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NETCONF Protocol Stack consist of four main layers. These NETCONF Protocol Stack are:
Operations Layer is the mechanims that handle the NETCONF operations present in the requests and reply messages. Each element is associated with some parameters. XML encryption works in this layer. There are also many operation parameters works here. We will give the list of this operation parameters below.
At the Message Layer, RPC messages and notifications are defined. and messages are used here.
At the Transport Layer, there is a communication path between the Client and the Server. With this communication path, end-to-end network connection is provided and message exchange is done. | <urn:uuid:a224f3d0-01d7-4513-919e-40338556c8d6> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://ipcisco.com/lesson/netconf-protocol-stack/ | 2024-09-16T20:31:57Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651710.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916180320-20240916210320-00895.warc.gz | en | 0.905359 | 134 | 2.6875 | 3 |
What is Risk-Based Vulnerability Management?
Risk-based vulnerability management is a proactive strategy that identifies, prioritizes, and mitigates vulnerabilities within an organization’s IT infrastructure. It evaluates potential risks linked to vulnerabilities, focusing on those that pose the greatest threat to critical assets.
As organizations face an increasing number of cyber threats and sophisticated attacks, this risk-based approach to vulnerability management has become a necessity. Conventional methods often result in overwhelming vulnerability lists, complicating prioritization and effective addressing, much like the challenges of using CTI due to high volume and low relevance data.
By adopting a risk-based approach, organizations can allocate resources more efficiently, improving the understanding of the potential impacts of vulnerabilities on business operations, data security, and compliance requirements. Implementing a risk-based vulnerability management program has several advantages, including strategic resource allocation, a clear understanding of risk posture, and the integration of key components such as regular vulnerability assessments, threat intelligence integration, risk prioritization methodologies, and incident response capabilities.
What is the Difference between Risk-Based Vulnerability Management vs. Vulnerability Management?
Risk-based vulnerability management (RBVM) and vulnerability management (VM) are both practices aimed at identifying, prioritizing, and mitigating vulnerabilities within an organization’s systems and software. However, they differ in their approach and focus:
While vulnerability management is more tactical and focuses on finding and fixing vulnerabilities based on their severity, risk-based vulnerability management takes a more strategic approach by considering the broader risk context and business impact of vulnerabilities. RBVM helps organizations prioritize their efforts and resources more effectively to manage risk in a way that aligns with their overall business objectives.
Building a Successful Risk-Based Vulnerability Management Program
Implementing a risk-based vulnerability management program is vital for organizations looking to proactively safeguard their digital assets. By prioritizing vulnerabilities based on risk, resources can be effectively allocated to address the most critical security issues first. Let’s walk through the steps to create a successful program:.
- Start by identifying and assessing vulnerabilities across your organization. Conduct a comprehensive vulnerability assessment that scans your systems, networks, and applications for weaknesses. Advanced scanning tools can provide a thorough understanding of your digital infrastructure’s vulnerabilities.
- Next, assess the potential impact and exploitability of identified vulnerabilities. This step involves evaluating the likelihood of an attack and the potential consequences of exploitation. By considering various factors, you can assign a risk score to each vulnerability.
- Once you understand the vulnerabilities and associated risks, develop a remediation strategy. Prioritize based on risk, focusing on the most critical threats first. This efficient resource allocation effectively reduces your organization’s overall risk exposure.
Best Practices for Risk-Based Vulnerability Management
Adopting certain best practices can enhance your risk-based vulnerability management approach, strengthen your cybersecurity posture, and efficiently mitigate risks.
- Maintain Threat Intelligence. Maintaining up-to-date vulnerability databases and threat intelligence sources is crucial. This ensures that organizations have the latest information on vulnerabilities and potential threats, enabling proactive action.
- Practice Continuous Monitoring. Continuous monitoring and assessment of vulnerabilities is another essential practice. Regular scanning of systems and networks for potential vulnerabilities and assessing their severity allows for prompt identification and remediation, reducing opportunities for attackers.
- Implement a Feedback Loop. Establishing a feedback loop for ongoing improvement and optimization is also crucial. Feedback from various sources, such as incident reports, security audits, and user feedback, helps identify areas for improvement. This feedback loop allows organizations to refine their vulnerability management processes and optimize their security measures.
How does Forescout help with Risk-Based Vulnerability Management?
Forescout offers a comprehensive suite of solutions that enhance visibility, compliance, and proactive defense strategies. Here’s how Forescout helps organizations manage cybersecurity risks:
- Operational Risk & Compliance Analysis: Forescout combines real-time and persistent asset state and compliance data in its Cloud data lake, reducing operational overhead for asset management. This provides clear and concise asset intelligence for every connected asset, including IT, IoT, IoMT, and OT devices, whether managed or unmanaged, and tracks configuration and changes over time.
- Operational Resiliency & Incident Management: Forescout offers comprehensive risk and exposure intelligence by identifying various exposure attributes and quantifying their impact with a unique multifactor risk score for every asset. This helps in correlating information based on configuration, function, and behavior, thus providing a holistic view of security gaps across the attack surface.
- Anomalous Behavior & Threat Detection: Forescout enables risk-based prioritization and remediation by focusing efforts on assets that present the most critical risk severity and exploitability. It also helps in locating and tracking assets that share common exposure attributes, allowing organizations to design and automate remediation workflows efficiently.
- Accelerated Incident Investigation & Response: Forescout leverages historical asset context to aid analysts in proactive investigation of risks and reactive response to incidents and events. By correlating risk and exposure attributes with asset compliance and configuration state, Forescout helps limit the blast radius and reduces the time spent on root cause analysis and mean time to resolution (MTTR).
Schedule your demo to see how Forescout Risk and Exposure Management can quickly identify exposure, quantify risk, and prioritize remediation of security issues. | <urn:uuid:c5c8320e-c6eb-4327-9675-efd9727bffb2> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.forescout.com/glossary/risk-based-vulnerability-management/ | 2024-09-18T01:14:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651835.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918000844-20240918030844-00795.warc.gz | en | 0.919208 | 1,103 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (or HTTPS) is quickly becoming the norm for sites loaded with Chrome. Google announced in a blog post that the number of websites that protect traffic using HTTPS has increased consistently and considerably. Latest figures show that over 60% of the sites loaded with Chrome use HTTPS. But why, and more importantly how did the tech giant get so many websites to adopt security measures in this rather short timespan?
According to two recent studies, Chrome is the most secure web browser out there. This is a sensible affirmation however, considering the two studies were sponsored by Google, and only compared Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Microsoft Internet Explorer. Firefox and Opera fans can only speculate at this point, but the studies revealed something important nonetheless: Google has been focused for a while now on securing the data that’s sent between browser and website.
“Security has always been one of Chrome’s core principles—we constantly work to build the most secure web browser to protect our users. Two recent studies concluded that Chrome was the most secure web browser in multiple aspects of security, with high rates of catching dangerous and deceptive sites, lightning-fast patching of vulnerabilities, and multiple layers of defenses,” Emily Schechter, Chrome Security Product Manager, said in the blog post.
If nothing else this at least states a clear motivation towards security.
The difference 1 year can make
Google’s secure web movement began on September 8th, 2016. This is when Google announced that beginning in January 2017 (Chrome 56), HTTP pages that collect passwords or credit cards will be marked as non-secure, as part of a long-term plan to mark all HTTP sites as non-secure. Practically every site that wasn’t HTTPS encrypted would have been marked “not secure” in Chrome.
“We wanted to help people understand when the site they’re on is not secure, and at the same time, provide motivation to that site’s owner to improve the security of their site,” said Emily Schechter. “We knew this would take some time, and so we started by only marking pages without encryption that collect passwords and credit cards. In the next phase, we began showing the “not secure” warning in two additional situations: when people enter data on an HTTP page, and on all HTTP pages visited in Incognito mode.”
Google’s Transparency Report revealed remarkable progress on the HTTPS front:
- 64 percent of Chrome traffic on Android is now protected, up from 42 percent a year ago.
- Over 75 percent of Chrome traffic on both ChromeOS and Mac is now protected, up from 60 percent on Mac and 67 percent on Chrome OS a year ago
- 71 of the top 100 sites on the web use HTTPS by default, up from 37 a year ago
Percent of page loads over HTTPS in Chrome by platform. Image: Google
The countries with the most significant improvements in the last year (measured via Chrome on Windows): Japan – from 31 percent to 55 percent, Brazil – from 50 percent to 66 percent, and the U.S. 59 percent to 73 percent.
Future efforts for HTTPS
The truth is that HTTPS is easier and cheaper than ever before. We don’t really have to go through the security argument anymore, all you have to do is scan some news titles from any tech publication and you’ll see just how important it has become for businesses around the world. To help site owners, Google is tackling the HTTPS migration on two fronts:
- Let’s Encrypt – a free, automated, and open certificate authority that helps owners secure their website in a cheap and simple way.
- Managed SSL for Google App Engine – a service that automatically encrypts server-to-client communication.
We’ve gotten to a point where businesses can no longer afford to have insecure websites. It’s not a matter of costs anymore – in fact it’s costly not to secure your business. With HTTPS migration getting cheaper and easier than ever before, it will only be a matter of time before the web becomes more secure as well.
Set-up guides to get developers started. | <urn:uuid:689c9892-019c-4731-a021-d9fdf27193cc> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://governmentcurated.com/editorial/the-great-https-migration-huge-surge-in-website-encryption/ | 2024-09-19T08:40:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651995.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919061514-20240919091514-00695.warc.gz | en | 0.94218 | 868 | 2.6875 | 3 |
A data type is a category for types of data input, such as real, an integer, or Boolean.
It specifies the possible values for that type, the operations that it can do on values of that type, the meaning of the data, and how it can store values of that type.
- (Example) Create a Microsoft Excel File to Use as a Data Source for an App
- Examples - Step-by-step use case examples, information about what types of examples are provided in the AgilePoint NX Product Documentation, and other resources where you can find more examples.
About This Page
This page is a navigational feature that can help you find the most important information about this topic from one location. It centralizes access to information about the concept that may be found in different parts of the documentation, provides any videos that may be available for this topic, and facilitates search using synonyms or related terms. Use the links on this page to find the information that is the most relevant to your needs.
data type, data types, input type, column, field type, data format | <urn:uuid:37d80536-1a5f-40e4-abb7-00edf8ea051f> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://helpdesk.agilepoint.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002743414-data-type | 2024-09-19T07:57:27Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651995.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919061514-20240919091514-00695.warc.gz | en | 0.849634 | 224 | 2.8125 | 3 |
“Security compliance” refers to staying updated with modern cybersecurity standards and regulations defined by some authority group, usually a government entity such as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). These regulations are put in place to protect employees and businesses and lay out formal guidelines for cybersecurity best practices. It can sometimes be challenging due to all the overlapping industry standards and regulations, but keeping up with them can be extremely helpful.
Why is security compliance important?
Security compliance is crucial for small or medium-sized businesses (SMBs) because many SMBs overlook cybersecurity. According to CompTIA, only 40 percent of SMBs implemented cybersecurity compliance while shifting to remote work in 2020, and many SMBs are still behind in their cybersecurity to this day. That makes SMBs prime targets for cyberattacks, which leads hackers to target them preferentially.
For any business, though, a successful cyberattack can cause significant financial damage. According to Invicti, cyberattacks cost businesses in five main ways: response and recovery, investigation, lost productivity, lost revenue, and legal or PR costs. These categories can be distilled down further: cyberattacks can either cause hardware damage that costs money in lost time and repairs or cause a loss of trust or lawsuits due to stolen third-party information. Often, both outcomes may be the case.
How can businesses stay up to date on security compliance?
According to CompTIA, most cybersecurity and data protection laws focus on protecting sensitive data, including personally identifiable information (PII), financial information, and protected health information (PHI). Other types of regulated sensitive information include demographic information, biometric data such as fingerprints, and contact information such as email addresses.
The laws that regulate the protection of these types of information include the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), which regulates credit card data protection, HIPPA, which protects PHI, System and Organization Control 2 (SOC 2), which protects customer records, Federal Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), which protects educational records, and CMMC, which regulates the protection of controlled unclassified information (CUI) about the US military or DoD.
To practice cybersecurity compliance, stay up to date with these listed laws, any regional laws on information protection, and laws that govern the regions of anyone whose information your business holds. Ideally, this should fall upon the IT team or someone with the time and expertise to find and enact all that information. Most protection standards require technical controls such as passwords or otherwise controlled access or physical controls of the data’s location, such as security cameras.
Much of the information and methodology required for cybersecurity compliance in the US is detailed or linked in the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)’s fact sheet on protecting sensitive information.
To stay up to date with cybersecurity compliance, ensure you (or your IT team) stay familiar with digital information laws and ensure your security practices comply with them. | <urn:uuid:7e745e3e-0229-4542-bd74-62f7b95aba31> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.clarityts.com/why-security-compliance-is-not-a-one-time-event-the-importance-of-staying-up-to-date/ | 2024-09-20T13:28:20Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652278.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920122604-20240920152604-00595.warc.gz | en | 0.934658 | 600 | 2.828125 | 3 |
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of hackers? If you’re like most people, it probably has something to do with stealing passwords, injecting malware and demanding ransom payments. But not all hackers operate with malicious intentions. In fact, at least 300,000 hackers are registered as ethical hackers. And some are in-between.
The different subtypes of hackers go by different names:
- White-hat hackers – These are the good ones
- Black-hat hackers – The bad ones
- Gray-hat hackers – These are in-between
White-hat hackers are also known as ethical hackers. They test IT environments – including firewalls, computers, networks and even users – to find vulnerabilities and help organizations secure them before the black-hat hackers take advantage of them.
Black-hat hackers are commonly known as cybercriminals and threat actors. They work to circumvent security systems for personal or financial gain.
Gray-hat hackers have motives that fall somewhere in-between. They break into computer systems and alert administrators to vulnerabilities that need to be addressed. But they may also use their inside knowledge to extort a fee from the victim in exchange for helping to patch the security flaw.
Good guys wear black?
Some people argue that black hats, while operating with criminal intent, are actually performing a beneficial service. Successful hacks typically result in security upgrades for the affected systems, leading to a higher overall security posture.
Cybersecurity analyst and hacking researcher Keren Elezari says that hackers and hacktivists can push the internet and technology in general to become stronger, more secure and more cyber-resilient by exposing vulnerabilities.
Why do they hack?
Simple. Follow the money.
No matter what hat they wear, hackers generally don’t work for free. Not when there’s money to be made. Ethical Hackers earn around $91,000 USD per year. Some technology companies will offer bounties to coders who expose vulnerabilities. Apple offered $1.5 million to anyone who could hack an iPhone. Groups like HackerOne provide platforms connecting businesses, ethical hackers and cybersecurity researchers for security testing. Hackers on the platform have earned over $1 million. Black hats can earn even more, especially when they’re sponsored by governments.
What are other subtypes?
Different hacker personas have different motivations. Here are a few of basic kinds you’ll find out in the wild.
Picture the stereotypical “hacker in a hoodie.” They generally fall under the category of Script Kiddie. They can be programming novices with at least a little coding knowledge. They often use free and open source software from the dark web to infiltrate networks. Their motives can place them in black, white or gray territory.
You’ve probably heard of a group of hackers known as Anonymous, a loosely affiliated group that once took down the CIA’s website. Their primary goal is to bring public attention to a political or social matter through disruption. This puts them into the category known as hacktivist. These gray-hat hackers are known for stealing and exposing sensitive information or launching denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Red hats are the vigilantes of the hacker world. They work to block, disrupt or destroy the work of black-hat hackers. Rather than reporting breaches, they often shut down malicious attacks with their own tools.
Nation-state hackers engage in espionage, social engineering or computer intrusion, typically with the goal of acquiring classified information or collecting ransom payments. As they are backed by government organizations, they are often extremely sophisticated and well trained.
Some of the most dangerous threats are the ones right under your own roof. Malicious insiders are current or former employee who steal or destroy information. They could also be someone hired by a competitor to infiltrate an organization for trade secrets. Malicious insiders pose a very significant risk as they can provide remote access to protected systems. This can lead to a loss of intellectual property, financial fraud or additional cyber-attacks.
Now that you know the hacker subtypes, you should be better able identify threats and maybe even leverage hacking to help secure your business. One of the best defenses against hackers is an automated backup solution, like Carbonite Safe. A backup solution automatically copies your files, either to the cloud or to a local storage device. If a hacker manages to encrypt your files or threatens to delete them, you can recover backup copies without giving in to hacker demands. | <urn:uuid:6f51867d-b321-436c-a95a-a4fa6d6009ab> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.carbonite.com/blog/2020/hackers-wear-many-hats/ | 2024-09-17T01:25:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651722.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917004428-20240917034428-00095.warc.gz | en | 0.949386 | 928 | 3.0625 | 3 |
Demystifying Differential Stamp Duty: A Comprehensive Guide
Stamp duty is an essential part of the financial landscape in India, serving as a significant source of revenue for state governments. Within the realm of stamp duty, the concept of “differential stamp duty” often raises questions and confusion. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore what differential stamp duty is, why it is levied, when it is payable, who is responsible for paying it, the consequences of non-payment, how differential stamp duty varies across Indian states, and practical aspects of calculating and paying it.
Understanding Differential Stamp Duty
What is Differential Stamp Duty?
Differential stamp duty, also known as variable stamp duty, refers to the practice of imposing varying rates or amounts of stamp duty on different types of legal documents or financial transactions. These variations are based on factors such as the type of document, its value, the location where it’s executed or used, and the parties involved. The primary purpose of differential stamp duty is to cater to the specific revenue needs and policies of different states and union territories within India.
Why is it Levied?
The primary reason for levying differential stamp duty is revenue generation. Stamp duty serves as a crucial source of income for state governments and union territories. The revenue generated from stamp duty is essential for funding various developmental projects, infrastructure development, and the provision of public services. By tailoring stamp duty rates to different circumstances, governments can optimize revenue collection.
When is it Payable?
Stamp duty, including differential stamp duty, is typically payable at the time of executing certain types of documents or entering into specific transactions. However, the timing of payment can vary depending on the nature of the document and the stamp duty regulations of the relevant state or union territory. In some cases, stamp duty may also be paid retrospectively, but this can lead to penalties and legal complications.
Who is Liable to Pay it?
The liability for paying differential stamp duty depends on the type of document or transaction. The responsible party is usually specified in the Stamp Act of the respective state or union territory. For example, in property transactions, the buyer is generally responsible for paying the stamp duty on the sale deed. However, it’s crucial to review the specific provisions of the Stamp Act applicable to your situation to determine the responsible party accurately.
Consequences of Not Paying Differential Stamp Duty
- Invalidation of Documents: Documents that are not properly stamped may be considered invalid or unenforceable in a court of law. This can lead to legal disputes and complications.
- Penalties and Fines: Many states impose penalties and fines for late payment or non-payment of stamp duty. These penalties can be substantial and can accumulate over time.
- Legal Proceedings: Governments may initiate legal proceedings to recover unpaid stamp duty. This can include seizing properties or assets to settle outstanding dues.
- Interest Charges: Some states charge interest on unpaid stamp duty, which can significantly increase the overall amount owed.
- Difficulty in Future Transactions: Non-payment of stamp duty can create obstacles in future transactions and may affect your creditworthiness.
Differential Stamp Duty Across Indian States
One of the unique aspects of the Indian stamp duty system is the variation in stamp duty rates across different states and union territories. This variation is primarily driven by the unique revenue requirements and policies of individual states. Here’s a closer look at this aspect:
Stamp duty is a state subject under the Indian Constitution. This means that each state has the autonomy to determine its own stamp duty rates and policies. As a result, there can be significant disparities in stamp duty rates between states.
States use stamp duty as a crucial source of revenue. The rates are often calibrated to generate revenue while also considering the economic conditions, property market dynamics, and overall fiscal needs of the state.
Stamp duty rates tend to reflect the regional disparities in property values and market dynamics. For example, property values in urban centers like Mumbai and Delhi are generally higher than in rural areas, leading to higher stamp duty rates in these cities.
Stamp duty rates may vary depending on the type of property transaction. Residential property transactions may have different rates compared to commercial or industrial property transactions.
State governments periodically revise stamp duty rates and policies to align with changing economic conditions and revenue requirements. These revisions are typically announced through budgetary measures.
Buyers and sellers often consider the stamp duty implications when engaging in property transactions. This can influence the decision-making process and lead to variations in transaction patterns across states.
Compliance and Enforcement
States also invest in stamp duty collection infrastructure and enforcement mechanisms to ensure compliance. This includes the use of technology for property registration and stamp duty payment.
How to Calculate Differential Stamp Duty
Calculating differential stamp duty can be a complex process due to the multiple variables involved. Here’s a simplified process:
- Identify the Type of Document or Transaction: Determine the type of document or transaction for which stamp duty is payable.
- Refer to the Relevant Stamp Act: Identify and refer to the Stamp Act applicable to the state or union territory where the document is being executed or used.
- Check the Schedule of Rates and Exemptions: Within the Stamp Act, look for the schedule of stamp duty rates and exemptions. This schedule provides details on the applicable rates for different types of documents, their value thresholds, and any exemptions or concessions.
- Calculate the Stamp Duty: Based on the type of document, its value, and any other relevant factors, calculate the stamp duty using the rates specified in the schedule.
It’s advisable to seek professional guidance or use online calculators provided by government authorities to ensure accurate calculations, as the rules can be complex and subject to change.
How to Pay Differential Stamp Duty
Paying stamp duty, including differential stamp duty, typically involves the following steps:
- Purchase Non-Judicial Stamp Paper: Obtain the required amount of non-judicial stamp paper from authorized vendors. The denomination and value of the stamp paper should match the calculated stamp duty.
- Prepare the Document: Draft the document or instrument on the purchased stamp paper, ensuring that it adheres to the legal requirements.
- Affix the Stamp Paper: Affix the purchased stamp paper to the document in the designated area. Ensure that it is securely and permanently attached.
- Cancellation and Endorsement: Some states require the stamp paper to be canceled or endorsed by the authorized officer. This involves stamping the paper with official markings.
- Execution of the Document: Execute the document as per the legal requirements. This may involve signing and witnessing, depending on the type of document.
- Payment of Stamp Duty: Pay the calculated stamp duty at the designated government treasury or authorized bank. Ensure that you retain the receipt as proof of payment.
- Registration (If Required): Some documents, especially those related to property transactions, may require registration with the appropriate authority. Registration involves additional fees and compliance with registration laws.
- Retention of Stamped Document: Keep the stamped and executed document in a safe and accessible place, as it may be needed for legal purposes in the future.
MSB Docs eStamp Paper: Modernizing Stamp Duty Payment
In an era of digital transformation, MSB Docs eStamp Paper emerges as a modern solution for streamlined stamp duty payment. This innovative platform facilitates the payment of stamp duty electronically, eliminating the need for physical stamp paper in many regions. With MSB Docs eStamp Paper, users can calculate and pay stamp duty online, ensuring compliance with local regulations. This convenient, secure, and efficient method aligns with the evolving landscape of electronic documentation, offering a hassle-free experience for both individuals and businesses. Stay ahead in the digital age with MSB Docs eStamp Paper, making stamp duty payments more accessible and efficient than ever before.
In conclusion, differential stamp duty is a crucial aspect of the Indian taxation system, with its rates varying across states and union territories. It is levied to generate revenue for state governments and plays a significant role in funding public projects and services. Understanding the nuances of differential stamp duty, including when and how it should be paid, is essential to avoid legal complications and financial penalties.
Whether you are involved in property transactions, business agreements, or other legal documents, compliance with stamp duty regulations is paramount. Seek professional guidance when necessary, and always stay informed about the prevailing stamp duty rates and exemptions in your state or union territory. By adhering to these guidelines, you can ensure a smooth and legally compliant stamp duty process.
Now that you’ve demystified ‘Differential Stamp Duty: A Comprehensive Guide,’ are you ready to put this knowledge into action? Take the next step with MSB Docs. Request a demo or book your free trial today.
1. Is the process of calculating stamp duty the same across all Indian states and union territories?
No, the process of calculating stamp duty can vary significantly from one state or union territory to another. Each state has its own Stamp Act and schedule of rates, so the applicable rates and rules can differ. It’s essential to refer to the specific Stamp Act of the relevant jurisdiction when calculating stamp duty.
2. Are there any concessions or exemptions available for certain types of documents or transactions?
Yes, many states provide concessions or exemptions for specific types of documents or transactions. These exemptions can vary widely and may apply to certain categories of individuals or organizations, such as first-time homebuyers, women, or charitable institutions. It’s crucial to check the Stamp Act and schedule of rates for any applicable exemptions in your state.
3. Can stamp duty be paid electronically, or is physical stamp paper always required?
In many states, stamp duty can be paid electronically through online platforms or e-stamping systems. Physical stamp paper is no longer mandatory for stamp duty payment in several regions. However, the availability of electronic payment methods may vary by state, so it’s advisable to check with the local authorities or government portals for the most up-to-date information on payment options.
4. What is the role of a notary in the stamping and execution of documents?
While a notary public plays a crucial role in verifying and authenticating documents, their involvement does not substitute for the payment of stamp duty. Stamp duty is a separate tax, and the document must be properly stamped as per the Stamp Act’s provisions. Notarization is often required for legal validity and can involve witnessing the signing of documents, but it does not replace the need for proper stamping.
5. Are there any penalties for underpaying stamp duty, even if unintentional?
Yes, there can be penalties for underpaying stamp duty, even if it was unintentional. Many states have provisions to penalize insufficient stamping or attempts to evade stamp duty. These penalties may include fines, interest charges, and legal consequences. It’s crucial to ensure accurate stamp duty calculation and payment to avoid such penalties. | <urn:uuid:dcf784ba-41b3-4c18-a14d-ff2dad49366c> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://msbdocs.com/estamp/demystifying-differential-stamp-duty-guide/ | 2024-09-18T04:18:24Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651836.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918032902-20240918062902-00895.warc.gz | en | 0.9261 | 2,277 | 3.328125 | 3 |
Network Protection: Essential Insights & Best Practices to Protect your Business Network
Network protection has become paramount in today’s hyper-connected digital landscape, where information flows seamlessly across the vast expanse of the Internet.
Network protection, often called cybersecurity or network security, encompasses a comprehensive set of strategies, practices, and technologies designed to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of data transmitted and stored within computer networks.
As the world increasingly relies on digital communication and data sharing, the need to fortify these virtual highways against an ever-evolving array of threats has never been more critical.
This introductory exploration delves into the fundamental principles, challenges, and innovative solutions that form the bedrock of network protection in our interconnected age.
On this page:
- Importance of Network Protection for Businesses
- Types of Network Security Measures and Protections
- Implementing Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
- Strategies for Web-Based Cyberthreat Protection
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
- Enhancing Network Security with Traffic Monitoring Controls
- Best Practices for Network Protection
Importance of Network Protection for Businesses
Network protection, including encryption and management of connections, is crucial for businesses as it safeguards valuable assets such as customer data and intellectual property.
This protection extends to applications and ensures the security and privacy of sensitive information. Without adequate network protection, businesses are vulnerable to cyber attacks that can disrupt operations and damage reputation.
Connections, encryption, and application management are crucial for safeguarding against these threats.
Safeguarding Valuable Assets
In today’s digital age, businesses heavily rely on networks for various operations, connecting applications, devices, and tools. These networks facilitate communication between devices, data storage of applications, and access to the Internet through tools.
Ensuring these networks’ security and integrity is paramount for managing valuable assets. Resources, applications, and tools are essential in protecting these networks.
Customer data is one of the valuable assets that businesses must protect to ensure the security and privacy of their users. Inadequate network protection for devices can lead to unauthorized access or data breaches, compromising sensitive information like personal details or financial records.
To prevent this, having the necessary resources and tools to ensure the security you need is important. This risks users and exposes the business to legal and financial consequences due to inadequate network protection blocks.
Intellectual property, including resources, trade secrets, and proprietary information, is another critical asset that must be safeguarded through effective management. This includes ensuring the protection of valuable assets.
A breach in network security could result in the theft or unauthorized use of intellectual property by competitors or malicious actors. This poses a significant risk to the management of resources and devices and the security of users.
Mitigating Cyber Attacks
Cyber attacks pose a significant threat to businesses of all sizes. These attacks range from malware infections and phishing scams to more sophisticated hacking attempts. It is crucial to have proper network protection and management in place to safeguard against these threats.
Without robust network protection measures, businesses are vulnerable to threats targeting their devices, assets, and data. Businesses must have strong network security solutions like Windows Defender to defend against these threats.
Implementing strong firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and encryption protocols helps mitigate the risk of cyber attacks. Regularly monitoring and updating devices ensure that any vulnerabilities to network protection and assets are promptly addressed.
Employee training programs can educate staff about best practices for online security, reducing the likelihood of falling victim to social engineering tactics.
Regulatory Compliance Requirements
Various industries have regulatory compliance requirements regarding network security. Implementing robust network protection measures helps meet these requirements and demonstrates a commitment to maintaining trust with customers, partners, and stakeholders.
For instance, organizations handling sensitive financial information must comply with regulations such as the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Similarly, healthcare providers must adhere to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to protect patient data on their network.
Failure to meet the windows and network protection requirements can result in severe penalties, legal repercussions, and damage to the business’s reputation.
Types of Network Security Measures and Protections
Network protection is crucial for businesses to safeguard sensitive data and prevent unauthorized access. There are various types of security solutions and measures that organizations can implement to ensure the safety of their networks.
Let’s explore some of these essential network security measures:
By monitoring incoming and outgoing traffic, firewalls act as a barrier between internal networks and external threats.
They analyze data packets, determine whether they should be allowed or blocked based on predefined rules, and help prevent unauthorized access to the network.
Firewalls provide an added layer of protection by filtering out potentially harmful traffic, such as malware or suspicious connections.
Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS)
Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) play a vital role in network security by identifying suspicious activities or patterns that may indicate an ongoing attack.
IDS monitor network traffic in real-time, analyzing it for any signs of malicious behavior or unauthorized access attempts.
When an intrusion is detected, the system sends network protection alerts to administrators to take appropriate action promptly.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) offer secure access to networks through encrypted connections, especially when accessing them remotely over public networks like the Internet.
VPNs create a private tunnel between the user’s device and the network server, ensuring that the data transmitted remains confidential and protected from eavesdropping or interception.
This secure connection ensures network protection, allowing employees to work remotely and maintain the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive information.
Antivirus software is a critical component of any comprehensive network security system. It helps detect, prevent, and remove malicious software from devices connected to the network.
Antivirus programs protect networks by scanning files and applications for known malware signatures or suspicious behavior, ensuring that potential threats are identified before they can cause harm.
Regular updates are essential to keep antivirus software up-to-date with the latest virus definitions and ensure network protection.
Implementing Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA)
Implementing Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) is a crucial step in network protection. ZTNA ensures that every user or device attempting to access the network undergoes strict authentication regardless of their location or previous trust level.
This approach minimizes the risk of unauthorized access and strengthens overall network security.
Enhanced Security with ZTNA
With ZTNA, organizations can minimize the potential impact of compromised credentials or insider threats on their networks.
Unlike traditional perimeter-based security models that rely on trusting users within a defined network boundary, ZTNA adopts a more granular approach based on user identity verification and continuous monitoring.
By implementing ZTNA, organizations can enhance their overall network security posture while enabling secure access for authorized users. Here are some key benefits of adopting ZTNA:
Stringent authentication measures: ZTNA significantly reduces the risk of unauthorized individuals gaining access to sensitive resources, providing network protection. Network protection is crucial in preventing data breaches and defending against malicious activities.
Secure Application Access: ZTNA enables organizations to control and monitor application access per-user basis, providing network protection. This ensures only authorized individuals can interact with specific applications, reducing the attack surface and enhancing data protection.
Minimized Lateral Movement: ZTNA prevents lateral movement within the network by implementing zero trust principles. Even if an attacker gains initial access to one part of the network, they will face additional authentication challenges when attempting to move laterally, limiting their ability to exploit vulnerabilities.
Continuous Monitoring: ZTNA incorporates network protection and continuous monitoring capabilities to detect suspicious activities or anomalies in real-time. This proactive approach to network protection enables organizations to respond swiftly to potential threats before they escalate into significant security incidents.
Considerations for Implementing ZTNA
While implementing ZTNA offers numerous advantages for network protection, there are some considerations organizations should keep in mind:
User Experience: Striking a balance between network protection, security, and user experience is crucial. Organizations must ensure that implementing ZTNA does not overly burden users with complex authentication processes, leading to frustration or decreased productivity. Organizations must prioritize network protection while considering the user experience and productivity.
Scalability: As organizations grow and their network expands, it is essential to consider the scalability of the ZTNA solution. The chosen implementation should handle increased traffic and user demands without compromising network protection.
Integration with Existing Infrastructure: Organizations must assess how well the ZTNA solution integrates with their network protection infrastructure. Seamless integration ensures minimal disruption during implementation and efficiently manages network access controls.
Strategies for Web-Based Cyberthreat Protection
To effectively protect your network from cyber threats, implementing various web-based cyber threat protection strategies is crucial.
By following these strategies, you can minimize the risk of falling victim to malicious attacks and keep your network secure.
Regularly Updating Web Browsers and Plugins
A critical strategy for web-based cyber threat protection is regularly updating your web browsers and plugins. Cybercriminals often exploit known vulnerabilities in outdated software to gain unauthorized access or inject malicious code into websites, compromising network protection.
By keeping your web browsers and plugins up to date, you can patch vulnerabilities and enhance network protection, reducing the risk of being targeted by attacks.
Implementing Web Filtering Solutions
Another effective approach to protecting against web-based threats is implementing web filtering solutions for network protection. These network protection solutions help block access to malicious websites that may contain harmful content or initiate phishing scams, providing an extra layer of security.
They also prevent users from downloading files or accessing URLs that pose a security risk to their network protection. By implementing web filtering solutions, you can create an additional layer of defense for network protection against potential cyberattacks.
Educating Employees about Safe Browsing Practices
Educating employees about safe browsing practices is essential for maintaining web-based threat protection. To ensure network protection, employees should know the risks of clicking on suspicious links or downloading files from unknown sources.
Training programs on cybersecurity best practices can help employees identify potential threats and avoid falling victim to phishing scams or other online attacks, thus enhancing network protection.
Utilizing Secure Website Certificates (HTTPS)
Utilizing secure website certificates, commonly known as HTTPS, is another crucial strategy for enhancing web-based security and network protection.
HTTPS provides network protection by encrypting data transmitted between the user’s browser and the website, making it challenging for attackers to intercept sensitive information during transit.
Websites with HTTPS encryption provide network protection and display a padlock icon in the address bar, indicating a secure connection.
By ensuring that websites are encrypted with HTTPS, you can safeguard data privacy and protect against eavesdropping or tampering attempts, thus enhancing network protection.
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS)
Data Loss Prevention (DLP) and Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) are essential network protection components. Let’s delve into what they are and how they contribute to safeguarding your data and network security.
DLP systems are essential for network protection as they monitor and control sensitive data within an organization. Their primary purpose is to protect the network and prevent unauthorized access, use, or transmission of this valuable information.
By implementing DLP tools, you can ensure network protection and that your critical data remains protected from internal and external threats.
One key advantage of DLP systems is their ability to help organizations comply with data protection regulations. These regulations often require companies to take necessary measures for network protection to prevent accidental or intentional data leaks.
DLP systems provide network protection by enabling you to establish policies that govern the handling of sensitive information. These policies ensure compliance with legal requirements.
DLP solutions employ machine learning algorithms to identify patterns and indicators that may indicate a potential breach or violation. This proactive approach enables them to detect suspicious activities in real-time, empowering you to take immediate action before significant damage occurs.
Some benefits of using DLP systems include:
Preventing accidental leakage of confidential information through email attachments or file transfers.
Identifying and blocking attempts to exfiltrate sensitive data via USB drives or other removable media.
Monitoring employee actions on workstations and endpoints, ensuring compliance with company policies regarding data handling.
Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS) provide an additional layer of defense against network attacks by actively detecting and blocking malicious activities in real-time.
IPS tools can identify potential threats before they reach their targets by analyzing network traffic patterns for known attack signatures or non-typical behavior.
Here are some key features and benefits of IPS:
Constant monitoring: IPS monitors network traffic for any signs of intrusion attempts or suspicious activities.
Real-time alerts: When an IPS detects a potential threat, it generates alerts to notify administrators of the ongoing attack. This allows for immediate action to be taken to mitigate the risk.
Blocking malicious activities: IPS systems can block or disrupt network connections associated with known attack signatures or non-typical behavior, preventing further damage.
Protection against known vulnerabilities: IPS tools are regularly updated with information about new vulnerabilities and attack methods. This ensures that your network remains protected against the latest threats.
Enhancing Network Security with Traffic Monitoring Controls
Network protection is of utmost importance in today’s digital landscape. With increasing cyber threats and malicious activities, organizations must implement robust measures to safeguard their networks.
One effective way to enhance network security is through traffic monitoring controls.
Analyzing Network Traffic
Network traffic monitoring tools are crucial in identifying potential security breaches and anomalies within a network. These tools analyze incoming and outgoing network packets, enabling real-time detection of malicious traffic or suspicious activities.
By examining packet contents through deep packet inspection, these tools can identify malicious payloads attempting to infiltrate the network.
Monitoring Traffic Patterns
Network behavior analysis tools complement traditional traffic monitoring by monitoring traffic patterns over time. By establishing baseline behaviors, these tools can quickly detect deviations that may indicate a breach or unauthorized access.
This proactive approach enables organizations to respond promptly to security incidents, minimizing potential damage.
Real-Time Alerts and Prompt Response
One key advantage of implementing traffic monitoring controls is the ability to generate real-time alerts. When unusual or suspicious activity is detected, these controls can immediately notify network administrators or security teams. This prompt alerting system allows quick response and mitigation actions, preventing further compromise or data loss.
Strengthening Access Control
Traffic monitoring controls also strengthen access control mechanisms within a network infrastructure.
By continuously analyzing network traffic, organizations can identify unauthorized attempts at accessing sensitive resources or systems.
This information can then be used to adjust firewall rules, implement stricter access management policies, or even consider implementing network segmentation for enhanced security.
Comprehensive Security Testing
Regularly testing the effectiveness of network protection measures is essential in maintaining a secure environment.
Traffic monitoring controls provide valuable insights into the performance and efficiency of existing security infrastructure, such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems (IPS).
By analyzing traffic patterns and identifying potential vulnerabilities or weak points in the network, organizations can proactively address any security gaps and ensure a robust defense against cyber threats.
Auditing and Compliance
Traffic monitoring controls are vital in auditing network activities and ensuring compliance with industry regulations.
By capturing and analyzing audit events, organizations can accurately record network traffic, user actions, and system configurations. This information can be invaluable in identifying potential security breaches or investigating any suspicious activities within the network.
Best Practices for Network Protection
By implementing robust security measures, organizations can safeguard their sensitive data and mitigate the risk of cyberattacks.
Prioritizing network protection is essential in safeguarding your business from potential threats.
Remember to regularly update your security protocols and stay informed about emerging threats to stay one step ahead of malicious actors.
What are some common types of network attacks?
Network attacks come in various forms, including malware infections, phishing attempts, denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, and man-in-the-middle attacks.
Each type poses unique risks and requires specific countermeasures to prevent or mitigate them.
How does Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA) enhance security?
ZTNA focuses on verifying every user and device attempting to access a network before granting access.
This approach ensures that only authorized entities gain entry while minimizing the attack surface and reducing the risk of unauthorized access or lateral movement within the network.
Is employee training important for network protection?
Absolutely! Educating employees about cybersecurity best practices helps create a culture of security awareness within an organization.
Training sessions on identifying phishing emails, using strong passwords, and practicing safe browsing habits can significantly reduce the risk of successful cyberattacks.
What role do firewalls play in network protection?
Firewalls act as a barrier between internal and external networks, controlling incoming and outgoing traffic based on predetermined security rules. They help filter out potentially malicious traffic and protect against unauthorized access.
How can regular security updates contribute to network protection?
Regularly updating software, operating systems, and security patches is crucial for addressing vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit.
These updates often include bug fixes, vulnerability patches, and improved security features that help keep your network protected against evolving threats. | <urn:uuid:365220e4-c221-44c1-a17a-8a81148af606> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.businesstechweekly.com/cybersecurity/network-security/network-protection/ | 2024-09-20T16:54:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701419169.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920154713-20240920184713-00695.warc.gz | en | 0.901947 | 3,584 | 2.921875 | 3 |
This tutorial covers configuring and managing a basic firewall using UFW, the uncomplicated firewall, which simplifies firewall rule management on Linux systems.
Understanding how to set up and manage firewall rules is vital for protecting systems from unauthorized access by ensuring that only legitimate traffic is allowed while blocking potential threats. This tutorial provides practical, step-by-step guidance on using UFW's commands, enabling IT professionals to implement and customize security measures according to their needs.
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
Grant Knoetze: Hello, and welcome to this tutorial on configuring and managing a basic firewall using UFW, the uncomplicated firewall. Using UFW is an essential skill for securing any Linux system. Let's dive in.
What Is UFW?
What is a firewall? A firewall is a network security system that monitors and controls incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules.
What is the uncomplicated firewall? UFW, or the uncomplicated firewall, is a user-friendly frontend for managing iptables firewall rules. It simplifies the process of setting up a firewall to secure your system.
Here we are on the Ubuntu community wiki for UFW, and it says: “UFW, the uncomplicated firewall, is the default firewall configuration tool for Ubuntu. It was developed to ease iptables firewall configuration. UFW provides a user-friendly way to create an IPv4 or IPv6 host-based firewall. By default, UFW is disabled.”
Getting Started With Linux UFW
Let's dive into some fundamental usage. You are going to need to open a terminal. Once you have opened your terminal, we can start with the basics of managing UFW, the uncomplicated firewall.
The first thing you want to do is enable UFW. When you turn on UFW or enable it, it uses a default set of rules that should be fine for the average home user. In short, the default setting is:
All incoming is denied with some exceptions to make things easier for home users.
All outgoing is allowed.
To enable UFW, type the sudo ufw enable command. We can see that the firewall is enabled and active on system startup.
To disable UFW, you could type sudo ufw disable. We can see that the firewall is stopped and disabled at the system startup.
If you have not installed UFW on your system, you can use your package manager for Debian. Ubuntu is apt. I will type in sudo apt install ufw. We can see that I have already installed the latest version. If it were not, it would be installed. If it installed but needed to be upgraded, it would be upgraded. That is sudo apt install ufw, and you can use whatever package manager for the distribution that you are using.
After having enabled/disabled UFW, if I want to see the status, I can type sudo ufw status and add the verbose parameter to get a more verbose output. When I hit Enter, it tells me that the status is inactive.
Typing sudo ufw enable and hitting Enter will enable the firewall. I retype the sudo ufw status verbose command. It gives me a rich output. It tells me that the Status is active. Logging is off (We will get into logging and show you how to enable logging). Default is deny (incoming), allow (outgoing), disabled (routed). New profiles – it’s skipping.
We can see all the rules here. For 443, it is “allow in” from anywhere. Anywhere is “allow in” from IP addresses that I have worked with in the past. Port 22/TCP is “limited.” 22 is “allow in.” 80/TCP is “deny in,” etc. It shows us whether it is Version 6. Everything else is Version 4.
Allow or Deny Specific Rules
To allow connections based on a specific port or protocol, you can use sudo ufw allow. The port you can put in, and the protocol is optional. To allow incoming TCP and UDP packets on port 53, I would type in:
sudo ufw allow 53
I hit Enter and have added the rule.
To allow specifically TCP packets coming in on port 53, I would enter:
sudo ufw allow 53/tcp
To allow specifically UDP communication on port 53, I could enter:
sudo ufw allow 53/udp
To deny or to create “deny” rules for the same, I could type:
sudo ufw deny 53
Entering this command will update the rule and deny all traffic on port 53.
To specifically deny according to protocol:
sudo ufw deny 53/tcp
Similarly, for UDP:
sudo ufw deny 53/udp
Delete an Existing Rule
To delete a rule, prefix the original rule with Delete. For example, if the original rule was sudo ufw deny 80/tcp, I could prefix this with sudo ufw delete deny:
sudo ufw delete deny 80/tcp
I press Enter and I delete the rule.
Deny or Allow by Service Name
You can also allow or deny by service name since UFW reads from etc services.
To get a list of services, you can use sudo or not, but we can use less:
We can see a list of all our services. For example, it shows Secure Shell (SSH) running on port 22/tcp. To traverse through less, you can use your spacebar. To exit, you can hit the Q key.
Let’s look at how to allow by service name. For example, let's use Secure Shell:
sudo ufw allow ssh
We have updated the rule.
To deny by service name, we type:
sudo ufw deny ssh
We have updated the rule and denied SSH.
Enable or Disable Logging
Let's talk about logging. Logging is helpful for troubleshooting, and it's also critical for security. For example, you would want to look at firewall logs when responding to an incident.
You can enable logging in UFW by simply typing in:
sudo ufw logging on
If you'd like to disable logging, you type:
sudo ufw logging off
You can also use a fuller syntax, specifying the source and destination addresses, ports, and protocol. Let's look at allowing by specific IP address.
To allow by specific IP address, I type sudo ufw allow from and then specify the IP address. For example:
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.1
I press Enter and add the rule.
To deny traffic from that same IP address, I put the deny keyword where the allow keyword was:
sudo ufw deny from 192.168.1.1
Allow by Specific Port and IP Address
If I want to allow from a specific port and an IP address, I can type in sudo ufw allow from, then my IP address is the target (192.168.1.1, for example). I can add to any port. I'm going to use port 22 as an example.
sudo ufw allow from 192.168.1.1 to any port 22
To deny, I would change the allow keyword to deny:
sudo ufw deny from 192.168.1.1 to any port 22
To allow by any specific port, IP address, and protocol, I use the same command and then add proto, or protocol keyword. I add the protocol. In this case, I’m choosing TCP.
sudo ufw deny from 192.168.1.1 to any port 22 proto tcp
You can go ahead and do the same thing for another protocol, UDP:
sudo ufw deny from 192.168.1.1 to any port 22 proto udp
Working With Numbered Rules
UFW stores and deals with rules in a numbered way. You can use the status numbered command to show the order and number of the rules:
sudo ufw status numbered
We can see my rules in a numbered order, from one to 23.
Editing Numbered Rules
You may delete rules using the number.
Let's type in our status numbered. We can identify which rule we'd like to delete. For example, we can delete rule number 10, UDP. You can use:
sudo ufw delete 10
We see that it's deleting and would like to prompt me for a yes or no. I choose yes and delete the rule.
When I run my status numbered, I can see that that rule has been deleted and the list has been shifted by one. Rule number 10 is now a different rule.
To insert a numbered rule, the same numbered rule, we can type in:
sudo ufw insert 10 allow from 192.168.1.1 to any port 53
When I type sudo ufw status numbered, we can see that rule 10, port number 53, from the specified IP address, has been inserted.
To recap, we've been through the basics of using the uncomplicated firewall. For more resources and help, you can use the man pages in Linux. We can see that our manual pages exist for UFW. Use your spacebar to go through them and use Q to quit. Or you could type in ufw --help, and we have simplified help.
I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. I look forward to seeing you on the next one.
About the Author
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A Uniform Resource Locator, or URL, is used to identify a specific resource on the Internet. This is why it is also called a web address.
What is a URL exactly?
Technically, a URL is a web resource that specifies its location on a computer network. It corresponds to a file’s unique address which is available on the Internet.
URLs are part of the uniform resource identifier (URI) portfolio, which is a set of characters used to give resources an identification.
How is a URL structured?
A URL is typically made up of two main components: HTTP, which is the protocol identifier, and the website domain, which is known as the resource name.
There are various elements that a URL can include. For instance, HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) and HTTPS (HTTP Secure) for websites, Mail for email addresses and FTOP for files embedded in a File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server.
The way URLs have to be structured is very specific. They can be shared on the Internet only if they are using the ASCII character set.
Who defined the first URL?
URLs were first defined in 1994, by the same man who created the World Wide Web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).
Berners-Lee apparently expressed regret at the use of dots to separate the parts of the domain in the URL – he had wanted to use slashes.
URLs are firstly divided into two different parts, the protocol identifier and then the resource name, which shows the name of the local where a given resource is located.
Often used on social media platforms like Twitter, URL shortening has become popular in recent times. Often achieved by using a redirect with a domain name which is shorter than the original, URL shortening drastically reduces the length of the URL – though clicks on the shortened address will still direct to the required page.
Read more: What is Ymail? | <urn:uuid:411bd366-364c-4260-af79-fd68158e0819> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.techmonitor.ai/what-is/what-is-a-url | 2024-09-08T17:13:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651013.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908150334-20240908180334-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.922046 | 403 | 4.25 | 4 |
Wouldn’t it be great if all malware infections came with a giant neon warning sign? Unfortunately, most cyberattacks are done behind the scenes, only coming to light when the damage is done. Many users have no idea they have a malware infection until their personal information is stolen or their computer is on the fritz. There are a few signs that can indicate malware on your computer – and they’re more common than you think. Here’s what to watch out for:
We’ve all experienced it – that frustrating feeling when your computer is running slower than molasses. Your programs take forever to start up, your data bandwidth slows to a crawl, or your computer cursor spins and spins. Sometimes you’re just opening a large file, but if your computer is consistently slow then you may have a virus.
A slow computer doesn’t always mean you’re infected. Computers aren’t a perfect science, and slow speeds have a variety of causes. One of the most common is that you’re running out of RAM. You can find your RAM usage under the memory section in your computer’s settings. You could also have damaged hardware or little space left on your hard drive.
If your computer is running slowly, it’s time to play the process of elimination. If you’ve ruled out other causes, you may be infected with malware.
Have you ever been working on something important and had your computer throw up the blue screen of death (BSOD)? A computer crash is always alarming and is usually caused by either a technical problem or malware. There are other reasons, too – incompatible programs or outdated drivers can also cause computer crashes. Computer crashes happen, but if yours is crashing regularly then you may have a virus.
A good place to start is to determine what caused your last crash. Your computer keeps a list of logs and marks the ones that crash with an “error” alert. You can find the list under the Event Viewer tab in your administrative tools folder. Just click “Windows Logs”.
Frequent crashing could be a sign of a serious problem with your PC. It’s best to consult your IT department for help in diagnosing and fixing your computer.
Suspicious Programs or Files
If you find suspicious files or unfamiliar programs on your device, you could be infected with malware. You’ll often notice a lack of storage space as your hard drive is filled with junk files and programs. There are multiple types of malware known for corrupting data; ransomware is a common culprit in which your data is held ransom for payment.
It’s crucial to never make payment to, or even open, suspicious files or programs. If you find unfamiliar programs on your device, notify your IT personnel immediately. Seek help in-person – it’s best to use your computer as little as possible if you suspect a malware infection, as it may spread to other devices in your network.
Excessive Pop-Ups or Unwanted Websites
Whether it’s an ad for free soap, a request for subscription, or a fake giveaway scam, pop-ups are a frequent – and annoying – price to pay for using the internet. Pop-ups are frequently caused by a type of malware called Adware, which is downloaded into your computer when you click on suspicious pages or install free applications. If you’re experiencing excessive pop-ups, or have pop-ups that don’t seem to originate from your browser, you may have a malware problem.
To avoid this, don’t click on pop-up pages – just close them. Run frequent malware scans and keep your browsers updated. Finally, be picky about which apps you install. Even popular apps have been known to infect computers with viruses, malware, and annoying pop-ups. Always read the terms and conditions carefully and avoid downloading free apps when possible.
You’re Spamming Your Friends
Malware can use your email or social media accounts to spread by sending spammy messages or links to your contacts. If you hear that your friends are receiving suspicious messages from you, spyware is likely the culprit. Reset your passwords and strengthen your security through multifactor authentication – additional things like security questions or passcodes that are required for all new devices. Of course, warn your contacts not to open any suspicious messages from your accounts.
