to Not Do (Part 2)
- Internet Edge: Double Datacenters
- Internet Edge: Double Don’t Do This
- Internet Edge: Cloudy Internet Edge
- Internet Edge: Special Cases and Maintainability
This blog is loosely based on some joint work NetCraftsmen has being doing with a customer. Real-world stuff!
My thanks to my colleague Fausat Ogunsanya for providing the background info and rationale behind this blog and checking my explanations. She’s the security expert, and I’m the design aficionado who asked about the design supporting the security tools. Any errors are probably mine.
The Encrypted Traffic Problem
Here’s the driving factor: With the increase in the malware propagation via encrypted traffic and the increase in the need to protect user’s transactions on the Internet, many websites, including popular search engines, have deployed SSL encryption. The transmission of encrypted traffic through the network makes it difficult for security tools to identify, analyze and protect the infrastructure network from malicious content.
In the past, most security tools and firewalls inspection of encrypted traffic involves analysis of traffic patterns and comparing of IP addresses in the packet headers against known bad players. Deep packet SSL inspection goes beyond traffic pattern and header IP address inspection. This article is focused on deep packet SSL inspection.
Deep packet SSL inspection tools can see both the header IP, traffic pattern, and the traffic payload. This is achieved by the tool being a “man-in-the-middle” between the source and destination hosts.
More and more network traffic is encrypted. Encrypted traffic is a big problem for security tools that need to examine traffic, whether for correct protocol behavior or for inspection of the traffic contents.
What has changed design-wise is the following: In most network environments, security appliances/tools are deployed serially, with traffic flowing from one device to another device in the path enforcing the organization’s security policies. Each security tool/device in the path performs a specific security function and hence applies security policy based on their function. As an example, there is might be a Web Application Firewall (WAF) deployed in front of the firewall.
If you have several security tools doing different traffic-based analysis or inspection, setting them up as SSL proxies with appropriate certificates, etc., can be painful.
The alternative? Well, one alternative is to use another device as a central SSL decryption point which sends decrypted traffic to multiple tools. For this device to decrypt SSL outbound traffic from the enterprise to remove a destination, all browsers on the network must trust and add Certificate Authority (CA) certificate installed on the device to their trusted certificate store.
The SSL decryption devices will maintain two sessions for each SSL session – one session between itself and the traffic initiator(client) and the second session between itself and destination server, hence the term acting as SSL Man-In-The-Middle (MITM). Copies of decrypted traffic are sent to a set of other security tools. That potentially simplifies the certificate management issues that otherwise arise. It does mean the MITM devices need sufficient capacity to handle the aggregate flows the other tools need as input. But centralizing the decryption function also may help you centrally prioritize what you inspect and help you manage not decrypting sensitive traffic.
The following diagram shows this option, with the Gigamon (highlighted in orange!) being used in the role of the MITM device.
(There may well be a switch involved between the inside and outside firewalls, with VLANs putting the Gigamon virtually inline. Or it may be cabled as shown. I’m more interested in the big picture here rather than the details.)
If you *really* want to heavily use the MITM (Gigamon) device, you can even run the inside network to inside firewall connection through it. That’s a design choice, depending on how you intend to use the Gigamon (specifically, does it need to see packets prior to inside FW or not). I chose not to show that to keep this discussion a little simpler.
Maybe all of what we’ve just covered is obvious; maybe not. I thought it worth noting explicitly as a new design meme, hence this blog. If you already knew this, fine, you get an A+ and can skip the rest of this blog!
I haven’t seen or heard of other customers doing anything like this (yet) – but NetCraftsmen is big enough that I might not have heard about it.
For the function the Gigamon is doing (copying packets from various sources to various destinations), we will use the term I first heard a couple of years ago for this: Network Packet Broker (“NPB”).
How SSL Proxy Decryption Works
I like to understand flows and the big picture of how things work. If you have that, then you can usually figure out how to troubleshoot them. In this case, there’s some cleverness involved in how firewalls and other devices can do SSL decryption for outbound HTTPS and other traffic.
The process is explained well in two references, listed below. The following is my description of how this works and my diagrams. See also the references, e.g., for simpler basic diagrams.
We need a name for the “MITM” (Man In The Middle) box doing the decryption and re-encryption. Web or SSL proxy works. In this particular case, it was a Gigamon NPB. I’ll refer to this device as the MITM for conciseness below.
Please note that MITM describes the positioning. I am not implying the NPB device is malicious or hacking the traffic or anything like that.
The user starts the SSL proxy process by pointing their web browser at an URL starting with HTTPS or by performing some other activity that requires SSL encryption.
The MITM box sees the SSL request, makes a copy, and forwards the copy onto the Internet or other path next hop. To the destination website, that copy makes it look like the MITM wants to initiate an SSL session with the destination.
Then the destination replies, with a reply signed by its certificate.
The MITM receives that and forwards a copy back to the originator but signed with the MITM’s certificate.
Gigamon encrypts and decrypts traffic between the 2 TLS sessions (Gigamon-2-client and Gigamon-2webserver)
A copy of the decrypted traffic is sent to inline and non-inline tools.
Example: Leveraging FireEye
Leveraging an inline tool such as FireEye is shown in the following diagram.
Note that some (all?) security tools may well be happier if you send them both packets and replies, i.e., both sides of a session conversation.
With an NPB device like a Gigamon, that may require a smidge of configuration. I see that as just one more configuration factor to consider, one that is easily forgotten.
One Possible Pain Point
Security and network teams don’t always talk to each other as much as they might. Hey, we’re all overly busy, and there’s no time, plus that other team is a bit weird, or rude, or hostile, … or not. Friction happens.
Note that the economics of higher-speed links in the datacenter has worked very well so that depending on how you connect a device, the optical or “twinax” connection costs for 10, 25, 100, and 400 Gbps may not be all that different – the cost does not scale linearly! You’ll still be paying for the higher speed ports in the router or switch or other device, but that too has become fairly cost-effective.
For “process switching” devices, like some firewall / IPS and other security functions, the same economics may not apply.
So be sure to communicate plans, especially about budgeted devices and capacity, “speeds and feeds.” Well in advance, too!
For example, if you put a 10 Gbps MITM device in between devices that can do N x 40 Gbps, you’ve created a bottleneck and also will have to be rather careful not to overload the MITM device.
Said differently, with MITM and security devices in general, care has to be taken with planning and budgets to keep the planned link speeds in synch with the networking/datacenter team’s plans.
I found two fairly readable descriptions of how the “SSL Magic” works:
I’m sure there are more out there. The diagrams in these two were what I wanted for review/reference purposes.
Topics of note in these references (outside the intended scope of this blog):
- Security use cases
- What NOT to decrypt (privacy), and setting priorities
- Alternative ways to decrypt selected traffic
Decrypting SSL on multiple devices may be “plumb silly.” Instead, consider centralizing the SSL decryption MITM function on a Network Packet Broker. | <urn:uuid:bf7faeaf-7357-445d-be54-06dad9c059f3> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://netcraftsmen.com/internet-edge-security-tool-insertion/ | 2024-09-20T20:38:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701423570.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920190822-20240920220822-00562.warc.gz | en | 0.930267 | 1,983 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Government Data Breaches: Prevention and Response Strategies
In the ever-connected world where data breathes life into our daily operations, the threat of data breaches looms like a dark cloud. For government entities, where the stakes involve national security and public trust, these threats can pose severe consequences. In this guide, we'll dive into robust strategies for preventing and responding to government data breaches, tailored to keep data secure and restore confidence promptly when breaches occur.
Understanding the Risks of Government Data Breaches
Government data breaches are not just disruptive; they can lead to loss of sensitive information ranging from national security details to personal identifiers like social security numbers. The rise of sophisticated cyber-attacks further complicates the landscape.
Case Study: The Impact on Public Trust
Consider a scenario where a city's municipal records are compromised, resulting in the exposure of citizen addresses, tax information, and other sensitive data. The immediate fallout might include financial loss for residents and a significant erosion of trust in digital government services.
Preventative Measures to Shield Government Data
Prevention is the first line of defense in the cybersecurity battle. For government bodies, establishing robust data governance frameworks and adopting advanced security technologies are vital steps.
Implementing Advanced Encryption Methods
Encryption acts as the bedrock of data security. Upgrading to advanced encryption standards such as AES-256 can prevent unauthorized access, even if data is intercepted during transmission.
Regular Security Audits and Pentests
Regularly scheduled audits and penetration testing can uncover vulnerabilities before they are exploited. Think of it as a routine check-up to ensure your security measures are in perfect shape.
Training and Awareness Programs
Human error accounts for a significant number of breaches. Conducting regular training sessions can educate employees about the latest phishing tactics and other cyber threats, significantly mitigating risk.
Swift Response Strategies for Mitigating Damage
When a data breach does occur, a swift, organized response can greatly reduce its impact. Here is how governments can prepare and react effectively.
Rapid Response Team
Establish a skilled rapid response team ready to take immediate action. This team's responsibilities should include isolating the breached systems, assessing the damage, and beginning containment efforts.
In the wake of a breach, transparent communication with the public and stakeholders is crucial. Formulating a communication plan that addresses what is known, what is being done, and how affected individuals can protect themselves can help manage the situation more effectively.
