text stringlengths 234 589k | id stringlengths 47 47 | dump stringclasses 62 values | url stringlengths 16 734 | date stringlengths 20 20 ⌀ | file_path stringlengths 109 155 | language stringclasses 1 value | language_score float64 0.65 1 | token_count int64 57 124k | score float64 2.52 4.91 | int_score int64 3 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
From 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255, IP version 4 addresses are mathematically finite and as I’m sure you’ve heard or read about, they are running out. (Follow the countdown on Twitter.) It’s quite apparent because we’ve reached that sensationalist level in the mainstream media. Rest assured, a solution is in place and plenty of people are working behind the scenes to make the transition as quickly as possible. The solution is called Internet Protocol version 6 or IPv6. What is it? What’s different about IPv6? Will we have to go through this again when IPv7 comes out? What happened to IPv5? All your questions answered in this article!
Meanwhile, the Internet Society is coordinating major websites like Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai, Limelight Networks, and possibly others to run their web content over IPv6 on June 8th, 2011. This event is becoming known as World IPv6 Day.
On 8 June, 2011, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight Networks will be amongst some of the major organisations that will offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour “test drive”. The goal of the Test Drive Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies – to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.
Today, Google announced on the Official Google Blog that they would be participating while also providing background details of IPv6. Beyond that history, the rest of this article will provide resources on the technical basics of IPv6.
IPv4 is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol and is the revision we are all familiar with. It gives you an IP address like: 192.168.1.1. With the number of available IPv4 addresses set to run out this year, the urgency of successfully implementing IPv6 is ever increasing.
|Bit-length of Addresses||32||128|
|Number of addresses||2^32 = 4.29*10^9||2^128 = 3.4 * 10^38|
|Number of classes||5: A, B, C, D, E||Does not use classes|
|Most common method of representation||Dot-decimal notation – 192.168.100.1||Hexadecimal separated by colons – 2001:252:0:1::2008:6|
(127.0.0.0 – 127.255.255.255)
|Private network ranges||10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255
172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255
For more details on IPv6, check out these resources:
- IPv6 Cheat Sheet
- University Presentation
- American Registry for Internet Numbers: IPv4/IPv6 – The Bottom Line
- GetIPv6.info IPv6 Wiki by ARIN
Benefits of IPv6?
- IPSec built into IPv6.
- No need for NAT
- No broadcasts, local node link
- No ARP
- Mobile IPv6
- Jumbograms up to 4 GiB
Is The World Ready For IPv6?
Here are the alarming results of a survey of IPv6 readiness of a ton of different organizations like universities and private partners.
Many of the major services are already running IPv6 or are working towards it. Here are some of those:
YouTube follows suit and transmits data over IPv6 to Google over IPv6 partners in February of 2010.
In June, 2009, the Netflix website and the instant streaming became accessible over IPv6 with a big part of that being their Content Delivery Network, Limelight embracing IPv6.
Comcast was set to begin a series of trials in January, 2010 of providing customers IPv6 addresses instead of IPv4.
The Mediacom Cable company refers to IPv6 in its FAQ only as “a much newer protocol” and “not supported by many devices yet.”
AT&T has been on-board with the White House Office of Management and Budget’s requirement that civilian agencies adopt and support IPv6 in their networks by June 2008.
Verizon also did residential trials on IPv6 support in April, 2010. By December of last year, they established a Verizon IPv6 Transition Professional Services group to help organizations transition to IPv6.
Sprint deployed IPv6 support in June 2010 to businesses and partners. For more details and testing your connection, you can visit www.sprintv6.net.
Google Public DNS “can respond to requests for IPv6 addresses (AAAA requests), but it does not yet support native IPv6 transport and cannot talk to IPv6-only authoritative nameservers.”
OpenDNS has had IPv6 on its roadmap for a long time.
The Beijing 2008 Olympics were streamed over IPv6 at http://ipv6.beijing2008.cn/en.
No-IP uses IPv6 on their nameserver clouds and will increase IPv6 support this year.
Facebook will participate in World IPv6 Day. They have offered IPv6 Facebook since last summer at www.v6.facebook.com.
NetworkWorld has an article from February last year on where some other web giants stood regarding IPv6 including: eBay, Yahoo, Microsoft, Wikipedia, and Twitter.
Amazon is another Internet company that would be interesting to know how they’re progressing with IPv6.
Microsoft implemented production level IPv6 support with Windows Vista. Previously, Windows XP and its service packs went from developer preview to production level in SP3.
Apple enabled IPv6 support by default in version 10.3 Panther of Mac OS X in 2003.
For hardware vendors like Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, and others, the InterOperability Lab and the IPv6 Consortium has worked with them to assist them pass an interoperability and conformance test. By passing these tests, the vendors can bear the IPv6 Ready Logo.
What happened to IPv5?
From the Wikipedia article on Internet Stream Protocol, IPv5 is not a successor of IPv4 but was part of an experimental protocol that happened to use 5 as the value in the Internet Protocol version number of its packets. It was never referred to as IPv5.
The Internet Stream Protocol (ST and later ST-II) was a family of experimental protocols first defined in Internet Engineering Note IEN-119 (1979), and later very substantially revised in RFC 1190 (ST-II) and RFC 1819 (ST2+). ST and ST-II packets carried the experimental non-IP real-time stream protocol. Although this protocol family has never been introduced for public usage, many of the concepts available in ST were similar to later Asynchronous Transfer Mode protocols and can be found today in Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS).
IP and ST packets can be distinguished by the IP Version Number field, i.e., the first four (4) bits of the packet; ST has been assigned the value 5 (see [RFC1700]). There is no requirement for compatibility between IP and ST packet headers beyond the first four bits. (IP uses value 4.)
Will there be an IPv7?
With 300 trillion-trillion-trillion addresses, we won’t face the looming countdown of available IPv4 addresses like we are now but there may be a transition to a new version of the Internet Protocol for technological advantages sometime down the road. Just speculating here, I believe that will be a far smoother transition due to its less pressing demand and the thought put into IPv6.
Even ping is ready for IPv6, are you?
Usage: ping [-t] [-a] [-n count] [-l size] [-f] [-i TTL] [-v TOS]
[-r count] [-s count] [[-j host-list] | [-k host-list]]
[-w timeout] [-R] [-S srcaddr] [-4] [-6] target_name
-f Set Don’t Fragment flag in packet (IPv4-only).
-v TOS Type Of Service (IPv4-only).
-r count Record route for count hops (IPv4-only).
-s count Timestamp for count hops (IPv4-only).
-j host-list Loose source route along host-list (IPv4-only).
-k host-list Strict source route along host-list (IPv4-only).
-R Use routing header to test reverse route also (IPv6-only).
-4 Force using IPv4.
-6 Force using IPv6. | <urn:uuid:152a6f62-2254-4c86-acf3-f686b98755fa> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.404techsupport.com/2011/01/covering-ipv6-basics-while-the-internet-society-and-others-announce-world-ipv6-day/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280801.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00080-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.901248 | 1,854 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Best Practices for Securing Private Keys and Code-Signing Certificates
Stuxnet, a high-profile cyberattack, used malware signed with legitimate code-signing certificates. What went wrong and how can you protect your own assets?
By Dean Coclin, Senior Director of Business Development, Symantec
The security world is abuzz over Stuxnet, perhaps the most sophisticated malware attack ever. It appears to have targeted certain facilities in Iran, particularly nuclear facilities, and infiltrated networks one would think to be actively secured. Stuxnet used many new and innovative tools to perform this infiltration, including program files digitally signed with the private keys of two legitimate companies.
Such an attack was inevitable. Code signing places certain responsibilities on users, and not all users are responsible. This article explains the measures you can take so your organization’s certificates, private keys, and good name don’t become the tools of malicious hackers.
The Basics of Code Signing
Code signing is a process that uses Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) technology to create a digital signature based on a private key and the contents of a program file, and packages that signature either with the file or in an associated catalog file. Users combine the file, the certificate, and its associated public key to verify the identity of the file signer and the integrity of the file.
Code signing starts with public and private keys created by a developer. Developers can create their own digital certificate containing the public key using one of the many available free tools, or can purchase one from a trusted certificate authority (CA) to whom they provided the public key. The user provides a name for the entity, typically a company, and other identifying information. The CA provides a certificate to the user. The certificate is also signed by the certificate authority.
It is essential that users keep private keys secure and confidential, restricting access only to those who absolutely need them. Anyone who has access to a private key can create software that will appear to be signed by the owner of the certificate.
A reputable CA that sells a code signing certificate will not take the applicant’s word for their identity. The CA will perform checks on the company names, phone numbers, and other information that is required to prove identity -- a process that can take up to several days.
With such a certificate and the associated private key, a programmer can digitally sign files distributed with the software. Software such as Windows can check these signatures and follow policies based on them, generally to ask whether they trust the publisher of the file.
When a certificate has become compromised, the certificate authority revokes it. The certificate itself contains links to where clients can check to see if it is revoked.
Stuxnet -- What Happened?
Stuxnet is (in)famous for many traits: It exploited a record four zero-day vulnerabilities in Windows, installed rootkits in Windows and in certain PLCs (Programmable Logic Controllers) controlled by Windows PCs, and appears to have a code quality far above that of normal malware. Finally, two of its executables are digitally signed with the private keys and code signing certificates from two separate legitimate companies.
How could this have happened? The two companies aren’t saying, and we can only speculate, but it’s well understood that it’s the developers’ responsibility to keep the private key secure. Clearly, Stuxnet’s perpetrators were sophisticated and had good resources at hand, but it’s also likely that the certificate owners did not go as far as they should have in the protection of their private keys.
Keys, Codes, and Breaches
The damage to the reputation of a company that suffers a code signature breach is serious enough. All security decisions reduce to trust decisions at some level, and trust must suffer in the case of such a breach.
The breach almost certainly indicates a severe security weakness, possibly in the building security, and certainly in the network security of the company. If the code signing private keys were stolen, what else was? What was modified? Is it possible that Trojan Horse code was inserted into the company’s source code? The number of distressing possibilities is large.
Meanwhile, the company will have to have the CA revoke their code signing certificates. If there are other private keys that were stored in a similar manner to those that were stolen, all of them need to be revoked. This magnifies the impact of the problem.
The company must decide whether they can determine the date of the intrusion, or if it was definitely after a certain date. If so, they must set that as the date of the certificate revocation. If they can’t, they must revoke the certificates, and probably revoke all certificates that were obtained as of the acquisition date of the compromised certificate.
The company must replace any code in the hands of customers which was signed with what is now a revoked certificate. This means contacting customers and explaining what happened, which you probably should do in any event. It’s embarrassing, but it’s the right thing to do if you hope to regain customer trust.
Best Practices: How to Avoid a Breach
There’s an old joke that the only safe computer is one that’s completely shut off from the rest of the world, and there’s more than a grain of truth to it. That’s why the most secure systems, including those with access to genuine code signing certificates, need to have the least connection possible to the outside world.
Such systems should be protected using the principle of least privilege, multi-factor authentication for access to the system and network, blocking all but the most necessary network ports, installing all available security updates, and running an updated antivirus scanner. Give developers at least two systems to work with; actual development systems should be connected to a separate network with separate credentials from those used for ordinary corporate computing, such as e-mail.
Separate Test Signing and Release Signing: You need to test your code when it's signed, but there's no reason to expose your real private keys and signing mechanisms more often or to more users than necessary. One best practice is to set up a parallel code-signing infrastructure using test certificates generated by an internal test root certificate authority. In this way, the code will be trusted only on systems with access to the test CA; if any pre-release code escapes the development/test network, it won't be trusted. These practices minimize the chances that something will be signed which shouldn’t be.
Cryptographic Hardware Modules: Keys stored in software on general-purpose computers are susceptible to compromise. It is more secure, and a best practice, to store keys in a secure, tamper-proof, cryptographic hardware device. These devices are less vulnerable to compromise and, in many cases, theft of the key requires theft of the physical device.
Three types of such devices are typically used:
- Smart cards
- Smart card-like devices such as USB tokens
- Hardware security modules (HSMs)
Such devices are trusted for the most critical applications. For example, Symantec (formerly VeriSign Authentication) has been using HSMs to hold and protect the private keys they use to sign digital certificates ever since the company was first started.
Some HSMs will also never allow the export of keys, which is a significant security benefit. In such a case, To steal the keys you would need to steal the actual HSM, and even then, without further credentials, you may not be able to use the keys in it.
FIPS (Federal Information Processing Standards) 140-2 () is a NIST standard for conformance testing of cryptographic modules performed by NIST-certified test labs. It has four levels of security at which the device may be certified. For instance, at level 3, in addition to supporting certain cryptographic functions, the device must be highly resistant to tampering.
HSMs, typically in the format of an add-on card or network-attached device, can also perform cryptographic operations internally. Critically, they can generate and operate on keys internally and back them up in encrypted form externally, so that they need never be stored in plain text outside of the device. Some smart cards also support key generation.
HSMs have several important advantages, such as dedicated cryptographic processors with high performance, automation features, and internal-key destruction.
Sometimes we don’t take security measures we know to be necessary until the threat is more appreciable than just a theory in a journal. This is what the case has been for the security of code signing private keys for many development shops.
Fortunately, if you value your intellectual property and your reputation, there are measures you can take to protect them. By securing your developer networks and facilities, formalizing code-signing processes with test signing, placing final code signing in a highly secured environment, and using hardware cryptographic devices to implement the signing, you can make yourself a difficult target to attack.
Dean Coclin is senior director of business development at Symantec, where he is responsible for driving the company’s strategic alliance with distribution, OEM, and technology partners. Coclin has more than 25 years of experience in software, security, and telecommunications, and was a founder of the Internet security firm ChosenSecurity, acquired by PGP (which was acquired by Symantec). He has previous experience with GeoTrust, Betrusted, Baltimore Federal Systems, CyberTrust Solutions, and GTE Government Systems. Coclin holds a BSEE from George Washington University and an MBA from Babson College. You can contact the author at http://www.linkedin.com/pub/dean-coclin/0/546/753 | <urn:uuid:70533bfc-f400-42d0-9a43-f46b35be1c8b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://esj.com/articles/2011/06/28/best-practices-securing-private-keys.aspx | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281450.93/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00474-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948564 | 2,004 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Happy Halloween from the most malicious spooks on the Internet
As the calendar pages turn toward the end of October (which is National Cyber Security Awareness Month, as you may have heard), the thoughts of children around the nation drift to the spooky horrors that haunt the night. Zombies, werewolves and vampires haunt their young dreams. IT professionals also lay awake into the wee nighttime hours, but different kinds of terrors stalk them in their sleep. Hackers, spyware and advanced persistent threats lurk behind the dark corners threatening the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information and systems under their care.
The history of malicious actors in the world of computing is long and dark, dating back three decades and filled with the lore of history and deceit. Let’s take a look back through the rogue’s gallery of IT threats and dissect seven of the most notorious rogues to strike the Internet.
1) The Age of the Worm
In 1988, a young graduate student at Cornell University named Robert Morris penned the first page in the book of IT rogues. Morris created the Internet’s first worm, a piece of malicious code that spread on its own and infected a large number of Internet-connected systems. Morris’ worm spread quickly and gained widespread notoriety.
System administrators quickly extinguished this fire but Morris’ creation foreshadowed the outbreak of many other worms in the early part of this millennium. Malware with creative names like SQL Slammer, ILOVEYOU and Code Red scoured the Internet for several years seeking out new victims and spreading their destructive payloads.
2) Operation Aurora
In early 2010, Google publicly announced that they had been the victims of a widespread cyberattack of Chinese origin. This sophisticated attack breached servers belonging not only to Google but also other major technology companies including Adobe Systems, Rackspace and Juniper Networks.
These attacks, dubbed “Operation Aurora” by security researchers, opened the world’s eyes to the breadth of cyberattacks waged by nations against private companies in a quest to gain coveted intellectual property. Aurora sparked some of the earliest public conversations over Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) and caused security professionals around the world to shift their focus toward protecting against sophisticated, determined attackers with access to advanced tools.
As the world’s attention focused on the Chinese-based Operation Aurora, the United States and its allies allegedly engaged in even more sophisticated attacks against their adversaries. The most striking of these attacks, Stuxnet, first appeared on the scene in 2009 but avoided detection and analysis for several years. After researchers gained access to Stuxnet’s code and reverse-engineered the malware, they discovered that it was an extremely sophisticated and highly targeted piece of malware designed for one purpose — destroying uranium enrichment centrifuges at the Iranian nuclear facility located at Natanz.
Although the United States never officially took credit, numerous investigations and anonymous sources indicate that the Stuxnet worm was jointly developed by the U.S. and Israeli governments. Stuxnet is notable because it was the first major attack to cross the virtual/physical barrier, using malicious code to cause the destruction of physical equipment in an act of cyberwarfare.
Stuxnet was only the first volley in a cyberwar brewing in the Middle East. In August 2012, the Saudi oil company Aramco announced that they were shutting down their computer systems due to a widespread cybersecurity breach. Details later surfaced revealing that the attack crippled thousands of computer systems and wiped out large quantities of data, replacing critical documents with the image of a burning American flag. U.S. government officials later attributed the attack to Iranian sources and security professionals around the world speculated that the attack was a direct response to Stuxnet.
During the 2013 holiday shopping season, Target stores made headlines for more than their Black Friday celebrations. They reported that they were the victims of a massive cybersecurity breach that disclosed sensitive personal information of up to 110 million customers. Later investigations revealed that the breach was the result of poor security practices related to third party vendors requiring access to Target systems.
Sources attributed the attack to the compromise of credentials used by a heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) contractor. Attackers used the HVAC vendor’s account to gain access to Target’s network and then leveraged that access to penetrate sensitive point-of-sale systems.
6) Sony Pictures
The 2014 holiday season came with an unwanted gift for executives at Sony Pictures. While the movie studio was preparing to release The Interview, a comedy about an attempt to kill North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, hackers penetrated the studio’s cybersecurity defenses, stealing sensitive information and destroying company data.
U.S. government officials later attributed the attack to North Korean forces attempting to stop the release of the film. This attack wasn’t the first major embarrassment for the firm, which also suffered a breach of its Playstation network in 2011 and endured denial of service attacks that disrupted use of the gaming platform during the 2013 and 2014 holiday seasons.
7) Office of Personnel Management
This summer brought what many security experts consider the most significant breach of personal information ever to occur. The U.S. Office of Personnel Management reported the theft of records related to over 21 million current and former government employees as well as other individuals who received government security clearances.
The data stolen in this breach included fingerprints, background investigation forms and other incredibly sensitive information that far surpassed the extent of information stolen in earlier breaches. The full implications of this attack remain to be seen but it likely caused significant damage to government security efforts.
The history of cybersecurity is littered with examples of novel and sophisticated attackers who raised the bar for information security professionals charged with safeguarding information systems. For the past two decades, new attacks have surfaced almost every year that require thoughtful assessment and new controls to protect sensitive data.
While these attacks are quite concerning, particularly for the innocent third party victims of data breaches, they also amount to job security for those skilled in protecting organizations against attack. Take some time this Halloween season to protect your network against the villains of the Internet. | <urn:uuid:c3b925e5-d6c8-4007-9c99-bf0e7e3762dd> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://certmag.com/happy-halloween-malicious-spooks-internet/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280504.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00438-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948802 | 1,243 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Ahn B.-C.,Kyungpook National University |
Ahn G.,Daegu Il Science High School |
Kim D.-H.,Kyungpook National University |
Kim K.D.,Yeungnam University |
And 3 more authors.
Annals of Nuclear Medicine | Year: 2014
Purpose: Pinhole has been used for magnification of gamma camera images and is valuable for imaging of small organs, such as thyroid; however, size of the organ cannot be measured on the image due to variable degree of magnification by distance between the pinhole and the organ. The aim of this study was to develop a true size measuring system (TSM system) on magnified pinhole thyroid scan using an ultrasonic sensor.Methods: An ultrasonic device capable of measuring the distance from the pinhole to the skin overlying the thyroid gland was manufactured using a ~40 kHz piezoelectric-transducer-based sensor, and its accuracy was tested. An interface program was developed and fused with the ultrasonic device for development of the TSM system. Accuracy of the TSM system for measuring size was tested with phantom images and 35 thyroid scans.Results: The ultrasonic device accurately measured the distance from the pinhole to the skin over the thyroid gland and the measured values were highly reproducible (6 cm; 6.02 ± 0.04 cm, 8 cm; 8.00 ± 0.05 cm, 10 cm; 10.00 ± 0.05 cm). Distance on the phantom image corrected by the TSM system was almost the same as the true distance. Size of the thyroid on the pinhole image was larger (+67.3 to 103.1 %) than the true thyroid size on the parallel-hole image and the magnification decreased by increase of the distance between the pinhole and the skin over the thyroid gland. However, size of the thyroid obtained using the TSM system was almost equal (−2.1 to +3.6 %) to the true thyroid size on the parallel-hole image.Conclusions: We developed the TSM system for magnified pinhole images using a distance measuring ultrasonic sensor. Size of the thyroid on the magnified pinhole image obtained using the system was almost the same as the true thyroid size. The TSM system can be applied to obtain accurate size of the thyroid gland or lesions in the thyroid gland on pinhole thyroid scan. © 2014, The Japanese Society of Nuclear Medicine. Source
Choi Y.I.,Yeungnam University |
Jeon K.H.,Daegu Il Science High School |
Kim H.S.,Daegu Il Science High School |
Lee J.H.,Daegu Il Science High School |
And 4 more authors.
Separation and Purification Technology | Year: 2016
The hybridization of two different materials is important for achieving improved photocatalytic degradation properties. Generally, photocatalysts do not show good linear catalytic performance toward all the dyes. This paper reports the synthesis of nano-assembled TiO2/BiOX (X = Cl, Br, or I) hybrid microspheres, which were confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, electron transmission microscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and photoluminescence spectroscopy. The synthesized photocatalysts were examined extensively for their photocatalytic activities with single (orange G and tartrazine), mixed dyes (methyl orange + rhodamine B + methylene blue), natural dyes extracted from grapes and cabbages (real sample analysis) as well as a commercially available drink with and without H2O2 addition under visible light irradiation. For the mixed dyes, TiO2/BiOI showed the highest adsorption capacity and TiO2/BiOCl showed the highest photocatalytic activity. Methyl orange in the mixed dyes was the most rapidly photodegraded of all the photocatalysts examined. TiO2/BiOI showed the highest photocatalytic activity for orange G and tartrazine. The three different photocatalysts showed effective and uniform degradation activity to the natural dyes obtained from grapes and cabbages. The dye degradation was enhanced by H2O2 addition. © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Source | <urn:uuid:3d01027f-07d9-40b9-b8a9-78b33ba5f0a5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.linknovate.com/affiliation/daegu-il-science-high-school-1710623/all/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280504.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00438-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924738 | 905 | 3.1875 | 3 |
The BBC is getting into the hardware hacking craze with its second device aimed at school age children in the last 34 years. The British broadcaster recently unveiled the Micro:bit, a mini-programmable computer meant to teach children how to code and develop hardware projects.
The device will be given away to every child in Year 7 at schools in the U.K.—around one million students—beginning in October. Before the end of the year, the device will also be available for sale to customers in the U.K. and other points around the globe. Presumably that includes the U.S.
Unlike other popular boards such as the Raspberry Pi, the Micro:bit is not meant to be used as a standalone PC. Instead, it’s a basic board for embedded projects such as a gaming device or a remote control. It’s also compatible with more advanced micro PCs like the Raspberry Pi and Arduino boards for projects that require more processing heft.
The 1.6-inch by 2-inch Micro:bit comes with a 32-bit ARM Cortex M0 processor, 25 programmable LED lights arranged in a grid, two push buttons for user input, an accelerometer and compass, a micro-USB connector, and Bluetooth. The device was originally supposed to come with a slot for a watch battery, but the final design cut that, opting for a battery pack add-on instead that takes two AA batteries. You can find complete specs on the BBC’s website.
The Micro:bit is a huge collaboration between numerous tech companies including ARM, element14 (sellers of the Raspberry Pi), Microsoft, and Samsung.
Why this matters: A recurring debate in the tech world is whether there’s any sense in teaching children to program. Some argue that programming is hard and, just as not everyone needs to know how to fix a car, not everyone needs to know how to program. But with computers becoming central to pretty much everything there is value in learning some coding basics. Most of us remember enough from math class to know you have to multiply before you add. Similarly, a familiarity with how code works and a coding mentality to problem solving can go a long way in a technology-driven world.
Second time at bat
The Micro:bit is the BBC’s second run at sparking the interest of students in computing. In 1981, the BBC worked with Acorn Computers to produce the BBC Microcomputer System (BBC Micro) sold primarily to schools in the UK as part of the BBC’s Computer Literacy Project. The device was similar in form to a Commodore 64, a non-descript beige box with a keyboard that hooked up to a monitor or television.
Unlike the previous computer project, the Micro:bit will be distributed to individual students thanks to the ever lowering cost of components. It will also be 18 times faster at running code, 70 times smaller, and 617 times lighter than its predecessor, the BBC says.
This story, "BBC reveals Micro:bit, a programmable PC that fits in your pocket" was originally published by PCWorld. | <urn:uuid:f79232be-6193-4fca-bf5d-b8dfb208c5d8> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.itnews.com/article/2944804/bbc-reveals-microbit-a-programmable-pc-that-fits-in-your-pocket.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280242.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00374-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938752 | 637 | 3.484375 | 3 |
Key points in the announcement:
- the OS is designed for Web apps and cloud computing
- it combines the Chrome browser plus a lightweight windowing environment on top of a Linux kernel
- goals are lightweight, fast to boot, fast to allow users to access the Web
- targeted to netbook category of devices initially (via hardware partners), but eventually for desktop machines
- will be released as open source
- relies on a security architecture designed for the Internet era
- it’s not Android
- discussions underway with hardware partners for shipment after mid-2010
If two dots allow one to draw a trend-line, the cloud-centric OS built on a browser can be considered a trend. The two large dots that define this trend-line are Chrome OS plus a Microsoft Research project called Gazelle, a browser-based operating system with an approach similar to Chrome OS. More about Gazelle in a moment.
Based on the limited information that Google has provided thus far, it appears that Chrome OS leverages Google’s core competencies, which include ability to design user experiences that are simple, effective and fast, backed by “rocket-science” software technology under hood. Google’s approach is to first narrow the scope of the problem in order to put more substance and depth into the remainder.
There is some substantive information upon which to make inferences if one looks at the open-source version of the Chrome browser, available at Chromium.org.
The current Chrome browser consists of 1.7 million lines of C++ code, and already incorporates many OS-like aspects (multi-processing, robust isolation). About 60% of the Chrome browser source code is related to rendering HTML, and much of the rest (about 700,000 lines of code) implements OS-like aspects such as multiple process models, interprocess communication (IPC) secure sandbox isolation mechanism, and so on. This system could rest on a foundation of a Linux kernel. The major new piece is the unspecified windowing environment, which presumably would mostly be a pass-through mechanism. Speculating wildly here, I would say the combination of all of the above would result in a system of about 5 to 7 million lines of code, including a stripped-down Linux kernel. This is about the same size as Windows NT 3.1, and about one-tenth the code size of Windows Vista. This is smaller than Google Android, which is variously estimated at between 8M to 11M lines of code. The size estimates perhaps answer the question “Why not use Android?”. That is, Google is betting on a lean and fast browser-based OS rather than one that is built for comfort across a wide range of scenarios.
One might also ask: “Why a browser-based OS? Why is this worthwhile in a time when users can simply procure the combination of Linux, Firefox and OpenOffice on a modest laptop?”. A paper on Chrome’s Multi-Process Architecture provides an answer:
“The current state of web browsers is like that of the single-user, co-operatively multi-tasked operating systems of past. As a misbehaving application in such an operating system could take down the entire system, so can a misbehaving web page in a modern web browser….Modern operating systems are more robust because they put applications into separate processes that are walled off from one another…. We use separate processes for browser tabs to protect the overall application from bugs and glitches in the rendering engine. We also restrict access from each rendering engine process to others and to the rest of the system. In some ways, this brings to web browsing the benefits that memory protection and access control brought to operating systems.”
This text is accompanied by the following diagram:
The multi-process approach is not unique to the Chrome browser. Recent versions of Internet Explorer have something similar. What is different is that this multi-process approach is extended to include the entire machine environment. A crisp explanation comes from Helen Wang, a member of Microsoft Research Labs working on Gazelle, a lightweight, browser-centric OS prototype:
“Everyone accepts that applications need to run on operating systems. However, this has not been the case for Web applications; they depend on browsers to render pages and handle computing resources. Yet browsers have never been constructed to be operating systems. Principals are allowed to coexist within the same process or protection domain, and resource management is largely non-existent.”
Microsoft writer Janie Chang elaborates:
“In the Gazelle model, the browser-based OS, typically called the browser kernel, protects principals from one another and from the host machine by exclusively managing access to computer resources, enforcing policies, handling inter-principal communications, and providing consistent, systematic access to computing devices.”
When Google Wave was introduced in May, I noted how Microsoft Research had seen prototypes of Office that supported real-time collaborative editing in 2003 but never moved forward on this. Now perhaps, this ironic pattern is repeating, assuming that Chrome OS actually sees the light of day.
If Google delivers on its plan, it seems that Chrome OS will be the first cloud-oriented OS to ship. This will be a consumer-oriented offering initially, similar to Google’s past practice in other categories (Web maps, Web email, and the Chrome browser). It will be years (three to five) before it has any impact on the enterprise sector.
For Google to succeed with this initiative, Chrome OS must deliver a user experience that is perceptibly better from the outset. Google was able to achieve this with Google Maps, which reinvented online mapping in a way that users immediately noticed a better user experience. Google has arguably also achieved this objective with Gmail and with the Chrome browser. The question is whether they can achieve a similar goal with an OS — a clearly envisioned target that they will reach for, but one that may prove difficult for them to grasp and hold.
What do you think?
Comments or opinions expressed on this blog are those of the individual contributors only, and do not necessarily represent the views of Gartner, Inc. or its management. Readers may copy and redistribute blog postings on other blogs, or otherwise for private, non-commercial or journalistic purposes, with attribution to Gartner. This content may not be used for any other purposes in any other formats or media. The content on this blog is provided on an "as-is" basis. Gartner shall not be liable for any damages whatsoever arising out of the content or use of this blog. | <urn:uuid:8649c69b-bfb2-4666-ba18-8591d041093c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://blogs.gartner.com/ray_valdes/2009/07/08/google-chrome-microsoft-gazelle-and-the-cloud-oriented-os/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280723.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00126-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921181 | 1,358 | 2.78125 | 3 |
We are going back to networking basics with this post. In few lines below you will find most important theory that makes network gear do its job.
The main router job is to making routing decisions to be able to route packets toward their destination. Sometimes that includes recursive lookup of routing table if the next-hop value is not available via connected interface.
Routing decision on end devices
Lets have a look at routing decision that happens if we presume that we have a PC connected on our Ethernet network.
If one device wants to send a packet to another device, it first needs to find an answer to these questions:
- Is maybe the destination IP address chunk of local subnet IP range?
- If that is true, packet will be forwarded to the neighbour device using Layer 2 in the ARP example below.
- If that is not the case, does the device network card configuration include a router address through which that destination can be reached? (default gateway)
- Device then looks at his local ARP table. Does it include a MAC address associated with the destination IP address?
- If the destination is not part of the local subnet, does the local ARP table contain the MAC address of the nearest router? (MAC address to IP address mapping of default gateway router)
Routing decision on a router
Contrary to user end device like iPhone or Notebook which usually have only one way out of local network using broadband home router as Internet access default gateway, routers across the network usually have multiple network subnets each connected to one of their interfaces. That makes them able to route traffic out on different interfaces forwarding that traffic across different paths. If router receives the packet that is destined to some destination IP address it goes through similar list of questions like the end host in the example above, but it can became more complicated. Router receives the packet, opens the IP header and reads the destination IP address. After that the questions for him to solve are these:
- Is maybe the destination IP address chunk of one of the local subnets that this router has on one of his interfaces?
- If that is true, packet will be forwarded using the Layer 2 described in the question No2 below.
- If that is not the case, Router needs to make a route lookup on his routing table in order to find the longest match for this IP address subnet. Each routing table entry has the destination subnet defined together with next-hop IP address which needs to be used in order to forward the packet to that destination network. Router makes that routing table lookup in order to decide out on which interface (towards which next-hop address) he will need to forward the packet so that IP destination can be reached.
- Device then looks at his local ARP table.
- Does it include a MAC address associated with the destination IP address?
- If there is no ARP table entry for that IP address it will need to broadcast an ARP request to get this destination IP host response with his MAC address.
Routing recursion is a recursive search process of routers routing table where the next-hop IP address is wanted to route packed towards its destination but when found it is not part of any directly connected network.
Usually, Router checks the destination address inside packets IP header and makes the decision based of few steps described in the routing example above.
When router finds longest match route for wanted destination, the next-hop value for this prefix is read and checked. If that longest match next-hop IP address value is a connected route then outgoing interface is known and layer 2 address is found which enables the frame to be built and transition of the packet can be done towards the destination.
If the next-hop that IP does not exist on any of the ends of connected interfaces, additional routing lookups must be done for an outgoing interface to be found. This additional routing table lookups are known as recursive lookups.
Here is an example that will show the recursive lookup within a simple topology and routing table from R1:
R1(config)#do sh ip route 10.0.0.0/8 is variably subnetted, 2 subnets, 2 masks C 10.10.1.0/24 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0 L 10.10.1.1/32 is directly connected, FastEthernet0/0 S 192.168.1.0/24 [1/0] via 10.10.1.2 S 192.168.2.0/24 [1/0] via 10.10.1.2
When packet arrives with destination IP 192.168.2.111, router R1 will make a routing table lookup and it will find that a route for that packet is static route 192.168.2.0/24 with the next hop 10.10.1.2
That next hop IP 10.10.1.2 is then found as a part of directly connected subnet 10.10.1.0/24 through exit interface FastEthernet0/0.
Process used by router R1 in the example above is called recursive lookup because router needed to go across the routing table twice in order to find the out interface.
When a route table entry shows next-hop IP address and not a directly connected exit interface, recursive lookup is needed. Therefore another lookup has to be made. There can be more lookups, until the route with exit interface specified is found.
Please comment if you have any info regarding this case.
Unintentional was the part with “This additional routing table lookup process is known as recursive lookup”. It is true, Recursive means keep looking until you find next-hop and outgoing interface or drop the packet, so it is correct to say: “This additional routing table lookups are known as recursive lookups.” taking into account more of them if more of them are needed not only the first additional lookup.
Also, giving the example at the beginning about Routing decision on end devices did not state clearly that is an example for a device connected to Ethernet network. I made that clear now.
Outdated part was my last tip at the end of the article saying that “It is always better in order to get the best routing performance that every route table entry is defined with outgoing Interface and not next-hop address”. I’m silly, we have route-cache mechanisms like Cisco CEF in our network devices which enable us to skip routing table lookup every time same destination is needed. This TIP is about network devices older than me. I removed that last paragraph. The reasons why it does not matter is explained in this one: How can router decide so fast? | <urn:uuid:eea70cac-ac17-46b0-bb96-acc159b58656> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://howdoesinternetwork.com/2015/route-recursion | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280888.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00034-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943465 | 1,392 | 3.890625 | 4 |
Definition: A polyphase merge which seeks to minimize the number of merge passes by allocating output runs of each pass to the various output files. Since polyphase merging must have a different number of runs in each file to be efficient, one seeks the optimal way of selecting how many runs go into each output file. A series of kth order Fibonacci numbers is one way to select the number of runs.
See also merge, polyphase merge, optimal merge.
If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.
Entry modified 17 December 2004.
HTML page formatted Mon Feb 2 13:10:40 2015.
Cite this as:
Art S. Kagel, "optimal polyphase merge", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Vreda Pieterse and Paul E. Black, eds. 17 December 2004. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/optimpolymrg.html | <urn:uuid:fcf6e79b-769b-47e8-b850-50d72ba7cea4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.darkridge.com/~jpr5/mirror/dads/HTML/optimpolymrg.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279657.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00154-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.860759 | 216 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Using the ambient air of natural surroundings goes a long way in keeping the data center cool and help enjoy savings as well. Companies like Facebook and others have translated this thought process into action by locating their data centers in places like Oregon and Norway that offer cooler climes. While there are plenty of big names in the business of power engineering, one start up is also changing the way data center cooling works. The SMi Group is working out data center cooling by doing things like removing equipment, pressurizing space and blow area directly over the servers and precooling.
The process of moving air efficiently through a pressurized ecosystem helped reduce the energy use by 50%. By reducing the equipment in a data center, construction time has also been reduced significantly. The company also promises to get a data center to function at a PUE between 1.1 and 1.3
The company has simply worked out a new way to apply the principles of thermodynamics and has applied for a patent.
Read More About Data Center Cooling | <urn:uuid:22369ced-9b50-42d7-a630-ce391ebfca20> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.datacenterjournal.com/the-change-in-data-center-cooling-approaches/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00513-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.951928 | 205 | 2.796875 | 3 |
2.3.11 What are lattice-based cryptosystems?
Lattice-based cryptosystems are based on NP-complete problems (see Question 2.3.1) involving lattices. A lattice can be viewed as the set of all linear combinations with integral coefficients of a specified set of elements in a vector space. An example of a lattice is the infinite square grid in 2-dimensional space consisting of all points with integral coordinates. This lattice is generated by integral linear combinations of the vectors (0,1) and (1,0).
Lattice-based methods fall into two basic classes, although the solution methods for both are identical. In fact, there are efficient transformations between the two classes. The first class is based on the so-called subset sum problem: Given a set of numbers S = and another number K, find a subset of S whose values sum to K. The knapsack problem of Merkle and Hellman [MH78] is an example of this.
Other lattice-based methods require finding short vectors embedded in a lattice or finding points in the vector space close to vertices of the lattice or close to vectors embedded in the lattice. The method of Ajtai and Dwork [AD97] is an example of this type.
So far lattice-based methods have not proven effective as a foundation for public-key methods. In order for a lattice-based cryptosystem to be secure, the dimension of the underlying problem has to be large. This results in a large key size, rendering encryption and decryption quite slow. Ongoing research aims to improve the efficiency of these cryptosystems. | <urn:uuid:da4b41e1-0ca1-4e16-81df-59c84d43e0bb> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.emc.com/emc-plus/rsa-labs/standards-initiatives/what-are-lattice-based-cryptosystems.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280425.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00173-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920941 | 352 | 3.453125 | 3 |
Understanding Flash: SLC, MLC and TLC
July 3, 2014 7 Comments
The last post in this series discussed the layout of NAND flash memory chips and the way in which cells can be read and written (programmed) at the page level but have to be erased at the (larger) block level. I finished by mentioning that erase operations take substantially longer than read or program operations… but just how big is the difference?
Knowing the answer to this involves first understanding the different types of flash memory available: SLC, MLC and TLC.
Electrons In A Bucket?
Whenever I’ve seen anyone attempt to explain this in the past, they have almost always resorted to drawing a picture of electrons or charge filling up a bucket. This is a terrible analogy and causes anyone with a deep understanding of physics to cringe in horror. Luckily, I don’t have a deep understanding of physics, so I’m going to go right along with the herd and get my bucket out.
A NAND flash cell, i.e. the thing that stores a value of one or zero, is actually a floating gate transistor. Programming the cell means putting electrons into the floating gate, causing it to become (negatively) charged. Erasing the cell means removing the electrons from the floating gate, draining the charge. The amount of charge contained in the floating gate can be varied from zero up to a maximum value – this is an analogue system so there is no simple FULL or EMPTY state.
Because of this, the amount of charge can be measured and thresholds assigned to indicate a binary value. What does that mean? It means that, in the case of Single Level Cell (SLC) flash anything below 50% of charge can be considered to be a bit with a value of 1, while anything above 50% can be considered a bit with a value of 0.
But if i decided to be a bit more careful in the way I fill or empty my bucket of charge (sorry), I could perhaps define more thresholds and thus hold two bits of data instead of one. I could say that below 25% is 11, from 25% to 50% is 10, from 50% to 75% is 01 and above 75% is 00. Now I can keep twice as much data in the same bucket. This is in fact Multi Level Cell (MLC). And as the picture shows, if I was really careful in the way I treated my bucket, I could even keep three bits of data in there, which is what happens in Three Level Cell (TLC):
The thing is, imagine this was a bucket of water (comparing electrons to water is probably the last straw for anyone reading this who has a degree in physics, so I bid you farewell at this point). If you were to fill up your bucket using the SLC method, you could be pretty slap-dash about it. I mean it’s pretty obvious when the bucket is more than half full or empty. But if you were using a more fine-grained method such as MLC or TLC you would need to fill / empty very carefully and take exact measurements, which means the act of filling (programming) would be a lot slower.
To really stretch this analogy to breaking point, imagine that every time you fill your bucket it gets slightly damaged, causing it to leak. In the SLC world, even a number of small leaks would not be a big deal. But in the MLC or (especially) the TLC world, those leaks mean it would quickly become impossible to keep using your bucket, because the tolerance between different bit values is so small. For similar reasons, NAND flash endurance is greatly influenced by the type of cell used. Storing more bits per cell means a lower tolerance for errors, which in turn means that higher error rates are experienced and endurance (the number of program/erase cycles that can be sustained) is lower.
Timing and Wear
Enough of the analogies, let’s look at some proper data. The chart below uses sample figures from AnandTech:
You can see that as the number of bits per cell increases, so does the time taken to perform read, program (i.e. write) and erase operations. Erases in particular are especially slow, with values measured in milliseconds instead of microseconds. Given that erases also affect larger areas of flash than reads and programs, you can start to see why the management of erase operations on flash is critical to performance.
Also apparent on the chart above is the massive difference in the number of program / erase cycles between the different flash types: for SLC we’re talking about orders of magnitude in difference. But of course SLC can only store one bit per cell, which means it’s much more expensive from a capacity perspective than MLC. TLC, meanwhile, offers the potential for great value for money, but none of the performance requirements you would need for tier one storage (although it may well have a place in the world of backups). It is for this reason that MLC is the most commonly used type of flash in enterprise storage systems. (By the way I’m so utterly disinterested in the phenomena of “eMLC” that I’m not going to cover it here, but you can read this and this if you want to know more on the subject…)
Warning: Know Your Flash
One final thing. When you buy an SSD, a PCIe flash card or, in the case of Violin Memory, an all-flash array you tend to choose between SLC and MLC. As a very rough rule of thumb you can consider MLC to be twice the capacity for half the performance of SLC, although this in fact varies depending on many factors. However there are some all flash array vendors who use both SLC and MLC in a sort of tiered approach. That’s fine -and if you are buying a flash array I’m sure you’ll take the time to understand how it works.
But here’s the thing. At least one of these vendors insists on describing the SLC layer as “NVRAM” to differentiate from the MLC layer which it simply describes as using flash SSDs. The truth is that the NVRAM is also just a bunch of flash SSDs, except they are SLC instead of MLC. I’m not in favour of using educational posts to criticise competitors, but in the interest of bring clarity to this subject I will say this: I think this is a marketing exercise which deliberately adds confusion to try and make the design sound more exciting. “Ooooh, NVRAM that sounds like something I ought to have in my flash array…” – or am I being too cynical?
Update: January 2016
This article discusses what is known as 2D Planar NAND flash. Since publication, a new type of NAND flash called 3D NAND (led by Samsung’s branded V-NAND product) has become popular on the market. You can read about that here. | <urn:uuid:2e3a8f00-cbcb-4fcb-aa49-e2d3ec056824> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://flashdba.com/2014/07/03/understanding-flash-slc-mlc-and-tlc/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00383-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956204 | 1,477 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Defense–Stopping Malicious Software
Businesses are vulnerable to attacks related to malicious software, such as viruses, worms and Trojan horses. These attacks may take place from multiple points of entry, including network servers, e-mail gateways, corporate firewalls and employee workstations. These points of entry are typically well connected to the rest of the network infrastructure, and this only makes it easier to spread malicious software. For example, the Nimda worm infected more than 2.2 million servers and PCs within 24 hours—this resulted in $531 million in downtime and subsequent cleanup costs.
Security practitioners and the security officer must deploy multiple layers of defense to ensure that vital information and systems are not compromised or access denied as a result of such attacks. Businesses must be prepared to implement procedures for guarding against, detecting and reporting malicious software.
A virus is a program that attaches itself to files on the target system. A virus is a self-replicating program that spreads by infecting other programs. During attachment, the original code from the virus is appended to victim files. This is referred to as infection. At this point when the file is infected, it is converted from an ordinary file to a carrier. This infected file can infect other files, referred to as “replication.” The replication of files can spread to the hard disk, leading to systemic infection.
Once the virus attaches itself to an executable file, such as files that end in .exe or .com, then each time the file is executed it will infect other files. Macro viruses infect data files such as documents generated in Microsoft Word or PowerPoint. These viruses typically attack your global document templates, ultimately damaging each and every document type opened with the application. Examples of viruses include Melissa, Babylonia and Loveletter. Virus attacks are significant because they cause substantial damage and can be costly.
There are three types of viruses: Master boot sector viruses, boot sector viruses and file viruses. File viruses can spread system-wide, while boot sector viruses attack a small portion of the disk.
Viruses can also be stealth viruses or polymorphic viruses. Stealth viruses use a number of techniques to conceal the fact that a drive has been infected. Polymorphic viruses are much more complex—these viruses can change, or “mutate,” making them extremely difficult to identify. In mutation, the virus may change its size and composition, thus evading detection by virus-detection software. To address this challenge, virus-detection software creates scanners that can identify encryption and other patterns.
A worm is a self-contained program that uses security flaws, such as a buffer overflow, to remotely compromise a system and then replicate itself to that system. Unlike viruses, worms do not infect other executable programs, but instead install themselves on the victim system as a stand-alone entity that does not require the execution of an infected application. Examples of worm attacks include Code Red, Code Red II and Nimda.
The Code Red worm exploited a known vulnerability in Microsoft IIS 4.0 and 5.0. The worm operated by creating a random list of IP addresses, which it then scanned for the IIS vulnerability. If the worm found a target system with the vulnerability, it executed the buffer overflow exploit, which resulted in the worm’s code being loaded onto and executed by the victim system. The worm then began to propagate itself from the just-compromised system. After two hours, the worm changed the server’s Web page.
Worms exploit known vulnerabilities in systems and applications. They then spread themselves. To protect against worm attacks, a comprehensive solution that includes antivirus software as well as an intrusion detection system (IDS) is required.
A recent example of a worm threat is the Sasser worm. This is a worm that spreads by scanning randomly selected IP addresses for vulnerable systems. The worm spreads with the filename avserve.exe. Unlike other worms, Sasser does not spread by e-mail. Instead, it instructs vulnerable systems to download and execute the viral code.
A Trojan horse program is unauthorized code contained within a legitimate program that performs functions unknown to the end user. It may also be a legitimate program that has been altered by the placement of unauthorized code within it that performs functions unknown to the end user. The Trojan horse program typically results in some damage or transmission of information that is sensitive, such as sending e-mail containing the password file. Examples include ILOVEYOU, StuffIt 4.5 Trojan (deletes key system files) and AOL Password Trojan.
A logic bomb is a virus or Trojan horse that is triggered when a specific event takes place or after a period of time. For example, an employee may create a logic bomb to erase all files from the server at some future date. It is important to make sure that employees who are terminated are not permitted to return to their desks or systems unescorted and that their access is immediately removed. Failure to do so may result in planting of logic bombs in systems.
Getting Started: Malicious Software Policy
Security practitioners should get started by developing a policy on malicious software. This policy provides the framework for the use of malicious-software-checking programs. The policy should include specific information on how malicious- software-checking programs are to be used. For example:
- The business will deploy malicious-software-checking programs at the perimeter and on individual end-user systems.
- The business will subscribe to receive updates to malicious-software-checking programs.
- The business will conduct security training that will include information on the potential harm that can be caused by malicious software, prevention of malicious software and steps to take if malicious software is detected.
- Failure to comply with this or any other security policy will result in disciplinary action.
Security Awareness Program: Train All Employees
Employees of the organization must be trained to not configure or introduce any modifications to systems or applications to prevent the execution of malicious- software-checking programs. Businesses are especially vulnerable to malicious software introduced to the environment through mobile devices such as laptops. Members of the workforce who suspect any malicious software infection must immediately contact the security officer or their manager by phone or walk-in—not by e-mail—about the suspected threat.
Security practitioners must work closely with employees and require their participation in all security awareness training programs. This knowledge will be valuable in preventing, detecting, containing and eradicating malicious software.
Network Associates’ McAfee Active Virus Defense, Symantec’s AntiVirus Enterprise Edition and Trend Micro’s Antivirus products are examples of solutions deployed to prevent the threats from malicious software. Microsoft’s Web site also provides information on malicious code and downloads to make end systems more secure. The bottom line is to ensure that all critical systems have up-to-date patches to protect them from the latest malicious code threats.