An Overactive Hard Drive
If you notice that your hard drive is hard at work when it shouldn’t be, you may have malware. If you aren’t running any programs, but your hard drive thinks you are, there are probably programs and viruses working in the background. A constant light on your external modem can also indicate a malware problem. If you notice these signs, it’s time to run a security scan.
The best offense is a good defense. A strong security system like our advanced cybersecurity threat protection is the best way to avoid getting malware on your computer. If you suspect you have malware, we can help! Our IT professionals can tackle your security problems to get – and keep – your computer virus-free and running its best. Contact us today!
Phillip Long – CISSP, CEO of , along with his team of marketing and information technology experts, will walk you through an overview of what your business should be doing to protect your data and plan your digital marketing strategies.
is the technology leader on the Gulf Coast and is comprised of four divisions: Information Technology, Web Design & Digital Marketing, Office Equipment and Business Consulting. Together these divisions help local businesses exceed expectations and allow them to group to their full potential while minimizing risks. To learn more about , visit bistechnologygroup.com.
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Demystifying AI: What is RAG?
RAG, or Retrieval Augmented Generation, is a technique that enables a large language model (LLM) to access information from external sources.
While LLMs like ChatGPT and Claude are incredibly powerful tools, they can only answer questions based on their specific training data, which has a cutoff date and relies on public information. This means they’re not helpful when it comes to your proprietary data or any information outside their training.
But with RAG, you can customize an LLM with any data you choose, controlling the information the model uses to answer your questions. This allows you to leverage the LLM’s generative abilities without retraining or fine-tuning the model, which are both time-consuming and costly processes and don’t accommodate real-time information.
Think of it in terms of a military analogy. LLMs operate at the big-picture strategy level, fine-tuned models serve at the operational level, and RAG models represent the tactical level.
RAG also helps to limit hallucinations if you tell the model to restrict its answers to the data you’ve provided (assuming, of course, you’re providing legit data).
How Does RAG Work?
The basic components of RAG are retrieval, augmentation, and generation. I’ll bet you didn’t see that one coming.
But what do the terms mean?
- Retrieval means searching for and pulling relevant data from a database based on your question(s);
- Augmentation refers to combining both your question and the retrieved data to form a new prompt to send to the LLM; and
- Generation is when the LLM gives you a response.
In the rest of this article, I’ll explain the RAG process and architecture as simply as possible, which means I might leave out some details. To help you dive deeper, I’ve included links to additional research and articles.
Let’s Get Started!
Before you begin with RAG, you need to set up a database of the information you need to answer your questions. This can be documents, images, audio/video, social media posts, email, etc. This is usually called a knowledge base and it can be fixed or it can be updated either periodically or in real-time.
The data from your knowledge base will be chunked into smaller segments to make processing it more efficient. These chunks are turned into embeddings, or numerical representations that the LLM can understand, and then stored in a vector database. It’s worth noting that the embeddings capture semantic relationships in the data, which produces search results that reflect deeper meaning and context than keyword matching.
Let the Games Begin
Now that your vector database is set up, you can ask the LLM a question and start the RAG process.
- (1) The retrieval step begins with embedding your question (query) so that it is compatible with the embeddings in your vector database. Then, the RAG system searches that database looking for semantic similarities between the query embedding and the stored data embeddings. These similarity measurements are based on a distance metric—usually cosine similarity or Euclidean distance—where data points with related characteristics are grouped closer together than those that differ from each other. This allows the RAG model to retrieve the most relevant information for your query.
- (2) After the data is retrieved, it’s time for the augmentation step. Here, the retrieved information is combined with your original query and sent to the LLM. If your RAG system is well designed, the model is only fed the context it needs to provide an accurate response.
- (3) Lastly, we have the generation step, where the LLM responds to your query based on the information from the retrieval and augmentation steps.
RAG vs. Prompt Stuffing
At this point, you may be wondering why you can’t just paste the data you need into the LLM prompt when you want to ask questions about it. It’s so much easier, right?
As LLM context windows continue to expand, there’s been some debate that “prompt stuffing” could replace RAG.
For background, the context window is the amount of tokens you can include in the input prompt (a token is roughly four characters). ChatGPT-3.5 can only handle about 4,000 tokens, but GPT4o can handle 128,000 and Gemini 1.5 Pro goes to 2 million. Two million tokens is roughly 4,000 pages. That’s a lot!
While recent research has shown some performance advantages with these long context LLMs, they come with significantly higher computational costs. As well, there is the “lost in the middle” phenomena, where LLMs tend to overlook information that’s located in the middle of the content injected into the prompt.
Ultimately, RAG is a more efficient and cost-effective solution because it only retrieves the most relevant information to respond to your question.
Advanced RAG Methods
As RAG grows in popularity, new techniques are emerging to address limitations in the process. I’ll point you to the article “Advanced RAG Techniques: an Illustrated Overview” from December 2023 as a reference. The diagram below, taken from the article, highlights some of the additional methods available to improve the RAG framework.
While most RAG implementations are currently vector-based, there’s growing interest in incorporating knowledge graphs into the process to capture even deeper and more complex relationships between data points. Knowledge graphs plot these interconnections using nodes and edges.
- Nodes represent entities like people or concepts; and
- Edges are the connections between nodes.
The difference between vector- and graph-based RAG is that vector databases represent data as high-dimensional vectors to measure similarity, while knowledge graphs represent that data as a map of connections.
Why is RAG important?
If you have no need to search or analyze proprietary data when you use an LLM and you aren’t concerned about getting outdated or hallucinated information, then RAG probably won’t blow your mind.
That said, the significance of RAG is that it makes LLMs even more powerful and amazing by allowing them to interact with your data and respond with information that is up-to-date, accurate, and relevant to your search and query needs. | <urn:uuid:37e2bedf-1bb5-422a-aab5-1f9c8cccb6bb> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://intelligenesisllc.com/what-is-rag/ | 2024-09-12T05:47:36Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651422.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912043139-20240912073139-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.923797 | 1,355 | 3.3125 | 3 |
From a bad actor perspective, phishing is the cheapest and easiest way to infiltrate organizations and personal information to make a profit. By nature, humans are curious and are oft en overconfident when it comes to security. Phishing is an even greater threat for mobile users, too. Without key visual cues, like the ability to hover over a link to determine its destination, it is much easier for a user to make the simple mistake of clicking a bad link and falling victim to a phishing attempt. The popularity of social media has also made it much easier for hackers to find valid email addresses and research users’ life activities to create sophisticated, tailored phishing attacks. From a security perspective, there are typically three approaches to solving the phishing problem – email security gateways, web proxies and security training awareness—but each has its own limitations.
Email security gateways look at all emails coming in and have information on spam and reputation. However, when a click actually occurs, their primary defense is prior knowledge of the website obtained through crowdsourcing, resulting in a ‘patient zero problem.’ In other words, the first few users are allowed to access the potentially malicious website until there’s a verdict available regarding the website rating.
Web proxies, on the other hand, know almost everything there is to know about HTTP, but are clueless when it comes to email. More importantly, they lack the important context of a website visit originating from an email click, as opposed to a user typing in the URL bar on their browser. Security awareness training may help mitigate the risk, but training is never enough because any software used to train the user is largely out of the picture when a real phishing email link is clicked.
Often times, bad actors are taking the time to classify websites as ‘good’ so they can bypass all of these defenses. Simply put, phishing is a social engineering problem that puts everyone at risk. Fortunately, an easy fix to this problem is to move to a strategy of isolation, one that offers organizations a safe-allow option. Hackers have become so creative because companies are still trying to figure out if websites are ‘good’ or ‘bad,’ but after shifting to isolation, the only thing that matters is access, or the lack thereof.
Even if isolation services are unavailable, there are still a number of ways to combat phishing. The first is by practicing simple email hygiene. Ignoring and deleting emails that reference free rewards, vouchers or social media posts is always the best policy. Another is to always go directly to the source. Instead of following embedded links found within emails, users should access the website they want to visit directly from the URL bar. Finally, avoiding open authentication programs by creating new, separate accounts – or even using fake email addresses to sign up for these accounts – is recommended, as they’re less likely to be phished. By following these simple steps, or adopting isolation, users and organizations can keep ‘off the hook’ and avoid falling victim to email phishing attacks. | <urn:uuid:10aca73b-c505-48aa-87e1-56f869888fe6> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.menlosecurity.com/blog/how-to-mitigate-phishing-threats-in-your-organization | 2024-09-12T06:50:24Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651422.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912043139-20240912073139-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.946093 | 626 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Every generation is marked by the safety measures it experienced during its formative years. For those whose school days spanned the 1960s – the height of the Cold War – it was the infamous “Duck and Cover” drills. For the next generation, “Stop, Drop and Roll” exercises became the safety mantra of the day. If we want today’s children to look back on their school days as more than just a time of “Run, Hide, Fight” training, lockdowns and lectures on the potential dangers of online behavior, school systems need to institute security measure that will create safer learning environments without making schools feel like prisons.
Meeting the Four Basic Tenets of Physical Security
There are no absolutes for achieving that delicate balance between strong physical security and carefree learning. But any measures a school considers should incorporate the four basic tenets of physical security: deterrence, detection, delay and response.
- Deterrence: measures to prevent malicious activity from happening
- Detection: measures to alert school authorities that malicious activities are happening
- Delay: measures that slow down the perpetrators who are committing the activity
- Response: measures that alert perpetrators that they have been detected and will face consequences
Keep in mind that these four tenets should apply not only to technology, but to people and processes as well.
Taking a Layered Approach to Security
In the absence of national standards for schools to reference, current approaches to physical security have tended to differ widely from one institution to the next. But one of the most effective approaches schools might consider is one that is built in layers – working from the inside outward.
This concept isn’t unique. Security practitioners have commonly used this defense-in-depth, layered approach when designing security systems for other organizations. In this model, resource deployment is driven by the criticality of the assets needing protection. In the case of schools, life safety would be the most important factor for determining where to invest in security resources.
First Priority (Layer One): The Classroom
Students spend the vast amount of their school day in classrooms, so schools should prioritize those areas first.
- DOOR LOCKS:
The number one recommendation from the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission was to ensure that classroom doors could be locked from the inside by teachers or substitutes. Upgrading door hardware is often considered too expensive. As a consequence, some schools have been resorting to aftermarket, less expensive “barricade” devices that often introduce other life safety issues by compromising fire codes and ADA requirements.
When the budget is not as much of an issue, Electronic Access Control should be considered as it enables centralized lockdown capabilities reducing human error and dangerously slow reaction time. Regardless of the method, preventing intruders from entering the classroom addresses two important tenets of physical security: deterrence and delay.
- BI-DIRECTIONAL INTERCOMS OR PHONES:
Another key technology requirement for classrooms is the ability to communicate with the others in the school building or outside entities. Today, classrooms should be equipped with bi-directional intercoms or phones that provide “push to talk” functionality. You don’t want teachers to have to memorize extensions to call the front office. Modern intercoms are connected to the schools IP network and support the same protocols for communication as the phone system. These Powered-over-Ethernet (PoE) devices can be used not only to connect with the front office but could even allow external entities with the right credentials, such as law enforcement, to connect to the classroom.
With regards to people and process, teachers and substitutes should be trained then tested on these systems regularly. One idea to ensure continued proficiency with the technology is to have teachers use the intercom in their daily routines such as reporting in at the beginning of each day.
Second Priority (Layer Two): Building Perimeter
Moving outward from the classroom our next priority is the building perimeter or “envelope.” We want to control who can enter the facility and limit their movement based on who they are. This can be accomplished through a combination of technology, people and processes.
- ONE MAIN ENTRANCE:
A best practice is to have all students and visitors enter through one set of doors which is clearly marked as the main entrance. These doors would be unlocked during a specified time in the morning and afternoon for easy entry and egress but would be physically monitored by staff such as a school resource officer who would greet people as they enter. The doors would be locked for the rest of the school day.
- VIDEO INTERCOM AND VISITOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM:
These doors would have a networked intercom system that includes video so that visitors can be screened before the doors are unlocked. In some cases, schools could require visitors to hold up a driver’s license or other photo ID before unlocking the doors. Once inside, the visitor should be required to show a picture ID that would be entered into an electronic visitor management system that produces a credential that indicates this person is a visitor. By requiring visitors to sign in, schools create a deterrent as well as control who can enter the facility.
Third Priority (Layer Three): Outdoor Space
Not all schools are contained within four walls. Many K-12 institutions in America are made up of multiple buildings, and almost all of them have outdoor spaces that students utilize throughout the day. Often these outdoor areas are considered public property and are used by private citizens when school is not in session. Schools commonly define their grounds by installing fencing around school property. But fencing does not always provide the deterrence value school security professionals hope for, especially if the public is permitted to use the space after hours. This dilemma has led schools to look for detection methods that can provide early warning of an intruder entering school grounds during school hours and prevent after-hours issues such as vandalism or theft.
- VIDEO SURVEILLANCE WITH ANALYTICS:
Many schools leverage video surveillance with motion detection analytics to proactively notify security when anyone enters restricted areas around school property. For instance, kids playing on the school’s basketball court over the weekend won’t trigger an alert. But if they approach the school building itself, an alert will be sent to authorities (whether school security staff or local law enforcement).
School Security Shouldn’t Feel Like Prison
Schools are faced with security challenges on multiple fronts. Some of those challenges can be addressed through technology. But people and processes following the basic tenets of physical security are also important to ensure that safe schools don’t feel like prisons.
Article Provided By: Security Magazine
If you would like liquidvideotechnologies.com to discuss developing your Home Security System, Networking, Access Control, Fire, IT consultant or PCI Compliance, please do not hesitate to call us at 864-859-9848 or you can email us at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:62678b69-d844-447e-a839-937af327bda3> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://liquidvideotechnologies.com/how-security-professionals-can-help-create-positive-school-memories/ | 2024-09-15T23:19:12Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651668.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915220324-20240916010324-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.956498 | 1,428 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Using data to manage multiple impact categories
Most companies conduct a materiality assessment to identify the most critical sustainability issues to them and their stakeholders. But they often underinvest in building the data foundation to understand their real impact on these issues and effectively manage them.
As a result, businesses make one-off analyses, often by sending spreadsheets back and forth between separate departments or with suppliers. This effort is so labor-intensive that they end up tracking only singular impacts. And because current stakeholder demands for information on carbon emissions are highest, they focus on that.
To reduce overhead and avoid over-indexing on carbon concerns, we advise companies to augment their sustainability strategy with a data strategy that tracks several relevant impacts and provides dashboards customized to different user groups.
Such dashboards should contain the relevant KPIs and methods to measure the most important impacts, and visualize what information would be most necessary for different user groups to act. Whether an energy or procurement manager, each important decision maker should have their own sustainability dashboard to navigate their actions and move the needle on the impacts they influence.
The ‘doughnut’ dashboard
A useful framework for designing the content of this dashboard comes from Doughnut Economics, a visual way of depicting the elements needed for a sustainable and prosperous economy. This includes the ecological factors (in the outer ring of the doughnut) and the social foundations (in the inner ring). (For an idea of what this looks like, click here.)
The “hole” of the doughnut depicts the proportion of people experiencing a shortfall of essential social needs, while the crust of the doughnut represents the planetary “ceiling,” or the point at which environmental resources are overshot and result in ozone layer depletion, air pollution, ocean acidification, etc. The goal is finding the zone in which companies can thrive. If they overshoot or contribute to a shortfall in these environmental and social foundations, then they undermine their long-term ability to create value.
To track their pressure on the ecological ceiling, companies can use Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which is the most extensive method for assessing multiple environmental impacts associated with all stages of a product’s life, from raw materials to final disposal, including climate change, human toxicity, ecotoxicity, freshwater use or marine and freshwater eutrophication.
To track their shortfalls on the social foundation, businesses can use Social Life Cycle Assessment, a method for analyzing the positive and negative social impacts of a product. It allows companies to track their impact on human rights, working conditions, health and safety, or socioeconomic development on distinct groups of people like workers and employees, local communities or consumers.
Collecting, tracking, managing data
Tracking multiple impacts sounds like a big and costly task. But more affordable digital technologies — such as Internet of Things, satellite imaging, data storage or computational power — can radically reduce the cost of data collection and impact assessment. They also help companies cope with increasingly large and complex data volumes available on sustainability issues.
In our experience, a data strategy for sustainability starts with a structured data architecture. To develop it, companies need to develop a point of view on future sustainability data requirements, draft a desired and feasible data architecture, and identify its key use cases. It’s also necessary to identify the technology and software needed, as well as the required investment and expected ROI, for example, on reduced overhead and improved decision-making.
Tracking interventions across impact categories
Businesses also need to make the data strategy actionable to help identify interventions that generate co-benefits across material sustainability issues. By linking multiple impacts and addressing them jointly, companies can move the needle on several issues, and avoid unintended consequences of interventions on other impact categories.
Take the example of a large food company that has acknowledged climate change, biodiversity loss and responsible sourcing as some of its most important sustainability issues. The company has realized that these three are highly linked and that regenerative agriculture practices in its supply chain can help drive co-benefits on all three issues.
By investing in regenerative training programs, the company is helping its supplier farms to decarbonize, for example, by building carbon in the soil and through tree crops that store it. Regenerative practices further build biodiversity and water retention in the soil, which can make lands more resilient to heat waves. More resilient lands and richer soils ensure that farmers maintain their ability to earn a living from their farms.
The farmers also reduce their demand for pesticides and fertilizers, which increases their profit margins and positively impacts the company’s responsible sourcing strategy. The company has understood these co-benefits and has decided to invest heavily until 2025 to build regenerative farming practices in its upstream supply chain.
Data: a key sustainability enabler
Linking different impacts in interventions requires more variables to track. And collecting new data on these variables can be tedious and costly. A clear data strategy helps manage this increased complexity. It ensures that data collection efforts and technologies are easy to use and integrated in the day-to-day workflows of the people that own the data, and that these people have clear incentives to contribute. The data strategy also needs to adhere to the highest ethical standards to ensure trust, fair practices and data privacy compliance.
Managing this complexity also requires new capabilities for big data analytics. Sustainability managers increasingly need the ability to correlate different variables to understand how they influence each other, and to get new insights on how to steer their interventions for maximized co-benefits and minimized cost.
Moving beyond carbon tunnel vision means taking a more holistic approach to sustainability management. This increases complexity, which can only be managed with more and better information on a range of environmental and social impacts. With the right data strategy, businesses have a powerful starting point for managing and embracing that complexity. | <urn:uuid:e24436dc-f220-4054-aa3c-8a53204ce497> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.cognizant.com/us/en/insights/insights-blog/moving-beyond-carbon-tunnel-vision-with-a-sustainability-data-strategy-codex7121 | 2024-09-17T06:11:53Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651739.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917040428-20240917070428-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.938717 | 1,192 | 2.921875 | 3 |
There is a growing focus on integrating artificial intelligence and automation to enhance efficiency and precision in agriculture. Advanced technologies are being employed to optimize climate control, nutrient delivery, and crop monitoring. This shift towards tech-driven solutions aims to improve yields, reduce resource usage, minimize labor, and drive innovation in food production systems.
Moreover, governments are increasingly supporting controlled environment agriculture through grants, subsidies, and research funding. These initiatives aim to promote sustainable farming practices, enhance food security, and stimulate technological innovation. By providing financial incentives and resources, governments encourage the adoption of advanced agricultural methods, driving growth and development in the sector and addressing urban food production challenges.
For instance, in November 2023, the Indian government launched Krishi 24/7 to support government programs by monitoring and analyzing agricultural news using artificial intelligence. In line with efforts to modernize and promote agriculture, the Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW) developed this solution in partnership with Google, the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and data-driven decision-making. | <urn:uuid:2e982cfe-1285-4bfc-8c1d-dd9435bd0a08> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.gminsights.com/industry-analysis/controlled-environment-agriculture-cea-market/market-trends | 2024-09-17T06:19:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651739.72/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917040428-20240917070428-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.908567 | 211 | 3.078125 | 3 |
Putting together a thorough cyber-espionage campaign in order to spy on hundreds of people can be surprisingly inexpensive, new research by Citizen Lab explains and private sector cybersecurity experts agree.
Over the course of nearly two years, Citizen Lab estimated that a hacking group possibly linked to the Chinese government had spent $1,068 in order to stand up computer systems that were used to target people primarily linked to Tibet; an autonomous territory bordering Nepal and Bhutan that is loosely controlled by the Chinese government.
This activity illustrates to some degree how in certain environments, largely because of poor digital security practices, an attacker can run an effective yet rudimentary scheme to collect intelligence from multiple organizations all at once.
Experts say that while Citizen Lab’s findings are not unique, it paints a picture of how cheap and scalable hacking techniques — including email phishing and web exploit kits — are part and parcel with cyber-espionage programs run by various government agencies and criminal groups across the developing world.
“FireEye has seen the techniques described in the CitizenLab report proliferate worldwide,” the company said in a statement sent to CyberScoop. “Low cost techniques reduce the barrier for entry to cyber-espionage, opening it to a wide range of actors, but still do require some skill to implement successfully. These techniques are more likely to be detected by large corporations and governments; however, NGOs and activists often lack sophisticated defenses necessary to counter this capability.”
Between March 2016 and February 2017, the hackers responsible for the Tibetan espionage effort used more than 172 malicious domains, three servers, 58 decoy documents and 43 custom HTTPS protocol certificates in their operation, which helped attackers penetrate at least two different email accounts. Some phishing emails appeared to be themed for specific targets, including people familiar with the Central Tibetan Administration, Pakistan Army, Sri Lankan Ministry of Defense or Thailand Ministry of Justice, among others.
The attacker’s digital infrastructure was also tied to various other hacking attempts on opposition groups of the leading Communist Party of China, as well as foreign government agencies based in Southeast Asia. Citizen Lab had first become aware of this activity after receiving phishing email samples sent to a local human rights group.
“This case shows that it doesn’t take deep pockets or sophisticated technical skills to mount an effective digital spying operation,” said Masashi Nishihata, a research manager with Citizen Lab. “We need to raise the low bar and make digital spying more expensive for adversaries.
Another factor, according to Nishihata, is popular email platforms do not employ two-factor authentication by default. Additionally, most users refrain from using the service even if an email provider allows them to do so.
“As long as two factor adoption rates remain low, the entry cost for doing credential theft will be low as well,” Nishihata said. “Platforms can play a big role in shifting the balance by encouraging widespread use of two factor authentication.”
The highest costs associated with running an espionage program — like the one captured by Citizen Lab — comes from hiring and employing people to manage and control the infrastructure, Citizen Lab described in its report. However, estimating the price of this labor remains difficult. In addition, it’s not clear how many people would have been involved in the Tibet-focused operation, but computer coding errors and sloppy tradecraft evident in some related phishing emails suggests that the team may have been amateurs. | <urn:uuid:5439ef7c-cea4-477b-a2bf-95d6947e1d5b> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://develop.cyberscoop.com/cheap-hacking-china-tibet-citizens-lab/ | 2024-09-11T04:11:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651343.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911020451-20240911050451-00859.warc.gz | en | 0.955247 | 708 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Understanding Data Security Tools, their Capabilities, and Why They Are Important
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Data security tools are software programs or services used by organizations to protect digital data from threats such as unauthorized access. Learn what they can do and why they're important in this blog.
In addition to implementing the right cybersecurity policies, organizations must use the right data security tools to protect customer data, trade secrets, and proprietary information.
Data security tools must work collectively to ensure that an organization's sensitive and critical data is safeguarded against a wide array of threats and risks posed by cybercriminals.
What Are Data Security Tools?
Data security tools are software programs or services organizations use to protect digital data from threats such as unauthorized access, breaches, corruption, or theft. These tools can include multiple security measures such as:
- Encryption Software: These cybersecurity tools convert data into a coded form that is not easily readable, thus protecting it from unauthorized access.
- Data Masking: This is a method of creating a structurally similar yet inauthentic version of an organization's data that can be used for software testing and customer demos.
- Firewalls: They monitor and control the incoming and outgoing network traffic based on predetermined security rules, acting as a barrier between a trusted internal network and an untrusted external network.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Software: These tools prevent end-users from moving key information outside the network. DLPs can be network-based, storage-based, or endpoint-based.
- Backup Software: These tools are used to make duplicate copies of data to protect it and enable recovery in the event it is lost, stolen, or corrupted. Examples include EaseUS Todo Backup, Acronis Backup and Recovery, and Paragon Backup and Recovery.
- Antivirus/Anti-malware Software: This security software scans for, detects, and removes malicious software and code that can harm data.
- Network security and intrusion detection systems (IDS): These systems monitor network traffic in order to detect, prevent, and respond to security threats.
- Vulnerability Scanners: These tools assess computers, networks, or applications for known weaknesses.
- Authentication and access control systems: They confirm the identity of users and control their access to computer resources.
Why Data Security Tools Are Important
Data security tools are important for several reasons:
- Protect Sensitive Information: Every business has data that needs to be kept secure. This data can be anything from customer details to financial information to internal documents. Data security tools protect this sensitive information from unauthorized access and breaches.
- Comply with Regulations: Various industries have regulations that require businesses to secure their data and show proof of their security measures. These include the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).
- Prevent Data Breaches: Data breaches can lead to hefty fines and reputation damage. Data security tools help to prevent breaches by introducing measures that protect against threats and vulnerabilities.
- Preserve Customer Trust: Customers expect their personal and financial information to be secure. Effective use of data security tools can help maintain their trust.
- Ensure Business Continuity: Robust data security measures can ensure the continuity of business operations in the event of a security incident. They also help reduce the downtime and losses associated with data breaches.
- Protect from Internal Threats: Internal threats, either intentional or accidental, pose a significant risk to data security. Tools like access controls, user activity monitoring, and encryption can help protect against these risks.
- Enable Secure Collaboration and Data Sharing: With the rise of remote work and cloud computing, data security tools are necessary to ensure data remains secure while allowing for collaboration and data sharing among team members or across different platforms.
- Save Costs: The cost of experiencing a data breach could be enormous. Investing in data security tools and strategies is typically much less costly than dealing with the aftermath of a breach.
The Most Essential Tools for Data Security
These tools play a crucial role in maintaining data integrity and security, as they each provide unique methods for protecting data and mitigating cyber threats.
The most essential tools for data security include:
- Firewalls: These are the first line of defense in network security. Firewalls can either be software or hardware devices that block unauthorized access to networks and systems.
- Antivirus/Antimalware Software: These tools are designed to detect, block, and remove viruses and various types of malware.
- Data Encryption Tools: Encryption tools convert data into code to prevent unauthorized access. They are critical for protecting sensitive data such as customer information and financial details.
- Data Backup and Recovery Tools: In the event of data loss or corruption, these tools can restore data from an earlier time.
- Access Controls/Identity and Access Management (IAM): These systems allow administrators to control who has access to what within a network.
- Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) or Intrusion Prevention Systems (IPS): These systems monitor networks and systems for malicious activity.
- Virtual Private Networks (VPN): VPNs encrypt data that's sent and received across a network, making it harder for attackers to intercept information.
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) Software: SIEM software collects security log events from network devices and servers to identify patterns and detect threats.
- Data Loss Prevention (DLP) Software: DLP tools monitor and control endpoint activities, filter data streams on corporate networks, and monitor data in the cloud to prevent the end-user from moving sensitive data outside the corporate network.
- Application Security Software: These tools secure software applications from threats during development and help secure software once deployed.
Various Types of Data Security Tools
Data security tools can broadly be organized into various category types. These tools often offer a range of features to protect sensitive data, such as threat detection, encryption, integrity checking, antivirus, backup and restore, and user authentication.
Data Discovery and Classification Tools
Data Discovery and Classification tools are software solutions that locate, identify, and categorize data stored in an organization's digital environment. They are critical in data governance, security, and compliance strategies.
Here's how they function:
- Data Discovery: This function helps organizations find and understand the data they possess. The tool scans the entire environment, including databases, servers, the cloud, unstructured data repositories, and inventories of all the data it discovers. It may also provide insights about the data, such as its origin, how it's been used, and by whom.
- Data Classification: After discovering the data, the tool categorizes it based on predefined criteria such as the data type (personal, financial, etc.), data sensitivity (confidential, public, etc.), or compliance regulations (PCI DSS, GDPR, etc.). This step helps organizations understand the impact of data loss and prioritize their data protection efforts accordingly.
Data and File Activity Monitoring
Data and File Activity Monitoring (DFAM) is a security practice that involves real-time tracking, auditing, and reporting of all activities related to files and data. This includes access, creation, deletion, modification, and movement of files and data.
DFAM is a crucial component of many organization's security strategies as it helps to identify and prevent unauthorized data access and other potential security threats.
These monitoring tools provide detailed visibility into sensitive data access, usage, and modifications, offering crucial insights that can help prevent potential data breaches. They ensure that only authorized users can access certain data and track when it is accessed and what changes have been made to it.
Data and File Activity Monitoring is critical in meeting regulatory compliance rules for several standards, including the GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS, which require businesses to monitor and protect access to sensitive data.
These systems often come equipped with real-time alerts and reporting capabilities, which can notify organizations of potential security threats as soon as they occur. This allows for swift remediation action to prevent the loss or corruption of important files and data. DFAM tools can also provide robust reports for audits and other compliance requirements.
Vulnerability Assessment and Risk Analysis Tools
Vulnerability Assessment and Risk Analysis Tools are software solutions that detect, classify, and prioritize vulnerabilities in computer systems, applications, and network infrastructures. They provide a detailed understanding of an organization's threats, the likelihood of their occurrence, and the potential impact on the business.
Vulnerability Assessment Tools automate the scanning process to identify vulnerabilities. They can identify security holes (such as missing security patches and outdated system software) and misconfigurations and enforce policy compliance. Tools like Nessus, OpenVAS, and Qualys are examples of such tools.
On the other hand, Risk Analysis Tools calculate potential risks by combining results from vulnerability assessments with data about current threats. They provide a risk score to help IT professionals target the most significant risks and strategize the necessary remediation efforts. These tools facilitate understanding of a system's vulnerabilities and their potential associated risks.
Typically, these assessments involve the following steps: identification of assets, identification and quantification of risks, prioritization of risks based on potential impact, and finally, risk treatment (avoidance, mitigation, transfer, or acceptance).
In summary, vulnerability assessment and risk analysis tools are used to build a comprehensive inventory of vulnerabilities, associated risks, and action plans to treat them effectively to ensure the security and continuity of an organization’s operations.
Automated Compliance Reporting
Automated Compliance Reporting is a process where software or systems automatically collect, analyze, and report data to ensure compliance with legal, industry, or internal standards and regulations.
This is done by using software that tracks specific metrics within a business, such as data access and changes, financial transactions, quality control, and work processes. The software periodically runs checks against the predefined parameters and produces a report detailing any non-compliance issues.
Depending on the organization's needs and requirements, these reports can be generated in real-time or at scheduled intervals. They can then be shared internally for resolution efforts or externally with regulatory bodies as evidence of compliance.
Automation can help improve the accuracy, consistency, and timeliness of reporting. At the same time, it reduces the burden of manual tracking and reporting, freeing employees to focus on more strategic tasks.
Automated Compliance Reporting is often used in various industries, including healthcare (for HIPAA compliance), finance (for SOX and GDPR compliance), and IT (for cybersecurity standards compliance).
How Digital Guardian Improves the Effectiveness of Your Data Security Tools
Effective data security tools are a key component of any organization’s overall security strategy to protect its information assets, preserve its reputation, comply with regulatory mandates, and mitigate the risk of data breaches.
However, acquiring data security tools is one thing; deploying them to maximize their benefits is another. An experienced partner like Digital Guardian has the know-how to boost the effectiveness of your data security tools.
Contact us today to learn more. | <urn:uuid:ca611dd7-025c-4e5d-85c0-920e531eb7cd> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.digitalguardian.com/blog/understanding-data-security-tools-their-capabilities-and-why-they-are-important | 2024-09-13T15:52:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651523.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913133933-20240913163933-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.922425 | 2,287 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Connects decision-makers and solutions creators to what's next in quantum computing
Human Genome Set Studied With Quantum Computing
An improved representation of human diversity could lead to personalized medicine and better management of disease outbreaks
Researchers are investigating whether quantum computing can speed up the production and analysis of pangenomes, representations of DNA sequences that capture population diversity.
This could offer better insights into an individual’s genome composition that could pave the way for personalized medicine and improved tracking and management of disease outbreaks.
A pangenome is a set of reference human genome sequences that represent the breadth of human genetic diversity better than a single genome.
The study of these -- pangenomics – is one of the most computationally demanding in biomedical science and challenges the capabilities of classical computers.
This new project has been awarded up to $3.5 million under the Wellcome Leap Quantum for Bio-supported Challenge Program that aims to explore the potential of quantum computing for improvements in human health.
It involves researchers based at the University of Cambridge, the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the European Molecular Biology Laboratory European Bioinformatics Institute.
The reference human genome sequence used to gain insights into health, help to diagnose disease or guide medical treatments is based on data from only a few people and does not represent human diversity.
The team aims to develop quantum computing algorithms that could speed the production and analysis of a pangenome reference dataset.
Comparing a specific human genome against the human will offer better insights into its unique composition, potentially leading to personalized medicine. Similar approaches for bacterial and viral genomes could help track and manage pathogen outbreaks.
“The structure of many challenging problems in computational genomics, and pangenomics in particular, make them suitable candidates for speedups promised by quantum computing,” said project principal investigator Sergii Strelchuk, from the University of Cambridge.
“We are on a thrilling journey to develop and deploy quantum algorithms tailored to genomic data to gain new insights, which are unattainable using classical algorithms.”
About the Author
You May Also Like | <urn:uuid:5e454f57-02e9-4dad-9f32-9af54d1464f1> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.iotworldtoday.com/quantum/human-genome-set-studied-with-quantum-computing | 2024-09-13T14:30:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651523.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913133933-20240913163933-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.918088 | 432 | 3.171875 | 3 |
The asymmetric encryption mechanism must use a minimum key size of 2048 bits.
The key size in asymmetric encryption is directly correlated with the strength of the encryption. Larger key sizes provide a higher level of security because they increase the complexity of the mathematical problem that an attack is intended to solve and break the encryption.
This requirement is verified in following services
Plan | Supported |
Essential | 🟢 |
Advanced | 🟢 | | <urn:uuid:89554447-718a-43e2-a768-81f066191105> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://help.fluidattacks.com/portal/en/kb/articles/criteria-requirements-148 | 2024-09-14T20:27:21Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651580.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914193334-20240914223334-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.915226 | 92 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Creator: Duke University & Johns Hopkins University
Category: Software > Computer Software > Educational Software
Tag: design, machine, manufacturing, process, processes
Availability: In stock
Price: USD 49.00
This specialization is designed to be an introduction to additive manufacturing (AM) with exposure to six different AM processes. The field of AM can be broadly divided into three elements: process, materials and design. This specialization will provide a broad overview of all three elements, which is an ideal preparation for more advanced courses that dive more deeply into the growing field of AM. This specialization covers build preparation, machine setup, and post-processing requirements for six different AM processes.
Interested in what the future will bring? Download our 2024 Technology Trends eBook for free.
In addition, learners will explore the cross-cutting aspects of AM, including part orientation, supports, design for additive manufacturing, key process parameters, and mechanical and surface properties. | <urn:uuid:238ffe88-997c-41cb-838a-d20cfee8c0d4> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://datafloq.com/course/additive-manufacturing-2/ | 2024-09-16T03:56:45Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651668.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916012328-20240916042328-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.908345 | 190 | 2.765625 | 3 |
Here's a small section:
Digital signatures are used to cryptographically sign documents. Digital signatures provide nonrepudiation, which includes authentication of the identity of the signer, and proof of the document’s integrity (proving the document did not change). This means the sender cannot later deny (or repudiate) signing the document.
Roy wants to send a digitally signed email to Rick. Roy writes the email, which is the plaintext. He then uses the SHA-1 hash function to generate a hash value of the plaintext. He then creates the digital signature by encrypting the hash with his RSA private key. Figure 4.13 shows this process. Roy then attaches the signature to his plaintext email and hits send.
Rick receives Roy’s email and generates his own SHA-1 hash value of the plaintext email. Rick then decrypts the digital signature with Roy’s RSA public key, recovering the SHA-1 hash Roy generated. Rick then compares his SHA-1 hash with Roy’s. Figure 4.14 shows this process.
Figure 4.14, verifying a digital signature
If the two hashes match, Rick knows a number of things:
- Roy must have sent the email (only Roy knows his private key). This authenticates Roy as the sender.
- The email did not change. This proves the integrity of the email.
If the hashes match, Roy cannot later deny having signed the email. This is nonrepudiation. If the hashes do not match, Rick knows either Roy did not send it, or that the email’s integrity was violated.
I took many of the photos from this chapter at the National Cryptologic Museum in Fort Meade, Maryland. I highly recommend this museum, for old and young cryptographers alike. | <urn:uuid:f97e52d6-30dd-47d4-b16b-b3915c851d9e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.ericconrad.com/2010/ | 2024-09-16T02:44:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651668.29/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916012328-20240916042328-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.930449 | 371 | 3.34375 | 3 |
How to Combine and Repeat Cells in Excel
Excel users may need to combine duplicate rows to consolidate data or repeat cells for dynamic information to stay updated. Fortunately, the program simplifies these processes with a few clicks.
Step-by-step Guide to Combining Information
The consolidate option is one of the most straightforward ways to get combined data results.
1. Set Up Your Merged Cell Table.
Copy and paste your table headers into the area where you want consolidated data to appear. Next, click on the cell underneath your left-most header and choose the data tab.
2. Add Your Function.
Select “consolidate.” Click the one for your task in the drop-down function menu, such as SUM to tally data. Next, highlight the cell ranges to capture in the “reference” field by clicking on the “table” icon. Hit “add” to populate the content automatically.
Verify checked boxes in the final section — if your data table has headers, mark both the “top row” and “left column” buttons. Only check the “left column” box for tables without headers.
Press “OK,” and you’ll have a new table with consolidated values.
Repeating Cells Step-by-step
Suppose you want a bird’s-eye view of employee hours worked per month. Let’s walk through an example of how to repeat data automatically with Power Query to save time.
1. Turn Data into Tables.
Select the column ranges you’ll use and press Ctrl+T to create a table. Name it, then repeat the process with other data columns.
2. Connect the Tables in Power Query.
Select any cell in the dynamic column — months — and navigate to the data tab. Choose “from sheet” to pull in the table data. Next, click “close and load” in the upper left, and check the option “only create connection” to prevent data duplication in the workbook. Press “OK” to return.
Add the “employee” column to Power Query with the same sequence, stopping before the “close and load” step. Now, you’ll add the dynamic data using the ribbon bar shortcut “custom column.” Name the column and navigate to the formula section of the dialogue box. Next to the equal sign, add your first query — months — by typing and selecting it in the pop-up. Click “OK.”
The display will default to show the word “table.” To change this, hit the expand button in the column header and unselect the “use original column name as prefix” box. Change the data type to “text” with the header icon, then use the “close and load to” option to position it in your workbook at the preferred location.
As more months occur and data loads, you can right-click on a cell in the consolidated table and select “refresh.”
Learn More About Professionally Managed IT Services from Agio
Learn how by contacting an Agio expert online.
Connect with us.
Need a solution? Want to partner with us? Please complete the fields below to connect with a member of our team. | <urn:uuid:485adff7-33ef-4f94-8506-84a01a308028> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://agio.com/how-to-combine-and-repeat-cells-in-excel/ | 2024-09-17T09:08:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651750.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917072424-20240917102424-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.846859 | 706 | 2.828125 | 3 |
What is deep learning?
Deep learning is a specialized form of machine learning that is powered by neural networking. It makes sense of unstructured data by extracting and classifying images or sounds to draw valuable business conclusions. Deep learning can be applied in areas such as facial recognition, speech recognition, translation, autonomous cars and social network filtering.
What are the business benefits of deep learning?
Applying deep learning technology can reduce the amount of time it takes to analyze data and draw conclusions. It can also increase the quality and accuracy of those results. Deep learning can also:
- Catch defects. Deep learning models can identify even very small product manufacturing defects that humans often miss.
- Improve forecasting. Organizations can use deep learning algorithms to mine relationships between multiple types of unstructured data—such as images, social media chatter, industry analyses and more—to make better business forecasts.
- Eliminate data labeling. Deep learning technology algorithms are capable of learning without guidelines, eliminating the need for well-labeled data.
- Avoid human error. A deep learning model can perform thousands of routine, repetitive tasks very quickly, avoiding errors associated with human fatigue or boredom.
- Automate feature engineering. Deep learning can implement feature engineering autonomously. An algorithm scans data to identify and combine correlating features to promote faster learning—streamlining data scientists’ work. | <urn:uuid:68687ebd-72c5-48d3-84bb-7c70cbcd842e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.cognizant.com/us/en/glossary/deep-learning | 2024-09-17T09:49:00Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651750.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917072424-20240917102424-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.937718 | 277 | 3.515625 | 4 |
Unstructured data is non-transactional business data, the format of which cannot, or does not, easily conform to a relational database schema.
What do I need to know about unstructured data?
Unstructured data includes many sources of business information that, until recently, were not mined for business intelligence. These include audio files, video files, emails, and Word documents, among others. In the world of big data, organizations are paying closer attention to the information hidden in their unstructured data and taking action to understand and utilize the contents of that data.
How much business data is unstructured?
Today, many sources of information are text-based, with semantic context that is not easily processed by data management systems. The content of emails is unstructured, as is social media data, podcasts, security videos, PDF files, text messages, and sales presentations. By some estimates, 70 to 80 percent of all business data today is unstructured.
Why collect unstructured data?
While the volume of all data is increasing rapidly, unstructured data is increasing the most. For example, social media data can be a huge source of insight into customer trends and satisfaction. Organizations that do not cultivate a competency in understanding their unstructured data will quickly find themselves at a competitive disadvantage.
What are the benefits of managing unstructured data?
When a company has control of and visibility into its unstructured data it can:
- Reduce risk with an expanded view into end-to-end enterprise information
- Increase IT productivity and reduce costs
- Improve business decision making | <urn:uuid:97c9546c-8285-425d-9828-c84bb1cf4095> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.informatica.com/services-and-training/glossary-of-terms/unstructured-data-definition.html | 2024-09-18T15:48:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651899.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918133146-20240918163146-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.945057 | 333 | 2.75 | 3 |
When you hear the term “brute-force attack,” you may think about a savagely violent person or animal aggressively attacking another being. But if you’re in cybersecurity, you may envision something completely different—although no less frightening.
In technology, a brute-force attack is when a hacker uses automated software to hammer an organization’s system with usernames, passwords, or passphrases until it successfully guesses the right combination and gains entry to that system. Such attacks are often the most successful when system passwords are fairly short because a brute-force attack moves quickly and isn’t as effective if there are longer passwords or passphrases to handle.brute-force attacks to gain entry to a system illegally so they can steal valuable data from that website, shut it down, or execute another kind of attack. Another tactic is for the hacker to gain access to your system and then wait to use that access later.
A recent six-month study by Proofpoint of major cloud service tenants finds that there are “massive” brute-force attacks coming mainly from Nigeria, but also from China, Brazil, South Africa, and the United States. Most of those attacks leveraged IMAP and used compromised network devices such as routers and servers to launch attacks. Unfortunately, the brute-force attacks found success 44 percent of the time.
Despite the increasing frequency of such attacks, there are ways that organizations can protect themselves. Among them:
Hackers use - Three strikes and you’re out. Systems need to lock out users who have three failed login. A downside is that implementing such a protocol means that one hacker can lock up several accounts, which can lead to a denial of service for users and one big headache for the administrator who must unlock each account. One way around this may be to use a progressive delay, which locks the account for a certain period, each time longer than the previous one. Such delays take the teeth out of a brute-force attack because it becomes slow and inefficient.
- Employ CAPTCHA. Are you human? That’s what CAPTCHA (completely automated public Turing test) tries to ensure by requiring the user to type the letters of a distorted image. Be aware that some users don’t have kind words for CAPTCHA and find it difficult to decipher—it takes the average person about 10 seconds to solve a typical CAPTCHA.
- Require strong passwords. Passwords need to be at least eight letters with both uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and at least one special character. Consider password manager tools like LastPass, Dashlane, Roboform and KeePass.
- Rely on two-factor authentication. Having a password isn’t enough for a two-factor authentication, which also requires something like your cellphone number or a code that is sent to you via SMS. Some companies will allow users to verify a device only once, while others will require authentication every month or every year.
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Professional Services Organizations are a Top Target of Ransomware Attacks: How Your Firm Can Tighten Its Defenses
September 17th, 2024 | <urn:uuid:aa02e19d-35e3-42e0-8b6f-4117f63c9c5b> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.arcserve.com/blog/brute-force-attacks-how-organizations-can-protect-themselves | 2024-09-19T21:51:57Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652067.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919194038-20240919224038-00159.warc.gz | en | 0.925508 | 698 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Yes, you can get scammed on Cash App in a variety of ways, including cash flipping, accidental payments and phishing messages. Cash App scams are harmful
Scareware is a type of social engineering cyber attack that uses psychological manipulation to trick victims into downloading malware disguised as antivirus software. Cybercriminals trick users with frightening, urgent messages in pop-ups or emails which claim their computer is infected.
Continue reading to learn how scareware attacks work, how to avoid falling victim to them and how to remove scareware from your devices.
How Scareware Works
Scareware attacks are a multi-step process. Sometimes an attack can be broad and sometimes it’s more targeted. For example, a cybercriminal may target people who they know use a particular software service (such as Google users) because they will pretend to represent that company in the attack.
Once the victims are chosen, the cybercriminal targets the users with pop-up ads or emails containing a frightening message which prompts the user to complete an action such as downloading a malicious file or going to an insecure website.
When the user has bought into the scam and believes they are in danger, they will follow the directions from the cybercriminal without much thought, which results in them downloading malicious software, known as malware, or completing other harmful actions such as handing over sensitive data.
Examples of Scareware
The most common type of scareware attack uses pop-up ads. When the user is browsing on the internet, they will see a pop-up ad with a false message claiming that the user’s computer is infected with a virus. The message then claims the user needs to download antivirus software immediately to fix it. If the user clicks on the pop-up, it may direct them to a website and start an automatic download.
Instead of legitimate antivirus software, the download contains harmful malware that collects Personally Identifiable Information (PII) or other sensitive data from their computer. The cybercriminal then uses this information to compromise the user’s accounts or steal their identity.
Scareware attacks can also use email as a medium for delivering messages. For example, the cybercriminal could send an email disguised as an official Google communication with a message claiming the user’s computer is infected. Because Google is a trusted company, the user would be easily convinced by the message. The email would instruct the user to download fake antivirus software from a spoofed website. Again, the download actually contains malware and the user’s computer becomes infected.
Although illegal, occasionally legitimate companies have used scareware tactics to drive sales. In this type of scareware attack, a legitimate company offers the user a free program to “check” their computer for any malware or issues affecting performance. In reality, the program doesn’t check for issues. Instead, it suggests that the user should purchase software to fix fake issues the program found. In this scenario, the new software is not malware, but the scareware tricks the user into paying for software they don’t need, to fix an issue they never had.
How To Prevent Scareware Attacks
Now that you know what scareware attacks look like, here’s how you can avoid them:
1. Verify the legitimacy of the software
If you want to download antivirus software, you should research and choose software from a reputable company such as Mcafee Antivirus or Norton Antivirus and go directly to their site, rather than clicking a link in a pop-up or email. This will help you avoid any fake antivirus software that is actually scareware.
2. Avoid suspicious links and pop-ups
In cybersecurity, it’s generally a good idea to avoid clicking on any pop-up ads. The safe way to close a pop-up ad is to close the browser window. Sometimes pop-up ads have an “X” which looks like a button to close the pop-up, but isn’t actually clickable, and instead causes you to download malware or directs you to a malicious website.
You should also check if a link is safe before you click it, especially if you received the link from an unexpected message. You can hover your mouse over the link to see the URL, also known as the website address, to make sure it’s taking you to a reputable website and not a spoofed one.
3. Keep software up to date
Software companies include security patches in updates that protect users against known vulnerabilities. Software updates can help protect your computer from viruses and other attacks. Keeping your software updated is important to keep your devices secure.
4. Back up your data
If your computer is infected due to a scareware attack, you may need to wipe the computer in order to recover your device. Backing up your data is key to preventing you from losing it in a cyber attack.
5. Use a pop-up blocker
An effective and reputable pop-up blocker will stop pop-ups from appearing as you browse the web. This will help prevent you from even having the opportunity to accidentally click on one.
How To Remove Scareware
If you have accidentally downloaded malware from a scareware attack, don’t panic. Here’s what you should do:
- Immediately disconnect your device from the internet. This will prevent the malware from sending your data to the cybercriminal who planted it.
- Don’t use any passwords or open sensitive files until your computer is clean, because the malware may be recording your actions.
- Manually delete the file that you downloaded.
- If you have antivirus software downloaded, use it to scan your computer to make sure there aren’t any other malware files on it.
- If you don’t have antivirus software already, you can download it on another device and use a USB drive to install the software on your infected computer. Then you can run a scan to ensure that your computer is clean.
If this doesn’t work and your computer is still having problems, you may need to take more extreme steps, like completely wiping your system.
Don’t Be Scared of Cybercriminals
When using the internet, it’s best practice to never panic and investigate the claims made in emails, texts and other types of messages before acting on them. Cybercriminals use our own fear against us. While scareware is common, it’s easy to avoid once you know what to look out for.
You don’t have to be scared of cybercriminals if you know how to prevent cyber attacks. Learn more tips on how to keep your data safe online. | <urn:uuid:6d30f30d-245d-4563-87fb-f61fb8419d3d> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.keepersecurity.com/blog/2023/07/28/what-is-scareware/ | 2024-09-21T03:25:38Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701427996.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20240921015054-20240921045054-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.92846 | 1,377 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Ransomware: The Growing Threat to Computer and Device Security
Ransomware has become a significant threat to IT security, with scammers targeting computers and other electronic devices. While individuals are typically the primary victims of this type of malware, it is only a matter of time before the business world is also at risk. Ransomware is a type of malicious software that blocks access to a personal computer, server, or mobile electronic device, or encrypts data stored on such devices, rendering the information inaccessible until a monetary ransom is paid.
Payment of the demanded ransom is the only way users can retrieve the stolen information via a software “key” that will restore access to the user. Ransoms are typically demanded in the form of bitcoins which are a form of digital currency that uses encryption technology to regulate the generation of bitcoins and for verifying the transfer of money from one account to another, but which are not in any way connected to a legitimate bank or other financial institution. As you may have guessed, these scams are extremely difficult to overcome without payment of the ransom and simply removing the malware from electronic devices will not even begin to solve the problem.
The Growing Threat of Ransomware: How Cyber Criminals Target Their Victims
Ransomware is usually delivered to victims in the form of an email or third-party websites that are already infected with the nefarious software. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) indicates that ransom payments in 2016 were expected to reach a billion dollars in comparison to 2015 statistics that show ransom payments upwards of $24 million. Cyber security experts predict the figures to rise even more in 2017 and every year thereafter because it has proven to be a very lucrative activity for scammers.
The phishing emails use Visual Basic Script to avoid detection rather than using macros which would make them easier to identify and eradicate. Cyber criminals are now targeting major financial institutions and insurance providers with nefarious email messages that contain the necessary tools and information-collecting software that uses keylogging to fraudulently obtain information about keystrokes that targeted individuals and businesses use to access various accounts.
This keylogging software enables hackers to see everything that is typed on an infected computer or mobile device keyboard which is then used to exploit personal and confidential information in the form of login usernames, passwords and other valuable information and then demand payment of ransom from that individual or entity in order to regain access to their own stolen vital information.
Scammers are now targeting high profile major financial institutions and insurance companies because of the plethora of information contained within their computer systems about millions of individuals and business entities which they can exploit for their malicious purposes.
