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Advanced static analysis tools are popular because they have proven effective at finding serious programming defects. In contrast to traditional dynamic testing, the code is never executed so there is no need for test cases. This means that static analysis can be applied very early in the development process. When programmers use static analysis as soon as code is written, bugs and security vulnerabilities can be found and eliminated even before the unit testing or integration testing phases. The earlier a defect is found, the cheaper it is to fix. This cost saving is a major advantage of automated static analysis.
The latest static analysis tools represent a significant technological improvement on early generation tools. These new tools use sophisticated whole program techniques to find defects and are typically used on large quantities of source code written in high-level languages such as C/C++ and Java, or even on object code. Such tools are the subject of this post.
- The Power of Ten – Rules for Developing Safety Critical Code
- Defective Java Code: Mistakes That Matter
- 90% Perspiration: Engineering Static Analysis Techniques for Industrial Applications
- Measuring the Value of Static Analysis Tool Deployments
Of course these tools are not perfect. For most non-trivial programs no practical tool can find all bugs (i.e., there are false negatives), and all such tools may also report problems in code that is defect free (i.e., false positives). As I will explain later, given the technology and resources generally available today, this is inevitable. Because of this, all warnings from a tool must be inspected by a human to determine whether or not they indicate a real problem, and whether they warrant action. This process is known as triage.
There is a strong inverse relationship between false positives and false negatives. Tools that find more real defects (true positives) generally also have a higher rate of false positives. Even for a single tool, there are typically configuration options that allow end users to control the underlying analysis to favor one end of the spectrum over the other.
Users dislike false positive results for various reasons, so they prefer tools (or configurations of tools) that keep the false positive rate low. However, this comes with the risk that the tool might fail to report real defects. The most effective tool is one that strikes the right balance between false positives, false negatives, and performance. When deploying one of these tools, or deciding which tool to purchase, users should consider this tradeoff to maximize the benefit of using the tool. There are lots of factors that influence this decision. In a later post, I will describe the important considerations and parameters, then describe a model that can help users measure the benefit of a static analysis tool and assess how best to configure it. Equations derived from the model allow users to compare tools using simple warning report counts.
First I would like to briefly introduce some terminology. Static analysis tools are essentially detectors of defects, so some of the vocabulary from information retrieval is appropriate here. Recall is a measure of the ability of a tool to find real defects. It is defined as the probability that a tool will find a defect. A tool with 100% recall can find all defects and is said to be sound. Precision is a measure of a tool’s ability to exclude false positives, defined as the probability that a result corresponds to a real defect. Precision is easy to measure once warning reports have been triaged but it is very difficult to measure recall accurately because the number of false negatives is unknown. Measuring it requires knowing exactly how many defects there really are in the code under analysis. It is important to point out that precision and recall can vary enormously among defect classes, even for a single tool. A tool that is very good at finding buffer overruns may not necessarily be very good at finding resource leaks
Why False Positives and Negatives are Inevitable
For the majority of users, the real measure of the usefulness of a static analysis tool is whether it can find a reasonable number of important bugs in their programs without overwhelming them with useless reports, all without using an unreasonable amount of computing resources. The rub is that the very same properties that make these tools practical to use also mean that they are vulnerable to false positives and false negatives.
Static analysis tools work by creating a model of the code to be analyzed, and then querying that model in various ways. The model usually consists of a set of intermediate representations such as symbol tables, abstract syntax trees, control flow graphs, the program call graph, and so forth. The querying mechanisms can range from simple searches of those data structures through very sophisticated algorithms based on advanced concepts such as dataflow analysis, symbolic execution, abstract interpretation or model checking. The important thing to emphasize is that the analysis operates not directly on the program, but on a model of the program, and models are almost never exact — they are either over- or under-approximations. If a model is exact or an over-approximation, then it is said to be sound because it captures all possible behaviors of the actual program. A sound model with a sound analysis yield results with no false negatives. If a model is an under-approximation then it fails to capture some relevant aspect of the program and false positive results can be generated, regardless of whether the analysis is sound or not.
To understand why it is practically impossible to create an exact perfect fidelity model of a program, it is worth describing how a tool might do so. If the tool is operating on source code it will first have to parse the code in exactly the same way as it is parsed by the compiler used to create the object code. Then the analyzer must have precisely the same interpretation of the language semantics as the compiler so that it can create a model that accurately reflects what will happen when the program executes. Language specifications are riddled with problems that make this difficult, like the new C++11 standard, for example. Also, the same code can have subtly different behavior depending on the platform for which it is compiled.
Because of these difficulties, all general-purpose practical static analysis tools create program models that are over-approximations in some senses and under-approximations in others, so even if the analysis algorithms were perfect, false positives and false negatives would inevitably slip in. Of course the analysis algorithms are not perfect either. They make their own approximations. The most compelling motivation for this is so that they will scale to large programs. The market demands tools that complete in a small multiple of the time to do a regular build. Unfortunately, many of the algorithms are fundamentally super linear if they are to be precise. For example, consider an analysis that is path sensitive: capable of computing information about individual paths through the program. The number of paths through a single procedure with no calls or loops is exponential in the number of conditionals. Clearly no algorithm can hope to be approximately linear if it tries to enumerate all possible paths separately. Instead, tools reason about paths in the aggregate, and deploy other strategies to keep the analysis close to linear.
When True is False
So far I have been using the traditional technical definitions for true and false positive — a true positive is a correct report about a real defect, and a false positive is a report about a bug that does not really exist. However, this is almost never the exact criterion that end users employ when looking at reports. What really matters to an end user is whether the report yields useful and actionable information. There is a great deal of variation in how to interpret results depending on the nature of the defect, the role of the user, the platform on which the application will run, and the environment in which it is deployed. In “Mistakes That Matter” Bill Pugh describes his experience with this issue when deploying static analysis at Google. Take for example a true positive report of a buffer overrun, one of the most notorious classes of C/C++ defects from a security perspective. In the early stages of application development it almost always makes sense to change the code to fix such a bug. The programmers are actively changing the code anyway so fixing it involves little extra overhead. However if the same defect is found after the application has been deployed then it is much trickier to decide whether it is worth fixing. It might be a benign buffer overrun that overwrites a single byte of otherwise unused memory, so impossible for a malicious attacker to exploit. In such a case it might be very expensive to fix the code, retest the application, and redeploy it. This expense, coupled with the risk that any change to the code may introduce a new defect, may mean that it is just not worthwhile to correct the defect at that time. Another example is a security analyst will typically consider a redundant condition warning (i.e., a condition whose value is always true or always false) unhelpful, but the person charged with testing that code to achieve 100% condition coverage would be happy to get such a report because it means that they don’t have to waste time trying to generate data to test the impossible.
Counter intuitively, there are even situations where it makes sense to change the code in response to a false positive report. Many programmers react strongly to this; after all, the tool is clearly wrong about the program, so why would they need to change the code? However, by changing the code, the programmer is making it easier for the analysis to produce useful results, thereby increasing the chance of it finding real defects. Changing the code leverages the power of automation. Such changes also make the code easier for a human to understand. This principle is a core tenet of Holzmann’s “Power of 10” rules for safety critical programming.
The key point is that software development is an economic activity — the challenge is to make the most effective use of the resources available. The cost to fix a real bug may exceed the benefit of fixing it, and the benefit of “correcting” a false positive may exceed the cost of leaving it alone. Tools don’t have good ways of judging such things, and can only be relied on to give narrow technical answers. It is proper that humans be the judge of which static analysis results should be acted upon. Of course humans are not perfect judges either, and there are some pitfalls associated with interpreting static analysis results as I’ll explain in the next section.
Static analysis tools are designed to produce reports that are subsequently then get triaged by a human. However, we humans make mistakes. We have innate cognitive biases and a limited attention span. We may misjudge some reports, and we may introduce new errors as we fix old ones. In order to understand how to make the best use of a static-analysis tool, it is essential to take these frailties into account. Naively, it would appear that the most effective tool is the one that finds the most real bugs, i.e. the one with the highest recall. However, even a tool with perfect recall can be worse than useless if it also has poor precision. Too many false positives can drown out the true positives, which wastes time and makes it very difficult for a human to tell them apart. It takes some care to distinguish a true positive from a false positive, and if a user is accustomed to looking at false positives all day, a fatigue sets in that makes it more difficult to find the real bugs.
There are ways to efficiently process and dismiss of false positives in bulk, assuming that they are easy to recognize, and many tools can be configured to do so automatically. It is also possible to reduce the human workload by automatically prioritizing warnings based on risk. However, it remains true that once this is done, the remaining warnings will still consist of some true and some false positives, and that it requires human judgment to tell them apart.
Users dislike false positives, often intensely. This strong emotional reaction has a disproportionate effect on the way tools are designed, configured and used. If given a choice between a configuration that reports 40 real defects and 10 false positives, and a configuration that reports 50 real bugs but with 50 false positives, our experience is that users will almost always prefer the former, even though it is finding fewer real defects. This is perfectly understandable — users are being asked to weigh an immediate concrete negative (time wasted looking at false positives) against an intangible potential future positive (bugs that may not show up). This is not to say that the users are necessarily wrong to do so. Perhaps the expense spent poring over those extra 40 false positives exceeds the benefit of finding and fixing those 10 extra defects.
In my next post, I'll consider the economics of static analysis tool usage in terms of the relationship between precision, recall rate and number of real defects found. This provides a way to objectively compare tools based on the costs of reviewing error reports and the opportunity costs of missed defects.
CONCLUSION:The real measure of the usefulness of a static analysis tool is whether it can find a reasonable number of important bugs in their programs without overwhelming them with useless reports, all without using an unreasonable amount of computing resources. However, even a tool with perfect recall can be worse if it also has poor precision. Too many false positives can drown out the true positives and missed true defects have significant costs if left undetected into final products. Evaluation of static analysis tools based on their ability to balance precision and handling of false positives is needed. | <urn:uuid:00339de2-b21d-441d-b619-330ed7f3b2aa> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://resources.grammatech.com/get-the-most-value-from-static-analysis/human-factors-in-evaluating-static-analysis-tools | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337421.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003133425-20221003163425-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.940938 | 2,753 | 2.84375 | 3 |
Over the past decade, instances of ransomware-related cyberattacks have been on the rise around the world, and recent studies show that they are not going to slow down any time soon.
According to researcher Cyber Security Ventures, a new business or organization falls victim to a ransomware attack every 14 seconds. Over 2017 and 2018, phishing defense solutions provider Phishme found that ransomware attacks increased by over 90%. Due to the fact that ransomware attacks involve the unsolicited encryption and potential complete loss of data, they can be costly for individuals and organizations alike, both in terms of server downtime and money spent on recovery, according to the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
How to Take Steps to Prevent Your Network from Falling Victim to a Ransomware Attack
Both the U.S. government and industry professionals agree: the most important way to minimize one’s chances of experiencing a ransomware attack is to practice what is referred to as proper “network hygiene.”
This includes routines such as regular data backups, installation of operating system and software updates and limitation of programs’ abilities to run under conditions known to be friendly ransomware access points. In particular, networks should pay attention to what are known as “end-point” users by restricting certain permissions.
Here are several FBI and CISA-recommended ways in which one can best prepare a network for a potential ransomware attack and practice proper network hygiene:
- To ensure that files and other important information can be completely recovered in the event that a ransomware attack occurs, data should regularly be backed up and secured, either on a physical storage drive or secured cloud service. Another important measure that should be taken is the updating and patching of software and operating systems; according to CISA, most devices that saw ransomware attacks contained software or an OS that were not up-to-date.
- Networks used by multiple users – particularly those employed by large corporations or organizations – should limit the permissions of certain users with regard to their ability to download, execute or receive certain files. Administrators should also consider the security of email servers, as ransomware can be spread through embedded code attachments that are activated if macros are enabled. Both the FBI and CISA recommend enabling spam filter settings to block emails with “suspicious” codes.
- Only so much can be done at a purely network level to prevent a ransomware attack; user education is also essential to prevent unwary individuals from engaging in risky online routines or behavior that could pave the way for an attack. For example, workplace training should teach employees not to click on any unsolicited links or attachments and how to recognize potential scams, particularly those known as “phishing scams.”