Security practitioners must ensure that malicious-software-checking programs are installed both on the perimeter of the network and on individual end-user systems. Security practitioners must further identify all critical systems and network components that are vulnerable to malicious s | <urn:uuid:3d46f66b-1d3f-475f-b766-112bb24e599d> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://certmag.com/defense-stopping-malicious-software/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279248.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00201-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.921844 | 1,459 | 2.921875 | 3 |
Older Americans get ripped off each year to the tune of nearly $3 billion, according to MetLife, which last year released a detailed study on elder financial abuse. While it's perhaps tempting to assume that older people can be easily ripped off because they're desperate (financial schemes) or easily confused by double-talk (home-repair swindles), a new UCLA study pinpoints a different culprit:
Older people, more than younger adults, may fail to interpret an untrustworthy face as potentially dishonest, the study shows. The reason for this, the UCLA life scientists found, seems to be that a brain region called the anterior insula, which is linked to disgust and is important for discerning untrustworthy faces, is less active in older adults."Older adults seem to be particularly vulnerable to interpersonal solicitations, and their reduced sensitivity to cues related to trust may partially underlie this vulnerability," said Shelley E. Taylor, a distinguished professor of psychology at UCLA and senior author of the new research.
The research appears in the online journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and reports the results of two different studies. In the first, 30 photographs of faces -- selected specifically to look trustworthy, neutral or untrustworthy -- were shown to 119 adults between the ages of 55 and 84 and 24 younger adults. Study participants were asked to rate the faces on trustworthiness and approachability.
The younger and older adults reacted very similarly to the trustworthy faces and to the neutral faces. However, when viewing the untrustworthy faces, the younger adults reacted strongly, while the older adults did not. The older adults saw these faces as more trustworthy and more approachable than the younger adults did.
"Most of the older adults showed this effect," Taylor said in a UCLA press release. "They missed facial cues that are pretty easily distinguished." The second study is particularly fascinating because it analyzed participants' brain activity (using magnetic resonance imaging) as they viewed the faces. And while the first study established that older people were less likely to pick up facial cues communicating untrustworthiness, the second one shows researchers why.
The younger adults showed anterior insula activation both when they were making the ratings of the faces and especially when viewing the untrustworthy faces. In contrast, the older adults displayed very little anterior insula activation during these activities.
So what exactly constitutes an "untrustworthy" face? Taylor says, "The smile is insincere, the eye contact is off; it's a gestalt." Well, that's not much detail! Here's what some researchers at the University of Kent came up with a few years ago after asking members of the British public to rate various faces on a trustworthiness scale... Characteristics of a trustworthy face: * Fuller, more rounded shape * Jaw line softer in appearance * Eyebrows thinner and less imposing * The eyes are more rounded and larger * Eyes also appear brighter * Nose is more refined in shape, nostrils are smaller * Larger mouth with thinner lips * Smooth face with no facial hair * Warmer, brighter complexion Characteristics of an untrustworthy face: * Overall shape more contoured * Sharp, pointed jawline * Eyebrows thicker, more knotted * Eyes less rounded, relatively wider and more closed * Eyes further apart * Appearance of eyes are dull and darker * Bridge of nose is wider and nostrils are measurably larger * Smaller mouth with fuller lips * Facial stubble is more prevalent * Greyish, dull complexion Now read this: | <urn:uuid:888a9fcb-8356-45a3-bcd6-3f9f346a1353> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.itworld.com/article/2716404/enterprise-software/why-the-elderly-are-vulnerable-to-fraud.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00411-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942534 | 719 | 2.75 | 3 |
Web application firewalls play an important role in the security of websites as they can mitigate risks and they can offer protection against a large-scale of vulnerabilities.That is the reason that many companies in nowadays are implementing a web application firewall solution in their existing infrastructure.Of course an implementation of a WAF on its own cannot resolve the security problems that a web application might have and proper modifications must be made in order many of the attacks to be able to identified and blocked.
Penetration testers must be aware before they start the web application engagement if there is a WAF in place as the results of their attacks can be affected.So if the penetration test is a white-box then this question should be asked in the initial meetings with the client.If it is a black-box then the penetration tester should try to investigate on his own whether or not there is a web application firewall in place.In this article we will try to examine the methods and the tools that will allow us to detect a WAF.
Before we start it is always good to know where a WAF is usually used on a network.Most of the times a web application firewall is between a web server and a client like the one that we can see in the next image.However there are web application firewalls that can be installed directly into the web servers.
The existence of a web application firewall can be identified with a variety of ways.A good indication is by checking the cookies because some web application firewalls add their own cookie in the communication between the client and the web server.For example in the next image we can see an HTTP request where a cookie has been added by the WAF.Specifically the ns_af unveils that the web application firewall is a Citrix Netscaler.
Another method is through the HTTP headers as many WAF products allow the header to be rewritten and they can also make the web server to produce different HTTP responses from the common ones.For example as we can see and from the image below the web server respond to our request with a message You shouldn’t be here and unveiled that is Varnish.
Additionally a web application firewall presence can be identified in cases where you are trying to send a request and the session is expiring very quickly like the example in the next image.
The most well-known tool that can detect and fingerprint web application firewalls is the WAFW00F.The usage of this tool is very simple and can discover a variety of WAF products.The next image is showing the successful detection of a Citrix Netscaler firewall that protects the website.
Nmap also can be used for this purpose as it contains a script that can detect a web application firewall.Specifically we run the script against the same website as above and the results were the following:
Finally there is a script that is capable only to detect Imperva WAF installations.
In this article we examined some methods and tools for detection of web application firewalls.This is an important process that must be done in every web application penetration test during the information gathering stage in order to ensure that the results from the attacks that will performed are accurate.Also by having the knowledge that a WAF is in place the penetration tester can try different techniques in order to bypass the protections and to exploit any weaknesses in the web application. | <urn:uuid:16a69b35-d876-4df6-88c2-c7dc65aba6d2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://pentestlab.blog/2013/01/13/detecting-web-application-firewalls/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279379.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00045-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948808 | 686 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Shylock is a financial malware platform discovered by Trusteer in 2011. Like most malware strains, Shylock continues to evolve in order to bypass new defensive technologies put in place by financial institutions and enterprises. While analyzing a recent Shylock dropper Trusteer noticed a new trick it uses to evade detection. Namely, it can identify and avoid remote desktop environments – a setup commonly used by researchers when analyzing malware.
Suspected malware samples are collected for analysis and often placed onto machines that are isolated in an operations centre (“lab”). Rather than sitting in front of a rack of physical machines in a cold basement lab, researchers use remote desktop connections to study malware from the convenience and cosiness of their offices. It is this human weakness that Shylock exploits.
This latest Shylock dropper detects a remote desktop environment by feeding invalid data into a certain routine and then observing the error code returned. It uses this return code to differentiate between normal desktops and other “lab” environments. In particular, when executed from a remote desktop session the return code will be different and Shylock won’t install. It is possible to use this method to identify other known or proprietary virtual/sandbox environments as well.
For those more technically oriented, here is a bit more detail. The dropper dynamically loads Winscard.dll and calls the function SCardForgetReaderGroupA(0, 0). The malware proceeds as expected only if the return value is either 0x80100011 (SCARD_E_INVALID_VALUE) or 0x2 (ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND). Trusteer noticed that when the dropper is executed locally the return value is 0x80100011, but when it is executed from a remote desktop session the return value is 0x80100004 (SCARD_E_INVALID_PARAMETER). The assembly language source code is shown below:
Trusteer has found a number of malware strains that utilize different approaches to identify specific execution environments in order to take appropriate evasive actions.
“Trusteer solutions are not affected by anti-VM/anti-research techniques employed by malware. That is because we use real-time application protection to monitor for suspected malware behaviour in the endpoint device’s memory. This approach prevents malware from compromising applications, including the browser, and stealing data like user credentials. It is also immune to Malware evasion techniques designed to identify remote desktop and virtual machine environments,” said George Tubin, senior security strategist at Trusteer. | <urn:uuid:36ccee50-6fa8-4122-98ce-8c6c39229b91> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2012/11/30/shylocks-new-trick-for-evading-malware-researchers/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281202.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00255-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.885881 | 528 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Cloud services have increased accessibility to high power resources that were typically available only to large enterprises and government facilities. While the financial and technological advantages may be obvious, underlying structures that form cloud services can be mystifying to the end user. The confusion has prompted the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to release Special Publication 800-146, “Cloud Computing Synopsis and Recommendations.” The document, a follow up to the official NIST cloud definition published last October, provides additional insight and guidance for the community. To follow is an overview of the NIST report, including charts sourced from that publication.
Definition and Terms of Service
According to NIST:
Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.
The definition is rather wide, but there are certain traits encompassed by all cloud services, which include:
- On-demand, self-serving access
- Network accessibility
- Resource Pooling
- Rapid Elasticity
- Measured Service
Most providers assure minimum levels of availability and agree in advance to repercussions if those levels are not met. They also discuss data preservation and privacy practices, usually promising not to sell or disclose private information.
Cloud services may experience a number of events, which affect overall user experience. Some examples include security breaches, scheduled outages, changes to service agreements, network failures or natural disasters.
Users are often subject to a use policy, guaranteeing third-party software conforms to license terms and timely payment for services rendered.
Cloud environments are defined based on hardware location and owner. Private clouds are accessible only to a respective customer residing either on-site or be outsourced by a third party.
The same scenarios apply to community clouds as well, where on-site implementations are spread across the user base.
Public clouds are hosted off-site and owned by a third party.
Finally, hybrid clouds consist of multiple cloud models residing both on-site and off the premises.
Environments – IaaS, PaaS, SaaS
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) providers give users access to virtual machines, network storage and services such as firewalls. Billing is usually based on hourly usage of CPU cycles, data storage and bandwidth consumption. Other options may be added to this model, including monitoring and scaling services.
Cloud providers retain control over hardware and the hypervisor while users control the application layer.
The Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) model allows the provider to retain further control of the environment. Users no longer have operating system control, but they can utilize an interface in the middleware layer to access compute power and storage. Application developers are common users of this type of service.
At the highest level, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers usually deliver Web-based services. Users have limited access at the application layer, giving the service provider almost all control of the environment. Examples include Dropbox and SoundHound.
While cloud services can provide unique benefits to the user, they are susceptible to a number of issues. Some of these challenges are not exclusive to cloud technology.
Performance can be hindered by high latency, loss of network connectivity and unexpected downtime. The technology relies on networks, thus its capabilities can be augmented or diminished depending on bandwidth to the end user. Even if the network is functioning, service providers may experience an outage due to a number of reasons listed earlier. Cloud users may benefit from implementing an alternative course of action if such an outage were to occur.
Another point of concern regards the physical location of data. Providers typically choose where to locate data based on a number of factors. These include local infrastructure, labor costs, energy costs, as well as legal requirements.
NIST pointed to Web browsers as a major security concern. Most cloud providers require users to register or access their services through a Web browser. While the process if fairly common, browsers have become susceptible to a number of security flaws. If a user’s browser has been compromised, data passed between their workstation and a cloud service, could be captured by an outside party.
The authors of the report supplied a number of general recommendations ranging from cloud management to software and applications.
Users were encouraged to identify services that would benefit from cloud migration. Common examples include email, shared documents and virtualized systems. NIST suggested that any mission critical applications and services remain local to the user unless a provider is willing to pay for pre-defined damages.
To avoid “lock-in” the report prompted users to verify data portability prior to adopting a cloud provider. Suggestions were also made to ensure data integrity, including separation of sensitive information.
Security and reliability was another area the report focused on. Users could hold providers accountable by providing necessary benchmarks prior to migration. If these benchmarks are acceptable and a decision is made to adopt a cloud provider, browser security and strong encryption are necessary to reduce vulnerabilities.
The specifics of cloud services typically mystify most users, as providers and infrastructures exist in a number of forms and combinations. The NIST report has made a concentrated effort to deliver more awareness to the range of services, benefits and barriers surrounding the technology as a whole. | <urn:uuid:b65d4119-b4ad-4553-9916-4d7ad7517509> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.hpcwire.com/2012/05/31/nist_guide_helps_dispel_cloud_mysteries/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281202.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00255-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932254 | 1,116 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Geospatial data is critical in a variety of applications – including transportation planning, hydrological network and watershed analysis, environmental modeling and surveillance, emergency response, and military operations. As the availability of geospatial data has expanded, its volume has accelerated, creating a variety of challenges and complexities that render traditional desktop-based geographical information systems (GIS) and remote-sensing software incapable of providing the requisite processing power.
Intel’s Many Integrated Core (MIC) architecture and the graphics processing unit (GPU) employ parallelism to achieve scalability with high performance for data-intensive computing over high-resolution spatial data. Our research has demonstrated that hybrid computer clusters equipped with the latest Intel MIC processors and NVIDIA GPUs can achieve a significant performance improvement for a range of typical geospatial applications, with Kriging interpolation, ISODATA, and Cellular Automata as examples. Details of our study are contained in a paper titled “Accelerating Geospatial Applications on Hybrid Architectures” in the proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications & 2013 IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing. The co-authors of the paper were Chenggang Lai, Miaoqing Huang, and Xuan Shi of the University of Arkansas, and Haihang You of the National Institute for Computational Sciences.
GPU architecture has been evolving for many years. Nvidia is a case in point, having gone through many generations, from G80 to GT200, Fermi, and today’s Kepler. The Kepler GPU architecture contains 15 streaming multiprocessors (SMXes), each of which consists of 192 single-precision cores and 64 double-precision cores. The Kepler architecture provides three advanced features to efficiently share the GPU resources among multiple host threads or processes (i.e., Hyper-Q), flexibly create new kernels on a GPU (i.e., dynamic parallelism), and reduce communication overhead across GPUs through GPUDirect. GPUs are normally used as accelerators in high-performance computer clusters. In a typical MPI-based parallel application, the MPI process executes on a host CPU that in turn allocates the computation to one or more client GPUs.
NVIDIA’s Kepler GPU architecture. Image source: Lai et al., “Accelerating Geospatial Applications on Hybrid Architectures,” Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications & 2013 IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing, 1545–1552, 2013.
The first commercially available Intel coprocessor based on MIC architecture is Xeon Phi. It contains up to 61 scalar processors with vector processing units. Direct communication between MIC coprocessors across different nodes is also supported through MPI. The following images show two approaches to parallelizing applications on computer clusters equipped with MIC processors. The first approach is to treat the MIC processors as clients to the host CPUs. The MPI processes will be hosted by CPUs, which will offload the computation to the MIC processors. Multithreading programming models such as OpenMP can be used to allocate many cores for data processing. The second approach is to let each MIC core directly host one MPI process. In this way, the 60 cores on the same die are treated as 60 independent processors while sharing the 8 GB on-board memory on the Xeon Phi 5110P.
Offloading approach to implementing parallelism on the MIC cluster. Image source: Lai et al., “Accelerating Geospatial Applications on Hybrid Architectures,” Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications & 2013 IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing, 1545–1552, 2013.
Direct-host approach to implementing parallelism on the MIC cluster. Image source: Lai et al., “Accelerating Geospatial Applications on Hybrid Architectures,” Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications & 2013 IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing, 1545–1552, 2013.
Three different types of use case served as the benchmarks for this study: Kriging interpolation (embarrassingly parallelism), the Iterative Self-organizing Data-analysis Technique Algorithm (ISODATA) (loose communication in the computation), and Cellular Automata (intense communication).
Kriging is a geostatistical estimator that infers the value of a random field at an unobserved location, and can be viewed as a point interpolation that reads input point data and returns a raster grid with calculated estimations for each cell.
ISODATA is one of the most frequently used algorithms for unsupervised image classification algorithms in remote sensing applications. In general, it can be implemented in three steps: (1) calculate the initial mean value of each class; (2) classify each pixel to the nearest class; and (3) calculate the new class means based on all pixels in one class. The second and third steps are repeated until the change between two iterations is small enough. When multiple processors are used, only one summation from all processors is required in each iteration.
Cellular Automata are commonly used in a variety of geospatial modeling and simulation. Game of Life (GOL), invented by British mathematician John Conway, is a well-known generic Cellular Automaton that consists of a collection of cells that can live, die or multiply based on a few mathematical rules. The universe of the GOL is a two-dimensional orthogonal grid of square cells, each of which is in one of two possible states, alive (‘1’) or dead (‘0’). Every cell interacts with its eight neighbors, which are the cells that are horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent.
We conducted our experiments on two platforms, the National Science Foundation-sponsored Keeneland supercomputer and Beacon supercomputer. Keeneland Initial Delivery System (KIDS) is a 201 Teraflop, 120-node HP SL390 system with 240 Intel Xeon X5660 CPUs and 360 Nvidia Fermi GPUs, with the nodes connected by a QDR InfiniBand network. Each node has two 6-core 2.8 GHz Xeon CPUs and 3 Tesla M2090 GPUs. The Nvidia M2090 GPU contains 512 CUDA cores and 6 GB GDDR5 on-board memory. The Beacon system (a Cray CS300-AC Cluster Supercomputer) offers access to 48 compute nodes and 6 I/O nodes joined by an FDR InfiniBand interconnect providing 56 Gb/s of bi-directional bandwidth. Each compute node is equipped with 2 Intel Xeon E5-2670 8-core 2.6 GHz processors, 4 Intel Xeon Phi (MIC) coprocessors 5110P, 256 GB of RAM, and 960 GB of SSD storage. Each I/O node provides access to an additional 4.8 TB of SSD storage. For each benchmark, we had three parallel implementations on two clusters. i.e., MPI+CPU, MPI+MIC, MPI+GPU.
Performance of benchmarks on four different configurations: (a) Kriging, (b) ISODATA, (c) GOL. Image source: Lai et al., “Accelerating Geospatial Applications on Hybrid Architectures,” Proceedings of the 2013 IEEE International Conference on High Performance Computing and Communications & 2013 IEEE International Conference on Embedded and Ubiquitous Computing, 1545–1552, 2013.
We want to show the strong scalability of the parallel implementations. Therefore, the problem size is fixed for each benchmark while the number of participating MPI processes is increased.
In the Kriging interpolation benchmark, the source dataset is evenly partitioned among all MPI processes along the row-major. The computation in each MPI process is purely local, i.e., there is no cross-process communication. The problem size of this benchmark is 171 MB consisting of 4 datasets. The output raster grid for each dataset has a consistent dimension of 1,440×720. The performance of the GPU cluster with K20 is projected based on the speedup of the single K20 vs. M2090 and we assume that the other specifications of the K20 GPU cluster is same to the Keeneland KIDS. From this figure, it can be found that all hybrid implementation can easily outperform the parallel implementation on CPU with GPU further better than MIC.
The input of the ISODATA is a high-resolution image of 18 GB with a dimension of 80,000×80,000 for three bands. The objective of this benchmark is to classify the image into 15 classes. For this benchmark, it can be found that the gap between the MIC processor and GPUs becomes quite small. One reason is that the FDR InfiniBand network on Beacon provides much higher bandwidth than the QDR InfiniBand network on Keeneland KIDS. The advantage of more efficient communication network on Beacon is further demonstrated when the number of participating processors is increased from 100 to 120.
In the Game of Life benchmark, the grid size is 32,768×32,768. The status of each cell in the grid will be updated for 100 iterations. By observing the performance results, it can be found that the strong scalability is demonstrated for MPI implementations on both CPUs and GPUs. For the MPI+MIC implementation, it is found that the performance does not scale quite well due to the communication overhead among MPI processes. Therefore, it is critical to keep a balance between computation and communication for achieving the best performance.
In our study, we have shown the potential for accelerating geospatial applications using parallel implementation on hybrid computer clusters. MPI+GPU and MPI+MIC parallel implementations of representative geospatial applications achieve significant performance improvement compared with the traditional MPI+CPU parallel. It is also found that the simple MPI-direct-host programming model on Intel MIC cluster can achieve a performance equivalent to the MPI+GPU model on GPU clusters when the same number of processors are allocated. An efficient cross-node communication network is still the key to achieve the strong scalability for parallel applications running on multiple nodes. In general, geospatial computation consists of the functional modules to process (1) vector geometric data, (2) network and graph data, (3) raster grid data, and (4) imagery data. A variety of research challenges remain in deploying heterogeneous computer architecture and systems to handle different data structure and geospatial computation problems in the future.
The paper on this research can be accessed at http://www.csce.uark.edu/~mqhuang/papers/2013_gis_hpcc.pdf.
Research Team Bios
Miaoqing Huang is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, University of Arkansas. His research interests include operating system and infrastructure design for manycore computer system, hardware acceleration technologies (such as FPGA and GPU), and on-board cache design in nonvolatile memory-based solid-state drives (SSDs). He earned his doctoral degree in computer engineering from The George Washington University in 2009. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Xuan Shi is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Geosciences, University of Arkansas. His research interests include Geoinformatics, Geospatial Cyberinfrastructure, High performance geocomputation among others. He earned his doctoral degree in geography from the West Virginia University in 2007. He can be reached at email@example.com.
Haihang You is a Computational Scientist at the National Institute for Computational Sciences, University of Tennessee. Prior of joining NICS, he was a research associate at Innovative Computing Laboratory, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Tennessee. His research interests are High Performance Computing, Performance Analysis and Evaluation, Compiler & Automatic Tuning and Optimization System, Linear Algebra, Iterative Adaptive Discontinuous Galerkin Finite Element Methods, Parallel I/O Tuning on Lustre and System Utilization Analysis and Improvement on a Supercomputer. He can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:885e70b0-f712-4004-bca1-c43cfae6b44f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.hpcwire.com/2014/01/23/emerging-architectures-boost-geospatial-application-performance/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281659.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00163-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.889481 | 2,537 | 2.78125 | 3 |
We've seen the iPad used in an assortment of interesting ways, from using it to control a remote control helicopter to helping kids with Autism communicate with the world. But this latest story may take the cake when it comes appreciating the versatility of Apple's tablet.
Recently, a team of doctors in Germany used an iPad to help them remove two tumors from a patient's liver.
When [the doctor could] see the liver he used the iPad to localize the two tumors in the liver. It was very exciting as it was one of the first operations to be carried out in this way within Germany.
The tablet uses augmented reality, which allows the liver to be filmed with an iPad and overlaid during an operation with virtual 3D models reconstructed from the real organ. Developed by Fraunhofer MEVIS in Bremen, this procedure helps locate critical structures such as tumors and vessels and is expected to improve the quality of transferring pre-operational resection plans into actual surgery, according to Bianka Hofmann from the institute.
(Image credit: REUTERS/Fabian Bimmer) | <urn:uuid:956ae9bf-6233-4475-9a10-bec6171a65f8> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.networkworld.com/article/2225219/wireless/ipad-used-in-surgery-to-help-remove-tumors-from-patient-s-liver.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280850.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00191-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95017 | 223 | 2.6875 | 3 |
Long term exposure to radiation is one of the biggest challenges in long-duration human spaceflights and NASA is now looking for what it called revolutionary technology that would help protect astronauts from the deadly matter.
According to NASA: "Current conventional radiation protection strategy based on materials shielding alone, referred to as passive radiation shielding, is maturing (has been worked on for about three decades) and any progress using the materials radiation shielding would only be evolutionary (incremental) at best. Material shielding would have only limited or no potential for avoiding continuous exposure to radiation. In addition, current material shielding alone for radiation protection for long duration/deep space safe human space missions is prohibitive due to pay load and cost penalties and is not a viable option."
More on space: Gigantic changes keep space technology hot
What NASA says it is looking for rather is what it calls "Active radiation shielding" technology that it says could include confined and unconfined magnetic fields requiring super-conducting magnets, plasma shields, and electrostatic shields.
From NASA: "The biggest advantage of active electrostatic radiation shielding is that by preventing ions from hitting the spacecraft, the unknown harmful biological effects of continuous long duration exposure to space radiation is significantly reduced for galactic cosmic rays and for solar particle events, of great concern for radiation exposure, it is practically eliminated. It is believed that the best strategy for radiation protection and shielding for long duration human missions is to use electrostatic active radiation shielding while, in concert, taking the full advantage of the state-of-the-art evolutionary passive (material) shielding technologies for the much reduced and weaken radiation that may escape and hit the spacecraft. "
NASA says the research it expects to see from partners will yield applications such as radiation protection and shielding, radiation dose exposures, sensors and medical applications.
Radiation mitigation is part of NASA's list of Grand Challenges. From NASA Grand Challenges site: "Space is an extreme environment that is not conducive to human life. Today's technology can only partially mitigate the effects on the physical and psychological well-being of people. In order to live and effectively work in space for an extended period of time, people require technologies that enable survival in extreme environments; countermeasures that mitigate the negative effects of space; accommodations that optimize human performance; comprehensive space-based physiological and physical health management and prompt and comprehensive medical care in a limited infrastructure."
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Google Voice gets into Sprint Mobile phones | <urn:uuid:f7b674a6-0f6f-47e3-9382-f9ce84b3c9a7> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.networkworld.com/article/2228816/security/nasa-wants-revolutionary-radiation-shielding-technology.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00549-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924546 | 513 | 3.671875 | 4 |
Legislation to allow people to "unlock" their cell phones won unanimous support on Capitol Hill and is about to become law. But the bill won't have much practical effect for most people.
Cell-phone carriers already agreed to a voluntary unlocking policy, and the law will only be relevant until the Copyright Office issues new rules on the issue next year.
Supporters admit the bill is narrow but say it is still a significant step forward for consumer rights. They argue the bill is also important symbolically and could lay the groundwork for future reforms to copyright laws.
What Is Cell-Phone Unlocking?
Many cell phones come "locked" to a particular network. Unlocking a cell phone allows the owner to switch providers without buying a new phone.
Under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it is illegal to circumvent a "technological measure" to access a copyrighted work. Every three years, the Copyright Office grants exemptions to that rule.
In previous reviews, the Copyright Office had granted an exemption for cell-phone unlocking, allowing people to switch to a new network as long as they had completed their old contract. But the office didn't renew the exemption in its 2012 review, making the practice illegal. Theoretically, a person could have gotten a five-year jail sentence for unlocking a phone without the carrier's permission.
Cell-phone unlocking had been a relatively obscure issue, but the Copyright Office's ruling prompted a major backlash. More than 114,000 people signed a White House petition in protest. They felt that if they bought a device, they should be able to use it however they wanted.
The White House responded to the petition, saying the administration agreed that "consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties."
Suddenly, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were racing to introduce their own bills to legalize cell-phone unlocking. A bill from Rep. Zoe Lofgren, a California Democrat, would have amended the underlying copyright law to make it permanently legal to unlock cell phones and other devices.
The Law Is Only a Temporary Fix
Congress ultimately opted for a narrower approach.
The bill that President Obama is about to sign only overturns the Copyright Office's 2012 ruling on cell-phone unlocking. The office is expected to begin the review again later this year and issue new rules sometime next year.
Although it's unlikely, there's nothing in the bill to stop the Copyright Office from reinstating the ban.
An act of Congress is a forceful statement to the Copyright Office, but the White House's original response to the online petition more than a year ago alone would have put serious pressure on the office to reverse itself in its next rules.
Carriers Will Already Unlock Phones
After the controversy exploded, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler warned cell-phone carriers that he would consider enacting new regulations unless the companies adopted an unlocking policy.
The cellular carriers then all agreed to a code of conduct promising to unlock their customers' phones after their contracts had expired. The carriers also agreed to unlock prepaid phones one year after activation.
Wheeler issued a statement at the time applauding the carriers for agreeing to a "solution" to the problem. He also promised tough oversight to ensure the carriers stuck to their promise.
You Can't Even Switch Between All Carriers
Cell-phone unlocking may become legal, but that doesn't mean it'll always be possible to switch carriers.
Some carriers rely on different technologies than others, meaning that some phones will only work on certain networks. So, an AT&T customer who completes her contact and wants to switch to Sprint might have to buy a new phone no matter what.
"Unlocked phones are not the same as interoperable phones, and it would be a mistake to conflate the two," Michael Altschul, the general counsel for cell-phone lobbying group CTIA, testified during a House hearing last year.
Supporters of the bill argue that those obstacles are becoming less and less relevant due to technological advances. Soon, new phones may be able to work on all networks.
So What Was the Point?
Christopher Lewis, a lobbyist for consumer group Public Knowledge, acknowledged that the bill is "really, really narrowly focused."
Groups like Public Knowledge and the Electronic Frontier Foundation had lobbied for broader legislation to reform copyright law and prevent future fights over unlocking devices. But Lewis said it was important to compromise to reverse the Copyright Office's ruling as quickly as possible.
He pointed out that the bill is broader than the industry agreement in at least one important respect: It allows third parties to unlock phones. The cell-phone carriers had only promised to unlock the phones for their customers, but the bill allows people to unlock the phones themselves or have someone else do it for them.
Lewis also said it was an important victory for an online petition on copyright to prompt action from the White House and Congress. A White House spokesman said it is apparently the first time the White House's online petition site has actually led to a legislative change.
Senate Judiciary Committee aides who helped write the bill argued that it has much more weight than just the White House statement in response to the petition. The Copyright Office will likely be more deferential to united action from both chambers and the White House when it reviews its rules, the aides argued.
Lewis said consumer groups now have the momentum to make other changes to loosen copyright law. He argued that consumers should also be able to bypass software locks to tinker with tablets, e-books, and even cars.
"People understand the need for individuals to use their phone however they want," Lewis said. "Does that ability to tinker with things you own apply for other objects? We believe it does, and that's what the broader discussion will be about."
The House Judiciary Committee is expected to hold a hearing on "circumvention" issues as part of its broader review of copyright law. | <urn:uuid:64d58caa-3741-430d-89b7-8741bf95c092> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.nextgov.com/mobile/2014/07/congress-passed-cell-phone-unlocking-bill-it-wont-do-much/90128/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280891.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00457-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.963362 | 1,209 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Self-driving cars are edging closer to commercial reality, with Google, Tesla and Uber taking up pole positions in the race for dominance. But consider the cybersecurity implications of a world where cars are 100% controlled via a network that’s open to the internet. It can get pretty dark.
“Hacking self-driving cars” is a concept that will not only draw all the white-hat boys to the cyber-yard for its coolness appeal, but it’s also a phrase that conjures up darker thoughts: kidnapping, mayhem, terrorist attacks, murder.
And worse, in the self-driving case, it’s a hack one, hack ‘em all proposition—and hold the fate of their helpless passengers in one’s hands. With a properly executed exploit, a hacker can play a cyber-age Sauron:
“One script to rule them all, one script to find them…”
And where’s Gandalf when you need him?
Risks are already being demonstrated. Researchers at software security company Security Innovation say they are able to trick Google vehicles’ radar scanners into thinking that there are objects in their paths—thus prompting the cars to take automatic, evasive maneuvers.
Mounted on top of the vehicle, the Lidar laser radar system spins around constantly to build a picture of the car’s surroundings, which the car then relies upon to navigate safely. Security Innovation’s principal scientist Jonathan Petit said that he can use a homemade laser device to disrupt the system and create false echoes of objects—in turn forcing a stop, a turn or wild evasive moves that can result in an accident.
“I can spoof thousands of objects and basically carry out a denial-of-service attack on the tracking system so it’s not able to track real objects,” Petit told IEEE Spectrum. “The only tricky part was to be synchronized, to fire the signal back at the Lidar at the right time – then the Lidar thought that there was clearly an object there.”
We’ve heard a lot about hacking connected cars lately, what with the massive Jeep recall and all. Do self-driving cars have fewer failsafe measures than the hunks that are piloted around by imperfect human brains? Well, for now, the answer would appear to be “yes.” There’s definitely more work to be done here. | <urn:uuid:78d1f01b-8f69-413a-9939-5051b4652369> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.infosecurity-magazine.com/slackspace/selfdriving-cars-in-mordor-where/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282631.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00273-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939876 | 511 | 2.71875 | 3 |
This week, we focused on what SQL is, why it’s important, and even previewed Microsoft SQL Server 2016! Let’s tie it all together — programming languages, SQL, and IT!
IT is a diverse field, so it follows that IT professionals come from a diverse range of backgrounds. Some have graduate degrees in computer science, maybe some majored in the arts and ended up in technology, while others didn’t pursue higher education, but learned IT skills through on-the-job experience.
IT pros from any background can benefit from ongoing training. Learning new skills enables you to excel in your current role and contributes to future career development. One of the most beneficial subjects to pursue is programming, and depending on your career path, SQL.
Why Should IT Pros Learn Programming?
At its core, programming enables us to interact with machines and information systems. Programming is also essential to automation, which is an inescapable element of the modern workplace.
Versatility. Learning programming languages makes any member of an IT department more versatile, and even invaluable to the rest of the company. It also provides practical benefits that you can use on the job, on a daily basis.
Automation. Even in smaller IT environments, learning about code and acquiring the programming skills to be able to problem-solve can help you to create automated solutions. Automation doesn’t have to be fancy — simple scripts can save time, headaches, and money.
Have you ever cobbled together scripts you’ve found on StackOverflow, crossed your fingers, and hoped for the best? We’ve all done it. With a little time and determination, anyone is able to learn programming languages. And when you’re in IT, you’ll reap the benefits more than most.
How to Choose a Programming Language.
That’s a tough one. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer.
Pick your language based on the systems you use at your job, and as well as your own personal career aspiration.
You’ll probably pursue the language that makes the most sense in your situation, such as AngularJS for building websites, or more general-purpose languages such as Java, Python, XML, Perl, or C++. You also can factor in system-specific tools that you may be using or want to learn, like PowerShell.
If you’re working with databases often, then you’ll probably want to learn SQL.
Why you need to learn learn SQL
If your business is like most, it likely can’t run without functional, clean, and optimized databases. As business rely on a greater quantity of data, you’ll find yourself in greater demand.
If you’re a programming novice, don’t worry. SQL is easy to understand and learn, and will be one of the most useful tools in your IT toolbox once you master it.
Understanding databases, not just how they work and interact, but also how to administer them and diagnose performance issues is key for any sysadmin or other IT pro. Knowing SQL well enough to write useful queries and manipulate structure data can help you be more self-reliant and even fill in as a database admin when necessary. Rather than relying on pre-built reports, you’re able to directly query for the data you need to answer any question about the business.
Even outside traditional IT department tasks, SQL is a beneficial tool. It’s hard to miss the buzz around business intelligence, big data, and analytics. Being able to actually perform the operations behind these buzzwords is not only impressive, it provides tremendous business value.
If you ever decide to make a career shift, learning SQL places you on a good path to specialize. You may even decide to become a SQL Developer or DBA — and that often means a higher salary and a more vital role in a company.
Critical analysis, logic, and creativity are required in all IT jobs, and the same goes for programming. Learning to write code — and combining it with your existing abilities and experience takes your skill set to the next level.
Want to start learning how to program? Take yourself all way to expert level with CBT Nuggets training!
Not a CBT Nuggets subscriber? Start your free week today. | <urn:uuid:0104f9c6-db53-4948-92e4-1f38d1dd9a60> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://blog.cbtnuggets.com/2016/11/connecting-the-dots-programming-sql-and-it/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00514-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.932305 | 894 | 2.765625 | 3 |
As use of the Internet has grown, the Web has also become more popular with scammers, identity thieves, and other cybercriminals.
Given the number of people who experience or have heard about phishing and other Web-based scams, many Internet users don’t feel comfortable sharing their personal details online. Fortunately, there is Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology, a standard solution for protecting sensitive information online.
But there’s more to SSL than just basic safety. Read this guide to learn about what SSL does, how it works, and how it can help build credibility online. | <urn:uuid:f598c035-7169-42ff-9500-9114123ed78c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2014/04/14/ssl-101-a-guide-to-fundamental-website-security/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281426.63/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00054-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.939288 | 123 | 2.84375 | 3 |
6.2.3 What is Capstone?
Capstone has been the U.S. government's long-term project to develop a set of standards for publicly available cryptography, as authorized by the Computer Security Act of 1987. The primary agencies responsible for Capstone were NIST and the NSA (see Question 6.2.2). The plan called for the elements of Capstone to become official U.S. government standards, in which case both the government itself and all private companies doing business with the government would have been required to use Capstone. However, Capstone is no longer an active development initiative.
There are four major components of Capstone: a bulk data encryption algorithm, a digital signature algorithm, a key exchange protocol, and a hash function. The data encryption algorithm is called Skipjack, often referred to as Clipper (see Question 6.2.4), which was the encryption chip that included the Skipjack algorithm. The digital signature algorithm is DSA (see Section 3.4) and the hash function used is SHA-1 (see Question 3.6.5). The key exchange protocol is not published, but is generally considered to be related to Diffie-Hellman (see Question 3.6.1).
The Skipjack algorithm and the concept of a Law Enforcement Access Field (LEAFs, see Question 7.13) have been accepted as FIPS 185; DSS has been published as FIPS 186, and finally SHS has been published as FIPS 180.
All parts of Capstone were aimed at the 80-bit security level. The symmetric-keys involved were 80 bits long and other aspects of the algorithm suite were designed to withstand an ``80-bit'' attack, that is, an effort equivalent to 280 operations. | <urn:uuid:07db5217-2f6f-4fec-ab5a-33f53ebe9961> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.emc.com/emc-plus/rsa-labs/standards-initiatives/capstone.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285289.45/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00448-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971933 | 364 | 3.40625 | 3 |
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DARPA wants sleeper drones at the bottom of the sea
Defense department researchers are looking for ways to store, then deploy, unmanned, unarmed drones from the ocean floor when situations dictate.
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) said on Jan. 11 that it is looking to develop distributed systems that hibernate in deep-sea capsules for years, wake up when commanded, and deploy to surface providing operational support and situational awareness. It stressed that the drones wouldn’t carry weapons and would be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance in contested areas.
It’s hoping to tap into the deep-ocean engineering experience that the telecommunications and oil-exploration industry have with signal propagation in the water and on the seafloor.
It said the project would help the Navy cope with mounting costs and complexities that could inhibit operations over vast maritime areas. “Unmanned systems and sensors are commonly envisioned to fill coverage gaps and deliver action at a distance,” said DARPA. It added, however, that for all of the advances in sensing, autonomy, and unmanned platforms in recent years, the technologies’ usefulness becomes academic when faced with deployment issues.
DARPA’s said its “Upward Falling Payloads” (UFP) program seeks to address that challenge.
The UFP concept would see development of deployable, unmanned, distributed systems that sleep on the deep-ocean floor in special containers for years at a time. Those deep-sea nodes, said DARPA, would then be woken up remotely when needed and recalled to the surface. In other words, they “fall upward,” it said.
“The goal is to support the Navy with distributed technologies anywhere, anytime over large maritime areas. If we can do this rapidly, we can get close to the areas we need to affect, or become widely distributed without delay,” said Andy Coon, DARPA program manager. “To make this work, we need to address technical challenges like extended survival of nodes under extreme ocean pressure, communications to wake-up the nodes after years of sleep, and efficient launch of payloads to the surface.”
A proposer’s day is scheduled for Jan. 25, 2013, in the DARPA Conference Center. DARPA is looking for proposals in three key areas for developing the program: communications; deep ocean ‘risers’ to contain the payloads; and the actual payloads. Since the program will emphasize the use of ambient pressure containment with its risers, there is no need for specialization of payloads to accommodate the extreme pressures of the deep sea, it said.
It added that communities with technical background in unmanned platforms; distributed sensors; networking; sensor packaging; information operations; electronic warfare; anti-submarine warfare, etc. may all be able to play a role.
Almost half of the world’s oceans are more than four kilometers deep. This provides considerable opportunity for cheap stealth, it said, but the vastness and depth make retrieval costs prohibitive. Despite this, the UFP program is specifically not a weapons program, and the risks to losing any single node will be minimal.
According to DARPA, depending on the specific payload, the systems would provide a range of non-lethal, but useful, capabilities like situational awareness, disruption, deception, networking, rescue, or any other mission that benefits from being pre-distributed and hidden. An example class of systems might be small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that launch to the surface in capsules, take off and provide aerial situational awareness, networking or decoy functions, it said, adding that waterborne applications are sought as well.
“We are simply offering an alternative path to realize these missions without requiring legacy ships and aircraft to launch the technology, and without growing the reach and complexity of unmanned platforms,” said Coon. | <urn:uuid:9e361974-ba89-4198-b878-10e7bcc36d43> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://gsnmagazine.com/node/28244?c=military_force_protection | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280801.0/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00082-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929503 | 844 | 2.609375 | 3 |
By Nagib Ramli, Research Associate, Asia Pacific Aerospace and Defense Practice, Frost & SullivanBy Nagib Ramli, Research Associate, Asia Pacific Aerospace and Defense Practice, Frost & Sullivan
Since Sept. 11, homeland security has spurred the impetus toward creating a single agency responsible for all matters related to upholding a nation's security. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in the United States was established approximately two years after the terrorist attacks. The major problem identified by the DHS was that overlapping agencies that had been developed over decades and were not working cohesively. Thus, the solution was to unify the independent agencies under the DHS.
The United Kingdom restructured its Home Office to strengthen its ability to combat terrorism. Similarly, Australia does not have a Department of Homeland Security, but has improvised the legal and legislative framework and strengthened the powers of law enforcement agencies.
The United States have the necessary resources to establish a dedicated Department of Homeland Security. For Asia Pacific countries, a dedicated DHS would involve significant financial cost to integrate and separate existing agencies and departments. Some countries, particularly in the Southeast Asian region along the straits of Malacca, have established an agreement towards a joint effort ensuring border and maritime security.
Faced with terrorist threats, pressure is on governments and the relevant agencies and institutions to implement tighter and more effective security solutions at airports, seaports and land borders across Asia Pacific. However, the complex political and cultural mix in different countries means they face different threats. This has affected the methods of security companies attempting to penetrate the homeland security market in the Asia Pacific region.
Homeland Security: A Global Perspective
The events that occurred in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, will long be etched in the minds of individuals around the world. Images of the gaping hole at 0the Pentagon and the destruction of New York's World Trade Center towers were catalysts in increasing awareness about homeland defense. Demand was high for the government to prevent this type of catastrophe from recurring. The federal and state governments responded swiftly to these events and the subsequent demand for heightened protection and deterrence.
On Oct. 8, 2001, President George W. Bush established the Office of Homeland Security by executive order, appointing Pennsylvania Governor Tom Ridge as director of the newly created office. Responsible for coordinating a national strategy to detect, prevent, and respond to threats against the country, Ridge's job includes ensuring maximum cooperation and coordination between the numerous federal agencies who handle various aspects of homeland defense. In a move that highlights the new emphasis placed on homeland defense after 9/11, spending for the fiscal year of 2003 was sharply increased from the fiscal year 2002 budget numbers by more than 50 percent.
The tragedy of 9/11 shocked nations around the globe. Many people lost their lives and even more grieved for their loved ones. Feelings of uncertainty and insecurity naturally followed the aftermath of the event. Many feared the impact of 9/11 towards the national security of a country, and also the economic crisis that would ensue affecting the entire global community.
Global War on Terrorism
The Global War on Terrorism (GWOT) was a campaign initiated by the United States under President Bush. Followed by many countries around the world, its includes various military, political, legal, and personal actions taken to curb the spread of terrorism.
In the Asia Pacific region, Australia, India, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore have contributed or provided military assistance to the U.S.-led GWOT campaign.
Asia Pacific Homeland Security Market Trends
Each country in the Asia Pacific region has its own international disputes, which directly and indirectly contribute to the instability of the region. The military demarcation line (MDL) within the four kilometer-wide Demilitarized Zone has separated the North and South Korean peninsula since 1953. In southern Thailand, a series of violence in predominantly Muslim southern provinces prompted temporary border closures and controls with Malaysia in 2005, in order to curb terrorist activities. Other regional instabilities include the Sri Lanka's Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam; the Burma, Laos and China border disputes; Bangladesh's Jamaatul Mujahedin Bangladesh; and illegal cross-border activities and smuggling at the Papua New Guinea-Indonesia borders.
In general, there is public support for government initiatives to increase the security infrastructure. Japan experience several terrorist attacks, including poisonous gas released on subways. Therefore, the Japanese are supportive of government plans to protect their homeland and enhance security to increase trade.
Technological advancement in Asia Pacific varies across different countries, and it is difficult to measure without looking specifically into a country. China and Vietnam are building new infrastructure, so they are adopting and accepting new technology. They are easier to penetrate than Japan. | <urn:uuid:2d954166-fa0b-4c2c-9214-9a7865f930a1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.asmag.com/print_article.aspx?id=9006 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00384-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.94865 | 960 | 2.65625 | 3 |
DELL EMC Glossary
What is Infrastructure As A Service (IaaS)
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) gives you on-demand access to IT infrastructure. This includes the resources such as storage, networks and compute that you need to run your workloads. As a business user, you can request IT services whenever you need them, paying only for what you consume.
How does IaaS work?
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) is a complete IT infrastructure consumed as a service. Each user or tenant accesses a portion of a consolidated pool of federated resources to create and use their own compute infrastructure as needed, when needed, and how needed.
What are the benefits of IaaS?
• Greater Efficiency – resources are virtualized and pooled ensuring physical infrastructure is used to maximum capacity
• Greater Agility – IT resources can be provisioned on demand and returned to the resource pool just as easily
• Rapid Scalability – instantly allocate additional computing resources to meet business demands due to peak seasons, company growth or decline
• Lower Costs- infrastructure, energy, and facility costs, “pay as you use” model
• Greater IT staff productivity– Automated provisioning through self-service portal
• Reduce wasted resources – transparent pricing and metering and chargeback tools allow IT admins to pinpoint where costs can be reduced
• Higher utilization of IT investments
• Enhanced security and protection of information assets | <urn:uuid:2228b467-5f3a-4eae-a67a-0e3f5fa6eef8> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.emc.com/corporate/glossary/infrastructure-as-a-service.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279248.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00202-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911144 | 301 | 2.71875 | 3 |
It's sad but very true. Although the Internet has proven to be a valuable tool for learning, worldwide communication, commerce and data exchange, these capabilities are also being used to perpetrate serious crimes.
With increasing regularity, law enforcement agencies are encountering computers at crime scenes. These computers are used to store the secrets of criminals as well as in the commission of crimes. But what law enforcement agencies have discovered is that a criminal's computer can be used to aid in his prosecution.
Law enforcement successes in computer-related investigations are directly tied to the availability and quality of forensic software utilities. Until recently, law enforcement computer specialists were without specialized forensic tools to deal with Internet-related computer evidence. A number of law enforcement supporters recognized this deficiency and created a forensic tool to deal with it.
IPFILTER, developed by New Technologies Inc., was created to help law enforcement computer specialists evaluate desktop and notebook computer hard-disk drives and to identify the frequency and identity of Internet Web browsing and e-mail activity. Available free of charge to law enforcement agencies, it was created primarily to help in cases involving child pornography, but it has an abundance of law enforcement potential for any case involving the Internet. A special law enforcement version of the IPFILTER program can be downloaded over the Internet from New Technologies Inc.'s Web site at .
The law enforcement version of IPFILTER is also being distributed by the National White Collar Crime Center to its law enforcement members.
It Does Windows
From a computer investigator's standpoint, the Microsoft Windows operating system is a dream come true. After all, DOS and Windows were never intended to be secure. This is particularly true concerning Internet-related evidence stored on computer hard-disk drives in the form of ambient data. E-mail addresses, the contents of e-mail messages and a history of Internet browsing activity potentially passes through the Windows swap file. In those cases where Windows swap files are created during the work session and then erased, the same information is left behind as a large erased file in unallocated space. Much of this information remains behind waiting for discovery and documentation by the computer investigator.
Computer investigators are fortunate that evidence, in the form of ambient data, remains behind in the Windows swap file. That is the good news. The bad news is that these swap files can be huge, and picking out the various URLs can be a time-consuming and tedious task. That is where the IPFILTER program comes to the rescue. It relies upon fuzzy logic concepts to automatically identify patterns of e-mail addresses and URLs. The process takes just a few minutes and creates a database file that can be reviewed or analyzed using any popular spreadsheet or database application.
A copy of the public domain program DM accompanies IPFILTER and can be used to quickly sort through the database and provide meaningful statistical information about prior Internet activity on a specific computer.
As a point of clarification, the Internet activity is identified from remnants of data stored on the computer hard-disk drive and not from an analysis of Web traffic or with electronic sniffers.
The Internet and related computer evidence issues are here to stay. And because of the common belief that Internet use cannot be easily monitored by law enforcement agencies, it is likely that the Internet will become even more of a haven for criminals in the future. Training and the availability of computer evidence processing utilities will be a key to success for law enforcement in the coming months and years.
Michael R. Anderson retired from a 25-year federal law enforcement career in 1996. He is internationally recognized in the field of forensic computer science and also in the field of computer artificial intelligence. .
December Table of Contents | <urn:uuid:da94d9c3-29cf-4304-b781-10feb0fc9d2b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.govtech.com/magazines/gt/Utility-Aids-Investigators-in-Swap-File-Search.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00412-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938642 | 740 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Securing the Smart Grid: The Road Ahead
So what exactly is the Smart Grid? The Smart Grid provides a much-needed update to our electric grid by connecting local power distribution with the national infrastructure, effectively changing the way electricity is delivered. The Smart Grid's energy delivery network is best described as a two-way flow of electricity and information that is capable of monitoring everything from power plants to customers' individual appliances. The Smart Grid leverages the benefits of distributed computing and fault-tolerant communication to deliver real-time information and enable the near-instantaneous balance of supply and demand at the device level.
A critical part of the Smart Grid is the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), or smart meter network, which acts as both a distribution and endpoint for communication and sensor nodes. Smart meters include a wireless network interface and mesh networking software, which allow utility companies to update the software running the devices automatically and allows them to shut off a customer's electricity over the network, known in the industry as remote disconnect.
Smart meters are the most common component in the Smart Grid and are designed to give utilities and end-users more control over electricity distribution, generation, and usage, as well as greater savings and more efficient, reliable services. The benefits are undisputed; however, it is critical to examine the security of these smart meter devices, which are appearing rapidly on homes across the globe.