The United States Secret Service is now warning people to also be leary of public computers offered to guests of hotels and devices in business centers and other places that provide public access to and use of their personal computers or other office machinery that is provided as a service to guests and/or clients.
This warning also applies to activities conducted on electronic devices using a public WI-FI facility that provides Internet access or personal communications within a specific area using computers, Smartphones and other hand-held electronic mobile devices which are popularly used by millions of people worldwide every day.
Like most phishing schemes, emails are sent that contain attachments in the form of Microsoft documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) that seem legitimate but which are designed to do nothing more than install nefarious malware using Visual Basic Script that is the means by which malware is downloaded onto computers and other electronic devices, including cell phones and tablets.
Visual Basic Script files are “Packager Shell Objects” that can be used to open files and execute from within Microsoft Office documents in which the malicious file is embedded. Fraudulent emails often include images or links but request that you download a certain software application in order to view those images or information contained in links within the body of the email. Cyber security experts have determined that those images and/or links are not what they appear to be and instead contain codes for keylogging malware that will begin to nefariously operate on your device the second you attempt to access the application by clicking “run.”
After the malware is installed on your computer or other electronic device, it sends keystroke information to hard-coded email addresses which fix parameters of a software program or data contained therein and cannot be altered or changed in any way without modifying the entire computer program.
Although Microsoft software applications block macros by default and this particular type of malware is pretty basic compared to other means of exploitation, cyber criminals and hackers are continually developing new ways to infect your devices with nefarious downloads, which indicates a shift from the previous practice of tricking users into inadvertently enabling malicious macros.
According to a report from the American technology company known as Symantec, the average ransom that was demanded in 2016 was about $679, compared to only $295 typically demanded from victims in 2015. Experts believe ransom demands will exceed $1000 before the end of 2017 and some larger entities and/or wealthy individuals have already paid ransoms consisting of 4 to 5 monetary digits in order to unlock their critical data and resume normal activities.
Corporations and other business entities are becoming frequent targets and are also vulnerable since reports of ransomware payments have been made by utility companies, banks, insurance companies, colleges, hospitals, police departments and multiple other agencies in order to retrieve their vital information.
The Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in L.A. paid almost $17,000 to unlock its computer network in February, 2016 and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency was targeted which disabled passenger ticket vending machines that are used for its municipal light rail system.
Whereas other types of malware require stealing personal information in the form of passwords and credit card numbers, etc., which is then sold to other criminals who attempt to profit from the acquisition, ransomware is a direct means of stealing information which usually results in ransom payments being made directly to the criminal in order to quickly recover data and resume normal operations.
Digital security experts fully expect the criminal use of ransomware to get worse and explode exponentially in the future, affecting more and more people every year. This is due to the fact that ransoms are usually paid and that ransom software can be purchased from cyber hackers which enables anyone with basic computer skills to launch sophisticated attacks against mostly individuals who typically don’t maintain adequate security measures to protect from such attacks.
The problems with ransomware include new varieties like Jigsaw which encrypts data and then begins deleting groups of files to pressure victims to pay the demanded ransom. Another newcomer is Chimera which threatens to post files, photos and videos online if the ransom is not paid by a certain deadline. Android handheld electronic mobile devices have been targeted by Flocker which can lock Android phones and smart TVs until ransom is paid.
Ransomware criminals are all over the world and can attack anyone or any company connected to the Internet. Symantec determined that the United States is the favorite target for ransomware demands with 28% of global infections and Canada is second accounting for 16% of global ransomware infections.
Law enforcement agencies discourage victims from paying ransoms because it encourages more attacks which pays for the development or more and more nefarious malware, especially since there is absolutely no guarantee that payment of the ransom will result in computer files being unlocked. However, many unprepared business owners feel they have no choice but to pay the ransom.
In fact, a survey of business leaders conducted by IBM revealed that almost half of the businesses polled indicated they have already been victimized by ransomware attacks; 60% indicated they would be willing to pay ransoms in order to recover stolen data; 70% of businesses surveyed indicated they have already been infected with ransomware and actually paid the ransom to regain access to computer systems and vital business data; 20% of those that paid indicated the ransom they paid was over $40,000; half of the companies surveyed indicated they would be willing to pay over $10,000 to retrieve data; and 25% indicated they would be willing to pay between $20,000 and $50,000 depending on the type of data stolen. So you can see why ransomware is becoming more popular and effective as a means for cyber criminals to make a lot of money and they will continually up the ante because of the predictable certainty of ransoms being paid.
Of course medium and large companies are more attractive and lucrative victims than individuals since they are usually willing to pay larger amounts of money for ransom, but small businesses are also vulnerable to attacks because employees often lack IT security training that is typically provided by large businesses. The survey concluded that only 30% of the 200 or so small businesses surveyed offer security training to employees while 58% of larger companies offer such training.
In conclusion, everyone is at risk for ransomware attacks and must take action to protect vital information by disabling macros, backing up files every day and maintaining up-to-date security software. It is also advisable that you make sure those backups are not constantly connected to the internet or a live network that makes the data insecure and vulnerable. Users of computers and other electronic devices should also delete any applications that are rarely or never used and should be set up to automatically receive updated software for operating systems, computer apps and security software on every electronic device you utilize.
Symantec’s Kevin Haley indicated “This is not something that happens to other people; it could easily happen to you. We really need to step up our protection because the bad guys are stepping up their game. There’s just too much money involved for them not to.”
Don’t allow yourself to become a victim and take every security measure you can to protect your personal or business information or you may be the next victim of ransomware and it could very well destroy you or your business financially or completely shut down operations altogether. Better to be safe than sorry!
For ransomware help contact Eyes Everywhere | <urn:uuid:104e4b05-b4f0-4695-9214-aac9f7d1ab83> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://eyeseverywhere.ca/ransomware/ | 2024-09-07T17:31:41Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650898.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907162417-20240907192417-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.952615 | 2,003 | 2.890625 | 3 |
In this video, TACC researchers use supercomputers to aid the fight against cardiovascular disease.
As the leading cause of death in the United States, heart attacks are caused by something known as vulnerable plaques, which are fatty lipid pool deposits in the inner layer of the arterial wall. After extensive computational research, TACC helped develop a 14-minute animation to explain the underlying nature of vulnerable plaques and a potential clinical procedure for treatment with the goal of personalizing diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in patients.
Not everyone knows about vulnerable plaque,” said Thomas Hughes, a professor at ICES. “Everybody hears about heart disease and heart attacks, yet vulnerable plaques are often the source—they are very insidious. If a vulnerable plaque ruptures and blocks flow to an area of the heart, it’s a heart attack; if it blocks a part of the brain, it’s a stroke.”
Communicating how this process works to patients can be difficult. but visualizations like this help dramatically. Read the Full Story. | <urn:uuid:3704ec54-5542-4799-9855-9ca063276c82> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://insidehpc.com/2012/10/video-simulating-patient-specific-nanoparticulate-drug-delivery/ | 2024-09-07T18:40:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650898.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907162417-20240907192417-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.919659 | 215 | 3.28125 | 3 |
In 1997, the United States, Mexico, and Canada developed the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS). Their goal was to replace the Standard Industry Classification System with a new system for North America. NAICS codes create common definitions for specific industries. As a result, federal statistical agencies can more easily analyze and compare economic activity. Since the creation of NAICS, state, local, and federal agencies have adopted the system for a wide range of purposes.
Breaking Down the NAICS Code Structure
The official NAICS code structure consists of a two-through-six-digit hierarchy of classifications with five levels of detail:
- The two-digit code indicates the economic sector
- The three-digit code specifies the economic subsector
- The four-digit code includes the industry group
- The five-digit code denotes the specific NAICS industry
- The six-digit code provides country-specific detail for the national industry
To help visualize how this works, here’s an example of a NAICS code broken down:
Understanding NAICS Codes in Government Contracting
The full, six-digit primary NAICS code plays a pivotal role in federal government contracting. NAICS code applications span from registering to do business with a government agency to determining your business size and conducting market research. With such a wide breadth of uses, it can be difficult to get far without understanding and knowing your NAICS codes.
- Government Market Research
- Business Size-Determination
- System for Award Management Registration
- GSA Schedule NAICS Code Lookup
Government Agency Market Research
Whether your company is just getting started in the government market, evaluating the addition of new offerings, or looking to reassess the market, NAICS codes provide an excellent starting point for government market research. This is because the federal government utilizes the NAICS code system to classify government contract opportunities and awards. Researching NAICS codes can help you determine:
- How much the government spends on your category of products or services
- Which agencies are spending the most on your category of products or services
- Which companies are currently selling your category of products or services to the government
- If there are cyclical spending trends associated with your category of products or services
Business Size Determination
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) uses your average annual receipts and number of employees, which vary depending on your NAICS code, as a basis for determining the size status of your business. This is important because your business size impacts whether you qualify for small business set-asides, subcontracting, and various government contracting programs.
To see the definition of annual receipts and average employees, you can view the common terms section on the SBA’s website here. To see if your company qualifies as a small business for government contracting, view the table of size standards or use SBA’s Size Standards Tool.
SAM Registration and Code Entry
In order to do business with the federal government, you’re required to register on the System for Award Management (SAM.gov). Part of the registration process involves entering the NAICS code or codes associated with your products or services. You can list multiple NAICS codes on your SAM registration, however you will have to designate a primary NAICS. While companies should register at https://www.sam.gov, you can find more information on how to register here.
NAICS Code GSA SIN Lookup
Updated June 2024
Of the more than 1,000 NAICS codes, approximately 200 are represented on the GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) Contract, also referred to as the GSA Schedule. Products and services on the GSA Schedule are grouped by Special Item Numbers (SINs). Each SIN maps to one or more NAICS code. Lookup your NAICS code in the chart below to see if and how your NAICS code maps to the GSA Schedule.
Please note, SINs marked as “SBSA” are reserved Small Business Set-Asides.
Identify Your NAICS Codes
NAICS Code Lookup
The Census Bureau is the official government source for information on NAICS codes. To view an FAQ, download the full list of codes, or search a NAICS code, visit the Census Bureau website.
You can use the search feature to look up keywords related to your particular industry and find the most applicable NAICS code(s). We should note, the Census Bureau reviews the North American Industry Classification System every five years to evaluate the need for updates. The latest release was in 2022.
As you explore the available NAICS codes, keep in mind that the classification system was designed to collect and analyze statistical data on the economy. Because it isn’t tailored to government procurement, it may take some time to identify the most appropriate code(s) for your business. | <urn:uuid:1b707010-b8aa-4717-8317-5d2960ecbe29> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://gsa.federalschedules.com/resources/naics-codes-in-government-contracting/ | 2024-09-11T09:34:19Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651383.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911084051-20240911114051-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.90386 | 996 | 3 | 3 |
Perfect Forward Secrecy Definition
Perfect Forward Secrecy (PFS), also called forward secrecy (FS), refers to an encryption system that changes the keys used to encrypt and decrypt information frequently and automatically. This ongoing process ensures that even if the most recent key is hacked, a minimal amount of sensitive data is exposed.
Web pages, calling apps, and messaging apps all use encryption tools with perfect forward secrecy that switch their keys as often as each call or message in a conversation, or every reload of an encrypted web page. This way, the loss or theft of one decryption key does not compromise any additional sensitive information—including additional keys.
Determine whether forward secrecy is present by inspecting the decrypted, plain-text version of the data exchange from the key agreement phase of session initiation. An application or website’s encryption system provides perfect forward secrecy if it does not reveal the encryption key throughout the session.
What is Perfect Forward Secrecy?
Perfect forward secrecy helps protect session keys against being compromised even when the server’s private key may be vulnerable. A feature of specific key agreement protocols, an encryption system with forward secrecy generates a unique session key for every user initiated session. In this way, should any single session key be compromised, the rest of the data on the system remains protected. Only the data guarded by the compromised key is vulnerable.
Before perfect forward secrecy, the Heartbleed bug affected OpenSSL, one of the common SSL/TLS protocols. With forward secrecy in place, even man-in-the-middle attacks and similar attempts fail to retrieve and decrypt sessions and communications despite compromise of passwords or secret long-term keys.
Compare Backwards vs Forwards Secrecy
Perfect forward secrecy guards against future compromises of past sessions, which could cause the loss of sensitive data such as passwords or additional secret keys.
Backward secrecy helps “self-heal” compromises of past sessions and the loss of sensitive data from them. This is confusing because both do focus on data from past sessions, but forward secrecy is preventative while backward secrecy is mitigating. For example, the Signal protocol uses the self-healing Double Ratchet Algorithm to achieve backward secrecy.
How Does Perfect Forward Secrecy Work?
Encryption perfect forward secrecy enables entirely private, short-term key exchanges between a client and the server.
Normally, web servers secure communication sessions with special encryption keys. Whenever a client wants to talk to the server, the client generates a pre-primary secret and uses the server’s special key to encrypt it. Both users then continue the rest of the chat, encrypting it with this pre-primary secret.
Only people who know the original key of the server can decrypt what client and server discuss. The network team, for example, supports the server and must monitor communications to assist in its task of tracking down bugs.
Without perfect forward secrecy, an attacker can spy on the server’s communications unobserved. This is because the server uses the same key to encrypt each pre-primary secret with each client.
If the server secures communications with perfect forward secrecy, every time a new client starts a conversation with the server, the two generate a unique pre-primary secret that is totally private. It is also ephemeral, and only lasts for that one communication. The client never sees the long-term key, and a hacker is limited to only what is shared during that one conversation.
Consider this hypothetical example of a basic instant messaging protocol using perfect forward secrecy:
- Step One: X and Y each generate a pair of asymmetric, long-term, public keys and private keys. They use an already-authenticated channel to verify the public-key fingerprints, or verify them in person. The verification process establishes to a high degree of certainty that the public key’s claimed owner is also its actual owner.
- Step Two: X and Y securely agree on an ephemeral key for the session using a key exchange algorithm such as Diffie-Hellman. They authenticate each other with the keys from Step One during this process.
- Step Three: X uses the session key negotiated in Step Two to encrypt a message with a symmetric cipher and sends that encrypted version to Y.
- Step Four: Y decrypts the message with the key from Step Two.
Step One never repeats. Instead, the process repeats starting from Step Two for each new message sent. Depending on the conversation, X and Y’s roles as sender or recipient may switch. It is this generation of new session keys for each message that achieves forward secrecy.
Even if Step Two is compromised at some point, that key is only good for one message. A compromise of Step One would also leave messages intact—although it might enable an attacker to impersonate X or Y moving forward, leaving future messages vulnerable.
Benefits of Perfect Forward Secrecy
There are many benefits to perfect forward secrecy. Brute force attacks can eventually penetrate even very secure encryption, given enough time and computing power to try combinations of security keys. Without forward secrecy, encryption keys are used for sessions—entire batches of transactions.
Brute force hacking demands extensive time and resources, but that level of return of sensitive data makes it worthwhile. Perfect forward secrecy guarantees brute force attacks won’t be as worthwhile.
Generating a unique session key for each transaction limits hackers to obtaining data from one exchange per successful attack. A server protected by perfect forward secrecy is simply a less appealing target for a hacker, because it demands more effort and time. There’s also no future value in such an attack, because the server with PFS generates a new set of Diffie-Hellman parameters per session.
Does Blockchain Have Forward Secrecy?
Perfect forward secrecy protects future compromises of the passwords or secret keys from past sessions. With forward secrecy in place, previously recorded and encrypted sessions and communications cannot be retrieved and decrypted by an attacker who compromises long-term secrets keys in the future.
This is critical for a blockchain use case. A leaked key has the potential to compromise a significant amount of assets in a blockchain scenario since all data is stored forever.
VPN Perfect Forward Secrecy
VPN perfect forward secrecy simply refers to the use of perfect forward secrecy by VPNs. PFS makes VPN connections more secure, though it can reduce speed slightly in some cases.
Perfect Forward Secrecy Protocols
Several major protocol implementations provide perfect forward secrecy, at least as an optional feature, including SSH, IPsec (RFC 2412), and the IM library and cryptography protocol, Off-the-Record Messaging.
In Transport Layer Security (TLS) 1.3, the ephemeral Diffie–Hellman key exchange supports perfect forward secrecy. OpenSSL provides forward secrecy with elliptic curve Diffie–Hellman key exchange.
The Signal Protocol supports forward security with the Double Ratchet Algorithm. However, WPA does not provide perfect forward secrecy.
How to Enable Perfect Forward Secrecy
Perfect forward secrecy works on sites that use either SSL or TLS sessions. Both cryptographic protocols allow secure connections to be created, but neither determines the encryption cipher to be used or mandates the actual key exchange.
Instead, to enable perfect forward secrecy, the user and server machines must agree upon the encryption type. Therefore, when configuring forward secrecy, set your servers up to make compliant cipher suites available:
- Ephemeral Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDHE)
- Ephemeral Diffie-Hellman (DHE)
The key exchange must be ephemeral, meaning the server and client will generate a unique set of Diffie-Hellman parameters and use the keys just once per session. The exchange-related encryption is deleted from the server after the transaction ends, which ensures that any given session key is almost useless to hackers.
If possible, select Elliptic Curve DHE suites. These are faster than the standard DHE counterparts.
To determine whether perfect forward secrecy is enabled, refer to the security details of a site. If it is using “ECDHE” or “DHE” then it is currently using forward secrecy.
Most modern servers are already configured for perfect forward secrecy, but if your server is not, complete the process in four steps:
- Locate the SSL protocol configuration.
- Add the protocol to your configuration.
- Set the SSL cipher. Ensure you enforce the ordering of your ciphers by using ‘SSLHonorCipherOrder on’ in Apache and ‘ssl_prefer_server_ciphers on;’ in nginx.
Importantly, it is easy to configure perfect forward secrecy incorrectly. A common error is to simply enable support for DHE or ECDHE without actually enforcing the ordering of the ciphers. Simply enabling them doesn’t mean the server is using perfect forward secrecy.
In addition, prioritize perfect forward secrecy over other security methods to ensure it works properly. In some cases you may need to halt other types of security so weaker forms of encryption don’t take priority in error, allowing for FREAK attacks and other SSL/TLS vulnerabilities.
It is also important to halt long duration session tickets or session IDs. These hold onto session information on the user’s side for extended periods of time—sometimes until the system is rebooted.
When to Use Perfect Forward Secrecy
In November 2014, Sony Pictures experienced a major security breach in which hackers stole their servers’ private keys and SSH keys. This makes the case for perfect forward secrecy in that the attackers could use these stolen keys to decrypt confidential data Sony may have collected in the past.
Any current sites should support PFS. Perfect forward secrecy is valuable against attackers who may be able to achieve READ access, but not WRITE access. In other words, an attacker who can undertake cryptanalysis of the underlying ciphers being used and modify the way the session key generator functions may be responsible for failed forward secrecy. For example, large quantum computers are up to breaking these ciphers in a reasonable amount of time.
However, in most cases perfect forward secrecy separates the confidentiality of past conversations and any compromise of a long-term secret key successfully. This begs the question: why don’t all websites support PFS? There are several reasons organizations have for failing to implement perfect forward secrecy.
Lack of infrastructure support and lack of browser support are among the reasons. PFS demands specific combinations of SSL settings, particularly the ephemeral Diffie-Hellman cipher suite, which it deploys for the key exchange. Most current web servers and OpenSSL support PFS and the Diffie-Hellman ciphers. However, servers and infrastructure that don’t can still benefit from PFS thanks to newer, software-based load balancers.
Performance impact of perfect forward secrecy is another issue, in that enabling PFS can reduce the SSL performance of sites by more than 90 percent. PFS is also approximately three to four times more computationally expensive for traditional RSA keys. However, PFS adds little to no overhead for newer elliptic curve cryptography certificates, and so long as your SSL decryption infrastructure has capacity or can scale capacity on demand, performance won’t be a problem even if you are still using RSA 2k certificates.
Implementation complexity has been a barrier to achieving perfect forward secrecy in the past, but implementation is easier than ever with modern load balancers and other packaged solutions. To implement PFS ideally, use an ECC certificate to negotiate fast SSL/TLS encryption with PFS, and simultaneously leverage an RSA certificate as a backup for compatibility with older browsers.
Waiting for a compelling event in the form of a data breach or attack is a mistake.
Does Avi Networks Support Perfect Forward Secrecy?
Why don’t all websites support perfect forward secrecy? Because many load balancers are not equipped to drive PFS efficiently. In some cases, enabling forward secrecy can reduce SSL performance on a site by more than 90%.
The Avi Networks innovation is unlimited SSL performance scaling and massively improved PFS performance. Learn more about the Avi Networks platform here.
For more on the actual implementation of load balancers, check out our Application Delivery How-To Videos. | <urn:uuid:de2df666-7790-4fa9-9baa-60100a158764> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://avinetworks.com/glossary/perfect-forward-secrecy/ | 2024-09-16T05:12:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651676.3/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916044225-20240916074225-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.880056 | 2,534 | 3.25 | 3 |
The following post, a first of a three part series, is presented in collaboration with Cyrus.
When somebody offers you something that is too good to be true, you should always think twice. As the old saying goes, “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” and that couldn’t be more relevant today in light of emerging threats to personal cybersecurity.
Simply downloading a pirated version of Photoshop to edit your photos, opening an email with a PDF file that invites you to a free vacation in the Maldives, or even clicking on a link for additional COVID-19-related benefits, can turn an apparent freebie (the “free lunch”) into a costly compromise of your device.
Cyrus and Hudson Rock, both founded by cybersecurity experts, partnered together to bring state-of-the-art cybercrime intelligence to the consumer sector which until now was only available to major corporations and government agencies.
In this first of a three-part blog post series, Cyrus and Hudson Rock will explain what an info-stealer is, as well as provide steps and tips on how to protect yourself against this threat.
An information stealer is a type of malware that gathers sensitive information stored on a device. Once a computer has been infected, the info-stealer uses various techniques to acquire data. These include:
Through its partnership with Hudson Rock, Cyrus is able to access a database of over 5,200,000 computers, which were compromised through global info-stealer campaigns performed by hackers.
Cyrus & Hudson Rock’s joint analysis revealed that when a user clicks and launches an infected file (thereby authorizing the action) antiviruses are rendered useless in preventing infections. That’s why both built-in defenses like Windows Defender and paid antivirus software from major vendors like Norton and Kaspersky struggle to prevent these types of attacks.
The fact of the matter is that antiviruses cannot provide 100% protection due to human error.
According to a recent analysis of 100,000 compromised devices, 88% of the devices had different antivirus software that the info-stealer managed to bypass.
Although companies and websites have started storing an encrypted version of credentials in order to fight against data breaches and increase cybersecurity protection, this is by no means a panacea. — even encrypted passwords can be cracked as a result of users recycling the same password across multiple accounts.
Info-stealers capture passwords which users allow to be automatically saved in browsers when they sign in to websites. The passwords are then decoded, which is why they are always in plaintext rather than in encrypted form. This enables threat actors to effortlessly hack into user accounts and corporate networks as even the most complex passwords are presented clearly with the corresponding login details and login links.
For example, Cyrus personally handled an incident in which a user’s device had been fully compromised, exposing over 400 credentials tied to various financial institutions and online portals.
Unlike a third-party breach, which compromises you along with millions of other individuals, an info-stealer infection turns your personal device into an entire private breach.
Password managers can be very useful in generating long and complex passwords that we don’t need to remember. This helps us not reuse the same password across different accounts. However, they become irrelevant when credentials are stored in a browser and are vulnerable to info-stealer attacks.
The average person manages more than 100 online accounts, making them more inclined to rely on in-browser password managers. This inspires cybercriminals to develop the most advanced tools and malicious software that will reach and steal their most valuable information.
The odds of falling prey to an info-stealer attack have increased dramatically as a result of the relative ease of access to info-stealers on the Dark Web, and the option to either merge them with pirated content or attach them to a variety of infected spam emails.
It is crucial for individuals to adopt proper cyber hygiene practices and exercise caution when handling links and software, including avoiding those from an unknown source.
Stay tuned for the second installment in the series which will cover how the info-stealer affects the US market and how the “work-from-home” era has increased this type of attack.
Want to immediately improve your personal cybersecurity? Verify that you have activated 2FA on all of your critical online accounts? Do you want to delete any sensitive information stored in your browser? Want to know if you’ve been the target of a threat? You can download the Cyrus mobile app and order a tailored Dark Web exposure report that will check whether one of your email addresses was the target of an info-stealer attack.
A relatively unknown threat actor who goes by the alias “USDoD” posted a thread in which they offered the database of the FBI’s sharing system...
Hudson Rock' researchers found that a staggering 120,000 infected computers, many of which belong to hackers, had credentials associated with cybercrime forums.
Threat actor “La_Citrix” is known for hacking companies — he accidentally infected his own computer and likely ended up selling it without noticing.
This is the third and final part of a blog post series presented in collaboration with Cyrus in which we dive into botnets & info-stealers.
In this second of a three part series, presented in collaboration with Cyrus, we dive into botnets & info-stealers. | <urn:uuid:48e26c75-3169-4dbf-a35c-8c4b8699102b> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.hudsonrock.com/blog/cyrus-part-1-info-stealers | 2024-09-18T17:49:49Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651931.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918165253-20240918195253-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.950273 | 1,137 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Thanks to AI, work will look very different in the near future than it does today. According to the World Economic Forum, 85 million jobs will be impacted by AI by 2030, and millions of new jobs will be created that don’t yet exist.
In a world where the pace of change is accelerating dramatically, it will be our skills -rather than our education, work history or past achievements – that define our value.
In practical terms, employers will be less concerned about what we know or have achieved in the past and more interested in how we can apply knowledge and abilities to solving modern business challenges.
So, what will this mean in the age of AI? How do we prepare for a world where machines will carry out many of the tasks that humans have traditionally had a monopoly on? And what skills will we need to ensure we remain relevant and able to create value? Let’s take a look.
Two Core Skillsets For An AI Future
I believe the skills essential for staying relevant in the future can be divided into two groups. Broadly speaking, we can refer to these as AI skills and human soft skills.
Firstly, having AI skills doesn’t necessarily mean becoming an AI engineer or data scientist.
Instead, it involves the ability to use AI effectively, augmenting our own abilities and overseeing its output. This means becoming an effective AI collaborator, delegator, and supervisor.
As AI becomes increasingly omnipresent, the ability to identify and use the best tools will be crucial in virtually every profession.
Secondly, human soft skills represent abilities that AI either can't do yet or can't do as well as humans. These skills are rooted in the qualities that have made humans so successful as a species in evolutionary terms. They allow us to work together, solve complex problems using diverse data, navigate social situations, creatively solve problems, critically evaluate progress, and create emotional connections with others.
As machines become more capable, the value of these uniquely human abilities increases. These two skill subsets are complementary, and developing them in tandem is key to building future-proof skills.
Let's explore each of these skill sets in more detail.
AI skills are a broad category encompassing everything that has to do with working with AI effectively.
Of course, it includes the technical data and computing skills needed to design, build and deploy AI systems. But not everyone will need to do that.
It also covers general AI literacy, which means understanding what AI can do and how to apply AI tools to achieving specific goals.
This involves understanding the AI landscape in terms of the available tools and applications, and their capabilities and limitations, as well as proficiency in using and operating these tools.
It covers skills such as prompt engineering, which involves being able to frame human and business problems in a way that AI can address.
A central concept is “augmented working” – a term that’s frequently used to describe the ability to use AI to automate routine tasks, allowing a human professional to work more efficiently.
Understanding how to use AI to aid and boost creativity is a valuable skill, too. This could involve using it to generate ideas or create multiple iterations of our own ideas to suit different audiences.
People with skills needed to supervise AI workforces and act as the critical “human-in-the-loop” required to ensure accuracy, safety and fairness will be highly valued in workforces of the future.
Crucially, so will those with an understanding of the ethical and legal implications, such as an ability to recognize when there is a danger of bias or breach of privacy or when an organization’s use of AI might be overstepping the boundaries set out by regulation and legislation.
With AI taking care of much of the technical work, human soft skills – things that machines can’t yet do – will become exponentially more valuable.
Among the most important will be the ability to strategize at a high level.
For example, ask an AI delivery optimization algorithm to plot the most efficient route for a van driver to drop off parcels, and it will do it more effectively than a human.
What it probably won't do is suggest exploring drone delivery. Or reducing the weight of packaging to make deliveries more fuel-efficient. This is because most AI applications are highly specialized and don't have the “general” intelligence capabilities of humans.
Creative problem-solving is another vital soft skill. Humans excel at lateral thinking, connecting disparate ideas, and imagining novel solutions to complex problems. Our ability to envision and articulate a better future – whether in technology, society, or the environment – is uniquely human. This imaginative capacity, combined with the power to inspire others towards these visions, will remain crucial in an AI-driven world, allowing us to conceptualize and pursue innovations that AI alone cannot conceive.
Developing plans that encompass long-term goals and take into account a multitude of factors that aren’t necessarily going to be in the training data will be out of reach of AI for a long time.
Then there’s critical thinking, which involves objectively analyzing and evaluating every aspect of a problem, situation or opportunity in order to make a judgment. While AI can critically assess a plan of action or an idea, once again, it’s limited by its training data, which may or may not contain the specific insights required.
Teamwork, leadership and mentorship all require explicitly human skills, too, including a high level of emotional intelligence. This is our ability to recognize and respond appropriately to our fellow humans on an emotional level and is essential to collaboration and relationship-building.
Partnership building, for example, is critical in modern business. An AI’s lack of emotional intelligence means it will always be at a disadvantage when it comes to the subtleties of negotiating, building rapport, and establishing the alignment of mission and values, which are critical to effective partnering.
And human soft skills are still important for project management, where there’s a need to balance resources, budgets, time constraints and any number of unexpected factors that could emerge.
Once again, we can see that computer intelligence is still too specialized to deal with many potential scenarios that can throw a spanner in the works of even the most carefully laid plans.
Adaptability and Life-Long Learning
One skill, perhaps more than any other, that will determine whether we remain relevant in the AI era will be our ability to adapt to change and continuously learn and improve.
Technology is constantly evolving, and the AI available in ten years’ time will most likely be far beyond anything we can imagine now. No matter how carefully we prepare for it now, it will take us by surprise. So, the ability to adapt and keep our knowledge and skills up-to-date is crucial.
This isn’t just about keeping pace with technology; it's about developing a change-oriented mindset that will allow us to continue to perform as the world becomes more complex and uncertain.
The tradition of front-loading ourselves with education in our formative years is increasingly outdated. Seeking out roles where we will continuously learn, as well as pursuing opportunities for self-directed learning, can all help us to develop this mindset.
Likewise, the human skills we’ve discussed – communication, creativity, emotional intelligence – are not innate traits that some are born with and some aren’t. They can all be cultivated through practice and diversity of experience!
By focusing our efforts on developing both human and AI skills and developing the habits of embracing change and lifelong learning, we can give ourselves the best chance of thriving in the age of AI. | <urn:uuid:bcaf23c4-2dec-492f-b21e-a19bbb9b38d2> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://bernardmarr.com/the-essential-ai-ready-skills-everyone-needs-for-tomorrows-jobs/ | 2024-09-07T20:26:28Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650920.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907193650-20240907223650-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.953503 | 1,572 | 3.03125 | 3 |
The importance of police officers´safety while accessing the CJIS on the road
Daily, Thousands of devices request access to the CJIS database under high-security protocols but still get hacked. Every police patrol has a device connected to the CJIS, which increases the risk of a potential data breach and exposes officers to unnecessary pressure and danger when doing their job. So, how can law enforcement officers stay protected while securing their connection to the database that gathers the PII of a nation?
Every day thousands of computers located in every police patrol across the United States access the database of the CJIS to perform background checks, track illegal activity or identify criminals. The Criminal Justice Information Services (CJIS) is a division of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) which gives national security, federal law enforcement, and criminal justice agencies centralized access to criminal justice information (CJI) such as fingerprint records and criminal histories.
It is clear that CJIS data is highly sensitive, and the perimeter to protect access to the CJIS is wide and complex. The security tools for each of those connecting must be the highest and most comprehensive possible. Any hacking attacks would potentially compromise millions of individuals and it takes only one compromised device with low-security measures to do the hacking job.
Police officers and law enforcement agents in the streets, for example, depend on their vehicles to carry out their daily duties efficiently and as safely as possible. It goes beyond patrolling but filling in forms, gathering information, accessing their computers, and a long list of actions that have turned today’s police patrols into mobile offices. Police officers access their devices for CJIS background checks dozens of times a day while dealing with suspicious or dangerous individuals. Even the briefest distraction just introducing a user and password puts them and their colleague at unnecessary risk and can turn a situation under control into a life-threatening one. The friction in the login process is only one of the problems. Driving with a suspect in the back seat and performing CJIS background checks without extra protection leaves the database open to external looks that could jeopardize the integrity of the data and end up in a data breach. So what is the level of security applied to endpoints accessing the CJIS and does it match the agent’s real needs?
How the CJIS applies security protocols and authentication methods
The CJIS has developed a set of policies on wireless networking, remote access, data encryption, and multiple authentications for all agents to follow so they can all be CJIS compliant. It is no surprise both for the private and public sector that cyber threats have not stopped growing and hacking techniques keep improving, where phishing, malware, and credentials are the most common attack vectors used to breach government networks. In this context, protecting any sort of pathway to the CJIS is crucial.
Therefore, the CJIS compliance is one of the most holistic and rigorous cybersecurity standards, building up to 230 pages of regulations and requirements in 13 security policy areas.
According to the CJIS Security Policy, in order to be authorized to access the data, the endpoint must have unique identification plus a standard authentication method: a password, token or PIN, biometrics, or another type of multi-factor authentication. The need to keep sensitive law enforcement and justice information secure is continuous and so the CJIS Security Policy is periodically updated to reflect the evolving security landscape. However, in spite of all the security measures and policies, in the last few years cyberattacks on state and local governments keep posing a threat.
How password-based security can be improved within CJIS regulations
Just in 2021 there were more than 100 confirmed attacks against U.S Government which included state and local governments, schools, financial institutions, health care organizations and manufacturers. And according to the New York Times, at least 26 government agencies have been hit by ransomware since the beginning of 2021, with 16 of them suffering extortion attacks.
So, even though the CJIS Compliance document has around 3 pages of instructions on how to configure a password, it is clear that the efforts to keep CJIS security up to the current cyber threats can’t slow down and are not enough.
The points of vulnerability are many, with hundreds of devices remotely connected to the CJIS database. In the case of police force, law enforcement officers operate many times in the streets as well as out of their squad cars and access the CJIS to check personal credentials such as driving licenses or IDs. A few seconds leaving the device unattended are enough to have it compromised. Last year for example, hackers released personal info of twenty-two D.C. police officers in a ransomware attack. How that information was accessed is unclear but weak credentials administration is most usually a cause. There is an important shift in the cybersecurity industry to move towards non password-based access. Passwords are not strong enough, they are easy to breach and most usually hackers access multiple services with the same password. Data sources as important as the CJIS require access and authentication methods that leave behind passwords and provide ultimate security for devices anywhere all the time.
How to boost CJIS authentication mechanisms with touchless continuous authentication
The CJIS compliance regulations are specific but still there is room for improvement. According to it, every device must have a session lock mechanism to prevent inadvertent viewing whenever a device is unattended, and in order to prevent further access after login into a session, the system must lock after 30 minutes of inactivity until the users identify and authenticate themselves again. These are explained as separate requirements and so it seems like there could be two mechanisms to address both needs but the truth is that both actions can be performed under high-security standards with just one solution and more efficiently, thanks to biometric solutions.
Biometrics is an identification and authentication mechanism with the power to overcome passwords, and in combination with them, offer higher protection and hacking-proof authentication access. It is unhackable, not sharable in contrast to passwords and cannot be faked, standing as a deep tool against cyber threats. Still, biometric authentication commonly relies on image-based mechanisms and fingerprints. Hackers are getting smarter just like technology, and the possibility to fake these flat elements is increasing.
So it is time for the government and law enforcement agents and institutions to go one step further and stand ahead of cyber threats and possible data breaches by adding biometric access that is continuous, video.-based and protects authentication and unattended devices simultaneously with just one element that needn’t be remembered, and goes with the user everywhere at all times: touchless continuous authentication.
How can touchless continuous authentication be the ultimate solution?
At Hummingbirds AI we have developed GuacamoleID, a touchless continuous authentication solution for computers that protects users and devices against unauthorized access through video verification. This intelligent application continuously matches the faces in front of the computer with authorized ones; and automatically blocks the screen when unauthorized users are detected. This is a sophisticated facial matching system that helps verify and confirm an individual’s identity using their facial biometric. It’s also GDPR and HIPAA compliance.
This touchless continuous authentication solution verifies a user’s authenticity from the moment they log in, and without the need to lock or close a session because it runs continuously. It means that by not detecting the user at the screen, it will automatically block the device.
This technology targets one of the major risk factors in computer security: unlocked or unattended workstations. It also prevents those who look over your shoulder to be able to read your sensitive information. By using the camera on the device and running video, not just a still image, the protection that this mechanism offers doesný stop after having access. It accompanies the user all the time, nonstop.
So applying this kind of AI technology solves several problems for police force security at once. On the one hand, it guarantees stronger authentication controls, protection against data breaches, credential theft and account takeover. On the other hand, it eliminates the friction to access police devices and gives police officers full autonomy to perform their tasks without detouring their attention.
Privacy protection is a requirement at everything Hummingbirds AI develops, as well as a concern for the CJIS. Therefore, all the processing for GuacamoleID is done on-device, canceling any dependence on the cloud. GuacamoleID delivers real-time continuous authentication, and verification providing faster decision-making, preemptive security, and overall data breach awareness. With tools such as this, law enforcement is safely guaranteed, CJIS access is protected, and the national security gets one step further in protecting the nation. | <urn:uuid:bff60665-6f7b-400a-953e-50d80dd20c52> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://hummingbirds.ai/the-importance-of-police-officers-safety-while-accessing-the-cjis-on-the-road/ | 2024-09-07T20:48:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650920.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907193650-20240907223650-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.940864 | 1,762 | 2.5625 | 3 |
The Xinhua news service reports that prototype for China’s new-generation exascale supercomputer is set for launch in 2018.
The launch of the sample machine will pave the way for the development of a supercomputer capable of a billion billion calculations per second,” said Zhang Ting, a researcher with the National Supercomputer Center in Tianjin.
The new supercomputer will be 200 times faster and have 100 times more storage capacity than the Tianhe-1 supercomputer, China’s first petaflop supercomputer launched in 2010, Zhang said.
The supercomputer center in Tianjin began developing the exascale supercomputer with the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT) in 2016. China’s national plan for the next generation of HPC machines calls for a fully operational exascale machine for deployment by 2020.
China’s ongoing efforts in HPC are evident in the recent TOP500 list, where the nation has the two fastest supercomputers in the world. In fact, China has overtaken the US in the total number of ranked systems by a margin of 202 to 143.
In June 2016, China unveiled its fastest new supercomputer — the Sunway TaihuLight — with a peak performance of 124.5 petaflops, the world’s first system to exceed 100 petaflops.
Zhang said the next-generation exascale computer will not only lead in calculation speed, but also in data transmission efficiency. | <urn:uuid:7ee220b5-e54b-492c-83b3-1013cb286230> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://insidehpc.com/2018/01/china-readies-exascale-prototype/ | 2024-09-09T03:09:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651053.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909004517-20240909034517-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.897472 | 309 | 2.765625 | 3 |
The challenge of testing in today’s world
Better techniques for emulating human interaction with apps promises to simplify testing across real and virtual computing environments. One of the biggest challenges in any large-scale test can be the backend work involved in making the test work with the database and application infrastructure. The dawn of screen capture testing tools promises to vastly simplify the testing process by allowing QA personnel to create tests by specifying features on the screen to look for. Furthermore, screen capture tools can also work on native Windows applications, which is beyond the reach of most web based tools.
In human computer interaction, vision plays a dominant role. We look for cues on the screen and interact with these cues to perform tasks. When we go to a website, we look for links and features like text entry boxes for entering or searching data.
History of testing using front end images
Interest in screen reading software agents dates back to the mid-1990s, when Richard Potter at the University of Maryland created a system called Triggers that could interpret basic pixel patterns to control a macro. But these early systems suffered performance delays, as it took several seconds to interpret a screen capture. More recently researchers at MIT have developed the open-source Sikuli for automating and testing applications using a graphical scripting language.
Automai has developed a platform for simulating virtual users’ visual interaction with applications. These simulated users are called “rUsers.” Anything seen on the screen can be acted upon, regardless of which application or system call is involved.
One of the big challenges with traditional testing applications is the need to configure and interact with back end processes. Quality assurance personnel have to be familiar with the various back end interfaces, which can be complicated. In contrast, this new robotic visual testing approach mimics the way people are used to interacting with applications.
Robotic Visual Technology used across industries in variety of use cases:
Testing Oracle Applications running on Citrix
“Robotic tools reduce the need for the DBA because they are image based and intelligent,” said Steve Sutphin, an Oracle EBS consultant. “With traditional testing tools, I have a plugin and I have to enable the middle layer for forms so the testing tool can see the fields.”
Sutphin has used Automai’s AppLoader to help test out a major software deployment across a chain running applications using a virtual desktop application on Citrix terminals. He said that the tool significantly reduced the time and complexity of testing out the new application.
In order to simulate visual interaction, the testing application needs to quickly recognize images on the screen so that they can be interpreted as text, icons, buttons, or data entry fields. To address these needs, AppLoader uses a fast image search component which minimizes the load on the system generating the test. Organizations can use terminal servers or PCs to quickly generate a large number of simulated users running on physical or virtual desktops. A web based controller allows a manager to easily configure and deploy hundreds or even thousands of users remotely.
Robotic tools allow a user with minimal experience to create scripts which interact with applications using screen shots of the graphical interface. The software uses machine vision software techniques to recognize common features like buttons, data fields, and icons. This approach allows a programmer to create scripts that touch multiple applications without any understanding of the underlying APIs and database calls.
Such technology is being used to test and automated a variety of processes in medical, banking, and fast food applications. Sutphin said, “Automai’s robotic engine does not care what client you are running it on. If the image is the same, you could run it on a Mac. You don’t have to worry about the client combinations, or all of the things happening behind the user interface.”
In one deployment, Sutphin was involved in both a hardware and software upgrade at the same time. There were big questions about whether the configuration was right and whether it would load balance correctly.
This created significant challenges for the upgrade. Sutphin said, “Everything gets scrunched at the end, because it takes too long to get everything ready before testing can begin. I needed a tool that was flexible enough to create the scenarios on a test platform and move them to a production platform. The window of opportunity to do these tests is a few weeks where we can use the production hardware, and it is very time sensitive.”
Sutphin had looked at using HP’s LoadRunner, but was concerned about the need for back end DBA support and the need for plugins. With Automai’s AppLoader, they could work with screen shots to highlight important section of the screen to create the test. He noted, “I was trying to have a tool that would eliminate the whole DBA layers of getting the system ready. This time around, we were successful in not having to engage the infrastructure team too much in the testing part.”
Use in Automating Banking Processes
In the financial industry, robotic technology is helping to automate various banking processes. Roger Smith, Chief Technical Officer at Bank of Commerce / Mortgage, began using front end robotic testing tool Scenario Builder to help automate some of their testing needs. But he quickly found that it also helped to automate many of the tedious account lookups required by new financial reporting requirements.
Smith explained, “I am currently working on an audit where we have about 5000 loans on record, and I have a complex series of conditions that the loan has to meet, and if an account does, it falls under the auspices of Regulation B. In order to enter these 5000 lines, it would take 30 key clicks through the app to make the correct entry in the correct field in the database. This would have otherwise taken one person a week.”
The bank had tried to automate this process using SQL programming, but was constrained by the limits of a commercial bank application from Ellie Mae, which made it impossible to programmatically access the data. Since the application helps control critical financial data, it is heavily firewalled off, which makes it difficult to test. Smith noted, “Other testing applications, with a few exceptions, have to be Web based. It seems the world is full of browsers, so everyone has forgotten about client applications. This tool works on any application, unlike other products that are restricted to browsers.”
Smith believes that robotic tools like Automai’s could prove valuable for banks and other institutions that periodically have to check the status of their accounts. He said, “You would think there would be an automated tool for this, but there is not. Maintaining a mortgage database is only going to get more complicated with new rules coming down the pipe. Even now, sometimes we have to make changes every day and other times only on Monday and Friday. Complying for most people means you must do it manually. If you are BOA with 100,000 loans, this is not a three day job.”
Improving testing process from Development to Production environment
The medical industry is also using robotic automation tools to help improve their testing process. For example, the University of California Irvine Medical Center has been using this technology to help improve EMR applications for doctors and staff. The ease of developing new tests allows them to use these tool sets for data conditioning, load and stress testing, and as a monitoring solution for its enterprise applications.
Omer Cheema, Manager, Quality Assurance & Testing at the medical center said, “Our needs are ever-changing and timelines always becoming shorter. Tools like AppLoader require low-overhead and the user-friendly interface reduces overhead and development time by making the scripting process intuitive and straightforward.”
In the long run, this screen scripting technology promises to change the way people think about testing. As Sam Benihya, Technical Director at Automai, explained, “The traditional wisdom is that if you want to test something, you have to understand how it is written and how the data is transported through all the application layers. Robotic testing tools don’t care how an application is written or how the components talk to each other. Emulation of human interaction with apps is the way to approach testing in today’s complex IT environments.” | <urn:uuid:58170cd5-c4db-4f1a-b655-846ad28b06eb> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.automai.com/robotic-visual-technology-promises-to-simplify-automation-and-automated-testing/ | 2024-09-10T07:26:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651224.59/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910061537-20240910091537-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.948836 | 1,710 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Data backup and replication are important processes to consider when drafting an information and data strategy. These two work hand in hand, but are often (incorrectly) used interchangeably.
Backup and replication are two different things. Below are definitions that can help you differentiate the two so that you can design your data strategy better.
Backing up data is the process of copying and archiving information so that it may be used to restore the original data in the event of data loss. Backups are used both as a contingency to recover data in case of a loss event and/or as a stage in a data management protocol.
Replication is the act of sharing and synchronizing information to maintain consistency between redundant resources or data repositories to improve reliability, fault tolerance, and/or accessibility. It just means that identical, updated copies of information are stored across several devices.
Backups and replication are the main concepts behind disaster recovery. Disaster recovery activities are processes, policies, and procedures that are involved in the preparation for recovery or continuation of technology infrastructure after a disaster or any data loss event.
Disaster recovery is an area of security planning that aims to protect a business from significant setbacks brought about by disasters. Specifically, with information and data management, its primary goals are to ensure that a company’s data is protected through various means and that the business can continue to operate during and/or in the aftermath of a data loss event.
Businesses are naturally exposed to many forms of potential data loss events such as natural disasters (typhoon, flood, etc.) or those borne of a human element (cybercrime, terrorism, etc.). Ideally, a disaster recovery plan (DRP) should allow businesses to continue operating as close to normal as possible.
A comprehensive DRP should include planning and testing of strategies, as well as considerations for a separate physical site for operational continuity. The key is to make sure that there are enough contingencies to be able to respond to a multitude of data loss issues, whether foreseen or otherwise.
Arnet is an official Veeam Cloud & Service Provider partner, and is therefore a recognized provider of Cloud Connect services. Cloud Connect helps reduce operational costs, as it removes hassles related to acquiring and managing your own local backup repository.
With Veeam Cloud Connect, you can be assured that your files are within easy reach and don’t require extra downloads. You can also browse your files online and pick which ones to restore at certain times.
Arnet Technologies is Columbus, Ohio’s premier technology solutions provider. We can help you with your compliance, security, IT management, and support needs. Click here to schedule your free consultation. | <urn:uuid:0f9bafbb-4cc0-442d-986a-8fd8c25bc924> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.arnettechnologies.com/backup-replication-whats-the-difference-between-the-two/ | 2024-09-12T18:19:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651491.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912174615-20240912204615-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.949326 | 551 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Data integration aims to provide a unified and consistent view of all enterprise wide data. The data itself may be heterogeneous and reside in difference resources (XML files, legacy systems, relational databases, etc.). The desired extent of data integration will highly depend upon the required Quality of Service characteristics. Data will never be of perfect quality, so a certain level of inaccurate, incomplete or inconsistent data may have to be tolerated for operational BI to succeed.
This article is based on the book, Principles of Database Management: The Practical Guide to Storing, Managing and Analyzing Big and Small Data, by by www.pdbmbook.com.
The goal is to logically (and sometimes also physically) unify different data sources or data silos to provide a single unified view which is as correct, complete, and consistent as possible. Different methods exist to provide the unified view as we discuss in what follows.
Figure 1. Data silos and sources
Data Consolidation: Extract, Transform, Load (ETL)
Data consolidation captures data from multiple, heterogeneous source systems and integrates it into a single persistent store. This is typically accomplished using extract, transform and load (ETL) routines (see Figure 2):
- Extract data from heterogeneous data sources
- Transform the data to satisfy business needs
- Load the transformed data into a target system (e.g., a data warehouse)
This approach with an ETL process feeding a store with consolidated data is very suitable to deal with massive amounts of data and prepare them for analysis. There is room for extensive transformation, involving data restructuring, reconciliation, cleansing, aggregation and enrichment steps. Therefore, this pattern has a positive impact on many data quality dimensions such as completeness, consistency, and interpretability. Another important advantage is that data consolidation caters for not only present information, but also historical data, since a changed business state does not result in updates to the data, but in additions of new data. On the downside, the ETL process typically induces a certain measure of latency, so the timeliness dimension may suffer, with the data being slightly out of date. Consolidation also requires a physical target, so additional storage capacity is consumed. Besides the traditional set-up with ETL and a data warehouse, data lakes can also be an implementation of the consolidation pattern.
Figure 2. An extract, transform, load engine (ETL) as a data consolidation solution
Data Federation: Enterprise Information Integration (EII)
Data federation typically follows a pull approach where data is pulled from the underlying source systems on an on-demand basis. Enterprise Information Integration (EII) is an example of a data federation technology (see Figure 3). EII can be implemented by realizing a virtual business view on the dispersed underlying data sources. The view serves as a universal data access layer. No moving or replication of data is needed since all data stays in the source systems. Hence, a federation strategy enables real-time access to current data, which was not the case for a data consolidation strategy.
Figure 3: Enterprise Information Integration (EII) as a data federation solution.
EII can be beneficial as it leaves data in place that otherwise might dramatically increase overall storage requirements if a consolidated approach would be followed. One important disadvantage to remember is the overall worse performance of EII. Since queries performed on the business view must be translated to underlying data sources, a performance hit is unavoidable. | <urn:uuid:37d9e193-3c71-4900-ad17-20473975da23> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.dbta.com/Editorial/Trends-and-Applications/Data-Integration-and-Data-Integration-Patterns-An-Overview-127077.aspx | 2024-09-13T22:06:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651540.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913201909-20240913231909-00859.warc.gz | en | 0.918857 | 700 | 2.5625 | 3 |
How to Recognize and Protect Against Phishing Attacks
When it comes to preventing phishing attacks and other cybersecurity attacks, education is critical.
November 2, 2020
Sponsored by Datto
It seems that cyber crime has become a part of everyday life, and hackers are using any opportunity to take advantage of an unknowing victim to gain access to personal information for financial gain. As gatekeepers to the data of today’s small and midsize businesses (SMBs), managed service providers (MSPs) are also becoming increasingly targeted by these attacks.
Phishing attacks are one of the most common. Phishing is an umbrella term for attacks that are typically delivered in the form of an email, chat, web ad or website that has been designed to impersonate a real person, system or organization. Attackers craft phishing messages to deliver a sense of urgency or fear with the end goal of capturing an end user’s sensitive data. This can result in wire transfer fraud, credential phishing, malware attachments and URLs leading to malware spraying websites.