Steps to Take in the Event of an Attack
When it comes to saving one’s data, time is valuable when a network is inundated with a ransomware attack, so taking the correct course of action can prevent what very well could be a costly and time-consuming recovery attempt, according to the FBI.
Depending on the level of ransomware protection and preventative measures used in a compromised network prior to an attack, the recovery process could range from simply isolating and deleting the malware to a frantic scramble to prevent its spread, let alone save important files and other information.
Assuming that a network did not have optimal preventative measures in place, here are the steps that one can take to stop a ransomware attack in its tracks before further damage can be done:
- Regardless of the ransom amount demanded or what any accompanying (and often threatening) message claims, victims of ransomware attacks are advised that they should NEVER pay any amount of money. The FBI explains that while paying a ransom may seem to be the quickest option to prevent a costly recovery process, it does not ensure that a ransomware victim will regain access to encrypted data. In addition, some users who chose to pay reported that they had been asked to pay more or fell victim to separate attacks. CISA notes that data regained through a ransom payment could still contain malware.
- Once a network user has determined that he or she has fallen victim to a ransomware attack, the decision must be made to either call relevant authorities to handle the recovery process, or attempt to rectify the situation immediately. In either case, the FBI and CISA recommend that law enforcement always be alerted.
- A victim has the best chance of saving as much data as possible by identifying and isolating the device(s) through which the malware was able to gain access. Once the device or devices have been disconnected from the network, a user should then isolate and shut down any other connected devices. Backup data linked to the network should also be taken offline, while any recoverable portions of encrypted data should be collected and secured.
- Once all devices and backups have been disconnected from the network and any unransomed data has been secured, passwords should be changed. Finally, the ransomware itself can be stopped by deleting both the registry values and program files, the FBI states. This step is recommended to be performed last due to the chance that encrypted data could be lost in the event that ransomware is fitted with a self-destruct feature when a user attempts to stop it from running. | <urn:uuid:943f4a2f-1ba1-4703-a5cf-c85314c42dcb> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.faronics.com/news/blog/ransomware-prevention-from-and-response-to-an-attack | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337421.33/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003133425-20221003163425-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.951862 | 1,058 | 2.703125 | 3 |
Avoid being a digital hostage due to ransomware
Ransomware is a piece of malicious software (malware) that has the intention of encrypting the files of the victim. Once the files are encrypted the attacker demands a ransom (most often an amount of money) from the victim. The victims are contacted and given instructions of how to pay and how to receive a decryption key to regain access to their files. The costs of this decryption key vary from a few hundred to thousands of euros. These payments to the cybercriminals are mostly done via cryptocurrency.
In this article we will tackle some questions on how to cope with ransomware and how to prevent it.
The main reasons why companies fall victim to ransomware
There are multiple reasons why companies can fall victim to ransomware. Below we summed up the most common ones. Out-of-date systems
Out-of-date systems. One of the basic principles which are often underestimated is keeping all systems up to date.
New vulnerabilities are discovered every day. Software patches and updates are the suppliers’ response to those vulnerabilities. If systems are not updated, either because of the laxity of the administrators or because the system can no longer *be* updated since it is no longer supported by the supplier (such as Windows 7 since January 14). This means the existing vulnerabilities will remain, which gives attackers free rein on your systems.
A lax permission management
A too lax permission management is another reason a lot of companies are the victim of malware. Malware, and ransomware in this case, is especially designed to spread as fast and as far as possible.
If, for example, my computer is infected with ransomware, that malware will look for the resources I have permission for. These resources can include systems, applications, files, shared folders and networks. The more access rights I have the further the malware can spread.
Tip: Follow the “Least privilege” principle which states: Only give those permissions that are strictly necessary to perform the job.
A weak password policy
A weak passwords policy is another reason a lot of organizations fall victim to various cyberattacks.
- Weak passwords can be hacked or cracked very quickly (a rule of thumb: The longer the passwords the better; a minimum of 8 characters is advised in combination with a number and a special character)
- Reusing passwords is not done. Once a password is cracked on one system, the attacker has an easy job using this password on other systems. Like they say; he will kill two birds with one stone!
Weak passwords can be supplemented with Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), which typically uses two or more independent access methods like passwords, security tokens, and biometric verification.
Phishing is a type of scam via email where attackers try to persuade people under false pretenses. They try to trick people to log-in somewhere, click on links, execute files, transfer confidential data (personal or professional), etc. The scenarios are countless as these hackers are very creative.
These phishing attacks are used to get a foot in the door. From there they work their way to their goal, which can be as various as the scenarios they use.
Nowadays, phishing is the number one used technique to hack companies (Cyber Security breach survey 2019 – UK Government). The attackers like to use phishing as it is the most easy way to reach a large audience. They just have to send one email to a large database. For companies, it is very difficult to arm themselves against these kinds of attacks. If only one employee is not alert enough and clicks a link or logs in somewhere unsafe, … he or she can put the entire company at risk.
How do I discover the vulnerabilities in my systems to avoid a ransomware?
Get the current status with regard to the vulnerabilities of your current systems. Vulnerability management allows you to regularly map your systems and associated vulnerabilities. The responsible teams gain insights into the identified vulnerabilities, furthermore they also see the progress when they take specific actions. More importantly, with automated vulnerability management, they can also check whether the implemented patches or changes were implemented correctly.
Ask for help! There are companies employing specialized, ethical hackers who can examine your systems, identify the weaknesses, and help you prepare a remedial plan.
Examining and identifying the weaknesses of your systems is called a penetration test, or pentest. A security exercise, an analysis, where ethical hackers simulate a series of attacks on your environment, application (web, mobile, or API) or network to find and list your vulnerabilities, their exploitability which attackers could take advantage of and their impact.
The output of a pentest is to list vulnerabilities, the risks they may pose to applications or a network, and a concluding report. Common vulnerabilities include design errors, configuration errors, software bugs etc.
Security information and event management (SIEM)
Gain insight into the events in your area. Security information and event management (SIEM). (Managed) SIEM allows you to correlate and evaluate security events based on defined rules. A SIEM tool does not only provide a starting point in the event that unwanted behavior is detected, but also ensures that the events involved are stored in a location other than the compromised system.
How do I reduce my attack surface?
Your attack surface on your systems can be reduced in various ways, technical and non-technical. As stationed above there are a number of technical ways like:
- Keep your systems up to date
- Make sure you have a strong password policy
- A strong permission management
- A decent endpoint security
Another very important aspect to reduce your attack surface is ‘User Awareness’. If the users of your systems are aware of the dangers, the possibilities and the scenarios attackers use they are more likely to notice the attacks.
How to increase user awareness?
- Educate your employees so they are aware of the dangers, how they should recognize them, and especially how they should report suspicious cases
- Establish a safety policy and set rules
- Phishing campaigns – send phishing emails to employees yourself to measure how susceptible your company is to phishing attacks
What if I am a victim of ransomware? What can I do?
When fallen victim to ransomware, the chances the attackers ask for money is substantial.
Do not pay in any case! You are not sure that the attacker will release your data after payment. And even if they release your data, you are not sure that they will not encrypt your data again with another key.
So what should you do?
Contact Cronos Security to check if that type of ransomware is not cracked and that decryption keys are available to the public.
A magical solution to prevent cyberattacks, like ransomware, does not exist. The best approach is known as the Castle Approach, an in-depth defense system. This is a concept in which multiple layers of security controls are implemented in the company’s IT systems. This means that when a security layer fails or forms a vulnerability another layer is still in place. | <urn:uuid:e4616141-3770-4a55-81bc-937d1696f041> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://thesecurityfactory.be/avoid-being-a-digital-hostage-due-to-ransomware/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337529.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004215917-20221005005917-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.943088 | 1,456 | 2.671875 | 3 |
Study shows that over 90% of data transactions performed through IoT devices are unencrypted providing inroads for hackers
A large number of IoT devices are exposed to man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks where hackers are in a position steal or manipulate their data. The ‘IoT in the Enterprise: an analysis of traffic and threats’ report that looked at connections from IoT devices from enterprise networks found that over 40% do not encrypt their traffic. This makes a large number of IoT devices open gates to secured data.
The report by network security firm Zscaler is based on the statistics on telemetry data that is collected from the company’s cloud. The security firm analyzed 56 million IoT device transactions from 1,051 enterprise networks over a month, i.e., between March and April 2019. Over 250 different IoT devices made by 153 device manufacturers were studied. These include IP cameras, smart printers, IP phones, medical devices, data collection terminals, digital signage media players, industrial control devices, networking devices, and even 3D printers.
One of the findings was that 91.5% of data transactions performed in corporate networks by IoT devices were unencrypted. As devices go, 41% of companies did not use Transport Layer Security (TLS) at all, over 40% used TLS for some connections, and only 18% of companies used TLS encryption for all traffic. This makes connections susceptible to various types of MitM attacks.
Experts say that while a malware infection is on a regular computer, it is likely to be detected sooner or later, while an IoT compromise is much harder to discover, which gives attackers a secret backdoor into the network.
Enterprises also have IoT devices that are exposed directly to the internet, for example, surveillance cameras, but these are in small numbers inside corporate networks. While devices connected directly to the internet are at higher risk of being attacked, the ones inside local networks also would not be difficult to compromise.
Experts believe that many IoT devices in enterprises work on default credentials or have security flaws. The reason for this is that IoT devices don’t have automatic updates and open, even to known vulnerabilities. It has been noted that the most common malware families that target IoT devices include Mirai, Gafgyt, Rift, Bushido, Muhstik, and Hakai, where they use brute-forcing login credentials.
Another cause for concern is the vulnerabilities of shadow IT devices that are connected to enterprise networks. According to experts, companies do have consumer-grade IoT devices on their networks. Since the amount of these devices is quite significant, it highlights the problem of shadow IT. Companies find it challenging to control what electronic devices their employees connect to the network; these include wearables to cars. Organizations must ensure that there are solutions in place to continually scan the network to identify such shadow devices and create policies on where these devices are allowed to connect.
The IoT spending report by IDC has predicted that the IoT devices market will reach $745 billion in 2019. The top countries where IoT is adopted at a faster pace include the U.S. and China, followed by Japan, Korea, Germany, France, and the UK. Clearly, this problem could very fast spin out of control as the number of devices grows.
Experts express that IoT technology has moved faster than the mechanisms available to safeguard these devices. In the consumer grade, there has been almost no security built into IoT hardware devices that have flooded the market, and some of these devices are also found in the enterprise networks, making that data vulnerable.
With all of these connected devices and significant amounts of associated data traversing on the network opens up new vulnerabilities for cybercriminals; legacy networks cannot be trusted to provide adequate security. | <urn:uuid:1c6c8cb8-9436-4ff4-8588-f3b7b64f386a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://enterprisetalk.com/featured/unencrypted-iot-devices-are-a-security-risk/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.957236 | 765 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Ammonia is a colorless gas known for its characteristic pungent odor. It is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen, and its chemical formula is NH3. Ammonia gas is lighter than air and it reacts violently with water. It is flammable above 15% by volume in air. Ammonia is mainly used as a fertiliser, and also in refrigerating systems, household cleaners, and industrial cleaning agents.
Although ammonia is not a highly flammable gas, ammonia containers can explode when exposed to high heat. To prevent such hazards, ammonia gas sensors are being highly used in commercial and industrial settings to monitor the level of ammonia in the surrounding.
As ammonia is lighter than air, ammonia gas sensors are usually placed within 12 inches of the ceiling or at the highest point of an enclosed area or buildings. For gases similar in density to air, gas sensors are positioned in the breathing zone (4 to 6 feet above the floor), while sensors for detecting gases heavier than air are usually located within 12 inches of the floor or at the lowest point in an enclosed area.
Nowadays, ammonia gas sensors are being increasingly used for controlling vehicular and industrial emissions and also for environmental monitoring. Governments of many countries have come up with stringent rules and regulations regarding emission and pollution control. This has increased the deployment of ammonia gas sensors in various industries, thereby driving the growth of the global ammonia gas sensors market.