Integrating Data Governance Tools from Deasie
Embracing platforms like Deasie to optimize data governance can be a transformative step for government agencies. Here’s how Deasie could assist:
Automated Compliance Checks
Deasie helps in ensuring that all data management practices comply with governmental regulations and standards, automating this compliance to reduce human error.
Real-Time Data Monitoring
Using Deasihilites, agencies can monitor data usage and access in real time, getting ahead of potential breaches before they expand.
While government bodies face significant challenges in protecting data, adopting a combined approach of stringent preventative measures and effective response strategies can turn the tide against cyber threats. By integrating advanced tools like Deasie and staying vigilant about cybersecurity, governments can safeguard the backbone of our society—our data.
Guard up and stay prepared – your data governance journey shields our collective future.
Discover the Future of Data Governance with Deasie
Elevate your team's data governance capabilities with Deasie platform. Click here to learn more and schedule your personalized demo today. Experience how Deasie can transform your data operations and drive your success. | <urn:uuid:8ff2ef5f-2bae-47ed-9cad-2a24229bb2f2> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.deasie.com/post/government-data-breaches-prevention-and-response-strategies-3651f | 2024-09-07T14:38:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650883.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907131200-20240907161200-00026.warc.gz | en | 0.900628 | 733 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The Text-to-Speech Engine technology (more commonly known as TTS) is used to create a voice version of the text document.
The rise in the use of digital devices, and the growing dependence upon voice recognition and similar technologies, TTS is gaining prominence.
But, the applications of the technology don’t just stop there. With the help of this technology, you can convert the text emails into voice recordings. It can also help the visually challenged people to understand text content.
We will be looking at some of the best open source TTS engine tools through this blog. This will help us understand their features and benefits more clearly.
Top Open Source TTS Tools
MARY Text-to-Speech is a multilingual TTS synthesis platform that supports English (British and American), French, German, Italian, Russian, and many other languages.
- Uses preprocessing techniques like tokenizer and numerical expansion.
- It uses multi-threaded network architecture processes multiple requests in parallel.
- It is flexible in nature so that you can use both pure Java models and external models.
- It uses XML structures to improve transparency and is easy to understand for common users.
eSpeak is a compact open-source text to speech engine that is available for both Windows and Linux. It supports English and many other languages. Let us take a quick look at some of its key features:
- This platform can easily do the text to phoneme translations. This helps the system to understand the meaning of the text and helps it to translate and pick up the pronunciations accordingly.
- It comes with two synthesizers :
- eSpeakinG synthesizer, which converts vowels and sonorant consonants to complete the sound with sound addition technology.
- Klatt synthesizer uses a similar technique but with subtractive synthesis. It uses digital filters to understand the difference between consonants, vowels, and sonorants.
- This tool was used by Google Translate in 2010 because of its differentiation technology and speed to convert the text into voice.
- The sound quality of voices is clear and soothing to ears.
It is a lightning-fast, open-source TTS engine and its core features include:
- As it is based on FLITE technology, you can customize how the voice sounds.
- It is a small latency platform and uses a limited resource footprint.
- It works seamlessly on Linux, Android, and Windows.
- Currently, this tool is working on bringing realistic voices to people with speech disorders.
Festival Lite is more commonly known as Flite. It is a small, run time engine that is considered to be one of the fastest TTS engines.
As it is an open-source engine, it is free, and you can do many customizations. Hence many of the companies are opting for this TTS engine. Let us look at some of its core features:
- It can be used for both small and large files.
- It is thread-safe, and its latest version provides a hassle-free TTS conversion.
- It is compatible with Windows, Linux, and Android.
- It is also available in multiple languages.
MBROLA stands for Multi-Band Resynthesis OverLap Add. MBROLA is also one of the prominently used open-source TTS engines. And it provides support for many of the spoken languages. Let’s take a quick look at some of its key features:
- It provides a multilingual database.
- It is useful for in-house text to speech conversions.
- It was a non-commercial software earlier but is now launched as an open-source TTS engine.
- It provides pleasant sound quality with consistency and accuracy in voice pitch.
YakiToMe allows you to convert text files into voice files easily. You can download the voice files into MP3 audio files. Let us understand the salient features of it.
- The engine not only supports .doc, txt, and .pdf files, but it also supports.HTML, RSS, and email files.
- You can download the portable files and save them on your desktop, tablets, and smartphones.
- It also provides a social platform from which you can search subscribe to files created by other users.
- It offers support in English, French, and Spanish.
- It provides voice, speech speed, and pronunciation controls.
With the above-mentioned tools, we can understand that open source tts engines can be used widely to convert text from different languages. We can also use these engines to create social platforms, in-house utilities, and much more. | <urn:uuid:db2eef15-0135-447c-8aa9-e48347f879b2> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.knowledgenile.com/blogs/open-source-tts-engine | 2024-09-14T21:48:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651580.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914193334-20240914223334-00326.warc.gz | en | 0.943464 | 967 | 2.890625 | 3 |
As industries increasingly rely on data for their daily operations, the question of where companies should store their data is beginning to evolve as well. Today, high latency and bandwidth issues are significantly impacting organizations’ day-to-day functions as they move to the cloud.
The explosion of generated data by smart devices in homes, factories, vehicles, businesses, and even cities requires more substantial data-processing power than ever. Many organizations find that their industry requires a critical application that utilizes robust real-time analysis, but the reach of the cloud and centralized data centers is no longer effective.
The increasing need for real-time data is pushing organizations to Edge computing power. Keeping the processing nearby is critical to improving performance, and many companies are taking advantage of micro data centers (MDC) for their Edge computing needs.
Here is what you need to know about Edge computing and how data centers fuel the Edge computing revolution.
What is the difference between Edge computing and micro data centers?
People use the terms ‘Edge computing’ and ‘micro data center’ interchangeably. However, they are two separate concepts.
Edge computing refers to the distributed architecture where data processing happens closer to where it is generated, as opposed to in the cloud or a remote data center. MDCs, on the other hand, are the data center design that implements edge computing for organizations.
Edge computing enables businesses to move some of their compute resources and storage out of the traditional centralized data center and put it closer to the source of data itself. That allows companies to work where the data originates, such as a factory floor, retail store, or across a smart city.
Edge computing is increasingly the data of the future, with Gartner estimating that 75 percent of enterprise-generated data will be processed outside of the cloud or a traditional centralized data center by 2025. Micro data centers are where most of this will occur as it provides proximity to enable edge computing.
The top benefits of Edge computing and micro data centers
By using micro data centers, companies can harness the top benefits of Edge computing:
Security is always a chief concern when it comes to sensitive data. Although devices need to be properly secured, it is a more secure architecture that reduces the chances of compromise.
The distributed architecture of Edge computing makes it more challenging to compromise over more traditional models. It’s also possible to cordon off one compromised area in the event of a breach without needing to shut down the entire operation.
All networks have some limit on their bandwidth. Although it may be possible to increase bandwidth, it can be costly and doesn’t solve all problems. However, Edge computing significantly reduces bandwidth by lowering the overall volume of traffic moving to and from central servers.
IT eliminates unnecessary processing tasks and problematic bottlenecks. Users will benefit from a faster performance as a result.
Traditional networking requires data to be transmitted to centralizing servers to be processed. Then, the servers send instructions back if they need to respond. This can cause significant latency.
Edge computing through micro data centers delivers faster response time over more traditional models. Because it processes critical functions closer to the end-user, it has a significantly lower latency.
Industries that benefit most from edge computing and micro data centers
Companies that require real-time processing, such as those who use sensors, 5G, or IIoT, bandwidth limitation and latency can present a real problem. Edge computing, enabled by micro data centers, overcomes these challenges by reducing the length data has to travel.
Although most organizations could benefit from the use of Edge computing, it is essential for those industries that utilize smart devices and cutting-edge data, such as:
The rise of 5G makes it likely that many companies will need the processing resources of micro data centers. However, these industries face digital transformation and need the processing power to keep up with competitors.
More from Zella DC
For both traditional on-premise data center compute, as well as for edge, the micro data center provides a cost-effective and lower maintenance alternative, writes Zella DC's Angie Keeler
Micro DC firm delivers outdoor hut to Internet Initiative Japan as part of new Edge solution IIJ will offer to customers
Company says new Opex model offers more companies chance to deploy micro data centers | <urn:uuid:f7fafbf6-80e1-468e-a660-be6cf675692d> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/opinions/how-micro-data-centers-make-edge-computing-possible/ | 2024-09-18T15:35:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651899.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918133146-20240918163146-00026.warc.gz | en | 0.92679 | 881 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Welcome back, fellow hackers! If you have used the well-known exploitation framework Metasploit before, you probably came across the phrase “Payload” at some point. But what are Payloads in Hacking Lingo? That’s what we are going to learn today.
Generally, we can say that there are 3 main groups of Payloads.
The three main Payload groups
Now let’s have a brief look at each of them to get a better understanding of how they work.
Singles are self-contained and completely standalone. Those Payloads are used to perform simple commands for information gathering or they can be used to make significant changes to the system you are attacking. An example would be creating a new admin user and enabling Remote Desktop Connections.
Stagers are used to establish network connections between the attacker and the victim. Those connections are designed to be small and reliable. You basically can get Shell-Access over the Network. You can control a compromised system with it. When using this kind of exploit, shellcode will be executed on the target system that will execute, for example, a windows cmd.exe or a bash shell on a local network port. This shell access now awaits connections on the port. You can, for example, use Netcat to get a connection to the exploited system.