In 2008, IOActive researchers evaluated the security of a series of smart meter devices and uncovered several security vulnerabilities. In addition to being vulnerable to common attack vectors, IOActive achieved proof-of-concept, worm-able code execution on standard smart meters. Since the smart meter's radio communication chipset is publicly sourced and the communication protocols lacked authentication and authorization, IOActive researchers were able to leverage these weaknesses—among others—to produce a proof-of-concept worm. If an attacker were to install a malicious program on one meter, the internal firmware could be made to issue commands that would flash adjacent meters until all devices within an area were infected with the malicious firmware.
Theoretically, once the worm spreads to meters, the attacker gains several abilities including connecting and disconnecting customers at predetermined times; changing metering data and calibration constants; changing the meter's communication frequency; and rendering the meter non-functional.
While IOActive's findings are serious and warrant immediate attention, it is certainly not too late to secure the Smart Grid. So, how is that done, exactly? Just like remediating any serious security vulnerability, securing the Smart Grid is a joint effort that requires the support of utility companies, smart meter vendors, the government, and leading privacy and security experts.
Utility companies are in a powerful position to secure the Smart Grid because they can apply pressure to meter vendors so that they produce more secure devices. By continuing to conduct security reviews that test the meters' security, quality, and reliability for the entire duration of the product lifecycle, utilities can ensure that meter vendors continually improve their security protocols.
To help meter vendors develop more secure products, IOActive advocates for the adoption of leading security methodologies including Microsoft's Secure Development Lifecycle (SDL). Taking a proactive stance, the SDL implements security and privacy measures during each stage of a product's development, requires third-party auditing, and conducts a final review before software is released. The SDL also makes business sense, as it is a proven tool to save money—studies indicate that overall project costs are 60 times higher when gaps in information security controls are addressed late in the development phase.
Following an SDL will help meter vendors resolve many of the design flaws discovered in their devices including the lack of layered defenses. Multiple layers of defense provide the best security, using the theory that if one mechanism fails you have several others to prevent a breach. It is especially important for smart meters to have a layered defense because they are installed on the outside of homes with minimal physical protection. Without a layered defense in place, someone with a basic understanding of electronics could easily steal a meter, reverse engineer it, and potentially uncover exploitable vulnerabilities.
Contributing to the lack of layered defenses, IOActive discovered that strong encryption, authentication, and authorizations were often poorly implemented in smart meter devices. IOActive found that many devices do not use encryption or implement any authentication before carrying out sensitive functions like executing software updates and performing disconnect operations. Even when meters had encryption algorithms in place, it was found that functionality was unmanageable, and that the keys were often exposed, extremely weak, and could be recovered through simple hardware hacking techniques.
Just like the invention and implementation of any new technology, the Smart Grid promises many benefits, but it also displays many weaknesses. A lot of work needs to be done to secure this critical infrastructure and it is fortunate that this effort currently is taking place. With the help of the government and security experts, utilities are taking strides to improve the security of the Smart Grid and all of its components. As a result of improving security protocols, both consumers and utilities will thrive from the vast benefits of the Smart Grid, while ensuring the present and future safety of the world's critical infrastructure.
IOActive is exhibiting at Infosecurity Europe 2010, the No. 1 industry event in Europe held on 27th – 29th April in its new venue Earl's Court, London. The event provides an unrivalled free education programme, exhibitors showcasing new and emerging technologies and offering practical and professional expertise. For further information please visit www.infosec.co.uk
Established in 1998, IOActive is an industry leader that offers comprehensive computer security services with specializations in smart grid technologies, software assurance, and compliance. Boasting a well-rounded and diverse clientele, IOActive works with a majority of Global 500 companies including power and utility, hardware, retail, financial, media, router, aerospace, high-tech, and software development organizations. As a home for highly skilled and experienced professionals, IOActive attracts the likes of Dan Kaminsky, Ilja van Sprundel, Mike Davis, Ward Spangenberg, and Wes Brown—talented consultants who contribute to the growing body of security knowledge by speaking at such elite conferences as Black Hat, Ruxcon, Defcon, Shakacon, BlueHat, CanSec, and WhatTheHack. For more information, visit | <urn:uuid:9ed5a3d1-f3d9-4260-b835-ba983379669c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/print/datacenter/datacenter-blog/securing-smart-grid-road-ahead | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283475.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00228-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940199 | 1,291 | 2.96875 | 3 |
Questions & Answers
Traditional proxying work by relaying your web browser's requests for webpages to a third-party server that makes the request and provides the response on your behalf. Citzens in Internet-censored countries can use proxies like these to access websites blocked by their government. However, the government censor can just as easily block these proxies as it can the blocked websites they are used to access — by blocking the IP address that hosts the proxy server. The proxy may change IP addresses to subvert this block, but this ultimately results in a cat-and-mouse game, where citizens are constantly searching for and using new proxies, while the censor finds and blocks them.
Telex avoids this problem by locating devices at friendly ISPs between the user and popular websites that aren't blocked by the censor. These devices — called Telex stations — can intercept the user's connection to any uncensored website and stealthily redirect it to proxy server that allows access to censored sites. (We call this technique “end-to-middle” proxying.) In effect, Telex works like a proxy server with no IP address, making blocking it much more difficult.
Telex and Tor provide different, complementary features. Tor is primarily designed to provide anonymous communication, while Telex aims to provide unblockable communication. Unlike with Tor, the Telex system operators can see the user's IP address and what content the user is requesting. However, users who require anonymity could get it by using Telex to access Tor.
While Tor is currently used for anticensorship, it suffers the same cat-and-mouse game described above and has been blocked by several countries that discourage its use. Tor currently maintains a collection of bridge relays whose addresses are not publicly listed to allow users in these countries to connect. Telex may provide an alternate solution to this problem, by acting as an unblockable bridge relay.
In order for Telex to be difficult to block, it must be deployed at ISPs that carry traffic that the censor would not want to block. These could be ISPs near the edge of the network that each serve a single important website, or a smaller number of core network ISP that each serve millions of websites. Incentive for deploying Telex stations could come from governments or private organizations.
The code or specifications to run a Telex station would be made public, so it is possible for the censor to run their own Telex station. However, without the private key used by the real Telex stations, the censor will be unable to detect or block tagged connections.
Having multiple Telex stations requires a way to share a private key between trusted stations, while keeping it secret from the censor. This could be done by a central "Telex authority" that provides a vetting of potential stations, and provides the private key only to trusted parties. While the use of a single private key may increase the risk of (or damage caused by) a compromised Telex station, we note that large content distribution networks must also replicate their private keys used for HTTPS across multiple servers in different physical locations.
Telex stations can also be given a new private key every so often (e.g. every 5 minutes). Future private keys would be stored in a single secure location, and sent to trusted stations shortly before use. The corresponding public keys could be given to clients years in advance; almost 25,000 public keys can be stored in 1MB.
Alternatively, each station could generate their own private and public key, and a Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) similar to X.509 could be used to authenticate and distribute the trusted public keys to clients.
When establishing a normal HTTPS connection, the client sends a random number (called the ClientHello nonce). To create a Telex connection, the client replaces this number with what we call a tag — essentially, an encrypted value that looks random until it's decrypted. Decrypting Telex tags requires a private key contained in Telex stations. Since the censor doesn't have this key, it can't tell the difference between tags and the random numbers used in normal connections.
In addition to marking connections that are requests for anticensorship service, Telex tags convey information that allows Telex stations to decrypt the secure HTTPS connection that the client establishes with the non-blacklisted destination website. This lets the Telex station replace the contents of the connection with data from a blacklisted site.
For full details, see our technical paper.
Telex requires users to run client software on their computers. However, unlike previous proxy-based anticensorship systems, users don't need to know any secret information (e.g., an IP address or secret key) to access the system. We need to distribute the client software to users without it being blocked or tampered with, but nothing about it needs to be kept secret from the censor.
We believe providing a downloadable Telex client would be sufficient in most cases. While download websites may ultimately be blocked by the censor, users may be able to use intermittent and short-lived proxies to access it. Users could also obtain the Telex software by Sneakernet from friends or others they trust.
Our proof-of-concept implementation requires the user to specify an unblocked website to use, although curently there is only one server that works for this purpose (NotBlocked.telex.cc).
If Telex becomes widely deployed by ISPs, finding Telex stations could be made a part of normal browsing, where the client attempts to (secretly) hail Telex when accessing sites the user visits. If Telex responds, then the client has found a NotBlocked candidate, which can be later used to reliably communicate with Telex.
We could also choose to publish the list of Telex stations publically. Since paths can't be blocked as easily as traditional proxies, it isn't neccessary to keep their location secret from an adversary.
There are various characteristics that a censor might try to use to distinguish Telex connections from normal traffic. These include header fields and options at various network protocol layers, as well as the overall size, duration, and pattern of communication. While this is possible, detecting Telex using these methods is more difficult than simply finding and blocking proxies by IP address.
To combat this class of attack by the censor, Telex implementations could observe the behavior of normal traffic and emulate it by adjusting Telex traffic to match. Matching normal behavior with high fidelity is tricky and has performance costs, but implementations could gradually deploy better mimicry to counter increases in the sophistication (and cost!) of the censor's detection techniques.
For more details, see our technical paper.
No, Telex does not currently support IPv6, though there is no technical reason why it couldn't.
Telex provides the equivalent of a normal Internet connection at the location of the Telex station being used. Users can access material that is legal there but illegal in their home countries.
Telex is not designed to provide complete anonymity. ISPs that operate Telex stations learn the user's IP address and the contents of their traffic (just as they do with regular Internet traffic), which gives them powerful tools to respond to abuse.
No. Our prototype is not intended for real users, and it currently has several technical limitations that could allow a censor to detect use of Telex. We designed our proof-of-concept implementation to demonstrate the concept of Telex and to facilitate experimentation by other researchers.
Furthermore, Telex has not yet been deployed at any real ISPs. For now, clients can only use a single demonstration website as the non-blocked destination, which, of course, censors could easily block.
If your question isn't answered here, you can contact the Telex team. | <urn:uuid:bda53017-414b-44d0-84ed-8cb48c87d5f5> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://telex.cc/qa.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283475.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00228-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950135 | 1,596 | 2.859375 | 3 |
When a Canadian producer of high-quality technical outerwear could no longer afford the high cost of labor in Canada, it decided to head south.
The company chose El Salvador, which offered a relatively large industry of approximately 150 textile and apparel companies and a large pool of experienced workers including operators, mechanics and supervisors — many looking for work after some companies had closed during the recession. San Salvador, El Salvador, also offered wage rates similar to those found in China ($0.90/hour) without the time-zone changes and long travel times. Additionally, the factory was to be located in a Free Zone offering no duty and good security.
Three years in, and the company was growing and adding customers, but it did face one particular challenge that was a direct result of the pleasant climate. Temperatures of 75 degrees to 90 degrees will put a smile on the face of many a Canadian, but they were wreaking havoc with the company's lamination processes. Lamination, essentially a gluing process, was being used to apply pocket closures, patch pockets and bottom hems to the company's product. (Lamination of pockets and zippers costs more than sewing, but it provides lighter weight and water-repellent seams.)
NASA, we have a problem
During the laminating process, glue affixed to a paper backing (made by Bemis) was melted using a hot press. Upon completion of the process, a tandem press (cold press) was used to cool, or set, the glue to hold the component being attached in place. Failure to completely cool the laminated element would keep it from setting properly.
To cool the water for the cold press, the industry traditionally — for low-volume manufacturing,— has placed a frozen two-liter soft-drink bottle into a container of water, recycling the water as it becomes warm. The process worked well in Canada, but in the warm climate of El Salvador, the frozen bottles were thawing too quickly, leaving the water to warm up too fast. With up to 10 pairs of presses in use for lamination, significant time was required to change out the melted water bottles for frozen ones. Specifically, the company needed to replace two bottles per hour per pair of presses, for a total of 20 per hour.
Automated cooling systems for high-volume production, with a price tag in the $150,000 range, were not an option.
The company sought to design a more effective and economical cooling system for the cold press to improve the quality of lamination while reducing the labor and time required to replace the water bottles.
One small step for cold presses
That's where Jim Prim comes in. One evening over dinner with Prim, Barbee, a consultant to the industry working with the outerwear company, shared the problem they were trying to tackle.
Prim, a NASA systems engineer who helped develop features on the first Lunar Lander, and Barbee, who was in El Salvador developing a two-year textile college (a project initiated by North Carolina State University (NCSU)), came up with an initial solution utilizing a household freezer adjusted to a temperature just above freezing, and a coolant loop. While the first prototype did not work (the loop did not permit an adequate flow of water), the concept proved to be the right approach, and solved the problem.
One giant leap for efficiency
The cost of the solution came to less than $450 for four workstations and was comprised of a small household freezer, half filled with water cooled to a temperature just above freezing, with insulated tubes drawing the water from the freezer, passing it through the cold press and recycling it back to the freezer. One operator was able to manage two presses.
The solution not only saved time and money by eliminating the significant amount of labor previously required to constantly replace frozen bottles, but it also improved the process by providing a steady temperature throughout.
Completed cooling system
Prim, who trained the first seven U.S. astronauts, including John Glen and Neil Armstrong, notes that not all innovative solutions have to be "rocket science," nor do they have cost a lot of money. In working to lighten the load of Lunar Lander so that it could return to Earth, Prim also found a common-sense solution that didn't require a big budget.
The Lunar Lander was comprised of two sections, one meant for ascending and the other for landing. The latter was to be left on the moon. The ascent module was too heavy to return from the moon to Earth. Prim came up with the idea to place everything not needed on the return flight in the bottom of the lander module and leave it on the moon. Stowing the equipment in the lander section lightened the load enough for the ascent module to take off and return to Earth.
Prim's commonsense philosophy combined with Barbee's engineering techniques led to an innovative solution that was developed and implemented quickly and at low cost.
Gene Barbee is a professional engineer registered in Canada and an international consultant with projects around the world. He is an adjunct professor at NC State University, and was a visiting lecturer in the College of Textiles for four years.
Jim Prim retired from the civil service after 18 years with NASA and seven years with the Dept. of Energy. | <urn:uuid:9cb69e78-25bf-46cc-879b-c1076c706f55> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://apparel.edgl.com/magazine/February-2013/-In-Apparel-and-In-Spaceships,-Big-Solutions-Can-Come-in-Small-Sizes83331 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280280.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00220-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.965893 | 1,076 | 2.859375 | 3 |
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I was recently reading Michio Kaku's book, "The Physics of the Impossible", which discusses a lot of technologies that we have become used to seeing in modern fiction, including: time travel; matter transportation; faster-than-light travel and UFOs. It's an interesting read for anyone that has any interest in physics.One subject that struck me as interesting was about the future of microelectronics. We are used to chip manufacturers being able to pack more and more transistors into the same tiny space, and to clock devices ever faster. However, some physicists now think that this age will be over in the next 20 years. Photolithography (using UV light to etch circuits) creates feature sizes of down to 50nm. So a transistor 50nm wide is the smallest you can make with this technique. I understood that you can make smaller features using electrons, but 50nm is already quite small, this is only 200 atoms of silicon. You can see that we are reaching some fundamental physical limits. The powerful CPUs we make today create vast amounts of waste heat that does not get used to produce useful work. The heat problem becomes worse as you wind up the clock speed.But if you can't add ever more cores to todays CPUs to make them faster, then what is the way forward? Software certainly has a role to play here, as more careful construction of algorithms has potential to make some processes hundreds of times faster. But developments in software have not kept pace with hardware engineering: although we have new programming languages and better operating systems than 20 years ago, writing code to efficiently use the massively parallel hardware we have built has been a slow process. Perhaps a slowdown in the development speed of silicon chips is just what the software industry and software sciences need as an incentive to make things better? | <urn:uuid:0bb4ba7e-7462-4a0a-85f9-9d338541de4e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.dialogic.com/den/developers/b/developers-blog/archive/2008/12/01/the-new-age-of-software.aspx | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00550-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.966052 | 376 | 2.8125 | 3 |
According to the Japan Real Time blog, Toshiba is working on a ‘foolproof' quantum-cryptography system that industry analysts claim cannot be breached.
Using quantum mechanics characteristics provides a means of generating a unique key and (in theory) an infallible eavesdropping detection function. If the PRISM spies tried to eavesdrop (assuming they could decrypt security measures even if they did intercept the communication) it would be detected and the session re-established using new keys.
Fundamentally, secure communications and anti-eavesdropping technology is just one layer needed to protect data in transit. Of course, this is valuable but not the 360 degree security that is required to protect data from the vast amount of threats.
The unfortunate truth is that the security world is preoccupied with the idea of stopping breaches – and yet the evidence reveals that clearly is not working. Even in the most well-run and secure estate, most breaches that occur use malware to extract data from systems directly. Ultimately, detecting these types of attack, efficiently and as quickly as possible is where the focus needs to be for Security professionals.
Read more about Toshiba’s ‘unbreakable’ encryption here. | <urn:uuid:14c1d6f6-6b42-4177-9e1f-40e425aef17e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.newnettechnologies.com/quantum-leap-untangling-toshibas-unbreakable-encryption.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280730.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00550-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.938582 | 245 | 2.65625 | 3 |
On September 20, 2016, the cyber-security news and investigation site Krebs on Security was the target of a sophisticated cyber attack that attempted to take the site offline. This cyber attack was unprecedented in its method and size, offering many lessons for organizations looking to improve their physical and cyber security.
At about 8 p.m. ET, the site was bombarded with about 620 gigabytes of data per second. This type of cyber attack is known as a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack, where the perpetrator uses a network of internet-connected devices to overwhelm a server, causing it to overload and prevent legitimate requests from being fulfilled. A DDoS attack is very similar to having a mob of people cramming the entrance of a small shop, blocking the legitimate customers and disrupting normal business activity.
The Krebs attack is remarkable and unusual in a few ways. First, the size of this attack, which peaked at around 620 gigabytes per second, is the largest DDoS attack to date, as reported by the internet security firm Akamai. Second, the perpetrators used unsecured Internet of things (IoT) devices to carry out their crime. Internet of Things, commonly called IoT, is a collection of physical devices embedded with electronics, software, and sensors – all of which are connected to a network. Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion devices by 2020. The Krebs attackers were able to hijack multiple IoT devices with malicious code to create a large scale botnet to carry out the attack. This particular botnet was reported to include over 1 million IoT devices including routers, surveillance cameras, printers, and digital video recorders. The unsecured devices were compromised with malware, which commanded the them to communicate by passing messages to one another and ultimately coordinating their actions to attack their unsuspecting victim.
What can be done to prevent Internet of Things devices from being compromised by malware? And what steps can be taken to help ensure that devices connected to a network are secure? Here are 4 best practices to help improve IoT device security. | <urn:uuid:f1193cae-11ba-4b30-ad22-e144c4abab31> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.convergint.com/4-ways-improve-internet-things-security/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280891.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00458-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964877 | 422 | 2.90625 | 3 |
SAN and NAS: Together At Last
For many years, the major storage vendors had either a SAN solution or a NAS solution. Few, if any, had both. The SAN (storage area network) vendors would bash NAS (network attached storage) solutions and the NAS vendors would bash the SAN solutions.
Now, most of the major storage vendors have both solutions available and the rhetoric has lessened, instead of trying to sell the only solution, vendors are more likely to present the best solution for the customer’s environment.
Before SAN and NAS existed there was just internal storage (disks enclosed within a server) or small SCSI-attached DAS (direct attached storage) devices and companies bought storage with their server purchases. NAS was a Novell, UNIX or Windows server sharing data over an IP network. A very crude SAN could be created by attaching more than one host (usually no more than four) to a DAS device.
The NAS market was originally spearheaded by Auspex, which closed shop in 2003, while NetApp is credited with NAS's widespread adoption. Today, all of the major storage vendors offer NAS solutions. SANs, which utilize FC (Fibre Channel) architectures, didn’t start appearing until the late 1990s.
The FC standard was approved in 1994 but SANs were slow to appear. It was the late '90s to 2000 before the SAN market exploded. Today, FC is widely deployed and SANs are commonplace.
What is a SAN?
A SAN is a FC network dedicated to storage (primarily disk and tape). Historically, companies would have open systems servers with internal hard drives or DAS. A server with its own, dedicated storage is called an “island” of storage. Each server managed its own storage and was unable to share unused capacity.
This kind of deployment led to a lot of storage overhead. With a SAN, servers and storage are attached to FC switches. The server has a special FC host bus adapter (HBA) to communicate with the SAN, which handles the I/O load and leaves the CPU to process the application requests. Because of this, SAN storage performs as fast as, or faster, than internal storage and allows multiple servers to share the same physical storage pool to allow more efficient utilization of the resources.
Currently, SANs support 1Gb, 2Gb and 4Gb connectivity between devices (servers and storage). There are some switches available that support 10Gb inter-switch links. SANs are useful for environments that need large capacities, block access to data, have multiple servers and/or require high performance.
Okay, So what is a NAS?
While a SAN is a network and the storage attached to it, a NAS is storage that is accessed over a TCP/IP network.
Originating with NFS or CIFS running on a server, NAS has grown to dedicated, specialized devices with high-end features like snapshots, volume copy and replication. Today’s NAS devices support Ethernet connections up to GigE (10-GigE has not yet been widely adopted). However they don’t perform (bandwidth and latency) as well as internal, direct-attached or SAN-attached storage.
NAS is good for environments that need to share data between users or servers and have applications that perform adequately with Ethernet-level performance and file-level access.
SAN storage technology is now very mature. The initial 100MB/sec-transfer rate (1Gb FC) quickly doubled to 200MB/sec (2Gb FC) and now 400MB/sec (4Gb) is readily available. On top of the performance improvements, robust software solutions are available (e.g., shared file systems, snapshots, volume copy, replication, etc.)
NAS solutions have also matured from their humble beginnings. Database vendors now support implementations that use NAS, TOE cards are readily available, enterprise class software solutions are available, etc.
The verdict? The “SAN vs. NAS” war is over. It’s no longer one or the other. Most environments will have a combined SAN and NAS solution. in fact, many NAS solutions actually front-end a SAN to provide an integrated SAN and NAS solution which is the best way to go.
Jim McKinstry is senior systems engineer with the Engenio Storage Group of LSI Logic, an OEM of storage solutions for IBM, TeraData, Sun/StorageTek, SGI and others. | <urn:uuid:6e83706c-b2d3-4b5d-9813-eda42e0d9044> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.cioupdate.com/print/trends/article.php/3583136/SAN-and-NAS-Together-At-Last.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281421.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00210-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958257 | 925 | 2.546875 | 3 |
We are more glued to our phones now than ever before. The modern smartphone is a miniature Internet-enabled computer, capable of keeping you in touch with family and friends no matter the distance. People are storing increasing amounts of data on their phones, from text and voice messages and contacts to pictures, videos, and music. Of course, being so small and so frequently-used, phones are vulnerable devices. They can be dropped onto a hard surface or into a pool, lake, toilet, etc. They can be stepped on or run over. Water can get spilled on them. Or they can just die on you. If you’ve lost critical data on your smartphone, the phone data recovery experts at Gillware can help you.
Where Does Data Live on Your Phone?
Compared to computers, a smartphone’s inner workings are a mystery to most people. Generally, the data on your phone can live in two places. Connected to your phone’s motherboard is an eMMC or eMCP chip. These are a special kind of NAND flash memory chip ideal for devices such as smartphones. Smartphones also have a hidden slot for a microSD card. Not all smartphones come with microSD cards preinstalled, but they are somewhat easy to install, remove, and replace. It only takes a minute or so of simple disassembly.
Your phone’s settings determine which data goes where. If your phone has a microSD card in addition to its embedded flash memory chip, your phone may send all of its photos and videos to the SD card and use its eMMC card for data such as contacts, text messages, etc. But unless you poke around in your phone’s internal storage settings, it’s not immediately apparent which data goes where. Regardless of whether or not there is a microSD card inside your phone, your phone appears to you and your computer to be a single storage device.
What Are eMMC and eMCP Chips?
Inside a USB flash drive or solid-state drive are the NAND chip(s) and a controller chip. The chips are soldered to a printed circuit board. All of the data inside the drive lives on the NAND chips, but not in a form you would recognize. When data passes through the controller chip, the controller organizes the data into something you can make sense of.
Inside your phone, however, is a different type of NAND flash memory chip. The eMMC, or embedded multimedia card, has its controller integrated into the chip itself. You’ll never find an eMMC chip inside a solid-state drive; their performance is far slower than normal NAND chips. But eMMC chips are preferred for phones and more affordable models of tablet.
eMMC chips are cheaper to produce than normal NAND chips, and have a size advantage as well. An eMMC chip frees up space on the PCB and allows the manufacturers to work with even smaller form factors. And an eMCP chip frees up even more space than an eMMC chip, because the RAM chip is integrated into it as well as the controller. While still slower than the NAND chips in your SSD, eMCP chips offer improved performance over eMMC chips.
Mobile Phone Data Recovery
In the vast majority of mobile phone data recovery cases, the phone has to be completely disassembled. This is the only way to get at the eMMC or eMCP chip. After the phone has been stripped down, our mobile phone data recovery technicians can remove the chip. The chip can then be popped into a chip reader and imaged. Because the eMMC chip has a controller integrated into it, this is a simpler process than the raw NAND flash memory dump used for some other solid state memory recovery situations. Reading an eMMC chip (with the proper tools) isn’t much different from reading an SD card.
If, for some reason or another, the memory chip cannot be removed from the motherboard, our engineers can use the JTAG data extraction method. The JTAG method allows data to be read from the memory chip without removing the chip from the phone’s motherboard. Wires are connected to specific contact points on the motherboard that lead directly into the chip. Many phone manufacturers disable JTAG access before the phones are assembled and shipped off. However, when it can be used, it is a powerful data recovery technique.
Salvaging data from mobile phones can be tricky. Every model of phone is built and programmed just a little differently. Our mobile phone data recovery technicians often test data recovery methods on identical “dummy” models. At Gillware, our data recovery experts use forensics tools such as Cellebrite in conjunction with our own proprietary data recovery software tools to access and salvage data from smartphones.
Your phone isn’t formatted for Mac or Windows (unless your phone uses Microsoft’s Windows 10 Mobile O/S). Rather, your phone has a filesystem and operating system of its own. An iPhone uses the iOS operating system, while many other smartphones use Google’s Android operating system. The Android O/S is open-source, so there are many variants of it for smartphones and other devices.
Android Data Recovery
This phone had suffered severe damage, but our data recovery experts were able to remove its eMMC chip and recover its contents.
Android is based on the Linux kernel, so Android mobile devices have Linux filesystems. There are a wide range of Linux filesystems due to the open-source nature of Linux. Our mobile phone data recovery technicians must be well-versed in all flavors of Linux OSes, from Btrfs to ZFS. It’s common for Android eMMC chips to be formatted with Ext4, or with F2FS, a filesystem designed with the unique characteristics of NAND flash memory chips in mind.
While in many cases the phone has died, there are many other cases in which our clients have accidentally factory reset their phones and lost their personal files. As long as the phone isn’t self-encrypting, data recovery in this situation is similar to recovering data from a hard drive after an accidental reformat or system restore. In many mobile phone data recovery cases, our clients are after text messages and contact lists. These are typically stored in a SQLite database. Recovering text messages and presenting them in usable format requires using SQL queries and Unix time conversion to parse them into a spreadsheet humans can easily read.
iPhone Data Recovery Service
While the technology behind the iPhone isn’t so much different from Android phones, the filesystem architecture is very different. Whereas Android mobile phones use open-source Linux filesystems, iPhones and iPads stick with Apple’s proprietary HFS+ architecture. Our data recovery technicians are very well-acquainted with Apple filesystems and are well-versed in recovering lost, deleted, or corrupted data from these devices.
Some models of Android phones are self-encrypting. But all modern iPhones (from the iPhone 4s model and up) are self-encrypting by default, similar to many SSD models. As is the case with all encrypted storage media, access to the data is verboten without the unique encryption credentials. The encryption key can be lost if the controller fails, or when an encrypted smartphone is factory reset. Factory resetting creates a new encryption key and overwrites the old one. But although there are situations where data recovery from iPhones just can’t be done, our mobile phone data recovery experts still have methods to salvage data from iPhones in plenty of other circumstances.
Why Choose Gillware for Your Mobile Phone Data Recovery Needs?
Many of our mobile phone data recovery cases come from clients in law enforcement. We hold ourselves to high standards of data security in all data recovery situations. Gillware is a secure, SOC 2 Type II audited and HIPAA compliant data recovery lab. If you work in law enforcement and need data recovered from a smartphone, please contact the mobile forensics experts in our Gillware Digital Forensics department.
We offer mobile phone data recovery services to more than just clients in law enforcement. We’ve recovered data from phones that have been dropped, run over, burned, and submerged in liquid by ordinary people as well. Our mobile phone data recovery experts are highly trained and highly skilled. Our in-house data recovery tools and techniques are cutting-edge. We d work to make our mobile phone data recovery services as financially risk-free as we can. We can even cover the cost of inbound shipping.
Ready to Have Gillware Assist You with Your Mobile Phone Data Recovery Needs?
Best-in-class engineering and software development staff
Gillware employs a full time staff of electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer scientists and software developers to handle the most complex data recovery situations and data solutions
Strategic partnerships with leading technology companies
Gillware is proud to be a recommended provider for Dell, Western Digital and other major hardware and software vendors. These partnerships allow us to gain unique insight into recovering from these devices.
RAID Array / NAS / SAN data recovery
Using advanced engineering techniques, we can recover data from large capacity, enterprise grade storage devices such as RAID arrays, network attached storage (NAS) devices and storage area network (SAN) devices.
Virtual machine data recovery
Thanks to special engineering and programming efforts, Gillware is able to recover data from virtualized environments with a high degree of success.
SOC 2 Type II audited
Gillware has been security audited to ensure data safety, meaning all our facilities, networks, policies and practices have been independently reviewed and determined as completely secure.
Facility and staff
Gillware’s facilities meet the SOC 2 Type II audit requirements for security to prevent entry by unauthorized personnel. All staff are pre-screened, background checked and fully instructed in the security protocol of the company.
We are a GSA contract holder.
We meet the criteria to be approved for use by government agencies
GSA Contract No.: GS-35F-0547W
Our entire data recovery process can be handled to meet HIPAA requirements for encryption, transfer and protection of e-PHI.
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Our pricing is 40-50% less than our competition.
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We work with you to define clear data recovery goals for our technicians, and only charge you upon successfully meeting these goals and recovering the data that is most important to you.
Gillware is trusted, reviewed and certified
Gillware has the seal of approval from a number of different independent review organizations, including SOC 2 Type II audit status, so our customers can be sure they’re getting the best data recovery service possible.
Gillware is a proud member of IDEMA and the Apple Consultants Network. | <urn:uuid:d21106a5-d640-41f7-9391-56d4a232a869> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.gillware.com/phone-data-recovery/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00118-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918533 | 2,349 | 3.1875 | 3 |
Secure C/C++ Development (SCD) will guide you through the main memory corruption vulnerabilities that affect C/C++ programs, such as buffer overflows and use-after-frees. The course is packed with hands-on exercise scenarios based around sample vulnerable programs. These are used to demonstrate how attackers exploit flaws in the real world and how code can be written defensively to prevent or mitigate the impact of security vulnerabilities.
- How to identify security flaws that affect C/C++ code through code review and manual testing.
- How to evaluate the impact of flaws by learning offensive techniques used to exploit these flaws in real-world attacks.
- How mitigation techniques (such as canaries, ASLR and DEP) can be applied both at the compiler and at the operating system level to reduce the impact of vulnerabilities, together with an assessment of their effectiveness against determined attackers.
- OS Exploit Mitigation
- Input Validation
- Time and State
- Code Quality
- Integrating Security
Benefits to your organization
- Helps to ensure that your software is resilient to an attack, against even the most advanced threats.
- Reduces the number and severity of the vulnerabilities that are introduced into software.
- Increases your organization’s overall understanding of security, reducing the time and cost of remediating vulnerabilities
- Stimulates a positive attitude and an understanding of the importance of security within the development team.
Who should attend?
This workshop is aimed at developers with an operating knowledge of C/C++. Although the workshop uses an x86 Linux distribution as a base platform, the concepts explained can be easily applied/transferred to other operating systems (e.g. Windows) and platforms (e.g. ARM embedded devices).
Given the highly specialist content of this course, it is recommended that delegates know how to write programs in C/C++, are familiar with the use of debuggers and can read and understand basic x86 assembly code (no actual assembly programming experience is required).
Download the Secure C/C++ Brochure below for the full syllabus | <urn:uuid:d0c250e1-9f55-4ad9-be9f-38d2da80d3be> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.mwrinfosecurity.com/training/secure-c-training/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281069.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00569-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909304 | 431 | 2.953125 | 3 |
This is a question that may not seem to have much relevance to IT. However, there are lots of geo-spatial applications where it is fundamental. One approach is to simply use longitude and latitude but the problem now is the time it takes to construct a map based on those co-ordinates. Or, you can store an image and then overlay data on top of the image. But what if the map is not static? For example, suppose you want to superimpose weather conditions and you want to do that in real-time, and you want to be able to layer other data on top as well (for example, where tweets are coming from) and you want to be able to drill down from a broader picture to more localised detail? How do you do all that with both scale and performance?
Successfully doing this with both accuracy and performance, as well as scale, is the claim behind a new database offering called SpaceCurve. So, how does SpaceCurve work? There are four things you need to know. The first is that its storage and execution engine bypasses the operating system so that you get improved performance. That’s the easy part. The second thing is that SpaceCurve stores data using polymorphic space-filling curves. Now, a space-filling curve is a mathematical concept (technically, a mapping from n-dimensional space to m-dimensional space) in which the curve goes through every point in the space and, it turns out, they are well suited to parallelisation. However, what you do not want to do is to limit yourself to a particular mapping or space-filling curve, that’s a bit like sharding your data: good for what you originally thought of but not so useful for other applications that have different requirements. This is where the polymorphic nature of the curves comes in—being used in a computer science sense (as in object orientation) rather than mathematically, where it has no meaning—such that SpaceCurve is not tied to any particular curve but can dynamically construct and remap to whatever is most appropriate (determined by built-in algorithms) for the data in question.
Thirdly, SpaceCurve makes use of hyper-dimensional spatial sieves. These are based on work down by the founder (J Andrew Rogers) of SpaceCurve when he worked on databases for Google Earth and are to do with how you store multi-dimensional polygons within a tree (indexing) structure.
Finally, SpaceCurve uses a version of Allen’s Interval Algebra (a form of Boolean algebra useful for spatiotemporal data) that has been extended to support multi-dimensional environments, which the company uses to parallelise SQL statements (with SQL being automatically translated into the Interval Algebra for you).
I hope you got your head around all of that. The bottom line is that SpaceCurve can store a lot—the product has been designed to scale to thousands of nodes, though that scale has not been implemented yet—of data (and it doesn’t just have to be spatial data). Moreover, it is extremely fast—the company describes its capabilities as “simultaneous real-time capture, fusion and analysis”—and having seen a demonstration of the product I have to say that it extremely impressive. As an aside, bear in mind that The Internet of Things is going to involve a lot of location-based information and traditional database technology has simply not been designed to handle the sort of scale and performance that this is going to require. It looks to me like SpaceCurve has a lot going for it. | <urn:uuid:ed94cece-d415-498b-8a2f-456561135587> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.bloorresearch.com/blog/im-blog/how-do-you-map-a-sphere-to-a-plane/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279248.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00203-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962125 | 748 | 2.828125 | 3 |
Microsoft is looking into a new way to power its data centers. Teaming up with the city of Cheyenne, Wyo., and FuelCell Energy, Microsoft is building a fuel cell system that will use biogas to power a data center, Engadget reported. The project, paid for with $5.5 million in research and development funds from Microsoft, will attempt to use the biogas from the Dry Creek Water Reclamation Facility to not only power its data center, but sell back excess energy to the power company.
The system will generate 200 kilowatts of power, according to Microsoft. The project is scheduled for completion in early 2013. If successful, the company may build more data centers near other water treatment plants, landfills or dairy farms.
Hewlett-Packard Labs announced similar plans in 2010 to harness the power from the waste of 10,000 dairy cows to run a data center.
"The idea of using animal waste to generate energy has been around for centuries, with manure being used every day in remote villages to generate heat for cooking,” HP research scientist Tom Christian said. “The new idea that we are presenting in this research is to create a symbiotic relationship between farms and the IT ecosystem that can benefit the farm, the data center and the environment." | <urn:uuid:91037d6d-f36d-49ed-b07b-3271302d591b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.govtech.com/Powering-Data-Centers-With-Biogas.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280825.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00505-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929304 | 269 | 2.78125 | 3 |
A group of security researchers based in Egypt have created a tool that will make social engineering easier because it automates the collection of hidden Facebook profile data that is otherwise only accessible to friends in a user's network. But one of the men behind it's creation says he aims to educate both users and Facebook by releasing it into the wild.
The cross-platform, Java-based tool is called "Facebook Pwn" and is described by those who developed it as a "Facebook profile dumper."
"(The tool) sends friend requests to a list of Facebook profiles, and polls for the acceptance notification. Once the victim accepts the invitation, it dumps all their information, photos and friend list to a local folder," the description notes.
See also: Social engineering: The basics
In a typical scenario described by the researchers, the hacker starts by gathering information from a user profile by creating a new blank account.
Then, using what they call a "friending plugin" one can add all the friends of the victim. This will ensure you have some common friends with the victim, the researchers note.
Next, a cloning plugin asks you to choose one of the victims friends. Then, the cloning plugin clones only the display picture and the display name of the chosen friend of victim and sets it to the authenticated account.
Afterwards, a friend request is sent to the victim's account. The dumper polls, waiting for the friend to accept, the description explains. As soon as the victim accepts the friend request, the dumper starts to save all accessible HTML pages (info, images, tags,etc.) for offline examining.
"After a few minutes, probably the victim will unfriend the fake account after he/she figures out it's a fake, but probably it's too late!" the researchers explain in their post.
What the hacker will now have access to is a host of information that can then be used to execute a number of different social engineering attacks. For example, a victim is more likely to open a malicious email attachment used in a spear phishing attempt if it looks legitimate. The more personal details a criminal has at their disposal, the more convincing their attack can be.
[Also see: 5 tips to avoid getting phished]
The team responsible for the tool note on the project's Google code site that it was developed as a "proof of concept" and should be used at one's own risk and not be "abused." One of the researchers behind the tool, Ahmed Saafan, a Senior Information Security Analyst and Technical Team Lead with Raya IT Security Services, said his team concluded that they would release the tool the old "full disclosure" way.
Saafan said the main goals for the release is user awareness for what is happening already in the wild but in a covert way.
"I already have many seen cases of innocent people being socially engineered and blackmailed because they do not know the implications of their actions online," Saafan told CSO in an email. "This tool should make the people aware of the implications of their actions online. Accepting friend requests for even the smallest period of time without manually verifying that the friend is actually who he claims to be, is an example of wrong actions that we wanted to demonstrate. I have tried telling as many social media entities as possible about our PoC so that people get to know the risks as fast as possible and start being more careful about what they do online. Also, with the code being online, we tried to send a message of good intention; that we are not hiding anything within the binary code and that we don't want any compensation."
Saafan also said he hopes to being Facebook attention to their flawed user verification process.
"From Facebook's perspective, I think Facebook should have a more strict policy for verifying that people are who they claim to be, and filter out fake or impersonating accounts," Saafan wrote. "I know that this contradicts with usability in a great way, but Facebook should figure out a way to do it. The tool demonstrates the risks that are already out there for user impersonation. I believe without fake accounts on Facebook, people wouldn't risk their own account to be used in cons, or at least the numbers will be reduced significantly."
Saafan also noted there have been successful examples of full disclosure, and pointed to Fire Sheep as proof.
"I think Firesheep has achieved in a very short time a significant amount of user awareness and got the people's attention to the importance of SSL without being abused (to a great extent)," he wrote. "However, now, non-technical users think as long as they have SSL enabled they are safe. So the tool is just another step into having —hopefully— a more secure cyber social network. | <urn:uuid:5dd6f404-7778-4bab-a174-d17c0114869f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.csoonline.com/article/2129567/social-engineering/facebook-pwn-tool-steals-profile-info--helps-social-engineers.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281574.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00321-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962312 | 980 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Once Linux entered the computing scene 20 years ago, nothing was the same again. Linux today is everywhere … it is the largest collaborative development project in the history of computing.
You’ll find Linux in your TV, on your desktop, at the movies, powering stock exchanges, in your car, in your phone and at your ATM.
Back in 1991, it was Linus Torvalds, who released the first Linux code and decided to share his operating system with the world. Linus is also the one who chose a penguin as the Linux mascot … he was inspired by the penguin that bit him in 1996 at an aquarium.
To commemorate its 20-year anniversary, the Linux Foundation created an infographic that highlights the events of the open-source movement since 1991. It shows how big an impact the open source operating system has made since its inception.
Linux today continues to be the biggest OS player in the cloud as well. So it looks like it’s here to stay.
Take a look at the history of Linux in this short video produced by The Linux Foundation: | <urn:uuid:341dccf4-f8cd-4e8c-afe4-cea3152dda0a> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.codero.com/blog/20-years-late-linux-is-more-than-just-an-experiment/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279379.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00047-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.971558 | 224 | 2.9375 | 3 |
Researchers turn to nature to fight cyberattacks
- By Camille Tuutti
- Feb 16, 2012
A team of computer science researchers is taking cues from nature to address one of the nation’s most urgent threats: cyberattacks.
Research from 2011 shows that cyberattacks on government network systems increased almost 40 percent, and experts have declared digital intrusions as one of the top national security concerns.
The Wake Forest University faculty-student team’s effort to fight those threats is a recent contribution in a growing movement of bio-research. Computer science professor Errin Fulp and graduate student Michael Crouse are polishing a genetically inspired algorithm that could be used in any large computer infrastructure, including cluster computing.
The algorithm proactively seeks out more secure computer configurations by using the concept of "survival of the fittest." Early simulations have shown the increased diversity of each device's configuration boosts network safety, and Fulp said the goal is to create a moving-target defense that quickly detects threats.
The research initiative is funded by a one-year grant from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Over the next few months, the team will test its work but for now, “it looks very promising,” Fulp said.
“We have a prototype up and running and we’ve been testing performance and how to scale it,” he said, adding that additional funding is needed take the project to the next level.
This is not the first time the team has turned to nature for inspiration. In one of their ongoing cybersecurity projects with PNNL, the team is training digital “ants" to unleash into the nation's power grid. When an ant discovers an intruder, other members of the colony spring to action to alert the IT administrator.
This sort of “swarming intelligence” is an efficient way to identify threats in a large computer infrastructure, Fulp said, but further development and work are needed before the ants can actually eliminate the intrusions.
Camille Tuutti is a former FCW staff writer who covered federal oversight and the workforce. | <urn:uuid:b097de80-4359-4062-a24e-f52a63372fcc> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://fcw.com/articles/2012/02/16/researchers-turn-to-nature-to-fight-cyber-attacks.aspx | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284270.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00073-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.942864 | 429 | 2.578125 | 3 |
BCP38 – also known as “Network Ingress Filtering” is concept where we filter incoming packets from end customers and allow packets ONLY from IP’s assigned to them.
Before going to BCP38, let’s first understand how packets forwarding work:
Here User 1 is connected to User 2 via a series of router R1, R2 and R3. Here R1 and R3 are ISP’s edge routers while R2 is a core router. In typical way the network is setup, entire effort is given on logic of routing table i.e for packets to reach from User 1 to User 2, we need to ensure that User 1 has default route towards R1, knows that User-2’s IP is behind R3 which is reachable via R2. So path User 1 > R1 > R2 > R3 > User 2 comes up. And same for User 2 > R3 > R2 > R1 > User 1 as return path.
Now e.g IP pool for User-1 is 192.168.1.0/24 and is using 192.168.1.2 out of it while IP pool for User-2 is 192.168.2.0/24 and is using 192.168.2.2 out of it.
End to end traces
This is pretty much how most of network setups are. Now say User-1 get’s fishy and tries spoofing packets . User-1 can add 22.214.171.124 (not allocated to him) on his loopback interface.
ip -4 addr add 126.96.36.199/32 dev lo0 and done!
Now if User 1 tries to ping user-2 with 188.8.131.52 as in source then:
ping 192.168.2.2 -I 184.108.40.206 -c 2
User 1 will not got any packets in reply since return packets will not come but forward packets will go. Let’s run
tcpdump -i eth0 -n ‘icmp’ on User-2’s machine:
Clearly user 1 is able to spoof packets and send them to User-2. While user 1 may not get back replies but this half communication in itself makes this very dangerous. This makes it prone to so many security issues like triggering a potential DoS attack with invalid IP’s or triggering DDoS attacks with DNS amplification or NTP amplification.
So what is way to deal with it? – That’s BCP38 i.e filtering on the edge. The reason it’s important to filter on edge is because this cannot be done once packets leave edge. So e.g R2 might not be familiar on which IP’s R1 has allocated to whom and hence R2 cannot prevent spoofing of IPs allocated to R1 (it can however deny all non-R1 belong IP’s though). As we go into the core networks, IP filtering becomes harder and more of a problem then solution. Hence, it is expected that networks filters their edge and large networks filter small network.
So take e.g in this case R1 can put a filter to allow packets with only 192.168.1.0/24 in source and not anything else (like 220.127.116.11)
Create an access list and permit:
access-list 1 permit 192.168.1.0 0.0.0.255
description Link to User-1
ip address 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.0
ip access-group 1 in
This completely prevents any spoofed packets from entering R1 from user 1. Ending this post with an interesting slide from Martin Levy from Cloudflare on extent of heavy amplification attacks done via spoofing.
Have fun and stay safe! | <urn:uuid:2f2f32a3-33fc-4adf-82fa-8c0cf84271fc> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://anuragbhatia.com/tag/bcp38/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280850.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00193-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917583 | 811 | 2.578125 | 3 |
I wanted to start this post with a recap about the history of Pass-the-Hash (PTH) attacks and how they were a major threat; yet, is no longer today. I really did.
In the last few weeks, I have been modeling behaviors of users in NTLM rich environments, only to learn that Pass-the-Hash still goes undetected after all those years. Further, NTLM is here to stay, at least for a while longer.
Having said that, with user behavior analytics (UBA) solutions, CISOs and security professionals can finally rest.
Dude, it’s 2015…
The truth is, I didn’t expect NTLM to live this long. It’s still alive and well either as a main, a fallback or a secondary authentication mechanism for companies of all sizes – ranging from fortune 1,000 to the smallest of shops. Due to their prevalence, PTH attacks remain very much relevant in today’s corporate environment.
What is Pass-the-Hash attack?
Pass-the-Hash is an attack technique that exploits a weakness in the NTLM authentication protocol, which essentially enables an attacker to steal the hashed password of the victim user, and re-using it to authenticate to the target resources such as servers, workstations, file shares…you name it.
Microsoft describes the NTLM authentication scheme in a simplified way, here the gyst of it:
2. The client sends the user name to the server plain text.
3. The server generates a 16-byte random number,
nonce, and sends it to the client.
4. The client encrypts this challenge with the hash of the user’s password and returns the result to the server. This is called the
– Challenge sent to the client
– Response received from the client
7. The domain controller compares and computes the encrypted challenge it calculated (in step 6) to the response computed by the client (in step 4). If they are identical, authentication is successful.
The above flow describes the NTLM authentication scheme, and clearly shows at no point is there a verification of any entity relationships other than the fact that a respective user presenting a valid hash. There’s also no requirement for a unique identity for the duration of the login. Therefore, by harvesting hashes from clients/servers, an attacker only needs to know the user and hash (not even the original password) in order to authenticate against a suceptible server.
What can you do about it ?
Kerberos offers). This means
detection is king. What we have learned is by modeling the behavior of users, coroporate assets and the natural binds between them, it becomes easy to detect deviations and stop attacks. | <urn:uuid:a6168fec-3f3c-443d-9cb2-9b1acd04458b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.exabeam.com/tips-and-tricks/passing-the-hash-like-its-1999/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280850.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00193-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929386 | 584 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Microsoft burned millions of watts of electricity unnecessarily so it could avoid paying a fine for overestimating electricity use, according to the New York Times. The Times, which took an in-depth look at the company's data centers, reports other troubling issues, including a review under California's Air Toxics "Hot Spots" Program.
The Times reports that back in 2006, Microsoft bought land in rural Grant County, Washington, to build a data center. It chose the location because of its proximity to hydroelectric generators that could provide cheap electricity in a sustainable way.
But things didn't go according to plan. As part of a deal with the utility to provide power, Microsoft was required to estimate the minimum amount of electricity it would use, and to pay a fine if it didn't use that amount. Utilities say they need this kind of guarantee in order to match demand to output.
The Times reports that because Microsoft underestimated its power demand, it was facing a $210,000 penalty. Rather than merely pay the penalty, which Yahoo had done for its data center which is provided power by the same utility, Microsoft instead burned off millions of watts of electricity unnecessarily. The Times notes:
"In an attempt to erase a $210,000 penalty the utility said the company owed for overestimating its power use, Microsoft proceeded to simply waste millions of watts of electricity, records show. Then it threatened to continue burning power in what it acknowledged was an 'unnecessarily wasteful' way until the fine was substantially cut, according to documents obtained by The New York Times.
The newspaper later added:
"Microsoft threatened to waste tremendous amounts of power by simply running giant heaters for no purpose, according to utility officials who said they were briefed on the matter by Microsoft, unless the penalty was largely forgiven. The idea was to burn the power fast enough to move closer to the forecast before year's end."