The global ammonia gas sensor market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 6% during 2016 to 2023. Increased demand for low-cost nitrogen for the production of nitric acid has increased the demand for ammonia. This, in turn, has also increased the demand for ammonia gas sensors. Moreover, the rising use of ammonia as a fertilizer in agriculture can increase the risk for both the environment and human health. This has increased the need for deploying ammonia gas sensors so that preventive measures can be taken on time.
Region-wise, the Asia-Pacific region is expected to register significant growth in the coming years. The growth of the Asia-Pacific ammonia gas sensors market has been driven by the increasing number of manufacturing hubs in the region, especially in countries like China and India. The key players operating in the global ammonia gas sensors market are, Sensidyne, LP, Aeroqual, Nissha Co., Ltd., Industrial Scientific, Delphi, Invest Electronics Ltd., and AHLBORN, among others. | <urn:uuid:11e73c41-f35d-4e37-8f5c-d544872cb6bb> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.alltheresearch.com/blog/global-ammonia-nh3-gas-sensor-market | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.952755 | 494 | 3.296875 | 3 |
What is the true definition of API security? This is an important question for IT security leaders to ponder, because of the explosion in API usage in recent years, but if you ask 10 tech stakeholders, you’ll receive 10 different answers.
No matter the size of your organization’s technology footprint or your industry, chances are your IT includes dozens of APIs or more. Those APIs can be exploited, potentially resulting in data breaches, theft, fraud, and business disruption.
Since there are so many uses for APIs today in web application development and beyond, running down every possible API vulnerability and the appropriate response is an involved process. Using an API security checklist is a great way to make sure everything is in order, with all potential risk factors accounted for and safeguards in place.
API security: More necessary than ever
Before committing to running down a full API security checklist, it may be necessary to remember why APIs are worthy of security attention and focus. In short, it’s because application programming interfaces have become the tool of choice for data interchange between applications.
Of the over 21 billion application requests made over six months, more than 14 billion were API-based, accounting for over two-thirds of the total. During the second half of 2021, these many APIs were a large-scale attack surface for hackers, with exposure of sensitive data through APIs rising 87%.
Companies are employing APIs to build essential capabilities, from e-commerce software to user authentication portals and all manner of web applications. Nearly any piece of software on a company’s website will include some API-based functionality in its code.
To get a sense of all that could go wrong with API usage, you can review the Open Web Application Security Project’s top vulnerability list. The current OWASP API Security Top 10 includes such risks as broken access control features, failures of cryptography, insecure design decisions and misconfigured security features. Any one of those could produce undue security risk, meaning companies must take the time to review the security of all their systems.
Why follow an API security checklist?
Taking stock of the current API security posture is an essential step for any organization today. This is best accomplished with a formalized API security checklist, to ensure every possible vulnerability is covered by an appropriate response.
A checklist based on API security best practice specifications will include the multiple related areas that make up comprehensive API security. This means strong visibility into all of a company’s APIs, as well as an understanding of the potential security risk factors associated with those APIs and threat mitigation options. There should also be considerations made around ongoing design and development processes, to make sure security is included as part of the business’s DevOps workflow, to prevent new threats from going live. Additional considerations around how to proactively protect existing APIs from attacks should be accounted for – even a perfectly coded API can be attacked.
By the time a company is done studying and complying with an API security checklist, that organization should have API security processes embedded into its existing security and application development processes. This is a way to prepare the organization for the future as well as eliminate any existing vulnerabilities.
Such a forward-looking approach is an important consideration because API usage is on an upward trajectory. New APIs and interactions are always emerging, and attackers are developing new threat types at a rapid pace. In this challenging environment, it’s important to stay one step ahead of the next generation of risks.
Legacy API security methods have often focused on web application firewalls (WAF) and API gateways. These methods primarily work against known threats and brute-force attacks rather than novel, zero-day risks or more subtle threats that infiltrate systems with legitimate-seeming traffic. A complete API security checklist will prepare businesses to take on a more diverse roster of threat types.
Running down the API security checklist
Rather than simply discussing an API security checklist in abstract terms, it can be instructive to see what types of threats and responses are actually included in such a document. Such a list should go beyond API security testing and include potential countermeasures for all kinds of threats, both currently known and as-yet-unknown.
The Cequence API Security checklist is designed to provide a comprehensive overview of API protection, including building defense mechanisms into workflows to keep organizations safe in the years to come. The list is broken down into several distinct categories, as follows:
Continuous API Discovery and Runtime Inventory
Businesses need automated ways to determine which APIs they’re using, what sensitive data is moving into and out of these interfaces and whether there are any changes to the ecosystem. A company’s API footprint can be larger than even its own developers realize, which is why these visibility and discovery tools are so vital — IT security teams can’t protect what they can’t see.
Shadow APIs, not documented in the company’s specifications, may be lurking within the business’s application ecosystem, and these need to be visible, as do APIs based on common specifications such as OpenAPI. The tools used to provide API visibility should be vendor-agnostic and integrate with all existing infrastructure tools, including every API gateway, proxy and controller.
API Risk Assessment
Once an organization has better visibility into its API footprint, the next step in API security testing is to provide a risk assessment for all of the discovered APIs. By rating each instance on a scale from 1-10, it’s possible to prioritize API security needs and develop effective countermeasures in the case of a major vulnerability. By using a visual dashboard, IT security teams can filter out the APIs potentially endangering sensitive data, using poor authentication practices, or are not conforming with the defined specification and take action.
Continuous, real-time threat assessment is important because both the risk environment and API footprint will evolve over time. An API endpoint may deviate from published specifications, introducing new risk. Since every company is different, risk assessment rules should be customizable.
API Risk Remediation and Threat Mitigation
Each step of the API security checklist builds on those that came before. Once teams understand their API footprints and have analyzed the risk of their APIs, they can use automated tools to flag top priorities and respond. Real-time reports on API usage can reveal potentially malicious traffic, based on known threat patterns, and begin automated corrective action, enabling fast responses.
There are a few potential response types to malicious API traffic. Security personnel can block, log, deceive or rate-limit attackers’ access. As with risk assessment, threat mitigation tools should be customizable to ensure a given company can fend off threats without impeding legitimate traffic.
Design and Architecture
API security solutions should always be built on an architecture that makes sense for an organization’s needs. Considering the diverse types of uses companies have found for API-based development, that may mean a cloud-based software-as-a-service deployment or an on-premises deployment in a data center. There is also an important role for hybrid deployments, with data collection features on premises for security and compliance, and the control plane in the cloud.
The API security tool should not analyze too much sensitive data — only what is needed to perform its role. This is an important consideration to make sure the security approach complies with laws such as the General Data Protection Regulation and does not become a privacy liability.
A comprehensive API security deployment will integrate with network infrastructure of all kinds to make sure there is visibility into all types of API traffic, both inline and out of band. Integration with external content delivery networks allows organizations to analyze still more information.
Both internal and external APIs need to be part of API security efforts because either could provide the attack surface a bad actor needs to compromise sensitive data. Through integrations with gateways, proxies, load lancers, controllers and more, it’s possible to cast such a wide net.
API development workflows need to be part of the API security solution to minimize the risk that a new vulnerability is put into production. This is why the API security checklist concludes with integration into DevOps workflows and existing security tools.
With these integrations in place, developers will be able to make API security visibility and risk mitigation a part of their continuous integration and deployment workflows. Since the features are highly automated and efficient, the result is more secure application development without slowing down workflows.
Take action on your API security posture
Regardless of size or industry, your organization can likely benefit from the kind of comprehensive API security refresh that comes from using a detailed API security checklist. With API usage only expanding, including for the transfer of sensitive information, it’s important to take action as quickly as possible.
Your API security action should not just cover one area, such as discovery and visibility — you should take an end-to-end approach that leaves your organization with comprehensive protection of all APIs, internal and external, real-time awareness of emerging threats and smooth integration with your development processes.
Download this free API security checklist to ensure you are choosing the API security solution that best fits your requirements.
Never miss an update! | <urn:uuid:b366247f-23bc-40d5-91ef-1546e6d0f707> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cequence.ai/blog/api-security/using-an-api-security-checklist-what-should-you-look-for/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.935879 | 1,922 | 2.765625 | 3 |
A data pipeline is a set of actions organized into processing steps that integrates raw data from multiple sources to one destination for storage, AI software, business intelligence (BI), data analytics, and visualization.
Data pipelines play a core role in network operations. For example, a company might be looking to pull raw data from a database or CRM system and move it to a data lake or data warehouse for predictive analytics. To ensure this process is done efficiently, a comprehensive data strategy needs to be deployed – and the data pipeline is at the center of this process.
Understanding data pipelines
There are three key elements to a data pipeline: source, processing, and destination. The source is the starting point for a data pipeline. Data sources may include relational databases and data from SaaS applications. There are two different methods for processing or ingesting models: batch processing and stream processing.
- Batch processing: Occurs when the source data is collected periodically and sent to the destination system. Batch processing enables the complex analysis of large datasets. As patch processing occurs periodically, the insights gained from this type of processing are from information and activities that occurred in the past.
- Stream processing: Occurs in real-time, sourcing, manipulating, and loading the data as soon as it’s created. Stream processing may be more appropriate when timeliness is important because it takes less time than batch processing. Additionally, stream processing comes with lower cost and lower maintenance.
The destination is where the data is stored, such as an on-premises or cloud-based location like a data warehouse, a data lake, a data mart, or a certain application. The destination may also be referred to as a “sink.”
Data pipeline vs. ETL pipeline
One popular subset of a data pipeline is an ETL pipeline, which stands for extract, transform, and load. While popular, the term is not interchangeable with the umbrella term of “data pipeline.”
An ETL pipeline is a series of processes that extract data from a source, transform it, and load it into a destination. The source might be business systems or marketing tools with a data warehouse as a destination.
There are a few key differentiators between an ETL pipeline and a data pipeline. First, ETL pipelines always involve data transformation and are processed in batches, while data pipelines ingest in real-time and do not always involve data transformation. Additionally, an ETL Pipeline ends with loading the data into its destination, while a data pipeline doesn’t always end with the loading. Instead, the loading can instead activate new processes by triggering webhooks in other systems.
Uses for Data Pipelines:
- To move, process, and store data
- To perform predictive analytics
- To enable real-time reporting and metric updates
Uses for ETL Pipelines:
- To centralize your company’s data
- To move and transform data internally between different data stores
- To Enrich your CRM system with additional data
9 popular data pipeline tools
Although a data pipeline helps organize the flow of your data to a destination, managing the operations of your data pipeline can be overwhelming. For efficient operations, there are a variety of useful tools that serve different pipeline needs. Some of the best and most popular tools include:
- AWS Data Pipeline: Easily automates the movement and transformation of data. The platform helps you easily create complex data processing workloads that are fault tolerant, repeatable, and highly available.
- Azure Data Factory: A data integration service that allows you to visually integrate your data sources with more than 90 built-in, maintenance-free connectors.
- Etleap: A Redshift data pipeline tool that’s analyst-friendly and maintenance-free. Etleap makes it easy for business to move data from disparate sources to a Redshift data warehouse.
- Fivetran: A platform that emphasizes the ability to unlock “faster time to insight,” rather than having to focus on ETL. It uses robust solutions with standardized schemas and automated pipelines.
- Google Cloud Dataflow: A unified stream and batch data processing platform that simplifies operations and management and reduces the total cost of ownership.
- Keboola: Keboola is a SaaS platform that starts for free and covers the entire pipeline operation cycle.
- Segment: A customer data platform used by businesses to collect, clean, and control customer data to help them understand the customer journey and personalize customer interactions.
- Stitch: Stitch is a cloud-first platform that rapidly moves data to the analysts of your business within minutes so that it can be used according to your requirements. Instead of focusing on your pipeline, Stitch helps reveal valuable insights.
- Xplenty: A cloud-based platform for ETL that is beginner-friendly, simplifying the ETL process to prepare data for analytics.
About the author:
Dibongo (Dibo) Ngoh is a Solutions Engineer at 2nd Watch. | <urn:uuid:32ece223-286a-43a7-b295-f8104e6681e8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.eweek.com/big-data-and-analytics/guide-to-data-pipelines/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.898609 | 1,043 | 3 | 3 |
In this article, you will be learning about Azure DNS Zones, How we can create a DNS Zone in the Azure portal, some of the records sets present in Azure SNS zones along the workflow of DNS requests. Before we move on, let us understand what DNS is and why we use DNS in the real world.