You could use Netcat to connect to the open port like in the example below
nc 192.168.1.54 5718
The problem with this attack is, that if the targeted system is behind a firewall, you will be able to still run the exploit, but once you try to connect to the opened port, the firewall would prevent you from connecting. That’s why you mostly use Stages to create a Reverse-Shell.
Alright, let’s talk about the last and most used type of Payload: Stages.
Those Payloads provide advanced features like Meterpreter, VNC Injection and so on. Stages have the same goal as Stagers: Creating Shell-Access to the target system over the network. Reverse-Payloads execute Shellcode on the target system. This Shellcode creates a connection from the Target Computer to an open port on the Attacker’s computer. So it is the opposite than in a Stagers Payload. Because this connection is established from the Target Computer and not to the Target Computer, it is often possible to surpass Firewalls, except on very tightening systems.
So those are the three main Payload types. There are more, which you can read up on here. But this should give you a good idea and a basic understanding of how certain types of Payloads work.
Until next time, keep hacking! | <urn:uuid:5a30c909-3036-4e41-a3c8-fd0137d42d94> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.ceos3c.com/security/payloads-hacking-lingo/ | 2024-09-19T17:31:54Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652055.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919162032-20240919192032-00826.warc.gz | en | 0.934276 | 563 | 2.6875 | 3 |
What Is Data Analytics?
If you’re familiar with IoT connected devices, you understand that their existence and relevance rely heavily on the data they manage to obtain. However, when it comes to the end-user, it’s not merely the raw data that they find value in but rather the digestible interpretation of the information gathered, i.e., the data analytics. Data analysis is the process by which raw data is transformed into meaningful information that will help a user draw key insights needed to make decisions moving forward. It brings core information to the forefront to provide easy to understand metrics on the user’s end.
Why Does It Matter?
The ability to present data in a digestible and meaningful way is what makes an IoT solution desirable to consumers. Anyone can print datasets on a page and hand them off, but it would take time and effort on the user’s end to sift through that information manually and shape it into something they can work with. Data analytics provides users with the ability to easily pick up on patterns or trends within the information collected by their device. The insight provided by the data analysis ensures a user is well equipped with the knowledge needed to make effective business or personal product decisions with confidence.
For the most part, consumers are willing to invest in IoT technology upfront because of the likelihood that the solution will end up paying for itself down the line. This can happen by pinpointing areas where there are wasted resources or saving them time and effort by automating tasks that were previously done manually. Powerful and intelligent data analytics play a key role in providing them with the metrics integral to making these realizations possible.
Individuals and businesses hold significant power in that they’re in a position to be picky about the quality of data analysis they can produce. As a result of the advancements in Artificial Intelligence and a flood of open-source software, the availability of this sort of technology is no longer an obstacle. Competition amongst data analytics providers is strong, and legacy companies that once dominated the industry are now struggling to lead and prove their relevance.
Thanks to these emerging technologies, data analytics are also becoming smarter, extracting key information in less time, learning what’s important to the consumer and catering to their needs. As IoT becomes more integrated into daily life, data analytics are imperative to helping a user draw key insights without having to do any of the heavy-lifting.
A Quick Example
It’s easier to conceptualize the effect proper data analytics can have on an IoT solution when presented in a Applications. Let’s say you manage a farm using an IoT solution with sensors that report crop hydration-levels, daily sunshine intake and several other factors. A heavy rainstorm comes through the area and shortly afterwards, you notice a number of the crops have substantially increased in their growth.
Thanks to the data analytics provided to you by your IoT solution, you’re able to see that the crops that are improving are also the ones who gathered more water during the rainfall. Therefore, you learn that this type of crop thrives when it receives more water and are able to easily make a small adjustment that ultimately leaves you with a more bountiful harvest. Of course, this is a fairly straight-forward and idyllic situation, but you get the gist.
IoT data is largely sourced from sensors that are advancing in capability. These sensors gather information from their environment that the IoT connected device usually receives via cloud in the form of datasets. It’s then up to the solutions provider how these datasets are translated and presented to the user – aka the data analysis. This means that, as hardware advances and devices are able to pick up on more attributes, the information available to the end-user also advances.
However, as the IoT industry grows in popularity and becomes even more intertwined with daily life, it’s important to bear in mind that there are still some potentially significant constraints. The limitations to the mutually beneficial relationship between excelling devices and information gathered are often dictated by roadblocks encountered during hardware development. Factors such as unforeseen costs and delays in production time are the main hindrance to IoT solutions that have the software aspect nailed down.
Advanced data analytics are no longer a fancy add-on but an integral part of any IoT solution. They provide users with the knowledge necessary to make smarter business or personal decisions and can point out potential problem areas without requiring significant effort on the user’s end. IoT is fueled by the power and capability of data. However, as much value as there is in pure quantitative data, there’s more power in the way data is categorized and what insights a user can draw from it. Data analysis enables profitable decision making by consumers, and, as the field of IoT technology expands in popularity, with it will grow the demand for advanced data analysis tools. | <urn:uuid:d254bd63-6ae4-4860-8a82-0a5464e01dba> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.iotforall.com/role-data-analytics-iot | 2024-09-10T00:03:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651164.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909233606-20240910023606-00826.warc.gz | en | 0.956538 | 987 | 2.734375 | 3 |
What is Network Automation?
Network management has been a manual and time-consuming process, often reliant on repetitive tasks and prone to human error. Network automation aims to streamline these processes by leveraging software to automate repetitive actions, reducing the reliance on manual intervention and improving the efficiency and accuracy of network operations.
Network automation applies software tools and technologies to automate various tasks and processes associated with managing and configuring computer networks. This encompasses various activities, from provisioning and configuring network devices to monitoring performance, troubleshooting issues, and applying security updates.
Working on Network Automation
Network automation typically functions through the following steps:
Defining the Automation Scope
Defining the automation scope involves identifying the tasks or processes suitable for automation. This could include tasks like user provisioning, device configuration, security policy enforcement, or network monitoring.
Developing Automation Scripts or Workflows
Developing automation scripts or workflows utilizes programming languages, APIs (Application Programming Interfaces), or configuration management tools to automate the identified tasks.
Testing and Deployment
The automation scripts or workflows are tested in a non-production environment to ensure functionality and avoid unintended consequences. Once validated, they are deployed into the production network.
Monitoring and Optimization
Ongoing monitoring of the automated processes is crucial to ensure their effectiveness and identify areas for improvement. This may involve analyzing logs, performance metrics, and user feedback to refine the automation scripts or workflows as needed.
Different Types of Network Automation
Network automation can be categorized into various types based on the scope and complexity of the tasks they address:
Basic automation: This involves automating simple, repetitive tasks like user provisioning, password resets, or fundamental device configuration changes.
Advanced automation: This encompasses more complex tasks like network configuration management, security policy enforcement, and automated network troubleshooting.
Intent-based automation: This advanced form of automation focuses on defining the desired network state rather than scripting specific steps. The automation engine then translates the intent into specific configuration changes and execution.
Benefits of Network Automation
Network automation offers several significant benefits for organizations, including:
By automating repetitive tasks, network automation frees up valuable time and resources for network administrators to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Reduced human error
Automating tasks minimizes the risk of errors commonly associated with manual configuration and management, leading to a more reliable and stable network environment.
Network automation enables faster provisioning and configuring of network resources, allowing organizations to adapt to changing business needs more effectively.
Automated security policy enforcement and vulnerability scanning can strengthen the overall security posture of the network.
By reducing manual workloads and improving operational efficiency, network automation can significantly save costs in the long run.
Challenges of Network Automation
Despite its advantages, network automation also presents certain challenges that need to be addressed:
Implementing network automation solutions can require an initial investment in software tools, training, and potential changes to existing infrastructure.
Introducing automation into the network environment necessitates robust security measures to mitigate the risks associated with potential vulnerabilities in automation scripts or workflows.
Successfully implementing network automation may require upskilling IT staff to develop and manage automation tools and workflows effectively.
Certain network tasks may be inherently complex and challenging to automate effectively, requiring careful analysis and potential human intervention when needed.
Best Practices for Network Automation
To ensure successful implementation and optimize the benefits of network automation, organizations can adopt these best practices:
1. Clearly define the automation scope: Start by identifying well-defined and repetitive tasks suitable for automation.
2. Select the right tools and technologies: Choose tools that align with your needs, skill set, and budget.
3. Develop robust testing procedures: Implement thorough testing processes to ensure the accuracy and reliability of automation scripts before deployment.
4. Prioritize security: Implement stringent security measures to safeguard the automation tools and workflows from unauthorized access or malicious activities.
5. Start small and scale incrementally: Begin with automating more straightforward tasks and gradually progress towards more complex processes as expertise and confidence are built.
6. Document and monitor: Document the automation process thoroughly and continuously monitor its performance to identify areas for improvement. | <urn:uuid:ebe0364e-e2eb-4956-af4d-a666b98ae4b7> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.motadata.com/it-glossary/network-automation/ | 2024-09-13T17:29:46Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651535.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913165920-20240913195920-00526.warc.gz | en | 0.885682 | 863 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Reflecting on the past and present of Black History Month
- Posted on February 16, 2022
- Estimated reading time 2 minutes
Black History Month will always mean much more than 28 days of Black excellence and achievement. Interwoven into the fabric of our nation is the supreme exhibition of those Black profiles of courage, like exceptional researchers who have received such a distinction in the fields of academics or contemporary artist that examine how race identity shapes and affects the way in which folks of African ancestry reclaim our time and further explore heritage and representation.