One of the best ways to avoid phishing attacks is to understand what kinds of attacks exist and how best to spot them. Here are a few of the main types of phishing attacks you and your teams should be aware of:
Spear phishing: Spear phishing is an attempt to gain access to credentials or financial information from a targeted individual, and attackers often pretend to be someone the target knows well.
Whaling: Whaling is a form of spear phishing where the attackers assume the identity of a senior employee within an organization, to boost credibility.
Mass campaigns: Mass phishing campaigns cast a wider net than the targeted techniques of spear phishing and whaling. True to their name, they are sent to the masses to convince a subset of the wide net to fall victim to their efforts.
Ambulance chasing phishing: With ambulance-chasing phishing, attackers will take advantage of current crises to drive urgency for victims to take action that will lead to compromising data or information.
Pretexting: Pretexting is a highly effective method of phishing that often involves an attacker doing something via a non-email channel to set an expectation that they’ll be sending something seemingly legitimate soon.
The following is a list of red flags that you and your employees should be looking for when reviewing emails. One or more of these red flags might be a sign that you’ve uncovered a potential phishing attack.
A request for personal information or confirmation of personal information
A misspelled email domain or web address
A suspiciously urgent tone and poorly written email copy
Odd URLs (To check the URL, instead of clicking on the link, hover over it and copy the URL, then paste it in a word document and review where you are being sent.)
Emails shared through a service–such as Drive, Calendar, Dropbox or Box—that do not have a DKIM. If you receive a file that is not signed—such as by google.com, gmail.com or dropbox.com–delete it immediately.
When it comes to preventing phishing attacks and other cybersecurity attacks, education is critical. Download this infographic we’ve developed for insights on various types of phishing attacks and how best to identify phishing scams before they impact you or your clients.
Christopher Henderson is Director of Information Security, Datto.
his guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.
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You May Also Like | <urn:uuid:5ff4c692-86ec-42c8-97b8-85ef6cb84946> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.channelfutures.com/security/how-to-recognize-and-protect-against-phishing-attacks | 2024-09-15T04:20:40Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651614.9/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915020916-20240915050916-00759.warc.gz | en | 0.94273 | 733 | 2.90625 | 3 |
How AI Helps In Decision Making: It’s incredible how artificial intelligence has drastically changed the way we experience technology. To say that it makes life easier is an understatement. Some may not be aware of it, but AI has become a part of everybody’s life. Here is a close look at how artificial intelligence helps in decision-making.
Copyright by techbullion.com
Those who have Amazon Echo or Google Home in their houses know how convenient it is to have these AI-powered devices, especially given their ability and accuracy. AI can seamlessly process voice commands and execute them or deliver results during voice searches and improve customer experience.
AI and machine learning statistics
If you want to know more about how substantial artificial intelligence has become, check out these statistics below.
Voice assistants like Siri, Echo, and more have grown in popularity so much that 97% of mobile users are said to use them.
Because of the competitive advantage, artificial intelligence brings, 80% of organizations plan to use AI for customer service.
61% of marketers claim that AI is a critical element of their data strategy.
65% of companies that plan to adopt machine learning (ML) believe it can help business decision-making.
The bank system will automate up to 90% of its customer interactions using chatbots by 2022.
A closer look at AI’s decision-making capabilities
Before answering whether or not you can trust AI in making decisions, especially when the stakes are high, you must first understand what artificial intelligence is capable of now and know AI benefits and risks.
1. AI handles multiple inputs better
Compared to humans, machines are more reliable when handling different factors, all at the same point when making complex decisions. Machines can control and process vast amounts of data and deliver valuable insights in a matter of minutes, a task that would take humans much longer to accomplish.
2. Speed decision-making processes
Everything is always moving at an accelerated speed, no matter the field or location. Whether in eCommerce or other industries, you can use dynamic pricing and see how AI can optimize your margins.
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4. Detect patterns
Buying patterns may not be that easy to detect when doing human analysis. AI-powered analyses can spot such patterns and impact businesses positively during the discovery of these patterns.
When you can better understand a customer’s buying pattern, you can align your products based on those patterns that show the customers’ needs. Even simpler predictive tools can easily outperform humans in this aspect, and there are predictions for AI being the future of growth hacking.
5. Algorithms are immune to decision fatigue
Unlike individuals who get tired after hours of processing data and making many decisions, you won’t have to deal with this concern when using AI.
As they’re capable of decisive decisions over a long period without tiring, the quality of the decisions made is not compromised. Businesses can mitigate the risk of being exposed to poor decisions caused by exhaustion.
What challenges are there with trusting AI decisions?
What is known now is that AI is already deeply integrated into many aspects of our lives. It’s imperfect and can still be prone to errors, especially when fed with the wrong information or insufficient training data. That said, here are some of the challenges that AI faces today.
1. Human values
As AI becomes more capable, the concern about whether humans can trust its “human values” grows. People were excited about the idea of autonomous cars until their decision-making process was brought into question how autonomous cars could deal with challenging and complex situations.
Say a truck is coming at a dangerous speed. If a driver swerves, this could result in a catastrophic accident.
What would the autonomous car do?
How will it arrive at a decision?
It is a complicated issue. Ultimately, the programmer’s bias could be a significant determining factor, and it is this bias can quickly erode people’s trust in AI decisions. […]
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SwissCognitive connects and brings industries, companies, executives and technology experts together, and helps to put politicians, governments, organizations and groups on the same page in the world of AI | <urn:uuid:163962ce-64fb-4bef-977f-4e6081aba4a0> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://swisscognitive.ch/2021/10/12/how-ai-helps-in-decision-making/ | 2024-09-16T09:02:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651682.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916080220-20240916110220-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.952216 | 927 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Capturing live memory, also known as memory forensics, can be a valuable technique for cybersecurity professionals for several reasons. It can help with investigating advanced attacks by revealing hidden processes, network connections and other artifacts as well as supporting data recovery processes by revealing encryption keys, decryption routines or data remnants. Additionally, capturing live memory can be useful when determining the root causes of security incidents by providing information about the state of a system during the incident.
Live memory dumps can be really useful during security practice, as they can contain some login credentials, for example – to multiple different services. Therefore, from our perspective, a memory dump is crucial for further analysis of the RAM memory.
Let’s start with opening a tool called Ram Capturer. Open the software and select the folder path where our memory dump file will be stored.
In the video, you can see a directory called memoryDumps, which is located on the C drive. And what we need to do next is click Capture! It should capture the memory in a few seconds. Then you can observe that the memory dump has been completed. Now if we go to that folder, we can see that there is a .mem file with today’s date.
It is recommended to change the date to show what was the computer’s name, what the operating system was running while the memory dump was performed, as well as what was the version and the build number.
But right now, to make the next steps easier, we will just leave it as it is. So that’s the date for today. What we can do now is we can generate a file hash of this file.
We’ll do it by running PowerShell. We will use a command visible in the video: Get-FileHash. We’ll specify what algorithm we will use, and we will use SHA256. Also, we have to specify the path. In our case it is C:\memoryDumps.
Get-FileHash -Algorithm SHA256 -Path C:\memoryDumps\20221209.mem
Let’s run our file and let’s see how much we should wait for that this time. Then, it will generate the hash of the .mem file. Next, we can check it with CertUtil.exe and we’ll see if those hashes are the same or if they are different. Remember that if you are doing any memory dump, it should be extracted to the external drive.
In our case, we saved it on the local drive – the C drive. However, in a real environment, the best option is to save it on an external drive.
Once we’ve got our hash value for the memory dump file, we’ll double-check it by using the CertUtil. Let’s run the certutil.exe.
Now, in PowerShell, you can specify the path of the hash file. So that is C:\memoryDumps. Also, you need to specify what algorithm was used. So, in our case, it’s SHA256.
certutil.exe -hashfile C:\memoryDumps\20221209.mem SHA256
Let’s see what this command will give us.
We can see what the CertUtil has returned. And, as you can see in the video tutorial, the hash from the Get-FileHash command is identical.
It’s the same as the hash generated from the CertUtil file. We can announce that the hashes are matching. It means that we can be sure that the file is correct and not corrupted.
Thank you for being with us! Hope you enjoyed today’s episode of Hacks Weekly series. Looking forward to the upcoming video! | <urn:uuid:bd1f2243-67b3-4860-95dd-a308c0c9303e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://cqureacademy.com/hacks/56-ram-capturer/ | 2024-09-17T16:14:05Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651800.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917140525-20240917170525-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.942309 | 783 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Users are increasingly sharing their sensitive personal information in exchange for convenience services. The developers of decentralized identity believe there’s a way to preserve privacy when leading increasingly interconnected lives.
Data breaches happen daily, and companies endlessly exploit our information, which is the ultimate price for their “free services.” Will decentralized identity put an end to this?
An average person in the US has 70-80 accounts. This means at least 70-80 different opportunities for malicious hackers to steal your identity. And it’s no rocket science for them to figure out how to do that, having in mind our poor cyber hygiene - we express our affection to pets by using their names as passwords and can’t break the habit of reusing sign in details. The fact that each of us has approximately one hundred passwords, according to the NordPass researchers, partly explains this phenomenon.
But even if you are being smart by using complex passwords, reputable password managers, and multi-factor authentication, you are still in danger. You’ve already given some kind of personal information to the different services you’ve registered for - from your social media account to your local clinic - and they are not hack-proof.
Therefore, the blockchain community advocates the need for a decentralized (self-sovereign) identity. It is supposed to give more power to users over their private data. But with greater benefits comes even greater responsibility.
What is decentralized identity?
Now, each time you sign up for a service, a provider (government, university, hospital, social network, etc.) collects some personal information about you and stores it in their databases. This means that your data ends up in many different databases, with you having very little control over it.
The decentralized identity (or self-sovereign identity) allows you to manage all your identities yourself. You receive credentials from issuers, such as the government or university, and store them on your digital wallet. You verify your identity through a blockchain-based ledger, which does not store user data when you need to. In this case, your information is controlled only by you and doesn't end up in countless databases ready for companies and malicious hackers to exploit.
"You manage your identity yourself. You can choose in what kinds of scenarios or situations you want to use it. You can also use different identities in different scenarios," Jun Li, the founder of Ontology, specializing in decentralized identity and data, told CyberNews.
In this case, you can have as many identities and accounts as you want without worrying that a certain service provider can be hacked because it doesn't store any information about you.
"You use crypto information. You have a public key. It is like your account name. And you have another - private - key. It is controlled only by you. In all the scenarios, applications, and systems, you will have to verify your signature. Your private key creates the signature. The private key is like the password. The difference is that the password is not stored in third-party databases. You control it. They don't know what private key you have. You use it to verify your signature," Jun Li explained.
According to him, decentralized identity is already being used in many applications. The blockchain community, naturally, is an early adopter of the concept.
"To be honest, the blockchain community is small compared with the mainstream internet community. I think in the next two or five years, we will have more mainstream scenarios with decentralized identity," he said.
Over 1,5 million users are managing their digital identities using ONT ID, Ontology’s decentralized identity application.
Decentralized identity is still in quite a nascent stage. In 2018, Microsoft published its first blog post underlining its commitment to the concept.
"Each of us needs a digital identity we own, one which securely and privately stores all elements of our digital identity. This self-owned identity must be easy to use and give us complete control over how our identity data is accessed and used," the company said.
Earlier this year, Microsoft's Decentralized Identity team launched the ION Decentralized Identifier (DID) network on the Bitcoin mainnet.
In November, Ontology announced a partnership with bloXmove, a business-to-business mobility blockchain platform. bloXmove is integrating Ontology’s decentralized digital identity protocol (DID) into its platform, providing users with a decentralized identifier that will allow them to share their verifiable credentials, such as driving licenses, in a private, secure, and encrypted way.
“The rapid increase in the digitization of transport and emergence of digital mobility apps enabling individuals to avail of cars, scooters, bikes, flight and train tickets, and more has resulted in a fragmented infrastructure that requires users to sign-up to various applications over and over again. This has led to a proliferation of data exchange, as users are increasingly required to hand over sensitive data,” the company said.
In this case, consumers will be able to use different transportation options without sharing their sensitive information with the service providers.
In 2019, Irene Hernandez, a founder of cybersecurity company Gataca which provides decentralized identity solutions, listed as many as 35 different use cases of decentralized identities, notifying that the list is not limited. You could use it while traveling, studying, declaring taxes, accessing public events, sharing a ride, checking in to concerts, etc. These different services now collect vast amounts of sensitive personal information, such as your visa, passport information, income, work permit, car registration, etc. If you used decentralized identity for all of these services, you wouldn’t need to share this information - only to verify that it’s you.
And here comes the tricky part with decentralized identity. You have all the control over your data, which also means that you have to take full responsibility for it.
Who is responsible for your identity?
Once you switch to decentralized identity, you control your personal information. It also means you are responsible for its security.
“Now, for example, Facebook controls your information. But you can choose to manage that information by yourself and store your social network information on your mobile device. In this case, you need to make sure information is safe by yourself,” Li Jun explained.
While Facebook doesn’t support decentralized identity at the moment, there are social networks that leverage blockchain technology and multiparty computation to preserve user privacy. For example, Partisia Blockchain partnered with Insights Network, a market research firm, to launch Instars, a decentralized social media platform. Users can opt-in to every interaction rather than opt-out of certain features, as it is common with current mainstream social networks. If a user decides to interact with a particular advertiser, the economic value is transferred directly to the user and not the social media platform itself.
The great thing about decentralized identity is that companies can’t trade your data without your explicit consent. If you choose to share with an advertiser, you will get paid. Instead of ending up on endless databases, your data will be stored on your device or, for example, on a cloud. You will be the one to decide how sensitive it is and how many layers of protection you want to put on it. You will have to do backups, choose reliable protocols, etc.
But Li Jun assured me that securing your data is not that difficult. You need to choose trusted and safe protocols.
“For example, Bitcoin, Ethereum. They secure billions worth of digital assets for trading and transactions. They already have some security records. You can trust to use that protocol to manage your identity. My information is not so valuable, compared to those billions of dollars,” he said.
Will we ever be in charge?
In the light of significant leaks, such as Twitch or T-Mobile, the concern about privacy is only growing. It seems that the technology for us to be in charge of our data while making it more secure at the same time is already here. Either you engage with something built on Partisia Blockchain, TIKI, ImagineBC, Permission.io, or any other privacy-focused platform there is.
Recently, I've interviewed the CEO of Brave Software, Brendan Eich. He believes that consumers will have to drive the market towards privacy-preserving tech.
"We can have both the fun, innovative parts of technology and privacy or anonymity where we want it, or pseudo-anonymity. But we need to have people develop these products, and we need users to use them. It's not in the interest of Google or Facebook to develop these protocols," he told CyberNews.
Some experts are optimistic and believe that recent hacks and leaks push towards this change. However, others are convinced that companies such as Facebook and Apple firmly standing on the ground will not budge easily as they desperately need users' information.
"For instance, as early as in 2016, Facebook supposedly generated US$62.23 per user in the United States and Canada from advertising. It is probably reasonable to argue that users' time for viewing advertisements should be compensated and, therefore, that part of Facebook's profits should be redistributed to consumers," Nir Kshetri, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro and a research fellow at Kobe University, told CyberNews via email.
More from CyberNews:
Subscribe to our newsletter | <urn:uuid:73de8534-5589-4cc7-a90a-a9593b7f7d1d> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://cybernews.com/editorial/decentralized-identity-is-privacy-worth-the-risk/ | 2024-09-18T21:15:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651941.8/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918201359-20240918231359-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.948843 | 1,949 | 2.734375 | 3 |
The cybersecurity landscape is so uncertain. You never know when your organization will fall prey to cybercriminals. What do you do when you become a victim of a cyber attack? What if you get hacked? It is not enough for you to sit back and think cyber attacks will not happen to your business. The extensive use of technologies and networks, many organizations are getting ready for when they may be attacked, not what to do when they get attacked.
It is crucial for today’s businesses to develop and execute an incident response plan that can prepare your organization for acting swiftly and effectively in case of a cyber attack and control the damages. So, how do you make a cyber incident response plan? Here are the steps:
Locate and Prioritize Your Digital Assets
Start with the identification and classification of your digital assets. You must make it certain that you know exactly where your business stores its critical data. Once identified, you can order them on the basis of their importance and the potential risks and damages. Give each asset a numbered value and allocate budget for its security accordingly.
Identify the Possible Risks
Research is the key to identify the potential cybersecurity risks. Do your research. Take into consideration the biggest, present threats to your digital assets. For example, if you are managing huge data on the Internet, error in coding can be a threat to your business. Think about email security, phishing, social engineering, cloud security risks, IoT risks, etc.
You cannot just rest assured that you know what to do when a cyber attack happens. You must develop proper procedures that should be followed in case of a cyber breach. Your procedures and policies must be directed at identifying and containing an attack, recording information about the attack, sending warning about the attack and communicating it properly, thwarting the attack, educating your employees, and quick actions for damage control.
Make a Response Team
Your incident response plan is nothing without a robust response team. You must form a team and task it with coordinating the actions during and after a cyber attack. Also, give the team the power to allocate and coordinate resources during an incident, so the impacts of the breach are minimized. The team should comprise a lead investigator, IT professional, communication lead, legal personnel, etc.
Take Your Top Management Aboard
The incident response plan has to be implemented, and to make sure it is executed in letter; you must sell the plan to your top management. You must take the executives into confidence, so the required resources are allocated for the initiative. Communicate to the executive why the plan is required and what are the benefits.
Train Your Employees
While developing the incident response plan is critical, it must be strengthened by training your employees on how to tackle a cyber attack. Your employees must be aware of the plan and know the procedures and policies. Finally, you can test the plan after training your employees. Be sure to identify the loopholes during the testing and put things in place to close those loopholes. | <urn:uuid:58480d78-5ee7-43ad-a6e2-ba4dd3dc2a3d> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.infoguardsecurity.com/how-to-make-an-incident-response-plan/ | 2024-09-07T23:09:25Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650926.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907225010-20240908015010-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.94492 | 607 | 2.578125 | 3 |
In today’s digital landscape, businesses are increasingly relying on cloud computing to store and process their data. Cloud computing offers numerous benefits, such as scalability, flexibility, and cost-effectiveness. However, with the rise of cloud computing, security concerns have also become a major consideration. Businesses need to understand the security features and considerations of different cloud service models to ensure the protection of their data. In this blog post, we will explore the three primary cloud service models – Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS) – and conduct a comparative analysis of their security features.
IaaS: Securing the Foundation
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides businesses with the foundational building blocks of cloud computing. With IaaS, organizations have control over their virtualized infrastructure, including servers, storage, and networking. This level of control also means that businesses are responsible for securing these components.
One of the main advantages of IaaS is the ability to customize security measures according to specific needs. Businesses can implement firewalls, access controls, and encryption protocols to protect their data. Additionally, IaaS providers often offer security features such as intrusion detection systems and distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection. However, it is crucial for businesses to establish robust security policies and regularly update their systems to ensure ongoing protection.
In addition to these security measures, businesses should also consider the physical security of the data centers where their infrastructure is housed. Data centers should have proper access controls, surveillance systems, and disaster recovery plans in place to safeguard the infrastructure.
PaaS: Collaborative Security Efforts
Platform as a Service (PaaS) takes cloud computing a step further by providing a platform for developers to build, deploy, and manage applications. With PaaS, businesses can focus on developing software while the underlying infrastructure and security measures are managed by the provider.
When it comes to security, PaaS offers a collaborative approach between the provider and the customer. PaaS providers typically handle the security of the underlying infrastructure, including server and network security. They also provide tools and frameworks to ensure secure coding practices, vulnerability assessments, and identity management.
However, businesses using PaaS need to be mindful of their application security. While the provider takes care of the infrastructure, the responsibility for securing the application code and user access lies with the customer. It is essential for businesses to follow secure coding practices, regularly update their applications, and implement proper access controls to mitigate potential vulnerabilities.
In addition to application security, businesses should also consider the security of data transmitted between the application and the end-users. Implementing encryption protocols, secure communication channels, and robust authentication mechanisms can help protect sensitive data during transmission.
SaaS: Security in the Hands of the Provider
Software as a Service (SaaS) offers ready-to-use applications hosted by a cloud provider, eliminating the need for businesses to manage infrastructure or application development. With SaaS, security is primarily the responsibility of the provider.
SaaS providers invest heavily in security measures to protect their systems and customer data. They implement industry-standard security protocols, such as encryption, authentication, and authorization mechanisms. Additionally, SaaS providers conduct regular security audits and vulnerability assessments to ensure their platforms remain secure.
While SaaS offers convenience and reduced security management for businesses, it is crucial to consider potential risks. As a customer, you are entrusting your data to the provider, so it is essential to thoroughly evaluate their security practices and certifications. It is also important to establish clear data ownership and privacy policies to protect sensitive information.
In addition to evaluating the provider’s security practices, businesses should also consider the backup and disaster recovery capabilities of the SaaS platform. Regular backups, data replication across multiple geographically diverse locations, and well-defined disaster recovery plans can help minimize the risk of data loss and ensure business continuity.
Navigating cloud security requires a comprehensive understanding of the security features and considerations of different cloud service models. Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) provides businesses with control over their infrastructure but requires robust security measures. Platform as a Service (PaaS) offers collaborative security efforts between the provider and the customer, while Software as a Service (SaaS) places security responsibilities primarily in the hands of the provider. By carefully evaluating the security features and considering the specific needs of their organization, businesses can effectively navigate cloud security and ensure the protection of their data. | <urn:uuid:a76aad40-e2fd-4da2-8285-ddda5314d8f0> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.infoguardsecurity.com/navigating-cloud-security-a-comparative-analysis-of-iaas-paas-and-saas/ | 2024-09-08T00:18:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650926.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907225010-20240908015010-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.947985 | 938 | 2.671875 | 3 |
What is secret detection?
Secret detection forms the bedrock of cybersecurity, aimed at identifying and safeguarding sensitive data within an organization's network. This process uncovers unauthorized access or misuse of confidential information, such as passwords, encryption keys, or proprietary data.
In the rapidly changing digital landscape, secret detection serves as a vital defense mechanism against cyber threats. It enables organizations to proactively identify and mitigate security risks, thus preserving the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of their data.
Secret detection utilizes various techniques, including pattern matching and anomaly detection. Pattern matching leverages algorithms to analyze data patterns and identify potential secrets, while anomaly detection monitors network traffic or user behavior to uncover unusual activities that could indicate a secret leak or unauthorized access. Machine learning is often incorporated to analyze large data sets and detect anomalies that traditional security measures may overlook.
Additionally, data loss prevention (DLP) solutions, which combine content inspection, contextual analysis, and user behavior monitoring, are commonly employed in secret detection.
Our advanced cloud security platform offers comprehensive secret detection capabilities to help organizations identify and protect their most valuable assets.
The benefits of secret detection
Secret detection is an integral part of a robust security strategy. Implementing secret detection solutions offers numerous benefits, including protection against data breaches and unauthorized access. Secrets like API keys, passwords, and encryption keys are prime targets for hackers, and secret detection allows organizations to identify and secure these, reducing the risk of data breaches.
Another advantage is its ability to identify and mitigate security vulnerabilities. By continuously detecting secrets, organizations can identify security weak points and proactively address them, reducing the likelihood of successful attacks.
Furthermore, secret detection supports compliance with industry regulations and data protection standards such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Through secret detection solutions, organizations can demonstrate their commitment to data security, fulfilling necessary compliance requirements.
Guidelines for effective secret detection
Incorporating secret detection into your security strategy is crucial to protecting your organization's sensitive data. From startups to large enterprises, there are best practices to follow, factors to consider when selecting a secret detection solution, and strategies for effective tool utilization.
A key best practice is to never hard-code or store secrets like passwords, API keys, or access tokens in plain text. Instead, depend on secure storage solutions such as encrypted key vaults or credential management systems.
Selecting the appropriate secret detection solution requires careful evaluation. Comprehensive coverage across different types of secrets and seamless integration with your existing security infrastructure is critical. Factors such as ease of deployment, scalability, and customizable detection rules should also be taken into account.
Once a solution is chosen, regular scanning of code repositories, configuration files, and infrastructure for potential secrets is essential. Automating these scans as part of continuous integration and deployment processes can detect secret leaks early. Stay informed about the latest security vulnerabilities and ensure your secret detection solution is updated with necessary patches and updates.
By integrating secret detection best practices and effectively utilizing tools, you can significantly enhance your organization's security posture and protect sensitive information from unauthorized access.
Lacework security graph
See how the Lacework security graph — Lacework Explorer — lays out your entire cloud estate, identifying and connecting risky entities, exposed secrets, and more.
Download nowThis article was generated using automation technology. It was then edited and fact-checked by Lacework. | <urn:uuid:9e402e20-dbe2-4753-b92f-946795a577c4> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.lacework.com/cloud-security-fundamentals/what-is-secret-detection | 2024-09-10T11:47:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651241.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910093422-20240910123422-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.909497 | 695 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Along with Artificial Intelligence (AI), currently a very popular topic of discussion, Quantum Computing is another rapidly growing technology arena that represents a revolutionary leap in computational technology. Unlike traditional computing, which uses bits to represent data as 0s or 1s, quantum computing systems leverage the principles of quantum mechanics to process information in fundamentally new ways using quantum bits or qubits. Without going too deep into the details, qubits can exist in multiple states simultaneously due to the phenomena of superposition and entanglement, enabling quantum computers to solve complex problems at much faster rates than previous computing systems.
With more data being constantly transmitted to drive advanced systems, quantum computing is poised to transform various industries, from cryptography and secure communications to materials science and pharmaceuticals. Its ability to perform massively parallel computations makes it invaluable for tasks like modeling molecular structures, optimizing supply chains, and solving intricate mathematical problems. Since data transmission is a key element of quantum computing, to perform successfully, the supporting communications infrastructure relies heavily on the utilization of an important medium – optical fiber.
Optical Fiber – The Backbone of Quantum Computing Technology
Optical fiber plays a critical role in supporting and advancing quantum computing technology as it does for most other high-speed data communications systems utilized today. With vast amounts of data being generated and transferred within the quantum computing network, optical fiber enables the high-speed, high-capacity, and low-latency communications required by this technology. While much of this is known already due to its similar advantages for other applications, optical fiber is the most suitable medium for quantum computing technology for a few reasons:
- High Speed and Large Bandwidth Capacity: Optical fibers support significantly more data than other mediums and for a technology like quantum computing with heavy data transmission and computing requirements, leveraging optical fiber is a necessity. In many cases, capacity and speed performance are often limited more by the devices than the actual fiber itself. For example, it was just reported that researchers at Japan’s NICT achieved a record 402Tbps using commercially available fiber.
Optical fiber offers large amounts of data capacity, especially when leveraging Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) capabilities, allowing for the transmission of many data channels in an optical signal. Additionally, fiber manufacturers like Sumitomo© are pioneering multicore fibers, which provide even greater transmission capacity in a single fiber. - Low Latency: The amount of data being transmitted is one thing, but the rate at which data is transmitted from Point A to Point B, or latency as it is known, is just as important. Low latency transmission is very important for maintaining the coherence of quantum states over long distances.
Optical fiber enables data to be transmitted using light signals, much faster than other technology means, with the fiber latency of the light transmission mainly limited by the refractive index values of the glass. In the same spirit of using multicore fibers to increase data capacity, companies like OFS© and Microsoft© are developing hollow-core fibers that allow the light signal to transmit through aid with a lower refractive index than glass, thus reducing fiber latency by more than 40% to the benefit of quantum computing and other low-latency communications systems. - Immunity to Electromagnetic Interference: Lastly, optical fibers are not susceptible to electromagnetic interference, ensuring a stable and reliable data transmission channel for sensitive quantum information.
Ensuring Optimal Quantum Performance Using Fiber Optic Network Simulators
For companies designing and manufacturing quantum computing equipment, along with those integrating and certifying these devices for use in their network, it is vital to replicate the intended supporting optical fiber communications infrastructures in the test lab before deployment. This ensures all equipment will perform as expected; otherwise, significant time, money, and reputation can be wasted if a device or system fails to meet technical expectations or achieve the intended engineering goals.
Fiber optic network link and span simulators provide several important positive benefits to those testing quantum computing devices and systems from both an application and user experience level:
- Realistic Testing Results: By delivering the exact types and lengths of fiber that match the user-specified application needs, fiber optic network simulators accurately emulate the optical and latency characteristics of field spans and links. This provides valuable test data for decision-making purposes along with helping identify potential performance issues that may need to be addressed before it’s too late. Additionally, customized fiber optic network simulators with varying types and lengths of fiber allow users to create numerous testing configurations and scenarios, which is important if the quantum computing equipment may be installed in various network environments.
- Technical Performance Validation: By exactly simulating various network fiber scenarios, one can validate the performance of their quantum computing hardware and ensure it meets their required standards and expectations across numerous technical parameters like speed, reliability, and data integrity. If a service provider or data center tasked with choosing and installing this equipment into the network skips this important testing phase or misses a key optical performance variable by not using this approach, the risk of negative outcomes increases and could end in very poor results.
- Time and Monetary Savings: Investing in a quality fiber network and latency simulation solution allows a company to achieve consistent realistic testing results that can be used repeatedly, scaled to adapt to new or changing needs, and ensure quantum computing devices will perform as intended. Taking this approach results in more efficient testing processes, delivers better outcomes, and is far more cost-effective in the long run than finding out about issues post-deployment that could have been identified sooner.
Specify a Customized Fiber Optic Network Simulator for Your Quantum Computing Project
Leveraging a customer-centric approach with specialized manufacturing capabilities and access to all fiber types from leading manufacturers, M2 Optics is your go-to partner for building and configuring a Fiber Lab solution that matches your quantum computing testing needs. Already supporting many leading quantum computing, cloud, and data center entities that rely on Fiber Lab solutions for their optical and latency testing processes, M2’s team will consult with you to design the most efficient setup for your test lab. | <urn:uuid:49d3f726-8d6e-44c5-92fb-6d1d846bf377> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.m2optics.com/blog/simulating-optical-fiber-networks-for-quantum-computing-success | 2024-09-11T15:45:18Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651390.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911152031-20240911182031-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.920203 | 1,232 | 3.8125 | 4 |
Video Conferencing in Education
Remote education and distance learning have grown rapidly with the advent of
web conferencing and other rich media tools that allow teaching to expand beyond
the physical classroom. Equipped with a computer, browser and Internet access,
a teacher can extend their classroom to an online venue available worldwide.
Real-time, online courses bridge the barriers of time and distance to meet the
needs of students as well as educators. According to a U.S. Department of Education
report on online learning studies, undergraduate and older students who took
all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those
taking the same course through traditional instruction. The report
also revealed that online learning is much more conducive to the expansion of
learning time than is classroom instruction alone.
Video conferencing in education connects resources and brings together
students and professional instructors around the globe in a rich learning
environment. Field experts and professors no longer need travel for guest
lectures. Distance learning can also bridge the cost-barrier of traditional education,
as students complete more courses at a lower cost per unit.
Distance Learning Landscape — Tools of the Trade
Today's distance learning landscape is generally divided into thirds:
the software and online service tools; content; and learning management systems
(scheduling, syllabus, grading, etc). Tools and IT infrastructure are further
sub-divided by those that facilitate store-and-replay versus real-time,
The ability to replay content on-demand is very helpful to
students so that they can learn at their own pace and, if needed,
provide the repetition needed to assimilate instructional material.
Real-time tools such as Nefsis web and video
conferencing provide a new capabilty: real-time, instructor-led sessions
for labs, seminars, tutoring, commercial product training and other
distance learning applications that require real-time interaction between
student and instructor.
In effect, video conferencing is a virtual classroom for teachers and
students, and recording the
lessons preserves them for future teaching and engagement. Instructors and
lecturers can take advantage of these virtual classrooms to teach from
non-traditional, outdoor environments and field locations such as
remote clinics and archeological sites, and
to reach many more students worldwide. This type of virtual, distance-learning
environment allows students from multiple classrooms to engage from
many locations at the same time and enjoy a collaborative, interactive
experience with instructors and other students.
Nefsis Features Energize Real-Time, Instructor-Led Sessions
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FREE trial right now. | <urn:uuid:f6b9d494-9a53-4f12-b12d-b8cafc49028e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.nefsis.com/Best-Video-Conferencing-Software/applications-education.html | 2024-09-12T22:29:31Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651498.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912210501-20240913000501-00159.warc.gz | en | 0.930061 | 1,015 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Long gone are the days when having a robust and reliable communications system was “nice to have” and only available to highly modernized and funded agencies. Today, everyone needs to be connected, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, regardless of terrain, weather, or the size of your agency.
Today’s networks, and the myriad of applications they support, require a variety of technologies (Transport, Access, Core Networking) as well as a variety of engineering expertise to not only properly design and deploy the networks, but to also maintain and support.
The inner and interworking of the various technologies is the key in deploying these complex modern networks that are robust, reliable and offer the utmost operational efficiency to any organization. Although a base of knowledge and expertise is needed, designing, and deploying the network is the easy part. The greater challenge lies in supporting and planning for maintenance cycles – which requires significant collaboration and communication between those that support and maintain the system and the personnel using it. A modern-day public safety wireless network is a dynamically evolving system. It must be an always-available, never-failing, high-capacity, ultra-fast system that is capable and flexible enough to support the current mission and a multitude of applications - all of which are constantly becoming more complex and changing on the fly.
If you ask any public safety first-responder “What is the one thing you rely on most?”, most, if not all, will say their communication devices. For the seasoned generation, most would likely choose their P25 two-way handset. The upcoming generation will more likely reference their smartphones, or other more current devices, that run the multitude of applications that help make their jobs more efficient and secure. In either case, communication is the key. The ability to have a robust and reliable network that is always on and that they can rely on - for whatever, wherever, and whenever they need it – is vital.
The point here is to emphasize the importance of the overall unified network, regardless of the devices or technology used. Network and radio frequency (RF) engineers responsible for designing these systems need to consider ALL stakeholders, both radio (LMR) and mobile (LTE) users, as well as the various other elements that play a critical part in these networks. All of which are essential to supporting the mission.
When you talk about the Transport layer, you are primarily looking at two possible vehicles -Wireless (Broadband, Satellite) and Wired (Fiber).
Unfortunately, there is usually no single solution for these networks. A well-planned network will take advantage of wireless transport along with fiber connectivity and use satcom in specific cases. By using a multitude of technologies, you can leverage the benefits of each, and ensure you have a custom, fit-for-purpose deployment that answers your specific needs.
Despite many advances in technology, there is still a pre-conceived notion that when dealing with mission-critical communications, wired is the way to go. But is that really the case? Why is that so?
The Wireless Way – Benefits:
Unified Networks: Wireless transport has come a long way and has some unique capabilities in the delivery of services, new application drivers, as well as support of legacy networks. The backbone for public safety interconnects similar and dispersed systems and networks, and wireless transport can simultaneously support both legacy TDM networks as well as more modern IP-based applications. Unifying disparate networks into one homogeneous network that can run as one smooth entity, can save headaches and disabling downtime.
Future-Proof: One concern surrounding any technology investment is the product life cycle and the amount of time before your acquisition becomes obsolete. Wireless transport is future-proof since it is IP-based and in most cases can be upgraded or enhanced via software or minor infrastructure upgrades. And this is important when considering the next-generation applications that are being implemented across the public safety agencies. Read more about critical-mission digital transformation.
Some typical ways a wireless system can assist in the successful delivery of content in a public safety broadband network include:
- Providing broadband connectivity to a building, campus, or emergency operations center (EOC) that may not have access to fiber. This would allow for the backhaul network to be extended where public safety has complete control of the connection.
- Offering a fail-safe solution to protect critical connections that may use terrestrial services like fiber. The redundant path created using wireless ensures a completely different path so that, in the event of a disruption, the wireless path can be used to ensure that the critical link(s) remain functional.
- Providing connectivity for a temporarily deployed asset. The temporary assets in support of a mission or incident can include search and rescue, multiple-agency responses, or natural disaster recovery response to mention a few.
- Providing flexibility for various applications, such as closed caption television, CCTV or other monitoring applications. A robust, reliable wireless network can effectively transport large packets of data to allow live streaming, or applications that enable facial/tattoo recognition software. Read more about facilitating multimedia in public safety.
- Vehicular Area Network (VAN) connectivity. In-field personnel depend on robust connectivity for numerous devices, video feeds, and applications, including radio in vehicle, handheld devices, body worn cameras, license reading gear, vehicle on-board cameras, laptops, weapon sensors, vehicle diagnostics and more.
The requirements for first responders have and will continue to change dramatically, partially driven by a host of sophisticated applications that are becoming crucial to the operating procedures of any public safety entity. Wireless networks not only meet today’s data-rich demands but can also support legacy networks and function as a baseline supporting future enhancements and technology adoption based on its inherent flexibility and adaptability.
The requirements and needs of public safety organizations continue to evolve, and wireless communications will continue to play a critical role in meeting these needs. Ceragon offers a wide variety of technology solutions to help public safety organizations as they move from the “nice to have” technology perspective of the past to the “must have” reality of today.
Download our brochure to find out more | <urn:uuid:8148cde9-a43f-4043-9c1b-b035493da9d8> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.ceragon.com/blog/modernize-your-critical-infrastructure-network | 2024-09-15T06:20:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651616.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915052902-20240915082902-00859.warc.gz | en | 0.946671 | 1,268 | 2.5625 | 3 |
What is phishing?
Phishing is a form of cybercrime when criminals try to obtain sensitive information from you via email with fraudulent links, prompting you to fill out a form with your personally identifiable information. They can then use this information to get your online credentials for social media profiles, bank accounts and more.
How does phishing work?
Phishing can happen through emails, phone calls, or text messages. The tricksters send messages that look real and urgent, asking the person to take action. For instance, an email might look like it’s from a trustworthy bank, telling the person to update their account info to avoid problems. Because the message seems urgent and real, people might share sensitive info like passwords and credit card numbers, which the tricksters can then misuse.
Posing as a legitimate entity, the attacker lures victims to a counterfeit website where they are persuaded to enter confidential information. This well-crafted façade, coupled with a sense of urgency, enables the phishing scam to successfully harvest valuable personal data, leaving the unsuspecting victim vulnerable to identity theft and financial loss.
The sender: In a phishing attack, the sender imitates (or “spoofs”) someone trustworthy that the recipient would likely know. Depending on the type of phishing attack, it could be an individual, like a family member of the recipient, the CEO of the company they work for, or even someone famous who is supposedly giving something away. Often phishing messages mimic emails from large companies like PayPal, Amazon, or Microsoft, and banks or government offices.
The message: Under the guise of someone trusted, the attacker will ask the recipient to click a link, download an attachment, or to send money. When the victim opens the message, they find a scary message meant to overcome their better judgement by filling them with fear. The message may demand that the victim go to a website and take immediate action or risk some sort of consequence.
The destination: If users take the bait and click the link, they’re sent to an imitation of a legitimate website. From here, they’re asked to log in with their username and password credentials. If they are gullible enough to comply, the login credentials go to the attacker, who uses it to steal identities, pilfer bank accounts, and sell personal information on the black market. The destination URL in the phishing email often looks very similar to the legitimate URL, which can further deceive the victim.
How to recognize phishing?
Phishing attempts are fraudulent activities where scammers use email or text messages aiming to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information like passwords, bank account numbers, or Social Security numbers. Recognizing phishing can be achieved by being alert to certain red flags.
Typically, phishing messages may appear to come from reputable sources such as banks, credit card companies, or familiar online platforms. They often create a sense of urgency, suggesting suspicious activity or issues with your account, urging you to act swiftly.
Some common indicators of phishing include unexpected communications requesting personal or financial information, unfamiliar sender email addresses, generic greetings, spelling and grammar mistakes, and deceptive URLs. By being cautious and verifying any suspicious communications directly with the institutions involved before responding, individuals can better protect themselves against phishing attempts. Now we want to go into more detail about the signs of phishing and help you spot them.
Signs of phishing
Spotting phishing attempts can be a challenge, but with some vigilance, basic guidelines, and a dose of common sense, you can significantly reduce the risks. Look for irregularities or peculiarities in the email. Use the “smell test” to determine if something doesn’t sit right with you. Trust your instincts, but stay away from fear, as phishing scams often exploit fear to impair your judgment.
Here are additional signs of phishing attempts:
Sign 1: The email presents an offer that seems too good to be true.
It might claim you’ve hit the jackpot, won an extravagant prize, or other improbable rewards.
Sign 2: The sender is recognizable, but not someone you usually interact with.
Even if you recognize the sender’s name, exercise caution if it’s not someone you regularly communicate with, particularly if the email’s content is unrelated to your usual job tasks. Similarly, be wary if you’re cc’d on an email alongside unfamiliar individuals or colleagues from unrelated departments.
Sign 3: The message induces fear.
Be cautious if the email utilizes charged or alarming language to instill a sense of urgency, urging you to click and “act immediately” to prevent account termination. Remember, legitimate organizations won’t request personal information via email.
Sign 4: The message includes unexpected or odd attachments.
Sign 5: The message incorporates links that seem dubious.
Even if the above indicators don’t raise suspicion, never trust embedded hyperlinks blindly. Hover your cursor over the link to reveal the actual URL. Pay special attention to subtle misspellings in a seemingly familiar website URL, as it’s a red flag for deceit. It’s always safer to manually enter the URL into your browser instead of clicking on the embedded link.
Who is targeted by phishing?
Phishing is a threat to everyone, targeting various individuals and industries, from corporate executives to everyday social media users and online banking customers. The wide scope of phishing makes it crucial to exercise caution online and adopt preventive measures. Being vigilant and proactive can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to phishing scams, ensuring a safer online experience for all.
How to protect yourself against phishing attacks
As stated previously, phishing is an equal opportunity threat, capable of showing up on desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. Most Internet browsers have ways to check if a link is safe, but the first line of defense against phishing is your judgement. Train yourself to recognize the signs of phishing and try to practice safe computing whenever you check your email, read Facebook posts, or play your favorite online game.
Malwarebytes Labs shared some of the key practices to protect yourself against phishing attacks:
- Don’t open e-mails from senders you are not familiar with.
- Don’t ever click on a link inside of an e-mail unless you know exactly where it is going.
- If you are asked to provide sensitive information, check that the URL of the page starts with “HTTPS” instead of just “HTTP.” The “S” stands for “secure.” It’s not a guarantee that a site is legitimate, but most legitimate sites use HTTPS because it’s more secure. HTTP sites, even legitimate ones, are vulnerable to hackers.
- Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): Utilize MFA wherever possible to add an extra layer of security. Even if phishers obtain your password, they’ll need to bypass additional verification steps to access your account.
- Lookout for the digital certificate of a website.
- To layer that protection, if you get an e-mail from a source, you are unsure of, navigate to the provided link manually by entering the legitimate website address into your browser.
- Mouseover the link to see if it’s a legitimate link.
- If you suspect an e-mail isn’t legitimate, take a name or some text from the message and put it into a search engine to see if any known phishing attacks exist using the same methods.
We strongly recommend the use of trusted antivirus/anti-malware solutions like Malwarebytes Premium to enhance your digital security. Most modern cybersecurity tools, equipped with smart algorithms, can identify malicious links or attachments, providing a vigilant shield even against clever phishing attempts.
If a phishing tactic slips past your notice, our robust security software keeps your information securely in your control. We offer a complimentary trial of Malwarebytes, allowing you to experience its superior protection before making a purchase.
Different types of phishing attacks
Phishing attacks use deceptive methods to illegally gather sensitive information, and they come in various forms, each with its own unique features. These are specific ways phishing attackers aim to deceive their targets:
Spear phishing is a targeted form of phishing where attackers tailor messages to specific individuals or organizations, using collected data to make the deceit more convincing. It requires pre-attack reconnaissance to uncover names, job titles, email addresses, and the like.
The hackers scour the Internet to match up this information with other researched knowledge about the target’s colleagues, along with the names and professional relationships of key employees in their organizations. With this, the phisher crafts a believable email.
Example: Fraudsters may impersonate executives to trick employees into authorizing fraudulent payments.
Whale phishing targets high-profile individuals, such as executives, celebrities, or C-level businesspeople. It attempts to trick them into revealing personal information or professional details.
Understanding and identifying the diverse forms of phishing attacks is crucial to implementing effective protective measures, ensuring the security and integrity of personal and organizational assets.
Commonly seen since email’s inception, phishing emails involve deceptive emails appearing to come from reputable sources (e.g., banks, online retailers) urging recipients to click on links or download attachments.
- Business email compromise (BEC): A business email compromise (BEC) attack targets someone in the finance department of an organization, often the CFO, and attempts to deceive them into sending large sums of money. Attackers often use social engineering tactics to convince the recipient that sending the money is urgent and necessary.
- Clone phishing: In this attack, criminals make a copy—or clone—of previously delivered but legitimate emails that contain either a link or an attachment. Then, the phisher replaces the links or attached files with malicious substitutions disguised as the real thing. Unsuspecting users either click the link or open the attachment, which often allows their systems to be commandeered. Then the phisher can counterfeit the victim’s identity in order to masquerade as a trusted sender to other victims in the same organization.
- 419/Nigerian scams: A verbose phishing email from someone claiming to be a Nigerian prince is one of the Internet’s earliest and longest-running scams. This “prince” either offers you money, but says you need to send him a small amount first, to claim it, or he says he is in trouble, and needs funds to resolve it. The number “419” is associated with this scam. It refers to the section of the Nigerian Criminal Code dealing with fraud, the charges, and penalties for offenders.
Vishing (Voice Phishing)
Attackers impersonate authority figures (e.g., bank officials, law enforcement) over the phone to scare individuals into sharing sensitive information or transferring funds.
Smishing (SMS Phishing)
A deceptive tactic where attackers create fake online personas to lure individuals into romantic relationships for monetary exploitation or personal information access.
Examples of phishing attacks
Here’s an example of a phishing attempt that spoofs a notice from PayPal, asking the recipient to click on the “Confirm Now” button. Mousing over the button reveals the true URL destination in the red rectangle.
Here’s another phishing attack image, this time claiming to be from Amazon. Note the threat to close the account if there’s no response within 48 hours.
Clicking on the link leads you to this form, inviting you to give away what the phisher needs to plunder your valuables:
Why is phishing effective?
Phishing is notably effective due to its exploitation of human psychology rather than relying on advanced technical tactics. Often masquerading as urgent communications from authoritative figures, phishing scams prey on individuals’ trust and fear.
Adam Kujawa, formerly of Malwarebytes Labs, sums it up: “Phishing stands out as the simplest yet most potent cyber-attack, chiefly targeting the most susceptible yet powerful element: the human mind.” The lack of technical sophistication and the potential to evoke immediate reactions, highlight why phishing remains a widespread and serious online threat.
“Phishing is the simplest kind of cyberattack, and at the same time, the most dangerous and effective.”
Phishers are not trying to exploit a technical vulnerability in your device’s operation system—they’re using social engineering. From Windows and iPhones to Macs and Androids, no operating system is completely safe from phishing, no matter how strong its security is. In fact, attackers often resort to phishing because they can’t find any technical vulnerabilities.
Why waste time cracking through layers of security when you can trick someone into handing you the key? Often, the weakest link in a security system isn’t a glitch buried in computer code, it’s a human being who doesn’t double check where an email came from.
Now that we’ve explored what phishing is and how it works, let’s take a look at where it all started, going back to the 1970s with phone system hacking, also known as ‘phreaking’.
The history of phishing
The term “phishing” likens scam attempts to fishing, where bait is used to lure victims. It’s believed to have originated from the ’70s “phreaking” culture, which involved hacking phone systems. Before the term “phishi
ng” was coined, a similar technique was presented in a 1987 tech conference. The term’s first known use traces back to 1996, associated with hacker Khan C Smith, amid a scam on America Online (AOL) users, exploiting AOL’s popularity by impersonating AOL staff to collect user information.
Entering the 2000s, phishers shifted focus to online payment systems, banking, and social media platforms. They created convincing fake domains, especially spoofing eBay and PayPal, tricking users into sharing sensitive information. The first bank-targeted phishing attack was reported in 2003. By the mid-2000s, phishing had become a major cyber threat with sophisticated, organized campaigns, causing significant financial losses.
The damage escalated over the years, with notable incidents including a state-sponsored campaign in 2011, the massive Target data breach in 2013, and high-profile political phishing attempts in 2016. The trend continued into 2017, with a scam leading to over $100 million being misdirected from tech giants like Google and Facebook. | <urn:uuid:5a5cdeb6-ad90-47b4-89ae-6489b6bebdb1> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.malwarebytes.com/phishing | 2024-09-17T19:55:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651829.57/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917172631-20240917202631-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.920846 | 3,054 | 3.546875 | 4 |
AI, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analytics – How Technology is Changing the Insurance Landscape
Insurance companies today know the value of digital technologies – these tools have transformed the industry across all facets of operations
Read the BlogFrom self-driving cars to a computer that plays chess, technology has come a long way since its debut. Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and deep learning (DL) are integrated into today’s society, in every industry, at every level. From predicting equipment outages to interacting with customers by chatbot, these technologies are vital for modern business operations.
AI, ML, and DL are an iconic subset of computer science that is changing every industry, from healthcare to sports management. Read on to learn more about these high-tech advancements and how they are used in business every day.
History of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has existed for centuries and can trace its origins all the way back to classical antiquity. AI as we know it today, however, has more recent roots. In 1950, mathematician Alan Turing published “Computing Machinery and Intelligence,” which aimed to answer the question, “Can machines think?” This paper would become a method to test intelligence in a machine, now known as the Turing test.
Since the time of Turing, numerous advances have been made in the field of AI, including the development of a computer program that could play checkers against a human. Created by computer scientist Arthur Samuel, this program was able to record or remember all previous moves and apply this to reinforcement learning. This meant that the computer would learn from past mistakes and play at a more intelligent level each time. Samuel continually improved upon this program and in 1952 coined the term “machine learning.”
In the late 1960s through the 1990s, AI gained international recognition thanks to popular movies like “2001: A Space Odyssey” (1968), “Star Wars” (1977), and “Electric Dreams” (1984). During this time, advancements were made in AI that rivaled those shown on the silver screen. By the 2000s, AI had become mainstream, appearing everywhere from smart assistants to online mapping services. Though not as well known by the general populace, machine learning has also continued to evolve over the decades and is now one of the most common applications of AI today.
What is Artificial Intelligence?
While there is no one universally recognized definition of artificial intelligence, it can be summed up as, “a wide-ranging branch of computer science concerned with building smart machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence.”
There are two types of AI: narrow AI and general AI.
Narrow AI, which is also known as weak AI, is a term used to describe AI systems that focus on a particular task that would ordinarily require human intelligence. It gets its name from its inherent limitations — narrow AI can only be used to complete a limited task, or one task at a time. Narrow AI is the most common form of artificial intelligence can be found everywhere from smart assistants and facial recognition systems to search engine recommendations and predictive maintenance models.
By comparison, general AI, or strong AI, is meant to replicate human intelligence and complete the same intellectual tasks that a human being could — think C3PO from the “Star Wars” series. According to TechTalks, this involves being able to mimic “common sense, background knowledge, transfer learning, abstraction, and causality.” General AI is still largely theoretical in nature. That said, certain AI applications, such as emotional analysis — which relies on natural language processing to register the underlying emotion in text — represent the early development stages of this technology.
What is Machine Learning?
Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that enables computers to “learn” — that is, to use large quantities of structured, labeled data and algorithms to identify patterns and make predictions, all without being explicitly programmed to do so. Perhaps the most obvious example of machine learning is Google Maps, which analyzes past and present traffic data patterns to recommend the fastest route.
Where machine learning really gets exciting is deep learning. Deep learning is a subset of machine learning that uses artificial neural networks — computing systems modeled after the human brain — to ingest and learn from both structured and unstructured data. An example of deep learning in action is driverless cars, which inherently understand the rules of the road and can react in real-time to things like a stop sign or a person crossing the street.