What is DNS?
DNS Stands for Domain Name System and is used to resolve names (like google.com, facebook.com, etc.) to IP Addresses. To keep it simple Domain Name system is like a Telephone directory where peoples phone numbers are mapped to the individuals just that telephone directory has numbers and names of individuals, Domain Name System is the directory of the Internet which stores domain names like google.com and facebook.com and IP addresses so that the end-users can load the webpages.
Now talking about Domain Names, Domain names should be unique globally. Why do we need a Domain Name? Say, for instance, starting tomorrow if Google asks you to use an IP address instead of google.com to use their search engine. Will you like it? I personally don’t. It’s not user-friendly and difficult to remember for end-users. As an admin, if I need to change IP for some reason in the future, the IP needs to be shared with everyone all over again, which is not a right/efficient way of doing it.
Domain Names should be registered with Domain name registrars. Registrars are those companies authorized to reserve a domain name and provide services required for a domain for a fee. There are so many registrars in the market; a few of them would be GoDaddy, WordPress, Wix, etc.
What are Azure DNS Zones?
DNS Zones is a service provided by Microsoft in Azure Portal. You can map your public Domains with your Azure DNS Zones and webservers to publish your Web Apps using DNS Zones.
There are two types of DNS Zones services in Azure
- DNS Zone: This service requires internet and it resolves names over the Internet. If you would like to host a domain in Azure you will need a DNS Zone mapped to that domain which we will be looking at it in detail.
- Private DNS Zones: This service does not require internet. It is usually used at the Intranet level over Virtual Networks. You do not need a public domain
Steps to create DNS Zone
- Search for DNS Zones in Azure portal.
2. Click on Create.
3. Enter all the required details like the name for DNS Zone, resource group and then Click on Review + Create.
4. Click on Create after validation is passed.
5. Once DNS Zone is created in the Azure, you will see two records highlighted below.
- SOA: SOA stands for Start of Authority record. It holds the details of the Primary DNS server which is responsible for domain name resolution.
- NS: NS stands for Name server record. It is a combination of Primary + secondary DNS Server.
NOTE! It would help if you had a domain name created with Domain registrars to map the name servers with Domain Names. Here I have already created a domain name arunkashokan.com for testing.
Mapping Name servers created in DNS Zones with Domain Name
Now, we have the DNS zone created; you need to establish a link between your DNS zone in Azure and Domain name in your registrar. To establish the link, you need to add the name servers from the DNS Zones in the DNS Management Section of the Domain Name, hosted with the registrar. In my case, it was GoDaddy where I created the domain. Hence I am adding the screenshot of the same below.
Now, you might have a question saying, why are we adding 4 name servers? Won’t one name server suffice to process the request? Yes, it will be enough, but we are adding it to make the website highly fault-tolerant and increase availability.
Testing the Webserver
I already have a Webserver created in Azure with just an index page showing a line “Azure DNS Zones.” Below is how you see when you try to access the Webserver using an IP, but this is not how we want it; we need it with the domain name “arunkashokan.com,” which we created, and for that to happen, we need to add a record set in the DNS Zone.
Adding record set to a DNS Zone
Now that we have a domain name and DNS Zone linked, we need to add the IP of our web server in the Type A record set of your Azure DNS. Let’s look at the steps to create a recordset to add our IP address that needs to be resolved.
- Click on Create Set in the DNS Zone which was created.
2. Select Type A – Alias record to IPv4 address and enter IP of your web server that you would like to resolve and click on OK.
3. After clicking on OK record set will be created, and you should see the entry in the DNS Zone as highlighted below.
4.Now, let’s go ahead and try with the Domain name “arunkashokan.com” that we created. We should see the same output as we did with the IP address.
There You Go! You should be able to resolve your domain name with the IP address that you mapped successfully.
Workflow of Domain Name System
Now that we can browse the web page successfully let’s try to understand what happens in the background, i.e., how the domain name resolution happens for the first time. Below is the workflow with the domain name we created in this article arunkashokan.com
- User is tries to access the website named arunkashokan.com
- Request is forwarded to the Local cache of the system. When the user is trying to access the website for first time. Local cache will not have the IP Address of the website.
- If IP is not present with Local cache, request will then be forwarded to the Router DNS which will again forward it to ISP DNS and from there to the dot(.) which is called Root DNS.
- Root DNS will forward the request to TLD’s (Top Level Domain) like .com, .org, .in etc.
- TLD’s forward the request to the Domain Registrars like GoDaddy, WordPress etc. In our case it is GoDaddy which contains the name servers of our Azure DNS.
- Using name servers of our Azure DNS request will be forwarded to our Azure DNS Zone which contains the IP of Webserver in the record set we created and thereby the request is forwarded to Webserver and the user will be able to view the webpage.
That brings us to the end of this post; in the next post, we will look at the Private DNS Zones where we can create Domain names at the intranet level. | <urn:uuid:69703a92-c7b7-4420-b8e6-d92a394231c0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://howtomanagedevices.com/azure/7902/create-azure-dns-zones-recordset/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338213.55/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007143842-20221007173842-00683.warc.gz | en | 0.917303 | 1,462 | 2.6875 | 3 |
What's Happening with the Trusted Internet Connection?
As of three years ago, an estimated 8,000 access points existed between federal networks and the Internet. TIC, instituted by the Bush administration in 2007, originally aimed to reduce the number of connections to about 50. The basic concept behind TIC is that by drastically reducing the number of Internet access points, the government could more easily monitor and identify potentially malicious traffic.
But Matt Coose, director of federal network security at DHS's National Cybersecurity Division, said in an interview with GovInfoSecurity.com (transcript below) that a more realistic goal is about 80 Internet connections. Coose said about 50 access points had been certified by DHS by late February. Still, as of late February, more than 2,000 non-compliant Internet connections still feed into federal networks, he said.
Why will the federal government end up with more TIC access points than originally foreseen? Coose said the growth in government systems and applications as well as increased Internet use by federal employees is behind the higher number. But the point of TIC isn't about a specific number of access points, he said, but the fact that the government is significantly consolidating its Internet connections.
"The strategy with TIC was to define a manageable number of access points, get those in place across the various agencies, and then just begin reducing and consolidating the external connections to run through those access points," Coose said.
In the interview, Coose:
Coose, a West Point graduate and former Army captain, was interviewed by GovInfoSecurity.com's Eric Chabrow.
ERIC CHABROW: The Trusted Internet Connection, or TIC as it is commonly called, is an initiative to reduce vulnerabilities in government IT systems, in part, by drastically reducing their network connections between federal networks and the Internet on the theory that fewer connections make it easier to monitor potentially damaging traffic. For those of who aren't familiar with the Trusted Internet Connection initiative, please take a few moments to tell us about it.
MATT COOSE: Your introduction was pretty much on the money. We are looking at reducing and consolidating external Internet connections, establishing baseline security capabilities, exits, access points, and then we have got a compliance function to go out and actually validate those activities that are occurring across the federal executive branch departments and agencies.
CHABROW: TIC was started in November 2007 by a directive by President Bush, is that correct?
COOSE: That is correct, yes.
CHABROW: At the time, how many Internet connections were there and how successful been in reducing those connections?
COOSE: Well, it's interesting that you started with that because one of the things that we are trying to get folks to focus on is a little bit less on the actual number of connections. I am sure, you know, bandwidth utilization is growing over time as more applications and systems come online with Internet Protocol version 6 [next generation Internet] and some of those things, so we are really focusing on more of a consolidation aspect. The strategy with TIC was to define a manageable number of access points, get those in place across the various agencies, and then just begin reducing and consolidating the external connections to run through those access points.
CHABROW: Still, I have seen figures as high as 8,000 points of entry to the Internet, these are for civilian agencies, correct?
COOSE: Right, executive branch agencies.
CHABROW: And were there about 8,000 back in 2007?
COOSE: That precedes my time here but I do think that is probably in the ballpark.
CHABROW: The initial goal was to get down to 50; I know you don't want to concentrate on numbers. Now I hear that perhaps the government would be satisfied with 100 and I do want to get to the other aspects of TIC, but I would still like to know how many TIC connections are there now?
COOSE: Currently, there are 50 approved access points across the 110 federal executive branch departments and agencies. We are in the process of refining that number. We are accepting requests from agencies that need more and we are vetting those and reviewing those for feasibility. You are right, I think at the end of the day we will end up between 50 and 100, and I think we are right about the 80 number right now and we need to continue to draw that consolidation over time.
CHABROW: Though there are 80 now there are still other non-TIC connections that still exist, is that correct?
COOSE: Correct, yes.
CHABROW: So you have any idea of how many there are or not?
COOSE: We have looked at several sources. We are collecting from directly agency input to our contracts and some of that stuff, the ballpark, and again this is why this isn't an exact science because circuits get ordered kind of every day, but I would say in the ballpark of the mid-2,000s.
The other problem with that is because, as you know, we are in the process of migrating from the older FTS contracts for telecommunication services to the Networx contract that General Services Administration has put in place. What we are seeing is as agencies migrate, orders are getting cancelled and reorders for a different vendor are on a daily basis. At the end of the day, the goal is to get everybody on the Networx and get them routed through those approved access points.
CHABROW: Is there a timetable when you expect to see all agencies using TIC?
COOSE: My estimate is that by the end of the calendar year 2010. There are a lot of complexities as you can imagine with 110 different departments and agencies and the networks that the have, there are always going to be some anomalies, but in general I would say by the end of calendar year 2010 I would expect that we would be close to 80 percent in place seeing traffic from the 110 different departments and agencies; 20 percent is going to be over time we have got to figure out the anomalous networks and how we are going to address those.
CHABROW: Let's talk a little bit about how does TIC work. How do agencies connect to a TIC? Where are these TICs located? Who manages the TIC?
COOSE: There are two models really for agencies to participate in the initiative, really there are three but the third is a combination of the first two.
One is to be a TIC Access Provider (TICAP). In that case, primarily the larger agencies will establish their own access points, their own TICs. They will stand them up; they will run them; they will monitor them, and they will have their own internal SOC (security operating center) and NOC (network operating center) functions.
The other model is what we call seeking service agencies, primarily the smaller agencies. And the way that they participate is they will go through a TICAP who is a multiservice provider so there is one TICAP that is offered to provide service to other agencies, or they will go through one of our MTIPS vendors, that is Managed Trusted Internet Protocol Service, those are the network vendors that offer MTIPS services.
CHABROW: Let's talk a little bit about the evolution of the Trusted Internet Connection in critical security capabilities terms of what needs to be done. For example, I believe there are 51 that need to be implemented?
COOSE: TIC 1.0 architecture, which is the current architecture, there are 51 critical capabilities that lay out really NOC-SOC functions that need to be implemented at the TICs. We found that architecture was done with an interagency group a year or two ago, and then we have got a compliance person that goes out onsite and assesses whether or not those capabilities have been stood up. Agencies have made significant progress to date on doing that; again, these are the TICAP agencies. The ballpark average I think has been about 80 percent across the board of the 12 TICAPs that we have done onsite compliance assessments for to date, but about 80 percent of the 51 capabilities are in place so that is kind of across the average of the agencies that we looked at.
Back in September 2009, about three agencies that we have looked at had told us they have 100 percent of the 51 in place, another nine had said they have 90 percent or more of those capabilities in place and another three have said they have got 80 percent or more. So, very good progress in terms of he agencies that are implementing TICs out there and standing up those capabilities.
CHABROW: Can you describe what some of these capabilities are? Are the simple? Are the complex?
COOSE: They range. Some of them are managerial in terms of you have got to have a SOC capability that is staffed 24x7 with qualified resources, others get into more technical filtering of inbound/outbound SMTP messages, so it kind of runs the gamut. Some of them are highly technical and some of them are more kind of functional and managerial censure that NOC-SOC capabilities are in place.
CHABROW: Some of these involve Einstein, which monitors traffic coming into the government, as well as the with the U.S-CERT, is that correct?