The paper said that Microsoft proceeded to waste millions of watts of electricity unnecessarily, in order to reduce or eliminate its fine.
The paper found other troubling issues, many related to the diesel generators that Microsoft -- and most other big data centers -- use in order to provide backup if the grid fails. The newspaper cites many instances of heavy pollution caused by Microsoft's generators, noting:
"In 2008 and 2009, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District listed Microsoft's Santa Clara data center as one of the largest stationary diesel polluters in the Bay Area..."Microsoft was informed that the increased emissions had prompted a review under California’s Air Toxics 'Hot Spots' Program. The notice said the potential for diesel emissions to cause cancers among employees in more than a dozen nearby businesses was above the program's threshold.
Microsoft is not alone in having these kinds of problems. In a previous article, the Times did an in-depth examination of the environment impact of data centers, including Facebook, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others. It concluded that giant data centers and cloud computing use and waste an enormous amount of electricity. It found that data centers can "waste 90 percent or more of the electricity ey pull off the grid," and the centers' backup diesel generators frequently violate clean air regulations.
Google, Microsoft, Facebook and others often tout how green they are. The Times articles shows that's clearly not the case, at least when it comes to their massive data centers. That's something that needs to change. The technology industry was built on the idea that working smarter was better than brute force when it comes to solving problems. But the industry seems to have forgotten that in the way it manages its data centers. | <urn:uuid:c716f4b4-c218-46b8-a98d-ac6ff145d0d2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.computerworld.com/article/2473075/microsoft-windows/report-says-microsoft-burned-millions-of-watts-of-unnecessary-power-to-avoid-fines.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281263.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00101-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.958719 | 734 | 2.640625 | 3 |
West J.M.,British Geological Survey |
Jones D.G.,British Geological Survey |
Annunziatellis A.,University of Rome La Sapienza |
Barlow T.S.,British Geological Survey |
And 24 more authors.
International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control | Year: 2015
Selected European studies have illustrated the impacts of elevated CO2 concentrations in shallow soils on pasture. For the first time, general unified conclusions can be made, providing CO2 thresholds where effects on plants and soil microbiology are observed and making recommendations on how this information can be used when planning projects for CO2 storage. The sites include those where CO2 is being naturally released to the atmosphere from deep geological formations; and a non-adapted site, with no previous history of CO2 seepage, where CO2 has been injected into the unsaturated soil horizon. Whilst soil gas concentrations will be influenced by flux rates and other factors, the results suggest that a concentration of between 10% and 15% CO2 soil gas at 20cm depth, which is within the root zone, is an important threshold level for observing changes in plant coverage. Site-specific plant 'indicators' are also observed for CO2 concentrations at ≥35%. Microbiological changes are seen where CO2 soil gas concentrations are between 15% and 40%. As part of site characterisation, an evaluation of the risks of leakage and their potential environmental impacts should be undertaken. © 2015 Natural Environment Research Council. Source | <urn:uuid:aab33293-2618-4d62-b57f-4f15bddc564e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.linknovate.com/affiliation/chemical-process-and-energy-resources-institute-387221/all/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279489.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00313-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.911158 | 304 | 3.34375 | 3 |
Which of these choices best describes a collision domain?
- Two or more devices trying to communicate at the same time
- Two networks that are connected
- Network segments that share the same bandwidth
- None of the above
The correct answer is 3.
A collision domain is the group of network segments that share the same bandwidth. In Ethernet, data from the devices on these segments may collide if multiple devices try to communicate at the same time. An example of a collision domain is a group of devices connected via a hub.
For more questions like these, try our CCNA Cert Check | <urn:uuid:74efbde6-8062-48a2-a0e4-f67b1277b571> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://blog.globalknowledge.com/2011/11/16/ccna-question-of-the-week-20/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284405.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00339-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.893305 | 120 | 3.25 | 3 |
Today we have Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace and several other social media networks that are being used by the wide internet users. With the use of social media you can share your messages with your social relationships. Worldwide users gather on these social networks to share personal information.
Facebook is a social media website that has been launched in 2004. As of July 2011 Facebook had over 800million active users. These 800million users are all potential targets by cybercriminals that would love to get a penny out of them. Cybercriminals use multiple methods to achieve their goals via Facebook. Cybercriminals sell your credentials by using phishing tactics to gain your credentials. These criminals then sell your credentials packed in a 1000 user package for just 25 dollar. Facebook made an page to help you defend yourself against phishing attacks. But what happens is that cybercriminals adapt to the security and come with a new way to obtain your credentials. This website described 4 ways to hack facebook passwords.
LinkedIn is a business related social networking site. LinkedIn has been founded in December 2002 and was launched in May 2003. It is mainly used for professional networking.
As of 4 August 2011 LinkedIn has over 120million registered users.
Here you will see the same moves that criminals take to obtain information. They widely use phishing emails to gather information. The criminals can simply add you to their network and start collecting information. In this article you can read how LinkedIn is targeted by spammers and bots. There are lots of vulnerabilities in the human mind. We are the weakest link in security. The most of us use the same password for each application that we have.
Twitter is an online social networking service that enables users to post messages to the world. Twitter was designed in 2006 and was launched in July. The service rapidly gained popularity with over 300million users as of 2011.
You could see twitter as the SMS service of the internet.
Cybercriminals have been targeting Twitter like they have been targeting blog websites. They continuously tweet malicious messages. You can get a message where it stands that the Twitter user has found a nice picture of you on the internet. At the moment you click on the link you are infected.
These twitter criminals use link shorteners to hide the malicious url. Symantec published a blog about how criminals use URL shortening services to link to compromised sites. | <urn:uuid:9fde5ac8-787b-4aab-aa2d-885b891ea091> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://cyberwarzone.com/top-3-social-media-used-cybercriminals/?quicktabs_securityvids=0 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279657.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00157-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.95164 | 480 | 2.578125 | 3 |
While today’s network equipment technology can support higher data rates, including 40 Gbps, existing optical links are not necessarily ready for the upgrade. Polarization mode dispersion (PMD) was not a major concern until recently, as networks began to operate at these faster bit rates, and legacy optical fibers often exhibit excessively high PMD at these speeds.
Of course, PMD is typically less frequent in newer fibers than in older ones, and solving the problem can temporarily be delayed by avoiding the high-PMD fibers. However, when bandwidth is required, all available fibers will need to contribute. And today, this is more meaningful than ever before, for the following reason: ROADMs make the network reconfigurable, so all fibers are solicited.
Eventually, the problem must therefore be fixed, either by replacing the whole fiber – a very costly proposition – or pinpointing the worst link sections and replacing only those.
Although financially attractive, the latter approach is hardly feasible using traditional PMD analyzers, which provide a total link PMD value rather than a section-by-section breakdown of the PMD picture.
However, newly introduced distributed PMD analyzers make it very easy to achieve, as they are specifically designed to measure PMD following an OTDR-like method, span by span.
Below is a case study that presents a situation in which a network operator tried to pinpoint the high-PMD sections of a link, without using a purpose-built distributed PMD analyzer. We then examine how opting for such an instrument would have made the assessment much more accurate and incredibly faster.
The manual solution
This article refers to an 88-kilometer fiber link that had a total PMD (end to end) of 6.2 ps. This link is part of a core network and transports voice, video and data to maximum fiber capacity. It has therefore become necessary to mitigate PMD because of the desire to transport 40 Gbps data rates.
Network technicians sectionalized the PMD by breaking the fiber into various sections and testing for PMD section by section. Knowing that PMD adds quadratically, they were able to roughly determine which sections contributed the most to the overall value of 6.2 ps.
This proved to be a very tedious and time-consuming task, as it took about a week to perform the work and had to be done at night (due to the fact that it is a working fiber).
The results gave the network technicians only a rough overview of where the network had issues. It would have been necessary to break and measure each splice-to-splice section in order to improve the results, requiring countless hours of testing and a significant increase in risk to active services.
An automated solution
The distributed PMD analyzer from Exfo (FTB-5600) completed the entire test in an hour (versus a week). There was no second-guessing of where to start and stop the routing of new fiber, as the test results are very precise.
Exfo staff first executed a quick scan with the FTB-5600 to verify the link for distance, loss and approximate PMD range. The operator then set the FTB-5600 to scan just the first 55 km and measured a total PMD value of 5.5 ps.
The results showed two main splice-to-splice sections that significantly impacted the overall PMD (very high coefficient). These sections contributed over 60 percent of the PMD seen on the entire 88 km route.
The results table above clearly shows which sections contribute the most to the link’s overall PMD. Section 7 (highlighted) contributes 14 percent, and section 10 contributes 63 percent, to a total PMD of 5.5 ps.
Using the post-processing capabilities of the FTB-5600 software, it is possible to perform a “what if” analysis of the data. The first step was to divide the offending sections using the “Section Edition” function, which allows the operator to adjust the section lengths down to the actual range of high-PMD fiber. The algorithm actually flags sections based on the locations of splice points, occasionally including acceptable fiber.
After adjusting section lengths based on PMD alone, rather than PMD-plus-splice points, the operator then subtracts the highest sections using the “Estimation” function. Results can then be observed as if offending sections had been replaced with pristine optical fiber. The table below shows the results of that exercise.
We can note that after setting the offending sections’ PMD to 1 ps, the cumulative PMD is reduced to 2.9 ps. This exercise only required a few minutes to reveal the outcome of replacing two sections.
Additionally, since section 7 only contributed approximately 14 percent to the overall PMD, it is worthwhile to conduct the “what if” exercise by only removing the contribution of the worst section (section 10). The table below shows the outcome of this exercise.
It quickly becomes clear that replacing section 10 (6.8781 km of fiber) will reduce total PMD to 3.5 ps. Replacing both offending sections (sections 7 and 10, with a combined length of just over 8 km) will yield a PMD value of approximately 2.9 ps for the measured portion of the link.
The graphic below shows the offending sections.
Using the most expedient method available at the time, the network operator manually sectionalized the problem down to an 88 km portion of the fiber link and allocated money to replace the entire section. Using Exfo’s FTB-5600 Distributed PMD Analyzer, the results have been refined and the operator may now elect to only replace 8 km of optical fiber – leading to substantial cost savings.
Assuming a cost of $2.50 per meter to replace installed optical fiber, the first method (i.e., replacing the entire 88 km link) would cost $220,000. With the second method (i.e., replacing only 8 km of fiber), the cost would be $20,000 – a savings of $200,000.
Moreover, this does not take into account the savings in labor associated with a crew working for one week at night to manually sectionalize the problem rather than using Exfo’s distributed PMD analyzer (which reduces that effort to one hour), a figure that could easily reach $20,000 for a crew. Therefore, total savings can be as high as $220,000 for this particular case.
It is worth noting that approximately half of this 88 km link was aerial fiber, which reduces replacement costs to a certain extent. Should the entire link have been buried or installed in underground conduits, costs would have been substantially higher.
Also worth noting: Actual replacement costs vary considerably and are dependent upon the environment. For example, replacing aerial fiber in a metropolitan environment may cost as much as $20 per meter, while replacing a similar aerial fiber in a rural environment is considerably less, as low as $2.50 per meter.
E-Mail: email@example.com | <urn:uuid:e56a84c7-56c5-4e99-8fb4-c395399bb679> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.cedmagazine.com/print/articles/2009/06/roadms-make-pmd-mitigation-a-must | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280308.24/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00065-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948146 | 1,476 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Pang Y.X.,Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural SciencesHaikou |
Guan L.L.,Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural SciencesHaikou |
Wu L.F.,Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural SciencesHaikou |
Chen Z.X.,Chinese Academy of Tropical Agricultural SciencesHaikou |
And 6 more authors.
Genetics and Molecular Research | Year: 2014
Blumea balsamifera DC is a member of the Compositae family and is frequently used as traditional Chinese medicine. Blumea balsamifera is rich in monoterpenes, which possess a variety of pharmacological activities, such as antioxidant, anti-bacteria, and anti-viral activities. Farnesyl diphosphate synthase (FPS) is a key enzyme in the biosynthetic pathway of terpenes, playing an important regulatory role in plant growth, such as resistance and secondary metabolism. Based on the conserved oligo amino acid residues of published FPS genes from other higher plant species, a cDNA sequence, designated BbFPS, was isolated from B. balsamifera DC using polymerase chain reaction. The clones were an average of 1.6 kb and contained an open reading frame that predicted a polypeptide of 342 amino acids with 89.07% identity to FPS from other plants. The deduced amino acid sequence was dominated by hydrophobic regions and contained 2 highly conserved DDxxD motifs that are essential for proper functioning of FPS. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that FPS grouped with other composite families. Prediction of secondary structure and subcellular localization suggested that alpha helices made up 70% of the amino acids of the sequence. © FUNPEC-RP. Source | <urn:uuid:3880109a-4b6f-4224-89de-d9af87293cab> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.linknovate.com/affiliation/chinese-academy-of-tropical-agricultural-scienceshaikou-1609468/all/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282631.80/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00275-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.924522 | 364 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Google barge could change data room cooling processes
Thursday, Oct 31st 2013
Data center temperature has influenced facility operations in many ways as optimal conditions are necessary to keeping servers running at max performance. Organizations have tried out a number of different cooling methods in order to find the one that yields the most benefits. Some go with the more traditional air conditioning units while others make sweeping changes, such as installing radical new air cooling strategies or moving facilities to a colder climates. A resolute member of the latter group, Google may be taking its data center cooling technologies to the next level in the form of a barge, recently seen being fitted in the San Francisco harbor. Several industry insiders speculated that the barge is intended to become a floating, fully functional data center.
Google has been constantly experimenting with ways to make its data centers more efficient. Although the search engine giant hasn't formally announced that the floating facility is a data center, it has left a paper trail - patents filed fitting the description and design of the barge date back to 2008. According to ZDNet's Larry Dignan, the structure could use wind to power the data center while cooling the systems with water, creating a self-sustaining facility. Only time will tell, as the secretive company has yet to complete and deploy it.
ZDNet contributor Dan Kusnetzky noted that it would be easier to get approvals for the floating property than a traditional facility and the data center could be easily monitored. With remote management capabilities, the organization could reduce operation costs and continue running its system in a warmer than usual environment.
"While this approach can drastically reduce the life of some systems and storage, Google has been able to make this work well enough in other places to use this approach again," Kusnetzky wrote. "Since their primary applications are stateless, if a system does fail, the task is merely restarted somewhere else. So, Google doesn't care if a single system or, perhaps, an entire shipping container data center goes off line."
Using best cooling practices
Whether Google's floating data center kicks off or not, data room cooling will remain a top priority for operators. As organizations search for solutions, they must consider a variety of available options. The Silicon Valley Leadership Group recently spoke to the benefits of liquid-cooled servers at data centers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which include less energy use than air-cooled equipment on the same site, Data Center Knowledge reported. After testing various amounts of server loads, researchers found that the water captured over half of the servers' heat. However, outside climate conditions can also affect the effectiveness of liquid-cooling, so operators should take stock of their site environment before implementation.
"Water is significantly more efficient than air as a medium for heat removal. There are tradeoffs in using liquid cooling, however, including the cost of the equipment," according to the source. "If liquid cooling can reduce power usage, it could change the economics of purchasing different types of equipment."
As temperature monitoring becomes more important to data center functionality, operators must decide on the best way to leverage resources. With proper cooling solutions, organizations can better regulate their facility environments and maximize uptime for optimal server performance. | <urn:uuid:51325b96-def2-40c2-9f5f-c186f0acc463> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.itwatchdogs.com/environmental-monitoring-news/data-center/google-barge-could-change-data-room-cooling-processes-532400 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280774.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00240-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949241 | 655 | 2.609375 | 3 |
Diagnosis: DisconnectedBy Larry Dignan | Posted 2003-05-05 Email Print
The response to SARS has been commendable, but most medical surveillance systems can't communicate electronically.
All the health crises since 2001--anthrax, West Nile, smallpox vaccinations and now SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome)--are starting to blur together for Dr. Tom Safranek, state epidemiologist for Nebraska.
Although SARS, a pneumonia-like illness, hasn't reared its head in Nebraska, Safranek has to prepare emergency rooms, educate the public and make sure labs are ready for what could be an epidemic.
"People in our business move from one new crisis to another only separated by a few months," says Safranek. "It's a new environment that really started with anthrax in 2001. Since then it's been West Nile, then the smallpox vaccination program and then SARS. Each of these requires a major commitment."
One of the biggest blockades to stopping new waves of contagion is the relatively rudimentary means of sharing data in the medical profession. Most data about SARS or any other disease is exchanged between hospitals and medical practitioners via phone, fax, express deliveries and ground mail of paper forms.
Even when two institutions want to zap information to each other electronically, it's not easy. Pick a disease from tuberculosis to AIDS to SARS and each agency, hospital, lab or health organization involved in fighting it has its own, separate database. And a proprietary computing system behind it.
Ed Carubis, CIO of New York City's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, is on the receiving end of these systems. He has to manage data from city hospitals delivering information on diseases by mail, fax, attached spreadsheets, and unformatted electronic text. Standards? There are none.
"From hospitals the data we get is mostly through paper and fax," says Carubis. "A number of labs transmit electronically, but it's up to us to format, parse and distribute the data we get. For something like SARS, communication is through phone and fax."
But mixing and matching electrons and paper still slows responses to new emergencies by days, if not weeks. Stemming an outbreak could mean more life than death, if health agencies and organizations' computing systems used common communication protocols and data formats.
Few disease surveillance and tracking systems are even set up to interconnect. The Centers for Disease Control maintains more than 100 databases sorted by disease. But a doctor in Toronto's University Health Network can't access them from a desktop computer unless the information is publicly listed on the CDC Web site. Reports from UHN's three Toronto hospitals are delivered to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care by phone, mail and fax, and then re-entered to databases by hand.
That kludgy system is working-for now. By most counts, the response to SARS hasn't been hurt by the lack of electronic data exchange because there has been cooperation between the World Health Organization and federal, state and local health agencies to thwart an outbreak. Labs around the world were able to cooperate via secure Web sites and telephone to swap data and genetically map SARS.
Stateside, the CDC has dramatically improved response to SARS compared with the 2001 anthrax attacks. Back then, it was overwhelmed trying to manage 150,000 lab tests, whose results were mostly taken over the phone, with information entered by hand into computers.
But the rapid response to SARS doesn't mean the current ad-hoc health network connecting public and private labs, hospitals, cities, states and the federal government could scale to handle a big epidemic. Cumulative global SARS cases totaled 6,234 through May 3, with 54 of them in the U.S., according to the World Health Organization. In comparison, China had more than 15,000 probable influenza cases in Beijing between October and November. | <urn:uuid:28c1480f-cf53-4ee1-ac98-cdea3ea592d4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.baselinemag.com/c/a/Projects-Processes/Diagnosis-Disconnected | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280425.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00176-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.950396 | 809 | 2.71875 | 3 |
Banco de México
Business Impact Summary
Banco de Mexico is the central bank of Mexico. Founded in 1925, its main purpose is providing the country’s economy with national currency and seeking the purchasing power stability of such currency.
Information should be available whenever requested, in a fast and effective way.
Using erwin Data Modeler, the databases have evolved with each erwin update, which allows normalized and documented databases.
Banco de Mexico reduces costs, saves working time and achieves better centralization in the database structure.Banco de México reduces costs, saves working time and achieves better centralization
Back to Success Stories | <urn:uuid:6ff9d276-c250-47fa-b0b0-c03759d9c17c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://erwin.com/success_stories/banco-de-mexico-reduces-costs-saves-working-time-and-achieves-better-centralization/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279248.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00204-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.800183 | 134 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Redundant links are always welcome in switch topology as they are increasing the network’s availability and robustness. Redundant links if we look at them from layer 2 perspective can cause Layer 2 loops. This is simply because TTL (Time To Live) field of the packet is found in Layer 3 header. In networking technology this means that TTL number will be diminished only when the packet is passing through the router. There is no way to “kill” a packet that is stuck in layer 2 loop. This situation can result in broadcast storms. Fortunately, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) can allow you to have redundant links while having a loop-free topology, thus preventing the potential for broadcast storms.
Tag: cisco switch
VLAN hopping attack can be possible by two different approaches, Switch Spoofing or Double tagging.
When you are in a situation where you need to configure and set up security of VLAN trunks, also consider the potential for an exploit called VLAN hopping. Attacker can craft and send positioned frames on one access VLAN with spoofed 802.1Q tags so that the packet end up on a totally different VLAN and all this without the use of a router. | <urn:uuid:0f98864d-f92d-4136-9ed3-4e4fa77ecbdc> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://howdoesinternetwork.com/tag/cisco-switch | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280133.2/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00112-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.908496 | 252 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Because some of these achievements are so widespread, they are also easy to overlook. Not anymore. We're giving nine of these unheralded technology innovations their due here. Information comes directly from the people responsible for these advancements.
1. Server-Side Scripting
It all started with a TV show in Boston. In 1994, Fred DuFresne was working on an interactive website for the local station WCVB-TV. DuFrense created a technique called server-side scripting, which was a stark departure from the common programming techniques of the day. Essentially, it "programs" a server to carry out commands such as showing you a video or a Flash animation.
Before server-side scripting, programmers had to write complex HTML commands. Today, it is used on everything from Facebook pages to foodie blogs. "With SSS, the level of training required to create dynamic pages was drastically reduced. No formal training in computer science was required to create a simple PHP page. There is no linking to object libraries, no compiling source code to object code," DuFresne says.
2. IP Cameras
You don't hear about IP cameras much, but there is probably one monitoring your parking lot right now. Interestingly, cameras that use the Internet to stream video are not as dominate as they should be. Axis Communications, the company that invented IP cameras back in 1997, says only 40% of the security cameras in use today are connected to the Web, but that is changing.
Review: Dropcam HD: Monitor Your Home over the Internet
IP cameras can scale much faster-adding 32 cameras is essentially like plugging more computers into a hub-and the quality is arguably superior. They are more affordable, too, and provide additional features such as motion tracking.
3. Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions
The MIME email standard ushered in a new age of rich messaging, turning raw text email into something much more useable-email with attachments, images and HTML encoding. Computer scientist Nathaniel Borenstein-one of the co-founders of MIME, something he worked on in the mid-1980s and saw become an email standard in the 1990s-sent the first email attachment in March 1992. Although there is no way to know definitively, some experts say the MIME standard processes email about 1 trillion times per day.
OAuth, the open standard for authorization, is like the missing link in evolutionary theory, bridging the gap between two known entities. The technology uses a token as a credential. Say you want to use Salesforce.com data in Facebook. OAuth might be the authentication method used to connect one data set to another.
Analysis: OAuth 2.0 Security Used By Facebook, Others Called Weak
One of the important innovations with OAuth is that it is highly specific. You can, for example, use an OAuth token to create a secure connection between a Twitter feed and Klout, a service that ranks social media influence.
5. Keystroke Encryption
Here's a technology you hear about only at security analyst conferences. In the enterprise, malware infections can run rampant. One of the worst offenders is a keylogger, which is a piece of software that can record each keystroke. Criminals use them to capture business intelligence data, credit card numbers and bank records.
News: Microsoft Dragging Its Feet with IE 9 Fix, Strikeforce Says
Fortunately, keystroke encryption prevents these attacks. Companies such as Strikeforce Technologies invented encryption technology at the hardware layer for companies to augment security detection techniques. Now it's used on more than 4 million computers, with the potential for much more.
6. Virtual Market Research
Some brilliant innovations are not widely used by the enterprise-not yet, at least. The concept of virtual market research, offered by companies such as Affinnova, takes the traditional technique of market research-in which you have people sit in a focus group and give their opinions-and makes it virtual. You can test a new product packaging design, a logo and even specific wording in a marketing campaign, present the new ideas in a Web interface and then track preferences. Companies such as Nutrisystem and Ricola have tested new marketing concepts this way.
7. Open Database Connectivity
This unheralded tech is so commonplace now, many IT experts can't imagine how in-house applications could run without it. Developed in the early 1990s, the concept was ahead of its time; as an open standard, ODBC can connect to any other Database Management System (DBMS). The drivers can run on any platform and even connect from one platform to another. In that way, they pre-date the open standards used on the Web. The only catch is that many Web apps skip ODBC and connect to databases using PHP.
8. Reputation Management
The reputation of a large company is hard to control, but it's not impossible. Reputation management systems, including Reputation.com for Business, can track customer sentiment for major brands.
For example, in one demo for an American automaker, the system showed reputation level at the dealer level, tracked by monitoring comments on message boards and Twitter. This can help a company track whether customers are happy with a brand, down to a regional and even a local level.
9. Local News Aggregation
While Craigslist gets all the attention as the grassroots classified advertising tool, services such as Patch also helped changed how local news is generated. Patch operates like Craigslist in the sense that there are hundreds of local hubs where people can post news stories and human interest content. Lately, this aggregation concept has lost some momentum-but the idea might make its way into the enterprise in the form of more localized content for Intranets, including employee status updates.
John Brandon is a former IT manager at a Fortune 100 company who now writes about technology. He has written more than 2,500 articles in the past 10 years. You can follow him on Twitter @jmbrandonbb. Follow everything from CIO.com on Twitter @CIOonline, on Facebook, and on Google +.
Read more about innovation in CIO's Innovation Drilldown.
This story, "9 unheralded technology innovations" was originally published by CIO. | <urn:uuid:1a84a2ed-b46f-4191-8c09-81b5245964df> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.itworld.com/article/2725213/it-management/9-unheralded-technology-innovations.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280221.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00534-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.945418 | 1,288 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) was meant in part to help maintain the privacy and security of medical records that contain Protected Health Information (PHI). HIPAA grew out of the understanding being that when large amounts of PHI move into electronic formats, the risks of large-scale data breaches increase significantly.
An issue with HIPAA is that it was so broadly written, and often narrowly interpreted. With that, its implementation has led to many cases of unintended consequences.
One example is the ubiquitous patient status board. These boards have long played an important role in coordinating and communicating about patient care in hospitals. In busy wards, the status board often serves as the central access point for operational and patient-related information. Status boards have transitioned from dry-erase whiteboards to real-time electronic boards. Irrespective of the type of board, HIPAA mandates that the information on the board, which long included the patients' names and other medical data, can no longer include that in the public view.
The narrow, yet definitively accepted HIPAA interpretation means that the regulation does not delineate between a 50GB PHI database, and a localized white-board with 15 names on it.
Strictly speaking, status boards can contain PHI in the limited situation where only those involved with the listed patients’ PHI have a need to see it for Treatment, Payment and Health Care Operations (TPO). So, during an active meeting, putting names on a white board is OK, or if the room is restricted to only those who provide TPO activities for the listed patients. Otherwise, patient PHI should not be on white boards.
The HIPAA privacy and security requirements prohibit displaying patients’ names in public via these status boards. Patients though can sign a waiver allowing their names to be displayed on the status board. But for most institutions, HIPAA has made use of status boards much harder.
Another issue is when it comes to mental health and substance-abuses issues; HIPAA has placed significant constraints on healthcare providers. Medical staff often cannot proactively reach out to family members because HIPAA patient privacy rules prevents them from telling family members about mental health issues and addiction issues if the patient is a legal adult, without their express consent.
It should be noted though that the HIPAA final rule in section 45 C.F.R. § 164.502, allows healthcare providers to disclose protected health information for treatment purposes without patient consent in some limited cases.
HIPAA also stymies a physician’s ability to reply to negative online reviews and social media interactions. Sites such as vitals.com, healthgrades.com, RateMDs.com and countless others exist where patients (and trolls) can post a review of a physician. Yelp has reviews for restaurants, and also reviews for doctors in all major cities.
A similar situation arises with teachers, as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) also limits how teachers can reply to teacher rating sites.
While restaurants often reply to negative reviews, physicians who attempt a direct reply to a patient’s social media posting may be in violation of HIPAA.
The cruel reality is that a patient can post just about anything they want about a physician. But that same physician may be violating HIPAA if they reply to their patient via social media.
It is also important to note that just because a patient blogs about their condition or tweets about their medical status; in no way does that mean they are waiving their HIPAA rights.
[ ALSO ON CSO: Cyberattacks will compromise 1-in-3 healthcare records next year ]
As to the quality of these reviews, Niam Yaraghi, a fellow at The Brookings Institution, writes that patients are often neither qualified nor capable of evaluating the quality of the medical services that they receive. How can a patient, with no medical expertise, know that the treatment option that they received was the best available one? How can a patient's family whose relative died know that physician had provided their loved one with the best possible medical care? If patients are not qualified to make medical decisions and rely on physicians' medical expertise to make such decisions, then how can they evaluate the quality of such decisions and know that their doctor's decision was the best possible one?
In the next blog post, I’ll conclude with some action items, in addition to sage advice from Rebecca Herold.
This article is published as part of the IDG Contributor Network. Want to Join? | <urn:uuid:e763f4b7-9009-4b80-868a-2dd8a898719c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.csoonline.com/article/3014612/security-awareness/physicians-and-social-media-where-there-s-no-second-opinion.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280242.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00378-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.960214 | 924 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Projects and project management are not new to IT. For many organizations, projects in IT environments have become a critical part of daily operations. This note identifies and discusses the following topics surrounding project management:
- Definition of a project.
- Definition of project management.
- Project management constraints.
- The phases of project management.
- Why IT projects fail.
It is no surprise; project management has become increasingly challenging. As IT projects and project management continue to play a large role in organizations, understanding and reviewing project management basics and how they have evolved over time is critical for ongoing IT project success. | <urn:uuid:4b300e56-a1bd-4c40-a9f9-33c674577806> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.infotech.com/research/project-management-back-to-basics | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280850.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00194-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.902181 | 124 | 2.53125 | 3 |
With the fastest supercomputers on the planet sporting multi-megawatt appetites, green HPC has become all the rage. The IBM Blue Gene/Q machine is currently number one in energy-efficient flops, but a new FPGA-like technology brought to market by semiconductor startup eASIC is providing an even greener computing solution. And one HPC project in Japan, known as GRAPE, is using the chips to power its newest supercomputer.
GRAPE, which stands for Gravity Pipe, is a Japanese computing project that is focused on astrophysical simulation. (More specifically, the application uses Newtonian physics to compute the interaction of particles in N-body systems). The project, which began in 1989, has gone through eight generations of hardware, all of which were built as special-purpose supercomputer systems.
Each of the GRAPE machines was powered by a custom-built chip, specifically designed to optimize the astrophysical calculations that form the basis of the simulation work. The special-purpose processors were hooked up as external accelerators, using more conventional CPU-based host systems, in the form or workstations or servers, to drive the application.
The first-generation machine, GRAPE-1, managed just 240 single precision megaflops in 1989. The following year, the team build a double precision processor, which culminated in the 40-megaflop GRAPE-2. In 1998, they fielded GRAPE-4, their first teraflop system. The most recently system, GRAPE-DR, was designed to be a petascale machine, although its TOP500 entry showed up in 2009 as an 84.5 teraflop cluster.
Even though the GRAPE team was able to squeeze a lot more performance out of specially built hardware than they would have using general-purpose HPC machinery, it’s an expensive proposition. Each GRAPE iteration was based on a different ASIC design, necessitating the costly and time-consuming process of chip design, verification, and production. And as transistor geometries shrunk, development costs soared.
As the GRAPE team at Hitotsubashi University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology began planning the next generation, they decided that chip R&D could take up no more than a quarter of system’s cost. But given the escalating expense of processor development, they would overshoot that by a wide margin. In 2010, they estimated it would take on the order of $10 million to develop a new custom ASIC on 45nm technology. So when it came time for GRAPE-8, the engineers were looking for alternatives.
The natural candidates were GPUs and FPGAs, which offer a lot of computational horsepower in an energy-efficient package. Each had its advantages: FPGAs in customization capability, GPUs in raw computing power. Ultimately though, they opted for a technology developed by eASIC, a fabless semiconductor company that offered a special kind of purpose-built ASIC, based on an FPGA workflow.
The technology had little grounding in high performance computing, being used mostly in embedded platforms, like wireless infrastructure and enterprise storage hardware. But the GRAPE designers were impressed by the efficiency of the technology. With an eASIC chip, they could get the same computational power as an FPGA for a tenth of the size and at about a third of the cost. And although the latest GPUs were slightly more powerful flop-wise than what eASIC could deliver, power consumption was an order of magnitude higher.
In a nutshell, the company offers something between an FPGA and a conventional ASIC. According to Niall Battson, eASIC’s Senior Product Manager, it looks like a field-programmable gate array, but “all the programming circuitry has been taken out.” That saves on both chip real estate and power since that circuitry doesn’t end up on the die.
In essence, the company is able to take an FPGA design (in RTL or whatever) and produce an ASIC from it. But not a conventional one. Battson says their real secret sauce is that the logic is laid down in a single silicon layer, rather than the four or five used for conventional ASICs. That simplification greatly speeds up chip validation and manufacturing, so much so that they can turn around a production chip in 4 to 6 months, depending upon the complexity of the design.
While the logic density and power efficiency are less than that of a standard ASIC, the up-front costs are considerably lower. For customers whose volumes eventually warrant a “true” ASIC (like for disk drive controllers), eASIC provides a service that takes the customer’s design through that final step of hardening.
For the astrophysics simulation supercomputer, no such step was necessary. The 45nm chip eASIC built and delivered for the new GRAPE-8 system achieves close to 500 gigaflops (250 MHz) with a power draw of just 10 watts. The GRAPE-8 accelerator board houses two of these custom chips, plus a standard processor, delivering 960 gigaflops in 46 watts. When hooked up to a PC host, another 200 watts is added. Even in this makeshift configuration, the system achieves 6.5 gigaflops per watt, about three times better that the 2.1 gigaflops per watt held by IBM’s Blue Gene/Q, the current Green500 champ.
Of course, the Blue Gene/Q is a general-purpose supercomputer, so the comparison is bit of apples-to-oranges. But the generality of computer designs exists on a continuum, not as a binary taxonomy. In general, better performance and power efficiency can be achieved as more specialization is incorporated into the hardware. The downside is that such single-application machines are notoriously expensive, which explains why there are so few of them. Besides GRAPE, only the Anton supercomputer (for molecular dynamics simulations) is still using application-specific ASICs.
The GRAPE designers are actually interested in building a more ambidextrous machine to handle a greater variety of science applications. In fact, the GRAPE-DR machine was a bit of a departure from its predecessors and was intended for applications outside of astrophysics simulations, including genome analysis, protein modeling and molecular dynamics.
According to Battson, a more general-purpose SIMD chip is certainly possible under an eASIC scheme, and they’re considering how they might be able to tweak their technology to make that happen. The company’s next generation 28nm product is slated to deliver twice the performance, while halving power consumption, so there is some headroom for added capabilities. The main problem he says is that a general-purpose SIMD ASIC would probably need to run twice as fast as the GRAPE-8 chip to deliver reasonable performance, and that drives up power consumption.
Of course, with the prospect of energy-sucking exascale machines on the horizon, application-specific supercomputing could make a comeback, especially if spinning out purpose-built accelerators was made fast and affordable. In that case, eASIC and its technology might find itself with a lot of eager suitors. | <urn:uuid:db5b6a3e-1069-4bce-894f-6d17af1ec294> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.hpcwire.com/2012/05/10/novel_chip_technology_to_power_grape-8_supercomputer/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280723.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00130-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955883 | 1,499 | 3.5625 | 4 |
Cybersecurity: Are You Safe?
More than 40 million credit and debit card numbers were stolen in 2005 from TJX stores because of insecure wireless networks. A total of 250,000 computers were infected in 2005 and 2006 with information-stealing malware. And the Federal Trade Commission received more than 800,000 consumer fraud and identity theft complaints in 2007.
While modern technologies make shopping, paying bills and managing accounts easier, they — and we — aren’t infallible. We often have a false sense of security, and our electronic transactions can leave us vulnerable to cyberattacks.
“The good guys look at the Internet and say, ‘We can make people’s lives more convenient,’” said Michael Kaiser, executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance, a nonprofit that provides knowledge and tools to prevent cybercrime. “[But] we’ve got to remember that cybercriminals take all that potential and they use it for bad things.”
Because Internet use spread so quickly, proper security features were not developed. The eBays and Amazons of the world were born overnight, and consumers were driven to spend more time online, opening themselves up to the possibility of cybercrime. Now companies, organizations, government agencies and researchers are playing catch-up, trying to retrofit security features.
“If you think about cars, it was many decades from the introduction of the car [that] we became the car culture. If you think about the Internet, it’s just been like a dozen years,” Kaiser said. “That speed of rollout and that entrepreneurial spirit have brought us unbelievably robust Internet applications, [but] I think [it] has not been done as thoughtfully [around] the kinds of risks that people face. And we haven’t spent much time teaching people about Internet safety and security.”
When cybercrime began, it was relatively innocuous and would more aptly be called cybermischief. The viruses deployed did only superficial things such as change the time on the clock, Kaiser said.
“It was about hackers trying to show they could beat the system,” he explained. “Then cybercriminals realized they could make money doing this, and that’s when we started to see spyware [and] malware. I think as long as there’s the ability to make money through cybercrime, there are going to be cybercriminals.”
Cybercrime includes identity theft, stalking, domestic violence and terrorism and involves botnets, viruses and Trojan horses.
“In the early days of the PC generation, computers could barely talk to one another. People basically worked in closed systems, and what we had was ‘sneakernet,’” said Kaiser, using the tongue-in-cheek term to describe the transfer of electronic information via removable media. “As that changed, [it] opened up opportunities for criminals. As computers talked to each other, as users talked to each other, as the Internet started to roll out and people were sharing all kinds of information, that created a lot of opportunities for crime.”
Like traditional U.S. crime, a fair amount of cybercrime occurs between people who know each other.
“It’s important that people remember they’re not only defending against the person who’s out there on the other side of the ocean, but it could be the person under the same roof,” Kaiser said. “There are a lot of cases of people who are in domestic violence relationships, where [their partners] have put spyware on their computers to track their online behaviors.”
As for outsider offenses, a frequent method of attack involves tracking keystrokes, said Virgil Gligor, co-director of CyLab and professor of electrical and computer engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. This occurs when a user visits a malicious Web site that secretly downloads keystroke-tracking software onto his or her computer. When that user logs in to his or her bank account, this tool records that information and returns it to the cybercriminal.
“This is a very potent attack that has been launched in the last two or three years,” Gligor said. “The FBI and Secret Service, with the help of banks, have been tracking and investigating such attacks.”
Gligor said he believes the adoption of a new Internet architecture is the long-term solution to the Internet’s security flaws. But it will take time to implement, he said, and in the meantime, security professionals will have to continue to patch whatever holes they find.
“The problem is that the more we look, the more we find,” Gligor said.
There is a camp that argues that the immense popularity of the Internet is due to its insecure nature and that the lack of bureaucratic features is what made it catch on like wildfire.
“To have accountability, you have to have registries of systems and users,” Gligor said. “Clearly, the spread of the Internet if such structures were imposed would have been a lot slower. On the other hand, some people consider this to be a fallacious argument because we as a community could have anticipated that, if we don’t build in security from the start, it would be very difficult to retrofit [it] afterwards.”
Is Your Identity Safe?
Once upon a time, identity thieves would search through garbage looking for discarded mail or other documents containing an individual’s personal information. Some still resort to this tactic, but an Internet connection gives many the ability to steal more information faster.
“People don’t realize when you e-mail someone a credit card number to buy something or instant message a friend [your] Social Security number, that’s essentially the same thing as going into a crowded room and shouting across what your information is,” said Todd Feinman, CEO of security and privacy technologies firm Identity Finder.
Just think about what’s on your blog, your Facebook page or your Flickr site.
“The Internet has become about biography,” Kaiser said. “It’s kind of amazing how much information is out there about people.”
A survey by Javelin Strategy & Research found that 8.4 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2006. The average fraud amount per victim was $5,869, and the average resolution time for resolving it was 40 hours. Understandably, the impact of identity theft can be devastating.
“I’ve heard of cases where people have taken out mortgages for houses in someone else’s name,” Kaiser said. “More common [is when] people attempt to access existing resources like a bank account.
“[But] the impact of those things is long-lasting. Once your credit’s been breached and your information is out there in these criminal networks, it requires an enormous amount of vigilance to clear it.”
Unfortunately, catching and prosecuting identity thieves and cybercriminals is even more difficult. In the aforementioned TJX case from 2005, which Feinman said highlighted one of the biggest identity theft rings to date, the main perpetrators weren’t caught until mid-2008.
“Most identity thieves will never be caught unless they’re really going on a limb and ordering products online that are delivered to their home,” Feinman said. “The U.S. jurisdiction only goes so far, [and] a lot of times these people will go to countries where there are no extradition laws.
The Rise of Phishing
Fred Cate, a distinguished professor at the Indiana University School of Law and director of the Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research, said the development of phishing often is traced back to the early days of America Online (AOL), when the company charged for access by the hour. At that time, phishers would try to steal customers’ account numbers.
But today the game has changed. Between Jan. 1, 2008, and June 30, 2008, there were at least 47,324 phishing attacks, according to the Anti-Phishing Working Group’s Global Phishing Survey. Further, phishing now targets bank-account holders and customers of online payment services.
“Phishing is something old and it’s something new in that phishing is just a con game. And con games are based on building your trust, so the more the e-mail is spoofed to look like an e-mail from your bank, the more likely you are to click on those links,” Kaiser said.
Phishers also have become more sophisticated in their attacks, using current events to lure individuals to react.
“The recent global financial crisis [has] caused a lot of confusion,” said Paul Wood, senior security analyst at MessageLabs, a provider of integrated messaging and Web-security services. “The bad guys can capitalize on that confusion. Recently, there have been a number of [phony] messages from banks [involved in mergers] to encourage people to verify their identity. That kind of activity has increased sharply in recent weeks.”
Wood believes phishing flourishes partly because users are not as aware of threats as they should be. “If somebody were to knock on your door and ask to come into your house and check your electricity, you might be immediately suspicious. [You might ask] for some identification to phone [the company] they claim to be from,” Wood said.
“But when you’re online, it’s very difficult to try and think in that way or to actually do any of those things. We’re willing to give out a lot of information about ourselves when perhaps we should be a bit more cautious and guarded.”
It’s important for individuals and companies to have the core defenses — patches, anti-spyware, anti-virus and firewalls — but it doesn’t matter how secure your computer is if you make a mistake.
“In many ways, the biggest challenge is not technological; it’s behavioral,” Cate said. “For example, we’ve known that good passwords were a key part of security. Yet we have a lot of trouble getting people to use them and not write them down. You can have the most secure system in the world, but if a user unwittingly grants an outsider access through a phishing e-mail, you’re in trouble.”
But it’s difficult for users to be knowledgeable about Internet security if no one teaches them, said Kaiser. Parents need to teach their children, schools need to teach their students and workplaces need to teach their employees.
“Our goal is to make cybersecurity second nature — and that means we want to see education integrated into every phase of life,” he said. “In order to get people to be safe on the Internet, we have to teach them good habits, and we have to reinforce those habits all along the way.”
He recommends that people ask themselves three questions whenever they’re using the Internet: Who is asking me for this information? What are they asking for? And why would they need this?
But there’s only so much we can do, Gligor said.
“New technologies enable new adversarial behaviors. The security [mechanisms] developed for the adversary in the mid to late ’90s might not be sufficient for an adversary in 2009,” he said.
Ultimately, it’s a trade-off. To have the freedom that we have on the Internet, we have to give up some security.
“Can you ever have total safety? No, but you can come very close,” Kaiser said. “I’m going to go back to my car analogy. If you follow the rules of the road, if you don’t drink and drive, if you buckle your seatbelt, if you follow a few safety parameters, you can be safe most of the time. However, there will still be occasional accidents, and I think that’s probably acceptable in exchange for what you get, which is the freedom to go pretty much anywhere you want, anytime you want.”
– Lindsay Edmonds Wickman, firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:b9dc03a8-cc29-449b-8656-0ef5d962ea2e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://certmag.com/cybersecurity-are-you-safe/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282935.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00543-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964241 | 2,597 | 2.796875 | 3 |
The Ubiquitous Promise of WiFi is Near
Wi-Fi and WiMAX will coexist and become increasingly complementary technologies for their respective applications. Wi-Fi technology was designed and optimized for Local Area Networks (LAN), whereas WiMAX was designed and optimized for Metropolitan Area Networks (MAN). WiMAX typically is not thought of as a replacement for Wi-Fi. Rather, WiMAX complements Wi-Fi by extending its reach and providing a "Wi-Fi like" user experience on a larger geographical scale. In the near future, it is expected that both 802.16 and 802.11 will be widely available in end user devices from laptops to PDAs, as both will deliver wireless connectivity directly to the end user - at home, in the office and on the move.
The vast majority of viable spectrum in the United States simply goes unused, or else is grossly underutilized. The U.S. typically uses only about five percent of one of its most precious resources. Unlike other natural resources, there is no benefit to allowing this spectrum to lie fallow. The airwaves can provide huge economic and social gains if used more efficiently, as seen today with the relatively tiny slices utilized by mobile phones and WiFi services.
In an effort to free up spectrum for public safety use, Congress has ordered TV broadcasters to shift their signals from analog to digital by February 2009. When this happens, there will be open and unlicensed spectrum between the digital channels, or white spaces, that companies like Google and Microsoft want to use for wireless broadband service.
The unique qualities of the TV white spaceunused spectrum, large amounts of bandwidth, and excellent propagation characteristics (they travel long distances and can penetrate thick walls)offer an opportunity to provide ubiquitous wireless broadband access to all Americans. In particular, this spectrum can provide robust infrastructure to serve the needs of under-serviced rural areas, as well as first responders and others in the public safety community. Moreover, use of this spectrum will enable much needed competition to the incumbent broadband service providers.
This is a large amount of untapped spectrum and you've got people in Silicon Valley and lots of smart entrepreneurs just itching to find ways to use it.
But, broadcasters insist that use of these white spaces for broadband service will result in reduced-quality digital TV viewing. Unlike on traditional analog TV, where interference causes static or fuzziness, digital pictures can freeze or be lost entirely if another signal is broadcast on or near the same channel.
The Wireless Innovation Alliance, which includes Google, Microsoft, HP and Dell, thinks it is possible to produce a device that detects and avoids broadcast programming so it will not interfere with existing signals. Such technology is already being used by the U.S. military. FCC officials are intrigued by the possibilities and are testing sample devices to see if they could sense and avoid TV signals. But, the results have been mixed.
Broadcasters are skeptical, and the makers of wireless microphones for sporting events, concerts and churches, which also use this unlicensed spectrum, say the technology could put their productions at risk. They support auctioning off those fallow airwaves and making them licensed in order to protect against interference.
There are many ways to safely and reliably protect digital TVs and wireless microphones, not all of which require spectrum sensing. Last fall, Motorola submitted a proposal that relies on a combination of geo-location (to protect broadcast TV) and beacons (to protect wireless microphones). Google believes both concepts, along with a safe harbor approach, should be seriously considered for incorporation into the FCCs service requirements for the spectrum.
And, in a compromise designed to mollify some interest groups opposed to expanding use of white-space spectrum, Google proposed a "safe harbor" on channels 36-38 of the freed-up analog TV spectrum for exclusive use by wireless microphones, along with medical telemetry and radio astronomy devices. In effect, no white-space devices could use these channels.
This large amount of spectrum, coupled with advanced signal processing techniques made practical by the exponential growth in computing power (Moore's law), can make data rates in the gigabits-per-second available in the not too distant future. As a result, we soon could see a low cost and open infrastructure, supporting near unlimited bandwidth; improving every year as computer and radio technologies continue to evolve. This would be akin to a faster, longer range, higher data rate WiFi serviceWiFi 2.0 if you will.
We live in an era marked by two competing models of packetized communications. One in which the network provider acts as a gatekeeper by deciding which communications (in terms of content, application used, protocol used, how expensive they are) move easily across its network and onto the (authorized) handsets of users (the cell phone model).
The other in which the network provider makes available an interconnected, commodity, non-discriminatory transport service (essentially, a utility connectivity product) on which competitive communications travel that can be introduced without the knowledge or permission of the network provider and can be accessed via any handset (the Internet model).
I dont expect that either of these models will go away any time soon. However, at some point in the future, I believe that you will see fewer people carrying around pocketfuls of different kinds of wireless devices. And, you and your customers, business partners and fellow employees will soon be able to do things that are currently difficult on todays limited wireless networks.
Marcia Gulesian has served as software developer, project manager, CTO, and CIO over an eighteen-year career. She is author of well more than 100 feature articles on IT, its economics, and its management, many of which appear on CIO Update. | <urn:uuid:7375172e-2a61-4ffa-bb0c-17d4d61accd4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.cioupdate.com/print/trends/article.php/3745811/The-Ubiquitous-Promise-of-WiFi-is-Near.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282935.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00543-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943823 | 1,168 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Today Web Applications are delivering critical information to a growing number of employees and partners. Most organizations have already invested heavily in network security devices, thus they often believe they are also protected at the application layer; in fact they are not.
Myth 1: IPS defeat application attacks
Intrusion Prevention Systems, initially developed to monitor and alert on suspicious activity and system behavior, are becoming widely deployed. IPS’s are useful to detect known attacks, but are inadequate to protect against new types of attack targeting the web applications and are often blind for traffic secured by SSL technology.
Myth 2: Firewalls protect the application layer
Most companies have deployed firewall technology to protect and control traffic in and out of the network. Firewalls are designed to control access by allowing or blocking IP addresses and port numbers. As well as firewalls are still failing to protect against worms and viruses, they are not suited to protect web applications against application attacks neither.
Network firewalls only protect or “validate” the HTTP protocol and do not secure the most critical part: the application.