As we continue to speak and celebrate the names of our Black history heroes like Sister Rosa Parks and Brother George Washington Carver, Black history is being made every day. “Instead of making history, we are made by history.” - The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Those historical moments that forever changed the nation were introduced to me at the age of four, when my classmates and I saw our first images of racial inequality from the civil rights era. What felt like a single event occurring intentionally in February created a powerful impression: an abrupt awakening to what I know, think, and feel; the unimaginable words from my teacher as she recalled her own experience of growing up in the South during the segregation era.
Today, I celebrate Black History by writing this blog post on behalf of our INSPIRE Black Employee Network, and for all of February I plan to celebrate Avanade for inspiring how I choose to be seen, and have my voice heard. I also take Black History Month as a time for reflection: the obstacles our Black ancestors faced are not the same as the struggles of Black Americans today, but in many ways, our life experiences are similar. Today, we continue to collectively yearn for inclusion and equality. How often did that yearning for inclusion show up in our ancestors’ dreams as well?
I noticed right away Avanade's courage and commitment to champion for inclusion when I joined seven months ago. From that pivotal moment during onboarding when leadership spoke openly about the nation’s social unrest for Brother George Floyd and Sister Breonna Taylor, whose deaths were felt around the world, I knew then as I know now that there is something special about our culture. It feels beyond impactful to be a member of the Avanade family. | <urn:uuid:40c6f446-56b6-426a-9c39-9621abb522ad> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.avanade.com/en/blogs/inside-avanade/diversity-inclusion/black-history-month-past-present | 2024-09-07T22:22:15Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650920.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907193650-20240907223650-00226.warc.gz | en | 0.965327 | 471 | 3.046875 | 3 |
▼ Last week, Jaap van Till asked me if BGP would be capable of supporting the terabit class interconnectivity that he foresees we’ll need in the future, possibly due to the rise of artificial intelligence. He explains his reasoning in the blog post What Link speeds will we need for AI, where he quotes VAN TILL’s CONJECTURE:
The network connection Wide Area access speed will grow in time until it matches the internal device BUS speed of the more and more complex processors and datastores.
And then concludes that 14 Tbps external links will be required in 2039. Today I can get 4 Gbps where I live. So that means a 70% speed increase per year.
Let’s first get that BGP question out of the way: I see no problems. 25 years ago I ran BGP over 64 and 128 kbps links without trouble. Six orders of magnitude later, BGP is still fine, and there is no reason to believe that even faster speeds will be a problem, just as long as the packet loss rates remain minimal.
But what would terabit class network connectivity at home look like?
Actually, I think we have all the parts to build this today. With Wavelength Devision Multiplexing (WDM), it’s possible to transmit multiple data streams through a single fiber by using slightly different wavelengths/frequencies of infrared laser light. Coarse WDM (CWDM) is relatively cheap and appropriate over shorter distances, with 18 wavelengths standardized over high performance fiber. (Fewer over most existing fiber.) For long distances, dense WDM (DWDM) can use as many as 160 wavelengths over a single fiber pair.
Bandwidth per wavelength is now 100 or 200 Gbps, and expected to increase in the future. So anything between say 10 x 100 Gbps = 1 Tbps and the 20 Tbps used by modern seacables should be possible. The catch is of course the cost.
The difficulty is with the transmitting side, as this requires a tuned laser per wavelength. On the receiving side, the wavelengths can be split using a prism and hit a set of wideband receivers. As someone who is definitely not in the business of building this equipment, it seems to me that a system with one or a small number of transmitters, a passive optical bus, and a large(r) set of receivers is definitely something that could enjoy radical performance vs cost improvements over time. And it fits perfectly with the most efficient / high speed way to connect homes to the internet that we have today: PON (passive optical network). So just add additional wavelengths to existing PON installations to gain more bandwidth in the downstream direction.
However, now we have a new challenge: TCP/IP is not a good fit for sending the massive data streams that would make good use of such a network. The problem is that TCP tries to adjust its end-to-end data transmission rate to available bandwidth. This means it needs to wait for acknowledgments from the receiving side to know it can increase its transmission rate, maintain it, or slow the transmission rate down. Downloading 100 MB over a 1 Tbps link takes less than a millisecond. But even over PON, the round-trip-time is a millisecond or two. This means that the bottleneck is the number of round trip TCP requires to reach that full terabit speed. Even if that’s an extremely unrealistic 10 RTTs, that means the total transmission time is now 11 ms, effectively only using a tenth of the available bandwidth.
So we need to overhaul TCP/IP for the super high speed stuff and instead use something more like circuit switching / time division multiplexing / token passing. Yes, everything old is new again! So for instance reserve ten 100 μs timeslots and transmit ten 10 MB “megapackets”.
So I think all of this is highly doable!
Well, there is the slight challenge of how to pipe all that bandwidth into your laptop without connecting/disconnecting that fiber all the time. Maybe use eight Thunderbolt 5 interfaces in parallel to reach 960 Gbps?
Permalink - posted 2024-04-09 | <urn:uuid:e30dbccb-dc54-4c8f-ad57-bc92466697b0> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | http://bgp.iljitsch.com/ | 2024-09-10T08:34:38Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651224.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910061537-20240910091537-00026.warc.gz | en | 0.932551 | 872 | 2.59375 | 3 |
The coronavirus outbreak has forced the global population to become more digitally dependent than ever. Already, nearly every enterprise today requires the internet for almost all business operations, and the outbreak has only intensified this by necessitating that employees work from home. In doing so, the attack surface multiplies incomprehensibly, giving malicious actors more opportunities to pounce. The sad truth is that despite the sombre climate, there really is no rest for the wicked.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) reminds us that cyber attacks in the midst of the outbreak are more than just a nuisance – they can be deadly. In particular, the WEF explains that "broad-based cyberattacks could cause widespread infrastructure failures that take entire communities or cities offline, obstructing healthcare providers, public systems and networks."
It didn't take long before cyber criminals would sink their teeth into opportunities to attack the organisations crucial to the pandemic and disrupt information flow. By March, both Worldometers.info (a primary source for coronavirus statistics) and the US Department of Health and Human Services fell victim to cyber attacks.
In the UK, Hammersmith Medicines Research (HMR) suffered an attack while the facility performed COVID-19 vaccine trials. HMR were sadly unable to pay the ransom, and the hackers released the data to the public. Overall, hospitals, research hubs, and even the World Health Organization (WHO) are reporting more hacking attempts during the outbreak.
Ransom is one of many reasons malicious actors may wish to attack a medical facility. Other motivations include simply causing disruption and panic or to sell intelligence on the black market. Whatever the aim, the consequences are dire, proving a viscous cycle: the coronavirus outbreak exacerbates cyberterrorism, but cyberterrorism is also hindering the progress we can make in overcoming the disease.
Cyber attacks are increasingly infiltrating our homes too
However, larger bodies are not the only targets experiencing a surge of attacks. The 'infodemic' – a term the WHO coined to describe the abundance of information, accurate or otherwise – is giving malicious actors ammunition to attack too.
Understandably, people are searching online for prevention methods, cures, and so on. Of course, this is a highly dangerous endeavour in itself given that there is so much information out there that is purposefully false or misleading. Worse still, it also presents an opportune time for actors to strike and capitalise.
In particular, phishing attacks are becoming increasingly common. Malicious actors are taking advantage of the situation by posing as various authorities to distribute malicious links. Often, these links promise intelligence regarding data local to the recipient or treatments and cures. Of course, amid all the panic and chaos, such offerings are enticing to recipients who are fearful in the current climate.
By following through on the instructions provided in the phishing attack, the recipient will be coaxed into handing over their credentials. If not that, then they may be tricked into installing malware by clicking through on the links.
Phishing is becoming even harder to spot given the increasingly sophisticated nature of the attacks. Today, malicious actors are gaining enough intelligence on their targets that they could even pose as the recipient's colleagues. For example, if you were to receive an email that appeared to be from your ops team/CEO/HR that discusses how your company is responding to the crisis (with a "click here for more information" and all the rest that follows), you would be hard-pressed to recognise that it is actually from a cyber criminal.
In the same way that people are exercising vigilance for their physical health at this time, they must also do so to ensure their online safety. It is especially important that people only pay attention to information that comes first-hand from reputable sources. Just like you shouldn't take medical advice from a post on a Facebook group, you must also not succumb to any links for cures, treatments, or information unless it comes directly from a legitimate authority. For tips on how to spot coronavirus-driven phishing attacks, check out this article. | <urn:uuid:c2c4cbe7-5be2-4983-b4b8-7ad8151b7cc5> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://em360tech.com/continuity/tech-features-featuredtech-news/coronavirus-cybersecurity-risks | 2024-09-11T09:55:32Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651383.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911084051-20240911114051-00826.warc.gz | en | 0.956066 | 830 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Here are the reasons why GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) has become a preferred choice for many service providers and network deployments:
High Bandwidth: GPON provides high bandwidth capacity, enabling service providers to deliver gigabit speeds to end-users, which is essential for modern applications like 4K video streaming, online gaming, and telecommuting.