COOSE: Correct. Yes, one of the 51 actually is deployment of Einstein II.
CHABROW: Just for those who may not be familiar, what defines Einstein II from the original Einstein and then a third version coming out, too?
COOSE: Einstein II is the advanced intrusion detection capability. Einstein III is more of the proactive intrusion prevention.
CHABROW: Is that something that could eventually be added down the road?
COOSE: Absolutely. That is one of the points that I wanted to make with you is that as you know, threats evolve on a daily basis so we realize that we have got to keep this dynamic and so we have got working groups in place. I keep mentioning TIC 1.0 architecture; we are about half way through the development of the TIC 2.0 architecture. Data Cross, the interagency working group that has met several times this year and has got planned meetings for the next couple of weeks, to develop a 2.0 architecture that is just going to incorporate a few more critical capabilities because we want a mature the baseline of things we have put in place to that end.
CHABROW: Can you give an indication of what some of these more critical capabilities will be?
COOSE: I don't want to talk to that yet because it is still in a working group at this point, but if you look at the different threats that you are seeing that is definitely a large source of input for us and how we kind of develop the defensive capabilities we want to put in place.
CHABROW: You say there is a working group at the agencies, is the White House involved either through the Office of Management and Budget or the new Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt?
COOSE: We have been working very closely. Howard has actually been very active as well as Federal CIO Vivek Kundra. So we do work very closely on all of the DHS initiatives with those two leaders. We are basically partners in these efforts across the board.
CHABROW: How do you know if TIC is working to help secure government IT?
COOSE: One of those things that we are really enabling here is situational awareness across the federal enterprise. The Einstein 2 deployment, all that information feeds our U.S.-CERT organization, which is the operational arm of NCSD. It has been apparent to date, we've increased the traffic that they are seeing quite significantly through the TIC initiative, but we are seeing a lot of activity and we are able to reach out to NOCs and SOCs now that those capabilities are in place to help mitigate what we are seeing out there. By being able to see from an enterprise perspective what is going on, we are able to more proactively warn the other agencies that may not be having the activity yet that it is coming so they can take appropriate steps. I think that is a really good indicator that security posture is increasing and we are actually improving the security of the federal government. | <urn:uuid:56d8aaa6-3b7e-4ea0-b774-8aaafe349828> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.govinfosecurity.com/interviews.php?interviewID=451 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334596.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925193816-20220925223816-00083.warc.gz | en | 0.973454 | 2,580 | 2.625 | 3 |
1 Introduction The issue of tombstoning rose to prominence because, while components and assemblies have become much smaller over time, overall assembly processes have remained much the same. As components become smaller, so can your process windows. There was a time when a Type 2 solder paste and chemically etched stencil were acceptable for almost all assemblies. Throughout the 1990s, Type 3 solder paste and laser cut stencils became the norm. For those using micro-components today, a Type 4 solder paste and an electroformed stencil can be a prerequisite to highly consistent stencil printing. Likewise, equipment that can place components within +/- 50-100 microns (while suitable in its day) is no longer acceptable when placing 0201s or even 01005s. Ovens too have become more capable as well. Tombstoned component Why does a component tombstone? As the flux and solder alloy liquefy and wet to each side of a component, they apply small amounts of torque through surface tension. The torque applied by the surface tension of liquid flux and solder has traditionally been a fringe benefit, helping to center misaligned chip components. However, this friend has become a foe in modern electronics assembly. Tombstoning is caused by minute differences in wetting force from one side of a chip component to the other. When there is a sufficient imbalance in torque, relative to the mass of the component, the component is tipped upright (tombstoned), consigning the product to either scrap or rework. Chip components have gotten much smaller over the years with many weighing in the milligrams. The same torque that once helped alignment now has the power to tombstone components. The only way to completely eliminate the tombstoning effect is to tighten your process variables. There are many process variables that actively contribute to tombstoning. These include, but are not limited to, trace/ board design, pad design, component and board oxidation, solder paste, stencil design, print process, placement process, and reflow process. Appropriate modification of one or more of these process variables will reduce or eliminate tombstoning. Key tombstoning variables Trace/Board Design – When board designers are laying out a circuit board, manufacturability considerations are often unknown or ignored. Having established that wetting force imbalance causes tombstoning, one of the primary causes for imbalance is the difference in temperature and, correspondingly, the difference in time of reflow between the two pads the chip sits on. Pad 2 Pad 1 Example: Pad 1 is connected to a wide trace, ground plane, or other heat sinking element. Pad 2 is connected to a thinner trace or less massive circuitry element. Pad 2 will often be hotter than Pad 1 and reflow before Pad 1. This temperature difference results in a reflow timing difference. When Pad 2 wets first, the wetting force from Pad 2 may be enough to overcome the force from Pad 1 resulting in a tombstoned component. Tombstone Troubleshooting John Vivari, Nordson EFD Figure 1 Paste has not fully wet Paste wets, producing torque, which lifts component 2 Pad Design – Mechanical advantage also plays a role in both tombstoning and skewing for the same reasons. The larger the pad relative to the size of the component, the longer the “lever” that the liquid flux and solder can apply. When a pad is too wide, imbalance in force between side fillets will skew the component. When a pad is too long it increases mechanical advantage applied by the toe fillet, making it easier to tombstone the component. Chip component pads should be no larger than necessary to meet mechanical and inspection requirements. In some cases, visual inspection requirements for fillet height will prevent the successful elimination of tombstoning due to restrictions on other aspects of the process. Component and Board Oxidation – Oxidation on either pad or component surfaces will cause slight delays in wetting. The difference in wetting time from one pad to the other can cause tombstoning. High quality boards and components along with proper storage practices will help to eliminate this factor. Component Geometry – Capacitors, inductors, and other “thick” chip components are statistically more likely to tombstone than resistors and other “thin” chip components. The risk of tombstoning is larger for the same reason as for oversize pads. The distance that the flux and solder wet up the termination adds to mechanical advantage. Component size and mass also play a key role. The lighter the component, the less force it takes to tombstone. A process that is tombstone free with 0603 components may be unsuited to 0402 components. As newer, smaller chips are introduced into your production process, incremental changes may be required to deal with the new challenge. Sample chip components (left to right): 0805, 0603, 0402, 0201, 01005 Solder Paste – Solder paste is actually a mixture of two independent materials: flux and alloy. In rare circumstances, particularly bad flux formulations do not provide sufficient tack just prior to and during reflow. Side-by-side comparisons of pastes are required to identify differences in performance. With regards to alloy, it turns out that there is a difference in performance between eutectic and non-eutectic alloys. Eutectic alloy changes state from solid to liquid all at once at a single temperature, developing full surface tension suddenly. Non-eutectic alloys change state gradually over a temperature range, developing surface tension over a longer time period, applying surface tension in proportion. Non-eutectic alloys such as Sn62/Pb36/Ag2 and Sn96/ Ag3.0/Cu0.5 have correspondingly lower incidence of tombstoning than Sn63/Pb37 and other eutectic alloys. The larger the melting range, the lower the probability of tombstoning. Alloy Solidus (° C) Liquidus (° C) Sn42 Bi58 -E- 138 Sn43 Pb43 Bi14 144 163 Sn62 Pb36 Ag2.0 179 189 Sn63 Pb37 -E- 183 Sn60 Pb40 183 191 Sn96.5 Ag3.0 Cu0.5 217 219 Sn96.3 Ag3.7 -E- 221 Sn100 MP 232 Sn95 Sb5 232 240 Sn95 Ag5 221 245 Sn89 Sb10.5 Cu0.5 242 262 Sn10 Pb88 Ag2.0 268 290 Sn5 Pb92.5 Ag2.5 287 296 Sn10 Pb90 275 302 Sn5 Pb95 308 312 -E-: Eutectic MP: Melting point : Lead free Stencil Design – Stencil design has two elements: aperture design and stencil technology choice. Stencil aperture design determines two things: paste volume printed and paste location. A good stencil design will place only as much solder paste as is required. Too much paste will produce too tall a fillet and greater torque during liquefaction of the solder. A good design also places the solder in a location that ensures appropriate component- to-paste overlap. With too little overlap, there may be inadequate adhesion on the pad that reflows second. With too much overlap, solder beads/balls show up on the side of chip components. Stencil technology defines the expected paste release characteristics. In order of increasing paste release performance there are chemically etched stencils, laser cut stencils, and electroformed stencils. Electropolishing and secondary plating of chemically etched and laser cut stencils have been proven to improve their paste release performance. 0805 0603 0402 0201 01005 US Quarter shown for scale 3 Print Process – One factor that has been shown to dramatically decrease tombstoning is the quality of print. With more uniform deposits, adhesion is more even from pad to pad. For 0201 apertures and others similar in size, Type 4 and Type 5 solder pastes have been proven to significantly improve print quality. Print settings should be optimized for maximum print definition and uniformity. Placement Process – If the component is placed more to one side or another, it will allow more surface tension to be applied to that side, and the component can stand up. If the component is not placed with sufficient pressure, it will begin to tip as wetting occurs, and if it is pushed too deeply into the paste, the paste will be displaced, and (again) uneven wetting may occur. Reflow Process – The reflow process is probably the most significant contributor to tombstoning. When a board design with tombstone-friendly features is sent through the oven, how the board is heated can make a tombstone problem either better or worse. To minimize tombstoning, the goal is to ramp temperature such that the solder alloy liquidus is achieved uniformly for all pairs of pads on the board. This means that the whole board should be brought to a temperature just below liquidus, and then slowly ramped up to reflow. By keeping wetting forces equal on both sides of a chip component, it is less likely to tombstone. For most products, a ramp rate of around 1° C per second is adequate insurance against reflow-induced tombstoning. More difficult products may require slower ramp rates with some as low as 0.33° C per second. Tombstone Optimized Profile Conclusion Every instance of tombstone components can be traced back to one or more of the variables discussed. If you do have tombstone components on an assembly, time spent on root cause analysis can quickly narrow down which variables are contributing to your problem. If one or two variables are difficult to change, sometimes the remaining variables can be manipulated to overcome weaknesses in design or process elements. If the tombstone problem resists your efforts, contact your solder paste supplier for assistance. Request samples If you’d like to test EFD solder paste or thermal compounds, please request samples. Simply go to www.nordsonefd.com/SolderSampleRequest. Request More Information Nordson EFD’s worldwide network of experienced solder paste specialists are available to discuss your dispensing project and recommend a system that meets your technical requirements and budget. Call or email us for a consultation. 800-556-3484 firstname.lastname@example.org www.nordsonefd.com/recommendations Connect with us For Nordson EFD sales and service in over 40 countries, contact Nordson EFD or go to www.nordsonefd.com. Global East Providence, RI USA 800-556-3484; +1-401-431-7000 email@example.com Europe Dunstable, Bedfordshire, UK 0800 585733; +44 (0) 1582 666334 firstname.lastname@example.org Asia China: +86 (21) 3866 9006; email@example.com India: +91 80 4021 3600; firstname.lastname@example.org Japan: +81 03 5762 2760; email@example.com Korea: +82-31-736-8321; firstname.lastname@example.org SEAsia: +65 6796 9522; email@example.com ©2019 Nordson Corporation. v011819
The issue of tombstoning rose to prominence because, while components and assemblies have become much smaller over time, overall assembly processes have remained much the same. As components become smaller, so can your process windows. | <urn:uuid:bf4a5f4c-1c49-4230-91f2-01711346f311> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.mbtmag.com/home/whitepaper/13249604/nordson-efd-llc-tombstone-troubleshooting | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334987.39/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927033539-20220927063539-00083.warc.gz | en | 0.895807 | 2,395 | 3 | 3 |
Identity is a Human Rights Issue
Editor's Note: This blog was originally published on September 13, 2021 and was updated on September 13, 2022.
Many of us take our legal identity for granted. We use our identities to secure a job, open bank accounts, get tax relief, qualify for government programs or even to rent a car or buy a plane ticket. Legal identity is critical for individuals to seek legal protections and for communities as it underlies the exercise of rights.