Myth 3: Application vulnerabilities are similar to network and system vulnerabilities
A common problem in web applications is the lack of input validation in web forms. For example, a web form field requesting an email address should only accept characters that are allowed to appear in email addresses, and should carefully reject all other characters! An attacker might potentially delete or modify a database “safely’ hidden behind state of the art-Network Firewalls, IPS and web servers by filling in SQL query syntax in the unsecured email field and exploit a SQL Injection vulnerability!
Web application attacks are not targeting protocols, but target badly written applications using HTTP(s).
Myth 4: Network devices can understand the application context
To correctly protect web applications and web services, a full understanding of the application structure and logic must be acquired. Track must be kept of the application state and associated sessions. Different technologies, such as cookie insertion, automated process detection, application profiling and web single sign on technology are required to obtain adequate application protection.
Myth 5: SSL secures the application
SSL technology is initially developed to secure and to authenticate traffic in transit. SSL technology protects against man-in-the-middle attacks (eaves dropping) or data alteration attacks (modifying data in transit), but do not secure the application logic.
Most vulnerabilities found in today’s web servers are exploitable via unsecured HTTP connections as well as via “secured’ HTTPS connections.
Myth 6: Vulnerability scanners protect the web environment
Vulnerability scanners look for weaknesses based on signature matching. When a match is found a security issue is reported.
Vulnerability scanners work almost perfect for all popular systems and widely deployed applications, but prove to be unable at the web application layer because companies do not use the same web environment software, most of them even opt for creating their own web application.
Myth 7: Vulnerability assessment and patch management will do the job
While it is often required to have yearly security assessments performed on a web site, the common web application life cycle requires more frequent security reviews. As each new revision of a web application is developed and pushed, the potential for new security issues increases. Pen Test or Vulnerability assessments will ever be out of date.
Furthermore, it is illusive to think that Patch Management will assist to rapidly respond to the identified vulnerabilities.
Web applications are currently proving to be one of the most powerful communication and business tool. But they also come with weaknesses and potential risks that network security devices are simply not designed to protect.
Key security concepts such as Security Monitoring, Attack Prevention, User Access control and Application Hardening, remain true. Since the web application domain is so wide and different, these concepts need to be implemented with new “application oriented” technologies. | <urn:uuid:2a3144a1-877f-4df5-924e-8a97f71e7342> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2006/03/14/the-7-myths-about-protecting-your-web-applications/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280086.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00269-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936262 | 792 | 2.703125 | 3 |
During a recent discussion on the Emergency Management Issues Facebook page, there seemed to be some confusion about why emergency management standards are produced by organizations that have no apparent connection with emergency management.
Technically, a standard is nothing more than a consensus document that has been developed by a standards development organization (SDO). An SDO must in turn be accredited by an overseeing organization. In the United States, the overseeing organization is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). ANSI does not itself set standards but instead accredits other organizations such as the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA). Accreditation means that the standards-setting organization follows a structured process that ensures openness, balance, consensus and due process in the development of standards.
While ANSI oversees the process of developing standards it does not manage that process. That is, ANSI does not decide what should or should not become a standard. This is left to the SDO. The SDO bases its decisions on what standards to produce by demand, either from its members or from outside parties. This has led to a number of standards from different organizations related to emergency management such as NFPA 1600 Standard on Disaster/Emergency Management and Business Continuity or the ASTM EOC guidelines.
There are several things worth noting here. The first is that standards are voluntary. They do not, in themselves, have the force of law. However, once a standard is adopted by state and local jurisdictions, adherence becomes mandatory and organizations are bound to comply. An example is NFPA 70, the National Electrical Code. While the NEC itself is not itself a law, its use is mandated by state and local laws. However, even where a standard is voluntary, its use may be considered an industry best practice, either through common use or as the result of litigation. Hospital accreditation is voluntary, for example, but a hospital that fails to become accredited faces considerable problems, including loss of government funding.
The second thing worth noting is that a standard represents the consensus of experts on the subject of the standard. It is not the work of the SDO staff. Under the structured process required by the SDO, these experts develop a draft standard. This standard is reviewed by the SDO for form and then sent to the membership of the SDO for review and comment. If necessary, the draft is revised and undergoes another review and comment period. This continues until all the concerns of the reviewers are either addressed or found unpersuasive. The standard is then published by the SDO, which charges a fee to cover its costs.
So if we reexamine emergency management standards, we find that they are not the product of the SDO but are, in fact, written by our own peers. There are two things you can do to help the process. The first is to volunteer for one of the peer groups helping to develop standards. The second is to submit proposed revisions to standards. This is part of the ANSI process required of SDOs and your comments must be reviewed and considered by the peer group. So get involved – standards are only useful if they truly reflect the consensus of our profession. | <urn:uuid:6e28bc9d-e905-4ed7-80ef-d33f5ea37f96> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.govtech.com/em/emergency-blogs/managing-crisis/Who-Decided-We-Need-This-Standard.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280425.43/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00177-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964205 | 648 | 2.59375 | 3 |
In order to develop a new drug the average pharmaceutical company spends about one billion dollars over ten years. This is an untenable situation for those with serious illnesses who don’t have the luxury of time. That’s why high-performance computing, which has been shown to dramatically accelerate the pace of discovery, is so critical to the domain of bio-medicine.
Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research is one of the bioscience companies who understands the advantages of using HPC in the fight against diseases like cancer. In a presentation at the 2014 AWS Summit in New York today, Novartis detailed how it has used the Amazon cloud to identify promising drug compounds.
The company relied on AWS EC2 and Cycle Computing software to create and access a $44 million supercomputer for just $5,000. In only 11 hours, the Novartis researchers had three potential cancer-fighting compounds to run further trials on.
The entire collaboration was facilitated by Cycle Computing as described by Cycle’s Brad Rutledge in a recent blog entry.
To better assess specific target proteins associated with certain cancers, Novartis researchers used Cycle’s cloud software in tandem with Amazon’s EC2 cloud, enabling them to spin up a massive supercomputer in record time and with little upfront cost. In terms of specific software, Novartis relied on CycleSever for workload placement, CycleCloud to orchestrate HPC environments across the Amazon infrastructure, Chef 11 Server for continuous instance configuration, and HTCondor for job scheduling.
In 11 hours, the team completed the equivalent of 39 drug design years for a cost of $4,232. During that run, Novartis screened 10 million compounds and identified three promising candidates, which have been promoted to the next stages of drug design, bringing the company that much closer to a life-saving cancer drug. | <urn:uuid:d3a00486-c018-480d-a832-16d5ad556b8f> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.hpcwire.com/2014/07/10/advancing-drug-discovery-hpc-cloud/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281069.89/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00571-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.926861 | 382 | 2.53125 | 3 |
SSH Key Management for Businesses
SSH is one of the most widely used protocols for connecting to and from UNIX and Linux systems. SSH, or Secure Shell, was developed to replace the plain text Telnet protocol with encrypted communications between clients and host systems. You probably are familiar with the free Windows PuTTY client software that performs SSH and other types of connectivity between Windows and UNIX or Linux systems.
SSH communicates over a secure connection and uses encrypted traffic between the client and server. That’s good but how does SSH authenticate a legitimate client against a server without sending unencrypted passwords over a connection? SSH uses keys. Using SSH keys, you can authenticate your client to a server without sending a password. This method reduces the threat of brute force password attacks to near nil. The reason is that it’s next to impossible to guess the correct credentials, while passwords, no matter how complex, are still sometimes guessable.
Keys are especially useful in situations where system administrators desire to use secure communications for automating tasks between remote systems.
Features of the SSH Protocol
- Strong encryption
- Strong authentication
- Communication integrity
- Tunneling and Forwarding
Keys also help identify servers to clients. For example, when you connect to a remote system for the first time, a key is stored in your personal key store. That remote system key is checked each time you connect to the remote host. If the host’s key changes or if someone is attempting to hijack your session, you’ll receive a notification that the host’s key has changed, warning you to go ahead if you trust the new connection information or to disconnect safely.
One of SSH’s best features is the ability to tunnel insecure protocols over its secure communications. Tunneling occurs when you setup a secure link between systems using SSH and a local port forwarded to a remote system’s insecure port. This allows you to encrypt traffic to a remote email server from your local system so that all traffic between the two is encrypted. For example, you can setup ssh to “listen,” on say, local port 2000, to communications with some remote system on the insecure port, 25 (Sendmail).
SSH Keys seem like a no lose prospect for administrators. However, there’s no perfect situation or protocol. Keys must be managed. Users leave companies sometimes on less than desirable terms, systems go through changes and best security practices require that keys be refreshed. Most organizations either don’t handle key management at all or handle it on an ad hoc basis and in a manual way. For organizations of any size, such relaxed management is not only a security risk, it also violates some regulatory standards.
The answer is to manage those keys using a software suite that provides insight into your environment, helps you stay safe and compliant, and does so at a reduced cost compared to labor-intensive manual management.
Key management basically answers the question, “Who has access and to what do they have access?” This is not an easy question to answer without a centralized management suite. In fact, if your organization doesn’t have any key management in place, ask the question, “Who has access and to what do they have access?” And, remind the person or persons whom you’re asking that active user accounts do not correlate with actual access.
In most environments, no one has the time nor takes the time for key management. Key management has become an afterthought. That is, until there’s a security breach or security compliance audit.
A key management suite shows you all relationships between systems and user accounts. You can see, graphically, who has access and to what they have access. Key management isn’t to be taken lightly. While it’s almost impossible to spoof a connection or masquerade as a legitimate system, it is possible through the use of stolen keys, to break into systems meant for simple automation or passwordless logins.
This does not imply that either of those scenarios is a security flaw or SSH flaw but a vulnerability that can be mitigated through the use of a good key management suite. A simple demonstration will convince you that you need to implement a key management program in your organization.
This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. | <urn:uuid:eea3a957-a313-4613-be20-12cea8ca53b1> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://frugalnetworker.com/2012/07/24/ssh-key-management-for-businesses/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00387-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.930944 | 919 | 2.9375 | 3 |
‘Quantum positioning’ to be tested on submarines.
An advanced type of positioning technology that uses super-cooled atoms to keep track of location will be trailed on British submarines starting from 2016.
The technology could be more accurate than GPS and may one day be used in cars and mobile devices.
As GPS cannot be used underwater, so submarines provide the perfect testing ground for the technology.
Quantum positioning uses a laser to track the movement of chilled atoms, and monitoring the quantum-level movement, location can be identified by how the atoms have moved since the starting location.
Neil Stansfield from the UK Defence Science and Technology Laboratory said: "Today, if a submarine goes a day without a GPS fix we’ll have a navigation drift of the order of a kilometre when it surfaces.
"A quantum accelerometer will reduce that to just 1 metre."
If the technology can be successfully miniaturised and embedded in cars, aircraft, even mobile phones, it could act as a back up for when GPS loses signal in built-up areas or remote locations.
Ten to 20 years ago this would have needed a huge cryogenic cooler, but laser-cooled atom clouds are changing all that," said team leader Stephen Till.
"We’re convinced the size and power will come down for broad use." | <urn:uuid:77728248-9897-4767-ad26-5cd0dc663bb9> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.cbronline.com/news/mobility/devices/new-positioning-technology-using-atoms-could-one-day-be-in-smartphones-4268224 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280485.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00021-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.917662 | 275 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Oklahoma: Supercomputing in the Sooner State
Whether they’re smashing together two-ton particles or forecasting the weather in real time, the research scientists at the University of Oklahoma (OU) require seemingly infinite computing power. With jobs producing up to a million gigabytes of data at a time, these academics demand an enormous amount of readily accessible resources and skillful IT professionals who can prioritize and monitor processing jobs.
To address this need, the high-performance computing administrators at the OU Supercomputing Center for Education & Research always are looking for new ways to maximize their cluster’s productivity and keep up with the constant changes in the supercomputing field.
Recently, this pursuit has led the center to adopt a new load sharing facility (LSF) that will allow it to share resources, prioritize jobs and increase productivity across the board. With its previous open-source software, the center struggled to efficiently manage the resources within its cluster — even at its busiest times, administrators would have to reserve some of the system’s processing power for high-priority jobs that could come in at any time. In this system, the cluster was backed up during peak processing hours and then sat idle during off-periods.
Through OU’s new LSF, however, the center has been able to use all its resources when scheduling jobs. Henry Neeman, director of the center, said the new LSF, which was developed by Toronto-based Platform Computing, has improved the center’s productivity.
“To paint a picture, one of the things we found ourselves wanting to do was to have the ability to have jobs running on various parts of the cluster, and then if other jobs that had higher priority came along, we wanted to be able to shut down the ones that were currently running, move those resources over to the most important job, and when those important jobs finished, then the other jobs could pick up from where they had left off,” Neeman said. “And with LSF, it’s not only possible to do that, it turns out it’s essentially trivial.”
This new technique is possible because the Platform LSF enabled all the center’s computing power to work together as part of one pool, with jobs fluidly sharing resources based on their importance. This allows the center to easily manage its workload, and it increases OU’s supercomputing efficiency.
Neeman said the new system also has fewer innate technological problems than any others the center has used.
The new LSF allows independent organizations to share computing power across institutional lines. This capability lets two autonomous clusters access each other’s excess resources, taking advantage of downtime and increasing both organizations’ productivity. OU hopes to make use of this feature in the coming months as part of a partnership with the University of Arkansas
“The idea is that a user at OU can submit a job, and if all of OU’s resources are in use by other jobs, but there are some empty resources at the University of Arkansas, then their job can migrate to Arkansas and run there instead of running at OU,” Neeman said.
This new system will require the center to make some adjustments, but Neeman said his department is up to the task. He also said the principal challenges he and his colleagues face are setting up the system and educating OU’s users to take advantage of it.
OU’s users generally are researchers who come to Neeman with a high level of knowledge about the problems they need to solve but almost no experience with supercomputing. Using a series of workshops called “Supercomputing in Plain English,” he teaches them the basis of this process and helps them understand how high-performance computing can enhance their research.
“The principle is to teach the concepts of supercomputing without going into a lot of detail about the technology of supercomputing,” he said. “And, of course, in seven one-hour workshops, I can’t teach you enough to do anything useful. But in seven hours, you can learn enough to learn enough. After you’ve completed those workshops, then we get together regularly, typically once or twice a week for an hour or two, and we work together on the computing part of the problem that you’re trying to solve.”
While Neeman is busy teaching users the fundamentals of supercomputing, the other three IT professionals in his department continually are educating themselves about the latest and greatest developments in the field. Because of the highly specialized nature of supercomputing — high-performance computing is only about 4 percent of the total computing marketplace — Neeman said there is little formalized training available on the subject. He and his colleagues must be diligent about keeping their skill sets current without the luxury of study guides or seminars. “It’s very, very difficult to find organizations that do training and certifications in cluster administration and high-performance computing administration for two reasons,” he said. “One, it’s a small percentage of the total marketplace, and two, it changes so quickly that it’s really, really difficult to develop a certification program. The biggest certifications that we’re actually able to get are the ones that are for the operating systems. So, the Red Hat Certified Engineer is a very good thing for someone in this business to have, simply because so much of this business is driven by the relationship between the operating system and everything else.”
Because certification plays such a small part in educating these specialists, they must turn to other information sources to stay on top of the game. Neeman said professional networking plays a big part in helping them learn everything they need to know from how to find the best combinations of software and firmware to the best way to restructure their system.
“It is a very small town, and when people are looking for information, they’re not afraid to pick up the phone and call their counterpart at another institution and say, ‘Here’s an issue that we’re dealing with. How are you guys handling this?’” Neeman said.
These phone calls happen frequently, he said, because supercomputing technology changes a lot faster than that in other IT fields. This means as soon as one set of resources is working well, it’s probably time to switch to something new.
“When you’re at the high end, there are really two choices in technology,” Neeman said. “You can have established technology, which means obsolete, or you can have new technology, which means broken. On the high-end computing side, we have to have the new technology, so we know we’re in the broken-technology business. That means that a lot of what we do is look for ways to get these new technologies that are poorly understood to work well for our users.”
The transient nature of supercomputing skills and technologies can make this field an acquired taste, Neeman said. Finding people who are independent learners and problem solvers is more important than finding someone with any particular certification or expertise, he said. “New technologies come online very quickly, and you have to be able to adjust to them, both software technologies and hardware technologies, so we need people who are very flexible and learn very quickly,” he said. “Honestly, the major way of dealing with (the lack of formal training) is finding the right people who have a desire to be constantly updating their skill sets. And I don’t mean they update them every year — they update them every day.” Despite all the challenges, Neeman said the supercomputing industry is thriving with the talent it has. Although it would be nice to have more certifications that could help newbies get started or guides to help high-end IT pros navigate “broken” technologies, the total immersion approach has worked for them thus far. Plus, the challenge keeps the job exciting, he said.
“A lot of how people learn how | <urn:uuid:5ba497ea-9f6a-4b4f-afd4-37dd95471687> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://certmag.com/university-of-oklahoma-supercomputing-in-the-sooner-state/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00415-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.962227 | 1,679 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Table of Contents
With the launch of Windows Vista, Microsoft has introduced a new security feature called Windows Parental Controls. Windows Parental Controls allows a parent to configure, on a per user basis, various restrictions on what that user can do on the computer. These settings range from blocking websites to controlling what games they can play. Having access to these types of controls allows a parent to feel comfortable with their children using a computer and at the same time gives them the flexibility to customize these settings to their specific needs.
It is important to note that not all programs are compatible with Windows Parental Controls. In order for Windows Parental Controls to properly monitor and control certain activities on the computer, the application must be compatible with this new service. For the most part, most of the settings can be enforced across all applications, but it is important to test these controls using the applications that your users will be using. This way you know for sure that any restriction you put into place can be enforced. It is also important to note that Windows Parental Controls can only be assigned to a Standard User, which is a user with limited rights on the computer, and cannot be assigned to accounts that are configured as an Administrator. This is so a user cannot remove restrictions placed on them.
One of the more powerful features of this new service is that you will be able to view reports of the activity for each user that you have configured Parental Controls. The information you see will be determined by whether or not the user is using applications that are compatible with Windows Parental Controls. Assuming that all the applications are compatible you will be able to monitor the following activity.
In this guide we will go into detail on how to use Windows Parental Controls to restrict a user's activity. If you read through this guide, at the end you will know all that you need to know about Windows Parental Controls and how to use them to provide a safe computing environment for your children.
In order to access and start using the Vista Parental Controls you need to log onto to your computer using an account that is an administrator. Once logged in you should do the following:
You will now be at the Vista Parental Controls welcome screen. This screen is the main launching pad for setting the global Parental Controls options as well as configuring Parental Controls for the Standard Users on your computer. From this screen you can create a new Standard User account, configure existing user's Parental Controls settings, configure the global game rating system, and set some other basic global settings.
Figure 1. The Main Vista Parental Controls Screen
The first option we will explore is to create a new Standard User account that you can assign Parental Controls to. You can do this by clicking on the Create a new user account option which will bring up a screen that enables you to create a new account as shown below.
Figure 3. Create a new account
In this screen you would type the login name for the new user account that you would like to create. We also suggest that you leave the option labeled User must set password at next logon checked so that when the user logs on for the first time they will be prompted for a new password enabling them to keep their password private. When you are ready to create the user, you would click on the Create Account button to finish the creation process. You would then be brought to the Parental Controls page for that particular user. We will go into more detail about setting user controls later in the tutorial so just press the OK button to get back to the welcome screen..
The first global setting you can modify from the main welcome screen is the games rating system that will be used for all Parental Controls enabled accounts. To view or modify your current setting you should on the Select a games ratings system option.
Figure 4. Global game rating systems setting
It is advised that you stick with the Entertainment Software Rating Board, ESRB, rating system as your default but feel free to choose another if you wish. Once you are finished selecting the rating system, or keeping the current one, press the OK button to exit this screen and go back to the welcome screen.
This brings us to the next set of global settings, the Family Safety Options. By clicking on Family Safety Options you will be brought to a page that contains two global settings.
Figure 4. Family Safety Options
The first option is labeled How often would you like to be reminded to read activity reports. This option allows you to specify how often you should be reminded that there are Parental Controls activity reports available to be viewed. You will see these reminders when you log into an administrator account. An example of this alert is below.
Figure 5. Activity Report Reminder
The second option labeled Reset the Web Content filter to be the Windows Vista Web Content Filter allows you to configure Vista to use the built-in content filter rather than a 3rd party software that you may have installed. If you had installed another web content filtering software and would like to reset it back to using the Vista one, you can click on the Reset button. When you are done configuring these options you should press the OK button to get back to the main welcome screen.
Now that we have explored the main welcome screen, lets dig down into configuring the Parental Controls for the individual users on your computer. To start this process you simply need to click on a Standard User listed in the welcome screen. As said previously, you can only enable Parental Controls on an account that is a Standard User. If you attempt to add Parental Controls to an administrator you will instead receive the following message.
Figure 6. Cannot apply controls to an administrator
Once you click on a Standard User account you will be brought to the User Controls screen where you can view the users activity log, enable or disable Parental Controls, and fine tune the various Parental Controls for this particular user. If the user that you are configure Parental Controls for is currently logged on you will receive a warning stating that the new settings may not go into affect until the user logs off and back on.
Figure 7. User Controls Screen
On the left hand side of the screen are the various options that you can configure for this user. These settings will be disabled if Parental Controls is not turned on for this user. On the right hand side of the screen you will find a summary of the user's currently configured controls as well as have the ability to view the user's activity reports by clicking on the View activity reports option.
Let us start by enabling the Parental Controls for this particular user. To do that you would select the option labeled On, enforce current settings. Once this option is selected you will now have access to the other settings on this screen. It is important to note that once you select this option, default restrictions will go into place. These default restrictions are described below. We then suggest that you enable the option under the Activity Reporting: category labeled On, collect information about computer usage. With this option enabled, Vista will log to the user's activity report their activity on the computer.
Now that you have enabled Parental Controls for this user, the following options will become available under the Windows Settings category.
Each of the above settings is discussed in greater detail in their own sections below. Let's move on to the first of these four sections and learn about the Windows Vista Web Filter.
If you select the Windows Vista Web Filter option you will be brought to the Web Restrictions screen shown below. At this screen you have a variety of different options that enable you to control what sites the user can visit.
Figure 8. Web Restrictions Page
By default, when you enable Parental Controls on an account Web Restrictions are automatically enabled and the Block some websites or content option will be selected. To disable restrictions select the Allow all websites and content option. When web restrictions are enabled, Vista will automatically set your restriction level, which can be set under the Block web content automatically category, to Medium. If the medium setting is too relaxed or too strict you can modify it one of the following settings:
Custom - If you select this category you will be brought to a new screen where you can select the specific site categories that you would like to restrict this user from visiting.
Figure 9. Custom Content Filtering Level
None - There will not be any web content restrictions on the sites this user visits.
Medium - This level will block unratable content and content that fits in the following categories: mature content, pornography, drugs, hate speech, and weapons.
High - Block all websites except those approved for children.
It is important to note when using web restrictions that these settings may not block every site that fits these categories due to the fact that what some people find objective others do not. The restrictions will, though, be able to block a large amount of sites that fall under the particular category. When a user attempts to visit a site blocked by Parental Controls, the user will see a screen in Internet Explorer, or another browser, similar to the one below:
Figure 10. Site blocked by Parental Controls
If the user knows the administrator password then they can click on the Ask administrator for permission link in the blocked site's message. They will then be prompted to enter the administrator's login information to unblock the site.
Under the Block web content automatically category is another option labeled Block file downloads. If you enable this option then the user will not be able to download files through Internet Explorer. When using this feature, it is fairly easy to circumvent it as not all browsers are blocked. For example though Internet Explorer is able to block downloads, users of Firefox will have no problems downloading anything. Therefore you should not rely on these features entirely, but rather test them with the various applications your users will be using. When Parental Controls blocks a download it will show an alert similar to the one below.
Figure 11. Download blocked by Parental Controls
The last category under web restrictions is Allow and block specific sites. This section allows you to specify specific sites that you want to deny or allow the user to visit. When adding sites to the block or allow list they override any restrictions based on the sites content that were configured previously. In this way you can use this section to fine tune the content filters based on a specific site. To configure this setting click on the Edit the Allow and block list option. This will bring you to the Allow Block Webpages screen as shown below.
Figure 12. Allow Block Webpages Screen
At this screen you can enter specific URLs, with only http:// URLs currently being supported, into the Website address: field and then either press the Allow or Block button. If you press the Allow button it will add that URL into the allow list and the site will always be accessible by the user. If you add it to the block list then the user will not be allowed to access it. When adding URLs to these lists, any URL in the allow list overrides the same URL, or a more general URL, in the block list. For example, if you add the broad and general URL, http://www.example.com, to the block list it would block every page that started with http://www.example.com/. Now if you added a more specific URL for that domain, http://www.example.com/safepage.html, to the allow list, that one URL would be accessible overriding the block list.
If you really want to harden the system so that almost no sites can be accessed you can put a checkmark in the Only Allow websites which are on the allow list checkbox. With this checked only URLs that you enter into the allow category will be able to be visited. It is strongly suggested that you do not select this option, as you will be seriously curtailing the amount of useful sites available on the web.
Last but not least, you also have the ability to export and import your Allow and Block lists to a file. This is useful if you want to use the same rules on a different computer or if you have compiled a really good list and want to share it with your friends. If you want to save your Allow and Block list to a file you would click on the Export button. This will bring up a prompt where you give your list a name and then save it in the folder of your choice. If you would like to import a list, you would click on the Import button and browse to the Web Allow Block Lists file that you would like to import. We will go into more detail about these types of files later in the tutorial. When you are done configuring the Allow and Block lists, press the OK button to save your settings.
That covers the configuration of the Windows Vista Web Filter for this user. Press the OK button again to get back to the main User Controls screen so we can configure this the time restrictions for this user.
When you select the Time Limits option in the Users Controls you will be brought to a screen where you can specify the hours that the user is allowed to use the computer.
Figure 13. Time Restrictions
By default a user can logon to and use the computer at any time in the day. If you want to limit when they can use the computer you can specify using this screen the specific times they can log on. The hours are represented as individual boxes, where each box represents a specific hour on a specific weekday. If you click on a box, it turns it blue which means the user cannot log on to the computer at that particular time. To remove this restriction you simply need to click once again on the same box so it becomes white. You are also able to select multiple time restrictions at the same time. To do this left click on a box and while holding down the left mouse button, drag the pointer over the time boxes that you would like to restrict. As you highlight each box it will turn blue and block the user from logging on during that time period.
When a user attempts to log on to the computer when they are restricted they will receive the error shown below.
Figure 14. User is restricted from logging on to the computer
Once you have finished configuring the time restrictions for this particular user, you can save these restrictions by clicking on the OK button. This will bring you back to the main User Controls screen where we will now configure what types of games the user can play.
When you select the Games option in the Users Controls screen you will be brought to the Game Restrictions screen where you can control whether or not the user can play games and what type of games can be played.
Figure 15. Game Controls Screen
By default all users with Parental Controls can play games of any content level. To disable access to games you can select No under the Can username play games? category. If you want to allow this user to play games, you can specify the maximum content rating of a game that the user can play, by clicking on the Set game ratings option.
Figure 16. Game Restrictions
From this screen you can specify whether or not the user can play games that are not rated as well as specify the maximum content rating of a game that a user can play. When games are created they are given a rating similar to a movie rating so that a parent can determine if the game is appropriate for a child's age. Depending on what you feel is best for your child; select the rating of the games that your child can play. When selecting a rating it is important to remember that the user can play games up to and including the rating you select. Some games, for whatever reason, may not have a rating. If you want to block these types of games from being played you can select the Block games with no rating option. If you don't mind that the user will play games with no rating you should instead select the Allow games with no rating option.
To further filter games you can also select various game content that you would like a user not to be able to play. Examples of content that you can prohibit are blood, alcohol reference, drug reference, nudity, etc. These settings will override any game ratings that you select, so if you specify that you do not want the user to play games with cursing, but you allow a game rating that allows for that, the games with cursing will still not be allowed. When you are done configuring this section you would click on the OK button to save your changes.
You will now be back at the main Game Controls screen. From this screen we will configure the last available setting, which is for allowing or blocking specific games. By clicking on the Block or Allow specific games option you will come to the Game Overrides screen.
Figure 17. Game Overrides Screen
At this screen you can specify whether or not a game can be played on a per game basis. There are three options next to each game title. The first option is User Rating Setting, which will block the game based on the Parental Controls settings previously set. The Always Allow or Always Block settings will override the other Parental Controls settings and allow access to the game based on the choice in this screen.
When you are done configuring this screen, you can press the OK button to save your changes and bring you back to the main Game Controls screen. Now that we are done configuring game settings, we would press the OK button again to exit back to the User Controls screen.
We are now at the User Controls screen and there is one last section that we have not explored. When you click on the Allow and Block Specific Programs option you will be brought to a screen asking if the user can use all programs or only ones that you allow. If you want the user to be able to use all of the programs on the computer you should press the Cancel button to exit this screen. Otherwise select the Username can only use the programs I allow option and Vista will scan your computer for programs and then display them in a list as shown below.
Figure 18. Application Restrictions
You can now pick and choose the specific programs that you wish to allow the user to use. To allow a program to be used, simply put a checkmark in the checkbox next to the programs name. If there is a program that is missing from the list, and you would like the user to have access to it, you can click on the Browse button and browse to the executable. When the executable is added it will automatically be checked. You can also select the Check All button to allow all the programs or the Uncheck All button to disallow all of the listed programs. When you are done selecting the programs you want to permit access to, click on the OK button to save these settings and bring you back to the User Controls screen.
Congratulations! You have now completed setting up Parental Controls for this user. As this was the last group of settings to configure for this user, you can now press the OK button to get back to the main Parental Controls welcome screen. You can now configure Parental Controls for any other users on your computer, or close the screen to finish this process. In the next sections we will go over some advanced material about Parental Controls. If you have no need for this material, then you can skip to the conclusion.
The Windows Vista Web Filter allows you to export and import lists of sites that you would like to allow or block for a particular user. These lists of sites are stored in a file called a Web Allow Block Lists file. These files are text files that have the extension of .WebAllowBlockList and contain a list of URLs. The URLs are formatted in a particular way so that the Vista Web Filter knows whether or not they should be added to the Allow or Block lists. Below we describe the format of the file so that you can make your own Web Allow Block Lists files.
The contents of all Web Allow Block Lists files start with the
The value of the AllowBlock variable, represented by X, can either be the number 1 or the number 2. If you specify the value of AllowBlock to be 1 then the Web Filter will add that URL into the Allow list. On the other hand if you specify the value of the AllowBlock to be 2 then the Web Filter will add that URL into the Block list. It is also important to note that when you add URLs to the list, you can only add URLs that start with http://. Below are some example URL statements:
http://www.example.comwould allow all pages that start with www.example.com/ to be accessible.
http://www.example.com/badurl/would block access to the specific URL http://www.example.com/badurl/
You can list as many URL statements as you wish as long as you use the syntax shown above and as long as they are in between the opening
One frustrating issue when making a Block Lists file is that certain legitimate types of http:// URLs are not permissable in a Web Allow Block Lists file which makes it difficult to automate the conversion of existing lists of unwanted sites to this new format. The first is that you cannot use a &, ampersand, in an URL. So an URL that looks like the following is not allowed:
When trying to import urls that contain an &, you will get an error message stating the import failed. One last caveat, which is not necessarily a problem, is that the import process will strip off the first GET variable in an URL so that it is only the specific page, without arguments, that gets added to the lists. Let's look at the following URLs list as an example:
Both URLs are legitimate and both may perform differently when you visit them, but when you import this list, you will be notified that the URLs are redundant, the importer will strip off the arguments, and you will only be left with the single URL, http://www.example.com/index.php, in your block list. I understand that they are doing this so that you have a more general URL to block, but I find it strange that the import process is fine with the first variable designated by a ?, but has problems with further arguments specified with an &.
In this section we will touch on some advanced information as to the inner workings of Parental Controls. The configuration settings for the Parental Controls are stored in the following Windows Registry key:
Under that key are a variety of global settings, exemption lists, and the per user settings. For each user that has Parental Controls there is a subkey named for their SID, or Security Identifier, under the following key:
Under the SID subkey you will find all the settings that were configured for the user. An interesting subkey is the Web\Overrides subkey, which contains the Web Filter overrides.
Each value name is the particular URL in our block or allow list and the data of that value is either the number 1 or 2, with 1 meaning the URL is allowed and 2 meaning it is blocked. These settings are obviously only accessible by an Administrator so we do not have to worry about malware running under a standard user's account modifying this information.
According to a blog post by David Bennet, a developer on the Windows Parental Controls team, there are four different exclusion lists, in two categories, for Parental Controls. These lists contain URLs and programs that are white listed so that they cannot be blocked or filtered. The first category of white lists are for entries added to the list by programs so that they can update themselves, retrieve help information, or activate their products. These program writable lists are the HttpExemptionList and the UrlExemptionList. They are found at the following Registry keys:
HTTPExemptions are a list of programs that are can't be blocked from accessing the HTTP protocol and URLExemptions are urls that can't be blocked by the Vista Web Filter. Below are default exemptions for a Vista Ultimate installation.
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Wmprph.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Wmpnscfg.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Wmlaunch.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Wmpenc.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\wmplayer.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Wmpsideshowgadget.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Wmpnetwk.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Wmpshare.exe
C:\Program Files\Windows Media Player\Wmpconfig.exe
The second type of white list is read-only and is a list of Windows programs and URLs that are required for proper Windows functionality. These entries cannot be added or removed by standard means and will most likely only be altered via future Windows updates. The Registry keys associated with these white lists are:
WinHTTPExemptions are a list of programs that are can't be blocked from accessing the HTTP protocol and WinURLExemptions are urls that can't be blocked by the Vista Web Filter. Below are default exemptions for a Vista Ultimate installation.
Now that you understand how to use Vista's Window Parental Controls, it is possible to create a safe and productive environment for the children in your household. It is particularly comforting knowing that the Windows Parental Controls team envisioned that what one parent may find offensive, another may not, and thus provided us a set of tools that we can customize to fit our own requirements.
For help configuring and using Windows Parental Controls, feel free to ask your questions in the Windows Vista forums.
When purchasing a new computer one of the most frustrating experiences is moving existing data to the new computer from the older one. In the past when you wanted to transfer data you had to copy the data via a network, store it onto a DVD/CD/Floppy and then copy it back onto the new PC, or physically take the hard drive out of the old machine and install it into the new machine. The main problem ...
HijackThis is a utility that produces a listing of certain settings found in your computer. HijackThis will scan your registry and various other files for entries that are similar to what a Spyware or Hijacker program would leave behind. Interpreting these results can be tricky as there are many legitimate programs that are installed in your operating system in a similar manner that Hijackers get ...
A Windows Vista feature is simply a set of programs or a particular capability of the operating system that can be enabled or disabled by an administrator. It is important to note that in Windows Vista, when you remove or disable a feature, you are not actually removing files from your hard drive, but rather just deactivating them. Therefore disabling a feature should not be used as a method of ...
When software is created, whether it be operating systems or games, there is a good chance that a bug or security hole will rear its head over time. Software can be complex, with millions of lines of code in them. This amount of code and the complexity of a program invariably lead to mistakes or oversights. When these errors are found the software developer will usually release an updates that can ...
Protecting your children while they are online can be a difficult and scary task for any parent. While it is important to introduce children to computers and the Internet, it is also just as important to do this in a safe environment. To help you with this is Family Safety, which is a parental control applications that monitors your children's online activity, and if necessary, controls what ... | <urn:uuid:3b2090c6-c4e7-4cfc-b34a-9effffdbc019> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/windows-vista-parental-controls/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00415-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.888739 | 5,674 | 2.53125 | 3 |
According to an analysis of over 200,000 applications, PHP is the programming language with the most vulnerabilities, mobile apps suffer from cryptography problems, and developers are more likely to fix errors found with static instead of dynamic analysis.
The report, by Boston-based security firm Veracode, was released this morning and is based on Veracode's assessment of more than a trillion lines of code for customers at large and small companies, commercial software suppliers, and open source projects.
Scripting languages lead in vulnerabilities
Overall, scripting languages like PHP had a much higher incidence of vulnerabilities than Java or .NET, said Chris Wysopal, Veracode's CTO and CISO.
"If you have a choice, don't pick a language like PHP," he said. "Unfortunately, developers aren't picking languages based on how secure they are."
In particular, PHP is commonly used for Web applications written to work with content management systems like WordPress, Joomla and Drupal. These three platforms account for more than 30 percent of all websites, according to W3Techs.
"If I was running a development team and I was stuck with PHP -- the decision was made at some point, and we had to use it -- it would be more important for my developers to get security training and look for vulnerabilities in testing," Wysopal said.
For example, scripting languages have a lower pass rate when it comes to the OWASP Top 10 list for web application vulnerabilities. ColdFusion applications, on average, had just a 17 percent pass rate, putting them at the bottom of the list. PHP came in at 19 percent, and Classic ASP at 21 percent.
By comparison, 27 percent of .NET applications passed OWASP, as did 24 percent of Java applications.
Cross-site scripting was the most common vulnerability for each of the three major scripted languages, with 86 percent of all PHP applications being vulnerable, 87 percent of ColdFusion applications, and 83 percent of Classic ASP.
SQL Injections were also common, with 62 percent of ColdFusion applications having this vulnerability, 56 percent of PHP applications, and 64 percent of Classic ASP applications.
According to Veracode, there are fewer security APIs built into Classic ASP, PHP and ColdFusion compared to .NET and Java. That means, for example, that it is more challenging to write code that is safe from SQL Injections.
"I don't think people realize what a difference the choice of language makes," said Wysopal.
When it comes to mobile development, the single biggest security issue was weak or ineffective cryptography, the Veracode report said.
Specifically, 87 percent of Android applications and 80 percent of iOS applications had cryptographic issues.
"If you're building one of those apps, you'll need to educate your developers on doing crypto effectively," said Wysopal.
In particular, 67 percent of mobile applications had insufficient entropy in their cryptographic algorithms, 50 percent had improper validation of certificates, 41 percent stored sensitive information in clear text, and 40 percent used broken or risky cryptographic algorithms.
"A little bit of developer education on these top four things can make a big difference," he said. "A lot of mobile app developers will say, 'Of course we're encrypting the data in transit.' But a lot of times they're not doing it correctly so it can be easily broken. Writing encryption code is not enough, you have to test it and make sure it's done properly."
In other areas, however, Android and iOS apps had significant differences in areas of vulnerability.
For example, 90 percent of Android apps had problems with code quality -- programming errors not directly linked to any of the top vulnerabilities, but which could still cause logic problems or security holes. But only 14 percent of iOS apps had code quality issues.
Meanwhile, 79 percent of Android apps were vulnerable to CRLF Injection attacks, where attackers insert extra carriage return and line feed characters into data. But CRLF Injections attacks didn't even make the top ten list for iOS vulnerabilities.
Similarly, 84 percent of iOS apps had problems with error handling, but this issue didn't make the top ten list for Android vulnerabilities.
Wysopal suggested that developers use the data in this report so that they know when to pay extra attention to security.
Static and dynamic analysis
There are two basic ways that developers can use automation to find errors in their applications, said Wysopal.
Static analysis simply reads the code and looks for common mistakes.
Dynamic analysis looks at the way that applications actually behave.
"We've heard that developers like dynamic analysis because it's a real, true vulnerability," said Wysopal. "With a static vulnerability, you don't know whether it could actually be exploited in the real world."
However, he said, he was surprised to find out that developers are 28 percent more likely to fix a vulnerability found via static analysis than dynamic analysis.
"I think the reason is that static analysis points to the line of code where the error is," he said. "Dynamic analysis doesn't do that."
This story, "Report: Scripting languages most vulnerable, mobile apps need better crypto" was originally published by CSO. | <urn:uuid:f70412da-e1b3-47a5-aeeb-ffed4aad7b36> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.itnews.com/article/3011872/vulnerabilities/report-scripting-languages-most-vulnerable-mobile-apps-need-better-crypto.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283475.86/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00231-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.96031 | 1,075 | 2.796875 | 3 |
Storage area networks file systems' time may be now, thanks to today's business drivers.
Highly scalable performance. Massive storage capacity. Heterogeneous platform support. These are not usually the characteristics associated with technologies that have failed to win major market share, but theyre just a few of the positive attributes of one such slow bloomerSAN file systems.
But it just might be that storage area network file system technology was ahead of its time, and it looks as if that time is nigh. Business drivers such as demand for ILM (information lifecycle management) and more affordable computing systems are combining to expand SAN file systems beyond their current niche.
Click here for a review of Apple Computers Xsan file system.
As the name implies, SAN file system solutions create file systems across SAN resources, including disks and tapes, allowing multiple servers to concurrently read and write to the same data set. SAN file systems are used mostly in applications where extremely large files are being shared and high data throughput (in the range of hundreds of megabytes per second) is needed.
SAN file system technologyunlike technology based on common file-sharing protocols such as CIFS (Common Internet File System) and NFS (Network File System)can use Fibre Channel as its storage connection, providing a performance edge.
SAN file system technology is already relatively expensive, however, and use of Fibre Channel will up the ante by requiring expensive switches, host bus adapters and management software. The emergence of iSCSI as a SAN interconnect will likely drive new SAN implementations, especially at smaller companies, and will likewise boost the use of SAN file systems. iSCSI is far slower than Fibre Channel, but its also far less expensive.
With CIFS and NFS, data access is bottlenecked at the file server or NAS (network-attached storage) head level. With a SAN file system, in contrast, data flows freely from the storage unit to the servers. Metadata controllers restrict client access to storage resources, but once access is granted, the clients are free to communicate directly with the storage resources.
SAN file systems also establish a common file format to which all major operating system platforms can write. This is something you dont get with Windows-centric CIFS or Linux/Unix-centric NFS protocols, and it is a major reason for SAN file systems implementation at sites where Unix, Linux and Windows users need to collaborate on projects.
SAN file systems also give IT managers a single place to manage file and directory rights, which should make it much easier to secure and manage data.
Organizations interested in implementing an ILM solution will find SAN file system technology especially compelling: SAN file system products can migrate data seamlessly to various storage tiers without having to inform users and applications about where the data was moved.
Some SAN file systems, including IBMs TotalStorage, also can be configured so that rarely accessed data is automatically moved to another storage levelsuch as from expensive high-end arrays to tapes.
SAN file systems will also be a logical fit for emerging object-based storage technologies, where applications are able to indicate to storage devices their performance and data-retention needs.
Senior Analyst Henry Balta-zar can be reached at firstname.lastname@example.org.
Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, reviews and analysis on enterprise and small business storage hardware and software. | <urn:uuid:de6a2b90-3a68-43fd-a1c8-a35ee4fc02ff> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Data-Storage/SAN-File-Systems-Failure-or-Future | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280504.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00443-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.940563 | 703 | 2.75 | 3 |
According to research from Microsoft, medical databases that are used to store medical records are prone to information leakage, despite being encrypted.
Using four different hacking methods, it is due to be presented in a paper at the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security in October, that sensitive medical data on patients could be readily accessed and stolen.
Researchers uncovered that through this attack, hackers were able to find out sensitive data such as race, sex, age and admission information from patients records across 200 US hospitals. It was discovered that the attacks were facilitated through the use of high-end Macbook laptops.
The focus of the attacks was on database systems that used CryptDB to encrypt data. This type of database is used protect confidential information, but the researchers, using the above methods, showed that as the layers are peeled away, data leaks out.
The massive breach of personal data emphasises the importance of system hardening and file integrity monitoring solutions, as a way of monitoring when files are accessed, and preventing the attack before the detection stage.
You can read the full article on SC Magazine UK here. | <urn:uuid:4e4028aa-35d7-4614-be68-8fb635f9cedd> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.newnettechnologies.com/encrypted-medical-databases-shown-to-leak-information.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280835.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00351-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.956741 | 223 | 3.171875 | 3 |
It’s the effectiveness and profitability in disparate and constrained business environments that make application of Information Technology (IT) a lucrative option for managing data and information within an enterprise. Data get generated continually in business environment; and its volume depends on the extent of information that we would need or like to record. In fact, the magnitude can be massive as can be seen in the volume of sales data archived by retail chains like Walmart or Tesco. Even smaller enterprises may also plan to store various data related to their business, and relevant to their business objective, sustenance and competitiveness – possible due to reduced upfront costs and availability of requisite technologies.
Such fast growing data may pose difficulties against storing those in traditional Relational Database Management Systems (RDBMSs) and in the same old way. Also, these data may not be effective (with respect to the ease of storage and retrieval) or appropriate with RDBMS as the formats can be different – documents, audio-visuals, or even unstructured or semi-structured texts. However, the demands from the real-life usage require quick access of data, and thus make the entire effort difficult or impossible to manage data in traditional ways. These are Big Data having attributes like large volume, wide variety and high velocity of data storage and retrieval. Such requirements have spun new noSQL (not only SQL) database systems, and different ways of storing and managing such data.
While technical efforts are on to manage increasingly large data, business managers are rather inclined to comprehend data from business perspective – visualise patterns of sales to predicting such patterns based on different conditions, occurrence of exceptions among usual business processes to predicting the possibility of such occurrences, and so on. This is Analytics.
On the other hand, Cloud Computing, the new computing model, has been popular to tackle requirements like large storage and processing capacities. This way of computing depends on ubiquitous Internet connectivity while engaging large number of computers together to create a mammoth machine that can cater to different organisations for their requirements at different scales, in a cooperative fashion – utilising idle capacity in an optimal way. The basic nature of Cloud Computing demands the working of self-contained programs (services) collectively through standard interface of data exchange and negotiations, and uses software applications, software platforms, hardware and networks comprehensively to perform various tasks. We term services delivering software applications as SaaS (Software as a Service), software platforms as PaaS (Platform as a Service), and hardware and network as IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service).
Now enormous data and computing power located centrally, have become available to users conveniently through desktops, laptops and smartphones over Internet. With mass-scale use of mobile devices apart from their increasing computing power and connectedness, these devices have penetrated into business environment deeply. The computing model bundling Big Data into large trans-geographical framework of Cloud Computing and extension of usage of business information to users’ mobile devices have revolutionised the data management in business, and thus similarly, in supply chain management. Moreover, growth and wide acceptance of social media among consumers and business users have made the social web a tremendous platform of reaching and collaborating with suppliers, customers or any other users associated with a business ecosystem.
Gradually, the innovations described above have given rise to a broad framework called SMAC (Social media, Mobility, Analytics, and Cloud computing) where we do not look these technologies, platforms, or computing models separately. Rather, these form an integral part of a business process affecting various aspects of data management within enterprises. These new developments and availability of many vendors offering various products and solutions at different levels of organisational functions does make the decision a real challenge.
Source: The Friday Quantum | <urn:uuid:ec6ac598-daea-4a2d-b2f4-69e595b18086> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.batoi.com/blog/post/2015/08/12/data-management-in-enterprise-technology-landscape | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281659.81/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00167-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.928325 | 752 | 2.671875 | 3 |
The U.S. government is looking at replacing radio communication between federal, state and local law enforcement and response agencies with communication with smartphones, and to that end it has showed interest into a new project whose goal is to create a hardened kernel for the Android OS.
The project was started by researchers from Google and George Mason University and they have recently been joined by experts from the National Security Agency in the hope of speeding up the process of certificating the hardened version for federal use.
Radio communication has long been considered a rather insecure method for exchanging extremely critical, confidential and delicate information such as that exchanged between law enforcement officers or troupes deployed in military operations. It is simply too easy to intercept it or to jam the signal.
So, equipping the Army with smartphones and allowing them to connect to the battlefield networks seemed like a logical step, but the crucial elements were missing: a secure OS and hardware that could unequivocally be tied to the user in order to be sure of his or her identity.
According to GCN, the hardened Android kernel developed by the researchers is two steps away from being allowed to be used for classified communication.
First, it has to pass the testing for receiving the FIPS 140-2 certification, and if all goes well, the testing for receiving the certification of the Secure Sockets Layer is planned for March 2012.
If the results of the testing turn out as planned and hoped, the White House Communications Office plans to make their Executive Branch (President, Vice President, Cabinet members, etc.) exchange their BlackBerry devices for Android ones. | <urn:uuid:d2d07320-3a60-43fd-a170-0e4ed504ae78> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2011/10/18/hardened-android-kernel-to-be-used-by-us-army-government/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284352.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00497-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.964416 | 318 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Over the last few years a number of technologies have been converging, moving beyond their original, isolated purposes to become components of larger systems. There are many examples of such tech-meshing, especially in this era of ubiquitous connectivity.
Plainly put, scientific instruments are no longer relegated to mere data collection duty. They can send, receive and interpret data all from one location, handling tasks as a whole versus across distributed processes.
One case of tech-mesh caught the attention of New York Times author John Markoff this week. He described an upcoming exhibit at the California Academy of Sciences’ Morrison Planetarium called “Life: A Cosmic Journey” noting the seamless interlinking of vast wells of scientific data, visualization tools, and high-performance computing. This merger of technologies provides visual explanation of complex phenomena — not to mention some incredible eye candy.
The exhibit harnesses supercomputers and visualization to lend rare glimpses into the macroscopic elements of earth’s beginnings. The journey begins at the galactic level and quickly zooms in to reveal the minute details of cellular structure.
Viewers can witness something that goes far beyond a projection on a screen—they can see the work of microscopes, telescopes, vast computation and visualization—all working as a unified whole.