*Graphic illustrating the relationship between AI, ML, and deep learning*
Artificial Intelligence – A type of advanced technology that mimics human intelligence.
Machine Learning – A subset of AI that learns patterns from analyzing a large amount of data.
Deep Learning – A subset of ML that uses neural networks to learn patterns from data.
AI vs. Machine Learning vs. Deep Learning: Key Differences
Although AI, machine learning, and deep learning all belong to the same family, they each have unique qualities and applications. Refer to the chart below to understand key differences between the three. This information in this chart was compiled by TechGig, Forbes, and Javapoint.
Artificial Intelligence | Machine Learning | Deep Learning | |
How It Works | Simulates human intelligence | Learns from past data patterns without being specifically programmed to do so | Mimics biological neural networks in the human brain |
Engineering | Created from programming | Relies on large quantities of structured data and algorithms to learn | Relies on large quantities of structured and unstructured data and algorithms to learn |
Common Examples | Smart assistants, chatbots | Google search, spam filters, demand forecasting, product recommendations | Autonomous vehicles, facial recognition, translation software, tweet sentiment |
Desired Outcome | Mimic human intelligence to solve complex problems | Analyze and learn from data to perform a particular task | Complete tasks that traditionally require human intelligence |
Real-world Applications of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning
AI and machine learning applications can be found in every industry. These technologies optimize business processes, enhance productivity, and are often used to perform predictive analysis. Here are just a few examples from various industries:
- Insurance: These advanced technologies empower insurers to identify, assess, and underwrite emerging risks and identify new revenue sources semi-automatically.
- Finance: Financial services firms can leverage AI to quickly and effectively perform investment analysis, assess competitive landscape, and ensure compliance.
- Manufacturers: Manufacturers can improve supply chain productivity by using AI to remotely monitor, analyze, and assess equipment performance around the clock.
- Retailers: Retailers use demand forecasting to predict industry shifts and make proactive changes to a company’s marketing, business, and merchandising strategies.
- Entertainment: Most streaming platforms utilize AI-powered algorithms to recommend content based on users’ viewing history.
- Healthcare: Hospitals and other healthcare organizations can implement natural language processing, a branch of AI to swiftly digitize and organize documentation, examine data, and make better informed decisions.
- Tech: One way the tech industry can use AI is to flag cybersecurity threats, fraud attempts and other cyber risks.
Unlock the Potential of Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning with Hitachi Solutions
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One of our popular products, Azure Databricks, empowers data scientists, data engineers, and data analysts with a full suite of capabilities to explore, model, manage, and visualize data. From data ingestion and featurization, to model building and training, all the way to serving and monitoring, the Databricks Lakehouse Platform unifies all of the core components of a data science environment. Data teams can build robust, reproducible machine learning models at scale and present results in custom dashboards to provide immediate insights to end-users.
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Only a small sliver of people have absolutely terrible credit scores, but plain-old bad credit? That’s a lot more common. Nearly a third of Americans have a credit score lower than 601 — the distinction between bad and fair credit — according to credit bureau Experian.
These figures come from a breakdown of Experian’s 2015 VantageScore 3.0 data. It’s the newest VantageScore model, which uses a scale of 300 to 850, and even though it scores 30 million to 35 million more consumers than some other scoring models, there are still plenty of people who don’t have credit scores. While Experian estimates 30% of Americans have poor or bad credit, plenty of people have no credit at all, which has similar disadvantages to having low scores.
First, some background on credit score ranges: VantageScore divides consumers with credit scores into five groups: Super prime, commonly called excellent credit (781 to 850); prime, or good credit (661 to 780); near prime, or fair credit (601 to 660); subprime, or poor credit (500 to 600); and deep subprime, or bad credit (300 to 499). Experian’s estimates say people are most likely to fall into the “good” category, with prime borrowers making up 36% of all people with a VantageScore 3.0. More than one in five (22%) have excellent credit, generally giving those people access to the best and most affordable credit products.
Now back to that 30% figure: That’s 30% of all consumers who have a score with at least one of the credit bureaus, or what VantageScore calls a “scoreable” person. VantageScore says there are about 220 million scoreable people and 68 million of them have bad or poor scores (lower than 601), which is how they got to that 30% estimate.
Figures from credit bureau TransUnion also say that 30% have subprime credit, based on the VantageScore 3.0 model. Other sources have higher and lower estimates on how many Americans have bad credit (which is understandable, giving how many variables there are in the credit scoring world), but the point here is that a lot of people have bad credit.
The good news is you can improve your credit, though your specific credit history will largely dictate how difficult and time consuming it will be to fix. For starters, you can see where you stand and try to understand what’s behind your score. You can get two free credit scores (including VantageScore 3.0) on Credit.com with updates every month. You’ll also want to review your free annual credit reports to make sure everything on your credit report is accurate. Errors are common, and you’ll want to address those as soon as you can. Beyond that, you can improve your credit by consistently making all loan payments on time, keeping credit card balances low and limiting new credit inquiries until your score rises.
This article originally appeared on Credit.com and was written by Christine DiGangi. | <urn:uuid:fd33d82c-3dd7-4e27-afb1-c84a50853b70> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://adamlevin.com/2016/02/15/how-many-americans-have-bad-credit/ | 2024-09-20T07:45:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652138.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920054402-20240920084402-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.957451 | 640 | 2.734375 | 3 |
October 2, 2017
Defining big data is actually more of a challenge than you might think. The glib definition talks of masses of unstructured data, but the reality is that it’s a merging of many data sources, both structured and structured, to create a pool of stored data that can be analyzed for useful information.
We might ask, “How big is big data?” The answer from storage marketers is usually “Big, really big!” or “Petabytes!”, but again, there are many dimensions to sizing what will be stored. Much big data becomes junk within minutes of being analyzed, while some needs to stay around. This makes data lifecycle management crucial. Add to that globalization, which brings foreign customers to even small US retailers. The requirements for personal data lifecycle management under the European Union General Data Protection Regulation go into effect in May 2018 and penalties for non-compliance are draconian, even for foreign companies, at up to 4% of global annual revenues per affected person.
For an IT industry just getting used to the term terabyte, storing petabytes of new data seems expensive and daunting. This would most definitely be the case with RAID storage array; in the past, an EMC salesman could retire on the commissions from selling the first petabyte of storage. But today’s drives and storage appliances have changed all the rules about the cost of capacity, especially where open source software can be brought into play.
In fact, there was quite a bit of buzz at the Flash Memory Summit in August about appliances holding one petabyte in a single 1U rack. With 3D NAND and new form factors like Intel’s "Ruler" drives, we’ll reach the 1 PB goal within a few months. It’s a space, power, and cost game changer for big data storage capacity.
Concentrated capacity requires concentrated networking bandwidth. The first step is to connect those petabyte boxes with NVMe over Ethernet, running today at 100 Gbps, but vendors are already in the early stages of 200Gbps deployment. This is a major leap forward in network capability, but even that isn’t enough to keep up with drives designed with massive internal parallelism.
Compression of data helps in many big data storage use cases, from removing repetitive images of the same lobby to repeated chunks of Word files. New methods of compression using GPUs can handle tremendous data rates, giving those petabyte 1U boxes a way of quickly talking to the world.
The exciting part of big data storage is really a software story. Unstructured data is usually stored in a key/data format, on top of traditional block IO, which is an inefficient method that tries to mask several mismatches. Newer designs range from extended metadata tagging of objects to storing data in an open-ended key/data format on a drive or storage appliance. These are embryonic approaches, but the value proposition seems clear.
Finally, the public cloud offers a home for big data that is elastic and scalable to huge sizes. This has the obvious value of being always right-sized to enterprise needs and AWS, Azure and Google have all added a strong list of big data services to match. With huge instances and GPU support, cloud virtual machines can emulate an in-house server farm effectively, and make a compelling case for a hybrid or public cloud-based solution.
Suffice to say, enterprises have a lot to consider when they map out a plan for big data storage. Let's look at some of these factors in more detail.
(Images: Timofeev Vladimir/Shutterstock)
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September 19, 2024Unleash the power of the browser to secure any device in minutes
September 24, 2024 | <urn:uuid:8dc2d55c-46f0-47e5-8e50-fc5c4ec4138e> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.networkcomputing.com/data-center-networking/big-data-storage-7-key-factors | 2024-09-08T03:17:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650958.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908020844-20240908050844-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.941161 | 815 | 2.84375 | 3 |
You may not know this little fact: certain browser features require HTTPS to work. Features like getting a user’s location, accessing their microphone, or storing data locally on their device, all require that your website supports HTTPS.
We often talk about the benefits to the user experience and website reputation by adopting HTTPS, but being able to develop a website with modern capabilities may be an even more compelling reason.
There are currently 10 features that require HTTPS in at least one major browser—including HTTP/2 and Brotli compression (both groundbreaking improvements in web technologies)— and plans to restrict three existing features to HTTPS sometime in the future.
We are going to briefly cover the background of HTTPS-only features and then the list of current and future features that require a secure connection.
Google initially proposed restricting certain features to HTTPS in 2014. They realized that websites were starting to offer comparable experiences to native apps with browser features, such as webcam support and the local data storage. This was good news for rich web apps, but it posed a security risk if those features could be tampered with by a man-in-the-middle or other network interference or impersonation.
Imagine a user connects to your site and someone else on the network can piggyback on your access to their webcam or microphone and eavesdrop. Or worse, that network attacker entirely fabricates a request to access their webcam with an HTTP injection.
Since Google’s initial concept, their proposal has evolved into “Secure Contexts,” a W3C draft that hopes to become the internet standard for defining secure access to these advanced browser features.
Despite Secure Contexts being drafted, new features and standards have already been designed to require HTTPS from their inception—the biggest being HTTP/2. All major browsers require websites use HTTPS with HTTP/2, meaning you have absolutely no access to the newest version of the internet’s core protocol if you’re still serving unencrypted HTTP.
Other major standards like Brotli, a compression algorithm that offers better performance than gzip, and Google’s AMP, were also designed around HTTPS support.
You’ve likely heard some news recently about web browser initiatives around HTTPS. The increasing number of features, standards, and APIs that require HTTPS is yet another indicator of browsers’ strong interest in spurring adoption and the HTTPS-only future of the internet.
It can be hard to keep track of which features require HTTPS and how that affects specific browsers. This table summarizes all this information—including existing features that are planned to become HTTPS-only. Even if you don’t use these features on your website, this should serve as an eye-opener for just how serious major browsers like Chrome and Firefox are about HTTPS.
When a feature is HTTPS-only in a browser we list the version number with a link to documentation of the change. If a feature is not supported at all, or allowed over HTTP, we note that and any possible plans to restrict that feature in the future. This list will be updated as new announcements are made by browsers.
Feature/Standard: | HTTPS Only Starting: | Notes: |
AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) | Some features, since introduction | This one is unlike the others—AMP is Google’s open-source standard at serving pages for the mobile web.
Many AMP features, including iframes, video embedding, and serving ads require HTTPS. The full list of AMP components is available here, where you can check for an HTTPS requirement. |
Bluetooth (Web Bluetooth) | Since Introduction | This API is only supported in Chrome |
Brotli | Since Introduction | A compression format that offers better performance than gzip. Supported in Chrome 50 and Firefox 44. |
getUserMedia (Webcam and Microphone) | Chrome 47
Partially supported in Firefox |
Firefox allows getUserMedia over HTTP, but only with one-time permission. This requires the user to give permission on each visit.
In Chrome, the Speech Recognition API, which requires access to the microphone as a prerequisite, also requires HTTPS. |
Geolocation | Chrome 50 Firefox 55 | |
HTTP/2 | Since Introduction | While not explicitly required in the HTTP/2 standard, every major browser ( Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge) require HTTPS for HTTP/2. |
EME (Encrypted Media Extensions) | Chrome 58 | Planned in Firefox with no announced release date. |
Notifications | Chrome 62 | The Notifications API is allowed in Firefox over HTTP. |
Payment Request API (Web Payments) | Since Introduction | Google Developer’s introduction to Web Payments.
This API is not yet supported in Firefox. |
Service Workers | Since Introduction | |
Web Crypto | Chrome 60 | Planned in Firefox with no announced release date. |
These features and standards are still available over HTTP—for now. Browsers or standards groups (like the W3C or IETF) have expressed interest in requiring HTTPS for these in the future.
Feature/Standard: | Will Require HTTPS Starting: | Notes: |
AppCache (Application Cache) | N/A | Chrome has deprecated the AppCache API over HTTP since Version 52. But note that this API in its entirety is also being abandoned by browsers and replaced by the Cache API. |
Device Motion / Orientation | N/A | Announced on Chromium’s Security page. |
Fullscreen | N/A | The Secure Contexts draft lists fullscreen as a good candidate for HTTPS-only access. | | <urn:uuid:87658ab1-e1a4-4dbf-95be-e19caa009181> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.digicert.com/blog/https-only-features-in-browsers | 2024-09-09T08:03:02Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651092.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909071529-20240909101529-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.916655 | 1,160 | 2.71875 | 3 |
In today's mobile user world, we are interconnected through a range of services, applications, processes and information. Although digitisation can be dangerous, developing a digital mesh is a strategic way of expanding the endpoints used by people to access the virtual world.
What is a digital mesh?
According to recent research by Gartner, the digital mesh is currently one of the most important technology trends today. They argue that it lies at the centre of a new found connectivity, whereby people are not just becoming more connected with other people, but also, to a whole host of other devices and technological services.
Rather than the existence of one digital mesh, companies, enterprises and organisations develop their own network by offering a range of services that can be accessed from any digital device.
But, with the expansion of a digital network, it is important to make sure your data is safe. Information security training courses are a great way of protecting what you have.
Uber has already experimented with ice-cream trucks, which delivered frozen treats to those who hail them on their phone.
How is Uber using a digital mesh?
Uber, the ride sharing company, unveiled UberRush in 2014, a bike courier service for New York City. This may be the first step on its way to developing a digital mesh that would provide city residents with a host of services right at their finger tips.
Although Uber started out by offering a service that provided on-demand drivers to a user through their phone app, it now wants to expand into other service areas.
In a 2013 interview with Fortune, Travis Kalanick, CEO of Uber, argued that the company is more than just a car delivery service, rather it is a cross between lifestyle and logistics. A self-styled fulfiller of "instant gratification", Uber aims to give people what they want, when they want it.
Uber has already experimented with ice-cream trucks, which delivered frozen treats to those who hail them on their phone and on-demand Valentines day roses.
Although these have been called marketing promotions, they feel more like test-runs, to see what consumers will and will not pay for.
In the end, Uber's goal is to create a network of services which can be accessed by anyone with the app.
Uber investor Shervin Pishevar explained to Inc that "Uber is building a digital mesh – a grid that goes over the cities. Once you have that grid running, in everyone's pockets, there is a lot of potential for what you can build as a platform. Uber is in the empire-building phase".
Digital meshing is a fast growing business strategy for tech companies. IT training courses are an excellent way to build essential skills and be part of this growing tech trend. Is your enterprise ready for a digital mesh? | <urn:uuid:3424f905-eae7-4e60-ae60-d1fe96e93e85> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://alctraining.com.au/how-is-uber-building-a-digital-mesh/ | 2024-09-10T14:05:24Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651255.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910125411-20240910155411-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.968091 | 570 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Is Artificial Intelligence Changing the Dynamics of Software Testing
- February 16, 2018
The software testing engineers want everything autonomous and digital. Simply putting it, they need a simple, easy and more streamlined solution to getting their tasks done on time. Maybe some years back it seemed like a forsaken dream, but now it’s possible! Rather, it is the time that the test models and monitoring designs shift to Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The 2016-17 World Quality Report claims:
“We believe that the most important solution to overcome increasing QA and Testing Challenges will be the emerging introduction of machine-based intelligence.”
Human interference will be like a pinch of salt in the ocean of test automation where machines will create, write, and execute the test cases. These machines will improve constantly with the of instant human input and feedbacks. This mechanism indicates that the test automation teams will soon have their own virtual assistants that will manage robust test coverage with higher intelligence, steadfastness, and scalability while staying under cost-effective budget.
Machine Learning is the core element of AI that makes the machines efficient to learn to flexibly adapt changes, access information, and perform intelligently according to the environment. Testers can feed their systems with thousands of test cases to adjust AI according to a different set of inputs. This way the machine trains itself to recognize relevant patterns. These logical patterns then provide valid results between presented input and expected output pair.
There are many ways how AI is already helping the world. Some of them include identifying malignant cancerous tumors, benefitting with voice assistances like Siri, Alexa, Bixby, etc., making driving easier with self-controlling cars, and much more.
The process of machine learning is rapid and is expected to dramatically transform the test automation industry in superior ways.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) bots would be trained enough for complicated practices of software testing, while effectively interconnecting with the testers’ input. AI could be exceedingly helpful in resolving the unnoticed defects in the testing results and will decrease the failure rates and expenses to promptly increase the productivity in the testing procedures.
How will Artificial Intelligence (AI) Change the Dynamics of Software Testing?
It is unfortunate that most of the companies don’t prioritize test automation because they consider it to consume extra effort, time, and costs. No matter what, software testing holds an imperative position in development and stability. But resources have always been a major hindrance in the way.
However, AI can be the ultimate solution to their misconceptions and hurdles to help them identify the more severe areas simultaneously without wasting time on repetitive testing and focusing on faster implementation.
A large part of automated testing is based on repetitive testing of test cases the software already owns, while AU replaces repetition and those activities that raise the spending cost and effort.
Humans can create intelligent and relevant test environments to adapt the AI machines identify software problems, eventually reducing human error index. Surprisingly, this mechanization involves only 20% of human analysis and creative activity in the testing algorithms. The AI-fueled mechanism will assure correctness and precision in the whole software development lifecycle since hand-executed testing just not asks for prolonged efforts but is also susceptible to inaccuracies and anomalies.
Subsequently, a load of testing on various platforms, interfaces, programmes, or browsers will end providing the business models more scalability and stability.
However, those fearing that human involvement will become scarce eventually need to stay assured that human involvement will continue to be operational and functional to jump-start the AI-Powered systems.
So, are you ready to welcome your new virtual assistants? | <urn:uuid:d1e14dc6-4f93-43db-8971-cbf5c7f23f7a> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.kualitatem.com/blog/software-testing/artificial-intelligence-changing-dynamics-software-testing/ | 2024-09-10T14:12:54Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651255.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910125411-20240910155411-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.929831 | 742 | 2.609375 | 3 |
aboikis - stock.adobe.com
Healthcare is becoming increasingly digital, but ensuring people have the digital literacy to use these technologies is a job that will never be fully done, according to a panel of experts.
At the Healthcare Excellence Through Technology (HETT) 2019 conference, Kate Gallant, learning facilitator at One Digital/SCVO; Victoria Betton, managing director of mHabitat; and Anna Osbourne, head of communications and public affairs at the Good Things Foundation, discussed how digital exclusion will lead to people being left out of participating in healthcare as it becomes more digitally driven.
But teaching people to use technology for something as sensitive as healthcare isn’t a project that can ever be called “finished”, according to the panel.
Citing research by the Oxford Institute, Gallant said: “For every year over 50, you are 2% more likely to be digitally excluded. And there is no sign, if you look at that trend, of it going away.”
When building digital healthcare systems, many factors have to be taken into account, including the ageing population and what this means for digital literacy in a time when technology is rapidly growing and changing, as well as the problems causing a lack of digital literacy, or a lack of engagement with technology in the first place.
Why are people digitally excluded?
Around 7.4m people in the UK have no access to the internet, and a large number do not have the digital skills required to complete basic tasks – these are the people who would be quickly left behind if healthcare increases its use of technology for things such as access to patient records, correspondence or appointments.
Many of the people who are digitally excluded are often socially excluded as well, making them more difficult to reach to give them the skills needed.
“The people who are most likely to be offline are likely to be older, have a worse educational background, living in poverty, living in social housing, or be earning less money than the average. When we’re talking about issues of health, that’s obviously a huge issue,” said Good Things Foundation’s Osbourne.
As mHabitat’s Betton put it, those who will end up relying on the NHS the most may also end up being the most left behind as healthcare moves in a more digital direction.
In some cases, there may be several barriers preventing someone from taking part in digital services.
“Working with an ethnic minority group, you often have multiple barriers for people in those groups,” said Gallant. “So you’ll have a language barrier as well as a digital skills barriers, so it’s about working out how we can work most effectively with that group to build their competency and capability in both areas at the same time.”
On the other hand, there are people who have some level of digital capability, but not enough to participate in digital health services, or they don’t see the need to use technology in this way.
Gallant said while some may have a smartphone, they may not know how to use it or could not use it to log in to health services.
There may also be patients who have a “proxy user” who helps them to use digital technology when necessary, so they wouldn’t feel comfortable using it on their own.
Creating pathways into digital literacy for just these people won’t cut it though – the panel pointed out that it’s not just the usual suspects who reject the use of digital systems as part of their NHS care.
“Digital literacy is influenced by a whole range of socio demographic factors of which age is one, but also people’s education levels, the degree on which they live in poverty can be influencing factors,” said Betton.
While people assume young people may not fall into the digitally illiterate category, Betton said young people aren’t “somehow magic”, and while they are adept at using technology, it doesn’t always mean they can or will use digital services to manage their relationship with the NHS.
Betton also claimed a number of other factors, such as “trust, motivation, confidence and self-efficacy”, play a huge part in whether or not people choose to engage in a technology.
If people stop being motivated, they stop using the service – this could come at the hands of an update they don’t understand, or a bad user experience, as well as a whole host of other factors that need to be considered when developing both digital services and training.
“Motivation is the biggest thing that’s keeping people offline, because they just can’t see why it’s relevant for them,” said Osbourne.
“They don’t know about what’s available to them, or they’re quite happy in their lives not using technology. And that’s why digital inclusion really is such a complex issue, because overcoming that kind of quite personal barrier of not seeing what’s in it for them is quite challenging.”
Engaging people through co-design
NHSX, the new digital arm of the NHS, was launched in 2019 to outline the ways healthcare across the UK can be more digital, with the aim of using technology to make the lives of patients and practitioners easier.
This will mean a level of digital literacy will be needed by all of those involved, and the technology offered will have to be easy for everyone’s use to save both time and – in some cases – lives.
Betton said that sometimes firms or public services opt to develop digital tools for those who are confident using digital and allow them to “self-service”, with the view that this leaves more time and resource for face-to-face tuition of those who aren’t as confident using digital.
But she pointed out this doesn’t necessarily mean the digitally literate will use these services – when it comes to making digital services, one way to ensure motivation and engagement is to make sure the community is involved in the development of the services, according to the panel.
Gallant said: “If you’re thinking about developing a digital service, co-design from the start is really important. So not, ‘I’ve developed my product and I want to test it’, but, ‘This is a product that we need and would be useful to patients, let’s talk to them about it and start to engage them’.”
She added that while guidelines for co-designing digital services exist, such as those provided by charity CAST, security and accessibility should be built into any services from the beginning to address issues of trust, and to ensure services are designed for everyone’s use from the start.
On the topic of developing education programmes to help people build the digital literacy needed to participate in online or mobile healthcare services, the panel advised that those offering education need to think about the audience they are trying to reach, as this can address both a lack of ability and motivation.
Osbourne said that understanding what support the audience of digital literacy education needs is “crucial” and should be followed up with local partners to develop a service that works in that particular community.
For some who may already have access to technology and know how to use it, but still not want to use digital healthcare services, Gallant said you have to find a “hook” – a way in that will make the technology useful and relevant to them.
Words of warning
The panel warned against making assumptions when developing digital services and ways to educate people about how to use them.
“The top tip is always to not make assumptions, even about young people – just because they may be able to send a message through WhatsApp or post something on Instagram, don’t assume that they’ll be able to access a service online,” said Gallant.
The panel also emphasised the importance of thinking about local communities when developing learning tools or services.
“Not everyone will want to go to a library to do the learning,” said Osbourne. “Some people want to learn in their own home using online resources, some people need that one-to-one support. So as a tip for people in the room who are looking to do this, it’s really important to understand your audience.”
While there is a lot to take into consideration when trying to develop a digital NHS, what is clear is just developing services is not enough – ensuring they are relevant and accessible, as well as giving those without access the tools and skills needed to use them is becoming increasingly important.
“We’re really at crunch point,” said Osbourne. “If we don’t tackle this now, the people who are being left behind are going to be pushed even further behind.” | <urn:uuid:55e53d78-1b0d-493e-982c-5edf53f0152d> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.computerweekly.com/news/252472030/HETT-2019-digital-literacy-gap-will-never-be-fully-closed-says-panel | 2024-09-11T19:24:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651400.96/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911183926-20240911213926-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.966986 | 1,877 | 2.828125 | 3 |
What are cookies?
Cookies are small data files that are placed on your computer or mobile device when you visit a website or use an online service. Standing alone, cookies do not personally identify you in the “real world”; they merely recognize your browser.
Cookies are widely used by organizations in order to make their websites or services work, or to function more efficiently, as well as to provide reporting information.
There are two types of cookies: session cookies and persistent cookies. Session cookies are stored in temporary memory, not retained after an end-user’s browsing session ends and do not obtain information from the end-user’s device. On the other hand, persistent cookies persist on the end-user’s device in the browser’s subfolder and are activated again once you visit the site that created the cookie and remains for the duration period set within the cookie’s file.
Cookies set by the website or service operator are called “first party cookies“. Cookies set by parties other than the website or service operator are called “third party cookies“. Third party cookies typically enable certain third-party features or functionality to be provided on or through websites or services (such as, advertising, interactive content and analytics). The parties that set these third-party cookies can recognize an individual’s computer both when they visit the website or use the service in question and when they visit certain other websites.
Cookies Used by Keyavi
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The HubSpot cookie collects personal information submitted by you via web form, including name, e-mail address, company name, phone number, and other information about yourself or your business. Personal information may also include navigational information about your computer (such as operating system), geographical location (as indicated by publicly available IP address records), browser type, referral source, length of visit, and pages viewed. Learn more here.
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Disabling Most Internet-Based Advertising: Most advertising networks offer you a way to opt out of interest-based advertising. If you would like to find out more information, please visit: | <urn:uuid:d80f678b-54dc-45f2-80fc-47419016e5df> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://keyavi.com/cookie-policy/ | 2024-09-14T08:44:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651559.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914061427-20240914091427-00159.warc.gz | en | 0.912493 | 852 | 2.703125 | 3 |
More than 100 pieces of vital infrastructure, including four hydroelectric dams, had their computer control systems connected to the public internet where anyone could access them and potentially carry out acts of sabotage, according to German security researchers.
Researchers at InternetWache.org in Berlin began looking for routers used by industrial control systems last year. Lead researcher Tim Philipp Schafers was surprised to find unprotected management interfaces for industrial control systems, or ICS, showing up in searches.
Using a simple Python script and some free search tools, he eventually catalogued more than 100 of them, according to a post by Kaspersky Labs on their Threatpost blog.
ICS are special computerized systems that control industrial processes or other machinery, including dam sluice gates. They are typically built with a user dashboard or control panel attached through which they can be remotely controlled. Generally experts recommend against deploying these kinds of applications on the internet, and if they are on the web, they need to be protected by encryption, firewalls and strong passwords.
None of the systems that Schafers found was protected like that.
“It’s possible to access the web applications that control processes in these plants; you don’t need to know a special configuration,” Schafers told Threatpost. “We found more than 100 systems, and about half required authentication, while some were without any and were administrator accessible [to anyone].” | <urn:uuid:8ee8e387-71d9-4613-8f4f-f79a69ae8884> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://develop.cyberscoop.com/german-researchers-find-dam-control-systems-exposed-on-web/ | 2024-09-15T13:33:14Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651630.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915120545-20240915150545-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.964475 | 294 | 2.625 | 3 |
Ways hackers can violate your online privacy
The world of technology is always evolving and so is our relationship with the internet. Back in the 1990s, the only thing you seemingly had to worry about was your email. Then, you started banking online and now, your smartphone's connected, you have Facebook… and pretty much your whole life is online. And you're always being tracked. Your entire browsing history is stored by your ISP, tracked by Facebook and perhaps other advertisers. Even your IoT devices might be reporting on you. So, keeping things private is already quite a big ask — even before the hackers get involved…
What information is available to hackers?
You may not have realized quite how much of your personal information is available on the internet. Let's have a run through some of the types of information that's there, and why hackers might be interested.
- PII - personally identifiable information. This includes your name, address, email address, SSN, tax number, date of birth, medical records, educational records, employment. There’s lots in this type of data that a hacker could use to steal your identity. It might include details of purchases that you've made on Amazon, or investments made with an online broker. All of this private information could be used to compromise your other online accounts, too.
- Emails, SMS, and instant messages are all kept on servers somewhere. There might be plenty of information in your emails that you don't want the world to see - confidential business documents, love letters, details of your bank accounts. And hackers will also be interested in your contacts, because if they can get hold of those, they can send phishing emails to everyone you know.
- Your browsing data includes cookies, ISP logs, and browser plugins that might store data. It's useful to advertisers, and with the advent of Big Data, it might be more useful than you realize.
- In real time, you may be using the internet to make a Skype call or for video conferencing. Are you sure that no one's listening in?
You may not even realize that some of these details have been stored. Or you may be annoyed by the way Facebook wants to tell your friends what you've just bought or listened to, or the way the LA Times is showing you ads for something you looked up two weeks ago.
Hackers are always evolving their techniques. For instance, phishing has been a standard method for over a decade, which involves sending fake emails that either ask you to connect to a spoofed website that looks like one you trust or that have links that install malware on your computer. But now, fake links on social media and hacked social media accounts are also serving as ways to intrude on your privacy and steal your data.
Public Wi-Fi is a marvelous thing, letting you work from any Starbucks, but it's also a huge security vulnerability. Unprotected hotspots give hackers yet another way to break into your device and steal your data. Given that hackers are a massive threat to your online privacy, what can you do about it?
Use a VPN to protect yourself against hackers
Public Wi-Fi doesn't require authentication to access it. That's great for you, and it's great for hackers, because they don't need any authentication either. They can use Man-in-the-Middle (MTM) attacks to steal your data, or - in some cases - they can even set up a 'honeypot' Wi-Fi hotspot to suck your data up.
If you need Wi-Fi for your laptop, it may be a better idea to share your mobile 4G connection by setting up your mobile as a Wi-Fi hotspot and letting your laptop connect to it securely.
Better still, use a Virtual Private Network (VPN), which creates a private gateway to the internet for you.
How does a VPN prevent hacking?
By redirecting your internet traffic to disguise your IP address, it makes it impossible to track you. And by encrypting the information you send across the internet; it stops anyone who wants to intercept your information from being able to read it. That includes your ISP. So, a VPN is a really good way to protect your privacy online.
A VPN isn't just good for your online privacy and security; it has a couple of other advantages. It can allow you to visit websites that may be blocked by the Wi-Fi provider - in some places, that includes Facebook and Twitter. And because it can access geolocation blocked content, it can be useful if you're traveling abroad and want to access financial accounts which may be blocked to 'foreign' users.
You can get free VPNs - but they can come with strings attached. If you really want to protect your privacy online, you should use a premium VPN; it's worth paying for.
How encryption protects your privacy
You might also consider using encryption to protect your online privacy. In fact, you're probably doing that already to some extent, since businesses that handle your data will sometimes encrypt it. Your bank, for instance, probably uses encryption on its website, through SSL and TLS certificates.
If you see a padlock at the start of your browser address bar, the link between your browser and the server is encrypted. If you're filling in a form without the padlock, a hacker could attach a malicious program to the server that hosts the website that could listen in to your communications and steal your data. If you're filling it in with SSL/TLS, no one can listen in.
Another way of telling whether a website is using SSL/TSL is if the URL begins with https:// rather than http://. HTTPS is a much safer protocol than HTTP. Remember, though, the encryption just protects your communication. Once your details are sitting on the company's server, they could be vulnerable to any attack on the company's network.
It's also worth knowing that phone calls on Skype are 100% encrypted - as long as they're 100% made on Skype. But if you make a Skype call to a regular phone number, the link over the PSTN (ordinary phone network) isn't encrypted. That could allow someone to listen in. You can also take advantage of encryption for your messages on Facebook, using 'Secret conversations', if you're on an iPhone or Android smartphone - but not on your PC or laptop.
One of the reasons WhatsApp has become so popular is its end-to-end messaging encryption. Other apps offer encryption but don't turn it on as standard. Look for the setting to turn it on - why on earth would you not want to?
You might also be interested in using Tor, an anonymous, encrypted browser network, to avoid having your browsing history tracked. Investigative journalists often use Tor, as do NGOs who are working in hostile environments. However, Tor is not perfectly safe; it has been known to deliver malware, and it's still vulnerable to 'man in the middle' attacks.
Encryption is a great bonus when you want to protect your privacy online. But governments don't always agree. Some are trying to force tech providers to include a backdoor allowing security agency to access the data. The problem, of course, is that as soon as you leave a backdoor open, hackers will try to get in.
Reduce your digital footprint to protect your privacy
When you're thinking about how to protect your privacy online, it's worth thinking about whether you might want to reduce your digital footprint. We're so used to posting photos online, telling our friends what we've just listened to or where we've been on social media… We don't always think where that information is being stored or what it could potentially be used for.
That may mean resisting some of the suggestions social media and other sites make, such as tags for people you were with. It might mean turning off location services for some of your social media. Pruning your online presence can be quite helpful in protecting your privacy. You can also think about the following ways to reduce how much of your personal information is available on the web, and to whom:
- Keep your social media private and restrict your Facebook posts to friends only rather than allowing anyone on the internet to access them.
- Tighten up who can send you friend requests, from 'anyone' to 'friends of friends' for instance.
- Turn off location, face recognition, 'interests' buttons, and advertisers on social media. Some social media platforms will actually post your location online whether you want it to or not - that's not great for your privacy, and advertising "I'm not home" to burglars is a big safety risk. Or you can just turn off geotagging by turning off the GPS in your phone.
- Unsubscribe from old email lists that you don't want to be on. Consider using a secondary email address for one-off purchases, inquiries for insurance quotes, and so on. Keep your personal email free for your friends and family.
- Be careful with Internet of Things (IoT) devices which monitor your personal habits - password protect them, run them on a separate guest network so they can't be used to gain access to your internet accounts, and remove older devices or ones you don't use from the network.
- Feel free to redact. If you want to show you've passed your driving test, for instance, you might well want to post a picture of your test result - but have the sense to obscure your address, phone number and other identifying information in the photo.
- Check up on what is being done for you automatically. Some people don't want Google to automatically log travel plans in their calendar, for instance.
Remember that social media did not get started as an advertising business. It got started as a service that individual users felt made their lives more enjoyable. All these tips may sound like hard work, but they're just a way of reclaiming social media as a fun service, rather than a drain on your privacy.
Protecting your privacy with anti-hacker software
There is now a wide range of software available for you to protect your online privacy and security. Some is aimed at preventing websites from tracking you, some at stopping hackers from installing malware on your PC; some is available as extensions for your web browser, while some requires separate installation. Perhaps calling it anti-hacker software is going a bit far - it won't stop a determined hacker but using such software can make it very difficult for a hacker to get into your computer or get access to your data.
For instance, browser plugins can be used to stop websites from tracking you. Facebook tracks you while it's open even if you are not on the site at the time, gathering your browsing history to use in serving up targeted ads. That's an innocent enough purpose perhaps, but Facebook's data collection and sharing practices have often been under fire, so consider protecting yourself.
Use a good anti-virus and anti-malware software. If a keylogger Trojan manages to install itself on your PC, goodbye online privacy! Cleaning up your PC or phone from time to time is also a good idea; make sure no hacker programs are listening in.
You might also want to download an app that can erase your phone's data if it is lost or stolen. If you sync Google devices, you can already remove the data from any device remotely. Don't let your contact list or banking apps get into the hands of hackers - just wipe the phone.
It's not strictly anti-hacker software, but a good password manager is worth its weight in gold. Using strong passwords and different passwords for different accounts and networks is what we'd recommend as a basic precaution for anyone who wants to minimize the risk of intrusion - but it's not that easy to do if you have multiple accounts to secure. Using a password manager helps keep your accounts secure; just make sure you've secured your password manager itself with a strong password.
You could install all these protections separately. Alternatively, you can take advantage of Kaspersky's Total Security, which packages all the protection you need into a single bundle.
How to keep your privacy secure
Protecting your online privacy means keeping your devices and networks secure. We've already mentioned some ways to do this - such as using a good password manager. However, here are some additional tips that can help you protect your privacy against hackers:
- Enable two factor authentication on your accounts. For example, when you use PayPal, you'll get an SMS message to verify each transaction. Other accounts use biometric markers such as fingerprinting, patterns, or even a physical fob or dongle to provide a second method of verification.
- Don't download unofficial apps on your smartphone - use the Apple App Store or Google Play.
- Watch out what permissions you give to smartphone apps. If a word processing app wants to use your camera and microphone, location info and in-app purchases, as well as access to your Google account, question it and investigate why.
- Uninstall software and apps you no longer use or need.
- Disable 'run as administrator' on all your devices, and don't root or jailbreak your phone. This means if a hacker does manage to gain control of a program, they won't be able to get control of the phone or change the settings and probably won't be able to install software on your phone or computer.
- Keep all your software up to date. Hackers regularly find new vulnerabilities in out-of-date software and operating systems.
- Deactivate the autofill option. It's a time-saving feature, but if it's convenient for you, it's also convenient for hackers. All the auto-fill info has to be kept somewhere, such as in your browser profile folder. This is the first place a hacker will go to look for your name, address, phone number, and all the other info they need to steal your identity or access your accounts.
- When you have a particularly sensitive transactionto make use a VPN or private browsing mode.
- Phones are small, and easy to misplace. They're also favorite targets for thieves. Ensure you have a screen lock and, as mentioned above, install software that can wipe your phone if it's lost.
- Configure your router with a secure new router name and password. If you change the password, using WPA authentication, you've made it less likely for someone to hack your router. But why change the username? Simple - most usernames show the type of router or the network it's running on. Change it to something else (preferably not your name, though) and you're depriving hackers of that information, too.
- Remember to log out! When you've finished using an account, log out of it. When you leave your accounts running in the background, that's a major security breach. Fortunately, most banks now log customers out after a certain time. But the big threat to your privacy doesn't come from them - it comes from social media.
These tips should help block all the little backdoors that hackers like to use to get into networks, apps, and devices. Together with the other actions you've taken - reducing your digital footprint, using a VPN, and using encryption - they should help keep your private life the way you want it: private.
Finally, if you care about protecting your online privacy, make sure you keep up to date on cybersecurity. New threats are always emerging, and new ways of dealing with these threats emerge in response. Just as you'd update your computer software, keep your brain updated by checking in with the IT security community every so often, and check out the latest articles here at Kaspersky.com. | <urn:uuid:c76c5d95-2be0-4015-bd30-2a39ea896418> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.kaspersky.com.au/resource-center/threats/hackers-and-your-online-privacy | 2024-09-15T14:40:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651630.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915120545-20240915150545-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.951922 | 3,236 | 2.75 | 3 |
The biggest cyber threat to an organization is the one that hasn’t been launched yet — the ambush that leaves cybersecurity professionals scrambling to minimize damage while still having to look over their shoulders, scanning the horizon for the next surprise.
As the pressures ramp up on cybersecurity professionals, so do the functions that they must master. They need to go beyond their traditional cybersecurity training to do the impossible: address privacy concerns, keep up with new data-protection regulations, deal with existing vulnerabilities and anticipate coming ones. To succeed in this challenging environment, yes, they must be on the cutting-edge of technology, but they must also have a sophisticated understanding of policy, human factors, and privacy.
Furthermore, to lead cybersecurity, they must possess the unique and critical ability to devise and execute integrated, comprehensive cybersecurity strategies for companies and organizations in a global economy.
This is a tall order for leaders. Luckily academia is stepping-up to the plate. For professionals interested in developing the skills to drive cybersecurity at this macro level, you need a program that reflects the interdisciplinary breadth of this growing industry.
This interdisciplinary approach to cybersecurity leadership is the foundational principle behind Brown University’s Executive Master in Cybersecurity (EMCS). EMCS brings together experts from Brown’s leading departments— spanning computer science, international studies, public affairs, and psychology— to deliver a multidisciplinary approach to cyber leadership critical to protect today’s businesses and society.
The program is designed to cultivate a new type of cyber leader who possesses not only the necessary technical awareness that can be acquired through education and training, but also whose thinking is influenced by exposure to a broad range of ideas and perspectives. These leaders hail from IT, but also law, policy, HR and even the traditional physical security space.
Through exposure to fields that aren’t necessarily related to their area of expertise – whether it’s IT, regulations, or human behavior – these leaders gain the capacity to develop effective strategies that leverage and unite their organizations’ stakeholders across the corporation.
With these skills, these leaders are able to:
- Understand the security, human, and privacy implications of emerging technologies, such as big data, cloud computing, mobile computing, social networks, the Internet of Things, and blockchain
- Gain proficiency in identifying vulnerabilities, anticipating attacks, using monitoring tools, and developing defensive strategies
- Build organizational resilience, crisis management, and response capabilities
- Have the capacity to defend organizations against known threats while at the same looking ahead to anticipate the threats of tomorrow
- Recognize that there’s no such thing as 100% security, and rely instead on strategy as the best security
To find out how you can become a cybersecurity leader prepared for tomorrow’s threats, we invite you to learn more about The Brown University Executive Master in Cybersecurity program at brown.edu/cybersecurity. | <urn:uuid:425596a6-b96b-4e6e-b789-ebc679c5583f> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.cyberdefensemagazine.com/this-advanced-cybersecurity-degree-shows-why-strategy-is-your-best-security-measure/ | 2024-09-19T04:39:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651981.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919025412-20240919055412-00659.warc.gz | en | 0.934266 | 586 | 2.53125 | 3 |
“XSS” and “SQLi” are household names within web application security – vulnerabilities that will be known by name, if not in exact detail of implementation, by almost everyone working within the IT sector. “Cross-Site Leaks”… isn’t. But Google web security researcher Krzysztof Kotowicz recently predicted that it’s only a matter of time until this little-known vulnerability may soon make it into the industry-standard OWASP Top 10 list. It’s a bold claim, and perhaps a little pre-emptive for the foreseeable future, but this class of techniques is certainly gathering momentum and finding its way from research papers and early proofs of concept into broader usage. As awareness of the methods reach a wider audience, attackers will doubtless find ways to expand, enrich and exploit the techniques further. So what is XS-L, how worried (if at all) do you need to be, and how can you protect against it?
One of the basic features of the web is that of interconnections and (relatively) open access to resources. This means that a webpage served to a client from one domain (eg www.example.com) may return an HTML response containing an IMG tag instructing a client’s browser to load a resource from another domain, such as www.example.net, a domain that may be unrelated and owned and operated by another individual.
This functionality is important in that it enables many of the common functionalities we see on modern website and that the web depends up on, for example:
1. Allowing developers to create websites that load simple static resources such as images from an image hosting site or external source such as a content delivery network (CDN);
2. Allowing a user to upload a profile picture on one website such as an ID service and then have the picture display on a different website such as a forum or social media site;
3. Allowing developers to make use of shared resources such as common open-source libraries and scripts that are located on provider websites; or
4. Allowing marketing teams to integrate content such as videos or adverts from a different provider on their own site.
This concept is basic to the web and is often known as a “web mashup”. However, in a web where rich functionality allows modification of the DOM, where sites may instruct the local browser to cache and store authentication information such as tokens and cookies, and where some sites are malicious, a protection measure is needed to restrict the ability of resources from these differing domains and zones of trusts to access data stored on the client’s browser relating to other domain.
The origin doesn’t entirely coincide with the domain alone – web resources (or more accurately the URLs that they load from) are determined to have the same origin if the protocol (eg HTTP or HTTPS), port (eg 80 or 443), and host (eg www.example.com) are all the same for both resources.
The way that the SOP is delivered means that cross-origin reads are typically disallowed. This means that sites can still embed content from external sources – such as HTML iframes, a method of embedding or “framing” another website within existing HTML, to deliver those adverts or YouTube videos mentioned in our examples above – but in such a way that they do not grant the serving site for the loaded material the ability to read the DOM it is loaded within, or to view user interaction fired as actions within that DOM. The SOP therefore ensures that web mashups can continue to be used, but in such a way that helps to prevent potentially malicious changes.
So why is this a problem?
Lets look at an example, one that leverages the fact that the History DOM API relating to the history object can know how many entries there are in the history of the user, even where those history entries do not relate to the same origin as the domain querying the API. Lets consider an example in which a malicious site embeds an iframe containing a web resource to be loaded. It cannot directly determine the response of that resource, however by manipulating the history object it can, nevertheless, gain an inference as to whether the resource loaded, by whether the history.length function returns an incremented count after the call. In effect, information has been leaked from about the user in relation to their activity on that “victim” site.
In attacks similar to the above example, information on visitors to websites can be determined and reported on that would not normally be available. It is possible to determine relatively trivially if a user has access to certain resources, even though enumerating a set of likely candidate resources would be exhaustive and difficult to successfully exploit on a large scale with the techniques outlined so far. The primary exploits envisaged so far relate to information disclosure relating to private data – allowing individuals access to given websites or social networks to be objectively determined, which could cause embarrassment to some individuals if publicly disclosed.
In some cases, metadata that can be determined about the requests made to other origins via examination of alternative channels, such as timing information, can even reveal the size and contents of data such as the user’s shopping cart on a given online store. This information could conceivably allow attackers to create context-aware phishing attacks individual users are presented with custom phishing pages that match stores that are in the process of using or have very recently used, greatly increasing the success rates of the phishing attacks if the exploit is conducted at scale.
However, Cross-Site Leaks vulnerability refers to a whole raft of browser side-channel techniques. Given how immature the technique currently is, the likelihood is that both:
A direct network timing attack simply measures the time that a given website takes to respond to HTTP requests. It can be used either in a direct boolean determination (“is the user logged in to www.example.com ?”), or in a richer way to determine more complex conditions/states, such as estimating data sizes. However, network based attacks are difficult to implement since the decision logic can be inaccurate due to noise from inconsistent underlying network operation.
With basic direct network timing attacks, it is only possible for malicious code to make decisions based on resources that are public (ie accessible to anyone). Cross-Site Timing techniques allow an attacker instead to make requests as a specific user, using that user’s preferences and login credentials in order to find out information that is visible to that user alone, within their private context. In order to manipulate the requests from within this context, an attacker needs to be able to perform a form of cross-site request forgery to enable their malicious site to obtain information about the user’s view of another site.
“Cross-site search” is a specific form of cross-site timing attack that can be used, in which the differences in resource fetch times between resources that a user can and cannot access betray information to a script in another origin, violating the Same-Origin Policy.
“HTTP Cache Cross-Site Leaks” are a variation on an XS-Leak attack that involves deleting the HTTP cache for a specific resource before forcing the browser to render a website and, finally, checking if the browser cached the resource that was originally deleted. This allows an attacker to figure out if a website loads a specific resource or not and reveals information on whether the user has access to a specific resource. To understand why this might be useful to an attacker, imagine if the resource was an image that was only available in a given Facebook group such as (in this example) a race-hate group. Being able to determine that the user in question was able to access that resource demonstrates their access to the resource and hence their group membership. It reveals information about the user in violation of the Single-Origin Policy and could be used in further attacks such as social engineering or extortion attacks against the user.
“Cross-Site Frame Leakage (CSFL)” is a further variant that exploits the cross-origin properties of HTML iframe elements to determine the state of a vulnerable application. When loading a resource in an iframe, a malicious script located on one origin can infer information about whether content requested in another iframe could be retrieved or not – if the content in question requires specific group membership on a social media site for example, then it can be inferred that the given user again is a member of a specific group. It is possible to imagine numerous variants of this technique.
Attacks of this type to date have been relatively few, but in one recently example Facebook found a bug in its API that could have impacted 6.8 million users, allowing access to private photos by an attacker.
Preventing Cross site leaks requires precautions be taken starting with the software development lifecycle (SDLC) to prevent a robust series of measures that together reduce the overall risk.
In general, any website that contains a control flow statement that depends on sensitive data could lead to timing vulnerabilities – in practice that means that pretty much every dynamic web application that deals with personal or sensitive data will potentially be vulnerable. For example, an application that retrieves a list of records from a database and then selectively decides which ones to display will be vulnerable to leaking the total number of records at a minimum.
If specific search queries can be executed then an attacker will be able to use differential timing evaluation to make inferences about the data. Much as in a boolean blind SQL injection attack, the technique will often only be able to be teased out through making a large number of requests with subtly different inputs to tease out one bit of information at a time.
One defense against Cross-Site Timing attacks in particular is to ensure that where a web server makes a decision or contains a control flow statement that depends on sensitive data, that it always takes a constant amount of time to return data to the client in response to a request. This can be achieved by padding all request times out to an identical time value with a sleep function or similar, in order to reduce exposing information via a side channel. However, this technique may be implausible in many use cases, and does not prevent other forms of XS-L such as inference based on DOM API function manipulation that we explored above.
AppCheck is a software security vendor based in the UK, offering a leading security scanning platform that automates the discovery of security flaws within organisations websites, applications, network, and cloud infrastructure. AppCheck are authorized by the Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program as a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA).
As always, if you require any more information on this topic or want to see what unexpected vulnerabilities AppCheck can pick up in your website and applications then please contact us: info@localhost
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Contact us or call us 0113 887 8380
AppCheck is a software security vendor based in the UK, offering a leading security scanning platform that automates the discovery of security flaws within organisations websites, applications, network and cloud infrastructure. AppCheck are authorized by te Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) Program aas a CVE Numbering Authority (CNA) | <urn:uuid:213f6d0c-e1cb-425f-9cb6-29c0682a5e43> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://appcheck-ng.com/cross-site-leaks/ | 2024-09-20T11:20:57Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652246.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920090502-20240920120502-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.929365 | 2,316 | 2.984375 | 3 |
Fire stations are beacons of safety and readiness, with firefighters dedicated to responding swiftly and efficiently to emergencies. Their routine is meticulously designed to ensure that they are always prepared to face challenges at a moment’s notice. Here’s a glimpse into the daily routines that keep a fire station ready for action 24/7.
Morning Muster: Starting the Day Right
The day begins with a morning muster, where the shift on duty assembles for roll call. This crucial meeting sets the tone for the day, as the team reviews the events of the previous shift, discusses any ongoing incidents, and receives assignments. It’s also a time for a thorough inspection of personal protective equipment (PPE) and gear, ensuring everything is in top condition and readily accessible.
Equipment and Vehicle Checks: Ensuring Readiness
After the muster, firefighters conduct detailed checks on all equipment and vehicles. This includes:
- Fire Engines and Trucks: Ensuring engines are operational, fuel tanks are full, and all mechanical parts are functioning correctly.
- Hoses and Ladders: Inspecting for any wear and tear, ensuring they are coiled properly and easily deployable.
- Breathing Apparatus: Checking air tanks, masks, and regulators to ensure they are fully functional.
- Medical Supplies: Ensuring first-aid kits and medical equipment are stocked and ready for use.
These checks are vital as any malfunction during an emergency can have serious consequences.
Training and Drills: Keeping Skills Sharp
Training is a cornerstone of fire station routines. Daily drills and exercises are conducted to keep skills sharp and ensure that every team member is proficient in their duties. This includes:
- Fire Suppression Techniques: Practicing the use of hoses, extinguishers, and fire suppression systems.
- Rescue Operations: Simulating scenarios like building collapses, vehicle extractions, and high-angle rescues.
- Medical Training: Regular first-aid and CPR training to handle medical emergencies.
In addition to routine training, specialized drills are often conducted based on the unique risks of the area the fire station serves, such as hazardous material incidents or high-rise building fires.
Maintenance and Housekeeping: Keeping the Station Functional
A well-maintained station is crucial for operational efficiency. Firefighters are responsible for the upkeep of the station, which includes:
- Cleaning: Regular cleaning of the living quarters, kitchen, and common areas to maintain a healthy environment.