Scalability: GPON networks can cover long distances (up to 20 kilometers or about 12.4 miles) between the central office and end-users. This makes it easier to expand coverage, even to rural or suburban areas.
Efficient Use of Fiber: Thanks to its point-to-multipoint topology and the use of passive splitters, GPON allows a single fiber from the service provider's central office to be split and serve multiple homes or businesses.
Integrated Services: GPON supports the delivery of multiple services over a single fiber infrastructure. This includes high-speed internet, Voice over IP (VoIP), and IPTV. This convergence of services is efficient and offers a unified solution for service providers.
Future-Proof: Fiber-optic networks are considered future-proof because the physical medium (fiber) has a tremendous inherent capacity. While current GPON standards offer gigabit speeds, the fiber itself has the potential to support much higher capacities with upgrades to equipment and protocols.
Security: GPON offers inherent security advantages, both physically (fiber is harder to tap into without detection) and digitally (through encryption of data).
Environmentally Friendly: GPON's passive nature means fewer powered components in the distribution network, leading to lower energy consumption.
Reliability: Fiber is less susceptible to environmental factors compared to copper. This means fewer issues related to weather, corrosion, or electromagnetic interference.
Global Adoption: The widespread global adoption of GPON means a mature ecosystem of vendors, equipment, and expertise, making deployments more straightforward and reducing costs due to economies of scale.
With technology constantly growing, and end users demanding faster internet speed, fiberoptic technology is the absolute way to go. Fiber to the Home (FTTH) networks continue to be in high demand because of this. Fiber cables are the only thing that can support the demand for higher speeds as well as distance within networks. Fiber optic cables have another advantage over metal cables, such as copper, in that they are less susceptible to interference. Spark hazards are always a possibility when using a metal cable to transmit signal. Small sparks can occur when sending electric potentials down a metal medium, these small sparks have the potential to cause shortages. By using GPON fiber optic cables, this will eliminate that hazard due to no current being transmitted. With a single optical fiber being able to support multiple users due to the use of passive optical splitters makes GPON an advantage by reducing equipment, satisfying high density areas as well as supporting triple play service; voice, date and IP video at the demanding rate of the public. With ethernet connections being only point to point, GPONs clear advantage is it being point to multipoint as well as offering higher downstream speeds then EPON/GEPON.
In summary, GPON offers a mix of high performance, cost-effectiveness, and flexibility, making it an attractive choice for service providers looking to deliver broadband services. As user demands continue to grow, the capacity and efficiency of GPON help providers meet these requirements efficiently.
To learn the difference between different PONs, click here. | <urn:uuid:92684a9e-7ed2-4e64-917d-5897a6d3b704> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.gpon.com/why-gpon | 2024-09-12T14:34:54Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651460.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912142729-20240912172729-00726.warc.gz | en | 0.932402 | 711 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Connects decision-makers and solutions creators to what's next in quantum computing
Quantum Computing for the Pharmaceutical Industry
Pharmaceutical companies are using quantum computers to make drug discovery faster and safer
March 1, 2023
A new report from Enter Quantum explains how quantum computers could hold the key to finding new ways of assembling molecules to create novel medications.
The human body’s reaction to a disease involves complex interactions between many proteins. Pharmaceutical companies conduct drug development by identifying a target and finding potential candidate medicines, a process that can take up to four years.
Synthesizing potential future medicines requires many interrelated calculations involving complex molecules, which classical computers struggle with. Current gate-based quantum computers are not yet powerful enough to tackle the problem beyond very small molecules.
Another type, quantum annealing processors, can solve protein folding problems and optimize drug trials. However, they have limited applications and are best used to refine the problem to be finished on a classical computer.
The consensus is it will be 10 years until quantum computing is commercially viable in the pharmaceutical industry and that gate-based computers hold the most promise long-term. However, organizations should start researching quantum now to maintain a competitive advantage.
About the Author
You May Also Like | <urn:uuid:b2eb7389-4199-4c1d-959f-f0e05184476e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.iotworldtoday.com/health-care/quantum-computing-for-the-pharmaceutical-industry | 2024-09-12T16:34:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651460.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912142729-20240912172729-00726.warc.gz | en | 0.929625 | 256 | 3.109375 | 3 |
OneNote is a digital note-taking and organization tool that allows users to capture, store, and share information. It can be used for a variety of purposes, such as taking notes in meetings or class, organizing research, and collaborating with others. OneNote has become popular among individuals and organizations alike due to its versatility and ease of use.
OneNote provides users with a virtual notebook where they can create and store notes, add multimedia elements like images and audio recordings, and even draw or handwrite notes. The notes are organized into sections and pages, allowing users to easily find and reference information. OneNote also integrates with other Microsoft products, such as Office and Outlook, which makes it a valuable tool for people who already use those applications.
Another key aspect of OneNote is its collaboration capabilities. Users can share their notebooks with others, allowing multiple people to access and edit the same information in real-time. This makes it a useful tool for team projects, group study sessions, and other collaborative endeavors.
Overall, OneNote's combination of ease of use, versatility, and collaboration features has made it a popular tool for note-taking and organization. Due to OneNote’s growing popularity among organizations and companies alike, hackers have taken to exploiting OneNote in order to take control of target computers.
How Hackers Exploit OneNote to Access Victim’s PC
Hackers have been using malicious Microsoft OneNote attachments as part of phishing scams to remotely access victims' computers. The phishing emails typically appear to be from a trusted source and contain an attachment or a link to a OneNote file. When the victim opens the attachment or clicks on the link, it launches a malicious script that gives the attacker remote access to the victim's computer.
Once the attacker has gained access to the victim's computer, they can use it to steal sensitive information, install additional malware, or carry out other malicious actions. In some cases, the attackers have used the remote access to install ransomware, which encrypts the victim's files and demands a ransom payment in exchange for the decryption key.
It's important to note that these phishing scams are not a vulnerability in Microsoft OneNote itself, but rather a tactic used by attackers to exploit human trust and trick victims into installing malware on their computers. By using OneNote as part of the scam, attackers are able to make the emails appear more legitimate and increase the chances of victims falling for the scam.
To protect yourself from these types of attacks, it's important to be cautious of unexpected emails or links, especially if they contain attachments or direct you to download something. Always verify the authenticity of requests for information or downloads before acting on them, and be sure to keep your software and security tools up-to-date to reduce your risk of falling victim to phishing scams.
We recommend that you go even further and outright block OneNote attachments from within your spam filter or email security gateway. We have started blocking OneNote attachments outright since learning of this potential exploit. If you are unsure about your email security, or interested in learning more about how Natural Networks can work with your team to prevent spam, phishing, and know best practices, give us a call today! | <urn:uuid:d83f492c-f8c2-4583-bd35-fb6ef59030dc> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.naturalnetworks.com/how-hackers-use-onenote-to-take-over-your-pc/ | 2024-09-15T03:53:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651614.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915020916-20240915050916-00526.warc.gz | en | 0.934723 | 655 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Ultrasound Research Group at Neurotechnology Announces New 3D Printing Method Based on Ultrasonic Manipulation Technology
The patent-pending, non-contact manipulation technology uses ultrasonic waves to trap and move small particles and components, enabling 3D printing and assembly using a wide range of materials and components.
Vilnius, Lithuania – June 26, 2017 – The Ultrasound Research Group at Neurotechnology today announced that it is developing a new, patent-pending ultrasonic 3D printing technology. This new technology will enable 3D printing and assembly of almost any type of object using a wide range of different materials and components. Because of the non-contact nature of ultrasonic manipulation, even small particles in the submillimeter range and sensitive components can be easily handled without causing any damage, enabling its use in many different prototyping and manufacturing scenarios.
As a demonstration, the Ultrasound Research Group has created a prototype printer that can assemble a simple printed circuit board (PCB), and the company has produced a video that further explains this innovative technology.
The demonstration prototype employs an array of ultrasonic transducers for the positioning of electronic components on a PCB board. In order to ensure high positioning accuracy, it uses a camera for detecting the position of the PCB and the various electronic components. A laser is used for soldering the elements onto the PCB in a non-contact way, complementing the non-contact component manipulation.
"Ultrasonic manipulation can handle a very large range of different materials, including metals, plastics and even liquids," said Dr. Osvaldas Putkis, research engineer and project lead for Neurotechnology's Ultrasound Research Group. "Not only can it manipulate material particles, it can also handle components of various shapes. Other non-contact methods, like the ones based on magnetic or electrostatic forces, can't offer such versatility."
Ultrasonic manipulation is a non-contact material handling method which uses ultrasonic waves to trap and move small particles and components. It has a few key advantages over conventional mechanical handling methods:
- It can be used for manipulating material particles and components with very different mechanical properties and shapes,
- It can deal with a large range of particle and component sizes, from a couple of millimeters down to a submillimeter range,
- It can manipulate very small components while completely avoiding the presence of electrostatic forces, and
- It can manipulate sensitive components without causing any damage.
The Ultrasound Research Group at Neurotechnology has strong expertise in the development of transducer technology and dedicated electronics for array control, ultrasonic field modelling and ultrasonic particle manipulation. Neurotechnology has a patent pending for a 3D printing apparatus and method employing ultrasonic manipulation. The company invites other companies to take part in further development and application of this technology.
For more information about Neurotechnology's ultrasonic 3D printing and manipulation technology go to www.neurotechnology.com.