Markoff also points to the “Fragile Planet” exhibit that came before “Cosmic Journey”. He notes that in this display, the images were projected overhead to create the effect of looking up at the night sky. Now, however, three parallel computing systems store telescope and microscope data to display data from the subatomic level to the vast structure of the universe. The planetarium now “moves seamlessly over 12 orders of magnitude on the objects it presents.”
Markoff explains that “The physical technology of scientific research is still here — the new electron microscopes, the telescopes, the particle colliders — but they are now inseparable from computing power, and it’s the computers that let scientists find order and patterns in the raw information that the physical tools gather.”
Leaving the awe-factor of the images aside, this is symbolic of the integration of data sources with the compute and visualization power that gives the collected information meaning. As more devices are connected in more complex ways, this new era of convergence could yield some stunning discoveries — not to mention some sound excuses for a night out. | <urn:uuid:ef7337bb-cf64-4a43-9950-7c298badf300> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.hpcwire.com/2011/04/26/tech_convergence_brings_science_to_life/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279657.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00159-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.912448 | 499 | 3.421875 | 3 |
The Standard Template Library (STL) is the most exciting C++ innovation in a decade, one that promises to revolutionize C++ software development.
In this course, you will learn about STL. In a combination of lectures and labs, you will learn about the underlying design of the STL. Additionally, you will learn how to take advantage of the library's strengths and avoid its weaknesses.
Note: You are required to bring your own laptop.
Train your entire team in a private, coordinated professional development session at the location of your choice.
Receive private training for teams online and in-person.
Request a date or location for this course. | <urn:uuid:048bdfe4-28c6-49a8-8afe-6316a8d7746b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.globalknowledge.com/ca-en/course/120456/an-effective-introduction-to-stl/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279923.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00003-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.909623 | 134 | 2.921875 | 3 |
There's no two ways around it: The PC is slowing down with age.
That may be a bit harsh--computers are faster and smaller than ever before--but processor performance simply isn't advancing at its past breakneck pace. At one time, 50 to 60 percent leaps in year-to-year performance were commonplace. Now, 10 to 15 percent improvements are the norm.
[LOOK WHAT THEY FOUND! 25 crazy and scary things found by the TSA on travelers ]
Luckily, five-plus-year-old computers can still tackle everyday tasks just fine, so the performance slowdown isn't a huge issue. Plus, it's nice not having to replace your PC every other year during a down economy. But technology doesn't advance by sticking to the status quo. The future needs speed!
Fortunately, the biggest names in PC processors aren't satisfied with the status quo. Chip makers are working furiously to solve the problems posed by a slowing Moore's Law and the rise of the power wall, in a bid to keep the performance pedal to the metal.
So what kinds of radical tricks do they have up their sleeves? Several different kinds, actually--and each holds great potential for the future. Let's take a look behind the curtain.
Intel: Building on the shoulders of giants
Can we chalk up today's paltry performance gains to a breakdown in Moore's Law? Not quite. Moore's legendary line might be frequently misquoted to talk about CPU performance, but the letter of the Law revolves around the number of transistors on a circuit doubling every two years.
While other chip makers have struggled to shrink transistors and squeeze more of them onto a chip, Intel--the company Moore himself cofounded--has kept pace with Moore's Law since its utterance, an achievement that can be laid at the feet of Intel's small army of engineers. Not just any engineers, though. Clever engineers.
As transistors become more tightly packed, heat and power-efficiency concerns become major problems. Now that transistors are reaching almost infinitesimally small sizes--each of the billion-plus transistors in Intel's Ivy Bridge chips measure 22 nanometers (nm), or roughly 0.000000866 inch--conquering those woes takes creative thinking.
"There's no doubt it's getting hard," Intel technical manufacturing manager Chuck Mulloy said in a phone interview. "Really, really hard. I mean, we're at the atomic level."
To keep progress a-rollin', Intel has made some significant changes to the base design of transistors over the past decade. In 2002, the company announced that it was switching to so-called "strained silicon," which increased chip performance by 10 to 20 percent by slightly deforming the structure of silicon crystals.
Mo' power means mo' problems, though. Specifically, as transistors continue to shrink, they suffer from increased electron "leakage," which makes them far less efficient. Two recent tweaks combat that leakage in novel ways.
Without getting too geeky, the company started by swapping out the transistors' standard silicon dioxide insulators in favor of more efficient "high-k metal-gate" insulators during its shift to the 45nm manufacturing process. It sounds simple, but it was actually a big deal. That was followed by an even more monumental change, with the introduction of "tri-gate" or "3D" transistor technology in Intel's current Ivy Bridge chips.
Traditional "planar" transistors have a pair of "gates" on either side of the channels that carry electrons. Tri-gate transistors shattered that two-dimensional thinking with the addition of a third gate over the channel, connecting the two side gates. The design improves efficiency by reducing leakage while lowering power needs. Again, it sounds simple, but manufacturing three-dimensional transistors requires immense technical precision. At the moment, Intel is the only chip maker shipping processors with 3D transistors.
So what's next for Intel? The company isn't telling. In fact, Mulloy says that any technology the company might use--like, say, the next-gen extreme ultraviolet lithography fabrication process--goes into a PR "black hole" years before Intel introduces it in its chips. But, he stressed, the past improvements discussed above don't just stop when they're introduced to the public.
"People tend to think 'Intel used this, now they're on to the next thing,'" Mulloy said. "Strained silicon did not go away when we added the capabilities of high-k metal gate. High-k metal gate didn't go away when we went to tri-gate transistors--we're still building and improving on that. We're at the fourth generation of strained silicon, the third generation of high-k metal gate, and our upcoming 14nm chips will be the second generation of tri-gate."
The best chip technology out there just keeps getting better, in other words.
Oh, and for what it's worth, Intel thinks Moore's Law will continue unabated for at least two more transistor-shrink generations.
AMD: Parallel computing all the way
Intel isn't the only chip maker in town, though. Rather than betting purely on improvements to transistor technology, rival AMD thinks the future of performance hinges on cutting CPUs some slack by shifting some of the workload to other processors that might be better suited for particular tasks. Graphics processors, for example, smoke through tasks that require a multitude of simultaneous calculations, such as password cracking, Bitcoin mining, and many scientific uses.
Ever heard of parallel computing? That's what we're talking about.
"Going into smaller nodes on the transistor side increases [CPU] performance by 6 to 8 to maybe 10 percent, year to year," says Sasa Marinkovic, a senior technology marketing manufacturer at AMD. "But adding a GPU with GPU compute capabilities gives much larger gains. For example, for Internet Explorer 8 to IE9 the performance increase was 400 percent--four timesA the performance of the previous generation, and it's all thanks to [IE9's] GPU acceleration."
"We see that type of performance leap playing within today's power envelope, or you can greatly lower the power envelope and see the same performance [you have today]," Marinkovic says.
AMD has been inching toward a heterogeneous system architecture--as the method of distributing the workload amongst several processors on a single chip is called--in its popular accelerated processing units, or APUs, including the one powering the upcoming PlayStation 4 gaming console. APUs contain traditional CPU cores and a large Radeon graphics core on the same die, as shown in the block diagram above. The CPU and GPU in AMD's next-gen Kaveri APUs will share the same pool of memory, blurring the lines even further and offering even faster performance.
AMD isn't the only chip maker backing the idea of parallel computing. The company was a founding member of the HSA Foundation, a consortium of top chip makers--albeitA sans Intel and Nvidia--that are working together to create standards that should hopefully make programming for parallel computing easier in the future.
It's a good thing that industry-leading companies provide the backbone of the HSA Foundation's vision, because in order for the grand heterogeneous future of parallel computing to come to fruition, programs and applications need to be specifically written to take advantage of the hardware designs.
"Software is the key," Marinkovic admits. "When you look at APUs with [full HSA compatibility] and without full HSA, the software will have to change. But it will be a change for the better...Where we want to get to is code-once, and use everywhere. Once you have the HSA architecture across all these different HSA Foundation companies, hopefully you'll be able to write a program for a PC and run it on your smartphone or tablet with some small tweaks or compilation."
You can already find application processing interfaces (APIs) that enable parallel GPU computing, such as Nvidia's GeForce-centricA CUDA platform, the DirectCompute API baked into DirectX 11 on Windows system, and OpenCL, an open-source solution managed by the Khronos Group.
Support for hardware acceleration is picking up among software developers, though most of the programs handle intensive graphics in some way. Internet Explorer and Flash are on the bandwagon, for instance. Just last week, Adobe announced it was adding OpenCL support for the Windows version of Premiere Pro. According to representatives, users with AMD discrete graphics card or APUs will be able to tap into that GPU acceleration to edit HD and 4K videos in real time, or export videos up to 4.3 times faster than the base nonaccelerated software.
"I don't think there's any ifs or buts about this," Marinkovic says. "Heterogeneous architectures are the way of the future."
OPEL: So long, silicon, hello, gallium arsenide!
But is that future based on silicon technology, as today's computing is?
Definitely, for the short term. Definitely not, in the long term. Sometime in the future--experts don't know exactly when--silicon will reach its limits and simply won't be able to be pushed any further. Chip makers will have to switch to another material.
That day is a long way off, but researchers are already exploring alternatives. Graphene processors receive a lot of hype as a potential silicon successor, but OPEL Technologies thinks the future lies in gallium arsenide.
OPEL has been fine-tuning the gallium arsenide technology at the heart of its POET (Planar Opto Electronic Technology) platform for more than 20 years, and the company has worked with BAE and the U.S. Department of Defense (among others) to validate it. While past processor forays into gallium arsenide have ended in mild disappointment, OPEL representatives say their proprietary technology is ready for the big time.
OPEL only recently exited the R&D stage and hasn't tried to make itty-bitty transistors at Ivy Bridge's 20nm size, but the company claims that at 800nm, gallium arsenide processors are faster than today's silicon and use roughly half as much voltage.
"If you wanted to match the speed of today's silicon processors, at roughly a 3GHz clock rate, you wouldn't have to go all the way down to 20 or 30 nanometers," says OPEL chief scientist Dr. Geoffrey Taylor. "Heck, you could probably hit that at 200nm." And that's using planar technology, not 3D transistors.
One of the biggest problems any silicon alternative faces is that silicon is the most cutting-edge technology in the world, with billions invested in manufacturing silicon processors to maximum efficiency. It's going to be hard to convince Intel, AMD, ARM, and the HSA Foundation to drop all that for a new material. OPEL says its technology has a large overlap with current silicon fabrication methods.
"It's scalable, and it's bolt-on to CMOS," says executive director Peter Copetti. "That's very important. In our discussions with different foundries and semiconductor companies, the first thing they ask is 'Do I have to retool my facilities?' The investment here is minimal because our system is complementary to what's out there right now." OPEL also says its wafers are reusable.
The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors has identified gallium arsenide as a potential silicon replacement sometime between 2018 and 2026. There is still a ton of testing and transitioning to be done before gallium arsenide captures anyA of the mainstream PC processor market, but if even a fraction of OPEL's claims hold true, its technology could very well power the processors of the future.
Striding toward a face-melting tomorrow
So, after all that--whew!--you have a better idea of where the future of PC performance is headed. The initiatives from Intel, AMD, and OPEL each tackle big problems in decidedly different ways, but that's a good thing. You don't want all of your potential eggs in a single basket, after all.
And best of all, if all those disparate pieces of the PC performance puzzle prove successful, they could theoretically merge in Voltron-like fashion to create an uber-powerful, GPU-assisted, tri-gate gallium arsenide processor that could blow the pants off even the beefiest of today's Core i7 processors.
Today's performance curve may be flattening out, but the future has never looked so beastly.
This story, "Breaking Moore's Law: How chipmakers are pushing PCs to blistering new levels" was originally published by PCWorld. | <urn:uuid:8dbf3afe-ec6e-4690-a8f6-c4e3efe5b45b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.networkworld.com/article/2165257/computers/breaking-moore-s-law--how-chipmakers-are-pushing-pcs-to-blistering-new-levels.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280900.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00305-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.948057 | 2,633 | 2.890625 | 3 |
A program which uses computer or network resources to make complete copies of itself. May include code or other malware to damage both the system and the network.
Once detected, the F-Secure security product will automatically disinfect the suspect file by either deleting it or renaming it.
You may wish to refer to the Support Community for further assistance. You may also refer to General Removal Instructions and/or Eliminating Local Network Outbreak for a general guide on alternative disinfection actions.
A worm is a parasitic program capable of replicating by sending copies of itself to new hosts (computers, servers, mobile devices, etc) over a network and other transferable media.
At one time, worms were considered more of a nuisance than a threat, but today it has become increasingly common among malware authors to create malicious, complex worms that can perform malicious activities such as data-stealing or launching Denial of Service (DoS) attacks. Worms may now also be used to deliver other threats, such as viruses or trojans.
There are multiple worm sub-types, which are defined by the platform or medium they use to spread:
- An Email-Worm will spread copies of itself using e-mail messages
- An IRC-Worm spreads through Internet Relay Chat (IRC) channels
- An SMS-Worm multiplies using the Short Message System (SMS) of telecommunications networks. | <urn:uuid:0ee2cbb5-44ba-40c9-838b-396b11089dbd> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/worm_w32_worm.shtml | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00121-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918842 | 286 | 3.34375 | 3 |
The bigger your data storage needs, the more hard drives you need. But it’s awfully inconvenient to have a dozen separate hard drives storing your data. Fortunately for you, there’s a way to take those dozen hard drives and make them act like one giant hard drive. This is called a redundant array of independent disks, or RAID. RAID-0, the lowest level of RAID, is one of the simplest RAID configurations. It provides the greatest boosts in performance. But it is also the RAID level with the least amount of fault tolerance and data protection. At Gillware, we offer financially risk-free RAID-0 recovery services.
What Is RAID-0?
A depiction of a 640 KB file being broken up into ten blocks and written to a single hard drive and a three-drive RAID-0 array.
RAID-0 is commonly used by home users, and with two hard drives. A two-drive RAID-0 array is more than twice as fast as a single hard drive on its own, since it can perform multiple read/write operations simultaneously. RAID-0 generally suffers from diminishing returns the more drives there are in the array, though, so people with three or four drives or more are likely to use higher RAID levels with other features and benefits.
To make a RAID-0 array, you take your hard drives and stick them together. Whenever you write data to your RAID array, the data gets split up into blocks and divvied up among the drives in the array. This is called disk striping. Each block or stripe is usually 64 kilobytes. Every hard drive in the array is used to its full capacity. If you have three 8-terabyte Western Digital drives in a RAID-0 array, you have 24 terabytes of storage space.
Now, say you have your three-drive RAID-0. You want to write a 640-kilobyte file to the array. That RAID controller breaks it into 10 64-kilobyte blocks. (If the file were 653 KB, you’d have eleven blocks, with the last thirteen kilobytes in the eleventh one.) These 10 stripes go to the drives in the RAID-0. Drive 0 gets the first stripe. Drive 1 gets the second. Drive 2 gets the third. Drive 0 gets the fourth. And so on and so forth.
Later on, you open up your file. A single hard drive has to read each block containing the parts of your file one at a time. But in your RAID-0 array, all of the drives are working together, and you can read up to three data blocks simultaneously. Your three-drive RAID-0 array won’t be exactly three times faster than a single hard drive. But it will be noticeably faster than one hard drive on its own.
RAID-0 seems great if you’re a speed demon. Every drive in the array increases your storage space and boosts your read/write speeds. But there’s a catch. Other RAID levels, like RAID-1, RAID-5, RAID-6, and RAID-10, use up some of their drives’ storage capacity to provide data redundancy. If one hard drive in the array fails, there’s at least one other drive to step in. These RAID levels sacrifice some efficiency and storage space for fault tolerance. But RAID-0 makes no compromises. If you are a speed demon, you shouldn’t be using spinning disk media: Solid-state drives are much faster, and are becoming more affordable every year.
Now, one out of every three data stripes across your RAID-0 array is missing. The larger a file is, the more “holes” it will have. Parts of the file definitions and filesystem metadata will be gone as well. No matter how many drives you have in your RAID-0 array, it only takes one failure to bring the whole thing down. Whoever coined the ancient proverb “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link” wasn’t talking about RAID-0. But they might as well have been.
Your data is more at risk in a RAID-0 array than any other type of RAID array. In fact, our CEO Brian Gill doesn’t even consider RAID-0 to be a true RAID at all, since it offers a negative amount of redundancy. A two-drive RAID-0 is actually more than twice as likely to crash as a single drive, because not only have you doubled your chance at drive failure, but the RAID controller itself could fail as well.
The RAID-0 Recovery Procedure
If you’re dealing with a crashed RAID-0 array, our RAID-0 recovery technicians can help you. We solve hundreds of RAID recovery cases each year. Simply get in touch with one of our recovery client advisers to get started on the road to RAID recovery.
Free RAID-0 Recovery Evaluation
One of our RAID-0 recovery cleanroom engineers disassembling a hard drive for inspection.
We always start with a free evaluation of your RAID-0 recovery situation. There are no upfront fees for any part of our services. We even offer to cover the cost of inbound shipping. With a prepaid UPS shipping label, you can send your crashed RAID-0 array to us at no cost.
Our RAID-0 recovery engineers will take and assess every drive in the array. We send you a statement of work based on on the amount of damage and number of drives in the array. After evaluation, we know enough to present you with a firm price quote, estimated time for completion, and probability of success. If the terms of our recovery efforts are not to your liking, you are free to back out without paying us a dime.
Independent Analysis of Your RAID-0 Array’s Hard Drives
Each healthy drive is completely copied over to one of our secure internal customer data drives. Our custom-designed data recovery software makes full forensic write-blocked drive images for analysis. At no point do we ever perform forensic data recovery analysis on a customer’s original drive, or alter the data on the drive. We repair the hard drives as needed. Our engineers work hard to get as much of the failed hard drive(s) imaged as possible.
The RAID controller places special metadata on each drive in the array. Our engineers use this metadata to determine how the data fits together in the array. Our RAID-0 recovery computer scientists write custom software to arrange our images of the array’s hard drives. If any data is missing, our technicians work around the holes to give you the best recovery results possible.
We make certain that your critical data is as functional and uncorrupted as possible before we send you our bill. If necessary, we show you a list of recovered files so you can help us determine whether or not our efforts are successful. If we are unable to recover your critical data, you owe us nothing. The entire RAID-0 recovery process is financially risk-free.
Reuniting You with Your Data
We send your data back to you after your RAID-0 recovery has been completed and paid for. We never hold on to your recovered data for very long. In the interest of security, we wipe all of your recovered data from our internal customer data drives after you have had a chance to verify that your recovered data works. Normally, we hold onto your data for five business days after you receive your data. Then, we securely erase your data using our drive sanitizer.
Ready for Gillware to Assist You with Your RAID-0 Recovery Needs?
Best-in-class engineering and software development staff
Gillware employs a full time staff of electrical engineers, mechanical engineers, computer scientists and software developers to handle the most complex data recovery situations and data solutions
Strategic partnerships with leading technology companies
Gillware is proud to be a recommended provider for Dell, Western Digital and other major hardware and software vendors. These partnerships allow us to gain unique insight into recovering from these devices.
RAID Array / NAS / SAN data recovery
Using advanced engineering techniques, we can recover data from large capacity, enterprise grade storage devices such as RAID arrays, network attached storage (NAS) devices and storage area network (SAN) devices.
Virtual machine data recovery
Thanks to special engineering and programming efforts, Gillware is able to recover data from virtualized environments with a high degree of success.
SOC 2 Type II audited
Gillware has been security audited to ensure data safety, meaning all our facilities, networks, policies and practices have been independently reviewed and determined as completely secure.
Facility and staff
Gillware’s facilities meet the SOC 2 Type II audit requirements for security to prevent entry by unauthorized personnel. All staff are pre-screened, background checked and fully instructed in the security protocol of the company.
We are a GSA contract holder.
We meet the criteria to be approved for use by government agencies
GSA Contract No.: GS-35F-0547W
Our entire data recovery process can be handled to meet HIPAA requirements for encryption, transfer and protection of e-PHI.
No obligation, no up-front fees, free inbound shipping and no-cost evaluations.
Gillware’s data recovery process is 100% financially risk free. We only charge if the data you want is successfully recovered.
Our pricing is 40-50% less than our competition.
By using cutting edge engineering techniques, we are able to control costs and keep data recovery prices low.
Instant online estimates.
By providing us with some basic information about your case, we can give you an idea of how much it will cost before you proceed with the recovery.
We only charge for successful data recovery efforts.
We work with you to define clear data recovery goals for our technicians, and only charge you upon successfully meeting these goals and recovering the data that is most important to you.
Gillware is trusted, reviewed and certified
Gillware has the seal of approval from a number of different independent review organizations, including SOC 2 Type II audit status, so our customers can be sure they’re getting the best data recovery service possible.
Gillware is a proud member of IDEMA and the Apple Consultants Network. | <urn:uuid:c9544aab-326d-4694-8a66-5b7c56992b3b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.gillware.com/raid-0-recovery-services/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282932.75/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00121-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92989 | 2,127 | 3.21875 | 3 |
By Vanita Khetan
Introduction to Healthcare in India
Healthcare in India is typical to that of any developing country, characterized by combination of public-private, advanced-rudimentary and accessible-unavailable oxymorons.
High rural-urban ratio, innumerable geo-socio-cultural variables, high economic dependence on the monsoon, deficient infrastructure and of course core development issues like poverty, illiteracy and nutrition, characterize the Indian fabric. However, rapid urbanization, positive consumer outlook, increase in foreign exchange reserves do not bring significant panacea for Indian business.
Within healthcare, the national indicators mask the immense disparities. The combined investment in health by the Centre and State governments is just 1.3 percent of GDP. Reimbursement is negligible, though privatization of the insurance sector has helped.
Figure below numerates the Supply Side and Demand side issues being faced in the Indian Healthcare Scenario
SUPPLY SIDE ISSUES
DEMAND SIDE ISSUES
1. Prevalence and prioritization of basic health problems in reproductive health, immunization and communicable diseases leaves little room for else;
2. Vast diversities in demography, geography, weather, culture and economy making conflicting health-related demands, making monitoring, planning, implementation of concerted programs a daunting task;
3. Non-uniform supply of manpower / services / facilities / equipment / drugs;
4. Lack of financial muscle for R&D investment in both public & private sectors
5. Non-availability of cost-effective high-technology quality health solutions
1. Sub-optimal functioning of the system
2. Both accessibility and usage of services being the worst in critical areas.
3. Increasing plurality in disease burden (communicable and non-communicable diseases) as a result of ongoing demographic, lifestyle, and environmental transitions.
4. Ever-widening gap between availability and affordability due to complete lack of social security and inadequate coverage by insurance.
5. Lack of consumer and health awareness
6. Rife use of alternative medicine techniques, especially in rural / illiterate settings
Source: Frost & Sullivan
India’s 16,000 hospitals house over 900,000 beds, but 60% of these are in the public sector. This, at best, is inadequate and not maintained. The private healthcare sector is booming, even in the smaller towns, due to, or maybe leading to, increase in quackery and alternative medicine. Health surveillance, tracking & record-keeping loses out to basic priorities in healthcare.
Most among the populace have minimal accessibility or affordability for even basic healthcare. Low purchasing power, combined with low health protection, makes the Indian customer extremely price-sensitive. The doctors’ choice of products depends on the economic status of the patient. This patient has extremely low awareness about advancements in therapy or quality. Hence, usage of advanced techniques & products is very limited.
The Indian Wound Care market
This Rs. 521 crore market is a typical competitive market – products are available across a wide range of quality and price points.
The traditional wound care segment is the Goliath in Indian Wound care, what with products like cotton & gauze still ruling the roost. Swabs & dressings, and tapes make up the rest of it.
The Medical bandages & plaster segments has mostly orthopedic products like crepe & elastic adhesive bandages, and immobility products.
In a stark contrast to developed markets, the smallest segment in the Indian Wound care market is advanced wound care, consisting of high-technology products like hydrocolloid, hydrogel, alginate, foam, film & tulle dressings among other scar / burn management products.
There are a handful of organized companies in this market, namely 3M, Beiersdorf, Casil Health Products, Johnson & Johnson, Elder-Hartmann and Smith & Nephew.
All the other international brands (Coloplast, Convatec, Hollister, Lohmann & Rauscher and Molnlycke) are present indirectly, through large wholesalers. More players are entering the market through this route in the next few years.
But they are trounced hands down by the unorganized sector in both numbers as well as value. In fact, some of the unorganized players have a very significant presence in most of the traditional wound care & medical bandages segments.
The primary methods of sales are to hospitals through the wholesaler-stockist channel, or through institutional business. Promotion is primarily done only by the large players to doctors and purchase officers.
Moist wound care is not a well-known concept in India. The few doctors who are aware about it know it either by virtue of traveling abroad or by updating themselves with the latest. Advanced wound care products have a perception of high cost-low benefit products, and hence the use of traditional products like cotton and gauze is rampant. Counterfeit and local substitutes are easily available and there is continuous downward pressure on pricing. This further drives down the usage of advanced wound care products towards traditional wound care. However, the market scenario is changing, with increasing realization of the value of advanced wound care. For instance, already most of the hand-made plaster bandages have now been replaced with ready-to-use POP bandages. In fact, in many settings, even those are getting substituted with artificial casts.
The advanced wound care market in India definitely has many mountains to climb before it can overtake the huge traditional wound care market, as in developed countries. Vendors will need to educate the medical fraternity to make inroads. But only a reimbursement system can bring about the penetration levels seen in developed economies, and that, is unexpected in the foreseeable future. | <urn:uuid:41098f50-4ecd-447a-9ea6-606c91604c70> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.frost.com/sublib/display-market-insight-top.do?id=28934022 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280364.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00334-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.934142 | 1,185 | 2.9375 | 3 |
You can't talk about networking today without software-defined networking (SDN) coming up. But it seems everyone has their own definition of SDN and how it should be accomplished. Who's in charge when it comes to the subject of SDN? And what exactly is it? A presentation from Infinera Corp., a vendor of optical gear, says that, depending upon one's perspective, the acronym SDN could stand for any one of four things:
- Software-Defined Network, the choice of the Stanford folks who developed the popular OpenFlow protocol
- Software-Driven Network, which is how the optical vendor sees it
- Self-Defined Network, possibly the preferred term for marketing departments
- Still Don't kNow, a view held by many techies
Strange, isn't it, that, as hot as SDN is, we're still speculating or kidding about its definition. I think there are two reasons for that. One is that if SDN, as in software-defined network, means decoupling of control and planes, then that's really changing the way networks have been built (meaning with proprietary boxes). Moreover, the success of SDN will be felt in cloud services, enterprise datacenters, service provider networks, and to enable more bandwidth for (OK, here's another buzzword) big data.
Speaking of buzzwords, until SDN came along, the focus was on network fabrics to address the challenge of the growing number of connections needed in the virtualized datacenter. Analyst Lee Doyle notes on SearchSDN that there are three strategies when it comes to the relationship between network fabrics and SDN:
In one camp, the SDN architecture and network fabric technology would be purchased from separate vendors and would operate independently with some interaction...
At the other end of the spectrum, SDN would be fully integrated with the physical network fabric, with both being provided as a joint product or architecture from the same vendor. Suppliers offering this model include incumbents, such as Cisco, Juniper and SDN startup Plexxi...
In between the two extremes, suppliers such as IBM, Dell, NEC and HP will offer data center networking solutions where SDN software is linked to, but not dependent on, the underlying network fabric.
Fortunately, there are standards organizations to straighten these things out. A group known as Question 21 (Q.21), within the ITU-T Study Group13, is developing a framework to "clarify the SDN concept, problem space and terminology." The IRTF (Internet Research Task Force), a parallel organization to the better known and standards-making IETF is looking at SDN from a research perspective.
Earlier this year, ETSI set up the Industry Specification Group for Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) to see how network appliances that provide services such as Network Address Translation, firewall, etc., can be virtualized into software running on servers. NFV can live with or without SDN, sort of like network fabrics. Also, let's not forget the Open Networking Foundation, which is not a standards organization but whose OpenFlow is the de facto solution for communications between the control and data planes.
In light of the above, when it comes to SDN one might be tempted to ask who's in charge. Actually, I will take that a step further. Given that with SDN we're possibly talking nothing less than a complete makeover of the network (something that's not going to happen overnight), I would not be surprised to see other industry groups spring up to address specific SDN-related issues. | <urn:uuid:ba9e886b-f0d3-40a6-a5a3-ed94d189a36c> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.networkcomputing.com/networking/software-defined-networking-definition-still-dont-know/1052115291 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560285337.76/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095125-00296-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.947688 | 741 | 2.625 | 3 |
Wi-Fi gives us freedom from wires, but it's not secure by default. Data is transmitted through the air, and anyone nearby can easily capture it with the right tools. As discussed below, whether you have your own Wi-Fi network or use someone else's, employing security measures is necessary to protect company files, online accounts, and user privacy.
Why Protect Your Wi-Fi Network?
By default, Wi-Fi routers and access points aren't secure when you purchase them. Unless you enable encryption, people nearby can easily connect to your network. At best, they just use the free wireless Internet for browsing and downloading, possibly slowing down your connections. However, if they wanted to, they could possibly access your PCs and files. They also could easily capture your passwords or hijack your accounts for websites and services that don't use SSL encryption, such as some Web-based email clients, Facebook, and Twitter.
If your Internet service provider (ISP) set up your Wi-Fi, it likely enabled encryption. This version of encryption, however, may be an older security option that's now easily breakable: Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP).
Why protect your connections on other Wi-Fi networks? When you connect to outside networks, such as hotspots in coffee shops, airports, and other public places, the connection is almost always insecure. Eavesdroppers don't even have to connect to the Wi-Fi hotspot to capture your traffic. And as with using any other unencrypted Wi-Fi network, they could possibly get hold of your passwords or hijack your online accounts.
To check the security status of your Wi-Fi--and raise its security level as needed--follow these best practices.
1. Choose the Right Wi-Fi Security Options
You can use any of several separate protocols that provide different levels of security: WEP, WPA, and WPA2. You see these options when enabling or changing the wireless security on your wireless router or access points (APs). Depending upon your device, you may have to select WPA first to see the WPA2 option.
WEP is easily breakable and protects you only from casual Wi-Fi users. Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) has two versions: the first is simply WPA, for a reasonable level of protection, and the second is WPA2, which provides the best protection to date. To confuse you even more, you can implement both WPA and WPA2 in two very different modes: Personal, aka Pre-Shared Key (PSK), and Enterprise (802.1X, RADIUS, or EAP). Most wireless routers and APs support both modes, which you'll see listed in the wireless settings.
The Personal mode of WPA/WPA2 is easier to set up, but is subject to brute-force dictionary cracking. This means that someone could potentially come up with your encryption passphrase by running software that repeatedly tries to guess it from a dictionary of common words, passwords, and combinations. However, this isn't a big issue if you create a long and strong passphrase when setting up the encryption, using no words or phrases that might be in a dictionary.
The Personal mode, though, is not suitable if your organization has more than a couple of Wi-Fi users. In this mode, all computers and devices connecting to the network are set with the same encryption passphrase, which creates issues when employees leave the company or a device becomes lost. You'd want to change the passphrase when such occasions arise--but that means you must change it on all access points and every Wi-Fi device.
The Enterprise mode of WPA/WPA2 is much more complex to set up and requires a server, but it provides better security for organizations. Along with the security itself being stronger, this mode provides each Wi-Fi user with their own username and password for logging onto the Wi-Fi instead of a global passphrase. This means that if an employee leaves the company or their device is stolen, you just have to change their password on the server.
The Enterprise mode also prevents users on your network from snooping on each other's traffic, capturing passwords, or hijacking accounts, since the encryption keys (exchanged in the background) are unique to each user session.
If you aren't sure your Wi-Fi is encrypted, you can quickly check. On a PC or device that's connected to the Wi-Fi network (or at least has Wi-Fi), simply open the list of available wireless networks and find the name of the network you use. In Windows, click the network icon in the lower right corner of your screen.
In Windows XP and Vista, you can quickly see the security status of each AP nearby, listed next to each network name. Windows 7, by default, displays a notice by the network name only if it's unsecured. But you can hover over the network names to view each one's security type, as shown in Figure 2.
2. Enable WPA2-Personal Security on Your Network
If your Wi-Fi network is secured only with WEP or nothing at all, then at least enable WPA2-Personal security.
To do so, you must first enable it and create a passphrase on the wireless router or access points. You need to log into the control panel of each router or AP by typing its IP address into a Web browser. Next, find the wireless security settings and enable WPA2-Personal (PSK) security with AES encryption/cipher type. Then create a long passphrase with mixed case letters and numbers--using no words found in the dictionary--and apply the changes. The image at right (Figure 3) shows an example of these wireless security settings.
Once WPA2-Personal security is enabled on the router or APs, users will be prompted to enter the passphrase when connecting to the Wi-Fi network.
3. Even Better, Establish WPA2-Enterprise Security
To deploy the Enterprise mode of WPA/WPA2, you first need to get a RADIUS server. It enables the required 802.1X authentication and is where you define the usernames and passwords for Wi-Fi users.
If you don't have the time or expertise to set up your own server, consider using a hosted service. Keep in mind that there are also access points (APs) with built-in RADIUS servers, such as ZyXEL's 802.11a/b/g/n Business Access Point (NWA3160-N). But if you're a Linux fan, you might consider installing the open source FreeRADIUS server software on a server or PC.
Once you have a RADIUS server set up, you input a Shared Secret (password) and other details for each router or AP. You also input the usernames and passwords for the Wi-Fi users or devices into the RADIUS server (or use Active Directory or a separate database).
Next, you have to configure each router or AP with security and authentication settings. You log into the control panel of each router or AP by typing its IP address into a Web browser, and log in. Then you look for the wireless security settings and enable WPA2-Enterprise security, which may be referred to as just plain WPA2. You must then enter the IP address of the RADIUS server that you set up and input the Shared Secret (password) you created for that particular router or AP. Once you apply these changes, users will be able to connect.
Next: Wi-Fi for guests, using VPN, and more.
4. Offer Separate Wi-Fi for Guests
Never allow an untrusted or unfamiliar person have access to your private Wi-Fi network. If you want to offer visitors or guests wireless Internet access, make sure that such access is segregated from your company's main network so they can't possibly get into your computers and files, and eavesdrop on your traffic.
Consider purchasing a separate Internet connection for guests and setting up an additional wireless router or APs. Some wireless routers, such as D-Link's Xtreme N Gigabit Router (DIR-655), offer guest access on another SSID, or network name, that's separate from your private network and requires only a single Internet connection. To see if your router offers this option, check the user manual or log in to the router's Web-based control panel by typing its IP address into a browser and look for a guest feature. Additionally, most business-class APs offer the same functionality by creating Virtual LANs (VLANs) and multiple SSIDs.
When configuring guest access, you could even enable separate encryption so you can still try to control who connects and uses your Internet access. With a wireless router, you should use the guest access settings--such as those shown in Figure 5--for this purpose.
5. Physically Secure Your Network Gear
Besides enabling encryption to secure your private wireless network, you need to think about the physical security of your network. Make sure that your wireless router or APs are all secured from visitors. An intruder could easily plug into the network if it's in reach or reset it to factory defaults to clear the security. To prevent this, you could, for instance, mount the hardware high on walls or above a false ceiling. Also, if your office has ethernet network ports on the walls, make sure that they aren't within the reach of visitors, or disconnect them from the network. If you have a larger network with a wiring closet, make sure it says locked and secure.
6. Secure Your Wi-Fi Outside the Office With VPN
You also need to secure your Wi-Fi connections when on other untrusted networks, such as public hotspots. You can use a virtual private network (VPN) connection, which secures all your Internet traffic by redirecting it to the VPN server via an encrypted tunnel. This ensures that if local eavesdroppers are hanging around a Wi-Fi hotspot, they won't see your real Internet traffic and can't capture your passwords or hijack any accounts.
If your employer or organization offers VPN access, you can use it to secure your Wi-Fi and also to remotely access the network. But if such a VPN isn't available, consider hosted services. Many free ones are designed for Wi-Fi security--Hotspot Shield, for example. However, for better reliability and better speeds, you might consider a paid service, such as Comodo TrustConnect.
7. Ensure Websites Are Encrypted Outside the Office
If you don't use a VPN connection to secure all your traffic when out of the office, at least ensure that any websites you log in to are encrypted. Highly sensitive websites, such as banks, use encryption by default, but others, such as social networking sites and email providers, don't always do so.
To ensure that a website is using encryption, access it via a Web browser and try to use SSL/HTTPS encryption. You can see if the site supports SSL encryption by adding the letter s to its address: https:// instead of http://. If it's encrypted, you'll also see some sort of notification in the browser about the security, such as a padlock or green-colored address bar. If you don't see any notification or it shows an error, it may not be secure; you should therefore consider waiting to access the site until you're on a private network at home or in the office.
If you check your email with a client program such as Microsoft Outlook, you should try enabling SSL encryption for your email server in your account settings (see Figure 6). However, many email providers don't support encrypted connections via client programs. If that's the case, check your email via the Web browser--using SSL/HTTPS--if possible.
8. Shop for Secure Wi-Fi Gear
When shopping for a Wi-Fi router or access points, keep security in mind. As mentioned, some consumer-level wireless routers, such as the D-Link Xtreme N Gigabit Router, offer a wireless guest feature, so you can keep visitors off your private network. And business-class routers and APs usually offer VLAN and multiple SSID support, which you can configure to do the same.
Additionally, some business-level routers offer integrated VPN servers. You can use VPN connections to secure your Wi-FI hotspot sessions, remotely access your network, or link muliple offices together. Some, such as the ZyXEL 802.11a/b/g/n Business Access Point, even have an embedded RADIUS server, so you can use the Enterprise mode of WPA2 security.
When shopping the big-box stores, you'll find mostly consumer-level wireless routers. You can check the box for features, but I suggest investigating online before purchasing. Check the manufacturer's site and read through the model's product description pages to get a better idea of what features it supports.
When shopping online for consumer or business gear, some Web stores include a lengthy description, but again, check the manufacturer's site for a full feature list.
Eric Geier is a freelance tech writer. Become a Twitter follower to keep up with his writings. He's also the founder and owner of NoWiresSecurity, which helps businesses protect their Wi-Fi network with enterprise-class security (WPA2 with 802.1X).
This story, "Lock down your Wi-Fi network: 8 tips for small businesses" was originally published by PCWorld. | <urn:uuid:8c91af67-d3c9-4839-ae1d-e52139afe169> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.itworld.com/article/2734627/security/lock-down-your-wi-fi-network--8-tips-for-small-businesses.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280485.79/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00022-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.92982 | 2,818 | 2.78125 | 3 |
iSCSI � What Does It Mean for Your Storage Network? Page 2
iSCSI Deployment Examples
Now, let's look at a few iSCSI deployment examples. The examples are as follows:
- Network Storage Services via iSCSI.
- Multiple Cards to Single iSCSI Router.
- iSCSI HBA and Fibre Channel Tape Backup.
Network Storage Services via iSCSI
Two iSCSI HBAs can be used in conjunction with standard Ethernet NICs through a Gigabit-capable switch connected to an iSCSI-capable Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disk (RAID) Array. This configuration is appropriate as either the next step in transitioning to an iSCSI-exclusive SAN or as an initial iSCSI SAN configuration.
Multiple Cards to Single iSCSI Router
Multiple HBAs in separate servers can be used in conjunction with a Gigabit capable switch connected to an iSCSI capable router with Fibre Channel ports. This is then connected directly to a native Fibre Channel RAID Array. This configuration is also appropriate as the next step in transitioning to an iSCSI front-end SAN with Fibre Channel storage devices.
iSCSI HBA and Fibre Channel Tape Backup
An iSCSI HBA can be used in conjunction with a Gigabit-capable switch connected to an iSCSI-capable router with Fibre Channel ports connected to a Fibre Channel tape drive. This configuration can be used as a means to perform backup and recovery, by using an existing Ethernet infrastructure.
Next, let's discuss what the availability of iSCSI will mean to customers who had considered storage networking too expensive. In other words, what are the advantages of iSCSI SANs?
As previously explained, iSCSI is an end-to-end protocol for transporting storage I/O block data over an IP network. The protocol is used on servers (initiators), storage devices (targets), and protocol transfer gateway devices. iSCSI uses standard Ethernet switches and routers to move the data from server to storage. It also enables IP and Ethernet infrastructure to be used for expanding access to SAN storage and extending SAN connectivity across any distance. The technology is based on SCSI commands used in storage traffic today and IP protocols for networking.
Leveraging the Best from Storage Networking
iSCSI builds on the two most widely used protocols from the storage and the networking worlds. From the storage side, iSCSI uses the SCSI command set, the core storage commands used throughout all storage configurations.
On the networking side, iSCSI uses IP and Ethernet, which are the basis for most enterprise networks, and uses in metropolitan and wide area networks is increasing as well. With almost 30 years of research, development and integration, IP networks provide the utmost in manageability, interoperability and cost-effectiveness.
10GbE Enabling iSCSI and Its AdvantagesAs the demand for bandwidth is increasing for storage and networking applications, Gigabit Ethernet technology provides the right path. However to make these applications mainstream, 10GbE is needed for the following reasons:
First of all, a 10 Gigabit Ethernet network will have the capabilities to provide solutions for unified storage and networking applications. With networking applications requiring gigabits of throughput and the terabits of storage transactions, existing gigabit networks will max out. However, 10GbE will be able to sustain lower latencies and high performance needed for these applications.
Second, with regards to interchangeability and Interoperability of equipment, the Fiber Channel model is not optimized for connectivity of multiple vendor devices. With 802.3 standards based products, Ethernet has continued to provide solutions that can connect systems for multiple vendors, thus allowing for a better cost model and a variety of vendors to chose from for the end user.
Third, would be the consolidation of the SAN and network attached storage (NAS) markets. The final reason why 10GbE is needed, is the ability to connect Fiber Channel SAN islands through IP. A link greater than the gigabit interfaces in the SAN islands is required.
So, with the preceding in mind, what would be the advantages of iSCSI SANs? The following advantages are as follows:
Building iSCSI SANs with 10GbE: A Data Center Approach
An iSCSI SAN is a perfect choice for a user interested in moving to networked storage. Using the same block level SCSI commands as direct attach storage, iSCSI provides compatibility with user applications such as file systems, databases, and web serving. Similarly, since iSCSI runs on ubiquitous and familiar IP networks, there is no need to learn a new networking infrastructure to realize SAN benefits. To build an iSCSI storage network in a data center, iSCSI host bus adapters can be used in servers, along with iSCSI storage devices and a combination of switches and routers.
An iSCSI SAN is an optimal choice for a user interested in moving to IP Storage. iSCSI is like one more application to the network protocol stack. So, iSCSI is not only compatible with the existing networking architecture, but also maintains the same block level SCSI commands. This capability allows the information technology (IT) staff to transition from the direct attached storage (DAS) model to the iSCSI SAN model. By adding the storage traffic to the existing network, the IT staff doesnt need any additional training to manage the networks for IP Storage.
In a typical data center, the servers updates/retrieves the data from the storage devices located remotely at gigabit speeds. Consolidated storage serves multiple servers at the same time. In the same environment, network traffic is processed at gigabit speeds. The IT staff has a challenging task to support the growing needs of storage and network requirements. Though gigabit networks are being deployed widely, it cannot solve all the problems. Storage networks have low latency and high bandwidth requirements.
iSCSI at 10 Gigabit Ethernet is the answer to these requirements. The 10GbE provides a smooth transition for the existing storage networking infrastructure to higher speeds. Applications like synchronous mirroring demand low latency, and file serving needs high bandwidth. By using a host bus adapter (HBA), which supports both the network protocols and the iSCSI protocols, both the SAN and NAS environments can be consolidated. The 10GbE networks facilitate the high bandwidth and low latency required in this environment, thereby resulting in improved application response time. This would consist of the following data center applications:
- Server and storage consolidation.
- Accelerated Backup Operations.
- Seamless Remote Site Access and Storage Outsourcing.
Server and Storage Consolidation
With a networked storage infrastructure, customers can link multiple storage devices to multiple servers. This allows for better resource utilization, ease of storage management, and simpler expansion of the storage infrastructure.
Accelerated Backup OperationsBackup operations previously restricted to operating across traditional IP LANs at the file level can now operate across IP Storage networks at the block level. This shift facilitates faster backup times, and provides customers the flexibility to use shared or dedicated IP networks for storage operations
Seamless Remote Site Access and Storage OutsourcingWith the storage network based on IP, customers can easily enable remote access to secondary sites across metropolitan or wide area IP networks. The remote sites can be used for off-site backup, clustering or mirroring replication. Additionally, customers can choose to link to storage service providers for storage outsourcing applications such as storage-on-demand. | <urn:uuid:7bc27410-067c-4a5c-915b-65f7e69e60ca> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/ipstorage/features/article.php/11567_1547831_2/iSCSI-ndash-What-Does-It-Mean-for-Your-Storage-Network.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281574.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00324-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.910714 | 1,549 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Supercomputers have a big problem: The amount of power they consume. Consider the Chinese Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2) at the National Super Computer Center in Guangzhou, currently the world's top performing machine; its 3,120,000 cores produce 33,862.7 teraflops; that's an efficiency of 1.9 gigaflops per watt.
China's Tianhe-2 (MilkyWay-2) supercomputer
While that power efficiency might sound good, the world's greenest supercomputer is, according to The Green500 List, the:
TSUBAME-KFC, a heterogeneous supercomputing system developed at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TITech) in Japan, tops the list with an efficiency of 4.5 gigaflops/watt.
Japan's TSUBAME-KFC, the current "greenest" supercomputer
Power efficiency is actually critically important in supercomputers because the bigger and faster they get, the harder it is to power and cool them. Indeed, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) announced in 2010 the Ubiquitous High Performance Computing (UHPC) program with the goal of building an exascale supercomputer by 2018 that will require only a total of 20 megawatts -- that works out to 50 gigaflops per watt.
A new machine, the Wilkes which went operational in October this year, ranks #2 on The Green500 List with a rating of 3.6 gigaflops/watt. Housed at Cambridge University in England, the Wilkes (named after the Cambridge University pioneer Maurice Wilkes, who built EDSAC, one of the first programmable computers, in 1949) was specifically designed for power efficiency.
Cambridge University's Wilkes supercomputer
The Wilkes employs 128 Dell T620 servers and 256 NVIDIA K20 GPUs interconnected by 256 Mellanox Connect IB cards to achieve 240 teraflops. This performance gives the Wilkes position 166 in the Top500 November 2013 list.
The Adapteva Parallella-16 board
Interestingly, Adapteva's Parallella project which was successfully funded via Kickstarter just over a year ago (I wrote about the project and am a backer) is about to ship boards based on theri Ephiany chip that deliver an amazing 35 gigaflops per watt! This is the closest anyone has come to meeting DARPA's UHPC goal though, quite obviously, all of the infrastructure to achieve a exaflop machine would decrease the efficiency of system built from Adapteva chips considerably. Adapteva's next chip generations have been mapped out:
Adapteva's Epiphany parallel processing chip product lines
But Adapteva has even bigger plans; by 2018 the company expects to produce a 64,000 core chip that will deliver 100 teraflops while using just 100 watts (that's a teraflop per watt!). Link ten of those chips together and voila! You have an exascale machine. If you assume that the resulting system's power efficiency is halved that's a promise of an exaflop for something around two kilowatts!
Why does all of this matter? Because exascale computing will have the most incredible payoffs including making large scale (whole body) biological simulation practical, realize the goals of the Human Brain Project, and enable many fields of research to advance overnight ... and 2018 is just around the corner. | <urn:uuid:a146b244-127c-434c-bf1d-d1d048b92ee9> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.networkworld.com/article/2226040/data-center/simulating-brains-just-around-the-corner.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281202.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00260-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.90815 | 718 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Over the years there has been lots of discussion and points of view surrounding security metrics and how to measure the effectiveness of a vulnerability management program. In fact, the Center for Security has even laid out a framework for security metrics developed by an expert panel in an effort to help organizations determine and validate security strategies.
In 2004 Qualys first began anonymously using the accumulated vulnerability scan data received from its customers to identify key, quantifiable attributes or metrics to help companies drive strategies for protecting networks, systems and data. These metrics have become known as the “Laws of Vulnerabilities” and are comprised of the following four key measures:
- Half-life: The time interval for reducing the occurrence of a vulnerability by half.
- Prevalence: Measure in the turnover rate of vulnerabilities in the Qualys “Top 10 Vulnerabilities” list during a year. The Qualys Top 10 list includes the top 10 external (Internet-facing) and top 10 internal vulnerabilities.
- Persistence: Total lifespan of vulnerabilities – basically how long until a vulnerability is entirely removed from a company’s systems or 100 percent remediated.
- Exploitation: Time interval between an exploit announcement and the first attack.
Over a decade later, these four key metrics continue to provide businesses and security executives with insights into how well they are managing enterprise risk and compare relative to their peers. I thought it would be interesting to see how companies stack up against the “Laws of Vulnerabilities.”
On average across all industries, it takes companies almost 30 days to remediate half of their systems for a given vulnerability. This means that even after 30 days, 50 percent of a company’s systems remain vulnerable to attack. This number is even more startling when compared with the significant decreases seen in the time it takes cyber criminals to launch their first attacks.
Prevalence is calculated as the percentage change in the number of vulnerabilities included in the Qualys Top 10 critical vulnerabilities list from month to month. As an example, a prevalence rate of 20 percent would mean that four vulnerabilities were substituted in the Top 10 vulnerabilities list and 100 percent would indicate that all of the Top 10 vulnerabilities were substituted. Historically, the prevalence rate averages 60 percent, meaning that 12 vulnerabilities are substituted from the Top 10 list in a given year.