- Maintenance: Routine checks and minor repairs of the station’s infrastructure and equipment.
- Inventory Management: Keeping track of supplies and ensuring that all necessary items are stocked and in good condition.
Community Engagement: Building Trust
Fire stations often engage with the community through educational programs and outreach activities. This includes:
- Fire Safety Education: Conducting workshops and seminars in schools, businesses, and community centers to educate the public on fire prevention and safety.
- Community Events: Participating in local events and open houses to build rapport and trust with the community.
These activities help in fostering a positive relationship with the public and emphasize the importance of fire safety.
On Call: Ready for Action
Despite the structured routine, firefighters must be ready to respond to emergencies at any moment. When a call comes in, the station springs into action:
- Dispatch: The team receives details about the emergency and prepares accordingly.
- Deployment: Firefighters gear up and board the trucks, ensuring they have all necessary equipment.
- Response: The team arrives at the scene, assesses the situation, and begins their work, whether it’s extinguishing a fire, performing a rescue, or providing medical assistance.
Downtime: Rest and Recovery
Firefighting is physically and mentally demanding, so downtime is crucial for rest and recovery. Firefighters use this time to:
- Rest: Catch up on sleep in the station’s dormitory.
- Meals: Share meals together, fostering camaraderie.
- Fitness: Engage in physical exercise to maintain strength and endurance.
The routine at a fire station is a blend of discipline, rigorous training, and community engagement. This structured approach ensures that firefighters are always ready to respond to emergencies efficiently and effectively, safeguarding lives and property with unwavering dedication. The meticulous preparation, constant training, and strong sense of duty underscore the essence of their commitment to public safety. | <urn:uuid:0a39d0c5-0299-443c-822d-3ec21506a4d4> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.isrmag.com/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-fire-station-preparedness-at-its-best/ | 2024-09-20T09:16:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652246.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920090502-20240920120502-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.936835 | 908 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Recent government decisions reinforce opposition to use of smoke-free nicotine products
In recent years, the application of harm reduction principles to tobacco use (tobacco harm reduction or THR) has been stimulated by the development and commercial launch of smoke-free nicotine products (SFNPs), such as e-cigarettes and heated tobacco products (HTPs), which are viewed as less harmful ways for smokers to consume nicotine and tobacco than through the use of conventional cigarettes. These products are, therefore, seen as a way to reduce the aggregate level of harm in society from both direct and indirect tobacco use if smokers who are unable to quit can be encouraged and supported to use these products instead of conventional cigarettes. The application of harm reduction principles to tobacco is the latest in a long history of public policy measures designed to reduce the harm from consumption of legal products (e.g., alcohol and cigarettes), illegal drugs, and other risky behaviours and socially contested practices.
In Australia, while the use of harm reduction principles in illegal drugs has been a critical part of the national drugs policy since the 1980s and they are also applied in many other areas of life, their application in tobacco has proven controversial, with SFNPs generally not allowed (with some limited exceptions). This places Australia apart from most other developed countries, such as the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, where harm reduction principles are being applied in tobacco control policies and SFNPs are seen as an effective tool in reducing aggregate harm from tobacco use. For example, in July 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorised the marketing of Philip Morris’s IQOS HTP, permitting its marketing as a product containing a reduced level of or presenting a reduced exposure to a substance or as being free of a substance when the issuance of the order is expected to benefit the health of the population, indicating a widening divergence in regulatory policy between Australia and other developed markets.
Harm reduction in tobacco use is an important issue. Based on World Health Organization data, globally, over 7 million people per year die from a smoking-related disease, with a further 1.2 million from indirect use. Over 1.1 billion people worldwide smoke, which is approximately 14% of the global population. Although smoking rates are relatively higher in developing countries, in many developed countries the significant reductions in smoking rates seen in recent decades seem to be stalling. In Australia, for example, although the government is actively focused on reducing the smoking rate, based on the Australian Bureau of Statistics National Health Surveys, the adult smoking rate in 2018 was 15.1% (including daily and non-daily smokers), a reduction of only 0.9% since 2015, with the absolute number of smokers hardly reducing at a national level, and even increasing in the most populous state, New South Wales. The smoking rate also remains significantly above the national average in Tasmania and the Northern Territory, at 17.6% and 21.1%, respectively. In Australia, over 20,000 people a year die from smoking-related deaths, with smoking the leading risk factor contributing to disease burden and deaths.
Given the significant health burden imposed by tobacco use, and the challenges in reducing it through conventional approaches such as education, advertising restrictions, and taxation, THR is increasingly coming into focus as a public policy option. However, Australia still stands apart from countries such as the UK and New Zealand, where harm reduction principles are being actively applied to tobacco use and SFNPs are legally available. Recent government decisions with regard to SFNPs in Australia have maintained this policy stance.
In June 2020, the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) responded to an application by Philip Morris Limited with an interim decision not to amend Section 7 of the Poisons Standard to exempt nicotine in tobacco prepared and packed for heating. This decision means that HTPs will continue to be unavailable in Australia, despite these products being widely acknowledged as presenting less risk than conventional cigarettes (tobacco packed and prepared for smoking), which are exempt from Section 7.
Also in June 2020, the federal government announced regulations prohibiting the import of e-cigarettes containing vaporiser nicotine (nicotine liquids and salts) and nicotine-containing refills unless with a doctor’s prescription. Whilst the sale of these products is already illegal in Australia, users were previously able to import them for personal use. Following strong public response, the implementation of these restrictions was deferred by six months to 1 January 2021; however, it is still planned.
Together, these two policy measures mean that SFNPs will effectively be unavailable to Australians, except under very limited circumstances, an opposite situation to that in many other developed markets. Frost & Sullivan’s white paper, Understanding of and Attitudes Towards Tobacco Harm Reduction Products (http://frost.ly/47u), published in 2019, identified that 57% of healthcare professionals believed that SFNPs should be legalised, provided they are strongly regulated to ensure there is no uptake among youth and non-smokers, and 58% believe that if alternative products to cigarettes were legal in Australia, they would prefer smokers to try switching to these products instead of smoking cigarettes if they are unable or unwilling to quit. | <urn:uuid:4e1422b9-ceb3-4179-8a05-af0222377489> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.frost.com/growth-opportunity-news/australias-challenges-in-tackling-smoking-patterns/ | 2024-09-08T06:42:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650960.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908052321-20240908082321-00759.warc.gz | en | 0.958761 | 1,053 | 2.9375 | 3 |
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The Updated Do’s and Don’ts of Password Security
When it comes to passwords, individual habits and organizational policies vary widely—unfortunately, the pattern is one of weakness. But organizational online security can be immediately improved by the implementation of a few key principles.
Stronger passwords mean that users are keeping themselves safer online—and if users are safer online, it results in your organization staying safer as well. Updated NIST guidelines revealed that some practices once considered foundational are rather outdated, so here are the new Do’s and Don’ts for password policies.
- Make a Long Password
As both computing and hacking advance, the amount of time it takes to guess a set of credentials has dramatically decreased. The length of a password is still, character for character, more important for security than complexity. A strong password needs a minimum of 10 characters, but we recommend more. The longer the password, the more difficult, (mathematically) it becomes to crack.
- Use a Password Lockout Policy
One of the easiest and most effective methods in preventing brute-force hacking is employing a password lockout policy. In this technique, the system locks the user out of their account after too many (typically three) incorrect login attempts. The user is then prevented from logging in for a pre-set period of time, or until the system administrator unlocks the account. Since brute force attacks rely on high-volume guessing of commonly used words, a lockout policy efficiently thwarts this type of attack.
- Blacklist Compromised Passwords
This NIST guideline suggests the keeping and referencing of blacklists of previously leaked/breached passwords and applying patterns from cracking dictionaries. If these lists can be referenced while a user tries to create a password, they can be alerted that their desired password has already been compromised, and be barred from using it. The key is making sure that the lists of compromised data are constantly updated. We update our databases of compromised credentials all day, every day, and provide an Active Directory plugin to make the process of checking passwords against blacklists both painless and secure.
- Don’t Repeat Yourself
It’s more common than anyone would like to admit that people merely alter a single letter, or add a single number, when required to change a password. Humans are predictable and often hackers are able to spot patterns of change, which rapidly expands their attack dictionary. Password Similarity Blocking (blocking those new passwords that are too similar to the old ones) leads to better security because it discourages users from falling into the habit of making a password that’s just different enough to cut it as a new password. Repetitious variations on passwords actually mean the data remains virtually unchanged (just harder to remember!) for the user, and just as easy for bad actors to guess.
- Don’t Rely on Composition
Common but now outdated password policies often include requirements for users to incorporate a certain combination of alphanumeric (a-z, 0-9) and special ($,!,&) characters in their passwords. But research has shown that composition rules often have the opposite effect: frustrated users avoid or try to shortcut the rules by making predictable changes, like shifting their password from ‘lastname’ to ‘Lastname1’. If the user is using slight variations of the same password across many platforms and accounts, it’s nigh on impossible to remember which slightly-different password goes with which account. To make a long story short: it’s much more effective to use a password that’s a random combination of unrelated words all in lowercase (for example: correcthorsebatterystaple) than it is to use a complicated variation on a common password (for example: P@ssword123!).
- Don’t Rely on Password Aging
While encouraging or requiring users to update their passwords after a set timeframe can theoretically increase online security, it’s not always effective in practice. System administrators can establish any sort of time frame, and often assume that the more frequently (say, every three months) their users have to change passwords, the safer the organization is. But attacks occur all the time, so passwords (especially if only altered by a single character!) do not age well, and if a breach occurs on, for example, day one of a three month period, the system’s periodic change is useless. Time is of the essence; the readiness is all.
In addition to this, research has found a similar situation with password expiration policies. Requiring users to change their passwords too frequently discouraged them from making an effort to think of a unique password. Instead they made simple, predictable changes — and bad actors quickly learned those patterns.
Believe it or not, there are many vulnerable users who have never considered the issue of security breaches, and are still choosing the same single dictionary word passwords for all their accounts (from banking to grocery delivery), cross-device. Breaches occur every day and night, and the only way for organizations to ensure they, and their users, are safe is to engage with this reality. The easiest way to take action and assure your organization’s security is to find resources that prevent users from using already breached passwords by referring to a constantly-updated blacklist.
It’s time to rethink password policy. It turns out that the old composition guidelines made passwords harder for users to remember, and easier for computers to guess. Enzoic is built along the new NIST standards and guidelines, which can help improve user experience by eliminating password complexity rules and reducing frequent password resets—all while improving security for the entire system. | <urn:uuid:3b141a28-d223-4621-a8dc-f2f2d30fbebf> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.enzoic.com/blog/password-security-dos-and-donts/ | 2024-09-13T03:54:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651507.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913034233-20240913064233-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.94025 | 1,167 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Man creates and builds systems to nurture the values of civilization and the common good, but some men are always trying to throw a spanner in the works, to try and topple the system. Time-bound security is no longer effective. Cyber crime is not a time-bound activity for some, but twenty-four-hour continuous predation by counter systems. To counter this systemic attack, intense preparation is necessary. Not just defense, but offense, in the form of counter attacks, is necessary to survive in this ferocious ecosystem. Cyber security is the new buzzword. The first indication of an event is often the most significant. It may be through a software-defined alert or an end-user alert. “Help Desks” often act as the first alert systems against a cyber crime event. In general, such an event is, generally, a minor occurrence and can be tackled by the desk itself. These are called “incidents”. In the real world, help desks are often just one person with training in dealing with and solving primary or run of the mill problems, along with a help phone number called “Customer Care”.
The problems dealt with here are mostly not cyber crime related, and cyber security is therefore not called in. However, in the cases where the user calls and reports a cyber crime, much better organization and better back up is required. Where there are larger setups, teams of experts manning control desks, provide continuous consultation to the help desk. Significant cyber security events are important changes in the usual or everyday operations of a cyber network or information technology Service, which are created by a security breach or violation of the security policy of that system, or even the failure of security safeguard.
The Spread of Cyber Crime
Cyber Security deals with protection against hackers, malware and viruses. Personal and business information are increasingly under threat from all three forms of cyber crime. Millions of consumers in our digital world are affected by thefts of personal ID’s, and the consequent intrusion into the personal space and property of the users of the net. Data breaches are commonplace. All business communities are desperately fighting to ensure protection for themselves and their customers, and security measures are consequently increasing. Many of these security lapses are first detected by the common users, and it is to these ordinary customers that large institutions are often forced to turn to for support. We live in a connected world. In trying to protect ourselves from the treacherous forces of cyber criminals, we need to combine together to safeguard each other.
A typical ploy to extract your contact information by a hacker consists of sending an email which encourages the receiver to click on a link containing malware. Malicious actors often target adult websites and apps in hopes of tricking careless users. For this reason top hookup apps like https://LocalSexApp.com invest heavily in security and protection of their adult dating members as they detail here when explaining safety and privacy features on sex apps. When browsing adult content it is especially important to maintain vigilance. The hacker does not usually stop at extracting the user’s own personal ID and data. The user’s database is often accessed, and all the contacts phone numbers and other data are also extracted. The hacker then sets up a dark market outlet for selling these contacts to a larger organized crime network. Then this whole criminal setup preys on the contacts and their accounts. In other words, a large group is forced now to become victims of the original misstep by a single user. We need to combine forces to ward off these malicious attacks that can destroy our property and our peace of mind.
All interconnected components of an internet system can be compromised. These include the following:
- Government databases, which may or may not include license numbers, tax records, social security numbers etc.
- Financial data such as bank accounts, debit and credit card numbers, pay-check and loans.
- Educational systems with grades, report cards and research data.
- Communication systems like SMS, phone calls, emails, and any other text messages, records, photos and other storage data.
- Medical systems including medical records, medical insurance records, equipment etc.
Cybersecurity is based on the following three principles:
- Integrity: Integrity means the securing of any information from being altered from its original version. Some malware can totally scramble existing records and protocols and even cause lethal disasters. For example, altering patient records in medical establishments may cause patients treatment to be severely disturbed and may cause deterioration of the health of the patient.
- Confidentiality: Sensitive information must be shared only within a small circle of people who maintain the confidentiality of that information. If, for example, the credit card information is shared with criminals, it may result in depletion of the user’s bank account as well as the User’s reputation and credit rating.
- Availability: While enforcing security measures on an information system, it must be ensured that those who have the right to that information are able to access it. A cyber attack not only alters information irretrievably but can also prevent others, who have a right to that information, from accessing it. This can cause untold harm both to the Customer and to the System.
Countries that are best prepared for significant cyber-security events are Singapore, USA, Malaysia, Australia, France and Canada. The most common type of cyber crime events are hacking, identity theft, scamming, botnets, DDoS attacks, fraud, ransomware and computer viruses. Phishing, data leakage and insider threats are also the worst cyber threats at this point in time.
Conferences on this most important subject, affecting everybody in the digital world, are being held globally in 2020. Key events are being held to market a plethora of cyber security systems and types of equipment everywhere. The longest-running and most famous event in cyber security event is DEFCON (to be held on August 6, 2020, Las Vegas, USA). Founded in 1993, it brings together anyone interested in the hacking and cyber security scene. Black Hat Asia is held in Singapore and some of the most exceptional experts gather here on March 26 (up to 29th) to discuss state-of-the-art security techniques. Several other annual events, like the RSA Conference, are followed eagerly around the world. | <urn:uuid:b7203b73-d582-4059-bb77-c63da386b78d> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.hackerscenter.com/2020/02/ | 2024-09-13T05:42:29Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651507.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913034233-20240913064233-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.950266 | 1,285 | 2.765625 | 3 |
You don’t have to be a software engineer to understand the Internet of Things. Below you’ll find simple, non-technical explanations of key IoT concepts you need to know.
Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) Explained
22.12.2020 These Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) allow a greater volume of devices to share bandwidth than traditional cellular networks like 2G, 3G, and 4G. They enable devices to utilize unused frequencies within a carrier’s licensed bands, and use less power than many other types of network.
What Is Over-the-Air? OTA Provisioning Explained
OTA provisioning refers more specifically to the process of updating or modifying something wirelessly. In cellular IoT, this most often refers to updating firmware and managing SIM cards.
What Is an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI)?
IMSI numbers are usually 15 digits, and they have three distinct parts:
SIM Form Factors Explained
The capabilities of each form factor are the same, but they each have different dimensions, which makes them more suitable for specific kinds of devices. 2FF, 3FF, and 4FF SIMs have to be inserted into a device, while MFF2 SIMs have to be embedded—which is why they’re also called eSIMs. (1FF SIMs are no longer in use.).
What is an eUICC and Why Does It Matter?
Instead of changing out SIM cards or installing different cards for different deployments, an eUICC gives consumers and IoT manufacturers the ability to provision the SIM with a new operator profile OTA.
What Is Multi-IMSI and How Does It Work?
An IMSI is a key component of a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) profile, which is stored on a SIM card. Each one allows a device to connect to a limited number of networks. When a SIM card holds multiple IMSIs, it enables subscribers to switch carriers as needed and connect to significantly more networks.
What Is an ICCID Number?
Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) use ICCID numbers to determine which network to connect a subscriber to. Unlike an IMEI number, which refers to the mobile device, an ICCID number refers to the SIM card itself. Since each SIM card has a unique ICCID, you may sometimes hear it called the SIM card number.
Network Selection Explained
By default, cellular devices connect to “home” network of the provider that issued their SIM cards. Cellular connectivity providers also have strict agreements with other operators in countries their network doesn’t cover, so whenever your device is outside its home network, the SIM card will connect your device to your provider’s preferred partner. (This is what’s known as “steered roaming.”)
SMPP: Short Message Peer-to-Peer Protocol
SMPP is essentially the language cellular networks use to relay text messages. It governs how External Short Message Entities (ESME) such as business texting apps and cellular IoT devices exchange Short Message Services (SMS) with a mobile device. | <urn:uuid:c951b94c-1ef9-4dbb-b5f2-34a8f8b3f183> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.emnify.com/iot-glossary/page/8 | 2024-09-15T17:24:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651632.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915152239-20240915182239-00159.warc.gz | en | 0.923386 | 658 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Adaptive Security Posture is a strategic approach to cybersecurity that emphasizes flexibility, continuous risk assessment, and the ability to respond dynamically to changing threats. It moves beyond traditional, static defense mechanisms by incorporating advanced technologies and methodologies to anticipate, detect, and respond to cyber threats in real time. This approach allows organizations to continuously tailor their security measures to the current threat landscape, ensuring robust protection against both known and emerging threats. By maintaining an Adaptive Security Posture, organizations can enhance their resilience against cyberattacks and minimize the impact of breaches.
How Does an Adaptive Security Posture Work?
Implementing an Adaptive Security Posture involves several key components and processes:
- Continuous Monitoring and Analysis: Keeping a constant watch on network and system activities to identify potential threats or vulnerabilities.
- Risk Assessment and Prioritization: Evaluating the potential impact and likelihood of identified threats to prioritize security efforts.
- Automated Defense Mechanisms: Utilizing automation and orchestration tools to rapidly respond to and mitigate threats.
- Adaptation and Learning: Applying machine learning and AI to learn from past incidents and adapt security strategies accordingly.
Benefits of an Adaptive Security Posture
- Proactive Threat Detection: Early identification of potential threats allows for quicker responses, reducing the risk of significant damage.
- Dynamic Adaptation to Threats: Security measures evolve in response to new information, ensuring defenses remain effective against the latest attacks.
- Reduced Incident Impact: By responding swiftly to threats, organizations can minimize the operational and financial impact of security incidents.
- Enhanced Compliance: Adaptive security measures can help organizations meet regulatory requirements by demonstrating a commitment to robust cybersecurity practices.
Implementing an Adaptive Security Posture
To establish an Adaptive Security Posture, organizations should consider the following steps:
- Invest in Advanced Security Technologies: Tools that offer real-time monitoring, threat intelligence, and automation are crucial.
- Develop a Culture of Security Awareness: Educate employees about cybersecurity risks and encourage proactive security behaviors.
- Create Flexible Security Policies: Policies should allow for rapid adaptation and include procedures for emerging threats.
- Regularly Review and Update Security Practices: Continuous improvement is key to adapting to the evolving cyber threat landscape.
Frequently Asked Questions Related to Adaptive Security Posture
What Sets an Adaptive Security Posture Apart From Traditional Security Approaches?
An Adaptive Security Posture is characterized by its continuous adaptation and evolution in response to new threats, unlike traditional approaches that may rely on predefined defenses.
How Important Is Automation in an Adaptive Security Posture?
Automation plays a critical role by enabling rapid response to threats, reducing the time and resources required for manual intervention.
Can Small Organizations Implement an Adaptive Security Posture?
Yes, small organizations can adopt adaptive security practices, though the scale and complexity of implementation may vary based on resources and capabilities.
What Challenges Might Organizations Face When Adopting an Adaptive Security Posture?
Challenges include the need for significant investment in technology and training, as well as the complexity of integrating new tools and processes into existing systems.
How Does an Adaptive Security Posture Improve Compliance?
It helps organizations stay ahead of regulatory requirements by ensuring that security measures are always aligned with the current threat environment and compliance standards. | <urn:uuid:2d8e7373-f17b-4d23-9a6a-3af19c97e731> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.ituonline.com/tech-definitions/what-is-adaptive-security-posture/ | 2024-09-16T23:24:48Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651714.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20240916212424-20240917002424-00059.warc.gz | en | 0.922393 | 676 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Digital data has exploded in recent decades. Driven by significant advancements in computing technology, everything from mobile phones to smart appliances to mass transit systems generate and digest data, creating a big data landscape that forward-thinking enterprises can leverage to drive innovation.
However, the big data landscape is just that. Big. Massive, in fact. Wearable devices (such as fitness trackers, smart watches and smart rings) alone generated roughly 28 petabytes (28 billion megabytes) of data daily in 2020. And in 2024, global daily data generation surpassed 402 million terabytes (or 402 quintillion bytes).
As IT environments become more complex—with the adoption of cloud services and the use of hybrid environments, microservices architectures and increasingly integrated systems, DevOps practices and other digital transformation technologies—traditional IT operations (ITOps) management tools often struggle to keep pace with the demands of ever-increasing data generation.
Instead, businesses tend to rely on advanced tools and strategies—namely artificial intelligence for IT operations (AIOps) and machine learning operations (MLOps)—to turn vast quantities of data into actionable insights that can improve IT decision-making and ultimately, the bottom line.
AIOps and MLOps: What’s the difference?
AIOPs refers to the application of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) techniques to enhance and automate various aspects of IT operations (ITOps).
AI technology enables computing devices to mimic the cognitive functions typically associated with human minds (learning, perceiving, reasoning and problem solving, for instance). And machine learning—a subset of AI—refers to a broad set of techniques for training a computer to learn from its inputs using existing data and one or more “training” methods (instead of being explicitly programmed). ML technologies help computers achieve artificial intelligence.
Consequently, AIOps is designed to harness data and insight generation capabilities to help organizations manage increasingly complex IT stacks.
MLOps is a set of practices that combines machine learning (ML) with traditional data engineering and DevOps to create an assembly line for building and running reliable, scalable, efficient ML models. It helps companies streamline and automate the end-to-end ML lifecycle, which includes data collection, model creation (built on data sources from the software development lifecycle), model deployment, model orchestration, health monitoring and data governance processes.
MLOps helps ensure that everyone involved—from data scientists to software engineers and IT personnel—can collaborate and continuously monitor and improve models to maximize their accuracy and performance.
Both AIOps and MLOps are pivotal practices for today’s enterprises; each one addresses distinct yet complementary ITOps needs. However, they differ fundamentally in their purpose and level of specialization in AI and ML environments.
Whereas AIOps is a comprehensive discipline that includes a variety of analytics and AI initiatives that are aimed at optimizing IT operations, MLOps is specifically concerned with the operational aspects of ML models, promoting efficient deployment, monitoring and maintenance.
Here, we’ll discuss the key differences between AIOps and MLOps and how they each help teams and businesses address different IT and data science challenges.
MLOps and AIOps in practice
AIOps and MLOps methodologies share some commonalities due to their roots in AI, but they serve distinct purposes, operate in different contexts and otherwise differ in several key ways.
1. Scope and focus
AIOps methodologies are fundamentally geared toward enhancing and automating IT operations. Their primary objective is to optimize and streamline IT operations workflows by using AI to analyze and interpret vast quantities of data from various IT systems. AIOps processes harness big data to facilitate predictive analytics, automate responses and insight generation and ultimately, optimize the performance of enterprise IT environments.
In contrast, MLOps focuses on lifecycle management for ML models, including everything from model development and training to deployment, monitoring and maintenance. MLOps aims to bridge the gap between data science and operational teams so they can reliably and efficiently transition ML models from development to production environments, all while maintaining high model performance and accuracy.
2. Data characteristics and preprocessing
AIOps tools handle a range of data sources and types, including system logs, performance metrics, network data and application events. However, data preprocessing in AIOps is often a complex process, involving:
Advanced data cleaning procedures to handle noisy, incomplete and unstructured data
Transformation techniques to convert disparate data formats into a unified structure so data is uniform and ready for analysis
Integration methods to combine data from different IT systems and applications and provide a holistic view
MLOps focuses on structured and semi-structured data (feature sets and labeled datasets) and uses preprocessing methods directly relevant to ML tasks, including:
Feature engineering to create meaningful input variables from raw data
Normalization and scaling techniques to prepare data for model training
Data augmentation methods to enhance training datasets, especially for tasks like image processing.
MLOps involves a series of steps that help ensure the seamless deployability, reproducibility, scalability and observability of ML models. It includes a range of technologies—including machine learning frameworks, data pipelines, continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) systems, performance monitoring tools, version control systems and sometimes containerization tools (such as Kubernetes)—that optimize the ML lifecycle.
4. Model development and deployment
AIOps platforms develop a wide range of analytical models, including—but not limited to—machine learning. These can include statistical models (regression analysis, for instance), rule-based systems and complex event processing models. AIOps integrates these models into existing IT systems to enhance their functions and performance.
MLOps prioritizes end-to-end management of machine learning models, encompassing data preparation, model training, hyperparameter tuning and validation. It uses CI/CD pipelines to automate predictive maintenance and model deployment processes, and focuses on updating and retraining models as new data becomes available.
5. Primary users and stakeholders
The primary users of AIOps technologies are IT operations teams, network administrators, DevOps and data operations (DataOps) professionals and ITSM teams, all of which benefit from the enhanced visibility, proactive issue detection and prompt incident resolution that AIOps offers.
MLOps platforms are primarily used by data scientists, ML engineers, DevOps teams and ITOps personnel who use them to automate and optimize ML models and get value from AI initiatives faster.
6. Monitoring and feedback loops
AIOps solutions focus on monitoring key performance indicators (KPIs)—such as system uptime, response time and error rates—across IT operations and incorporating user feedback to iterate and refine analytical models and services. The real-time monitoring and alerting systems within AIOps technologies enable IT teams to identify and resolve IT issues quickly.
MLOps monitoring requires teams to continuously track metrics such as model accuracy (correctness), precision (consistency), recall (memory) and data drift (external factors that degrade models over time). Based on those metrics, MLOps technologies continuously update ML models to correct performance issues and incorporate changes in data patterns.
7. Use cases and benefits
AIOps helps businesses increase operational efficiency and reduce operational costs by automating routine tasks that would typically require a human worker. This automation helps free up IT staff to focus on more strategic AI initiatives (instead of repetitive maintenance tasks). It also accelerates incident management by harnessing predictive analytics and automating the remediation process, enabling AIOps systems to find and fix issues before they cause unexpected downtime or affect the user experience.
Given their ability to break down silos and foster collaboration between different teams and systems, AIOps solutions are frequently used by IT departments to manage a company’s data centers and cloud environments. AIOPs enables ITOPs personnel to implement predictive alert handling, strengthen data security and support DevOps processes.
MLOps technologies help businesses accelerate time-to-market for ML models, increase collaboration between data science and operations teams and scale AI initiatives across the organization. MLOps can also help organizations maintain data compliance and governance standards by ensuring that ML models are deployed and managed according to industry best practices.
MLOps has a range of uses cases across industries, including finance, where it can facilitate fraud detection and risk assessment; healthcare, where it helps create diagnostic models and improve patient monitoring; and retail and e-commerce, which use MLOps services to create recommendation systems (“You may also like…” prompts in online shopping platforms, for instance) and streamline inventory management.
Implement high-quality AIOps and MLOps with IBM Turbonomic
AIOps and MLOps are integral to maintaining a competitive edge in a big data world. With the IBM® Turbonomic® platform, forward-thinking enterprises can manage and continuously optimize hybrid cloud environments (including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, Google Cloud, Kubernetes, data centers and more) with intelligent automation.
IBM Turbonomic is a software platform that helps organizations improve the performance and reduce the cost of their IT infrastructure, including public, private and hybrid cloud environments. With Turbonomic, teams can automate optimization tasks in real-time without human intervention, proactively deliver network resources across IT stacks and prevent resource over-provisioning in cloud environments. | <urn:uuid:3d20dece-2f86-49c3-851b-6aa3421a2882> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.ibm.com/blog/aiops-vs-mlops/ | 2024-09-18T01:31:38Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651835.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918000844-20240918030844-00859.warc.gz | en | 0.911952 | 1,930 | 3.296875 | 3 |
Web clients and servers communicate by using a request/response protocol called HTTP, which is an acronym for Hypertext Transfer Protocol. HTTP includes two methods for retrieving and manipulating data: GET and POST.
GET | Retrieves data from the server. The target of the request (referred to as a resource) is specified as a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier). This is usually (but not always) an absolute reference to a file on the server and is referred to as a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) when used in this context. Additional parameters, called Query Parameters, can also be specified. |
POST | Posts data back to the server. In addition to a URL and query parameters, a POST request includes a payload. The payload is usually form data, the aggregated contents of the various fields (also called controls) that were in the response. |
There are other methods (HEAD, PUT, DELETE), but the above two are the ones used by BIS for SOAP based web services. The other methods are available for REST-based web services.
The general form of a URL is familiar to anyone who has used a web browser:
http:// host [:port] / [absolute_path [ ? query_parameters ] ]
http:// | Indicates that the Hypertext Transfer Protocol is being used to make the request. In a URI, this is referred to as the scheme. BIS supports two schemes: http and https (secure http). |
host | The name or location of the computer that will receive the request. |
An optional integer that specifies the port on the server that will receive the request. If omitted, this defaults to 80 for the http scheme, and 443 for the https scheme. The combination of host and port (along with host headers, which is a scheme that allows a single host to serve multiple domains) specifies a unique web server. |
absolute_path | The absolute location of the resource being requested on the host. This is frequently (but not always) the name of a file. Note that the base directory is not the root directory of the file system, but the root directory of the web tree that is being served by the host on the specified port. |
query_parameters | Optional parameters that are made available to the web server and to the service program. |
To summarize, a client (web browser or program using SOAP) sends an HTTP request to the web server. The request contains a method (GET or POST), a URI that specifies the file or resource that is being requested, optional query parameters, and optional form data (if a POST).
If the resource being requested is a resource that is associated with BIS by the web server, for example, a .srf file (sometimes also called a stencil), then all of the above information (request type, URI, query parameters, form data) is passed to the BIS Request Handler, which then renders (that is, executes) the tags in that file. If BIS renders a StartService tag, a COBOL service program is started. If BIS subsequently renders an XMLExchange tag, the request is sent to the COBOL program, and the COBOL program's response is rendered into the HTTP response text that is returned to the user agent (browser, SOAP consumer, etc.). | <urn:uuid:207d455f-5dcc-4d44-9c34-89d7fcef3386> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.microfocus.com/documentation/extend-acucobol/1021/extend-Interoperability-Suite/GUID-A390B0B5-1E81-408D-AADD-6EFF622C4F90.html | 2024-09-08T10:21:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650976.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908083737-20240908113737-00859.warc.gz | en | 0.898292 | 695 | 4.15625 | 4 |
A company is installing IP phones. The phones and office computers connect to the same device. To ensure maximum throughput for the phone data, the company needs to make sure that the phone traffic is on a different network from that of the office computer data traffic. What is the best network device to which to directly connect the phones and computers, and what technology should be implemented on this device? (Choose two.)
Click on the arrows to vote for the correct answer
A. B. C. D. E. F.CF
The best network device to connect the IP phones and computers is a switch, and the technology that should be implemented on this device is VLAN.
VLANs (Virtual Local Area Networks) are a way of logically dividing a single physical network into multiple virtual networks. This allows the phones and computers to be placed on different VLANs and segregates their traffic. Each VLAN operates as if it were on a separate physical network, and devices on different VLANs cannot communicate with each other without routing.
A switch is the best device to use because it allows for the creation of multiple VLANs and can assign ports to specific VLANs. This means that each port on the switch can be assigned to either the VLAN for phone traffic or the VLAN for computer traffic. This segregation of traffic ensures maximum throughput for the phone data.
Hubs, on the other hand, are not recommended because they broadcast all traffic out to every device on the network, causing congestion and potentially introducing security risks.
Routers can be used, but they are not as efficient as switches in handling VLANs. Routers are used to connect different networks, and although they can implement VLANs, they require the use of subinterfaces, which can be complex and time-consuming to configure.
Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) is used to prevent loops in the network and is not directly related to segregating phone and computer traffic.
In summary, a switch with VLANs implemented is the best network device to connect IP phones and computers while segregating their traffic, ensuring maximum throughput for the phone data. | <urn:uuid:fad99744-d0e1-41f0-a9a3-c9edeb988ccc> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.exam-answer.com/best-network-device-for-separating-ip-phone-and-computer-traffic | 2024-09-09T14:10:17Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651103.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20240909134831-20240909164831-00759.warc.gz | en | 0.924453 | 439 | 2.671875 | 3 |
As fibre deployment has become mainstream, splicing has naturally crossed from the outside plant (OSP) world into the enterprise and even the data centre environment. Fusion splicing involves the use of localized heat to melt together or fuse the ends of two optical fibres. The preparation process involves removing the protective coating from each fibre, precise cleaving, and inspection of the fibre end-faces. Fusion splicing has been around for several decades, and it’s a trusted method for permanently fusing together the ends of two optical fibres to realize a specific length or to repair a broken fibre link. However, due to the high costs of fusion splicers, it has not been actively used by many people. But these years some improvements in optical technology have been changing this status. Besides, the continued demand for increased bandwidth also spread the application of fusion splicing.
New Price of Fusion Splicers
Fusion splicers costs have been one of the biggest obstacles to a broad adoption of fusion splicing. In recent years, significant decreases in splicer prices has accelerated the popularity of fusion splicing. Today’s fusion splicers range in cost from $7,000 to $40,000. The highest-priced units are designed for specialty optical fibres, such as polarization-maintaining fibres used in the production of high-end non-electrical sensors. The lower-end fusion splicers, in the $7,000 to $10,000 range, are primarily single-fibre fixed V-groove type devices. The popular core alignment splicers range between $17,000 and $19,000, well below the $30,000 price of 20 years ago. The prices have dropped dramatically due to more efficient manufacturing, and volume is up because fibre is no longer a voodoo science and more people are working in that arena. Recently, more and more fibre being deployed closer to the customer premise with higher splice-loss budgets, which results in a greater participation of customers who are purchasing lower-end splicers to accomplish their jobs.
More Cost-effective Cable Solutions
The first and primary use of splicing in the telecommunications industry is to link fibres together in underground or aerial outside-plant fibre installations. It used to be very common to do fusion splicing at the building entrance to transition from outdoor-rated to indoor-rated cable, because the NEC (National Electrical Code) specifies that outdoor-rated cable can only come 50 feet into a building due to its flame rating. The advent of plenum-rated indoor/outdoor cable has driven that transition splicing to a minimum. But that’s not to say that fusion splicing in the premise isn’t going on.
Longer distances in the outside plant could mean that sticking with standard outdoor-rated cable and fusion splicing at the building entrance could be the more economical choice. If it’s a short run between building A and B, it makes sense to use newer indoor/outdoor cable and come right into the crossconnect. However, because indoor/outdoor cables are generally more expensive, if it’s a longer run with lower fibre counts between buildings, it could ultimately be cheaper to buy outdoor-rated cable and fusion splice to transition to indoor-rated cable, even with the additional cost of splice materials and housing.
As fibre to the home (FTTH) applications continue to grow around the globe, it is another situation that may call for fusion splicing. If you want to achieve longer distance in a FTTH application, you have to either fusion splice or do an interconnect. However, an interconnect can introduce 0.75dB of loss while the fusion splice is typically less than 0.02dB. Therefore, the easiest way to minimize the amount of loss on a FTTH circuit is to bring the individual fibres from each workstation back to the closet and then splice to a higher-fibre-count cable. This approach also enables centralizing electronics for more efficient port utilisation. In FTTH applications, fusion splicing is now being used to install connectors for customer drop cables using new splice-on connector technology and drop cable fusion splicer.
A Popular Option for Data Centres
A significant increase in the number of applications supported by data centres has resulted in more cables and connections than ever, making available space a foremost concern. As a result, higher-density solutions like MTP/MPO connectors and multi-fibre cables that take up less pathway space than running individual duplex cables become more popular.
Since few manufacturers offer field-installable MTP/MPO connectors, many data centre managers are selecting either multi-fibre trunk cables with MTP/MPOs factory-terminated on each end, or fusion splicing to pre-terminated MTP/MPO or multi-fibre LC pigtails. When you select trunk cables with connectors on each end, data centre managers often specify lengths a little bit longer because they can’t always predict exact distances between equipment and they don’t want to be short. However, they then have to deal with excess slack. When there are thousands of connections, that slack can create a lot of congestion and limit proper air flow and cooling. One alternative is to purchase a multi-fibre pigtail and then splice to a multi-fibre cable.
Inside the data centre and in the enterprise LAN, 12-fibre MPO connectors provide a convenient method to support higher 40G and 100G bandwidth. Instead of fusing one fibre at a time, another type of fusion splicing which is called ribbon/mass fusion splicing is used. Ribbon/mass fusion splicing can fuse up to all 12 fibres in one ribbon at once, which offers the opportunity to significantly reduce termination labor by up to 75% with only a modest increase in tooling cost. Many of today’s cables with high fibre count involve subunits of 12 fibres each that can be quickly ribbonized. Splicing those fibres individually is very time consuming, however, ribbon/mass fusion splicers splice entire ribbons simultaneously. Ribbon/mass fusion splicer technology has been around for decades and now is available in handheld models.
Fusion splicing provides permanent low-loss connections that are performed quickly and easily, which are definite advantages over competing technologies. In addition, current fusion splicers are designed to provide enhanced features and high-quality performance, and be very affordable at the same time. FS provides various types and uses of fusion splicers with high quality and low price. For more information, please feel free to contact us at email@example.com.
Original article source: | <urn:uuid:1e38570b-a090-4ca4-b8f5-fbe163ca3870> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.fiber-optic-equipment.com/tag/fusion-splicers | 2024-09-12T02:56:43Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651420.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912011254-20240912041254-00559.warc.gz | en | 0.946636 | 1,389 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Serverless architecture enables applications to be developed and deployed without management of the underlying host or operating system. Instead of a traditional host, serverless applications run on abstract serverless platforms which are managed by cloud providers. This architecture offers advantages over other architectures, such as scalability, but also has its own unique security risks. The following best practices will help ensure these applications are properly secured:
1. Authentication and Authorization
Proper authentication and authorization controls ensure that functionality and resources are protected against unauthorized access. Serverless applications are decentralized, so it’s important to ensure that each application or service is making the proper checks. If applications are accessed from multiple sources such as mobile apps or web browsers, it can result in redundant checks and additional complexity which may use different authentication mechanisms as shown below:
A common solution to this issue is the use of an API gateway, which manages authentication and authorization for the serverless applications behind it. Each request to a serverless application will first be validated by the gateway. Validated requests, including relevant authorization information, will be sent to backend applications for processing, while unauthenticated or unauthorized requests will be rejected by the gateway.
2. Least Privilege Permissions
The rule of least privilege limits the risk to data and systems in case of a compromised application. Applications commonly access resources such as databases, file storage, and external systems and applications. Restrict application permissions and access (including network access) to the minimum required for the application, and monitor unauthorized requests for resources.
3. Cloud Native Controls
Serverless applications by nature are closely integrated to the cloud as a platform. This allows access to cloud provider security controls which should be used when possible. Cloud providers often offer functionality such as secret management, resource permission policies, and logging. This functionality takes advantage of integration with the platform and reduces the friction of using security controls.
4. Manage Dependencies and Third-Party Services
Traditional patch management is not relevant for serverless application instances. However, it is important to ensure that any dependencies used by the application are secure and up to date. Take advantage of tools that automate the process of checking these dependencies to ensure applications are not using vulnerable components.
If an application leverages third-party services or licensed components, use a security questionnaire to ensure these resources meet necessary security requirements. Audit and review security status on a scheduled basis.
5. Secure Software Development Life Cycle
Application vulnerabilities identified after release are costly to remediate. It’s vital that applications are developed with a secure software development life cycle (SDLC). A secure SDLC integrates security into all phases of the lifecycle through processes such as design review, automated static and dynamic testing tools, and manual security testing.
These best practices establish a strong security baseline for serverless applications, which can be leveraged as part of a larger application security program. Together, they reflect the need for a blend of traditional methods and tools, as well as new processes and controls. This is a requirement of a robust cloud application security program, of which serverless applications are just a part. | <urn:uuid:3e2631b6-5145-4249-991f-a1fee112a536> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.msspalert.com/editorial/post/best-practices-serverless-applications | 2024-09-13T08:18:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651510.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913070112-20240913100112-00459.warc.gz | en | 0.923768 | 627 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Ireland, May 19, 2021 – (ACN Newswire) – Cryptocurrency use is growing exponentially, and governments may want to consider the benefits. Why are blockchain and cryptocurrency so popular right now? Why have business whales and finance execs invested large cash reserves into cryptocurrency? They hope to benefit from this colossal opportunity. Visual Capitalist, in an April 2021 article, remarks that Bitcoin, compared to other tech companies, is the fastest asset to reach a $1 Trillion market cap.
In March of 2020, Bitcoin’s price was coming in at around $3K. As of May 11, 2021, Bitcoin was $56,551.44. Per coin. And Bitcoin is only one of over 4,000 cryptocurrencies according to Investopedia in a January 2021 article. This growing trend presents a new challenge for governments.
Cryptocurrency sits on top of a technology called blockchain. Blockchain is a database network that supports the transfer of value in a digital format. It is an independent system not owned by any institution, individual, bank, or entity, (read, government). As more cash moves into this crypto arena, governments will lose visibility and control of their national currency. How will that affect them?
The Government Blockchain Association, (GBA)?s Tax Working Group has written a Whitepaper entitled, ‘The Impact of Cryptocurrency Adoption on Government’. This 138-page document is the result of a full year’s worth of research and analysis, done by a team of authors with expertise in tax risk analysis, data, research analytics, cryptocurrency, digital assets, business, and blockchain. This report was not financed by any major corporation or interest group. The authors were all volunteers and were not influenced by a sponsor’s desired outcome. This paper was written to find an answer to a question.
How will this monumental transfer of fiat money into cryptocurrency affect governments and their citizens? Be assured, it will affect them, and the governments that understand this change can better prepare for what is coming.
The Impact of Cryptocurrency Adoption on Government whitepaper is available for download purchase.
About The Government Blockchain Association GBA
The Government Blockchain Association GBA is a non-profit business association with chapters in 120 cities around the world and over 50 Working Groups, where the public and private sectors can connect, communicate, and collaborate.
Source: Plato Data Intelligence. | <urn:uuid:c34a44e6-7a1a-46fd-bd7d-ba80edf8b991> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.mytechmag.com/the-impact-of-cryptocurrency-adoption-on-government/ | 2024-09-14T15:36:21Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651579.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914125424-20240914155424-00359.warc.gz | en | 0.950187 | 495 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Brute force attack
- Attack library
- What is a brute force attack?
- What is a brute force attack?
- How does a brute force attack work?
- What are the types of brute force attacks?
- What are some of the notable brute force attacks?
- What is the objective of hackers who launch brute force attacks?
- How do I prevent brute force attacks?
- How does Log360 help protect you from brute force attacks?
Ever wondered how a hacker successfully breaks into secure digital spaces? Let's take a look at brute force attacks—the cyberattack where persistence meets passwords. We'll cover the attack basics, outline its various types, and look at case studies of these relentless attempts to infiltrate networks.
What is a brute force attack?
A brute force attack is a type of cyberattack in which an attacker systematically tries all possible combinations of passwords or encryption keys until the correct one is found. The primary goal of a brute force attack is to gain unauthorized access to a system, a network, or an account.
For example, if a user has a password-protected account, an attacker will attempt to log in by trying every possible password until the correct password is discovered. This method can be time-consuming and resource-intensive, especially if the password is complex, using a combination of alphanumeric and special characters. However, brute force attack is a straightforward and persistent approach that, given enough time and computing power, can be used to break into a system eventually.
To defend against brute force attacks, organizations and individuals often implement security measures such as account lockouts, CAPTCHA challenges, and strong password-creation policies. And to enhance security, they can incorporate MFA, which demands verification beyond the input of a password.
How does a brute force attack work?
The process of a brute force attack involves an automated or manual trial-and-error approach, where the attacker uses various combinations of characters, numbers, and symbols to guess the correct authentication information.
Here's a general overview of how a brute force attack works:
The attacker selects a target system, account, or encryption scheme to compromise.
The attacker determines the format and requirements of the authentication credentials, such as the length and character set of passwords.
Automated or manual attempts
The attacker uses automated tools or scripts to generate and try as many credential combinations as rapidly as they can. These tools can iterate through all possible combinations systematically. In manual brute force attacks, an attacker may attempt to guess passwords manually, but this is a much slower and less practical approach.
The success of a brute force attack depends on the complexity of the password or authentication credentials. Longer and more complex passwords, with a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols, are more resistant to brute force attacks.
Rate-limiting and countermeasures
To counter brute force attacks, many systems implement rate-limiting mechanisms, which lock out or delay access after a certain number of failed login attempts. These mechanisms make it increasingly challenging for attackers to decode passwords within a limited timeframe.
Brute force attacks can be time-consuming, especially if the password is complex and the system has effective security measures in place. Attackers must be persistent and patient, allowing their tools to run for an extended period to increase the chances of success.
Some attackers try to avoid detection by using techniques such as slow brute force attacks, which involves spreading attempts over a longer period or using several IP addresses to distribute the attack.
Adaptation to countermeasures
As security measures evolve, attackers may change their methods. For example, they might switch to more sophisticated attacks or combine brute force with other techniques, such as credential stuffing, phishing, password sniffing, or manipulator-in-the-middle attacks, to increase their chances of success.
It's important for individuals and organizations to implement strong security practices, such as using complex and unique passwords, enabling MFA, and monitoring for unusual or suspicious activities, to mitigate the risk of brute force attacks.
What are the types of brute force attacks?
Brute force attacks can take various forms, depending on the target and the specific security mechanisms in place. Here are some common types of brute force attacks:
What are the types of brute force attacks?
Description: Attackers use stolen username and password combinations collected from one source and test them on other websites, relying on users’ tendencies to reuse passwords.
Example: Attempting the same combination of username and password across different accounts and social media profiles.
Reverse brute force attacks
Description: Starting with a known password, often obtained through a network breach, and searching for a matching login credential using lists of millions of usernames.
Example: Testing a commonly used weak password, like “Password123,” against a database of usernames to find a match.
Simple brute force attacks
Description: Manual attempts by a hacker to guess a user's login credentials without using any software, typically using standard password combinations or PIN codes.
Example: Trying common passwords like "password123" or "1234."
Description: Testing possible passwords against a target's username by running through dictionaries and amending words with special characters and numbers.
Example: Trying words from a dictionary with variations like "passw0rd1" or "secure123."
Hybrid brute force attacks
Description: Combining a dictionary attack with a simple brute force attack. The attacker starts with a known username and uses both methods to discover the account login combination.
Example: Using a list of potential words and trying various character, letter, and number combinations.
Brute force attacks encompass various methods employed by hackers to gain unauthorized access to systems. While these attacks vary in their approach, from manual guessing of passwords to automated processes using dictionaries or stolen credentials, their end goal stays the same.
What are some of the notable brute force attacks?
Brute force attacks are unfortunately common in the cybersecurity landscape, and there have been several notable real-life examples over the years.
Here are a few well-known organizations that have experienced brute force attacks:
In 2012, hackers breached LinkedIn's security and gained access to millions of user passwords. The attackers used a combination of social engineering and brute force attack methods to compromise weak passwords. The incident highlighted the importance of using strong and unique passwords.
Sony PlayStation Network
In 2011, the Sony PlayStation Network suffered a major security breach. The attackers used a combination of techniques, including brute force attack, to gain access to user accounts. This led to the compromise of personal information and disrupted online gaming services for a significant period.
In 2016, there were reports of attackers using brute force attacks to gain unauthorized access to TeamViewer accounts. Once compromised, attackers could potentially take control of users' computers and access sensitive information.
Brute force attacks against WordPress websites are pervasive. Attackers often target the login pages of WordPress sites, attempting to guess usernames and passwords. This underlines the importance of implementing strong authentication measures and using security plugins to mitigate such attacks.
In one of the largest data breaches in history, Yahoo experienced a series of attacks between 2013 and 2016. Brute force attacks were likely part of the tactics used to gain access to user accounts. The breach compromised billions of user accounts and underscored the importance of robust cybersecurity practices.
In 2013, GitHub experienced a significant distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack that was accompanied by a brute force attack. Attackers attempted to guess passwords to gain unauthorized access to GitHub accounts. GitHub responded by implementing rate limiting and other security measures.
While the Equifax breach of 2017 primarily resulted from a web application vulnerability, reports suggested that a brute force attack was also attempted as part of the overall attack strategy. The breach exposed sensitive personal information of millions of individuals.
These examples show that brute force attacks have targeted various platforms, from social media platforms like LinkedIn to gaming networks like Sony PlayStation, highlighting the persistent threats posed by attackers exploiting weak passwords and security postures.
What is the objective of hackers who launch brute force attacks?
Hackers use brute force attacks primarily to gain unauthorized access to systems, accounts, or sensitive information. The specific objectives and what they gain from these attacks can vary depending on the target and the attacker's goals.
Here are some common motivations for hackers engaging in brute force attacks:
The primary goal of a brute force attack is to gain access to a system or account by successfully guessing the correct password, PIN, or encryption key.
Data or identity theft
Unauthorized access allows hackers to seize sensitive data, like personal information, financial details, intellectual property, or other confidential data, through brute force attacks. This compromised information can then be exploited for identity theft, fraud, and other malicious activities.
Brute force attacks can lead to account takeovers, where the attacker gains control of a user's account. This could be an email account, social media account, or other online account.
Hackers may aim to gain financial benefits by accessing accounts with financial information, stealing credit card details, or making fraudulent transactions.
Espionage and sabotage
In targeted attacks, hackers may use brute force techniques to gain access to systems for espionage purposes or to sabotage operations. In some cases, attackers may engage in brute force attacks with the sole purpose of disrupting the normal operation of a system, causing downtime, and affecting the availability of services.
Some attackers use brute force attacks to gain control of systems and then demand a ransom for restoring access or preventing the release of sensitive information.
Unauthorized resource use
Brute force attacks not only facilitate unauthorized access but also enable the compromise system to be exploited for various malicious activities, including launching further attacks, hosting malicious content, participating in a botnet, and installing persistent malware for information gathering or as a base for subsequent attacks.
It's important to note that the motivations behind brute force attacks can vary widely, and attackers may adapt their strategies based on the target and their specific objectives.
How do I prevent brute force attacks?
Preventing brute force attacks involves implementing various security measures systematically to make it difficult for attackers to guess credentials.