Neurotechnology is a developer of high-precision algorithms and software based on deep neural network (DNN) and other AI-related technologies. The company offers a range of products for biometric fingerprint, face, iris, palmprint and voice identification as well as AI, computer vision, object recognition and robotics. Drawing from years of academic research in the fields of neuroinformatics, image processing and pattern recognition, Neurotechnology was founded in 1990 in Vilnius, Lithuania and released its first fingerprint identification system in 1991. Since that time the company has released more than 130 products and version upgrades. More than 3000 system integrators, security companies and hardware providers integrate Neurotechnology's algorithms into their products, with millions of customer installations worldwide. Neurotechnology's algorithms have achieved top results in independent technology evaluations, including NIST MINEX and IREX.
Neurotechnology's Ultrasound Research Group was created in 2014 and has since been working on ultrasonic 3D printing projects and other ultrasound-related research.
Jennifer Allen Newton
Bluehouse Consulting Group, Inc.
jennifer (at) bluehousecg (dot) com | <urn:uuid:62e71b8a-d6df-4f1a-8dbc-3c9c0d166f49> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.neurotechnology.com/press_release_ultrasound_3d_printing.html | 2024-09-15T04:29:08Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651614.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915020916-20240915050916-00526.warc.gz | en | 0.904887 | 839 | 2.78125 | 3 |
The 3 Components of a Network: Explained
Routers, switches, and firewalls are three core components of any network. Once you have an understanding of them, everything else is a little easier to understand. As the world becomes increasingly remote, the demand for network professionals is skyrocketing. When it comes to networking, there is no better way to level up your skills than to earn a CCNP Collaboration certification.
Like most Cisco certifications, CCNP Collaboration can be a challenging certificate to obtain. However, the best way to learn the material is to start with a thousand-foot understanding of the subject. Starting with the three building blocks of networking is about as high up as you can go. So, let's start with the simplest of the three first: switches.
What is a Network Switch?
A switch is a device that allows us to connect multiple computers together. While computers are the main device hooked into switches, it can also connect printers, security cameras, Cisco Voice IP phones, and more.
Once a switch is connected to a device, the MAC (Media Access Card) address of the device is discovered and used for routing. The switch attaches the MAC to outgoing packets so the device can be identified by other devices on the network.
This is considered Layer 2 (L2) communication in accordance with the OSI Model. (I.E, the data link layer.) However some switches use L3 (I.E, the network layer) — but we'll get to that later.
A network switch provides full-duplex communications. This means that network packets are sent back and forth without having to wait for a response. In fact, all three components mentioned today are full-duplex. Some switches are considered managed, while others are unmanaged.
Unmanaged vs. Managed Switches
An unmanaged switch is considered plug-and-play. In other words, the switch arrives pre-configured out-of-the-box, and there isn't a whole lot you can do with it. Unmanaged switches are the sort of devices that are seen in private homes or small offices. The good news here is that it is simple and easy to use. However if your network situation is complex, then something with a little more horsepower is required.
Managed switches come with significantly more functionality. Managed switches allow for advanced configuration and allow traffic monitoring via Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). For instance, determining whether a port is up or down, or how much CPU the switch is consuming can be determined using SNMP. Also, these more advanced routers provide redundancy. This means you can have "fall back" switches in case the primary one fails.
Redundancy, configuration, and monitoring is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of functionality. Watch this video for more information.
L2 vs. L3 Switches
An L2 works with MAC addresses only for routing and identification. For the purpose of visualization, here is an example of a MAC address: 00:00:5e:00:53:af. A MAC address is printed onto every single device's NIC (Network Interface Card) that has the capability of connecting to a network. This unique identifier is how switches determine the identity of the device.
L3, on the other hand, uses the more familiar IP address to determine identity. It is important to remember that L3 devices can do static and dynamic routing. L3 allows for fast switching using application specific integrated circuits (ASIC). The skinny of this is that ASIC allows for extremely fast switching using a special purpose silicone chip.
So it sounds like managed switches can do it all, right? Not so fast. There are plenty of network requirements that can be accomplished only with a router. So let's talk about that.
What is a Router?
A router is a device that connects a local area network to the internet. It performs this function by forwarding packets using an IP address, therefore it is an L3 device.
A router can perform a host of functions to facilitate inter- and intra-network communications. For example, a router utilizes dynamic host control protocol (DHCP) to assign IP addresses to each connected device. Then, that information can be used to send data in and out of the network. However, to communicate out to the internet, Network Address Translation (NAT) is required.
What is NAT?
NAT is a way of mapping an internal IP address to one recognizable over the internet. Let's take a look at a quick example of why this is useful. We'll do so through negation.
Say we did not have NAT. An employee is on a computer that has an IP address recognized throughout the LAN. Let's say that the IP address is 188.8.131.52. This employee then tries to access a web address on the internet—so the router promptly forwards the request using the local IP address. This will not work though, because the destination web address is not part of that network, therefore it does not recognize the IP address.
With NAT, on the other hand, the IP address is changed to something recognizable in transit. This address translation occurs in the router. That means that the destination server is not communicating with the source itself, but only has understanding up to the router.
NAT works great if there are a few devices on the LAN, but what if there are hundreds? This is where port address translation (PAT) comes into play. If there are hundreds of devices on a LAN, an IP naming collision is inevitable. So in this case, a port number is attached to the NAT address. A router can naturally route traffic, but it can also allow or deny traffic via an access control list (ACL). An ACL is a pivotal functionality of a router, so it is worth talking about.
What is an ACL?
An ACL is a list of IP addresses that are forbidden to leave the network or enter the network. It is considered stateless—that means it relies only on what is configured.
Think of an ACL as a bouncer at a nightclub. It has a list of who is NOT allowed to enter. If you're on that list, then you're out of luck. The bouncer (for whatever reason) has a list of who is NOT allowed to leave the nightclub.
For more information on ACL's, check out this great primer. This is all high level, but should give you a broad understanding of what a router does. The last component we'll discuss is the firewall.
What is a Firewall?
A firewall is a device that allows or denies traffic onto a network. It sits between the LAN and the router. "But wait," you may be thinking, "Doesn't an ACL already allow and deny traffic?" That's a good question, so let's break down the difference between a firewall and an ACL.
The biggest difference is that an ACL is stateless, while a firewall is stateful. An ACL simply checks if the IP address is authorized or not, that's it. A firewall is far more sophisticated. A firewall will analyze the packet for red flags.
For example, a firewall can be configured to allow IP addresses, but only ones from certain ports that have specific security certificates. Or maybe a firewall will notice that a packet with a source IP address is getting sent thousands of times a second. That's kinda weird, could be a Distributed Denial of Service attack (DDoS).
A firewall can also be configured to accept pre-defined protocols from specific IP addresses. So if an IP address is trying to use SSH instead of HTTPS, the firewall will know. Firewalls are great because they provide granularity to your security configurations. ACL's on the other hand are not nearly as smart. Find more training on Cisco Meraki MX Firewalls here.
In this post we discussed switches, routers, and firewalls. Each one of these are fundamental building blocks of networking. An intimate understanding of each is required to pass virtually any Cisco exam.
In summary, a router routes packets using a MAC address if it is L2, or IP address if it is L3. A router provides users with access to the internet. It uses a host of protocols to facilitate communication. It can also allow or deny certain IP addresses using its ACL. ACLs are stateless. Finally, a firewall provides granular control over what can and cannot access the network. It can analyze each packet and flag them based off predefined configurations.
Hopefully this post has given you a broad overview of the three key components of a network. For more in-depth information, check out this video. Can't access it? Sign up for a no-strings-attached 7-day trial.
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By PrivSec Report2020-09-07T14:17:00
The six most commonly discussed data protection regulations are the European Union’s GDPR, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States, Brazil’s LGPD, Canada’s Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) and the Australian Data Privacy Law.
The six foundations of data privacy regulation
These regulations establish the who-what-when-where-how and why of data governance – a set of principles, practices and in some cases obligations that define how data is managed, reported and maintained. Effective data governance ensures that data is consistent and trustworthy and is not misused.
Importantly, defining what data governance means to an organisation is one of the good practices that should be adopted in an organisation’s journey towards compliance.
By understanding the common elements in each regulation as it relates to data governance, we can gain a more thorough understanding of the actions available to businesses in the stated regions which will subsequently help to prepare organisations for likely additions to data law as they become enacted.
Also it’s important to note that organizing and improving data flows does not just ensure compliance with current regulatory regimes but acts as a strong foundation for future legal developments. | <urn:uuid:82b65285-ff47-4886-b50a-4af60381649b> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.grcworldforums.com/whitepapers/the-six-foundations-of-data-privacy-regulation/36.article | 2024-09-17T16:12:56Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651800.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917140525-20240917170525-00326.warc.gz | en | 0.92805 | 276 | 2.625 | 3 |
December 10, 2010
Now that major supercomputers exceed a petaflop per second in performance - or one quadrillion calculations per second - supercomputing researchers have been discussing the potential for "exascale computing." Experts in high performance computing say exascale computing is attainable, but will require dramatic changes in both hardware and software design, as outlined in an article at the Institute for Engineering and Technology (link via InsideHPC).
What's the primary challenge? A familiar story for data center professionals: the power bill. "There are a few very hard problems we have to face in building an exascale computer," explained Wilfried Verachtert, high-performance computing project manager at Belgian research institute IMEC. "Energy is number one. Right now we need 7,000MW for exascale performance. We want to get that down to 50MW, and that is still higher than we want."