Managing legal identity throughout its entire lifecycle is crucial for proper infrastructural planning of a country, and provides a mechanism for increasing social justice, civil rights and economic growth. Yet for many, it’s a barrier for participation in society. It’s estimated that more than one billion people worldwide lack official proof of identity. The lack of a legal identity system limits peoples’ lives and is a global issue.
What is a legal identity?
The definition of a legal identity is the registration and documentation of a person’s existence that enables access to the benefits, responsibilities and rights afforded to them in their country. In short, it’s a set of unique identifying information that includes details like name, date of birth and biometric or numerical data to authenticate the person. A government-issued passport is an example of one such document.
Where does legal identity begin? The answer is with an official birth registration. While many countries do have civil registries in place, one in four children under the age of five don’t legally exist due to a lack of an official registration process.
Legal Identity is a Human Right
Legal identity as a human right is established by international law through a range of declarations and conventions, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Providing a legal identity from day one helps to ensure that rights and access to social services are protected. In fact, legal identity is so important that the United Nations (U.N.) included it as one of its 17 Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
The U.N. indicates that although progress is being made with global birth registration, that progress has been uneven across countries and it is therefore looking to enhance the quality of civil registration systems. Digitization of services has greatly increased the need for legally verified identification. So much so that the U.N. Legal Identity Agenda Task Force held a round table with the digital identity private sector to help inform changes that impact public management of identities, especially in the context of the legal framework.
As work to improve birth registration and the availability of civil registries continues, campaigns such as ID4Africa’s International Identity Day aim to increase global awareness for the lack of legal identity.
What is International Identity Day?
The idea for International Identity Day came in the wake of several other globally recognized humanitarian days: December 10 is Human Rights Day and June 20 is Refugee Day. International days of observance are an effective and practical way to raise awareness and generate momentum around an issue.
International Identity Day began to develop three years ago. In 2018, ID4Africa, which is a regional Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) movement, initiated a global campaign for the official recognition of International Identity Day on September 16. Why September 16? The 16th of September date is very symbolic. The goal of International Identity Day is to support U.N. sustainability goal 16.9, which calls for legal identity for all — including birth registration — by 2030.
Since the campaign was initiated, more than 100 organizations, including government and humanitarian agencies, campaigners, standards organizations and NGOs have shown their support for the International Identity Day. We at HID have enthusiastically joined them.
Why is HID Observing International Identification Day?
We believe in making it possible for people to transact safely, work productively, learn confidently and travel freely. Legal identity for all is at the core of this belief. Our hope is that, by sharing this information, we can effect change and help provide not only legal identities, but also the consequent services they power for the people who need them.
To learn more about International Identity Day, you can visit the official website at id-day.org. Our Citizen Identity (CID) Business Area is eager to continue supporting this issue both practically — with tools like our civil registry solution to register births — and as part of our company culture and values. | <urn:uuid:219d6faa-6987-47ab-ac73-5ecee8eb9812> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://blog.hidglobal.com/fr/node/39203 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335530.56/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001035148-20221001065148-00083.warc.gz | en | 0.946747 | 899 | 3.3125 | 3 |
In today’s digital world, virtually everything uses a password. We use them to get into our phones and computers, to access our bank and social media accounts. Essentially, we put in a password for every account that requires a username. But why? To secure and protect our data. Passwords help to authenticate who we are. Yet, many of us never think about the consequences of what would happen if someone else gained access to this information.
We often use obvious passwords that are predictable, short and simple. We may even use the same password across multiple accounts, but with 63% of data breaches resulting from weak or stolen passwords, we need to safeguard our information.
Here are five password tips that will make it harder for hackers to gain access to your information.
1. If available, use Two-Factor Authentication. This provides an extra layer of security which can lower the chances of becoming a victim of identity theft.
2. Avoid using personal information for a password. Instead create a complex password using at least 8 characters (the more the better) and use a combination of lowercase and uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. A random phrase is harder to guess (or find) than your child’s birthday.
3. Never use the same password for everything. If you do and someone gains access to your password, they will have access to everything. They will own you.
4. Don’t store your passwords in your browser. It may be convenient, but if your computer, tablet, or phone gets lost or stolen, your information is going with them.
5. If you use security questions, treat them like passwords and make up answers. If someone knows you well enough, it wouldn’t be hard for them to guess your mother’s maiden name or the city where you grew up.
Need help protecting your passwords, take a look at CyberArk Password Vault or contact us today to see how we can help you. | <urn:uuid:6b97aca9-824e-4437-a2ad-65c7c57fad41> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://brite.com/5-tips-to-protect-your-information-and-passwords/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338280.51/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007210452-20221008000452-00083.warc.gz | en | 0.919239 | 406 | 3.484375 | 3 |
It is not easy to define the ‘sufficient condition’ for describing a set of processes used to establish that a natural person is real, unique, and identifiable; criminals keep coming up with hitherto unknown weapons to compromise the said processes.
But we are easily able to define the ‘necessary condition’; it is that the ‘secret credential’, i.e., the likes of passwords, is absolutely indispensable for the processes to stay reliable.
Let us summarize the characteristics of the factors for the processes, namely, the authenticators, as follows.
- Secret credentials are absolutely indispensable, without which identity assurance would be a disaster. (Ref. Removal of Passwords and Its Security Effect )
- Two-factor authentication made of passwords and tokens provides a higher security than a single-factor authentication of passwords or tokens. (Ref. Quantitative Examination of Multiple Authenticator Deployment )
- Pseudo two-factor authentication made of biometrics and a password brings down the security to the level lower than a password-alone authentication. (Ref. Negative Security Effect of Biometrics Deployed in Cyberspace )
- Passwords are the last resort in such emergencies where we are naked and injured (Ref. Availability-First Approach ）
- We could consider expanding the password systems to accept both images and texts to drastically expand the scope of secret credentials. (Ref. Proposition on How to Build Sustainable Digital Identity Platform )
We could add the following.
‘Easy-to-Remember’ is one thing. Hard-to-Forget’ is another – The observation that images are easy to remember has been known for many decades; it is not what we discuss. What we discuss is that ‘images of our emotion-colored episodic memory’ is ‘Hard to Forget’ to the extent that it is ‘Panic-Proof’. This feature makes the applied solutions deployable in any demanding environments for any demanding use cases, with teleworking in stressful situations like pandemic included.
The password is easy to crack – Are you sure?
Quite a few security professionals say ‘Yes’ very loudly.
We would say that a ‘hard-to-crack’ password is hard to crack and an ‘easy-to-crack’ password is easy to crack, just as strong lions are strong and weak lions are weak; look at babies, the inured and aged.
However hard or easy to manage, the password is absolutely indispensable, without which digital identity would be just a disaster. We need to contemplate on how to make the password harder to crack while making it harder to forget.
This subject and related issues are also discussed on Payments Journal, InfoSec Buzz and Risk Group
Future society enabled by expanding the password systems
Textual passwords could suffice two decades ago when computing powers were still limited, but the exponentially accelerating computing powers have now made the textual passwords too vulnerable for many of the cyber activities. The same computing powers are, however, now enabling us to handle images and making more and more of our digital dreams come true, some of which are listed below.
- Electronic Money & Crypto-Currency
- Hands-Free Payment & Empty-Handed Shopping
- ICT-assisted Disaster Prevention, Rescue & Recovery
- Electronic Healthcare & Tele-Medicine to support terminal care in homes
- Pandemic-resistant Teleworking
- Hands-Free Operation of Wearable Computing
- User-Friendlier Humanoid Robots
- Safer Internet of Things
- More effective Defense & Law Enforcement
all of which would be the pie in the sky where there is no reliable identity assurance.
By Hitoshi Kokumai
Hitoshi Kokumai, President, Mnemonic Security, Inc.
Hitoshi is the inventor of Expanded Password System that enables people to make use of episodic image memories for intuitive and secure identity authentication. He has kept raising the issue of wrong usage of biometrics with passwords and the false sense of security it brings for 16 years. | <urn:uuid:935ffd2e-fbee-489e-ba0c-c53e41a75feb> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://cloudtweaks.com/2020/05/identity-assurance-sufficient-and-necessary-conditions/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030331677.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924151538-20220924181538-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.914154 | 959 | 2.53125 | 3 |
An Air Force Research Laboratory-built small spacecraft carrying four experiment suites has completed its mission after almost two years in orbit.
The Demonstration and Science Experiments (DSX) mission aimed to collect data for the Department of Defense to understand the impact of environmental factors in medium-Earth orbit on spacecraft components, AFRL said Monday.
The DSX satellite lifted off June 25, 2019, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket and entered the passivation stage on May 31, 2021.
Robert Johnston, DSX principal investigator, said scientists and engineers will analyze data from more than 1,300 experiments during the mission as part of efforts to transform military spacecraft design work at the laboratory.
The Wave-Particle Interaction Experiment was the first of the four experiment suites and examined the unique particle behavior crucial for the development of technologies for Radiation Belt Remediation.
The second effort, Space Weather Experiment, studied locations and intensities of different particle types within the Van Allen Belts.
The succeeding experiment suite known as the Space Effects Experiment calculated the degradation of spacecraft components that were commonly used during the mission.
The Adaptive Controls Experiment was the final effort for the mission to determine how to operate large orbiting structures for future flight operations. | <urn:uuid:0d9ac870-50b4-47d1-b0d9-16315e3d764c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://executivegov.com/2021/07/afrl-spacecraft-completes-tech-demo-mission-after-nearly-2-years-in-orbit/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030331677.90/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924151538-20220924181538-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.93963 | 251 | 3.125 | 3 |
Phase II of the Enhanced Passive Surveillance project will expand the types of animals tracked and increase the user base.
Monitoring the safety of the nation’s food supply begins with early detection of potential disease outbreaks or changes in animal health status. Tracking, analyzing and sharing that information can help ensure the health of animals in the global agricultural market.
Over the next three years, possible animal disease outbreaks in at least 15 states and all major animal industries will be tracked using the Enhanced Passive Surveillance (EPS) system.
Developed by The National Center for Foreign Animal and Zoonotic Disease Defense (FAZD Center), a Department of Homeland Security Center of Excellence, EPS is designed to help those working with animals easily report potential disease outbreaks or changes in animal health.
The system enables users to enter animal health information with iPads, which is then integrated with data from veterinary diagnostic laboratories, wildlife biologists and livestock markets. The data is monitored and analyzed using the AgConnect system, the FAZD Center’s suite of customizable data integration and analysis products for real-time data awareness in the event of emerging, zoonotic and/or high consequence diseases. EPS data can also be analyzed using automated visual, geospatial, and temporal analysis tools within AgConnect.
“EPS leverages veterinarians in the field for reporting on animal health at the time they are observing or treating animals,” said Dr. Lindsey Holmstrom, DVM and FAZD Center research scientist in a January FAZD Center website posting. “This is a unique and critical data source for supporting animal health and disease surveillance that we previously did not have available in real-time. The system also provides information back to veterinarians from others reporting into the system, based on established data sharing protocols, which increases their awareness of the disease status in their geographic area.”
The goal of EPS is to provide surveillance information to emergency managers, state animal health officials and veterinarians during a disease outbreak, including identifying where the outbreaks are located and areas that are disease-free.
“EPS allows us to put mobile technologies in veterinarian’s hands and collect animal health data at local, regional or national levels. This allows the integration of surveillance data into a common display for early detection of emerging and high-consequence disease outbreaks,” said Tammy R. Beckham, FAZD Center director.
EPS was initially piloted in four states —Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Texas — with plans to expand the system to at least 15 states over the next three years. The expansion of the testing, Phase II, is funded through $2 million in federal funds from the DHS Science and Technology Directorate. The project has the potential for a nearly $9 million investment over the next three years. All major U.S. animal industries - horses, sheep, goats, beef and dairy cattle, swine and poultry – as well as wildlife (e.g., deer, feral swine, and wild birds) are tracked under EPS in Phase II.
In addition to expanding the types of animals tracked, Phase II increases the user base, adding producers, agriculture company veterinarians and production managers, as well as wildlife sources, such as wildlife biologists and organizations. Both producers and veterinarians can access the real-time data. FAZD also plans to expand the mobile platforms on which EPS can be accessed and add apps customized for specific industries.