Here are some effective strategies you can use to prevent brute force attacks:
Strong password policies
Enforce the use of strong, complex passwords that include a mix of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. Discourage the use of easily guessable passwords.
Implement MFA to add an extra layer of security. Even if an attacker manages to obtain the password, they will still need an additional form of verification to access the account.
Account lockout policies
Implement account lockout policies that temporarily lock user accounts after a certain number of failed login attempts. This helps prevent brute force attacks by slowing down the attacker's progress.
Use rate-limiting mechanisms to control the number of login attempts allowed within a specific timeframe. This makes it more difficult for attackers to perform rapid and numerous login attempts.
Implement CAPTCHA challenges on login pages to differentiate between human users and automated bots. This can help prevent automated scripts from executing numerous login attempts.
Log monitoring and analysis
Regularly monitor logs for suspicious activities, such as a high number of failed login attempts. Implement automated alerting systems to notify administrators of potential security incidents.
Network intrusion detection and prevention system (NIDS/NIPS)
Deploy a NIDS or NIPS to monitor and detect suspicious network activities, including brute force attacks.
IP allowlisting and blocklisting
Consider implementing IP allowlisting or blocklisting to allow or block specific IP addresses based on known patterns of malicious activity.
Software updates and security audits
Keep software, including operating systems and security software, up to date. Software updates often include patches for known vulnerabilities that attackers may exploit. Conduct regular security audits and penetration testing to identify and address potential vulnerabilities in your systems and applications.
By implementing a combination of these preventive measures, organizations and individuals can significantly reduce the risk of falling victim to brute force attacks. It's important to review regularly and update security measures to adapt to evolving threats.
How does Log360 help protect you from brute force attacks?
Here's how Log360 can assist in mitigating and responding to brute force attacks:
Monitor logs and events in real time from various sources within the IT infrastructure. Log360 can detect multiple failed login attempts within a short time frame, a common indicator of brute force attacks.
Alerts and notifications
Get alerts and notifications when Log360 identifies patterns indicative of a brute force attack. Security administrators can receive immediate alerts to respond promptly and investigate any suspicious activity.
Anomaly detection mechanisms help you to identify deviations from normal behavior. Unusual spikes in login attempts or patterns inconsistent with typical user behavior can trigger alerts for further investigation.
Correlation of events
Correlate events from various sources to provide a comprehensive view of security incidents. Log360 can correlate failed login attempts with other suspicious activities, providing a more accurate assessment of potential threats.
Analyze historical log data, helping your security team identify patterns and trends associated with past brute force attacks. This historical analysis can contribute to proactive security measures.
Respond to a detected brute force attack with automated actions such as blocking IP addresses or initiating other preventive measures.
Integration with other security tools
Integrate the solution with other security tools, such as intrusion detection systems, firewalls, and endpoint protection solutions, to provide a more comprehensive defense against brute force attacks.
While brute force attacks remain a threat, the combination of cybersecurity best practices and SIEM solutions like Log360 can help enhance your security posture and establish a robust defense against this and other cyberthreats. | <urn:uuid:4125b02f-1ad4-41d2-8156-284eb5659f18> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.manageengine.com/ca/log-management/cyber-security/what-is-brute-force-attack.html | 2024-09-15T20:04:34Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651647.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20240915184230-20240915214230-00259.warc.gz | en | 0.912853 | 2,815 | 3.421875 | 3 |
After the Internet, Artificial Intelligence has the potential to be the next big thing in the tech world. But there has been a lot of noise around the technology. There are debates over the opportunities created by AI and its potential risks. By launching Copilot, its generative AI tool, Microsoft has made it loud and clear that AI is not a fad. AI is here to stay. In March 2023, Microsoft announced that it would bring Copilot into Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and Power Platform. This marked the beginning of the AI-driven enterprise era.
What is Generative AI?
“Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as images, text, music, or video, that resembles a given set of examples. It does this by learning patterns and structures from large datasets and then generating new content that fits those patterns. Generative AI has many practical applications and is used in a wide range of fields, including art, music, and design.,” says ChatGPT, a generative AI model developed by OpenAI.
Enterprise AI takes off with Microsoft Copilot
Any digital technology’s purpose is to enhance its users’ experience. For instance, you can stand in line and buy tickets. But online booking gives you time to have a coffee with your friends before the show begins. The purpose of Artificial Intelligence is to assist humans in making the world a better place. Ideas hold no power if actions do not follow them. AI should deliver faster actions to bring human ideas to life. It should further help humans think better and make informed decisions. Businesses buy this promise. They are trying to leverage AI in every possible business operation. But there has never been an AI tool for end-to-end enterprise operations. Microsoft Copilot fills this void.
From assembly languages of the 1950s to high-level languages to modern low-code/no-code platforms, software development has evolved to build robust applications that enhance people’s experiences. Today, Copilot shifts the paradigm of building and running an enterprise ecosystem with customer and employee experiences at the center. Application development, workflow automation, and customer engagement have never been this easy. You describe your requirement, and the AI tool will deliver it. It’s that simple.
Let us discuss the significant changes Copilot will bring to the global enterprise landscape.
Democratization of application development
Most businesses have already identified the why of enterprise applications; the challenge is to find the how. Application development is resource intensive. A basic mobile app costs between $20,000 and $50,000 and requires 700 hours on average. Also, there is a widening gap between the demand for enterprise applications and the availability of IT resources. Microsoft predicts that enterprises worldwide will need 500 million applications in the next five years. But there is a shortfall of four million developers. This disparity increases the demand for developers and eventually raises app development costs.
Copilot in Microsoft Power Apps is poised to democratize software development through natural language-based no-code/low-code development. It empowers citizen developers to build applications, automate workflows, and create AI-powered chatbots within minutes. Suppose you are a construction company. Imagine your supervisor creates a site inspection application for your new project within minutes without waiting on the IT team.
There are concerns that AI will snatch people’s jobs. But the applications of Copilot show the other way. Human potential is powerful. But mundane tasks such as sending emails, collecting information, documenting, etc., are wasting much of their time. AI cannot mimic humans’ creativity, critical thinking, and decision-making capabilities, but it can give us our time back. It takes away tedious, repetitive tasks from employees, frees up their time, and allows them to focus on things that truly deserve their efforts.
Copilot in Microsoft 365 and Power Automate helps unleash creativity and boost employee productivity. Copilot can be your co-author in writing emails, proposals, and documents. It can be your co-creator turning your ideas into designs for presentations. It can be your assistant scheduling meetings on Teams. It can be your analyst to help you with numbers. Microsoft is putting employee experience at the center of this end-to-end process automation.
Enable personalized customer experience
Customers expect personalized experience at every stage of the sales funnel – from being a prospect to becoming a loyal customer. However, tracking each customer’s journey is almost impossible, given the size of your customer base and the volume of data. The combination of Dynamic 365 Customer Insights, Dynamic 365 Marketing, Power Virtual Agents, and Power BI can help you create tailored customer experiences.
The Copilot AI capabilities of these tools offer you a comprehensive view of a customer’s journey. So, you can know key details such as what a customer is more interested in, their purchase behavior, what they purchased from you, what challenges they are facing, and what feedback they have about your offerings. Copilot brings up this information as required, creates campaigns based on this information, and launches those campaigns automatically. While Copilot takes care of these actions, your CX professionals can focus on creating strategies to enhance customer experience.
Build innate operational resilience
Resilience is your ability to come back to normal during a crisis. Resilience is one of the most desired qualities of a successful enterprise. For instance, no one expected the Evergreen ship would block the Suez Canal and disrupt supply chains. What would you do when you realized your supplies were in the vessels and would take a week more to arrive? Consider another instance where a technician identifies that some critical machinery is about to break down. Should this machinery break down, it would bring the entire production line to a grinding halt. How can your asset manager ensure production continuity? Answers to these questions lie in your resilience in these business areas.
Copilot in Dynamics 365 Supply chain, Power Apps, and Power Automate can help you create resilient business processes. Using the AI capabilities in these tools, you can focus on what’s necessary at such critical times while Copilot takes care of mundane tasks such as passing information, approvals, automation of workflows, etc.
The way ahead for Microsoft Copilot
Copilot is built on large language models (LLM) and learns from data collected from all your Microsoft applications. As they learn, they become more efficient and powerful. Should you leverage Copilot’s full capabilities for your enterprise, build your ecosystems on the bedrock of Microsoft applications.
Microsoft expects to deliver all the features announced in the release wave 1 (April 2023) for Dynamics 365 and Power Platform by the end of 2023. The company announced that more features are in the pipeline. I’m excited to see to what level Microsoft will take this game and how other key players will catch up. | <urn:uuid:9c7b67a3-c1df-4ce0-a098-ae998f7dcd49> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://saxon.ai/blogs/microsoft-copilot-navigating-into-the-intelligent-enterprise-era/ | 2024-09-20T17:18:58Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701419169.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920154713-20240920184713-00759.warc.gz | en | 0.941629 | 1,406 | 2.5625 | 3 |
In today’s digital age, businesses have access to vast amounts of data about their customers, which can be used to gain valuable insights and improve their products and services. However, the use of customer analytics and big data raises ethical concerns about privacy and personalization. In this article, we will explore the ethics of customer analytics and how businesses can balance privacy and personalization.
Understanding Customer Analytics and Big Data
Customer analytics involves the use of data to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and trends. This data can come from a variety of sources, including social media, website traffic, purchase history, and surveys. On the other hand, big data refers to the large volumes of data that businesses collect, analyze, and use to make decisions.
The Ethics of Customer Analytics
The use of customer analytics and big data raises ethical concerns, particularly around privacy and personalization. Customers may feel uncomfortable with businesses collecting and using their personal data, especially if they are not aware of it or do not give their consent. Additionally, the use of personal data to personalize marketing and advertising can feel intrusive and manipulative.
Balancing Privacy and Personalization
To balance privacy and personalization, businesses should consider the following ethical principles:
- Transparency: Businesses should be transparent about their data collection and use policies. Customers should be informed about what data is being collected, how it is being used, and who it is being shared with.
- Consent: Customers should be given the option to opt-out of data collection and use. Businesses should also obtain explicit consent for any sensitive data, such as health information or financial data.
- Security: Businesses should take measures to ensure the security of customer data. This includes encrypting data, implementing firewalls, and using multi-factor authentication.
- Fairness: Businesses should ensure that their use of customer data is fair and does not discriminate against any particular group. This includes avoiding bias in algorithms and using ethical decision-making frameworks.
- Benefit: The use of customer data should ultimately benefit the customer. This can include improving products and services, providing personalized recommendations, and reducing prices through targeted marketing.
As a business owner or marketer, it is essential to consider the ethics of customer analytics and big data. By balancing privacy and personalization, businesses can improve customer trust and loyalty. The following are some steps you can take:
- Review your data collection and use policies to ensure transparency and obtain customer consent.
- Implement security measures to protect customer data.
- Use ethical decision-making frameworks to ensure fairness in your use of customer data.
- Focus on providing benefits to customers through personalization, such as tailored recommendations and improved products and services.
Balancing privacy and personalization is crucial in the age of big data and customer analytics. By following ethical principles such as transparency, consent, security, fairness, and benefit, businesses can use customer data to gain valuable insights without compromising customer privacy. Furthermore, as a platform that provides real-time insights by analyzing various data sources, Live Earth understands the significance of ethical data use. Schedule a call today to see how Live Earth can help balance your customer data through customer analytics. | <urn:uuid:d2221a40-e96d-49d6-a81a-5a0c31f7daf4> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.liveearth.com/customer-analytics-balancing-privacy-and-personalization/ | 2024-09-20T17:42:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701419169.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920154713-20240920184713-00759.warc.gz | en | 0.924914 | 649 | 2.625 | 3 |
IPS is a key security component in a networking environment and stands for Intrusion Prevention System. IPS works on the network perimeter and scans network traffic flows to detect and prevent vulnerability exploits.
Intrusion prevention scans all network traffic and takes responsive action i.e. either block or remediate flows with malicious traffic. In general scenarios, IPS uses a combination of traffic and file signatures and heuristic analysis of flows.
IPS follows a procedural approach to address action against attack as shared below –
- Monitors traffic flow
- Identify malicious traffic
- Takes corrective action to protect the network
There are a number of different threats that an IPS is used to prevent –
- Denial of Service (DoS) attack
- Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack
Related- DOS vs DDOS
IPS protection types –
IPS uses different type of approaches to protect the network from unauthorized access. These are –
- Signature-Based – This approach works by referring to predefined signatures of well-known network threats, where IPS matches one of the traffic signatures or patterns and therefore takes necessary action.
- Anomaly-Based – This type of approach monitors the traffic for any event outside the normal or acceptable behavior on the network. In thi case, the system blocks access to the target host immediately.
IDS vs IPS –
Many times, IPS is compared to its close relative IDS. IDS stands for Intrusion Detection System which is a passive system and monitors/scans traffic and only reports on threats and attacks. Interestingly, most of IPS systems can also function as IDS solution.One major difference between IDS and IPS is placement in the network. IDS does not sit inline to traffic flow and just passively watches the traffic traversing the network.In this case the traffic copy is sent to IDS by mechanism of port span or by deploying network TAP. On the other hand, IPS sits inline in the network and all the traffic passes through it.
IDS and IPS also contrast in terms of action to be taken in the event of unauthorized traffic access. The former will not stop the traffic, albeit it sends alarm or alert to the responsible system for further action. The latter is more aggressive and immediately blocks the unauthorized traffic which it detects. An overhead which may be associated with IDS systems is the responsibility of taking action on each alarm generated by the system. This is because IDS cant take action on the threat and hence same needs to be owned by network or security admin.
Related – Cisco IPS/IDS Interview Questions
Below are the key differences between IDS and IPS are as below:
PARAMETER | IPS | IDS |
Abbreviation for | Intrusion Prevention System | Intrusion Detection System |
System Type | Active (monitor & automatically defend) and/ or passive | Passive (monitor and Notify) |
Detection mechanism | Statistical anomaly based detection Signature detection: * Exploit-facing signatures * Vulnerability-facing signatures | Signature detection: * Exploit-facing signatures |
Placement | Inline to data communication | Out of band from data communication |
Anomaly response | Drop, alert or clean malicious traffic | Sends alarm/alert of detecting malicious traffic |
Network performance impact | Slow down network performance due to delay caused by inline IPS processing | Does not impact network performance due to non-line deployment of IDS. |
Benefits | Preferred by most organization since detection and prevention are automatically performed | Does not block legitimate traffic which might be blocked by IPS at times. |
Download the difference table here.
IPS vs Firewall –
Firewall and IPS are 2 key components of a Security framework especially in scenarios where Data Center or Office for an enterprise are provisioned. There will be buffet of attacks from Internet and both these components are well equipped to defend against new/old attacks and vulnerabilities.
Firewall controls incoming and outgoing traffic based on preassigned security rules. It provisions a barrier between trusted internal network, semi trusted DMZ network and untrusted external network.
The main difference between firewall and IPS is that firewall performs actions such as blocking and filtering of traffic while an IPS detects and prevents the attack . Firewall primarily relies on source, destination IP addresses, protocol and port numbers. A firewall can deny any traffic that does not meet the configured rule-set. On the contrary, scenarios like IP packet not being of standard length, attacks like buffer overflow, DOS and DDOS attacks are ones that IPS can detect and take corrective action.
In terms of placement, Firewall is primarily the 1st line of defense against attack on perimeter. IPS comes in as next level of defense and is deployed after the Firewall.
Below table summarizes the difference between IPS and Firewall:
PARAMETER | IPS | FIREWALL |
Principle of working | 1st Analysis traffic, next detects/classifies it and then block malicious attack to network | Controls traffic based on port number, source/destination IP and protocol number |
Traffic pattern analysis | Performed | Not Performed |
Placement | Placed after the Firewall in Network | 1st Line of defense and provides parameter security |
Key features | * Anomaly detection * Signature detection * Zero day attacks * Alert and monitoring | Stateful packet inspection Controls traffic based on protocol, port number and Ip address |
Download the difference table here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am here to share my knowledge and experience in the field of networking with the goal being – “The more you share, the more you learn.”
I am a biotechnologist by qualification and a Network Enthusiast by interest. I developed interest in networking being in the company of a passionate Network Professional, my husband.
I am a strong believer of the fact that “learning is a constant process of discovering yourself.”
– Rashmi Bhardwaj (Author/Editor) | <urn:uuid:de5ec8cd-8199-49fe-9fd7-7e7c412c9669> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://ipwithease.com/what-is-ips-security/ | 2024-09-08T16:14:37Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651013.49/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908150334-20240908180334-00123.warc.gz | en | 0.922065 | 1,223 | 3.015625 | 3 |
Common Security Threats and How Microsoft Security Helps Mitigate Them
In the middle of all this, we find every organization’s weakest link as far as cyber security is concerned: the human element. Untrained employees, who comprise a huge percentage of the workforce in most organizations, will readily click malicious URLs or browse suspicious websites. All without realizing that they may be enabling malicious scripts to run and allowing weaponized documents to get past their systems’ standard defenses.
Bad actors are well aware of these human tendencies and are always out to exploit them in dozens of different ways. This represents a few of the numerous ways in which organizations are susceptible to potential cyber-attacks.
Attack vectors that commonly lead to data leaks within organizations
Security threats within an organization can originate from within the organization or from outside.
The threat originates from within the organization itself and includes acts of espionage or various methods of employee data theft.
External sharing of sensitive information
In some instances, a competitor or some other party interested in the company’s data can approach an employee and offer them payment in exchange for sensitive, privileged information.
Compromised employees or industrial spies may share sensitive data with outsiders. They pose a serious internal threat to data security.
With mobile or remote employees, a lost device may fall into the hands of anyone who can then access their files and download them for use in any harmful way.
Mobile employees, especially cloud users, may also attempt to log into the company’s database remotely from an unknown PC. If the PC is infected, this can seriously compromise the security of the data itself.
This threat is initiated by forces from outside the organization and often exploits various weaknesses in the data security system or network infrastructure. Unintentional data leakage can occur through any of the following:
Phishing refers to the fraudulent attempt by bad actors to obtain sensitive information including usernames, passwords, and sometimes credit card data – depending on the intentions of the attacker. They often do this by disguising themselves as a trustworthy party in electronic communication methods such as emails.
Normally, the data thief creates a Web page replicating an existing one to trick a user into submitting their personal, financial, or login details that the cybercriminal can then use for illicit purposes.
In many cases, the untrained individual receives an email from what appears to be a reliable source asking for reauthentication. Upon clicking the link and providing the requested information – often a username and password – this individual allows the attacker to infect their machine with malware. The cyber thief may additionally be able to steal the individual’s identity.
Once an employee’s device is compromised, the attack can spread throughout the organization in any of the following forms.
Internal sharing of malware
Through an infected device, an attacker can spread the malware throughout the organization’s network. They may be able to access various databases to which the victim has privileged access. They can then steal whatever data they want once the network is compromised.
With stolen credentials, an attacker will have unrestricted access to sensitive information while disguised as an employee. A stolen identity gives the bad actor an easy way into the organization’s network. Once inside, they can set about moving around, searching for sensitive information to steal while impersonating a legitimate user.
How Microsoft Security increases your protection against these threats
Microsoft has multiple ways in which it can increase your protection against various threat scenarios at different levels. For starters, there is the Windows Defender Antivirus program which could block known threats on user’s devices.
Microsoft also has the Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection program that can detect, investigate, and respond to new or unknown threats using the power of AI – eventually mitigating the infection on personal devices.
Office 365 Advanced Threat Protection allows for a reputation check, making sure that the URLs you’re clicking on are legitimate. This can be a great way to safeguard employees from phishing attacks.
This also comes with Multifactor Authentication that is specifically designed to prevent hackers from logging in to the potential victim’s account. This is a perfect way to protect users from identity theft. Requiring the device to be compliant also helps prevent the spread of malware from one infected device to another.
Microsoft has the Office 365 Cloud App Security which spots abnormal behavior. This means it can prevent intentional data leakage and seal off that loophole.
To protect the data itself, Microsoft has Azure Information Protection which allows for policy controls to be put in place ensuring that only certain people can view these files.
Intune, a security management tool, also allows users to create conditional access rules in their device around the data itself. This ensures the safety of data in the case of a lost device or attempted login from unknown PCs. An untrusted device wouldn’t be able to access files protected by Intune.
With these protection metrics, Microsoft 365 is the go-to solution for any organization. These security measures work to safeguard your network from various security threats by preventing, controlling, detecting, and responding to any threat scenario.
My passion is to make my mark on the world in a positive and lasting way. I want to set an example for my son that his father can compete with integrity in today’s world, be very successful, and leave the world a better place for him.
Combining my technical/business-based education with a long career steadily progressing up the corporate ladder, I decided to build a company that held true to my values. So, I founded and designed the next generation of IT support firm: CTECH Consulting Group Inc. We are a completely automated, cloud-based IT company designed to compete against any other IT firm without the overhead. We promote a lifestyle to all our staff where they can work anywhere, at any time, access any information on any device that is relevant to their job, and collaborate with anyone they want to. | <urn:uuid:819602ee-0a68-4445-8e76-3e41ec3efea5> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.ctechgroup.ca/microsoft-security-common-security-threats/ | 2024-09-12T06:14:31Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651422.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912043139-20240912073139-00723.warc.gz | en | 0.937201 | 1,206 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Currently, food safety has become a worldwide concern and the cold chain monitoring a global phenomenon. As the middle class is growing in the BRIC nations and emerging economies, people around the world are increasingly demanding health foods. As a result, the focus is really high on delivering high quality and fresh products, and the management of cold chain has become even more crucial in the current socio-economic scenario. Cold chain has to overcome several challenges such as global transportation, rising costs, time management, keeping the food fresh, and keeping the supply on before a shortage takes place. In addition, the food suppliers and retailers need to adhere to the government food safety regulations. Such a complex nature of the food cold chain has forced the food suppliers and supply chain partners to implement latest cold chain monitoring technologies that allow real time monitoring of the food products and provide continuous update of their condition.
RFID has become the preferred technology in recent years for the food cold chain management. RFID not only tracks and traces the items in the entire supply chain, but are also able to provide the condition information of the food products on a real-time with the help of sensors embedded on RFID tags. This helps the users to get information about the assets every time they are moved and any problem areas or lapses can be identified.
RFID technology available at present is quite innovative and advanced. The passive RFID and battery assisted passive RFID tags come embedded with temperature and humidity sensors and have long read ranges. These are able to provide the real-time condition as well as location information of the food products in warehouses or stores, or during transit. With the help of the technology, food producers, suppliers, and retailers have been able to reduce wastage, perishable food spoilage, and food contamination, thereby leading to increased profitability and higher customer satisfaction. As a result, RFID is witnessing growth in usage in the cold chain monitoring space.
Worldwide farmers, food suppliers, and food retailers have been struggling to maintain the high quality of the fresh and perishable food items till the time it reaches the end users. Every year billions of tons of food are wasted due to lack of proper storage or improper cold chain management. Many a times contaminated food has made consumers to fall sick which have deeply impacted the brand value. In addition, there are strong food safety mandates by governments such as the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) mandate and the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), European Union (EU) food regulations, and Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) regulations that require the food producers, suppliers, and retailers to maintain traceability and condition history of the food products failing which they are heavily penalized.
New age RFID technology with advanced passive RFID tags, active RFID tags, RFID sensor tags, and RTLS solutions for real-time monitoring are the most advanced and extremely beneficial technology to overcome the challenges faced by the cold chain worldwide. The increasing use of cloud based platforms and the rise of Internet of Things (IoT) have enabled the users to continuously get updates on smartphones and tablets and alerts in case of any anomalies. This has made the tracking, tracing, and condition monitoring much easier and available end-to-end. Increasing machine to machine connectivity with the further growth of IoT would lead to smooth functioning of cold chain. RFID is already a growing technology in the food cold chain space and the sector offers plenty of growth opportunities for the technology. The technology providers need to bring in smarter solutions that are easier to deploy and cost effective to make the technology more viable for the cold chain sector. | <urn:uuid:744ce01b-8b37-42f3-a64e-433a0d2fa647> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.frost.com/growth-opportunity-news/rfid-is-the-key-game-changer-for-the-food-cold-chain-management-globally/ | 2024-09-12T05:36:01Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651422.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912043139-20240912073139-00723.warc.gz | en | 0.939928 | 732 | 2.859375 | 3 |
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), always one to push the boundaries of computing, has set its sights on moving beyond air-gap cybersecurity.
To this end, the Guaranteed Architecture for Physical Security (GAPS) project, announced by DARPA’s Microsystems Technology Office in early January, solicits “innovative research proposals” from contractors who think they can build hardware and software systems with “physically provable guarantees to isolate high risk transactions.”
Basically, DARPA wants the computer systems of the future to have high-level security capabilities built right in. “Today, modern computing systems are incapable of creating sufficient security protections such that they can be trusted with the most sensitive data while simultaneously being exposed to untrusted data streams,” the project description bemoans. “Therefore, for the most sensitive computing systems, [the Department of Defense] and commercial industry have in certain places adopted a series of air-gaps — breaks between computing systems to prevent the leakage and compromise of sensitive information.”
But air-gaps are inconvenient. Cutting certain systems off from the rest has implications for the efficacy of both — and DARPA thinks it is time to move beyond this limited paradigm. Both the DOD and the commercial industry would benefit from figuring out how to build in better security, the agency argues.
DARPA anticipates spending a total of $54.4 million on the project.
GAPS is part of DARPA’s larger Electronics Resurgence Initiative, a multi-project initiative aimed at moving beyond the traditional limits of Moore’s Law. | <urn:uuid:cc6faf64-0de4-4356-a9bc-0887c9bd5807> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://develop.fedscoop.com/darpa-wants-move-beyond-air-gap/ | 2024-09-18T10:58:04Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651895.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918100941-20240918130941-00223.warc.gz | en | 0.926174 | 338 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Do you find it difficult to help your kids achieving a balance between technology and life? If yes, read further to discover a few digital parenting guidelines and you can also use parental control apps to keep an eye on your child’s online activities. We’ve put together these 8 Parenting Tips as part of our digital technology guidelines for parents, so your children can safely use screen time as a tool to promote learning and innovation.
There is no escaping from the omnipresent digital media. Wherever you turn, you will find screens—in your pockets, at airports, in stores, taxis, restaurants. Children, while being inquisitive, are naturally drawn to things that are prevalent in their surroundings. We decided to share a few digital technology guidelines for parents.
Parents might have experienced traditional bullying as children, but cyberbullying is something that they have encountered at a mature age. So, the chances of them falling short are more when they find their children being cyberbullied or meeting with other online hazards, such as cyberstalking, online predators, sexting.
We’ve put together these 8 Parenting Tips so your children can safely use screen time as a tool to promote learning and innovation.
Tips for effective parenting in the digital age
Be a role model for your child
When a parent’s words and actions do not match, a wrong message is forwarded to the kids. What would happen if your child wants to inform you about some important incident from their schools and you just reply with a mindless nod, staring at your screen?
In such cases, a child realizes that they are not at the center of their parent’s attention. As they grow up, they imitate the exact behavior, and it soon becomes their way of life.
Encourage physical activities
One of the biggest drawbacks of being overexposed to the screens is the impact on the child’s fitness level. Playing outdoors allows them to explore their environment, develop muscle strength and coordination.
You can ask your kids to play more with the children their age outdoors and to socialize with their school’s sports team as well. Doing so would enhance their social skills and boost their self-confidence too. The more they play outdoors, the less time they have to gaze at mobile. Limit their screen time with the help of a child monitoring app.
Involve them in the mundane household chores
When children start making their beds, cleaning the room, or setting the table, they feel a sense of pride and accomplishment. Assigning duties help to teach them the value of teamwork, to help build a strong work ethic, and improve time-management skills.
You can reward them with a few minutes of screen time after the completion of the tasks. Involving the kids in regular, age-appropriate chores has been associated with social and emotional benefits that help them succeed throughout life. Set a proper routine for your child by using a kid’s safety apps.
Have honest conversations regularly
Meaningful conversations build trust and also develop your kid’s confidence. Your child realizes that you care about them, and you are interested in their lives. As they grow up, you can talk to them about technology and can understand their perspective about social media.
In a relationship where communication channels are weaker, a child hesitates to open up about the challenges they are facing online. Avoid it by ensuring that you are always there having their back in any situation.
Let your child send you an alert in the case of an emergency by using parental control apps.
Occasionally convert ‘screen time’ into ‘family time’
Join you, the child in online activities such as watching, reading or playing to encourage social interactions, bonding, and learning. Playing a video game with your kids is a good way to demonstrate sportsmanship and gaming etiquette.
You can watch a show with them, where you will have the opportunity to share your own life experiences and perspectives. Interact with them while they are online, to understand what they are doing.
Educate your children about the cons of technology and digital etiquette
Help your children understand how overexposure to screens affects physical well-being and can foster unhealthy dependence on technology. Make them aware of online hazards, such as cyberbullying, cyberstalking, online predation, and more. This is another important parenting tip.
Tell them to treat others how they wanted to be treated online. Teach about good manners in digital communication such as email, forums, blogs, and social networking sites.
Know about the latest technology
Generally, parents believe that they cannot catch up with the skills their kids acquire at a young age. Kids might stay one step ahead in their technical knowledge and abilities, but parents need to attempt to match their levels. Only then, they can effectively educate and guide them through the pitfalls. Stay informed: our ‘Digital Technology Guidelines For Parents’ series provides lots of parenting tips regarding online threats and how can these be avoided.
Children’s lack of knowledge, their developing brains, the tendency to take risks and the ignorance of the consequences can make them the targets of cyber-criminals. When parents are aware of the prevailing malware, spam, and other threats, they can guide their children safely on the digital path.
Invest in parental controls and allow guided access
Bit Guardian Parental Control allows parents to set limitations on a child’s phone. In case your child would come to you with the request to unblock some app, you can start a conversation about why you denied access in the first place.
By doing so, you will be teaching them to think about their actions online: a significant and invaluable skill for all digital users. Everyone in the family should be asked to follow specific predefined rules regarding device usage.
Smartphones can be distracting despite immense productivity. You keep getting notifications from different applications interrupting the momentum which can potentially affect your efficiency and make you addicted.
Parental control apps offer many useful features to ensure that your child’s attraction towards the smartphone does not get converted to the addiction. Bit Guardian Parental Control app is a wonderful child monitoring app that allows parents to block inappropriate apps/unwanted calls on the child’s phone.
It lets you create a geofence, the virtual boundary around your child, restrict a speed limit on their vehicles, limit the screen-time, set a schedule. Download parental control app for android, to let your child navigate safely across the web. Stay up to date with the digital technology guidelines for parents and parenting tips. | <urn:uuid:7e17bcf0-e77e-4129-84be-a0d2f951581c> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://blog.bit-guardian.com/digital-technology-guidelines-for-parents/ | 2024-09-21T00:47:54Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701425385.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920222945-20240921012945-00023.warc.gz | en | 0.95553 | 1,350 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Back in 1998 I went onto AskJeeves in search of a local store where I could buy a specific soccer jersey. The jersey was only carried by online retailers, and even worse, they were all outside of the country. The final blow: they only took credit cards. Even though I knew what his answer would be, I asked my dad if I could use his credit card.
“No,” was his adamant answer. “Give my credit card number to someone on the Internet? You must be crazy!”
What is a Certificate Authority? A Certificate Authority (CA) is an entity that issues digital certificates (SSL/TLS Certificates). A CA must be equipped with the right processes and technologies in order to be able to issue digital certificates. |
What is both amazing and scary about the Internet is that when you open a browser, you are opening a window to the whole world. As much as we try to make it so, the world isn’t always a good place.
Criminals not only have the ability to steal you money and property, they are also capable of stealing entire identities.
CAs are responsible for providing a channel for secure connections (by encrypting websites with SSL/TLS Certificates) as well as making sure those channels are not compromised by anyone with a stolen identity. Companies like Entrust Datacard issue thousands of Certificates a year and have to make sure that they are issued to the correct identity every single time.
As our world operates with many checks and balances to make sure we have a stable society, CAs are the checkers and balancers of digital identities. They offer secure, encrypted connections in exchange for money, but also in exchange for honesty. If you lie to a CA, they will find out, and they won’t do business with you. That’s what they do.
And this is something to be aware of. Encryption is one half of the SSL formula. There is an equally important aspect of an SSL Certificate that some CAs overlook: identity verification.
Don’t: Choose a CA That’s “Phishy” About Identity Verification
Some CAs have a reputation of being a bit “phishy” about identity verification by having low verification standards, and have paid the price for it by issuing certificates to false identities.
CAs that don’t take identity verification seriously could be compromised and have their verification procedure circumvented if they are not careful in how they proceed in verifying the identity of their customers. While some CAs value speed of issuance and low price over all else, they put themselves and their customers at risk of circumvention by not surrounding their core product – the SSL Certificate – with the proper procedures and execution of protocol that makes a CA completely reliable and trustworthy.
Do: Choose a CA That Invests Its Resources In Identity Verification
CAs like Entrust Datacard surround their basic encryption product with comprehensive support and management tools as well as expert verification departments to prevent bad eggs from getting into the system. Your place on the Internet should be secured by a CA that not only values your security, but also who you are.
When choosing a CA, there is a checklist of items to be aware of that can help you make the right choice. I’ve listed three keys to choosing a CA below, and we’ll explore this topic further in my next post:
Industry Standards: Does the Certificate Authority meet or exceed industry standards established by the WebTrustTM Program for Certificate Authorities or the European Telecommunications Standards Institute?
There when you need them: What kind of support is available to help with technical issues or installation assistance?
Verification practices: Are certificates issued by the CA passed through a verification procedure? Has the procedure ever been breached?
NEXT ON PROVE IT: How to pick the right Certificate Authority. | <urn:uuid:3ee4aa5f-232b-471e-a6f0-d5f96f27b57f> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.entrust.com/blog/2016/08/prove-it-can-one-certificate-authority-be-more-reliable-than-another | 2024-09-20T23:50:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725701425385.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920222945-20240921012945-00023.warc.gz | en | 0.969134 | 806 | 2.890625 | 3 |
A laser-driven technique for creating fusion that dispenses with the need for radioactive fuel elements and leaves no toxic radioactive waste is now within reach, say researchers.
Dramatic advances in powerful, high-intensity lasers are making it viable for scientists to pursue what was once thought impossible: creating fusion energy based on hydrogen-boron reactions. And an Australian physicist is in the lead, armed with a patented design and working with international collaborators on the remaining scientific challenges.
In a paper in the scientific journal Laser and Particle Beams, lead author Heinrich Hora from the University of New South Wales in Sydney and international colleagues argue that the path to hydrogen-boron fusion is now viable, and may be closer to realisation than other approaches, such as the deuterium-tritium fusion approach being pursued by U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) and the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor under construction in France.
“I think this puts our approach ahead of all other fusion energy technologies,” said Hora, who predicted in the 1970s that fusing hydrogen and boron might be possible without the need for thermal equilibrium. Rather than heat fuel to the temperature of the Sun using massive, high-strength magnets to control superhot plasmas inside a doughnut-shaped toroidal chamber (as in NIF and ITER), hydrogen-boron fusion is achieved using two powerful lasers in rapid bursts, which apply precise non-linear forces to compress the nuclei together.
Hydrogen-boron fusion produces no neutrons and, therefore, no radioactivity in its primary reaction. And unlike most other sources of power production – like coal, gas and nuclear, which rely on heating liquids like water to drive turbines – the energy generated by hydrogen-boron fusion converts directly into electricity. But the downside has always been that this needs much higher temperatures and densities – almost 3 billion degrees Celsius, or 200 times hotter than the core of the Sun.
However, dramatic advances in laser technology are close to making the two-laser approach feasible, and a spate of recent experiments around the world indicate that an ‘avalanche’ fusion reaction could be triggered in the trillionth-of-a-second blast from a petawatt-scale laser pulse, whose fleeting bursts pack a quadrillion watts of power. If scientists could exploit this avalanche, Hora said, a breakthrough in proton-boron fusion was imminent.
“It is a most exciting thing to see these reactions confirmed in recent experiments and simulations,” said Hora, an emeritus professor of theoretical physics at UNSW. “Not just because it proves some of my earlier theoretical work, but they have also measured the laser-initiated chain reaction to create one billion-fold higher energy output than predicted under thermal equilibrium conditions.”
Together with 10 colleagues in six nations – including from Israel’s Soreq Nuclear Research Centre and the University of California, Berkeley – Hora describes a roadmap for the development of hydrogen-boron fusion based on his design, bringing together recent breakthroughs and detailing what further research is needed to make the reactor a reality.
An Australian spin-off company, HB11 Energy, holds the patents for Hora’s process. “If the next few years of research don’t uncover any major engineering hurdles, we could have prototype reactor within a decade,” said Warren McKenzie, managing director of HB11.
“From an engineering perspective, our approach will be a much simpler project because the fuels and waste are safe, the reactor won’t need a heat exchanger and steam turbine generator, and the lasers we need can be bought off the shelf,” he added.
Other researchers involved in the study were Shalom Eliezer of Israel’s Soreq Nuclear Research Centre; Jose M. Martinez-Val from Spain’s Polytechnique University in Madrid; Noaz Nissim from University of California, Berkeley; Jiaxiang Wang of East China Normal University; Paraskevas Lalousis of Greece’s Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser; and George Miley at the University of Illinois, Urbana.
IMAGES & BACKGROUND | <urn:uuid:e593e4bf-51a7-46c1-a598-d56a1f23c60b> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://drasticnews.com/laser-boron-fusion-now-leading-contender-for-energy/ | 2024-09-07T13:25:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650883.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907131200-20240907161200-00323.warc.gz | en | 0.926532 | 880 | 3.734375 | 4 |
Watch this episode on YouTube.
Reasonably Accurate 🤖🧠 Transcript
Good morning, everybody. How are you doing today? Back with another episode. This time again, talking about cybersecurity basics. We're moving into um, a little more of what you probably thought when you started thinking about cybersecurity basics. Um And that let me just adjust the frame.
There we go. Um, is malware. We're going to talk about malware today. Now, it's telling that I waited until episode six of the basics run to start talking about something that most people think are with cybersecurity. And I think that is because we spend far too much time talking about these crazy new attacks, these theoretical ways of breaching systems.
And we do spend too much time talking about malware. So what exactly is malware? Well, malware is malicious software. Now, we started using the name malware probably about 15 years ago or so, but we used to call these computer viruses.
And the first one popped up in 1971 as an experiment and it was designed to see how systems, how software could move between systems. And then there was cases throughout the seventies and then it really started picking up a little bit more in the eighties and the early nineties, the system started to be more connected because if you can remember, like I can, um, before the internet, um, if you wanted to share software, you physically had to give somebody a floppy disk, big floppy disk and they had to then go to their system and install it.
And we started calling software that infected other computers, viruses. Now, a virus would infect a computer when a certain program was executed. So if you tried to install that Pirated game, and yes, it started with a lot of Pirated software way back when you would actually end up getting a nasty surprise in that there was a virus program on that, on that disk that was designed to either do some destructive actions or, you know, play a trick.
There wasn't so much of a cybercrime enterprise, but it wasn't long before criminals figured this out, especially as computers got connected. So now, you know, we started to see different kinds of viruses pop up. We saw things called worms and now the defining characteristic of a worm is that it will self propagate, it will start to push itself to other systems.
So a virus had to be installed or run from a point of infection on every machine. Whereas a worm kind of figures itself out and it worms its way through a network or connected computers, right? Makes total sense. But since then, we started to see different types of malware pop up.
Now, I think being a grammar nerd, half of the naming thing came from, people couldn't remember whether to call multiple viruses, viruses or Vira really depends. Computer mice and computer mouses. But we moved to Malware and there's a whole bunch of other wares.
We have software. Everybody knows that we have hardware, people know that. And so malware does make sense, malicious software. But now we also have spyware. This is software with a malicious intent that's designed to spy on your activities.
This is normally disguised or normally actually piggybacked on legitimate software. Spyware will then creep on what you're doing and report back to some central authority. We actually saw this early on with a lot of marketing campaigns and sort of, you know, the intention was either to enforce copyright or to gather data, not necessarily malicious.
But now we're seeing that obviously in the malicious context, same with adware. Adware isn't necessarily malware, but a lot of people treat it as such. It's software that pushes ads down to you nonstop. Of course, in 2016, 2015, we started to see the rise of ransomware and this is malicious software.
It's malware that infects your computer and encrypts your data. It locks you out of your own data and it tries to sell you back the key. And so essentially it locks you out of all your precious photos and movies and says, hey, if you want to access back to these, you're going to have to pay me 300 to $600 in Bitcoin or equivalent in Bitcoin.
And I'll give you the key back. Now. We know from the statistics you're very unlikely to the key to get your data back. And obviously you shouldn't be paying cyber criminals and encouraging them because this is a profit driven business.
But ransomware is another one of the malware family. So malware really straightforward. It's software that's designed with a malicious intent. There's a lot of different types of it where we see new types all the time. We see cyber criminals, you know, working on called exploit kits, which helps them generate new malware to take advantage of vulnerabilities.
There's a whole host of them and while the individual sort of subgroups tell you something as a defender, as a concerned, it user, the real thing here is the malware is malicious software. It's designed to do something that you don't want it to do.
So that's the term malware. Does that make sense to you? Let me know, hit me up online at marknca for those of you on the vlog in the comments down below and as always for podcast listeners and for everybody else, you can hit me up on email firstname.lastname@example.org.
What's your favorite subgroup of the wee suffixed family? Um Do you have a particular example that you would kind of dawned on you that? Wow, this is a real big problem. Maybe that was slammer. Maybe that was the Morris Worm way back when there's a ton of different interesting historical cases, um, associated with malware.
Um, what do you think of the fact that it took six episodes of basics to actually start to get on to the stuff that most people think is the coolest. Um, let me know. I hope you're set up for a fantastic day.
I am off for the next few days. I am back on Tuesday, the fourth of September 2018. Um, enjoy your long weekend. I know I am gonna do my best to do that. I hope, uh, you will talk to me soon because the show is very much audience driven.
Um, again, have a fantastic long weekend and we'll see you next week. | <urn:uuid:ce7934b2-99a1-47b9-ad27-1ad1bd755b89> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://markn.ca/2018/cybersecurity-basics-6-malware/ | 2024-09-07T15:25:07Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650883.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907131200-20240907161200-00323.warc.gz | en | 0.972984 | 1,318 | 3.265625 | 3 |
I have a very strong memory of my mother teaching me how to spell “Wednesday.” She was busy packing lunches in preparation for a normal elementary school day, and she called out, “It starts out W-E-D, like wedding. It’s tricky.” I spelled it correctly in my spelling quiz that day, and to this day, I recall her tip when I write the word.
On National AI Literacy Day, this simple memory makes me think of the value of passing foundational skills through generations. Is the world ready to pass around foundational AI skills?
AI has the potential to create solutions for society’s biggest challenges, but it also has the potential to cause another digital divide or further exacerbate the one we already have. Without widespread AI access, adoption and literacy—from knowing how to input effective prompts to understanding the tools available—we’re limiting access to the opportunities AI can offer and increasing the gap between technology’s haves and have-nots.
Dell Technologies has been working with The National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA) to get in front of this issue. Together, we’re encouraging conversation about the use of AI tools, how to expand access to them, how AI could be used to increase access to technology and how all these activities could result in a diversity of voices influencing AI development and inclusive global policymaking.
Understanding societal needs around AI is critical. Here are some of our observations and areas of focus.
Equitable Access to Devices and Internet Connectivity is Still a Baseline Need
Easy access to technology such as devices and high-speed Internet connectivity is a foundational need to access the benefits of our digital society. Since access to these basic tools is not equitable today, access to generative AI (GenAI) is also not equitable. This inequality is being recognized by governments around the world, including G7 ministers who have committed to collaborate with others to enhance local AI digital ecosystems.
By continuing to build and deploy digital inclusion programs focused on improving access to technology and the skills to use it, particularly in underrepresented communities, there will be more diverse people with familiarity and understanding of new technology like GenAI. This understanding of and access to the tools, along with inclusive regulatory design and deployment, is a necessary component of building safer and less biased GenAI tools.
Digital Skills Training Programs Are Essential for People to Safely and Confidently Use AI
Teaching how to safely use AI is a natural component of digital inclusion skills programs. If a digital inclusion practitioner is teaching someone how to use a browser, they can also teach an individual how to use GenAI tools like ChatGPT or Microsoft’s Copilot. Just as digital inclusion instructors teach community members about Internet security and how to be safe by identifying bogus websites and phishing, they’ll also play an essential role in teaching others how to verify content provided by GenAI tools. Bridging a widening skills gap is also critical to prepare a diverse workforce for the future. It is important that workforce development programs across the public and private sectors incorporate a basic AI curriculum, due to its essential value for our present and future.
Communities Need Trusted Experts to Help People Access Digital Services
The most effective way of bringing more people online is to connect them with a trusted person who can guide them through the process. AI tools can accelerate the work of these trusted individuals. However, these digital navigators—experts from the digital inclusion community— need to be part of the whole process. For example, Dell supports Drexel’s ExCITe Center, which assists community members in connecting to free or low-cost Internet services and provides computer maintenance and refurbishing services and training to the community. Future tools that can accelerate the ExCITe’s center’s mission could be backed by AI technology, but their efficacy and success will depend on the trusted community member at the center of its design and deployment.
“As the NDIA community, we know that technology alone will not solve the digital divide. Humans are essential to digital inclusion, to help introduce emerging technologies and guide the use of new technologies.”
– Angela Siefer, Executive Director, National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA)
At NDIA’s Net Inclusion Conference in February 2024, Dell Technologies built the AI Discovery Hub, powered by Dell equipment. Young adults from Hopeworks, a nonprofit organization, became AI digital guides for the day and ran personalized demos of GenAI productivity-centric tools. Feedback was extremely positive: “I really enjoyed that Dell showcased a non-profit doing digital navigator work specifically with AI to help users better understand how AI can benefit them. This is something that has been asked of us from our community. Dell’s AI Hub brought education and ease to what can be a scary topic to many in the digital inclusion space.”
AI Literacy to Empower All
My mother’s tip for remembering how to spell “Wednesday” forms part of one small brick in the foundation of my overall literacy skills, much like understanding AI provides a crucial link for navigating the rapidly evolving digital world.
By focusing on digital skills training, trustworthy digital navigation and equitable access to technology, organizations like the NDIA and Dell Technologies are paving the way for a future where AI can be a tool for empowerment for all. GenAI could help millions of people leapfrog stages of their digital journey—and everyone deserves to jump off the same foundation. | <urn:uuid:5ed5235f-4db9-4ca0-a921-75cdfc5c623c> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.dell.com/en-hk/blog/ai-literacy-a-foundational-building-block-to-digital-equity/ | 2024-09-07T14:39:03Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700650883.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20240907131200-20240907161200-00323.warc.gz | en | 0.944651 | 1,134 | 3.21875 | 3 |
Advanced analytics is heating up. AI, machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks are just some of the terms we hear and should know more about. While most of us will never become statisticians or unicorn data scientists, it's wise for us to understand some of the basic terms, especially since we'll be hearing a lot more about machine learning in the coming years. Here are a few terms we should all know from some sites that have much more to offer:
Algorithm - a step by step procedure for solving a problem.
Attribute - a characteristic or property of an object.
Classification - to arrange in groups.
Clusters - groups of objects that share a characteristic that is distinct from other groups.
Correlation - the extent to which two numerical variables have a linear relationship.
Deep Learning - An AI function that imitates the workings of the human brain.
Decision Tree - a decision support tool that uses a tree-like graph or model of decisions and their possible consequences, including chance event outcomes, resource costs, and utility.
Natural Language Processing (NLP) - the automatic (or semi-automatic) processing of human language.
Neural Networks - a series of algorithms that attempts to identify underlying relationships in a set of data by using a process that mimics the way the human brain operates.
Normal Distribution - symmetrical distributions that have bell-shaped density curves with a single peak.
Outlier - an observation that lies an abnormal distance from other values in a random sample from a population.
Regression - a statistical process for estimating the relationships among variables.
Statistical Model - a formalization of relationship between variables in the form of mathematical equations.
Supervised Learning - accomplished with training data that includes both the input and the desired results.
Unsupervised Learning - accomplished with training data that does not include the desired results.
What Terms Would You Add?
This list above does not represent all terms that apply to machine learning because I have limited space and it's more fun to continue the discussion.What are some of your favorites in the comments section.
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September 24, 2024 | <urn:uuid:09c3ecba-9142-4a63-92bf-54ba79837cc8> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.informationweek.com/machine-learning-ai/16-machine-learning-terms-you-should-know | 2024-09-08T18:37:50Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651017.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20240908181815-20240908211815-00223.warc.gz | en | 0.937491 | 495 | 3.3125 | 3 |
The emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) technology has significantly impacted the way we live, work, and connect. These technologies play a critical role in enhancing our lives through the seamless interconnecting of devices, creating faster, more efficient, and cost-effective solutions.
A core component of IoT and M2M technology is cellular connectivity. This enables devices to connect over a cellular network and exchange data.
Understanding the role of core networks in cellular connectivity is vital to the success of IoT and M2M devices. Let’s explore the importance of core network connectivity and how it differs from roaming and multi-IMSI solutions.
Core Networks in IoT & M2M Technology
Core networks (also known as the “backbone networks”) are the heart of cellular connectivity for IoT and M2M technology. They are responsible for transmitting data between devices through multiple base stations and across multiple networks.
A core network ensures the efficient and reliable delivery of traffic between main network nodes. The data transmission is highly secure, and the core network is responsible for the authentication of devices.
The core network provides connectivity and routing services between different parts of the network and controls the flow of traffic between these parts.
Core networks significantly impact the reliability, speed, and security of IoT and M2M technologies. With the use of core networks, devices can operate with high efficiency and minimum latency across worldwide networks.
Moreover, core networks also provide numerous security features like encrypted data traffic, network redundancy, and device authentication.
Core Connectivity is Superior to Roaming
Roaming solutions are a popular option, but they often lack the necessary infrastructure to support IoT and M2M devices. Roaming relies on leveraging the network infrastructure of other providers.
This can cause issues with connectivity, speed, and security. In contrast, core network connectivity offers a dedicated infrastructure for these devices, which translates into improved performance.
Another disadvantage of roaming solutions is the cost. Roaming fees can be expensive, and costs can vary depending on the destination.
This can be detrimental to businesses that rely on IoT and M2M technology. Additionally, multi-IMSI solutions can be complex and hard to manage, requiring considerable effort from the IT department.
As IoT and M2M technology continue to grow and expand, the importance of core network connectivity becomes even more crucial.
Core networks can handle a higher volume of data transfers and provide faster processing times, which are essential for many of the features that these technologies require. Core networks also offer a superior level of security, protecting devices from hacking attacks, malware, and other potential threats.
Understanding the role of core networks in cellular connectivity is vital for making informed decisions about your company’s IoT and M2M strategy. At the end of the day, it’s not only about connecting devices but also building a robust and reliable infrastructure for IoT and M2M technology’s success.
Expanding Your IoT Reach with eSIM
In today’s ever-expanding world of connected devices, the traditional SIM card is becoming increasingly limiting. Whether it’s switching networks, managing multiple devices, or simply having the flexibility to control your connectivity, there are growing expectations on what SIM technology can deliver.
Enter the eSIM, which is poised to revolutionize the way we connect and communicate in the digital age. By connecting key cellular-enabled technologies and overcoming common connectivity challenges, eSIM has emerged as a game-changer for businesses, and this revolutionary technology is making traditional SIM cards obsolete.
eSIMs are embedded, programmable SIM cards that allow devices to switch between networks without physically changing the SIM card. eSIM technology enables seamless connectivity and ensures optimal machine-to-machine communication (M2M) connecting IIoT solutions across a myriad of industries including oil and gas, mining, manufacturing, railway, agriculture, healthcare, and automotive.