Yes, that's 7 gigawatts of power for an exascale computer. Verachtert says that's enough power to keep 14 nuclear reactors running. How does it compare to today's data center power usage? It's more than 100 times the power required to operate The 700,000 square foot Microsoft data center in Chicago, which uses about 60 megawatts of power.
Read more at the IET web site.
About the Author
You May Also Like | <urn:uuid:2dc4783c-c6cb-47f7-a073-b031d0614c06> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/energy-power-supply/exascale-computing-gigawatts-of-power | 2024-09-07T23:29:42Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650926.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907225010-20240908015010-00326.warc.gz | en | 0.929251 | 287 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Different organizations have different purposes.
Some are focused on producing goods.
Some are focused on moving goods from one place to another.
Some are focused on providing intellectual products and services.
Regardless of the types of businesses they are in, they must all have a range of business processes and compliance requirements to adhere to, including the need to document and secure information in their systems.
As the global pandemic disrupts many of our routines in the physical world, more and more business processes that were once done on paper and in person are migrating to digital systems. This trend won’t go backward or even slow down in the near future.
The question is – are we really ready for accelerated digitization? On one hand, we have seen the burgeoning of innovations and tools to support an increasingly digital business environment, but on the other, there has been no shortage of information security incidents that occur due to lack of understanding and consideration of potential issues and risks brought about by digitization. One important issue is how we know “who is who” and “what is what” now that we can hardly deal with the physical being of the who and the what. For example, the simple question of how one is supposed to know someone who claims to be from their bank on the other end of the phone is actually the case. Without a proper level of assurance in our new digital systems and processes about the who and the what, information always flows in a high-risk environment.
This article is going to introduce some of the long-term behind-the-scenes work that is aimed to address the “who is who” and “what is what” – the identity issue in the digital age. It is a set of frameworks and guidelines that we call open standards/internet protocols. Thanks to the advancement of cryptography in the last 25 years, these protocols are now mature enough to support a more secure Internet at the scale of its use today and tomorrow.
Many may be familiar with Internet protocols, such as HTTP for web servers, SMTP for emails, which are built and evolved in the open and free for anyone to implement. In the digital age, we need protocols of the same nature for our digital identities and the identities of things being transacted online so that everyone can build their processes in a way that allows the information of people and things to flow smoothly/interoperably and securely across systems, many of which are not developed or managed by themselves.
A good starting point for both business and technical decision makers new to this topic of internet identity is the two foundational standards, Decentralized Identifiers (DIDs) and Verifiable Credentials Data Model, both by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web.
Last month, the W3C approved Decentralized Identifiers as a new standard, which outlines the basics for creating identifiers that can be resolvable and have associated with them a simple JSON-LD document that contains public keys, the cryptographic keys for authentication and an end point to communicate with. This for the first time creates a standard way to have resolvable PKI – because the end points have the keys that can be used to communicate securely with it.
The DID standard can be leveraged broadly to provide identifiers to people, organizations and things that are not necessarily centralized managed as opposed to our paper-based systems or existing digital systems. Centralized management of identifiers can only provide efficiency to a certain extent – when we have a manageable number of systems and when only a small fraction of our activities are digital. However, the trend to digitize everything poses real challenges to this old way – the explosion of digital systems that serve drastically different needs makes centralization at the Internet scale impossible and the use of the few identifiers we don’t even own throughout a growing amount of online activities creates serious privacy and security issues. DID was invented to tackle these challenges by giving digital systems a standardized way to create, manage and communicate identifiers and allowing subjects of identifiers to own and manage their identifiers in a private and secure manner.
DIDs provide us a way to establish our digital presence across systems by giving us unique, standardized identifiers – we also need mechanisms to express who we are and what something is with a digital presence. This is where the Verifiable Credentials standard comes into play. It has a very broad expressive capacity and it was designed to let any entity make claims about any other entity or thing. With Verifiable Credentials, one can have a collection of signed claims about themselves in a commonly recognizable data format across the Internet and digital systems.
Now, let’s look back on the simple bank representative question. With the DID standard, a bank can create DID(s) for itself and its branches without relying on any existing central certificate authorities, and make public the public key(s) associated with the DID(s). By using the private key pair(s), the bank and its branches can sign and issue Verifiable Credentials to its staff that includes information about themselves, e.g. their name, title and branch. So when a bank representative contacts a customer, the customer can use the public key(s) of the bank to verify if the person is from the bank and gain trustworthy information about the person from the credential. A similar mechanism can be applied to goods, whose information flows across organizations and systems.
Both DIDs and Verifiable Credentials are in their early stage of implementation in the real world, but their design and some initial success, as demonstrated through the US Department of Homeland Security’s Silicon Valley Innovation Program, have presented a promising path to a much more scalable and secure digital world. As many businesses have tasted the bitterness of rapid digitization without secure digital identities, you may want to start exploring these emerging standards now and avoid building anything proprietary identity systems that will prevent you from participating in the mainstream Internet interactions down the road. | <urn:uuid:9591dc64-4492-4603-93bd-b8010d490d40> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://grcoutlook.com/a-key-piece-of-the-puzzle-to-information-security-in-an-increasingly-digital-business-environment/ | 2024-09-09T04:44:23Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651072.23/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909040201-20240909070201-00226.warc.gz | en | 0.955416 | 1,218 | 2.59375 | 3 |
In the ever-evolving world of cybersecurity, understanding the tactics employed by malicious actors is crucial. In this blog, we delve into the world of dictionary attacks, and the mechanics behind these password-cracking techniques, shedding light on how they compromise your online security and giving you advice on the best automated security solution to mitigate and defend against these attacks.
What is a Dictionary Attack?
Hacker thinking thrives on innovation, constantly devising new ways to breach supposedly secure systems. One kind of attack stems from the vulnerability of an organization’s first line of defense – passwords. Dictionary attacks prey on vulnerabilities. And more often than not, take on the guessability factor of your password.
Hackers thrive when organizations employ straightforward or predictable combinations for logins. They may start with common words found in a dictionary, like a pet’s name, birthday, or cherished icons. This is where the concept of a “dictionary attack” comes into play.
Online Dictionary Attack
Just as the title implies, online dictionary attacks occur when there’s a breach with an online entity. This could be a strike within the network service. Generally, online dictionary attacks are less viable because of the additional layer of security metrics and protocols implemented by entities. These include maximum log-in attempts and limited-time authentication. However, online dictionary attacks become riskier, especially if there’s a leak of information.
Offline Dictionary Attack
In an offline dictionary attack, there’s no correspondence with a server or system. Hackers can maximize their guessing efforts but the chance of detection is slim. With no definite limitations, this makes an offline dictionary attack similar to a guessing game- which requires a significant amount of effort considering the password possibilities are limitless.
How Dictionary Attacks Work
A dictionary attack takes advantage of common passwords or default log-ins to get into systems. These include simple phrases and easy number combinations like 123456, 111111, and password123. Through trial and error, hackers go through each of the preselected passwords one by one, until choosing the right combination.
Although a dictionary password attack is relatively simple compared to other cyber breaches, there’s still a high level of uncertainty for hackers. And this relates to the duration of the attack. It may take minutes, hours, or even days before the infiltration happens. It largely depends on a series of factors, including the extensiveness of the word list.
To better understand what a dictionary attack is, let’s take on the key factors that determine this type of security breach.
Modification of Words
One of the major features of a dictionary attack is the manipulation of simple, single passwords. This is the reason why customization of words based on patterns is relevant to dictionary attacks. For example, hackers modify potential pre-listed passwords like default, default123, or default1234. However, replacing minimal characters is another way (instead of a password, they try p@ssword or p@$$word).
Relevance of a Word List
Now, hackers don’t stop at modifying words. Dictionary attackers also utilize test phrases related to the target audience. For instance, hackers who are eyeing a breach in different organizations utilize a couple of phrases linked to the city, such as iconic landmarks, sports teams, or noteworthy descriptions of the city.
Examples of Dictionary Attacks
Dictionary attacks have plagued organizations and businesses around the world. Some of the companies affected by this type of cyber attack includes companies such as:
- Twitter (2009)
- LinkedIn (2012)
- Adobe hack (2013)
- Dropbox (2012)
- Ashley Madison (2015)
Why are Dictionary Attacks Successful?
In a digital landscape, convenience influences risk. This is particularly evident when choosing a password. It’s human nature to pick a simple password combination rather than keep track of complex login details. But, of course, the consequences of this can be severe. And that’s why dictionary attacks in cyber security are successful and recurrent; whether it’s about the usage of common phrases as passwords or the misalignment of technical skills. Even the cybersecurity talent shortage gives hackers an advantage.
Consequences of a Dictionary Attack
Just like any other type of cyber security breach, the implications of dictionary attacks on passwords are ominous. Some of the common repercussions of a dictionary attack include:
- Locked accounts
- Data loss
- Brand impersonation
- System damage
- Operational disruption
- Financial loss
Mitigating and Defending Against Dictionary Attacks
Hackers capitalize on digital footprints efficiently. For this reason, it’s crucial for organizations to understand the best dictionary attack mitigation techniques to prevent breaches in their systems:
1. Choose a Unique Password
With Dictionary attacks focusing on how passwords are set up, it’s important to choose the right combination. Be different, not predictable. Strengthen passwords by using a combination of unique characters, including symbols, numbers, and uppercase letters.