“Ultimately, this project will demonstrate the power of data integration and aggregation,” said Dr. Beckham. With EPS, health monitors in the United States “will ultimately have a tool that will allow them to have real time situational awareness and ultimately defend our food supply from disease outbreaks through low-cost technology and real-time reporting.” | <urn:uuid:bef872aa-b7be-4db7-b29d-2fe890892d44> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://gcn.com/data-analytics/2014/04/dhs-expands-animal-disease-surveillance-project/297170/?oref=gcn-next-story | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335573.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001070422-20221001100422-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.934251 | 773 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Computer engineering is an immensely broad field – or set of fields to be more accurate. This article looks at some of the important aspects of computer engineering, the qualifications needed to enter into computer engineering work, and some of the great pioneers that helped shape the field and move it forwards.
Computer engineering has played a huge role in the history of the human race – especially in the last two centuries. Undoubtedly, you are reading this article on a machine developed by computer engineers while connected to a network created in part by computer engineers. With such a vast and important topic at hand, this article can obviously not cover all bases. Instead, it is an introduction to some key elements of computer engineering that every prospective computing student, businessperson, and investor should get to know. Computer engineering knowledge should not be restricted to a small cadre of specialists. The significance of the field means that the widest possible group of people should be clued up.
There is no one qualification that enables a person to become a computer engineer. The field is simply too varied to be condensed into one course. A Bachelor’s degree in computer engineering or computer science is generally considered to be a good base for progress in an engineering field. For project management, previously qualified engineers will need to take a Masters of Engineering Management postgraduate degree. Software engineering degrees are commonly sought by people hoping to find a career in software engineering – naturally. Specialist network engineering degrees are also available, although these are less common. For those wanting to go into academic research and push the boundaries of computer engineering, Doctorate funding is necessary. This enables researchers to join research teams at universities where cutting-edge technology is developed.
Ultimately, there is no replacement for the accruement of experience in the world of computer engineering. Qualified computer scientists and engineers will still need to seek work within organizations as low-level assistants before they can operate in the research and development realm. If you are looking to become a computer engineer, you can do a great deal worse than seeking out work as an assistant to a more experienced person.
Project management within computing is usually overseen by an engineering manager – often a specialist with experience in computer science or computer engineering. Project management during a large-scale development program is immensely complex. Due to the sheer number of variable factors and stakeholders involved, the project manager has to have a surefire combination of specialist knowledge and interpersonal communication skills. Luckily, modern software makes project management slightly more simple. Project management software allows a manager to centralize all of the reporting and communications produced by the team under their command. Aspects of computer engineering project management include:
Project managers need to discuss project aims and progress with stakeholders – including business executives and investors.
Picking the most suitable candidates from within an organization to work on a project and recruiting talented people from outside said organization.
Setting a budget after carefully analyzing the resources needed during a project.
Developing Realistic Progress Indicators – commonly known as RPIs – by which the progress of a project can be measured. The quantification of progress in a long-term complex engineering project is not a simple ordeal.
Writing up progress reports and using them to improve performance during the course of a project.
Team Management And Conflict Resolution
Like any manager, a computer engineering manager needs to make sure that a team is performing at its best. This work often includes the resolution of conflicts before they can affect performance or staff retention.
Research is an essential part of computer engineering. There are two kinds of research conducted in the field:
Academic research is conducted with the aim of advancing or investigating an aspect of computer engineering. This is immensely important. Almost all developments in the field have occurred in the aftermath of a wave of research papers. Everything from the development of the microprocessor to the creation of the World Wide Web was first outlined in a research paper or group of research papers. Computer scientists and engineers wanting to go into academic research will usually have to seek a Ph.D. after they qualify. PHDs allow engineers to take time away from practical work in order to pursue groundbreaking research.
Product research is conducted with the specific aim of developing an innovative product using computer engineering skills. Engineers researching during the development of a product may look at academic papers, conduct experiments, or commission market research. When working for a large organization, market research will have been carried out before a computer engineering team gets involved. Engineers then work with a brief produced by product development teams and research with the aim of finding an appropriate technological solution.
The actual design of a product is the ‘meat’ of a computer engineer’s job in many cases. Using the research that they have conducted and the specialist skills they have accrued in training, a computer engineer works as part of a team in order to develop a working blueprint and eventual prototype of a new hardware or software product. Computer-Aided Design software has aided engineers in the design process in recent years. 3D component printing has also allowed for the easy and cheap creation of prototypes that would previously have taken a huge amount of money and time to produce. Hardware engineers typically work in research laboratories equipped with CAD and 3D printing technology. Software engineers may work in less physically specialized environments.
When a prototype piece of hardware or beta software design has been completed, computer engineers need to begin rigorously testing the fruits of their labor. Specialist testing engineers are usually employed as part of large-scale development projects. Hardware and software testing differ in many ways. Hardware testers typically need to be more thorough with their work as there are fewer programs that can automate the testing and reporting process in comparison with those available for software testing. All companies engaged in computer engineering need to invest considerable resources into testing in order to ensure that the designs that they are funding fulfill their brief. Neither new hardware nor software is considered to be safe, reliable, and secure without multiple stages of testing conducted by engineers.
In recent years, the development of automated testing software has blossomed. This software often relies upon machine learning algorithms that can learn from and identify anomalous data produced when things go slightly wrong. The development of this software is another task for engineers!
Very few computer hardware or software systems operate outside of a network these days. This was not the case in the past – when computers and programs were often stand-alone devices that were sometimes completely unique, and they rarely connected to the internet for longer than the internet was being used.
Network engineers are responsible for the integration of hardware and software products into wider networks. This is an immensely complex task due to the value and inherent vulnerability of networked devices. We live in an ever more networked world, and the mass migration of computing services to the cloud is only accelerating this singularization. When Isaac Azimov predicted a computational human singularity in his famous short story ‘The Last Question’, he surely had no idea how quickly the networking of society would progress.
Software engineering is an extremely important field within computer engineering. All computer hardware is reliant upon software – programs loaded onto or accessed by devices. The development of new software enables the creation of new capabilities on preexisting machines. Software engineers are well paid for their work, which befits their importance in the commercial, military, and experimental computing worlds. As well as developing new software, engineers are often tasked with auditing and improving old software. They use their technical knowledge and troubleshooting skills to overhaul code and create user-friendly and highly capable software updates. Debugging and database management are also tasks in the wheelhouse of a qualified software engineer.
Pioneers In Computer Engineering
Throughout the history of computer engineering, some figures have advanced their field enough to be recognized as pioneers. Here are some of the great people that have bought the world of computing forwards into new eras. This is by no means an exhaustive list.
Englishman Charles Babbage began working on his famous difference engine in the 1820s after studying mathematics at Cambridge University. This simple pioneering computer was able to perform mathematical calculations and caused a huge stir: allowing Babbage to work on an even more ambitious project. The engineer and mathematician expanded on his work and created what he called his analytical engine. This machine is largely considered to be the forerunner of modern computers and is widely considered to be his most enduring legacy. The analytical machine operated using the first computer program, consisting of cards with holes punched through them. Different programs could be ‘written’ by punching new holes in a card and feeding it into the machine. The analytical engine was not fully completed during Babbage’s lifetime, but his work was continued by the legendary Ada Lovelace.
Ada Lovelace, the only legitimate daughter of the poet Lord Byron, took up the mantle of Charles Babbage and made huge strides forwards in computing. She had met Babbage at a party in 1833 and was fascinated by a small demonstration of computing that he put on for her. She was the first person to suggest that Babbage’s machine could have applications outside of mathematics and worked on some of the first computer programs. She is commonly known as the ‘prophet of computing’ and is one of the most influential female engineers in any field.
Nicholas Metropolis first rose to prominence not in computer engineering but in nuclear physics. He was one of the trusted group of men chosen by Robert Oppenheimer to work on the first nuclear reactors during the Second World War. After the conclusion of the war and the devastating use of nuclear weapons in Japan, Metropolis set about working on a computer. His design, the MANIAC I, weighed 1000 lb and was pioneering in design. It had enough computing power and memory to play simplified chess-like games. Fascinatingly, it beat a human being in a 6 x 6 chess-like game in 1956 – predating the success of Deep Blue by many years.
Seymour Cray is known as the ‘father of supercomputing’. During the 60s, 70s, and 80s, he built the fastest and most ingenious computer systems that the world had ever seen. He was a maverick until the end and consistently thought out of the box when designing machines. He looked to the human body for cooling mechanisms – even encasing one of his most ambitious computers in artificial blood. Cray famously shunned bureaucracy. When he was tasked with writing a 5-year plan for the company he co-founded, he wrote:
“Five-year goal: Build the biggest computer in the world. One-year goal: Achieve one-fifth of the above”.
Needless to say, his engineering efforts were a success: he helped create immensely capable machines.
Tim Berners Lee
Tim Berners Lee is a figure that will be familiar to any network engineer reading this article. He is, of course, the inventor of the World Wide Web – the most extensive and far-reaching computer network ever conceived. While working at CERN in the 1980s, Berners Lee conceived of a computer network that could be used to share scientific information. Whether or not he knew of the impact his idea would have on the world is academic. Berners Lee was an engineer that truly helped to usher in a new age of human communication. His ‘Information Management’ proposal, which outlined the World Wide Web concept, was published by CERN in 1989. By 1990, the first web server and operational browser were in use at CERN. | <urn:uuid:65a0e43b-7c9f-4bfa-91bf-da1887e7b222> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://itbusinessnet.com/2022/06/aspects-of-computer-engineering/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335573.50/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001070422-20221001100422-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.969999 | 2,402 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Mobile is now not just a calling device only. It is a device that works as a portable small screen device or computer device now days. It would be very easy for anyone if all the important data that one has in his or her computer is available at his or her mobile device. But that needs a proper synchronization of the mobile device. It is not so tough to configure a mobile device synchronization that one may need to reach a professional for the purpose. Here is a small guideline of what to do or rather how to synchronize a mobile device.
The first thing, which one should clearly know, while starting the process to synchronize a mobile device, is the types of data that is to be synchronized. Here are the list and description of the data that is to be synchronized in the mobile device;
When the mobile is plugged in to the computer, there is some synchronization which is done and it is to update the data stored in the phone or the software which is embedded there. Here are the most commonly things which are synchronized and updated when the phone is connection to the computing machine;
Contacts: The most important part of using any calling device is the contacts. The contacts may be stored in the phone or device, in the email accounts or in the sim , provided by the service provided to the user. This contact list can be saved in the external memory cards easily and that can be transferred to the computer for keeping a backup of it. Once that is done then how to put the numbers added recently. There is the place where synchronization is required.
Another amazing thing is, that when someone wants to change the cell phone and wants to switch to some new phone, he would notice that he can create the contact list from the old phone and can transfer them In computer, then can transfer them further to the new cell phone through the contacts synchronization.
Programs : The synchronization of a mobile device is usually done by the cloud system or MEPC support. The cloud system is basically a server where data is allowed to be imported or exported. Every time a new update is made in the programmes, the synchronization comes into action. The programs can be easily synchronized by using a restore point setting for the PC or mobile tablet. However one may find it difficult to synchronize the programs of an Android set with PC, as the 'apks' are not installed in the PC., yet the cloud synchronization retains the configuration smartly , so that every update on the pc can be easily seen and used in the mobile. For example Google Chrome has launched an android application that can be easily synchronized with the PC by using the registered email id. Not only that they have designed the program such that all the bookmarks that are been made from the PC can be viewed and accessed from the mobile device also. Thus there are some software's and applications that are made with an inbuilt synchronization facility .
Email: One's email is a place where almost all the vital and necessary information of him are placed or kept for a motive of accessing them anywhere or accessing them on the go. It is such a thing that if not synchronized, then one may lose a contract and even more losses in business can be experienced from that. The email of any person is available for synchronization in any mobile by using the POP or IMAP server and using the security types to ensure no data loss or mishandling of the email. The security systems, generally used in the process, are SSL/TSL or STARTTLS. Google mail has its own mobile version, which not only synchronizes the email but other things like the documents through the drives and videos through tubes. Thus one can access anything in the mobile, what he or she was working on in the PC. If he or she is going through a document in the PC and shares them in the sheets at drives, then he or she can continue the work from there only from his or her mobile device.