While it is interesting to look at the new vulnerabilities and impacted applications added to the Top 10 list, I would argue that it is equally valuable to look at those applications that retain a constant presence on the list. The most commonly found applications on the Qualys Top 10 list include: Microsoft Office, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Java, Adobe Reader, and Adobe Flash.
Vulnerability scans and threat research show that these applications, on average, continue to contain critical vulnerabilities and are frequently targeted by attackers. Vulnerabilities for these applications are also commonly included in crime ware and exploit kits sold and traded in the cyber criminal underground.
Persistence is the measure of the longevity for a given vulnerability. This measure is a good indicator for determining how long a company is typically at risk for a given vulnerability. The unfortunate and sobering news for companies is that even critical vulnerabilities have an indefinite lifespan. On average, remediation efforts stabilize at 90-95% after one year, leaving 5-10% of impacted systems never patched and exposed to attack.
In contrast to the other laws, exploitation is a measure of how quickly attackers target and begin exploiting known vulnerabilities. And although the numbers for half-life, prevalence, and persistence have not noticeably changed since the “Laws of Vulnerabilities” were first published in 2004, the speed at which attackers can research a vulnerability, craft and publish an exploit, and begin targeting vulnerabilities has increased dramatically. Research data in 2004 showed 80 percent of critical vulnerabilities had an exploit available within 60 days following their release. In 2008 and 2009, this time decreased dramatically to just 10 days. As of today, attackers are commonly able to target a newly released vulnerability within 48 hours.
- Know how you and your company compare to the averages discussed above.
- For commonly targeted vulnerabilities, push to increase the speed at which your operations team remediates impacted systems (if you missed it, I suggest you read Bridging the Gap Between Security and Operations Teams).
- Hold teams accountable by measuring their performance against the half-life and persistence metrics and including these metrics within the HR performance review process.
- Automate your configuration and patch management processes.
- For systems that either can’t be patched or are difficult to patch (think mobile staff), implement secure configurations, consider sandboxing technology, or best yet, remove the impacted software if it’s not needed by the business. | <urn:uuid:aa7dc30d-d0b2-4071-8bfe-d2fba6120067> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.csoonline.com/article/2899169/cyber-crime/measuring-the-effectiveness-of-your-vulnerability-management-program.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280242.65/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00380-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.949394 | 964 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Cisco CCENT IP Addressing & Subnetting Part I
One of the most important topics in any discussion of TCP/IP is IP addressing. An IP address is a numeric identifier assigned to each machine on an IP network. It designates the specific location of a device on the network.
An IP address is a software address, not a hardware address. IP addressing was designed to allow a host on one network to communicate with a host on a different network, regardless of the type of LANs the hosts are participating in.
Cisco CCENT IPv4 Addressing
Before we get into the more complicated aspects of IP addressing, you need to understand some of the basics:
Defining basic IP addressing terms:
Bit = 1 digit (either a one or a zero)
Byte = 7 or 8 bits (depends on parity) From an IP address perspective, assume 8.
Octet = Always 8 bits
IPv4 addresses are 32 bit (4 byte) addresses consisting of two parts, a network portion and a host portion. It is typically represented in dotted decimal notation. An example is 18.104.22.168. Each octet has a value between 0 and 255 where 0 is all bits being 0 and 255 is all bits being 1.
Cisco CCENT IPv4 Addressing
Defines Class A and Class B IP address characteristics.
Cisco CCENT IPv4 Addressing
Defines Class C, Class D and Class E IP address characteristics.
Cisco CCENT IPv4 Special Addresses
Local Broadcast Address
If an IP device wants to communicate with all devices on the local network, it sets the destination address to all 1s (255.255.255.255) and transmits the packet. For example, hosts that do not know their network number and are asking some server for it may use this address. The local broadcast is never routed.
Local Loopback Address
A local loopback address is used to let the system send a message to itself for testing. A typical local loopback IP address is 127.0.0.1.
Special address similar to a broadcast address where one packet can be sent and received by multiple destinations. Receivers must subscribe to receive the ip multicast address to receive the multicast packets.
Auto configuration IP Addresses
When neither a statically nor a dynamically configured IP address is found on startup, those hosts supporting IPv4 link-local addresses (RFC 3927) will generate an address in the 169.254/16 prefix range. This address can be used only for local network connectivity and operates with many caveats, one of which is that it will not be routed. You will mostly see this address as a failure condition when a PC fails to obtain an IP address.
Cisco CCENT IPv4 Address Ranges
The number of possible hosts is a Class A address are much greater than the number of possible hosts in a Class C address. Fortunately with the use of Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM), classfull boundaries can be removed to make better use of address space. In order to properly route IP packets utilizing VLSM, a classless routing protocol like OSPF, EIGRP or RIP version 2 must be used. Routing protocols such as RIP version 1 or IGRP do not recognize VLSM as they are classful routing protocols.
The designers of the IP address scheme said that the first bit of the first byte in a Class A network address must always be off, or 0. This means a Class A address must be between 0 and 126 (127 is reserved for loopback address).
In a Class B network, the RFCs state that the first bit of the first byte must always be turned on, but the second bit must always be turned off. If you turn the other six bits all off and then all on, you will find the range for a Class B network:
10000000 = 128
10111111 = 191
For Class C networks, the RFCs define the first two bits of the first octet always turned on, but the third bit can never be on. Following the same process as the previous classes, convert from binary to decimal to find the range. Here’s the range for a Class C network:
11000000 = 192
11011111 = 223
So, if you see an IP address that starts at 192 and goes to 223, you’ll know it is a Class C IP address.
Cisco CCENT IP Address Classes
The designers of the Internet decided to create classes of networks based on network size. For the small number of networks possessing a very large number of nodes, they created the rank Class A network.
At the other extreme is the Class C network, which is reserved for the numerous networks with a small number of nodes.
The class distinction for networks between very large and very small is predictably called the Class B network.
Subdividing an IP address into a network and node address is determined by the class designation of one’s network.
With the advent of Variable Length Subnet Masks (VLSM), the distinction between the different classes of IP addresses are not as important as they used to be.
Cisco CCENT IP Addressing
An IP address consists of 32 bits of information. These bits are divided into four sections, referred to as octets or bytes, each containing 1 byte (8 bits). The address is logically separated into a network portion and a host portion. The subnet mask defines where the network portion ends and the host portion begins.
Cisco CCENT IPv4 Special Addresses
An IP address that has binary 0s in all host bit positions is reserved for the network address. Therefore, as a Class A network example, 10.0.0.0 is the IP address of the network containing the host 10.1.2.3. As a Class B network example, the IP address 172.16.0.0 is a network address, while 22.214.171.124 would be a Class C network. A router uses the network IP address when it searches its IP route table for the destination network location.
The decimal numbers that fill the first two octets in a Class B network address are assigned. The last two octets contain 0s because those 16 bits are for host numbers and are used for devices that are attached to the network. In the IP address 172.16.0.0, the first two octets are reserved for the network address; it is never used as an address for any device that is attached to it. An example of an IP address for a device on the 172.16.0.0 network would be 172.16.16.1. In this example, 172.16 is the network address portion and 16.1 is the host address portion.
Directed Broadcast Address
To send data to all the devices on a network, a broadcast address is used. Broadcast IP addresses end with binary 1s in the entire host part of the address (the host field).
For the network in the example (172.16.0.0), in which the last 16 bits make up the host field (or host part of the address), the broadcast that would be sent out to all devices on that network would include a destination address of 172.16.255.255.
The directed broadcast is capable of being routed. However, for some versions of the Cisco IOS operating system, routing directed broadcasts is not the default behavior.
Cisco CCENT Private Address Space
The people who sat around and created the IP addressing scheme also created what we call private IP addresses.
These addresses can be used on a private network, but they’re not routable through the Internet. This is designed for the purpose of creating a measure of well-needed security, but it also conveniently saves valuable IP address space.
Again, now shown in binary:
Class A: 00001010
Class B: 10101100.00010000 through 10101100.00011111
Class C: 11000000.10101000
Cisco CCENT Private IP Question
The following addresses can be routed across the public Internet:
The following addresses fall under RFC 1918 and are not routed across the public Internet:
Cisco CCENT Addressing without Subnets
Without creating subnetworks, all hosts would be on one large network. Not good…really not good. This type of network creates one large broadcast domain. It is not scalable. Routers are used to break up broadcast domains and allow for communication between different ip subnets.
Cisco CCENT Addressing with Subnets
There are loads of reasons in favor of subnetting. Some of the benefits include:
Reduced network traffic
Optimized network performance
Facilitated spanning of large geographical distances
Cisco CCENT How do you determine the mask to use?
1. Determine the number of required network IDs:
One for each subnet
One for each wide area network connection
2. Determine the number of required host IDs per subnet:
One for each TCP/IP host
One for each router interface
For example if you are provided a class C address and need to carve it up and are given requirements that you need one subnet to support 120 hosts, one subnet to support 50 hosts and four subnets to support 10 host each you can carve it up as follows:
192.168.0.0/25 – supports 128 addresses (126 addressable hosts)
192.168.0.128/26 – supports 64 addresses (62 addressable hosts)
192.168.0.192/28 – supports 16 addresses (14 addressable hosts)
192.168.0.208/28 – supports 16 addresses (14 addressable hosts)
192.168.0.224/28 – supports 16 addresses (14 addressable hosts)
192.168.0.240/28 – supports 16 addresses (14 addressable hosts)
Cisco CCENT After you Choose a Possible
This slide shows how to determine if a certain subnet mask will meet your business requirements of your Internetwork. It lists questions to ask when determining how to allocate IP addresses and subnets. Remember to account for growth.
Cisco CCENT Once you find your mask…
This slide describes the questions you need to ask about a mask to determine the subnets, broadcast addresses and valid host ranges of each subnet.
Cisco CCENT Now, here is how to get Six Answers!
This slide shows you how to achieve the answers to the six important subnetting questions:
How many subnets? 2x = number of subnets. x is the number of masked bits, or the 1s. For example, in 11000000, the number of ones gives us 22 subnets. In this example, there are 4 subnets.
How many hosts per subnet? 2x – 2 = number of hosts per subnet. x is the number of unmasked bits, or the 0s. For example, in 11000000, the number of zeros gives us 26 – 2 hosts. In this example, there are 62 hosts per subnet.
What are the valid subnets? 256 – subnet mask = block size, or base number. For example, 256 – 192 = 64. 64 is the first subnet. The next subnet would be the base number itself, or 64 + 64 = 128, (the second subnet).
You keep adding the base number to itself until you reach the value of the subnet mask, which is not a valid subnet because all subnet bits would be turned on (1s).
What’s the broadcast address for each subnet? The broadcast address is all host bits turned on, which is the number immediately preceding the next subnet.
What are the valid hosts? Valid hosts are the numbers between the subnets, minus all 0s and all 1s.
Cisco CCENT Classless Inter-Domain Routing
Another term you need to familiarize your self with is Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR).
It is really just the method that ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) use to allocate an amount of addresses to a company, home—a customer.
They provide addresses in a certain block size—something we will be going into in greater detail later in this chapter.
So when you receive a block of addresses from an ISP, what you’ll get will look something like this: 192.168.10.32/28. What this is telling you is what your subnet mask is.
The slash notation (/) means how many bits are turned on (1’s). Obviously, the maximum could only be /32 because a byte is 8 bits and there are four bytes in an IP address: (4×8=32). In the example, 192.168.10.32/28 means the address range provided including subnet and broadcast is 192.168.10.32 – 192.168.10.47.
But keep in mind that the largest subnet mask available (regardless of the class of address) can only be a /30 because you’ve got to keep at least two bits for host bits.
Cisco CCENT IP Subnet-Zero
The ip subnet-zero command provides the ability to configure and route to subnet 0 subnets.
Subnetting with a subnet address of 0 is discouraged because of the confusion inherent in having a network and a subnet with indistinguishable addresses. It has a major benefit in that it utilizes address space more efficiently.
Cisco CCENT IPv4 Subnet Calculation
The slide indicates one way to determine both the network address given an address and mask utilizing a logical AND. The network address is all 0’s in the host portion of the address and the broadcast is all 1’s in the host portion of the address.
Cisco CCENT Binary to Decimal
We discussed this in chapter 1, but it is important enough to review at this point:
It’s pretty simple really. The digits used are limited to either a 1(one) or a 0 (zero), with each digit being called one bit. Typically, you count either four or eight bits together, with these being referred to as a nibble or a byte, respectively.
What interests us in binary numbering is the value represented in a decimal format—the typical decimal format being our base ten number scheme we’ve all used since kindergarten.
The binary numbers are placed in a value spot; starting at the right and moving left, with each spot having double the value of the previous spot.
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
So explaining a couple of examples on the slide are as follows:
85 equals 01010101 which equates to 64 + 16 + 4 + 1 = 85
131 equals 10000011 which equates to 128 + 2 + 1 = 131 simple really.
Cisco CCENT Binary (Cont.)
Here is a binary chart that is best just to memorize. You will need to know this off the top of your head as we delve deeper into subnetting and when you take the CCNA test. Notice that it is no more than taking the information just learned on the previous slide and performing a little addition. Remember the bit values were as follows:
128 64 32 16 8 4 2 1
So 11000000 equates to 128 + 64 = 192
11100000 equates to 128 + 64 + 32 = 224
11110000 equates to 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 = 240
11111000 equates to 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 = 248
11111100 equates to 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 = 252
11111110 equates to 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 = 254
11111111 equates to 128 + 64 + 32 + 16 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 1 = 255 | <urn:uuid:415d9480-91eb-4b07-9612-1643b3e0f28e> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.certificationkits.com/cisco-certification/ccent-640-822-icnd1-exam-study-guide/cisco-ccent-icnd1-640-822-exam-certification-guide/cisco-ccent-icnd1-subnetting-part-i/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281263.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00104-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.919339 | 3,322 | 3.53125 | 4 |
Ethernet to serial converter allows large quantities of information to be transferred through each serial port coupled with a fast Ethernet connection. The increased control and automation of serial over ethernet converter, through your existing network infrastructure, can help you reduce your costs and improve efficiency, yet smart enough for any office environment.
Key Features Of Ethernet To Serial Converter:
All serial converters feature a minimum of an Ethernet port and software-selectable RS232/422/485 serial interfaces, and meet IEC safety (IEC 60950-1) and EMC (EN 61000) standards. They support various protocols for serial data transmission including Modbus/TCP, raw serial data over UTP, IPv4 and IPv6. The 4 and 8 port RS422/485 devices, as with the rest of the range, will enable connection across a network with no loss of reliability or signal integrity. The Port3 connector signal level is of RS485 or RS232. This port can be stated as a general CPU module communication port and utilized for peripheral applications.
One of the major differences between RS232 Modem and RS422/RS485 is the signaling mode. RS232 is unbalanced while RS422/RS485 is balanced. An unbalanced signal is represented by a single signal wire where a voltage level on that one wire is used to transmit/receive binary 1 and 0: it can be considered a push signal driver. On the other hand, a balanced signal is represented by a pair of wires where a voltage difference is used to transmit/receive binary information: sort of a push-pull signal driver. In short, unbalanced voltage level signal travels slower and shorter than a balanced voltage difference signal.
RS485 converter is sometimes termed as RS485 Multidrop LAN since it can connect several devices in a LAN network environment. These devices are all connected to a single pair wire. Transmit and receive share the same two wires.
Serial to LAN bridge mode allowing transparent bridging of serial devices over LAN, using the 3 Mbps fast UART. Full Internet controller mode allows a simple microcontroller to use the module’s protocol and application capabilities to perform complex Internet operations such as e-mail, FTP, SSL, embedded web server and others. It also acts as a firewall, providing a security gap between the application and the network. PPP modem emulation mode allows existing modem designs currently using PPP to connect transparently over LAN.
With robust metal housings and fanless cooling, the converters are claimed to offer features and benefits to suit applications such as discrete manufacturing, processing operations, power generation and distribution, and building automation. Fiberstore is a leader manufacturer in serial connectivity, has introduced RS422 converter/ RS485 converter versions of their 4 and 8 port Ethernet to serial products. As with all our Ethernet to Serial port devices, these new products are designed to provide easy, fast and reliable connections between networked computers and devices with serial ports- be it across the desk or across the world. | <urn:uuid:3bf193e4-2b29-4fe9-9a73-5d45e355dde3> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.fs.com/blog/ethernet-to-serial-converter-devices.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284352.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00498-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.918732 | 613 | 2.6875 | 3 |
How To Use Web Search Engines
Page 4 -- How Search Engines Work
What follows is a basic explanation of how search engines work. For more detailed and technical information about current methods used by search engines like Google, check out our discussion of Search Engine Ranking Algorithms
Search engines use automated software programs knows as spiders or bots to survey the Web and build their databases. Web documents are retrieved by these programs and analyzed. Data collected from each web page are then added to the search engine index. When you enter a query at a search engine site, your input is checked against the search engine's index of all the web pages it has analyzed. The best urls are then returned to you as hits, ranked in order with the best results at the top.
This is the most common form of text search on the Web. Most search engines do their text query and retrieval using keywords.
What is a keyword, exactly? It can simply be any word on a webpage. For example, I used the word "simply" in the previous sentence, making it one of the keywords for this particular webpage in some search engine's index. However, since the word "simply" has nothing to do with the subject of this webpage (i.e., how search engines work), it is not a very useful keyword. Useful keywords and key phrases for this page would be "search," "search engines," "search engine methods," "how search engines work," "ranking" "relevancy," "search engine tutorials," etc. Those keywords would actually tell a user something about the subject and content of this page.
Unless the author of the Web document specifies the keywords for her document (this is possible by using meta tags), it's up to the search engine to determine them. Essentially, this means that search engines pull out and index words that appear to be significant. Since since engines are software programs, not rational human beings, they work according to rules established by their creators for what words are usually important in a broad range of documents. The title of a page, for example, usually gives useful information about the subject of the page (if it doesn't, it should!). Words that are mentioned towards the beginning of a document (think of the "topic sentence" in a high school essay, where you lay out the subject you intend to discuss) are given more weight by most search engines. The same goes for words that are repeated several times throughout the document.
Some search engines index every word on every page. Others index only part of the document.
Full-text indexing systems generally pick up every word in the text except commonly occurring stop words such as "a," "an," "the," "is," "and," "or," and "www." Some of the search engines discriminate upper case from lower case; others store all words without reference to capitalization.
The Problem With Keyword Searching
Keyword searches have a tough time distinguishing between words that are spelled the same way, but mean something different (i.e. hard cider, a hard stone, a hard exam, and the hard drive on your computer). This often results in hits that are completely irrelevant to your query. Some search engines also have trouble with so-called stemming -- i.e., if you enter the word "big," should they return a hit on the word, "bigger?" What about singular and plural words? What about verb tenses that differ from the word you entered by only an "s," or an "ed"?
Search engines also cannot return hits on keywords that mean the same, but are not actually entered in your query. A query on heart disease would not return a document that used the word "cardiac" instead of "heart."
Refining Your Search
Most sites offer two different types of searches--"basic" and "refined" or "advanced." In a "basic" search, you just enter a keyword without sifting through any pulldown menus of additional options. Depending on the engine, though, "basic" searches can be quite complex.
Advanced search refining options differ from one search engine to another, but some of the possibilities include the ability to search on more than one word, to give more weight to one search term than you give to another, and to exclude words that might be likely to muddy the results. You might also be able to search on proper names, on phrases, and on words that are found within a certain proximity to other search terms.
Some search engines also allow you to specify what form you'd like your results to appear in, and whether you wish to restrict your search to certain fields on the internet (i.e., usenet or the Web) or to specific parts of Web documents (i.e., the title or URL).
Many, but not all search engines allow you to use so-called Boolean operators to refine your search. These are the logical terms AND, OR, NOT, and the so-called proximal locators, NEAR and FOLLOWED BY.
Boolean AND means that all the terms you specify must appear in the documents, i.e., "heart" AND "attack." You might use this if you wanted to exclude common hits that would be irrelevant to your query.
Boolean OR means that at least one of the terms you specify must appear in the documents, i.e., bronchitis, acute OR chronic. You might use this if you didn't want to rule out too much.
Boolean NOT means that at least one of the terms you specify must not appear in the documents. You might use this if you anticipated results that would be totally off-base, i.e., nirvana AND Buddhism, NOT Cobain.
Not quite Boolean + and - Some search engines use the characters + and - instead of Boolean operators to include and exclude terms.
NEAR means that the terms you enter should be within a certain number of words of each other. FOLLOWED BY means that one term must directly follow the other. ADJ, for adjacent, serves the same function. A search engine that will allow you to search on phrases uses, essentially, the same method (i.e., determining adjacency of keywords).
Phrases: The ability to query on phrases is very important in a search engine. Those that allow it usually require that you enclose the phrase in quotation marks, i.e., "space the final frontier."
Capitalization: This is essential for searching on proper names of people, companies or products. Unfortunately, many words in English are used both as proper and common nouns--Bill, bill, Gates, gates, Oracle, oracle, Lotus, lotus, Digital, digital--the list is endless.
All the search engines have different methods of refining queries. The best way to learn them is to read the help files on the search engine sites and practice!
Most of the search engines return results with confidence or relevancy rankings. In other words, they list the hits according to how closely they think the results match the query. However, these lists often leave users shaking their heads on confusion, since, to the user, the results may seem completely irrelevant.
Why does this happen? Basically it's because search engine technology has not yet reached the point where humans and computers understand each other well enough to communicate clearly.
Most search engines use search term frequency as a primary way of determining whether a document is relevant. If you're researching diabetes and the word "diabetes" appears multiple times in a Web document, it's reasonable to assume that the document will contain useful information. Therefore, a document that repeats the word "diabetes" over and over is likely to turn up near the top of your list.
If your keyword is a common one, or if it has multiple other meanings, you could end up with a lot of irrelevant hits. And if your keyword is a subject about which you desire information, you don't need to see it repeated over and over--it's the information about that word that you're interested in, not the word itself.
Some search engines consider both the frequency and the positioning of keywords to determine relevancy, reasoning that if the keywords appear early in the document, or in the headers, this increases the likelihood that the document is on target. For example, one method is to rank hits according to how many times your keywords appear and in which fields they appear (i.e., in headers, titles or plain text). Another method is to determine which documents are most frequently linked to other documents on the Web. The reasoning here is that if other folks consider certain pages important, you should, too.
If you use the advanced query form on AltaVista, you can assign relevance weights to your query terms before conducting a search. Although this takes some practice, it essentially allows you to have a stronger say in what results you will get back.
As far as the user is concerned, relevancy ranking is critical, and becomes more so as the sheer volume of information on the Web grows. Most of us don't have the time to sift through scores of hits to determine which hyperlinks we should actually explore. The more clearly relevant the results are, the more we're likely to value the search engine.
Some search engines are now indexing Web documents by the meta tags in the documents' HTML (at the beginning of the document in the so-called "head" tag). What this means is that the Web page author can have some influence over which keywords are used to index the document, and even in the description of the document that appears when it comes up as a search engine hit.
This is obviously very important if you are trying to draw people to your website based on how your site ranks in search engines hit lists.
There is no perfect way to ensure that you'll receive a high ranking. Even if you do get a great ranking, there's no assurance that you'll keep it for long. For example, at one period a page from the Spider's Apprentice was the number- one-ranked result on Altavista for the phrase "how search engines work." A few months later, however, it had dropped lower in the listings.
There is a lot of conflicting information out there on meta-tagging. If you're confused it may be because different search engines look at meta tags in different ways. Some rely heavily on meta tags, others don't use them at all. The general opinion seems to be that meta tags are less useful than they were a few years ago, largely because of the high rate of spamdexing (web authors using false and misleading keywords in the meta tags).
Note: Google, currently the most popular search engine, does not index the keyword metatags. Be aware of this is you are optimizing your webpages for the Google engine.
It seems to be generally agreed that the "title" and the "description" meta tags are important to write effectively, since several major search engines use them in their indices. Use relevant keywords in your title, and vary the titles on the different pages that make up your website, in order to target as many keywords as possible. As for the "description" meta tag, some search engines will use it as their short summary of your url, so make sure your description is one that will entice surfers to your site.
Note: The "description" meta tag is generally held to be the most valuable, and the most likely to be indexed, so pay special attention to this one.
In the keyword tag, list a few synonyms for keywords, or foreign translations of keywords (if you anticipate traffic from foreign surfers). Make sure the keywords refer to, or are directly related to, the subject or material on the page. Do NOT use false or misleading keywords in an attempt to gain a higher ranking for your pages.
The "keyword" meta tag has been abused by some webmasters. For example, a recent ploy has been to put such words "sex" or "mp3" into keyword meta tags, in hopes of luring searchers to one's website by using popular keywords.
The search engines are aware of such deceptive tactics, and have devised various methods to circumvent them, so be careful. Use keywords that are appropriate to your subject, and make sure they appear in the top paragraphs of actual text on your webpage. Many search engine algorithms score the words that appear towards the top of your document more highly than the words that appear towards the bottom. Words that appear in HTML header tags (H1, H2, H3, etc) are also given more weight by some search engines. It sometimes helps to give your page a file name that makes use of one of your prime keywords, and to include keywords in the "alt" image tags.
One thing you should not do is use some other company's trademarks in your meta tags. Some website owners have been sued for trademark violations because they've used other company names in the meta tags. I have, in fact, testified as an expert witness in such cases. You do not want the expense of being sued!
Remember that all the major search engines have slightly different policies. If you're designing a website and meta-tagging your documents, we recommend that you take the time to check out what the major search engines say in their help files about how they each use meta tags. You might want to optimize your meta tags for the search engines you believe are sending the most traffic to your site.
Concept-based searching (The following information is out-dated, but might have historical interest for researchers)
Excite used to be the best-known general-purpose search engine site on the Web that relies on concept-based searching. It is now effectively extinct.
Unlike keyword search systems, concept-based search systems try to determine what you mean, not just what you say. In the best circumstances, a concept-based search returns hits on documents that are "about" the subject/theme you're exploring, even if the words in the document don't precisely match the words you enter into the query.
How did this method work? There are various methods of building clustering systems, some of which are highly complex, relying on sophisticated linguistic and artificial intelligence theory that we won't even attempt to go into here. Excite used to a numerical approach. Excite's software determines meaning by calculating the frequency with which certain important words appear. When several words or phrases that are tagged to signal a particular concept appear close to each other in a text, the search engine concludes, by statistical analysis, that the piece is "about" a certain subject.
For example, the word heart, when used in the medical/health context, would be likely to appear with such words as coronary, artery, lung, stroke, cholesterol, pump, blood, attack, and arteriosclerosis. If the word heart appears in a document with others words such as flowers, candy, love, passion, and valentine, a very different context is established, and a concept-oriented search engine returns hits on the subject of romance.
This ends the outdated "concept-based" information section.
What does it all mean?
You now know more than you probably ever wanted to know about indexing, query refining and relevancy ranking. How do we put it all together to make Web searching easier and more efficient than it currently is?
Let's try some practical applications. It's time for:
Find People on the Web (friends, celebrities, classmates, public figures) | <urn:uuid:2fbe66ee-ea92-4f47-9dda-321bf3e1ebf4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.monash.com/spidap4.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284352.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00498-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.93938 | 3,202 | 3.390625 | 3 |
Satellite Connectivity not only a Boon to Globally Connected Devices
Nearly one year ago, we used this forum to discuss new efficiencies that satellite M2M unlocks for commercial aviation, and this month marks another milestone for potential fuel savings and delay reductions to be realized with satellite connectivity.
The idea is simple. Satellite technology allows planes to fly much closer to one another because it broadcasts the plane’s moment-by-moment location with more accuracy. So accurate, in fact, that Alaska Airlines uses it to navigate Alaska’s hazardous terrain, weaving passengers through narrow valleys and mountain peaks, and landing at remote airports in some of the worst imaginable weather. The technology is no joke.
Radar, which is the current state-of-the-art for air traffic control, sweeps at best only once every six seconds. To make up for that uncertainty, controllers today keep wide buffer zones between flights. In practice, this means that airplanes must circle overhead, then pilots have to repeatedly step on the gas and coast in order to maintain their assigned altitude through a stair-step descent.
With satellite guidance, planes are able to take a more direct path to the runway and cut miles off of their approaches. For passengers, landing feels more like coming down a slide.
To put this in perspective, these efficient approaches and landings translate into significant fuel savings. Recently featured in The New York Times, the FAA has even projected that if satellite was put into effect at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta, planes would fly 1.2 million fewer miles each year, saving as much as 2.9 million gallons of fuel and allowing an additional 10 planes per hour to take off. In effect, airports would increase capacity without building more runways because more planes could take off and land. The project is called the Next Generation Air Transportation System, or NextGen for short, and the US Congress has authorized $1 billion per year to fund the program.
In additional developments for North America, KORE’s strategic partner in global satellite services, Iridium Communications, Inc., has recently announced a Canadian joint venture with Nav Canada to form Aireon, LLC to deliver a surveillance capability to Air Navigation Service Providers who provide air traffic management to over 1,200 flights per day to their commercial airline customers across Canada. In the first 12 years of operation, the JV expects to help its Canadian commercial airline customers save between $6-$8B USD in fuel costs. That doesn’t take into account the increased safety or quality of life factors.
At the heart of it, this is another example of what Harbor Research calls “Pervasive Intelligence,” allowing businesses to make immediate decisions based on accurate, real-time data. M2M-enabled monitoring for electrical, water, oil and gas networks provides these respective industries with minute-by-minute, second-by-second awareness of resource use. In turn, management can more effectively match supply to demand, identify and fix problems more quickly, and operate with tighter safety standards.
While industrial, “always on” monitoring has its genesis in the utility and energy space, the concept is clearly broadening while the technology to do it becomes more readily available. The cost savings associated with operational efficiency and “leveling off” of peak demands are showing up in more and more unexpected ways.
As long-term promoters of fiscal and operational efficiency for ourselves, as well as our customers, we at KORE could not be more pleased to see these futuristic and quality of life enhancing developments take hold.
By Stein Soelberg, Director of Marketing
Stein leads a team whose responsibility is to own the branding, advertising, customer engagement, loyalty, partnership and public relations initiatives designed to propel KORE into the 21st century. With over 15 years of technology marketing experience in the business to business software, Internet services and telecommunications industries, Stein brings a proven track record of launching successful MVNOs and building those brands into leaders. | <urn:uuid:87f3848a-2fb2-41e1-8b22-8310fea63380> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.koretelematics.com/blog/changing-the-game-for-air-traffic-control | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279489.14/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00316-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.941888 | 821 | 2.75 | 3 |
As the World Wide Web turns 25, we’ve just had another reminder of how far we’ve come. On March 10th, just two days before this milestone, Cryptome reported that Twitter had been taken over by a massive botnet. The botnet, it seemed, was sending thousands of spam tweets. Although the responsible party behind this creative attack, along with the exact number of spam distributed, remains unclear, this kind of public assault raises questions about bots on the Internet and what they’re capable of.
Botnets are fundamentally herds of hijacked computers engineered to be remotely operated. These bots attempt to masquerade as humans and perform repetitive automated tasks at a rate much faster than humans. However, botnets are most often the topic of news outlets across the world because they’ve evolved into the tool of choice for the modern hacker community.
The most damaging characteristics of a botnet are their speed and global distribution. Often, by the time attacks have been noticed, the attack itself has already done damage. At which point the resolution is entirely reactive, focused on damage control, not on uncovering the who or the why.
While the Twitter botnet has yet to display any malicious content, its existence (and widespread proliferation) works against the legitimacy of the social media giant. Twitter’s user base has swelled considerably in recent years to approximately 250 million users, roughly half of Facebook’s user base and is still climbing. In tandem with this growth, however, the company has been beset with accusations of “fake accounts” or bots. The exact number of these accounts can only be speculated upon, but their existence is potentially harmful to other users since they often provide links to insecure websites and diminish the credibility of other, legitimate users.
In December 2013, after tracking 1.45 billion visits to websites over a 90-day period, Incapsula reported that bots now account for 61.5 percent of website traffic, a 21 percent increase from 2012. While the majority of that growth was attributed to increased visits by good bots (i.e. certified agents of legitimate services, like search engines) whose presence increased from 20 percent to 31 percent in 2013, more than half of the bots detected were malicious, meaning they intend harm.
While the report found fewer spammers and hacking tools, the number of “impersonators,” unclassified bots with hostile intentions, increased by eight percent. Where other malicious bots originate from known malware threats with a dedicated developer, GUI, “brand” name, and patch history, these instances include custom-made bots, often designed and targeted for one or a series of coordinated malicious attacks.
So how do companies design their security strategy against the attack of bots? It takes an overall reluctance and constant attention to profiling a website’s traffic. When dealing with bots, you always have to play “devil’s advocate” and assume that everything you see is false, until reliably proven otherwise.
Keeping your online business or web properties Bot-FREE is similar to ensuring that your house is protected: Keep “locks on your website’s” doors by using secure passwords and stronger forms of authentication. Prevent strangers from snooping around and interrogate their behavior by using a Web Application Firewall.
Take advantage of the “web neighborhood watch” by using IP reputation and known threat services that track the hackers across the globe. Last but not least: make sure you know who the good bots are, like Google and others. Keeping them out is like shooing away your local postman or grocery delivery service. | <urn:uuid:4c2f1e9c-83d6-4b4c-95e9-3e4eb57ccb78> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2014/03/14/as-the-world-wide-web-turns-25-bots-reign-supreme/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280280.6/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00224-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.955401 | 744 | 3.0625 | 3 |
A high-tech war is beginning to unfold across the American landscape -- a quiet war far removed from terrorist threats and CNN news coverage.
On one side, high above the earth, is the QuickBird satellite, a commercial spacecraft able to offer submeter resolution imagery of Earth's surface.
On the other side is a pretty, hardwood shrub -- the tamarisk, also known as the salt cedar.
Growing from 5 to 20 feet tall, the tamarisk was originally introduced into the United States from Eurasia in the early 1800s as an ornamental plant. Because of its dense, deep root system, settlers in Southwestern states planted salt cedar along streambeds to prevent erosion from flooding. Over the years, tamarisk spread from the Colorado River basin to New Mexico, and as far east as Texas.
This proved disastrous for ecosystems in affected states, including Kansas. Kearny County, Kan., is fighting the spread of tamarisk along the Arkansas River with a combination of satellite imagery and GIS.
Targeting the Tamarisk
"We needed to find out the population of salt cedar on our stretch of the river and see if we could more accurately determine the full use of water by the salt cedar," explained Shannon McCormick, a Kearny County commissioner. "People don't really understand it is more than just a weed problem. But if you relate the use of the water by salt cedar to the acreage of corn you could water with that, then you can accurately estimate the economic impact. Everybody understands dollars."
Rough estimates reveal that tamarisk along parts of the Arkansas River in Kansas consume enough water to supply 20 million people or irrigation of more than 1 million acres of land.
Past efforts to estimate the extent of salt cedar infestation involved either extensively flying over infested areas or hiring people to scout plant growth on foot -- a long and laborious task.
"Flying, you just get too much air and you still only end up with a guesstimate on how many acres," McCormick said. "With digital imagery, on the other hand, and using the spectrum of the plants, you can get a very accurate number. You don't just end up with some abstract type of graph. You get actual maps that are really animated and friendly to use. We were happy with the results."
The tamarisk is now labeled an invasive species because it displaces native plants through its aggressive growth.
"In short, salt cedar is just a nasty plant," said Jason San Souci, director of remote sensing applications at the Native Communities Development Corp. (NCDC), which specializes in using high-resolution imagery for a wide range of natural resource applications, such as wildfire risk assessment, forest composition analysis and invasive species tracking. "It steals water. It's bad for fire. It's bad for wildlife. It's bad for soil. Based on the latest projections, there are probably 1.5 million acres affected in the western United States."
The tamarisk consumes far more water than other indigenous plants -- a single tree can use as much as 200 gallons per day. As a result, tamarisk infestations lower water tables and destroy wildlife habitat by sucking millions of gallons of water from streams, rivers and lakes. The plant also exudes salt from its leaves, increasing the salinity of soil, which further inhibits native plant life. And its high-density growth is a serious factor in helping spread forest fires.
"As each plant gives off 600,000 microscopic seeds every season, there is no way we are going to get rid of this problem," added San Souci. "But we can certainly control it, and we can start to restore some of the areas that have been affected. That's where we come in."
Managing the tamarisk consists of four components, he explained, control, revegetation, monitoring and maintenance.
"Without all four components, it is unlikely that tamarisk-control projects will be successful over the long term," he said. "Tamarisk can be managed using successional weed management techniques, including chemical, mechanical and biological techniques."
San Souci said restoring vegetation in previously tamarisk-dominated areas can present numerous technical challenges caused by the negative effects of the aggressive plant. Restoring vegetation after tamarisk removal, however, is essential to prevent reinfestation, and it's possible, especially if flooding is allowed.
In some cases, he explained, successful restoration of riverbank habitat will require remediation of conditions that led to tamarisk infestation in the first place, such as ecosystem changes through land and water alterations.
Focusing the Satellite
What Kearny County ended up with -- not just printed maps, but also a GIS application showing the salt cedar infestation -- involved a complex series of technical steps. As good as the satellite imagery is, the information requires expertise to use and interpret.
Coming up with a solution to a problem such as tamarisk invasion typically requires DigitalGlobe to work with another vendor because end-users aren't experts in remote sensing imagery.
"The satellite essentially takes two images simultaneously within microseconds of each other through two different sensors. One image is black and white with a 2-foot resolution and the other is multispectral -- red, green, blue and near-infrared -- with about an 8-foot resolution," explained Chuck Herring, director of marketing communications for DigitalGlobe. Those infrared images were key to addressing Kearny County's tamarisk problem.
"If a city has been shot in near-infrared, for instance, all the vegetation areas are bright red, and everything else that is not vegetation should be dark or black," said Herring. "However, the detail -- what species or type of plants these are -- is mushy. That is where someone like the NCDC comes in."
San Souci said the NCDC turns the pixels into GIS data points that can be used to solve whatever problem is at hand. In this particular case, the NCDC started by taking the two images, and through a process called pan-sharpening, essentially fused the two. This gives the resolution of the black-and-white, or panchromatic images, and adds the spectral information of the color images.
"The panchromatic has all the texture we're looking for in the spatial context, while the four-band color, and in particular, the near-infrared, give us the sense of vegetative health and vegetation in general," said San Souci. "Additionally we have a set of proprietary algorithms that we're still refining to calibrate the imagery and enhance it to pull out the features we're most interested in."
At this point, the images go into a commercial software package -- Feature Analyst from Visual Learning Systems -- that uses machine learning technology to classify object-specific geographic features specified by the user.
"We actually go into the field with a submeter GPS unit, and we gather training samples and accuracy assessment samples for salt cedar," he said. "Using these, we can train the computer to recognize salt cedar as opposed to other types of vegetation. And then finally, running those algorithms, it will spit out an ESRI Shapefile for the area that can be used in most GIS applications.
"Without these enhancement stages, you can't pull out salt cedar," he continued. "We tried, but it didn't work very well. There is a lot of confusion with all the other vegetation classes out there. But using these enhancements specific to salt cedar allows us to pull it out very precisely."
Call to Action
The results in Kearny County are gaining wide attention, according to McCormick.
"We've just sent the information to the state, and statewide there have been more meetings," he said. "They are now using the maps we supplied to talk about it as a statewide problem, which is how it has to be addressed. If salt cedar isn't handled upstream from us, then anything we do will largely be futile in the long run."
"Hopefully we will get some state and federal funding," McCormick added. "That was what we were hoping our $24,000 investment would generate. Plus the rest of the state could see how well the new technology worked for us. We weren't just dealing with the guesstimates of salt cedar infestation that we have been living with up to now."
Over the past two years, six separate bills have been introduced in Congress specifically addressing the tamarisk problem, said San Souci, noting that during last year's session of Congress, two bills, S. 1516 and H.R. 2707, consolidated previous language from several other bills, and both passed but were tabled at the conclusion of the session.
San Souci said S. 177 was introduced by Sen. Pete Domenici during this year's session of Congress and is currently scheduled for debate.
"The 2005 bill provides $20 million in fiscal 2006 and $15 million each subsequent fiscal year for on-the-ground demonstrations of tamarisk and Russian olive control and revegetation, with monitoring and research to identify changes to the environment," he explained. "Demonstrations could occur in any of the Western states and most of the Plains states having the problem."
Under the terms of the bill, he said, $4 million would be authorized in fiscal 2006 for assessment of existing conditions and techniques for control and restoration with an additional $2 million authorized to develop long-term management and funding strategies.
If Kearny County's approach to managing the tamarisk catches Uncle Sam's eye, Kansas could grab a share of the federal funding being considered. San Souci said funding would be 75 percent federal with the local share made up of funds and in-kind contributions, including state-agency-provided services. | <urn:uuid:165fd99b-fea1-4bfc-ac75-162796052401> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.govtech.com/magazines/gt/Taming-the-Tamarisk.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281331.15/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00526-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.953301 | 2,038 | 3.375 | 3 |
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- ACID Transactions
- ACID Transactions satisfy the properties of Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, and Durability. As complex update operations on possibly distributed data, transactions are subject to various failure conditions. For instance, some step of a transaction may violate an integrity constraint, or the connection to a remote database may get lost, or the server running the transaction application may crash during the execution of a transaction. Atomicity denotes the requirement that a transaction needs to be all-or-nothing: either it executes completely or not at all. If all steps of a transaction have been performed successfully, the transaction commits, making all involved updates permanent. If some step fails, the transaction aborts, rolling back all involved updates. A transaction program should maintain the consistency of the databases it updates. Since the internal consistency of a database is defined by its integrity constraints, this means that all integrity constraints have to be satisfied when the transaction is completed. For performance reasons, transactions are executed concurrently by interleaving the execution of their single steps. Special techniques (such as locking mechanisms) are needed to avoid interference between transactions accessing the same database objects. Referring to concurrent transactions, one says that the isolation property is satisfied if their effects are the same as if they were run one at a time in some order, or, in other words, if they are serializable. Finally, a transaction is durable if all of its updates are stored on a permanent storage medium when it commits. This is usually achieved by writing a copy of all the updates of a transaction to a log file. If the system fails after the transaction commits and before the updates go to the database, then after the system recovers it rereads the log and checks that each update actually made it to the database; if not, it re-applies the update to the database. Notice that unlike atomicity, isolation and durability which are guaranteed by the transaction processing system, maintaining consistency is the responsibility of the application programmer.
- A computer program that can accept tasks from its human user, can figure out which actions to perform in order to solve these tasks and can actually perform these actions without user supervision, is an example of a software agent. More generally, any system that is capable of perceiving events in its environment, of representing information about the current state of affairs, and of acting in its environment guided by perceptions and stored information, is called an agent. If the environment is virtual, such as the Internet, we deal with software agents. If the environment is physical, we deal either with natural agents such as human beings and animals, or with artificial physical agents such as robots and embedded systems. The term agent denotes an abstraction that subsumes all these different cases. Typical examples of software agents are web shopping assistants and life-like characters (artificial creatures) in computer games. Typical examples of artificial physical agents are the entertainment robot Aibo by Sony and the unmanned NASA space vehicle Deep Space One. It is expected that software agents capable to assist their users to cope with the increasing complexities caused by the accelerating and virtually uncontrolled growth of the World Wide Web will play a major role in the future. The term agent is sometimes used as a synonym for intelligent system. But, in general, agents do not have to be 'intelligent'. In software engineering, for instance, the ability of an agent to communicate and cooperate with other systems in a exible manner, and the ability of a mobile agent to migrate to another computer providing more resources via suitable network links, are considered more fundamental than any form of 'intelligence'. The philosophical basis for the agent paradigm in computer science is the concept of intentional systems introduced by Daniel Dennett in (Den71) to characterize systems whose behavior can be best explained and forecasted by ascribing them beliefs, goals and intentions. Following Dennett, Yoav Shoham proposed in (Sho93) a mentalistic approach to model and program agents, called Agent-Oriented Programming. In this approach, the data structures of an agent program reflect basic mental components such as beliefs, commitments, and goals, while the agent's behavior is determined by reaction rules that refer to its mental state and are triggered by events, and possibly by its planning capabilities for pro-actively achieving its goals. An important feature of agents is their ability to communicate and interact with each other. For artificial agents, communication is normally implemented by an asynchronous message passing mechanism. Agents created by different designers must speak the same agent communication language for expressing the type of communication act, and must refer to shared ontologies for being able to understand the contents of the messages of each other. Conversations between agents often follow a certain protocol that defines the admissible patterns of message sequences. Similarly to the notion of objects in software engineering, the term agent denotes an abstraction that leads to more natural and more modular software concepts. While the state of an object is just a collection of attribute values without any generic structure, the state of an agent has a mentalistic structure comprising perceptions and beliefs. Messages in object-oriented programming are coded in an application-specific ad-hoc manner, whereas messages in agent-oriented programming are based on an application-independent agent communication language. An agent may exhibit pro-active behavior with some degree of autonomy, while the behavior of an object is purely reactive and under full control of those other objects that invoke its methods.
- Agent-Oriented Information Systems (AOIS)
- represent a new information system paradigm where communication between different (software-controlled) systems and between systems and humans is understood as communication between agents whose state consists of mental components (such as beliefs, perceptions, memory, commitments, etc.). In enterprise information systems, for instance, the AOIS paradigm implies that business agents are treated as first class citizens along with business objects.
- Business Rules
- are statements that express a business policy, defining or constraining some aspect of a business, in a declarative manner (not describing/prescribing every detail of their implementation). Business rules may be strict or defeasible (allowing exceptions). They can be formalized as integrity constraints, derivation rules, or reaction rules.
- Business Transaction
- A sequence of actions performed by two or more agents, involving a flow of information and a flow of money, and normally also a flow of material or certain other physical effects. Usually, it requires some bookkeeping to record what happened. Today, this bookkeeping is done by the computer-based information systems of the involved business partners. Since an enterprise may participate in a great number of business transactions at the same time, this requires sophisticated information system technologies for guaranteeing high performance and consistency.
- The Common Object Request Broker Architecture is an established standard allowing object-oriented distributed systems to communicate through the remote invocation of object methods.
- Database Management System (DBMS)
- The main purpose of a DBMS is to store and retrieve information given in an explicit linguistic format (using various symbols). As opposed to certain other types of information that are also processed in agents, this type of information is essentially propositional, that is, it can be expressed as a set of propositions in a formal language. In the sixties and seventies, pushed by the need to store and process large data sets, powerful database management systems extending the file system technology have been developed. These systems have been named hierarchical and network databases, referring to the respective type of file organization. Although they were able to process large amounts of data efficiently, their limitations in terms of exibility and ease of use were severe. Those difficulties were caused by the unnatural character of the conceptual user-interface of hierarchical and network databases consisting of the rather low-level data access operations dictated by their way of implementing storage and retrieval. Thus, both database models have later on turned out to be cognitively inadequate. The formal conceptualization of relational databases by Codd in the early seventies rendered it possible to overcome the inadequacy of the first generation database technology. The logic-based formal concepts of the relational database model have led to more cognitive adequacy, and have thus constituted the conceptual basis for further progress (towards object-relational, temporal, deductive, etc. databases). Driven by the success of the object-oriented paradigm, and by the desire to improve the relational database model, object-relational databases are now increasingly regarded the successor to relational databases. This development is being reflected in the progression of SQL, the established standard language for database manipulation, from SQL-89 via SQL-92 to SQL-99.
- Data Warehouse
- A very large database that stores historical and up-to-date information from a variety of sources and is optimized for fast query answering. It is involved in three continuous processes: 1) at regular intervals, it extracts data from its information sources, loads it into auxiliary tables, and subsequently cleans and transforms the loaded data in order to make it suitable for the data warehouse schema; 2) it processes queries from users and from data analysis applications; and 3) it archives the data that is no longer needed by means of tertiary storage technology. Most enterprises today employ computer-based information systems for financial accounting, purchase, sales and inventory management, production planning and control. In order to efficiently use the vast amount of information that these operational systems have been collecting over the years for planning and decision making purposes, the various kinds of information from all relevant sources have to be merged and consolidated in a data warehouse. While an operational database is mainly accessed by OLTP applications that update its content, a data warehouse is mainly accessed by ad hoc user queries and by special data analysis programs, also called Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) applications. For instance, in a banking environment, there may be an OLTP application for controlling the bank's automated teller machines (ATMs). This application performs frequent updates to tables storing current account information in a detailed format. On the other hand, there may be an OLAP application for analyzing the behavior of bank customers. A typical query that could be answered by such a system would be to calculate the average amount that customers of a certain age withdraw from their account by using ATMs in a certain region. In order to attain quick response times for such complex queries, the bank would maintain a data warehouse into which all the relevant information (including historical account data) from other databases is loaded and suitably aggregated. Typically, queries in data warehouses refer to business events, such as sales transactions or online shop visits, that are recorded in event history tables (also called 'fact tables') with designated columns for storing the time point and the location at which the event occurred. Usually, an event record has certain numerical parameters such as an amount, a quantity, or a duration, and certain additional parameters such as references to the agents and objects involved in the event. While the numerical parameters are the basis for forming statistical queries, the time, the location and certain reference parameters are used as the dimensions of the requested statistics. There are special data management techniques, also called multidimensional databases, for representing and processing this type of multidimensional data. For further research, see (Cod94, AM97, IWK97).