2. Update Passwords Regularly
According to most experts, organizations should change passwords every few months. The lack of changing passwords regularly is a main factor for accounts that have been compromised. Outdated accounts and passwords are a hacker’s dream.
3. Get Help from a Password Manager
Using a password manager is another technique to prevent dictionary attacks. Through this tool, memorizing passwords isn’t needed. The system does the work for you, making log-ins much easier. Aside from automating the process and filling in all key details, password managers improve overall security.
4. Try Biometric Identification
Biometrics offers a more secure way of authenticating an account. It makes use of physical features to log in, including face, finger, retina and vein. As it capitalizes on physical authentication like finger mapping or face recognition, it leaves dictionary attacks impracticable. Biometrics identification is widely used in mobile devices, especially when using banking apps and payment methods.
5. Take advantage of Rest API Authentication
Rest API Authentication is the process of verifying the identity of a user or client before granting access to a REST API, a type of web API that follows the Representational State Transfer (REST) architectural style. REST is a set of guidelines that define how applications or devices can connect and communicate with each other. Some of these authentication methods help defend against dictionary attacks are:
- Enforcing strong password policies that require passwords of a certain length and complexity.
- Implementing rate limiting, or account lockout policies, to make it more difficult for attackers to brute-force passwords. This feature automatically locks the account after several failed log-in attempts.
- Using CAPTCHA challenges that are designed to be difficult for computers to solve but easy for humans to solve, preventing automated dictionary attacks.
- Implementing two-factor authentication (2FA), a mitigation technique that adds an extra layer of security to accounts through the usage of an OTP.
- Avoiding username enumeration to prevent attackers from being able to determine whether a given username exists. This can be done by obscure error messages and avoiding responses that indicate whether a username is valid or not.
- Using strong password hashing. A process of encrypting passwords that makes them difficult to crack. Strong password hashing algorithms use a salt ( a random value that is unique to each password), making it more difficult for attackers to crack passwords using rainbow tables.
How Dictionary Attacks Differ from Other Cybersecurity Attacks
While dictionary attacks generally highlight how passwords are set, there’s a fine that makes it unique. Although dictionary attacks are associated with other types of cyber security attacks, it’s important to be able to distinguish them accordingly.
Dictionary Attack vs Brute force
The difference between a brute force and a dictionary attack is distinguished by the manner of the attack. A brute force attack broods over all password possibilities. Although randomness
significantly influences the process, it may result in longer completion times. Additionally, when compared to a dictionary attack, it specifically targets a single user.
Password Spraying vs Dictionary Attack
Password spraying is technically a dictionary attack that wields regular patterns and frequently used passwords such as birthdates, names, and common phrases. It sneaks into the system using the same password for all accounts. Unlike dictionary hacking, this type has a lower success rate, especially for systems and accounts with longer and more complex passwords.
Rainbow Table vs Dictionary Attack
Featuring a precomputed table filled with password options, a rainbow table attack centralizes on specific hashes and plaintexts. A rainbow table password attack can seamlessly infiltrate the system as long as the password is within the corresponding algorithm.
A hacker, prompted by an outdated password in the target application, utilizes password hashes to generate a rainbow table for decrypting all users’ passwords. The risk of a rainbow table attack lies in its greater storage requirements and longer table creation time.
What are Dictionary Attack Solutions?
The digital world’s evolution drives technology development and the growth of advanced hacking techniques, exemplified by numerous readily available dictionary attack tools, some even accessible online for free, posing a threat to system security.
Empower Your Organization’s Security with Swimlane Turbine
Keeping your cybersecurity landscape safe and up-to-date is crucial. With the help of Swimlane Turbine, you get the perfect combination of human and machine intelligence with AI-enabled security automation. Our modern approach to security automation ensures flexibility, seamless integrations, and actionable insights. Implementing Swimlane Turbine protects your business from dictionary attacks and other common SecOps challenges
If this information is helpful to you read our blog for more interesting and useful content, tips, and guidelines on similar topics. Contact the team of COMPUTER 2000 Bulgaria now if you have a specific question. Our specialists will be assisting you with your query.
Content curated by the team of COMPUTER 2000 on the basis of news in reputable media and marketing materials provided by our partners, companies, and other vendors.
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With 5G rearing its head and the Internet of Things going from strength-to-strength, everything in the world is becoming connected. Thanks to 5G, in the not too distant future, high-speed connectivity will be available for all… except where it isn’t.
A 5G IoT utopia
5G promises mobile communications with speeds equalling, and in many cases, surpassing those achieved by home broadband. As well as the obvious benefits for mobile users, high-speed connectivity and increased availability will also benefit the IoT, allowing more devices to send and receive more data.
While this sounds like a data utopia, 5G may not have all the answers where the IoT is concerned. For example, what about connectivity between cities and across borders? In this article, we look at what’s needed for truly ubiquitous global IoT coverage and filling the gaps between coverage hotspots.
Smart cities and connectivity bubbles
The need for 5G is largely driven by the move towards smart cities. In a truly smart city, all things are connected. This means cars will have an intelligent dialogue with traffic systems, home appliances will communicate with utility suppliers, garbage trucks will communicate directly with waste bins and so on. In order for this to happen, a lot of bandwidth needs to be made available, which is where 5G comes in. Offering a theoretical download speed of 10,000 Mbps as well as ultra-low latency, 5G has everything a smart city needs in terms of connectivity.
It would appear that for all of the reasons above, 5G has the Internet of Things sewn up, and for those within the urban sprawl, to some degree, it does. However, for those operating outside the urban bubble, across borders or in territories where 3G is still yet to be properly implemented, it’s not so simple. For much of the world, 5G will be out of reach for several years.
Don’t carry all your IoT eggs in one basket
In terms of connectivity, given the pace of change in the industry, carrying all of your eggs in one basket could be incredibly short-sighted. Simply put: if your IoT solution relies on only one method of connectivity, it will only work in places where that connectivity exists. In the short-term, 5G connectivity will fit into the same category as LoRa and SigFox – i.e. connectivity will only exist in bubbles. If your devices need to operate outside of the bubble they will need another connectivity option.
Outside the connectivity bubble
For businesses that need to operate outside of a connectivity bubble, other options have to be considered. The most common option for operating outside these bubbles is 4G/LTE. With a roaming data agreement, devices will still be able to operate outside the limitations of a 5G, SigFox or LoRa network. Many network operators are able to offer international roaming data contacts that will allow a device to operate in several different countries, however, this comes with a significant and sometimes unpredictable cost and may still not have quite the coverage needed by the business.
4G/LTE coverage is patchy at best when you look at the global picture. Many countries have not yet upgraded and some don’t even have it on their radar at all yet. Even in developed countries like the UK, 4G is still very shaky once you get outside the big towns and cities. Combine the lack of ubiquitous 4G coverage with potentially high data costs and it soon becomes clear that a 5G/4G-based IoT network isn’t suitable for all – especially businesses that operate in remote locations or across borders.
Talk is cheap, so let’s use voice
Don’t rely on the TCP/IP layer of the mobile network - instead, allow devices to send and receive messages using the voice-based GSM (2G) network. The big advantage of using 2G is the coverage. 2G is available in over 190 countries worldwide and in most cases runs alongside 3G and 4G communications. Where countries have not yet upgraded to 3G or 4G, 2G is usually widely supported by multiple carriers.
Nothing lasts forever – especially not 2G
The problem with using what is essentially old technology is that it won’t be around forever and that is true of 2G. In countries where full coverage is offered by 4G/5G, 2G is being switched off… eventually. For IoT deployments relying only on 2G, this will cause problems in the future. How far into the future we need to look depends on the territory in question. For example, South Korea has already shut down 2G but there are still third-world countries yet to see a full 3G rollout, let alone full 4G/5G implementation. For these countries, 5G could be as much as ten years or more away.
Even countries with good 4G coverage may be a while away from switching off 2G altogether. In countries where mobile rollout has been slow, innovators have had no choice but to use the older technologies. For example, in many African countries, the use of USSD shortcodes (a text-based messaging component of 2G) has become commonplace for allowing feature phone users access to websites and applications. For this reason, 2G will remain a very cost-effective option for some time.
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Low-power is essential in the dark
All IoT devices require power to operate. If your device isn’t inside a connectivity bubble, there’s a good chance that it will need to operate without a power supply, relying on batteries to take the strain. Simply choosing bigger batteries isn’t the answer. The cost of charging hundreds or even thousands of devices soon adds up and the batteries themselves can also add a significant cost to a device.
For the reasons above, it’s important that IoT devices draw as little power as possible in order to ensure continuous operation between the bubbles.
Finding the right connectivity solution for IoT deployments is essential and a big part of that is WHERE it needs to work. 5G may not have the answer yet and it may never achieve ubiquity but for those that need low-power, low-cost IoT that works in remote areas or across borders, there are other options available right now.
Lee Stacey, Product Evangelist, Thingstream
Image Credit: Flex | <urn:uuid:0dec8938-6708-4b1e-8009-666dd54e2f16> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.5gradar.com/features/will-5g-be-a-miracle-worker-for-iot-connectivity | 2024-09-11T17:40:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651390.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911152031-20240911182031-00026.warc.gz | en | 0.953443 | 1,342 | 2.5625 | 3 |
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