As connected devices continue to grow in complexity and scope, eSIM technology can provide reliable connectivity while reducing overhead costs associated with physical SIM card management. eSIM technology brings many benefits to the table, including scalability, reliability, security, and flexibility.
With the power of eSIM technology, businesses can easily integrate IoT devices with core networks, making connectivity more seamless, secure, and most importantly, highly available. By leveraging the power of eSIM technology, businesses will be able to unlock new operational efficiencies and gain competitive advantages for years to come. | <urn:uuid:88d3fa8d-38d4-41c9-98c2-2516730e356f> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.iotforall.com/understanding-core-networks-and-their-vital-role-in-cellular-connectivity | 2024-09-11T05:48:53Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651344.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20240911052223-20240911082223-00023.warc.gz | en | 0.930648 | 921 | 2.75 | 3 |
The requirements which demand less mobility and low cost within a radio range are ideal for people connected with the Internet who work in remote areas and operating businesses. These are: self-healing nature and integration with various different networks which include cellular networks and IEEE 802.11, 802.16 also and flexible to work with more than one protocol.
Today we look more in detail about wireless mesh topology, how it works and its architecture, its features and advantages inclusive of its use cases etc.
About Wireless Mesh Technology
A wireless mesh network (WMN) as they call it is a mesh network created using various wireless nodes with access points. Each node in the network acts as a forwarding node to its neighbouring node to transfer the data. The network is decentralized in its architecture hence forwarding of data is only possible to neighbouring nodes.
Wireless networks may or may not be connected to the Internet. The network topology of wireless mesh networks could be full or partial mesh. A full mesh means every node will communicate to every other node in the network. In partial mesh nodes only communicate to their nearby nodes.
When data is transmitted between two nodes, they do not communicate with each other, data hopping happens from one node to the next node until it reaches its final destination. The nodes are programmed to use adaptive routing algorithms to constantly determine the optimal route between nodes for transmission of data.
Wireless Mesh Architecture
Wireless Mesh technology is an infrastructure which is a network of routers without the cabling between the nodes. It consists of radio nodes which need not be wired to a cabled port unlike conventional wireless access points. Nodes between the source and destination act as forwarding nodes, shortest hops are predicted to transmit the data to a large distance. Wireless mesh topology is reliable.
Types of Wireless Mesh Networks
Wireless mesh networks are segregated into three types based on nodes functionality in the network as under:
Infrastructure Mesh Architecture:
Acts as wireless backbone for infrastructure in mesh architecture. Client node is passive in mesh architecture via Ethernet links; conventional clients with Ethernet interfaces will be connected to mesh routers. If a traditional network and mesh router are operating under the same radio range it is easier for a mesh network to communicate with a mesh router. In case radio ranges differ, nodes will communicate to the base station for further communication assistance to mesh routers.
Mesh Architecture based on Clients:
Mesh architecture based on client having peer to peer connectivity. Each node acts as a routing node for data transfer. Client performs the role of mesh routing by acting in the forwarding of data packets.
Hybrid Mesh Architecture:
Mesh nodes/routers act as backbone for the entire network operation. Using a network mesh router, it performs routing and forwarding of data packets to the destination.
Features of Wireless Mesh Technology
- Dynamically self-configurable and self-organized
- Adaptive in nature with ease of installation and uninstallation of nodes
- More fault tolerant and robust
- Useful for non-line of sight (NLoS) networks
- Ease of integration and interoperability supports different types of protocols
- Cost of designing network is less as compared to traditional networks
Limitations of Wireless Mesh Technology
- Low processing capabilities lead to latency as data need to hop though several nodes
- Lack of central server makes mesh systems complicated to monitor , control and troubleshoot
- Lack of centralization makes routing and resource management more complex
- Battlefield surveillance
- Mobile video applications
- Home Wi-Fi networks
- Public Wi-Fi networks
- Construction sites
- Connecting IoT devices such as sensors, security systems, smart appliances and monitoring systems
- Hospitals, educational campuses and warehouses | <urn:uuid:5ea5d9e6-8a70-4e10-991c-d07dd74fcf64> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://networkinterview.com/what-is-wireless-mesh-technology/ | 2024-09-13T14:25:51Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651523.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913133933-20240913163933-00723.warc.gz | en | 0.937282 | 751 | 3.96875 | 4 |
Remember how I found you there, alone in your electric chair
With hurricanes and thunderstorms, you can lose electricity. Protect your computer. Use an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
A UPS is a battery backup that sits between the power outlet and your computer. When a power failure occurs, the UPS will switch from the utility power to its own battery powered source.
Most UPS devices come with software that will monitor your computer and turn your computer off if the power does go out for an extended period of time, helping prevent any damage.
A loss of power could cause hardware issues or data loss. A surge protector is not good enough to protect your critical data. Having a UPS will help ensure your computer is safely shutdown in the event of a power loss. | <urn:uuid:ca5563a9-13d5-4967-b8e9-fb865a374200> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.castlecomputer.com/post/remember-how-i-found-you-there-alone-in-your-electric-chair | 2024-09-13T14:46:13Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651523.40/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913133933-20240913163933-00723.warc.gz | en | 0.938944 | 158 | 2.78125 | 3 |
If you thought ransomware was scary, now the world of cybersecurity is contending with an even more diabolical threat – killware. No, we’re not talking about SkyNet, the self-aware AI computer security network from the Terminator movies hell-bent on destroying all humans. But the idea of cyberattacks actually designed to kill people is, apparently, all too real.
After the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in the Spring of 2021 – which disrupted a major fuel delivery pipeline and resulted in the company paying a $4.4 million ransom – companies large and small are on edge. And with good reason, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in an interview with USA Today. A recent attack on a water treatment plant in Oldsmar, Florida came dangerously close to succeeding in distributing contaminated water to residents. What is disturbing about the Florida attack was that the motive was not financial gain. It was simply to do people harm. While some media outlets reported on the hack, it was overshadowed by other incidents. “The Florida attack should have gripped our entire country,” Mayorkas said.
Hospitals and Infrastructure in the Crosshairs
Killware could be devastating if a hospital became the target of an attack. Such an intrusion could lead to patients suffering life-threatening complications or even death. Speculation is that companies in the private sector may already have more of a widespread problem than is known. Such companies often don’t make cyberattacks public.
Killware could also be weaponized to attack transportation systems, police, and emergency, or even smart-home devices such as thermostats. A report from Gartner predicts that by 2025, “cyber attackers will have weaponized operational technology (OT) environments to successfully harm or kill humans.”. There could also be an economic impact that could reach the tens of billions of dollars by 2023.
With the success in extorting money from vulnerable businesses, the pace of hackers is not expected to slow anytime soon. According to the eCrime Index from CrowdStrike’s 2021 Global Threat Report, cybercrimes have risen almost 124% since February of 2021. And with the lure of easy money, there is no end in sight. As of 2020, cybercriminals are raking in $1.5 Trillion a year in ill-gotten gains.
Protect Yourself From Killware
The more sophisticated hackers become, the more diligent we must be. This includes all aspects of our day-to-day computer and online lives, both at work and at home. The first line of defense is to be aware that bad people are always looking for a way to exploit technology. For that reason, it is critical that we all use basic steps and best practices to improve the security of our devices. These basics include, but are certainly not limited to:
- Use Strong, Unique Passwords
- Use Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA)
- Audit accounts and deprovision departing users
- Implement the Principle of Least Privilege (POLP)
At Carolina Digital Phone, we take our customers’ safety and security very seriously. We are constantly working to update systems and improve security. To keep updated on important stories and topics, we encourage you to subscribe to our newsletters and subscribe to our blog. | <urn:uuid:8067801a-6872-4464-8a73-a572d7f9ecc5> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://carolinadigitalphone.com/killware-is-the-new-ransomware/ | 2024-09-14T21:10:36Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651580.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20240914193334-20240914223334-00623.warc.gz | en | 0.956421 | 678 | 2.53125 | 3 |
More than a decade ago since the concept of SDN proposed on the heel of OpenFlow, software-defined networking has experienced several year’s research. Until 2012, after Google’s announcement of its backbone network successfully operated on OpenFlow, distributing 12 data centers in the world and increasing WAN utilization from 30% to nearly 100%, OpenFlow had proved its identification as a mature and advanced technology to be applied in the data center networks. Correspondingly SDN networking compliant with programmable feature of OpenFlow protocol become a booming networking technology in the big data centers. What is SDN? What are the advantages brought about by SDN networking? This article may help you to understand.
What Is SDN Networking?
Software-defined networking (SDN) is a technology developed to cater for modern high bandwidth and dynamic applications. It is invented in the historical context to change existing stalled networking infrastructure to a dynamic and manageable one. The core technology is on the basis of OpenFlow protocol to divide software from hardware network device, which makes SDN support software defined functionality. As thus software-defined networking infrastructure becomes more flexible and agile. For instance, SDN networking achieves centralized management by one remote monitoring controller. All network components in the structure such as severs, routers, or Ethernet data switch can be easily added and removed in an efficient way.
What Are the Advantages of SDN Networking?
SDN technology detaches network control from networking hardware devices, making SDN networking directly programmable. Operators can write the SDN program themselves and quickly implement configuration, management, security monitoring and networking optimization. As thus the flexible SDN Networking supports flexible tracking control to adjust traffic agilely and cater for dramatic demands.
SDN networking deploys a centralized intelligent controller, which programs devices like SDN data switch by software, bridges communication between data devices and applications and displays the network panorama in a virtual switch. It leaves out troubles of differentiating network devices and supports customized control. For instance, in a leaf-spine architecture 10 gigabit switch and 40/ 100GbE switch are deployed in data center different layers. A SDN controller in SDN networking can manage each switch synchronously.
Figure 1: SDN switches and other network applications are controlled and communicated via SDN protocol by a centralized SDN controller in SDN network environment.
What Are the Applications of SDN Networking?
In traditional architecture, reconfiguring a network device is a cumbersome task. Driving by the fast changing Internet business applications, modern networking environment requires for functionality to achieve flexible adjustment. SDN networking meets the need, booming and busting in wide applications. Software-defined networking has developed into three networking branches: software-defined mobile networking (SDMN), software-defined wide area networking (SD-WAN) and software-defined local area networking (SD-LAN). Overall SDN is frequently used in data center applications. For instance, deploying SDN switch provided by FS.COM such as FS N5850-48S6Q 48 port 10 gigabit switch with 6 QSFP+ 40GbE ports in SDN networking environment can achieve easy flow control and configuration.
Figure 2: Deploying FS 40/100GbE switch in software-defined networking environment as a SDN visibility and security solution.
SDN technology transfers the stagnant situation of internet networking architecture, making SDN networking flexible and agile to business applications. Detaching control functionality from hardware devices (eg. SDN switch), SDN networking achieves quick configuration and management via a centralized SDN controller. Operators can reset an Ethernet switch through SDN protocol in a quick and easy way. | <urn:uuid:bf1cbcbd-0e53-4b99-a421-d962cd6c0b74> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.fiber-optic-components.com/tag/sdn-controller | 2024-09-18T15:41:27Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651899.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918133146-20240918163146-00323.warc.gz | en | 0.893063 | 751 | 2.921875 | 3 |
The author thanks Shaun Nordeck, MD, for his assistance with this report.
With the explosion of growth in technology and its influence on our lives, we have become increasingly dependent on it. The medical field is no exception: Medical professionals trust technology to provide them with accurate information and base life-changing decisions on this data. McAfee’s Advanced Threat Research team is exploring these devices to increase awareness about their security.
Some medical devices, such as pacemakers and insulin pumps, have already been examined for security concerns. To help select an appropriate target for our research, we spoke with a doctor. In our conversations we learned just how important the accuracy of a patient’s vital signs is to medical professionals. “Vital signs are integral to clinical decision making” explained Dr. Shaun Nordeck. Bedside patient monitors and related systems are key components that provide medical professionals with the vital signs they need to make decisions; these systems are now the focal point of this research.
Exploring the attack surface
Most patient monitoring systems comprise at minimum of two basic components: a bedside monitor and a central monitoring station. These devices are wired or wirelessly networked over TCP/IP. The central monitoring station collects vitals from multiple bedside monitors so that a single medical professional can observe multiple patients.
With the help of eBay, we purchased both a patient monitor and a compatible central monitoring station at a reasonable cost. The patient monitor monitored heartbeat, oxygen level, and blood pressure. It has both wired and wireless networking and appeared to store patient information. The central monitoring station ran Windows XP Embedded, with two Ethernet ports, and ran in a limited kiosk mode at start-up. Both units were produced around 2004; several local hospitals confirmed that these models are still in use.
The two devices offer a range of potential attack surfaces. The central monitoring station operates fundamentally like a desktop computer running Windows XP, which has been extensively researched by the security community. The application running on the central monitoring station is old; if we found a vulnerability, it would likely be tied to the legacy operating system. The patient monitor’s firmware could be evaluated for vulnerabilities; however, this would affect only one of the two devices in the system and is the hardest vector to exploit. This leaves the communication between the two devices as the most interesting attack vector since if the communication could be compromised, an attack could possibly be device independent, affecting both devices by a remote attack. Given this possibility, we chose networking as the first target for this research. Dr. Nordeck confirmed that if the information passing to the central monitoring system could be modified in real time, this would be a meaningful and valid concern to medical professionals. Thus the primary question of our research became “Is it possible in real time to modify a patient’s vitals being transmitted over the network?”
When performing a vulnerability assessment of any device, it is best to first operate the device as originally designed. Tracking vital signs is the essence of the patient monitor, so we looked for a way to accurately simulate those signs for testing. Many hardware simulators are on the market and vary drastically in cost. The cheapest and easiest vital sign to simulate turned out to be a heartbeat. For less than $100 we purchased an electrocardiogram (ECG) simulator on eBay. The following image illustrates our test network:
In our test bed, the patient monitor (left), central monitoring station (right), and a research computer (top) were attached to a standard switch. The research computer was configured on a monitor port of the switch to sniff the traffic between the central monitoring device and the patient monitor. The ECG simulator was attached to the patient monitor.
With the network configured, we turned to Wireshark to watch the devices in action. The first test was to boot only the central monitor station and observe any network traffic.
In the preceding screenshot a few basic observations stand out. First, we can see that the central station is sending User Datagram Protocol (UDP) broadcast packets every 10 seconds with a source and destination port of 7000. We can also see clear-text ASCII in the payload, which provides the device name. After collecting and observing these packets for several minutes, we can assume this is standard behavior. Because the central station is running on a Window XP embedded machine, we can attempt to verify this information by doing some quick reverse engineering of the binaries used by the application. After putting several libraries into Interactive Disassembler Pro, it is apparent that the symbols and debugging information has been left behind. With a little cleanup and work from the decompilers, we see the following code:
This loop calls a function that broadcasts Rwhat, a protocol used by some medical devices. We also can see a function called to get the amount of time to wait between packets, with the result plugged into the Windows sleep function. This code block confirms what we saw with Wireshark and gives us confidence the communication is consistent.
Having gained basic knowledge of the central monitoring station, the next step was to perform the same test on the patient monitor. With the central station powered down, we booted the patient monitor and watched the network traffic using Wireshark.
We can make similar observations about the patient monitor’s broadcast packets, including the 10-second time delay and patient data in plaintext. In these packets we see that the source port is incrementing but the destination port, 7000, is the same as the central monitoring station’s. After reviewing many of these packets, we find that offset 0x34 of the payload has a counter that increments by 0xA, or 10, with each packet. Without potentially damaging the patient monitor, there is no good way to extract the firmware to review its code. However, the central monitoring station must have code to receive these packets. With a bit of digging through the central station’s binaries, we found the section parsing the broadcast packets from the patient monitor.
The first line of code parses the payload of the packet plus 12 bytes. If we count in 12 bytes from the payload on the Wireshark capture, we can see the start of the patient data in clear text. The next function called is parse_logical_name, whose second parameter is an upper limit for the string being passed. This field has a maximum length of 0x20, or 32, bytes. The subsequent code handles whether this information is empty and stores the data in the format logical_name. This review again helps confirm what we see in real time with Wireshark.
Now that we understand the devices’ separate network traffic, we can look at how they interact. Using our network setup and starting the ECG simulator we can see the central monitor station and the patient monitor come to life.
With everything working, we again use Wireshark to examine the traffic. We find a new set of packets.
In the preceding screen capture we see the patient monitor at IP address 184.108.40.206 is sending the same-size data packets to the central monitoring station at address 220.127.116.11. The source port does not change.
Through these basic tests we learn a great deal:
- The two devices are speaking over unencrypted UDP
- The payload contains counters and patient information
- The broadcast address does not require the devices to know each other’s address beforehand
- When the data is sent distinct packets contain the waveform
Attacking the protocol
Our reconnaissance tells us we may have the right conditions for a replay attack. Such an attack would not satisfy our goal of modifying data in real time across the network; however, it would provide more insight about the requirements and may prove useful in reaching our goal.
After capturing the packets from the simulated heartbeat, we attempted to replay the captures using Python’s Scapy library. We did this with the patient monitor turned off and the central monitoring station listening for information. After several attempts, this test was unsuccessful. This failure shows the system expects more than just a device sending data packets to a specific IP address.
We examined more closely the packets that are sent before the data packets. We learned that even though the packets are sent with UDP, some sort of handshake is performed between the two devices. The next diagram describes this handshake.
In this fanciful dialog, CMS is the central monitoring system; PM is the patient monitor.
To understand what is happening during the handshake, we can relate each phase of this handshake to that of a TCP three-way handshake. (This is only an analogy; the device is not actually performing a TCP three-way handshake.)
The central monitoring station first sends a packet to port 2000 to the patient monitor. This can be considered the “SYN” packet. The patient monitor responds to the central station; notice it responds to the source port of the initial request. This can be considered the “SYN,ACK.” The central station sends the final “ACK,” essentially completing a three-way (or three-step) handshake. Directly following this step, the patient monitor sends another packet to the initial port of the “SYN” packet. The central monitor responds to the patient monitor on port 2000 with a new source port. Immediately following, we see the data packets being sent to the new source port, 3627, named in the previous exchange.
This exam provides insight into why the replay attack did not work. The central station defines for each connection which ports will be open for the incoming data; we need to consider this when attempting a replay attack. Modifying our previous Scapy scripts to account for the handshake, we retested the replay attack. With the new handshake code in place, the test still failed. Taking another look at the “SYN,ACK” packets provides a potential reason for the failure.
At offset 0x3D is a counter that needs to be incremented each time one of these packets is sent. In this case the patient monitor’s source IP address is embedded in the payload at offsets 0x2A and 0x30. This embedded IP address is not as important for this attack because during the replay our scripts can become the patient monitor’s IP; however, this will become more important later. The newly discovered counter needs to be accounted for and incremented.
Emulating a patient monitor
By taking these new findings into account our replay attack becomes successful. If we can observe a certain ECG pattern, we can play it back to the central monitoring station without the patient monitor on the network. Thus we can emulate the function of the patient monitor with any device. The following video demonstrates this emulation using a Raspberry Pi. We set our Scapy scripts to load after booting the Pi, which mimics the idle function of the patient monitor. When the central monitor requests information about the patient’s vitals, the Pi provides the station with an 80-beats-per-minute wave form. This also works with the other vital signs.
Impact of emulation
Although we have not yet reached our goal of real-time modification, we must consider the implications of this type of attack. If someone were to unplug the monitor of a stable patient and replace it with a device that continued to report the same stable vitals, would that cause any harm? Probably not immediately. But what if the stable patient suddenly became unstable? The central station would normally sound an alarm to alert medical personal, who could take appropriate action. However, if the monitor had been replaced, would anyone know help was needed? The patient monitor also normally sounds alarms that might be heard in and outside of the patient’s room, yet if the monitor was replaced, those alarms would be absent.
In hospitals, nurses and other personal generally make periodic checks even of stable patients. So any deception might not last long, but it might not need to. What if someone were trying to kidnap a patient? A kidnapper would alert fewer people than would be expected.
Switching from a real patient monitor to an emulator would cause a short loss in communication from the patient’s room to the central monitoring station. Is this enough to make the scenario unrealistic or not a threat? We asked Dr. Nordeck if a short loss in connection could be part of a reasonable scenario. “A momentary disconnection of the ECG would likely go unnoticed as this happens often due to patient movement or changing clothes and, as long as it is reconnected, will be unlikely to cause an alert,” he said.
Modifying vitals in real time
Although emulating the patient monitor is interesting, it did not accomplish our goal of making real-time modifications. Using what we learned while testing emulation, could we perform real-time injection? To answer this question, we must first understand the difference between emulation and real-time injection.
Emulation requires a deeper understanding of how the initial connection, the handshake, between the two devices occurred. When considering real-time modification, this handshake has already taken place. But an attacker would not know which port the data packets are being sent too, nor any of the other ports used in the data stream. Plus, because the real patient monitor is still online, it will constantly send data to the central monitoring station.
One way to account for these factors is to use Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) spoofing. If the patient monitor is ARP spoofed, then the attacker, instead of the central monitoring station, would receive the data packets. This step would allow the attacker to determine which ports are in use and stop the patient monitor’s data from getting to the central monitoring station. Because we have already shown that emulation works, the attacker simply has to send replacement data to the central station while appearing as the patient monitor.
For example, consider the following original packet coming from the patient monitor:
The patient monitor sends a packet with the patient’s heartbeat stored at offset 0x71 in the payload. The patient monitor in this screen capture is at IP address 18.104.22.168. An attacker can ARP spoof the patient monitor with a Kali virtual machine.
The ARP packets indicate that the central station, IP address 22.214.171.124, is at MAC address 00:0c:29:a1:6e:bf, which is actually the Kali virtual machine. Wireshark recognizes two MACs with the same IP address assigned and highlights them, showing the ARP spoof.
Next the attacker from the virtual machine at address 126.96.36.199 sends false information to the central monitoring station, still at address 188.8.131.52. In this example, offset 0x71 has been changed to 0x78, or 120. (The attacker could choose any value; the following demo videos use the heartbeat value 180 because it is more alarming.) Also notice the IP address stored in the payload, which we discovered during the reconnaissance phase. It still indicates this data is coming from the original patient monitor address, which is different from the IP address on the packet’s IP header. Due to this implementation, there is no need for the attacker to spoof their IP address for the attack to be successful.
Two videos show this modification happening in real time:
Impact of real-time modification
Although the monitor in the patient’s room is not directly affected, real-time modification is impactful because medical professionals use these central stations to make critical decisions on a large number of patients—instead of visiting each room individually. As long as the changes are believable, they will not always be verified.
Dr. Nordeck explains the impact of this attack: “Fictitious cardiac rhythms, even intermittent, could lead to extended hospitalization, additional testing, and side effects from medications prescribed to control heart rhythm and/or prevent clots. The hospital could also suffer resource consumption.” Dr. Nordeck explained that short changes to a heartbeat would generally trigger the nurse or technician monitoring the central station to page a doctor. The doctor would typically ask for a printout from the central station to review the rhythm. The doctor might also order an additional test, such as an EKG, to verify the rhythm. An EKG, however, would not likely capture an abnormal rhythm if it is intermittent, but the test might reveal an underlying cause for intermittent arrythmia. Should the rhythm recur intermittently throughout the day, the doctor might make treatment decisions based on this erroneous printout.
The American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology publish guidelines that hospitals are to follow, including for “intermittent cardiac rhythms,” seen in this chart:
A decision tree for treating an intermittent heart rate. Source: American Heart Association.
The first decision point in this tree asks if the patient is hemodynamically stable (whether the blood pressure is normal). This attack does not affect the bedside monitor. A nurse might retake the patient’s blood pressure, which would be normal. The next decision point following the “Yes” path is a diagnosis of focal atrial tachycardia. Regardless of the medical terms and answers, the patient is issued medication. In the case of a network attack, this is medication the patient does not need and could cause harm.
This research from McAfee’s Advanced Threat Research team shows it is possible to emulate and modify a patient’s vital signs in real time on a medical network using a patient monitor and central monitoring station. For this attack to be viable, an attacker would need to be on the same network as the devices and have knowledge of the networking protocol. Any modifications made to patient data would need to be believable to medical professionals for there to be any impact.
During our research we did not modify the patient monitor, which always showed the true data; but we have proven the impact of an attack can be meaningful. Such an attack could result in patients receiving the wrong medications, additional testing, and extended hospital stays—any of which could incur unnecessary expenses.
Both product vendors and medical facilities can take measures to drastically reduce the threat of this type of attack. Vendors can encrypt network traffic between the devices and add authentication. These two steps would drastically increase the difficulty of this type of attack. Vendors also typically recommend that medical equipment is run on a completely isolated network with very strict network-access controls. If medical facilities follow these recommendations, attackers would require physical access to the network, greatly helping to reduce the attack surface.
One goal of the McAfee Advanced Threat Research team is to identify and illuminate a broad spectrum of threats in today’s complex and constantly evolving landscape. Through responsible disclosure we aim to assist and encourage the industry toward a more comprehensive security posture. As part of our policy, we reported this research to the vendor whose products we tested and will continue to work with other vendors to help secure their products. | <urn:uuid:d0912f05-83fc-4a8d-a608-6e52709de9bb> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/other-blogs/mcafee-labs/80-to-0-in-under-5-seconds-falsifying-a-medical-patients-vitals/ | 2024-09-18T16:08:06Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651899.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20240918133146-20240918163146-00323.warc.gz | en | 0.943371 | 3,910 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Creator: University of California San Diego
Category: Software > Computer Software > Educational Software
Tag: assessment, Java, learning, programming, students
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In this course for teachers we'll guide you both in learning Java concepts and skills but also in how to effectively teach those to your students. This course will support you in teaching the Advanced Placement Computer Science A course or a similar introductory university-level programming course. We'll begin with simple instruction sequences, primitive types, and using objects, as covered in the APCS A Units 1 and 2. Each topic will begin by relating Java to block-based programming languages and then provide video overviews of CS Awesome content along with additional materials to supplement learning for your students. You'll engage with additional materials to support your teaching including “deep dive” classroom discussion questions and assessment overviews and options for your students. | <urn:uuid:5c62ac21-a778-4334-9871-e478c26b0b56> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://datafloq.com/course/learn-to-teach-java-sequences-primitive-types-and-using-objects/ | 2024-09-19T22:13:11Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652067.20/warc/CC-MAIN-20240919194038-20240919224038-00223.warc.gz | en | 0.919892 | 229 | 3.09375 | 3 |
Many in the security field focus on securing data networks against hackers and viruses, but voice conversations often require the highest level of protection too. For government agencies and contractors, the need is obvious: having the ability to discuss classified information in full confidence that it will not be overheard or intercepted.
What is a SCIF?
This is where a SCIF comes in: a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility. Typically, this is a purpose-built room in a building, or a portable enclosure, where sensitive phone conversations can take place in complete privacy. SCIFs are accredited for use by the Federal government with standards defined by the defense and intelligence communities.
SCIF construction: The details matter
To achieve this level of security, SCIF defines building requirements that greatly exceed those achieved by typical commercial construction. Walls, ceilings, and floors, for example, must be constructed so that they will reveal evidence of unauthorized entry or tampering. Special materials must be used on these surfaces to prevent leakage of electromagnetic or radio frequencies that might be collected by bad actors. The surfaces can even be “hardened” with noise generators that radiate a blend of frequencies to produce a sound like running water.
All telephone, electrical power, security systems, data, and emergency systems must be dedicated to and contained within the SCIF. Where the conduit for any of these systems penetrates the SCIF perimeter, they must be hardened to minimize the chance of compromise.
The SCIF door and frame assembly also must prevent signal leakage, as well as meet local building and safety codes. The doors must employ two access control technologies: one for daily use and one for secure lock up when the SCIF is unattended.
Cabling and network infrastructure
In the case of structured cabling and network infrastructure, projects must follow the security specifications required to receive site survey certification and approval. Each aspect of the network requires special attention, including:
- Shield Twisted Pair / Fiber / Hybrid Infrastructure
- Wire-ways / Conduit / Transport
- Cabinets / Main Distribution Frame / Communications Closet
- Station Drops / Cabling
- Labeling / Inspection / Administration
Secure TSG-6 certified phones
The phones within the SCIF must meet the JITC Unified Capabilities certification for Assured Services SIP End Instruments.
Putting it all together
The growing number of attacks on government and enterprise data networks, their increasing sophistication and persistence, and the emergence of a new breed of cyber criminals intent on inflicting as much damage as possible all point to the need for tighter security measures. When it comes to protecting sensitive voice communications, federal agencies and contractors have come to rely on a proven solution – SCIF.
Partnering with an experienced technology provider can streamline the accreditation process, prevent implementation delays, and facilitate the safe discussion of classified information. Contact CTS today: 800.787.4848 or firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:d1d3095a-c08c-45a6-8952-610eb092d863> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://chesapeaketelephone.com/2022/08/10/how-scifs-protect-classified-and-proprietary-phone-calls/ | 2024-09-10T04:57:35Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651196.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910025651-20240910055651-00223.warc.gz | en | 0.915223 | 600 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Putting together a cybersecurity strategy is a lot like growing onions. If it doesn’t have layers, you’re probably doing it wrong.
Of course, we’re talking about multi-layered cybersecurity. With more school districts taking a renewed interest in data protection, many are looking high and low for new ways to keep student privacy safe. Luckily, that’s exactly what a layered approach to cybersecurity is all about.
In this blog, we’ll explain the basics of multi-layered protection and why your school district stands to gain from an additional layer of cloud security.
A multi-layered cybersecurity strategy uses multiple layers of defense to protect sensitive data from potential threats, such as malware, ransomware, or a phishing attack.
Each layer provides a different level of protection fulfilling its own specific data security function. These multiple layers work in combination to create a comprehensive and effective cybersecurity posture.
By taking a layered approach, you can protect the entire attack surface from unauthorized access or exposure. In simpler terms, it allows you to cover all the bases simultaneously.
If you want to understand the value of multi-layered threat protection, it’s best to put it into context.
According to Forbes, a traditional security strategy generally involves designing a defensive perimeter around your most sensitive data. Preventative tactics like this are crucial to safeguarding assets from conventional attack vectors, but tend not to account for internal threats like an accidental leak.
A layered approach works more proactively. It implements various types of data security controls at different levels of your IT infrastructure. For example, multi-layered cybersecurity could include firewalls, data loss prevention tools, endpoint security, or access controls. Because each layer is designed to detect and prevent different types of threats, they work together to create a holistic security framework.
Notably, this multi-layered approach is similar to “defense in depth,” a strategy that also uses multiple layers of controls to mitigate cyber threats. However, a defense-in-depth strategy typically focuses security operations on a single layer of the infrastructure (e.g., the device or network), whereas multi-layered security focuses on the entire technology stack.
K-12 school districts have much to gain from implementing multiple layers of cybersecurity:
As the K-12 school system changes, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to prevent student information from falling into the wrong hands. Specifically, three factors are driving the push for multi-layered cybersecurity:
Simply put, schools can’t afford to think of cybersecurity in a vacuum. Why? Because hackers don’t limit themselves to just one means of attack. In reality, they’re using a wide variety of strategies to bypass defense mechanisms and exfiltrate sensitive information. Consider the anatomy of a typical K-12 cyber attack:
The above scenario is just one example of how hackers might use multiple attack vectors. This allows them to cast a much wider net, scooping up valuable data right from under your nose.
Let’s dive deeper into exactly what makes up a multi-layer security strategy. Generally, the multiple layers of a cybersecurity tech stack consist of the following:
In combination, these levels work together to form a thick blockade. However, there’s still one additional layer of security most school districts woefully go without.
Eager to save money, support remote learning, and ditch their clunky old technologies, schools adopted cloud services in leaps and bounds. During the pandemic, cloud apps became a staple of the edtech ecosystem.
The only problem? Cloud security, as it turned out, took a much smaller slice of the pie.
According to Edweek Research, the vast majority of schools operate in the cloud, but just 20% of cybersecurity budgets are used to protect cloud data. That means roughly 80% of school clouds are open season for hackers looking to make an easy buck.
Worse yet, it means student data is up for grabs. Even schools that have a multi-layered security strategy aren’t sufficiently protected if they lack an additional layer of cloud security. Why? Because other security controls aren’t designed to safeguard the cloud, which means schools lack complete visibility.
On top of it all, hackers aren’t the only cloud-based risk threatening student privacy. Edtech vendors themselves pose a significant danger to your district. In fact, third-party vendors were responsible for over half of all school data breaches between 2016 and 2021, according to the K12 Security Information Exchange.
Fortunately, schools can close the gaps in their security posture by implementing a CASB solution. In simple terms, a Cloud Access Security Broker works as a hall monitor in your district’s cloud domains and its users — your students, staff, and third-party vendors.
CASB tools monitor your cloud domain for suspicious activity, then automatically alert you to potential threats. For example, if a staff member accidentally shares a Google Sheet or Doc containing personally identifiable information, the platform detects the incident and enables you to step into action.
Take ManagedMethods, for instance. As an automated cloud security platform, ManagedMethods provides an additional layer of protection designed specifically for Google Workspace and Microsoft 365. With deep integrations, customizable policies, and unprecedented visibility, you can better protect your district from cyber risk with a truly multi-layered strategy — all from one pane of glass. | <urn:uuid:14ae7bc3-9559-495e-b894-a78be85837c0> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://managedmethods.com/blog/multi-layered-cybersecurity/ | 2024-09-10T03:42:59Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651196.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20240910025651-20240910055651-00223.warc.gz | en | 0.931396 | 1,119 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Organizations that collect, process and store personal data are responsible for both how it is used, and how it is protected. To do this effectively, data security and data privacy strategies must be implemented into company processes.
When it comes to data privacy and data security, however, we frequently hear the two terms used interchangeably. While there are, of course, similarities between the two terms, there are some fundamental differences that make it crucial for your data protection strategy to be able to differentiate the two.
With that in mind, in this blog we define both terms, and take a look at the differences between the two.
What is data privacy
Data privacy refers specifically to how personal data is collected and used, including the proper handling of that data, data processing, data storage and how that personal information is used by your organization.
As a result, data privacy often revolves around data privacy compliance with regulations such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) in the US, or the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados (LGPD) in Brazil.
Which data privacy regulations your organization will be required to comply with will depend on where you do business and where you collect personally identifiable information (PII).
Data privacy is less about protecting data from malicious threats, and more about ensuring you comply with local regulations that dictate how private information can be collected, used, stored and processed.
- Implementing data discovery software, so your business knows what PII it has, where it is being stored and who has access to it.
- Identifying and classifying personal data.
- Building a company-wide data usage policy.
- Controlling who has access to sensitive data.
- Implementing a data backup and recovery solution.
What is data security?
Data security is the focus on protecting personal data from being accessed by unauthorized and malicious cyber threats. Data security is made up of policies and procedures that protect your company’s sensitive information from being accessed by cybercriminals.
In addition, data security policies also help protect your business’ sensitive information from internal threats and human error, which are actually the leading causes of data breaches today.
- Implementing data loss prevention strategies.
- Using encryption to protect data.
- Using authentication and authorization control for access to data.
- Using technologies such as firewalls, antivirus software and endpoint protection.
- Understanding what data your business has and where it is stored.
What is the difference between data privacy and data security?
Companies have two obligations for how they protect data. Firstly, they must secure the data they collect from being accessed by outside threats, and, secondly, they must protect how the organization uses the data it collects from consumers.
For example, if a business were to sell PII to a third-party company without consumer permission, that’s a violation of the consumers’ privacy. If the same company was to suffer a data breach that exposed PII to cybercriminals, that’s a security failure that also violates the consumers’ privacy.
Both of these are examples of a company violating the consumers’ privacy rights, but for two different reasons. In its simplest form, data security is about protecting data from malicious and unauthorized threats, while data privacy is about using personal data responsibly.
Why is it important to understand these differences?
It’s crucial that companies understand the differences between data privacy and data security for two reasons; firstly to comply with data privacy in the countries that you operate and collect data, and, secondly, to ensure you have the procedures and policies in place to mitigate the risk of cybercrime.
Data security and data privacy fall under the same umbrella, but differentiating them is a crucial component of ensuring you have the right strategies in place.
The combination of both data security and data privacy is important to mitigate the risk of data breaches, theft of PII and misuse of sensitive data. When both strategies are effective, your business will avoid violating privacy regulations and lessen the opportunity for data breaches.
Interested in learning more about data privacy, data security and how they both contribute to your company’s overall data protection strategy? Watch a demo of Cavelo today. We’ve developed an innovative platform that gives organizations complete visibility into what data they have, where it lives and who has access to it - supporting both data security, and data privacy. | <urn:uuid:b5c95d3d-0712-4473-8665-950e20cfe7ee> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.cavelo.com/blog/data-privacy-vs-data-security | 2024-09-12T14:58:08Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651460.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20240912142729-20240912172729-00023.warc.gz | en | 0.94137 | 920 | 2.890625 | 3 |
The threat of cyber attacks is something that no-one can ignore. As our reliance on technology has grown, so too has the scale and complexity of the risk posed online.
Cyber security now has to be among the considerations for investors. When people pore over a forex calendar plotting their currency trades or scour financial news sites gauging the best assets and investments, they might well want to weigh up how secure the market is when it comes to the threat of cybercrime.
So, where is this threat most keenly felt? Well, that depends on how you measure the threat. In this post, we’ll have a look at some different metrics highlighted by Comparitech and other sources and what they tell us about the relative strength of these economies.
Ransomware – India
Ransomware is one of the most terrifying types of cyber attack – in which hackers demand payment to prevent the release of sensitive data. This is the sort of attack that could do long lasting financial and reputational damage to a business – depending on the nature of the business involved. This sort of attack is most common in India, where it was found that almost one in ten users (9.6%) have been attacked by some form of ransomware. Russia (6.4%) and Kazakhstan (5.75%) were second and third worst affected.
DDos/malware – China
While ransomware poses a threat to a businesses’ data, DDoS attacks can bring a website to its knees. Downtime can be extremely costly, especially for online-only operations who are closed for custom by such an attack. The fact that just under 30% of DDoS attacks originated in China is, therefore, alarming – as is the fact that 49% of computers in the country is said to have suffered from malware too.
Highest cost – America
While the number of attacks is telling, you can tell a lot about the scale of the danger by the impact. Lots of small scale and low level attacks are one thing, but bigger, costlier incidents have a deeper economic impact on businesses and customers. It’s for this reason that CompariTech’s figures for America are alarming. It found that cyber crime costs the country $17.36 million, more than double that of Japan, which had the second highest cost of $8.39 million. The cost of cyber crime was third highest in Germany ($7.84 million), fourth in the UK ($7.21 million) and fifth in Brazil ($5.27 million).
Insecure networks – Belgium
Insecure networks are a breeding ground for the spreading of online threats. With this in mind, Rapid7 used its Project Sonar software to come up with a ‘National Exposure Index’ outlining the countries with the most unsafe or potentially vulnerable internet services. Top of the index – and therefore most insecure – was Belgium. Tajikistan was second and Samoa third.
E-commerce attacks – Indonesia
E-commerce sites are clearly a key target for hackers given that they handle high volumes of sensitive financial data. The Merkle recently stated that Indonesia suffers most from cyber attacks – with the rate jumping by 33% between 2014 and 2015 – and that E-commerce sites are the victims in most of these cases.
Whether it’s Indonesia and e-commerce attacks, Belgium’s insecure networks, DDoS and malware in China, ransomware in India or the cost of attacks in America – there are many countries that can be said to be at risk from cyber crimes for different reasons. The challenge for these countries in particular is to be able to counter the threat and reassure businesses that they are a safe place to operate in.
[su_box title=”About Rapid7″ style=”noise” box_color=”#336588″][short_info id=’60232′ desc=”true” all=”false”][/su_box]
The opinions expressed in this article belongs to the individual contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Information Security Buzz. | <urn:uuid:3fe14b7f-3db2-49d7-85ac-86615139d9d0> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/top-5-financial-markets-open-attack/ | 2024-09-13T17:40:02Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651535.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913165920-20240913195920-00823.warc.gz | en | 0.952757 | 842 | 2.765625 | 3 |
What Is a Data Lake?
A data lake is a centralized repository which is used to store, process, and secure large volumes of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data. Unlike traditional databases that store data in hierarchical formats (tables and rows), data lakes maintain information in its native format, including files, images, audio, and video. This flexibility allows for the storage of vast amounts of raw data in its original configuration, offering significant scalability and versatility for big data analytics, machine learning projects, as well as data discovery and visualization.
Understanding Data Lakes
The concept of a data lake is rooted in the desire to store a massive volume of data from various sources without prior structuring or schema definitions. This approach provides several benefits:
- Scalability: Data lakes can be straightforwardly scaled up to accommodate petabytes of data, making them suitable for enterprises generating large amounts of data.
- Flexibility: They can store different types of digital information from multiple sources, such as IoT devices, social media, corporate databases, and more.
- Advanced Analytics: By retaining data in its raw form, data lakes facilitate complex analytical processes and machine learning models, enabling deeper insights and data-driven decision-making.
The architecture of a data lake often involves multiple layers: data ingestion, storage, processing, and management, ensuring the data remains accessible and secure.
Applications of Data Lakes
Enhanced Data Management and Analysis
Data lakes offer a robust solution for managing and analyzing vast datasets. They enable organizations to:
- Aggregate Diverse Data Sources: Data lakes can integrate data from disparate sources, such as sensors, social media, and transactional systems, providing a holistic view of the information.
- Facilitate Big Data Projects: With their ability to handle large-scale, diverse data, data lakes are integral to big data initiatives, supporting complex analytics and data mining.
- Improve Business Intelligence: They aid in extracting actionable insights from raw data, leading to informed decision-making and strategic planning.
Supporting Advanced Analytics and AI
Data lakes are useful in advancing analytics and artificial intelligence (AI). They do so by:
- Enabling Machine Learning: They provide a vast pool of data necessary for training machine learning models.
- Supporting Real-time Analytics: The architecture of data lakes allows for real-time data processing, essential for dynamic analytics and immediate insights.
- Enhancing Data Discovery: With a repository of diverse data sets, data lakes facilitate data discovery, enabling businesses to uncover hidden patterns and correlations.
Data Lake vs. Data Warehouse
It's important to understand the difference between a data lake and a data warehouse:
- Data Lake:
- Typically stores raw, unstructured data but can also store other data formats.
- Suitable for data discovery, advanced analytics, and machine learning.
- Highly scalable and flexible.
- Data Warehouse:
- Typically only stores structured, processed, or semi-structured data.
- Optimized for efficient data retrieval and analysis.
- Primarily designed for routine business intelligence and reporting.
While both are valuable for data management, they serve different purposes and are, therefore, used based on specific business needs and data strategies.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Data Lakes
- What Is Data Lake Architecture?
Data lake architecture refers to the framework that organizes and manages the storage, processing, and analysis of large and diverse data sets. It typically includes scalable storage for raw data, processing engines for big data tasks, and tools for data governance and security. This architecture supports a variety of data types and formats, facilitating complex analytics and insights while ensuring data accessibility and integrity in a centralized digital repository. - Is Amazon S3 a Data Lake?
Amazon S3, or Simple Storage Service, is not a data lake itself. More accurately, it's a scalable cloud storage solution. However, it can be utilized as a storage component within a data lake architecture, offering a flexible means of handling different types of data. - What Are Real-World Examples of Data Lakes?
In the real world, data lakes are employed in industries such as healthcare for storing patient records and research data. They’re also utilized in finance for fraud detection and customer data analysis. In retail, analyzing customer behavior and inventory management is often supported by data lake storage while, in telecommunications, they’re typically used for analyzing network performance and assessing customer service data. - How Does a Data Lake Differ from a Data Swamp?
A data swamp refers to a poorly managed data lake that becomes cluttered and inefficient due to a lack of organization and governance. Unlike a data lake, which stores raw data in a structured manner, a data swamp leads to difficulties in data retrieval and potential quality issues, reducing overall efficiency. | <urn:uuid:39aee3d2-b85c-4ce6-a0a3-169bba776afc> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.supermicro.org.cn/en/glossary/data-lake | 2024-09-17T12:18:47Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651773.64/warc/CC-MAIN-20240917104423-20240917134423-00523.warc.gz | en | 0.903587 | 981 | 3.265625 | 3 |
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is designed to give individuals control over their personal information by increasing the transparency of where their information is going.
GDPR “harmonizes data privacy laws across Europe, protects and empowers all EU citizens’ data privacy and reshapes the way organizations across the region approach data privacy.”
EU citizens shall have the right to obtain from the controller confirmation as to whether personal data are being processed, and where that is the case, access to the personal data.
Also known as “The Right to be Forgotten”, EU citizens right to erase personal data without undue delay where the personal data are no longer necessary in relation to the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.
Data subjects have the right to obtain “restriction of processing” from the controller for certain circumstances to limit the way an organization uses their personal data and instead of requesting erasure.
Personal data must be kept in a form which permits the identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for archiving purposes, including protection against unauthorized processing and against accidental loss or destruction, using appropriate technical measures.
Data controllers must implement appropriate technical measures for ensuring that, by default, only personal data which are necessary for each specific purpose is processed. This applies to the amount of personal data collected, the extent of processing and the period of storage and accessibility.
Data controllers must maintain records of processing activities, including categories of data subjects and personal data, the envisaged time limits for the different categories of data, and a general description of technical and security measures.
An important component to GDPR is a DSR. This is a formal request by a data subject (user/employee) to a controller to take an action (change, restrict, access) regarding their personal data.
Under GDPR, a personal data breach is a breach of security leading to the accidental or unlawful destruction, loss, alteration, unauthorized disclosure of, or access to, personal data transmitted, stored, or otherwise processed. Breach notifications are required, and the processor shall notify the controller without undue delay after becoming aware of a personal data breach.
The DPIA is a new requirement under the GDPR as part of the “protection by design” principle. According to the law:
Where a type of processing in particular using new technologies, and taking into account the nature, scope, context and purposes of the processing, is likely to result in a high risk to the rights and freedoms of natural persons, the controller shall, prior to the processing, carry out an assessment of the impact of the envisaged processing operations on the protection of personal data.
Companies subject to GDPR are advised to strictly comply with GDPR in order to avoid the risk of heavy financial fines. One way to ensure compliance is through 17a-4 DataParser.
A communications and content archiving tool, DataParser is instrumental in the archiving and retaining customer data in order to comply with GDPR. DataParser is the simplest and most affordable way to achieve data compliance because it leverages your existing infrastructure.
DataParser extends the ability of your email archive to capture non-email communications, such as:
Once these content types are ingesting into your current email archive – whether on-prem or in the Cloud – the data can be retained, searched during eDiscovery and reproduced for regulator inquiries and internal Information Governance. | <urn:uuid:7788fdb2-cf10-40f5-89a2-31df3d68fe12> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.17a-4.com/gdpr/ | 2024-09-14T01:24:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700651540.77/warc/CC-MAIN-20240913233654-20240914023654-00023.warc.gz | en | 0.90711 | 697 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Cybersecurity is beginning to take it's rightful place at the forefront of business operations, but hackers are constantly searching for work arounds. They're constantly looking for weak links to increase their chance of breaching secure targets. That's where supply chain attacks come in.
We, as Foregenix and as a security community, have seen our fair amount of breaches publicised the last year or so. Many of them are your run-of-the-mill breach where software is out-of-date, which provides an avenue for attackers within your infrastructure; or a phishing email that is sent to a list of potential targets to act upon it. We have also seen an increase in a certain category of attacks called a supply chain attack. But, what is a supply chain attack and why should you care?
A supply chain attack is an attack that targets individuals indirectly, through a vulnerable element in their supply chain. This element would be used by the targeted individual on day-to-day operations and/or be relied upon. An attacker compromising that element may in some cases, by extension, mean compromising the targeted individual operations and data as well. A supply chain attack can be targeted or blind.
Targeted supply chain attack: A targeted attack means that there is a clearly defined target at the end of it. For example, the attacker’s main target is entity B, however, he/she will compromise entity A to get their end goal of compromising entity B. This also means an amount of reconnaissance has taken place beforehand to prove that reliance.
Blind supply chain attack: In this type of attack there is no visible end goal. An entity is compromised in order to gain access to as many organisations that rely upon it as possible and then make as much use of those subsequent compromises as possible. They may yield some interesting targets or they may not.
Now let us have a look at some of the “famous” supply chain attacks to start putting the theory into practice:
RSA/Lockheed Martin breach: On March 2011, RSA announced a breach to their systems. The spoils of that breach included data that could compromise the security of SecureID’ two factor authentication tokens. RSA never actually confirmed the content of what the attackers acquired. It was speculated that the attackers obtained access to the seed keys that are used in the calculation of the one-time password displayed on the screen of that token. Later that year, Lockheed Martin was the victim of a cyber-attack, attributing the success of the attack largely to the theft of the data for the RSA tokens. Lockheed Martin subsequently replaced all RSA SecureID tokens provided to the employees.
Target breach: In 2014, Target announced a breach of its systems resulting in the theft of around 110 million of its customers’ credit cards. The way inside Target was traced to a HVAC firm that had VPN credentials for the use of electronic billing, contract submission and project management. For an attacker to move from an externally accessible area to sensitive ones, let alone the POS network, there needed to be other controls failing as well. However. the initial entry point was that of the HVAC firm.
Petya/NotPetya: Petya/NotPetya ransomware started making the rounds in mid-2017. It was designed as ransomware but ended up being a wiper; as there was no way for someone to recover their files, either paid or via a decryptor. The attackers, in this case, compromised the update server of the vendor of a popular Ukranian accounting software. When the update process kicked in, the malicious code would be downloaded on the victim’s PC and start doing its thing. This is a perfect example of a blind supply chain attack.
CCleaner: Another 2017 supply chain attack that utilised the update mechanism of a popular software used by millions of people around the world. In this case it appears that the build server was somehow compromised to include malicious code in the actual software updates. This was later pushed to the update servers leading to a significant amount of compromised end-user systems. What makes this attack unique is the fact that it was a staged attack and part blind/part targeted. While the first stage of the malicious code would download and execute on all victims that updated their software; the second stage would only be downloaded and executed on victims that were part of large organisations, based on a filter in the malwares Command-and-Control server.
So! It looks like supply chain attacks are gaining popularity and are going nowhere anytime soon. As such, all organisations need to include and model such an attack vector on their risk management framework and processes. Nevertheless, how does one go about mitigating such an attack? Here are few ideas:
Security Architecture: It all starts with architecture.
Carefully catalogue all external dependencies and connections to start introducing security controls around them.
Properly segment systems that are accessible externally from the rest of the network.
Do not accept installing a third party solution on your own network. There are a few vendors that will only offer support if you install their own remote access gateway on your network. This is a common practice with one big vendor on the telecommunications industry and the industrial systems industry. If there is no other way around this, then integrate this in your monitoring solution so it does not present a black hole in your network. Build additional controls around it, such as isolating it from the rest of your network and only open access inbound subject to a ticketing process.
Apply the concept of least privilege for whatever you introduce in your network.
Application whitelisting: This may (if a separate update process kicks in) or may not (if a legitimate executable performs the update) stop a malicious update being pushed to the users depending on the software's update process . However, it will at the very least provide you with a baseline of approved installed software and processes running on your systems so you can guard against them.
As is evident from the points above, defending against a supply chain attack is not an easy feat. As such it comes down to each organisation and its risk appetite to decide the controls that can put in place to mitigate against it. We will reiterate at this point that it appears that Supply Chain Attacks are gaining popularity and at the very least should be modelled in each organisation's risk framework. At the end of the day, it is better to know your shortcomings than not knowing you have them at all. | <urn:uuid:8af5a163-8a8e-4f22-9832-2b8ba7112d07> | CC-MAIN-2024-38 | https://www.foregenix.com/blog/supply-chain-attacks-a-closer-look | 2024-09-20T04:02:44Z | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2024-38/segments/1725700652130.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20240920022257-20240920052257-00423.warc.gz | en | 0.966789 | 1,321 | 2.71875 | 3 |
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