- Derivation Rules (or deduction rules)
- are used for defining intensional predicates and for representing heuristic knowledge, e.g. in deductive databases and in logic programs. Intensional predicates express properties of, and relationships between, entities on the basis of other (intensional and extensional) predicates. Heuristic knowledge is often represented in the form of default rules which may be naturally expressed using the weak and strong negation from partial logic (like in the formalism of 'extended logic programs'). While relational databases allow to define non-recursive intensional predicates with the help of views, they do not support default rules or any other form of heuristic knowledge.
- Electronic Data Interchange, denotes the traditional computer-to-computer exchange of standard messages representing normal business transactions including payments, information exchange and purchase order requests. Besides the two main international standards for EDI messages, UN/EDIFACT and ANSI X.12, there are several vertical EDI standards. EDIFACT is administered by a working party (WP.4) of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE). The EDIFACT syntax rules have been published by the ISO as ISO9735. In (Moo99), it is shown that current EDI standards have the message structure proposed by speech act theory. The current EDI standards are beeing criticized because of a number of problems such as underspecified meaning, idiosyncratic use and in exibility. In 1999, a major initiative has been launched to replace the outdated EDI message syntax by a more exible XML-based framework called ebXML.
- Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
- refers to the problem of how to integrate the increasing number of different application systems and islands of information an enterprise has built up over many years. The EAI problem also arises through the formation of a virtual enterprise or from merging two companies. While the integration of various islands of information including databases, sequential files, and spreadsheets, may be achieved through data federation systems, the inter operation between different application systems requires an asynchronous message exchange technology, also called message-oriented middleware (MOM). In addition, a message translation service is needed to transform the messages sent by one application to the message language of another application. An application-independent EAI message language, called Business Object Documents, is proposed by the Open Application Group. The integration of applications across enterprise boundaries is also called 'Enterprise Relationship Management'.
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- systems are generic and comprehensive business software systems based on a distributed computing platform including one or more database management systems. They combine a global enterprise information system covering large parts of the information needs of an enterprise with a large number of application programs implementing all kinds of business processes that are vital for the operation of an enterprise. These systems help organizations to deal with basic business functions such as purchase/sales/inventory management, financial accounting and controlling, and human resources management, as well as with advanced business functions such as project management, production planning, supply chain management, and sales force automation. First generation ERP systems now run the complete back office functions of the worlds largest corporations. The ERP market rose at 50% per year to $8.6 billion in 1998 with 22,000 installations of the market leader, SAP R/3. Typically, ERP systems run in a three-tier client/server architecture. They provide multi-instance database management as well as configuration and version (or 'customization') management for the underlying database schema, the user interface, and the numerous application programs associated with them. Since ERP systems are designed for multinational companies, they have to support multiple languages and currencies as well as country-specific business practices. The sheer size and the tremendous complexity of these systems make them difficult to deploy and maintain.
- Entity-Relationship (ER) Modeling
- A conceptual modeling method and diagram language based on a small number of ontological principles: an information system has to represent information about entities that occur in the universe of discourse associated with its application domain, and that can be uniquely identified and distinguished from other entities; entities have properties and participate in relationships with other entities; in order to represent entities in an information system, they are classified by means of entity types; each entity type defines a list of (stored and virtual) attributes that are used to represent the relevant properties of the entities associated with it; together, the values of all attributes of an entity form the state of it; in order to represent ordinary domain relationships (or associations) between entities, they are classified by means of relationship types; there are two designated relationships between entity types that are independent of the application domain: specialization (subclass) and composition (component class). ER modeling was introduced in [Che76]. In its original form, it included the primary key concept as its standard naming technique, but did not include specialization and composition. The primary key standard naming technique proved to be inadequate since a standard name should be a unique identifier which is associated with an entity throughout its entire life cycle implying that it must be immutable. However, the basic idea of ER modeling does not depend on the primary key concept. It is also compatible with the object identifier concept of OO systems and ORDBs. This implies that ER modeling does not preclude the possibility of two distinct entities having the same state. It is therefore justified to view OO information modeling, such as UML class diagrams, as inessential extensions of ER modeling, and to regard ER modeling as the proper foundation of information modeling.
- Information System (IS)
- An IS is an artifact (or technical arrangement) for efficiently managing, manipulating, and evaluating information-bearing items such as paper documents, ASCII text files, or physical objects. Today, especially in enterprises and other large organizations, there are more and more computerized ISs implemented by means of DBMS technology. One may distinguish between private, organizational and public ISs. Typical examples of a private IS are personal address databases and diaries. The major paradigms of an organizational IS are transaction-oriented database (OLTP) applications (such as ERP systems) and query-answering-oriented data warehouse (OLAP) applications. Typical examples of a public IS are libraries, museums, zoos, and web-based community ISs.
- Integrity Constraints
- are sentences which have to be satisfied in all evolving states of a database (or knowledge base). They stipulate meaningful domain-specific restric-tions on the class of admissible databases (or knowledge bases). Updates are only accepted if they respect all integrity constraints. The most fundamental integrity constraints are value restrictions, keys and foreign keys (or referential integrity constraints).
- denotes the ability of two or more systems to collaborate. At a lower level, this concerns the ability to exchange data and to allow for remote procedure calls from one system to another. At a higher level, it requires the ability to participate in the asynchronous exchange of messages based on an application-independent language (such as KQML, or FIPA-ACL).
- Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM)
- denotes a type of software systems for managing transactional message queues as the basis of asynchronous message passing. Well-known products include IBM MQSeries and Sun JMQ. A standard MOM application programming interface for Java, called Java Messaging Service (JMS) has been proposed by Sun.
- Message Transport
- An abstract service provided by a MOM system in the case of EAI, or by the agent management platform to which the agent is (currently) attached in the case of a FIPA-compliant interoperability solution. The message transport service provides for the reliable and timely delivery of messages to their destination agents, and also provides a mapping from logical names to physical transport addresses.
- OLAP Application Online Analytical Processing
- applications allow to evaluate large data sets by means of sophisticated techniques, such as statistical methods and data mining techniques. They typically run on top of a data warehouse system.
- OLTP System Online Transaction Processing
- systems are able to process a large number of concurrent database query and update requests in real time. The information technology part of a business transaction is called an online transaction, or simply `transaction'. It is performed through the execution of an application program that accesses one or more shared databases within the business information system. A transaction is a complex update operation consisting of a structured sequence of read and write operations. Ideally, a transaction satisfies the ACID properties. Business information systems are primarily OLTP systems. In almost every sector - manufacturing, education, health care, government, and large and small businesses - OLTP application systems are relied upon for everyday administrative work, communication, information gathering, and decision making. The first OLTP application in widespread use was the airline reservation system SABRE developed in the early 1960s as a joint venture between IBM and American Airlines. This system connects several hundred thousand nodes (user interface devices) and has to handle several thousand update request messages per second.
- Object-Relational Databases (ORDBs)
- have evolved from relational databases by adding several extensions derived from conceptual modeling requirements and from object-oriented programming concepts. One can view the evolution of relational to object-relational databases in two steps. First, the addition of abstract data types (ADTs) allows complex-valued tables. ADTs include user-defined base types and complex types together with user-defined functions and type predicates, and the possibility to form a type hierarchy where a subtype of a tuple type inherits all attributes defined for it. Second, the addition of object identity, object references and the possibility to define subtables within an extensional subclass hierarchy allows object tables. There are two notable differences between object-relational databases and object-oriented programming. First, object IDs in ORDBs are logical pointers. They are not bound to a physical location (like C++ pointers). Second, in addition to the intensional subtype hierarchy of the type system, ORDBs have an extensional subclass (or subtable) hierarchy that respects the subtype relationships defined in their type system. ORDBs allow the seamless integration of multimedia data types and large application objects such as text documents, spreadsheets and maps, with the fundamental concept of database tables. Many object-relational extensions have been included in SQL-99.
- Object-Oriented Database (OODB)
- Historically, the successful application of object-oriented programming languages such as Smalltalk, C++ and Java, has led to the development of a number of so-called 'object-oriented database systems' which support the storage and manipulation of persistent objects. These systems have been designed as programming tools to facilitate the development of object-oriented application programs. However, although they are called database systems, their emphasis is not on representing information by means of tables but rather on persistent object management. Any database concept which is intended as an implementation platform for information systems and knowledge representation must support tables as its basic representation concept on which query answering is based. Tables correspond to extensional predicates, and each table row corresponds to a proposition. This correspondence is a fundamental requirement for true database systems. If it is violated, like in the case of OODBs, one deals with a new notion of database system, and it would be less confusing to use another term instead (e.g. persistent object management system) as proposed by (Kim95).
- An ontology explicitly specifies the terms for expressing queries and assertions about a domain in a way that is formal, objective, and unambiguous. This includes the stipulation of terminological relationships and constraints in order to capture key aspects of the intended meaning of the specified terms. An ontology is implicitly defined by a conceptual model (such as an ER or UML model). Communication between agents can only be successful if it is based on a common (or shared) ontology.
- A protocol defines the admissible patterns of a particular type of conversation or interaction between agents. Notice that an interaction protocol refers to the communication acts and high-level actions available to agents, whereas a networking protocol refers to message transport mechanisms such as TCP/IP.
- Reaction Rule
- SQL databases support a restricted form of reaction rules, called triggers. Triggers are bound to update events. Depending on some condition on the database state, they may lead to an update action and to system-specific procedure calls. In (Wag98) a general form of reaction rules, subsuming production rules and database triggers (or 'event-condition-action rules') as special cases, was proposed. Reaction rules can be used to specify the communication in multi-databases and, more generally, the inter operation between communication-enabled application systems.
- Relational Database (RDB)
- Already in 1970, Edgar F. Codd published his pioneering article "Relational Model of Data for Large Shared Data Banks" in the Communications of the ACM, where he defined the principles of the relational database model. This was the first convincing conceptualization of a general purpose database model, and it is not an accident that it relies on formal logic providing a clear separation of the conceptual user interface and the underlying implementation techniques. In the mid-eighties, IBM presented DB2, the first industrial-strength implementation of the relational model, which continues to be one of the most successful systems today. There are now numerous other relational DBMSs that are commercially available. The most popular ones include Informix, Oracle, Sybase and Microsoft SQL Server. To a great extent, the overwhelming success of these systems is due to the standardization of the database manipulation language SQL originally developed at IBM in the seventies. While most well-established information processing systems and tools such as pro gramming languages, operating systems or word processors have evolved from practical prototypes, the unprecedented success story of the relational database model is one of the rare examples where a well-established and widely used major software system is based on a formal model derived from a mathematical theory (in this case set theory and mathematical logic). Conceptually, a relational database is a finite set of finite set-theoretic relations (called 'tables') over elementary data types, corresponding to a finite set of atomic propositions. Such a collection of atomic sentences can also be viewed as a finite interpretation of the formal language associated with the database in the sense of first order predicate logic model theory. The information represented in a relational database is updated by inserting or deleting atomic sentences corresponding to table rows (or tuples of some set-theoretic relation). Since a relational database is assumed to have complete information about the domain represented in its tables, if-queries are answered either by yes or by no. There is no third type of answer such as unknown. Open queries (with free variables) are answered by returning the set of all answer substitutions satisfying the query formula.
- There are various types of rules: business rules, legal rules, calculation rules, derivation rules, production rules, rules of thumb, reaction rules, and many more.
- is a declarative language for defining, modifying and querying database tables. A table schema is defined with the command
CREATE TABLE... and modified with
ALTER TABLE... The content of a table can be modified by either adding, deleting, or changing rows using the commands
INSERT INTO... ,
DELETE FROM... and
UPDATE... Simple queries are formed with the expression
WHERE condition. Such a query combines the cross product of tables with the selection defined by condition and the final projection to the attributes occurring in columns. More complex queries can be formed by nesting such
SELECT statements (using sub queries in the
WHERE clause), and by combining them with algebraic operators such as
JOIN, UNION, EXCEPT. SQL queries correspond to relational algebra expressions and to predicate logic formulas: projection corresponds to existential quantification, join to conjunction, union to disjunction, and difference (
EXCEPT) to negation. The most recent version of SQL, SQL-99, includes many object-relational extensions, such as user-defined types for attributes, object references, and subtable definitions by means of
CREATE TABLE subtable
- is a networking protocol used to establish connections and transmit data between hosts.
- Unified Modeling Language (UML)
- is an established object-oriented modeling standard defined by an industry initiative organized and funded by Rational and led by three prominent figures of the OO modeling community: Booch, Jacobson, and Rumbaugh. UML recognizes five distinct modeling views: the use-case view for requirements analysis, the logical view for describing the static structure and the behavior of a system, and three implementation views regarding components, concurrency and deployment. Each of these views is composed of several diagrams. A use-case diagram depicts a complete sequence of related transactions between an external actor and the system. The idea is that, by going through all of the actors associated with a system, and defining everything they are able to do with it, the complete functionality of the system can be defined. UML class diagrams are a straight-forward extension of ER diagrams. In addition to conventional (stored) attributes, class diagrams also list the operations of a class which may be functions (derived attributes) or service procedures associated with the class. The behavior of a system is modeled by means of four types of diagram: sequence diagrams depict the message exchange between objects arranged in time sequence, where the direction of time is down the page; an alternative way of visualizing the message exchange between objects is offered by collaboration diagrams emphasizing the associations among objects instead of the time sequence; activity diagrams are used for describing concurrent, asynchronous processing; finally, state charts allow to represent the state transitions of a system. | <urn:uuid:ae8c6cbf-bfad-4b52-9adb-d0179160b370> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://baanboard.com/node/48?s=35ad7fdbaf76ecc9d2f418e63de1eec9 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279657.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00160-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.929717 | 6,001 | 2.640625 | 3 |
Definition: A data structure which splits multidimensional spaces like an adaptive k-d tree, but balances the resulting tree like a B-tree.
Note: After [GG98].
If you have suggestions, corrections, or comments, please get in touch with Paul Black.
Entry modified 17 December 2004.
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Paul E. Black, "k-d-B-tree", in Dictionary of Algorithms and Data Structures [online], Vreda Pieterse and Paul E. Black, eds. 17 December 2004. (accessed TODAY) Available from: http://www.nist.gov/dads/HTML/kdbtree.html | <urn:uuid:043e8898-e13a-4b74-b436-0915354f04a7> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.darkridge.com/~jpr5/mirror/dads/HTML/kdbtree.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279657.18/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00160-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.803255 | 158 | 2.6875 | 3 |
One of the (many) areas in which recent innovations in technology has had a huge impact is in making cultural institutions (e.g., museums, parks, theaters) more accessible to those with disabilities. While mobile devices have been quite beneficial in improving accessibility, the technology also introduces many new questions for these institutions. This was the topic of a one-day conference this week, Tech@LEAD, that I was lucky enough to attend.
The conference brought together a number of administrators, technologists and accessibility experts. In addition to showing off some new and interesting technologies, the conference also featured lots of great discussion around some of the big accessible technology issues these institutions face. Here are some of the topics that were discussed.
Helping the disabled (and also the able bodied) to navigate a large space like a museum is a challenge. In addition, institutions would often like to provide deeper contextual information on exhibits in an accessible way. Several potential solutions exist, such as WiFi, QR codes and Bluetooth based systems. Boston’s Museum of Science is currently testing a commercial application called ByteLight, which is based on the use of LED lights, and they find it quite promising.
A whole discussion was had around the benefits and drawbacks of visitors bringing their own devices (BYOD) to these institutions for accessibility.The pros of BYOD include the fact that the visitor provides the device (saving institutions hardware costs) and that they’re comfortable with them. On the con side, the institution is then faced with building and supporting functionality to run on multiple platforms. Native apps can provide for greater accessibility, but require more maintenance to ensure they continue to work across all (or many) platforms. Some suggested sticking with mobile web sites to get around the multi-platform issue. Others suggested that too much reliance on mobile devices can make the experience isolating. All agreed that, ultimately, it’s the content that matters and the technology shouldn’t get in the way of the experience.
The application of game techniques was presented as a potential method for improving accessibility. Neuroscientist Dr. Lotfi Merabet presented data showing that the blind learn spatial layouts better through gaming than through direct instruction, so making a game out of learning the institution's layout could be helpful. Games can also help make content more engaging but, as Mark Barlet of AbleGamers reminded everyone, games should ultimately be fun.
Late in the day it was noted that all of this technology being used for accessibility purposes can lead to a wealth of new data on how the disabled experience cultural institutions. If collected and made available to all, these data could be much more powerful than existing studies on the disabled which often have very small sample sizes. This seems like an area that really hasn’t been addressed much yet.
All-in-all there were a lot more questions asked than answered, which was to be expected, since this was the inaugural year for the Tech@LEAD conference. Co-organizer Larry Goldberg, of the National Center for Accessible Media, told me that it seems likely the conference will be held again next year. Let’s hope it is and that technology continues to help make art and culture available to all.
Read more of Phil Johnson's #Tech blog and follow the latest IT news at ITworld. Follow Phil on Twitter at @itwphiljohnson. For the latest IT news, analysis and how-tos, follow ITworld on Twitter and Facebook. | <urn:uuid:cd3f8a21-268b-4111-a3d5-11b219dc60f4> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.itworld.com/article/2708356/it-management/byod-helps-to-makes-botticelli-accessible.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560280364.67/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095120-00335-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.969502 | 711 | 2.84375 | 3 |
This guide illustrates how SIP, Audio and Data traffic is transmitted over the network when 3CX Phone System is used. This will depend on the backend infrastructure and network topology, and this guide helps administrators understand how 3CX operates in different scenarios. If a combination of topologies is used, 3CX Phone System will route traffic as needed.
Terms used in this guide:
- SIP – This is the protocol used to initiate and control the communication between two parties.
- Audio – Once the call has been established, audio can be sent using a different route. The term Audio is used to incorporate the data that is transmitted during the call, including video and fax data. This is also known as SDP.
- VoIP – refers to both SIP and Audio as described above
- Data – This incorporates all other data which is not related to VoIP, including data such as web traffic, email traffic etc.
- 3CX Support is provided on 3CX Phone Systems in the network setups illustrated below, however we will stop short from providing support on the configuration of the network.
- In most cases, you need to configure QOS so as to guarantee reliable transmission of VoIP traffic in your network.
This guide covers the following types of networks:
- Simple network: VoIP and Data are transmitted within a single network.
- Routed networks: VoIP and Data communication are transmitted on two networks (or V-LANs). A router takes care of routing packets between the two networks.
- Segregated VoIP network: VoIP is transmitted on a separate network. Routing is done by having two network cards attached to server running 3CX Phone System.
- Public network – NAT: A network in which network traffic is transmitted over the public network directly to another network.
- Public network – VPN: A network that is connected via a LAN-2-LAN VPN to another network.
- Multiple internet gateways: Scenario where VoIP traffic transmitted over a separate internet network.
This is the most common scenario, where all the devices are located in the same network, and both VoIP and Data share the same network.
SIP traffic is handled by the 3CX Phone System server and audio passes directly from the VoIP endpoints. 3CX Phone System connects to the network using one network card with a default gateway.
In a routed network you typically have two or more networks which are already segregated, such as for example one network is used by one department and another network is used by another department, or when you want VoIP traffic to be on a separate network than Data traffic.
In this scenario, the router takes care of routing traffic from one network to the other. 3CX Phone System is connected to one network, and will be used to create the communication between any two endpoints (the SIP part). Once the connection has been established, Audio is transmitted directly between endpoints. If the endpoints are on different networks, the router will take care of routing Audio traffic accordingly.
Background: 3CX Phone System identifies registrations received from a different subnet. 3CX Phone System assumes that there is a route to the second network and enables “By-Pass-Audio” for this setup.
If you have issues related to calling from one network to the other, you need to check traffic at the router level as that is the main point of communication.
Segregated VoIP network
Some routers do not support multiple internal networks. However, the administrator would still want to have a second network, which is normally used only for VoIP traffic. This can be done by adding another network card to the server running 3CX Phone System.
The diagram above shows 3CX Phone System with two network cards connected to two different networks. Network A is used for Data traffic, although VoIP traffic can still be transmitted over this network, such as when using soft-phones. Network B is the network which is used for VoIP traffic. 3CX Phone System is connected to both networks, since its server has two network cards.
IMPORTANT: In this scenario, you need to make the following configuration changes.
- The network interface on the 3CX Server that connects to the router/gateway must contain a Default Gateway specified in Network adapter settings.
- The Network adapter interface on 3CX Phone System that connects to Network B must NOT have a default gateway specified. This entry should be blank.
Background: The 3CX Phone System detects, that there is no known route from Network A to B and vice versa. Therefore the only way to pass audio between them networks is via the 3CX PBX itself and the PBX enables “Proxy Audio” when a call flows between the networks. Inside each network the audio is passes in “By-Pass Audio”
Public Network – NAT
The above diagram shows a remote endpoint (home office or VoIP provider) connected to the 3CX Server via the Internet. The remote end is completely outside of the company network.
In this scenario, both SIP and Audio is routed through the PBX for calls where one endpoint is on the LAN and the second endpoint is on the WAN. The same happens when both endpoints are on the WAN. This occurs also when the two endpoints are using the same Public IP address, since the two endpoints might be on separate internal networks which might not be able to route traffic between each other.
NAT port forwarding is performed on the company gateway. The remote endpoint can communicate with 3CX Phone System as an external extension. 3CX Phone System detects this as a remote endpoint and will make use ports configured for the external Leg when constructing the SDP for audio. Read more about Port Forwarding with 3CX Phone System here.
Some home routers might also have SIP ALG enabled which may need to be disabled. For example, on Thomson routers SIP ALG will need to be disabled using telnet.
Public Network – VPN
This example shows a remote user/network connected via VPN. In reality, 3CX Phone System sees this “remote” user as just another local user in a different network. The routing in this case is made by the router/gateway. This becomes a LAN to LAN connection over the internet. For the 3CX Phone System the same rule are applied as for a “Routed Network”.
Since the endpoints on both networks are registering using their IP address, 3CX Phone System will only setup the call (SIP), and instructs the endpoints to send Audio directly to each other. This saves bandwidth and overhead.
Note: If you have multiple LAN to LAN connections between different locations, VPN routing must be configured correctly. For example, if you connect 3 locations (Network A, B and C), each of these 3 networks can have a direct connection to each other or one of the VPN Gateways must be configured to route traffic to the correct network. In our example, the VPN router in Net A is the gateway distributing routing to the other networks. In this case, the router in Net B needs to be configured to send to Net C through Net B. Same applies for Net C to Net B.
Multiple internet gateways (used by ISPs that offer VoIP Services)
There are installations with two separate routers/gateways – one for Internet access and the other solely for VoIP. This is used to segregate VoIP traffic from data traffic.
The server must have two network cards. NIC 1 is connected to the gateway or interface that connects to the Internet. This NIC interface MUST have a Default Gateway specified. NIC 2 is connected to the gateway or interface that connects to the VoIP networks of the ISP. This network interface must NOT have a default gateway configured in Windows.
How will traffic for VoIP be sent to the interface without a default gateway?
Step 1: Enable “Windows Routing and Remote access” on your Server and let RRAS route the traffic destined to the VoIP gateway out from the VoIP interface. Routing and remote access can be enabled on Windows Server 2008 by going to Server Manager > Add Roles > Select Network Policy and Access Services > Select Routing and remote access services Checkboxes.
Step 2: A static route must be created. Configure it as follows:
- Interface: As an interface we will select NIC2 – the VoIP VPN interface on the Windows Server that is a point to point connection with the ISP’s VoIP gateway or interface.
- Destination: The destination IP of the VoIP Provider services that can be reached via the VoIP Interface.
- Network Mask: The network subnet mask
- Gateway: Here is where we will put the default gateway. In this case we will put the IP Address of the VoIP Gateway Interface. This will be the replacement factor of putting the default gateway in Windows Network Adapter NIC 2.
- Metric: 256 to indicate highest cost.
The above screenshot shows that the NIC connected to the Internet Gateway has a Default Gateway specified whilst the adapter that is connected to the VoIP Gateway does not. However, as a replacement we will use the services of Windows Routing and remote access to route the traffic to the Default gateway for the VoIP Interface. | <urn:uuid:7ec2c065-fbc8-4ca2-b85a-74032bd263b2> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.3cx.com/blog/docs/network-configurations-supported-3cx-phone-system/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281001.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00151-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.920571 | 1,935 | 2.890625 | 3 |
A scientist has visualised which countries are most susceptible to an Ebola outbreak using Wolfram technologies.
Although the Wolfram-based computer model is conceptual, it could help policy-makers put effective measures in place to slow the virus' spread, Dr Marco Thiel from Aberdeen University, said.
Thiel combined publicly available data including population and population density, which is built into Wolfram Mathematica's databases, with transport networks to calculate which countries are most at risk of an Ebola outbreak.
Thiel was able to represent the airport where the first outbreak occurred, a layer around this representing all the airports that could be reached with one connection flight - and the next to be infected.
"This shows that the structure of the network, rather than geographical distance, is important," he said.
Flight connection patterns reveal that some European countries are more susceptible than others because of their flight paths, the model revealed.
He said: "Certain countries in Europe, such as Germany, UK, France etc. are more at risk than others because of their flight connections."
While the US has taken drastic measures in comparison to Europe in terms of Ebola screening, it may not be the next in line for an outbreak, Thiel's model showed.
He said: "The US would be less at risk than the European countries, that is, it would get significant numbers of infected later. All of that seems to be qualitatively quite correct. Australia and Greenland would get the disease very late, or not at all, again in agreement with our model."
"The model shows that the highest probability of spreading is between neighbouring African countries, which is what larger models predict as well."
The probability of infection, the rate of recovery and the factor of migration all had to be considered to make the model as accurate as possible. These parameters are all dependant on trends like local behaviour of people, health education, health insurance and the wealth of a population in relation to how often they travel.
However, Thiel warned that the model is only conceptual, and therefore the results are not definitive.
He said: "The conceptual nature of the model allows us to look at different scenarios: What if infection rate versus recovery rate changes? What if there is more mobility? What if we also use local transport? We did not try to fit the parameters or network to optimally describe the Ebola outbreak; rather, we provide the basic model to develop several scenarios and to understand the basic ingredients for this type of modelling."
Along with virus patterns like Ebola, construction machinery, chemical battery and bio-chemical systems for industry can be modelled more easily with Wolfram's latest software update. SystemModeler was launched in July this year.
This story, "Computer Model Predicts Where Ebola is Most Likely to Hit Next" was originally published by Techworld.com. | <urn:uuid:bb907223-8d2c-4335-939b-06532d31e905> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.cio.com/article/2844928/healthcare/computer-model-predicts-where-ebola-is-most-likely-to-hit-next.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281001.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00151-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.961052 | 575 | 3.625 | 4 |
As I See It: Biology On The Wing
October 19, 2015 Victor Rozek
The solemn pod arcs in unison and disappears beneath blue water, leaving telltale plumes dancing in the breeze. I’m perched on weather-carved rocks on the extreme southern end of a small Canadian island called Saturna, watching a pod of killer whales sweep around the point. They pass by a mere stone’s throw from shore, on their way to ancient feeding grounds. But they are not alone. A hundred yards beyond, a picket line of boats filled with grasping tourists tracks their every breach.
Once hunted, they are now annoyed. Once victims of persistent greed, they now endure persistent curiosity. From Alaska to Baja, these great travelers, so sensitive to sound, are hounded by the incessant roar of boat engines. Oh, how we love whales; just not enough to leave them alone.
It is a dilemma familiar to wildlife biologists. In order to study animal populations, they must track their movements. But in such a way as not to alter their behavior, or cause them unnecessary stress. Many migrating animals cover such vast distances that aerial tracking is the only practical alternative. But low altitude reconnaissance over rugged terrains presents its own risks. According to Audubon, “light-aircraft crashes are the No. 1 killer of wildlife biologists.”
Ironically, the solution to many of the challenges facing field biologists comes in the form of a technology that, in other contexts, has proven to be both annoying and deadly: the drone.
NOAA Fisheries and the Vancouver Aquarium teamed to study the health of endangered killer whales. For the first time, scientists have used an unmanned aerial vehicle to study whales from above. A hexacopter with a high-resolution camera mounted in its belly is used to track resident pods in British Columbia from a height of about 100 feet–high enough not to be annoying, but low enough to produce extraordinarily detailed photos.
The main objective is to discover if the mammals are getting enough to eat. These Orcas are very specialized eaters and Chinook salmon are their meal of choice. A full-grown Orca must eat about 17 salmon each day to maintain nutritional requirements that can exceed 250,000 calories. But salmon populations have been stressed by overfishing and habitat degradation.
Each whale has unique markings, and drone technology allows researchers to see how fat or skinny individual whales are becoming, which females are pregnant, and what percentage of pregnancies is carried to term. Given the interconnectedness of all things natural, healthy whale populations depend, in part, on healthy populations of salmon, which in turn require healthy watersheds. It is hoped that the observational data collected by drones may lead to recommendations for systemic changes that will allow both salmon and whales to flourish.
Sixty-seven hundred miles south-east in West Africa, medical professionals and wildlife biologists hope that drone surveillance may head off the next pandemic. Hammerhead fruit bats are one of three species of bats thought to be reservoir hosts for Ebola (meaning they carry the virus without succumbing to it). Researching these bats in close proximity poses obvious risks, and given that the bats are nocturnal, tracking their movement is problematic. Of particular concern is any contact bats have with primate populations that are a food source for local villagers. The last Ebola outbreak is believed to have been spread by the sharing of infected meat. If drones can provide even an imperfect early warning system, alerting officials to the possibility of an outbreak, it would no doubt be a welcome step in prevention and containment.
As Audubon notes, hard-to-reach places, and places where observers would not be welcome, are perfect venues for the snooping capabilities of drones. “Orangutan nests high in the jungles of Sumatra and Borneo,” for example, are both hard-to-reach and likely to be aggressively defended from intrusion. But beyond observing skittish animals, drones have also become useful in monitoring illegal human activity such as unauthorized logging and poaching.
In Central Africa, “where dead elephants finance terrorism,” a custom-made GPS and satellite-based tracking system (in this context satellites can be thought of as orbiting drones) concealed in faux ivory, were used to track the movement of illicit ivory. As detailed in the cover story of the September 2015 National Geographic, the grisly cargo was moved “600 miles from jungle to desert” heading to the base of a Sudanese warlord. The problem is staggering in scope. Tanzania alone has lost 60,000 elephants to poaching in the last five years. About 30,000 are slaughtered annually by rebel groups and organized militias. Most of the ivory ends up in China, and neither the demand nor the killing is slowing.
In saner venues, the drone revolution has freed researchers from some of the inherent discomforts of fieldwork. Biologists no longer have to sit in remote, inhospitable sites for days on end waiting for migrating birds to arrive; or track a wolf pack on the move. Nor must they compromise accuracy by estimating animal counts. Drones “carry digital cameras that produce geo-referenced photos, the data they gather can be fed into image-recognition algorithms to vastly improve the accuracy of population counts.”
Animals that have been tagged can transmit real-time data to drones. “The tags use a suite of sensors to log a creature’s GPS position and direction of movement. Such information allows researchers to look for movement signatures that indicate when the animal is hunting, eating or scavenging. If it is killed by a poacher, or poisoned by a pesticide, motion will cease. Likewise, sensors that measure temperature, humidity and elevation can help researchers deduce if a changing climate is altering an animal’s range.”
There is a dictum in quantum mechanics that says the presence of an observer changes the nature of the observed. It’s not clear if that applies to drones. What is clear is that drones offer a less invasive, more efficient, and far safer method of data collection that is revolutionizing field biology.
About 700,000 drones are expected to be sold in the U.S. this year alone. Some will no doubt be used to invade the last of our privacy; but at least a few will fly in service of nobler aspirations.
It’s an encouraging start. | <urn:uuid:7b603f9c-8107-4a52-8b77-c801fe2b6465> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.itjungle.com/2015/10/19/tfh101915-story04/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560283008.19/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095123-00389-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.936694 | 1,322 | 3.125 | 3 |
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Most online crimes leave digital evidence. PCs and cell phones, for example, routinely contain evidence related to the planning, coordination, commission or witnessing of crimes.
Even a low tech crime like robbery can have digital evidence if the criminal has a cell phone in his car or pocket when he commits the crime. Time and location stamps from the phone can place the criminal at or near the scene at the approximate time it took place.
In other cases, a laptop, desktop, tablet or smart phone might have a browsing history that adds evidence to a case. For example, in the summer of 2014, a Georgia father was suspected of having deliberately left his toddler son in a hot car to suffer a horrible death. While even the child's mother proclaimed it to be a tragic accident, digital evidence from the father's computers shows extensive "deceptive behavior" on his part. Such evidence is sure to be part of the case when and if it goes to trial.
Collecting this evidence and preserving it in such a way to ensure it is legally admissible usually requires some level of technical expertise. A high profile case like the one above would be assigned the best possible resources. The mundane, more common cases that don't capture headlines typically don’t get the attention of digital forensic experts who have heavy case backlogs. Rather, the local investigating officers may need to determine for themselves if there could be useful evidence on the devices.
A new tool on the market is designed to break the backlog and help investigating officers look for digital evidence on a suspect's devices. Tracks Inspector is a tool developed by the Dutch IT security firm Fox-IT to enable non-technical law enforcement professionals to conduct basic forensic analysis. Tracks Inspector can yield enough information to give a case officer additional clues to follow, and it can guide the officer toward more technical digital forensic resources when necessary. The idea is to advance the basic cases so not every case is waiting for weeks or months for analysis by a digital forensic laboratory.
"Currently the methods of dealing with digital evidence is the agency expects an expert to look at the data. This is where we think things should change," says Hans Henseler, Managing Director of Tracks Inspector. "We think a non-technical investigator should have the first look at the data because in many cases, if he has a simple tool, the investigator will be able to look at pictures, read through emails and documents, and look at the browsing history and decide if there is something here that can help the investigation along. In some cases the investigator can even solve the case without having an expert go through all of the physical data."
Tracks Inspector automatically collects all of the files from digital devices in a forensically sound way. Data taken from computer hard drives, USB/CD/SD/DVD storage devices, or cell phones and tablets go through a "write blocker" to make a forensic copy of the data without making any changes to the original files or devices. These forensic copies can then be scoured for relevant evidence by the non-technical case investigator.
Tracks Inspector processes the input, which can include a variety of evidence formats, and presents it back to the investigator via a web interface in an easy to understand way. Evidence is grouped by categories, such as pictures, videos, documents, and so on. The investigator can use basic filters such as keywords, file types and dates to narrow his search and drill down into specific information to see what is really there. He can add comments to the evidence to document a case, and tags to include the information in a report. All of this information can be shared with other authorized personnel assigned to the case. Once the analysis is done, the investigator's report has forensic details that are suitable for use in court.
In terms of processing evidence, Henseler makes a comparison to reading regular paper-based documents. "If an officer is doing an investigation and he is authorized to do a search and seizure, and he seizes printed documents, he is going to read those documents himself. He's not going to ask a reading expert to look at those documents because the assigned detective knows how to read. If the document is in a foreign language, he might need to go to an expert to interpret it, but he will first check out the evidence himself. This is what we're trying to bring to digital evidence as well—to allow the investigator to 'read' the evidence and attempt to solve the case without the need to call in a digital forensic expert."
Given the shortage of digital forensic experts in law enforcement today, Tracks Inspector could be a useful tool to investigate cases expeditiously and get criminal scum off the streets sooner. | <urn:uuid:5440e932-7cff-496d-803e-f98c67b60d5b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.networkworld.com/article/2902894/security0/tracks-inspector-simplifies-digital-evidence-collection-and-analysis-for-law-enforcement.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281151.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00417-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.943915 | 966 | 2.765625 | 3 |
I recently returned from vacation in Orlando, Fla. where I had the opportunity to visit the Kennedy Space Center for the first time. It was exciting to see our customers and partners’ logos lining the walls as reminders of what HPC has helped create. As I toured the launch sites and walked the halls of the exhibits, I was also filled with immense pride for the countless contributions of the women who served as trailblazers in space exploration.
August 26 is Women’s Equality Day, which commemorates the day in 1920 when women were granted the right to vote. Nearly 100 years later, we as women have come a long way and pushed many frontiers. But while women have broken through to the cosmos, on Earth we are still being left in the dust, specifically in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields — better known as STEM.
Although women make up about half of the workforce overall, we are severely underrepresented in STEM professions: In 2011, only about a quarter of workers in STEM fields were women. What can be done to close that gap?
A Need to Inspire Early On
Unlike the right to vote, the gender imbalance in STEM jobs is not a black-and-white case of oppression. Certainly gender stereotypes and the education system at large are significant factors contributing to this discrepancy, but there is also a dearth of inspiration pushing women into these careers.
I have no doubt that each woman whose picture was displayed in the Kennedy Space Center was inspired by someone along the way. A parent, a teacher, a friend. I also think it’s safe to say that these moments of inspiration occurred when they were young. Christianne Corbett, co-author of the report “Why So Few? Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math,” notes that “very early in childhood — around age 4 — gender roles in occupations appear to be formed.”
This underscores the importance of having female role models in STEM fields that give girls someone to look up to. You can’t force an interest in STEM professions, but you can expose young women to them and see if anything sticks. Bring them to museums that explore the wonders of math and science or show how the smart devices they love are a marvel of engineering and technology.
All women in STEM have a remarkable sphere of influence. Together we can encourage and inspire the next generation to follow in our footsteps.
Even in our technologically advanced world, there are still so many innovations to be conceived, developed and brought to market. We have an unprecedented opportunity to create, not just consume. Often, more so than in other fields, STEM provides an opportunity to be on the bleeding edge of what’s next.
I have been fortunate enough to play a role in launching three new industries as a marketer: VoIP, VPN and most recently Big Workflow, a new solution pioneered by Adaptive Computing, that streamlines big data workflows to deliver valuable insights more rapidly, accurately and cost effectively. With each launch, it was thrilling to be a part of a team that was making a significant impact on the world through technology.
Beyond the satisfaction of shaping the future, there are also significant financial gains to be had: Women in STEM jobs earn on average 33 percent more than their counterparts in other fields.
Inspirational Women in STEM
Inspiration is best drawn from others, which is why I asked a few of my fellow colleagues in the HPC industry about their experiences. Here are three pieces of advice that emerged from these wonder women:
Find a mentor. Rhonda Dias, vice president, global systems engineering at SGI, who has been in STEM for 27 years, offers these words to women beginning a career in STEM: “Believe in yourself and don’t let anyone question your chosen field. The most important thing is to find a mentor. Having someone to share experiences with and seek advice will go a long way.”
Be curious. Dr. Maria Iordache, who previously worked for IBM and now serves as the product management director at Cray, recounted how she was the only female in her Ph.D. class, which was humorously accentuated by her professor’s greeting: “Good morning, lady and gentlemen.” She advises women to spend time with people that they admire by asking for a half-hour of their time for a quick chat or coffee. It provides a great platform to learn what steps they can take to prepare for a career in STEM.
Be accountable. Sue Kelly, a distinguished member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories, has been working in STEM for nearly four decades. She advises, “When completing a task, if your best wasn’t good enough, that’s the end of the sentence. Don’t look for another excuse. You can only improve yourself.”
The Future for Women in STEM
The beauty of STEM is it is constantly evolving. New positions, such as data scientists or sales engineers, are continuously being created, and they do not carry the precedent of being considered “male” and provide a blank canvas for women. New ventures are also always emerging, many of which will rely on HPC. With the renewed interest in space exploration, HPC will play a critical role in performing simulations and finding minor mistakes in advance to prevent major catastrophes.
I am optimistic for the future of women in these fields. The education system is dedicated to promoting STEM proficiency. Many of the largest technology companies are getting on board, such as Google’s $50 million commitment to Made with Code to expose girls to women who utilize coding in film, music and fashion. Certain STEM fields have less of a gender gap, and even more women than men in some cases.
It only takes one person to see something in someone else that inspires her. For me, that individual was my father. He imparted several words of wisdom that still stick with me today, my favorite being: “Always question. Question with boldness. There’s nothing in the world that you can’t do, so go for it.”
About the Author
Jill King is responsible for driving market awareness and demand for Adaptive Computing’s products and services. With a professional background that spans over 20 years in Telecom, Networking and IT, Jill King brings a wealth of marketing and leadership experience to her Adaptive Computing role. Prior to Adaptive Computing, Jill has held several senior management positions, including, CMO for Cierra, VP of Marketing for Asita, Director of Marketing for CAIS and Marcom roles for Nuera and others where her efforts significantly contributed to sizable revenue growth. As a portfolio entrepreneur, Jill has launched several startups, raised substantial capital and has been on the leadership team during 3 acquisitions including the acquisition of CAIS by Cisco. Jill has also launched new industries such as VoIP and VPN. It is her plan to do this a third time with the launch of Big Workflow, an industry term coined by Adaptive Computing to describe the acceleration of insights for IT professionals through more efficient processing of intense simulations and big data analysis. | <urn:uuid:77e18a05-562d-4673-8ede-28c5cb4df2e6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.hpcwire.com/2014/08/18/inspiring-next-generation-women-blaze-trails-embrace-stem-careers/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560281574.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095121-00325-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.968822 | 1,475 | 3.515625 | 4 |
When you create partitions, you make logical divisions of your tree. These divisions can be replicated and distributed among different eDirectory servers in your network.
When you create a new partition, you split the parent partition and end up with two partitions. The new partition becomes a child partition, as seen in the following illustration.
Figure 6-1 Before and After a Partition Split
For example, if you choose an Organizational Unit and create it as a new partition, you split the Organizational Unit and all of its subordinate objects from its parent partition.
The Organizational Unit you choose becomes the root of a new partition. The replicas of the new partition exist on the same servers as the replicas of the parent, and objects in the new partition belong to the new partition’s root object.
Creating a partition might take some time, because all of the replicas need to be synchronized with the new partition information. If you attempt another partition operation while a partition is still being created, you receive a message telling you that the partition is busy.
You can look at the replica list for the new partition and know that the operation is complete when all replicas in the list are in an On state. You must manually refresh the view periodically because the states are not automatically refreshed.
To create a partition:
In NetIQ iManager, click thebutton .
Specify the name and context of the container you want to create a new partition from, then click. | <urn:uuid:f51ac648-1773-4ad4-a26e-10959b6c9de6> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.netiq.com/documentation/edir88/edir88/data/fbgdgigh.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560284270.95/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095124-00077-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.899521 | 301 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Concerns about racial disparity and the Internet were discussed and debated in the press and among scholars throughout the 1990s, but the issue didnt really come to a head until 1998. That year, for the first time, two scholars presented concrete demographic research that showed a digital divide along racial and economic lines.
In their report, "Bridging the Digital Divide: The Impact of Race on Computer Access and Internet Use," Professors Donna L. Hoffman and Thomas P. Novak of Vanderbilt University provided evidence showing that whites were more likely to have a computer at home and to use the Web than blacks. More disturbing was the fact that white students were twice as likely to have a computer than black students, and whites who didnt have a computer were five times more likely than blacks to find another way to use the Web, such as at a friends house, a library or a community center.
Evidence of a racial divide on the Internet was further reinforced the following year when the U.S. Department of Commerce released its report, "Falling Through the Net," which concluded that the gap between the technology "haves" and "have-nots" had increased between 1994 and 1997, with blacks and Hispanics falling further behind. Backing this evidence was a survey taken in 1999 by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which showed that, while blacks are increasingly likely to use the Internet, the participation gap between whites and blacks had widened by nearly 50 percent over figures from 1998.
The centers study showed the gap was most noticeable at poverty levels. Only 11 percent of black households with incomes under $15,000 reported using the Internet compared with 23 percent of whites earning the same income. With nearly one in four black families living at that poverty level, compared to 17 percent for whites, 14 percent for Hispanics and 7 percent for Asians, alarm bells started ringing in the federal government.
In his final State of the Union address, President Clinton vowed to attack the digital divide with a program called ClickStart, which would make $100 million in subsidies available to get nearly 10 million poor households online. The reason for such a program was clear, explained Clinton. "Today, opportunity for all requires something new: having access to a computer and knowing how to use it. That means we must close the digital divide between those who have these tools and those who dont."
Later, the White House expressed more succinctly the reason for the subsidy: Access to computers and the Internet and the ability to effectively use this technology are becoming increasingly important for full participation in Americas economic, political and social life.
With new evidence of a racial divide on the Internet mounting almost daily, black leaders began voicing concern about the digital divide, with some calling it a racial ravine. In March, the Rev. Jesse Jackson opened an office in East Palo Alto, Calif., on the edge of Silicon Valley. The opening was part of his effort to close the digital divide for the poor in general and blacks in particular.
But just as government and black leaders began to marshal support for closing the race gap on the Internet, new studies began to emerge, stating that the biggest gap on the Internet was not between ethnic groups, but the rich and poor. In April last year, Forrester Research issued a study showing a divide based not on ethnicity, but on disparities of income, age and education within the major ethnic groups. "In 1999, connectivity to the Net from home increased by at least 11 percent for all ethnic groups," said Ekaterina O. Walsh, an analyst at Forrester Research.
In June, a similar study by Jupiter Communications came to somewhat the same conclusions. While acknowledging a pronounced gap in Internet usage among ethnic groups, the study projected that this gap will close significantly over the next five years. Blacks had only a 30 percent rate of participation in 1999, lowest among all ethnic groups, but were expected to close that gap by two-thirds by 2005.
Some people were quick to jump on these statistics and call the digital divide a myth, insisting that most of the "have-nots" were in fact "want-nots" who didnt care for technology in the first place. Others, including a number of prominent black high-tech leaders, saw optimism in the new numbers. David Ellington, CEO and founder of Netnoir.com, told Salon magazine that he no longer believed a divide existed between races. "The Internet is now becoming relevant in our lives as a result of e-mail and chat sites, and African-Americans are going online in droves," he said.
Others, including Barry Cooper, CEO of Blackvoices.com, and Charles Ellison, co-founder of Politicallyblack.com, agreed that income was the divider, not race, and that more blacks than ever were going online.
But reports of the digital divide shrinking as the PC becomes as ubiquitous as the telephone havent quieted all voices in the black community. Last December, during the National League of Cities conference, black local elected officials filled a conference room at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston and nodded their heads in agreement when they heard Wilbert Minter, a council member from Oak Ridge, Tenn., call the digital divide a slam-dunk against African-Americans.
Later, when asked about the new data showing the digital divide as a problem about income, not race, Minter said people are missing the point. "African-Americans are the most economically disenfranchised ethnic group in America. We know there is a racial problem in this country. Its a fact and we have to deal with it."
Exacerbating the problem is the fact that more whites than blacks are able to take advantage of the benefit of not paying a sales tax when shopping online, according to Minter. "That means African-Americans are disproportionately paying more in sales taxes," he explained.
But the divide hurts blacks in other ways as well, added Minter. They lose out on the convenience that the Internet provides, forcing more blacks to spend time riding buses, driving or walking, whether its to shop, search for information or conduct business with their government. "The poor end up being disenfranchised in more ways than one because of the divide," he pointed out.
Black officials believe the solution to the digital divide will come from a combination of government aid, private-sector support and greater involvement within the black community. For the latter to work, Minter believes black communities have to create a "disparity roadmap" so that blacks can find some way to a computer thats hooked up to the Internet. Churches, schools, libraries and neighborhood centers can set up a network of computers, classes and volunteers.
Of particular concern is reaching young students who need easy access to computers and the Internet in order to keep up with their peers who are already online. Officials believe most black families can afford todays low-cost PCs, especially when they are purchased on a payment plan.
Already, studies show that black families subscribe to cable TV and pay-per-view entertainment in high numbers. Whats needed is an effort to educate them about the value of owning a computer with an Internet connection.
For all of this to happen, local officials have to play the role of cheerleader, showing their constituents the importance of technology by using it themselves and evangelizing its benefits.
"Its not our job as local officials to buy the computers for the disadvantaged, but to show them the usefulness of going online," explained Minter. "Thats the best thing we can do." | <urn:uuid:672917c4-759d-41a5-815e-d55a2dffbbce> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | http://www.govtech.com/featured/Debating-The-Racial-Divide.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560282110.46/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095122-00013-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.970561 | 1,536 | 3.453125 | 3 |
DDoS attacks disrupt or shut down web servers as well as entire networks. In contrast to a simple denial-of-service attack (DoS), distributed denial-of-service attacks (DDoS) can have an immense impact. Several computers that have been linked through bot networks simultaneously attempt to access a site or an entire network infrastructure. This can quickly lead to the failure of the servers. Typical DDoS attacks regularly seek to congest access links and overload the resources of the firewalls and web/database servers.
Some botnets already have tens of thousands of computers under their control. These computers have been infected with malicious software and are repeatedly used to launch a powerful attack, without the computers' authorized users even being aware of it. Due to the large number of computers used, it is almost impossible for an attacked website to identify the source of the attack. Likewise, in most cases it remains unclear who can be held liable for such attacks.
The attack patterns vary constantly. In addition, the frequency and the bandwidth of attacks are on the rise. Back in 2009, the majority of attacks were volume attacks, while the attack patterns since 2010 have tended towards application layer attacks and multi-vector attacks.
The average bandwidth and attack volume of DDoS attacks have been steadily increasing. The annual growth rates are already well over 200 percent. | <urn:uuid:015af8ee-bcbf-4818-8ead-16f71d7de68b> | CC-MAIN-2017-04 | https://www.link11.com/en/what-are-ddos-attacks/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2017-04/segments/1484560279169.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20170116095119-00520-ip-10-171-10-70.ec2.internal.warc.gz | en | 0.957024 | 269 | 3.140625 | 3 |
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