Pictures: Another thing that can be synchronized easily and is very important for corporate use or even for personal use is the pictures. Pictures contain logos and important seals and all for the corporate and they also are the mementos or the symbol or the best or happy moments of one's life. Copying the images from one's PC every time is not only possible and if made possible, then also it's irritating. Images can be synchronized by using a numerous software like the Picasa of Google, integral or flickr. Thus the software's for pictures are very handy for use and is a necessary application for any mobile device.
Music: The Music collection and playlist synchronization is preferred by almost all music listeners, especially when the listeners are fond of listening to generics. Not only the playlists but also the personalized equalizer or environment settings are the places where a music lover likes. The music gallery and settings can be synchronized by using software's like ITunes or windows media player.
Videos: Google has launched the Music station as a video synchronization application a Year back, where all the music and the playlist and even the videos and equalizers can be synchronized with the PC. Videos also are a place where the corporate seminars or even the video of weddings or any special events are the events in the file. So synchronization of video is another important aspect in the synchronization process.
These are the types of synchronization that a mobile device can do with a PC. These data if synchronized rightly, serves the purpose of the users hugely. The corporate business also gets an Aid of this synchronization process once the entire system is connected with their main server. Recently a Reputed Indian Bank has started their banking from the mobile devices due to the cloud synchronization of all those devices with the mother server. This has worked beautifully and served the purpose of many. In other way, many of the World Class Banks have their mobile banking software that connects the server directly from the mobile to make the transactions successful. Not only banks, but the other industries like webhosting websites and online website making sites allows this synchronization every time, so that the progress may be synchronized with the mobile devices also.
We mostly have the requirement to usually synchronize software applications on our personal computers. It has become obvious now that almost every device run various types of applications as well as programs for us. In today's world of fast networking, virus free operating systems are preferred with an installation of modern software for smooth running of the computers. Every software does not support all sorts of data storages as well as the synchronization techniques with speedy connectivity mostly needed for the Android and the iOS devices. With the latest design of software sleek technologies mobile devices are coming up with strong storage capacity with various types of different scooping knowledge in built in the systems. We may have something stored which can be even contacts that keeps a list of every one we are supposed to know. Now these can be a support for using it personally at times but mostly at a business requirement level. The mobile devices at the present times are the leading industries of information and programming languages who rule the world of computers for us. An anti theft tool well known as the mobile tracker for almost every devices now a days have reached a certain point of success and contributed a lot in the recovery of many devices, laptops, mobile phones, and internet supported accessories.
If one is delivering a load of emails from the mobile, which almost everybody does now and then, and it gets stored in the emailing inbox of the mobile device. Every one stores different types of videos and pictures, connection with media and the internet world in a synchronized method inside the computers as well as the mobile devices. One needs to synchronize the mobile devices along with the desktop computers or else the laptops to run a smooth service. In this process we want to make sure that there should be availability of process synchronization compatibility with all these portable mobile devices with the third party devices. While synchronizing the mobile devices with the desktop computers one should make sure that there should be a contact on the internet compatibility mobile devices. The contacts get stored in a file inside a folder icon on the desktop and then if the computer is updated, the change will also be seen on the mobile as an update notification every time it gets refreshed. With the use of iOS systems, one can make use of iTunes from the Apple Company mobile and the computers so that it is able to perform this synchronization because it puts everything in the synchronized pattern that is inside the phone memory. ITunes is a music synchronization software both for the mobile devices as well as the desktop version. Therefore all the informational storage that we are adding to the device like the music, audios and videos, pictures, and various other applications will all get synchronized and backed up as a support to this iOS system that is already installed on our desktop as a computer icon. This backup system is now available and is done automatically when one synchronizes the device, be it mobile or the computer.
And the best part out of this is that while this process of synchronization is done, a computer user will not have to take any look about what and how the process gets into order. Therefore it has become very easy to have all sorts of the data and the information as a backup file whether for present use and for further use too. The main motif is that if there is any case of phone loses, then a new phone is needed of course but the information along with the data all remains stored due to synchronization process. For the retrieving data what one needs to do is to plug in to the iTunes icon of the desktop where all the stored details are kept as stored items and then it will take as the backup and in this process acts as a restore file for the new device. There are a number of different connection options available to perform the functions. But presently there is a lot more to synchronize that is done over online to Google. Few android devices do not quite in having the same level of synchronization functions that are available. The android operating systems that was built along with the synchronization with the Google provides a level of competency to the user. On iOS , we mostly make use of connections that is proprietary. There are older devices that make use of Apple 30 pin connections mainly with the newer devices that Apple has coined with the name of lightning connections.
So basically, one should know that the Synchronization over the wireless networking that might have connectivity at one's home as well as office, a number of proper orders of synchronization can be done almost exactly with the same kind of connections. There is availability of a 8 pin connection with the Apple device as well as the android devices. There are probabilities of mobile cellular network which is wireless as well as provides wireless connections to the mobile provider as well as provide synchronization up to the Google services. There is a synchronization procedure of 802.11 wireless networking areas which is open and well used connection that is called USB Micro-B. Android devices do not possess the same level of connectivity functions as well as comprehensive synchronization facility.
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As algorithms and other AI tools become more prominent to military operations, researchers are studying better ways to visualize and communicate their decision-making.
The Department of Defense is racing to test and adopt artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions to help sift and synthesize massive amounts of data that can be leveraged by their human analysts and commanders in the field. Along the way, it's identifying many of the friction points between man and machine that will govern how decisions are made in modern war.
The Machine Assisted Rapid Repository System (MARS) was developed to replace and enhance the foundational military intelligence that underpins most of the department's operations. Like U.S. intelligence agencies, officials at the Pentagon have realized that data -- and the ability to speedily process, analyze and share it among components – was the future. Fulfilling that vision would take a refresh.
"The technology had gotten long in the tooth," Terry Busch, a division chief at the Defense Intelligence Agency, said during an Apr. 27 virtual event hosted by Government Executive Media. "[It was] somewhat brittle and had been around for several decades, and we saw this coming AI mission, so we knew we needed to rephrase the technology."
In February, DOD formally adopted its first set of principles to guide ethical decision-making around the use of AI. The 80-page document was the product of 15 months of study by the Defense Innovation Board, and defense leaders have pledged not to use tools that don't abide by the guidance as they seek to push back on criticism from Silicon Valley and other researchers who have been reluctant to lend their expertise to the military.
The broader shift from manual and human-based decision-making to automated, machine-led analysis presents new challenges. For example, analysts are used to discussing their conclusions in terms of confidence-levels, something that can be more difficult for algorithms to communicate. The more complex the algorithm and data sources it draws from, the trickier it can be to unlock the black box behind its decisions.
"When data is fused from multiple or dozens of sources and completely automated, how does the user experience change? How do they experience confidence and how do they learn to trust machine-based confidence?" Busch said, detailing some of the questions DOD has been grappling with.
The Pentagon has experimented with new visualization capabilities to track and present the different sources and algorithms that were used to arrive at a particular conclusion. DOD officials have also pitted man against machine, asking dueling groups of human and AI analysts to identify an object's location – like a ship – and then steadily peeling away the sources of information those groups were relying on to see how it impacts their findings and the confidence in those assertions. Such experiments can help determine the risk versus reward of deploying automated analysis in different mission areas.
Like other organizations that leverage such algorithms, the military has learned that many of its AI programs perform better when they're narrowly scoped to a specific function and worse when those capabilities are scaled up to serve more general purposes.
Nand Mulchandani, chief technology officer for the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center at DOD, said the paradox of most AI solutions in government is that they require very specific goals and capabilities in order to receive funding and approval, but that hyper-specificity usually ends up being the main obstacle to more general applications later on. It's one of the reasons DOD created the center in the first place, and Mulchandani likens his role to that of a venture capitalist on the hunt for the next killer app.
"Any of the actions or things we build at the JAIC we try to build them with leverage in mind," Mulchandani said at the same event. "How do we actually take a pattern we're finding out there, build a product to satisfy that and package it in a way that can be adopted very quickly and widely?"
Scalability is an enduring problem for many AI products that are designed for one purpose and then later expanded to others. Despite a growing number of promising use cases, the U.S. government still is far from achieving desired end state for the technology. The Trump administration's latest budget calls for increasing JAIC's funding from $242 million to $290 million and requests a similar $50 million bump for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency's research and development efforts around AI.
Ramping up the technology while finding the appropriate balance in human/machine decision-making will require additional advances in ethics, testing and evaluation, training, education, products and user interface, Mulchandani said.
"Dealing with AI is a completely different beast in terms of even decision support, let alone automation and other things that come later," he said. "Even in those situations if you give somebody a 59% probability of something happening …instead of a green or red light, that alone is a huge, huge issue in terms of adoption and being able to understand it."
NEXT STORY: Big changes on GSA's IT category team | <urn:uuid:ff3c36b0-1ffb-4032-bdf9-71bbe33b51a1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://fcw.com/it-modernization/2020/04/opening-up-dods-ai-black-box/196178/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337595.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005073953-20221005103953-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.961121 | 1,018 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Spear phishing is more focused than normal phishing. To protect against this type of phishing, your entire company will need to be educated and protected.
What is a typical spear phishing attempt?
A typical spear phishing attempt is a fraudulent personalized email that is usually sent with an attachment or requests a response. The fraudster then tries to entice the recipient to open the infected attachment or respond with personal information.
How a spear phishing attack works
Spear phishing is a highly targeted attack that first starts with an in-depth research phase. Attackers will spend time gathering information to use in the attack against the target company, such as stolen documents, email addresses, branded logos, and even details regarding the company structure.
Once this information is collected it is used to carefully craft a phishing email attempt to a specific target within the company. For instance, attackers can use the stolen information listed above to create an urgent sounding email coming from the head of the IT department. This email could urge readers to click a link and update their password.
Since the attackers spent the time to identify who the head of IT is, they can craft a much more believable phishing email to trick the recipient. Oftentimes these phishing emails are even more targeted to specific individuals inside an organization. Bad actors may create fake invoices and target the accounting department, knowing that they work with invoices daily.
Spear phishing attacks can be designed to steal company information, fraudulently wire money, or even encrypted company assets and hold them hostage. Payloads in phishing emails are usually hidden inside of innocuous looking links, or legitimate file attachments like PDFs or Microsoft Word files.
Links can either redirect to a malicious site where a PC gets infected, or more commonly to a fake cloned webpage that looks nearly identical to the real thing. When a user enters their information to login on this fake site, attackers can steal those credentials and then use them on the real platform.
Phishing email attachments work to steal the same information but do so by hiding a malicious payload that installs spyware on the target machine. Attachments are even more dangerous because they open the entire network to a host of different attacks, where a backdoor can be planted by an attacker for future access.
How to identify a spear phishing email
Spear phishing exploits trust within an organization in a very calculated way, making it one of the more difficult types of attacks to identify for the untrained eye. Having a dedicated phishing response system in place can stop spear phishing emails before they ever reach an inbox.
There are a few ways you can identify a phishing email:
Check the From field in the email closely. Spear phishers will use names and domains that look very similar to a trusted sender. They often contain slight misspellings that are hard to spot at a glance
Be wary of urgent sounding emails. If an email sounds threatening or makes you feel a bit panicked, slow down and review the email. Attackers use fear to get victims to click malicious links and download malware without giving the email a second thought.
Use caution when clicking links. Links inside of phishing emails can be carefully crafted to look legitimate. Always verify the sender and inspect the link closely by hovering your mouse over the hyperlink.
When in doubt, call the sender. If you don’t have the ability to have an IT professional review the email, give the alleged sender a call from a verified phone number that isn’t in the email signature. A quick call can help avoid a company breach.
Spear phishing vs phishing - What’s the difference?
The goal of any phishing attack is always the same, the only difference between spear phishing and phishing is the strategy used to trick people into giving up their information.
Regular phishing, or email phishing uses a shotgun approach to try and steal information. An attacker emails thousands of recipients with a bogus message in hopes that a few unlucky people will fall for the scam. Phishing casts a wide indiscriminate net to try and steal credentials.
Spear phishing takes the complete opposite approach and uses a highly targeted and precise attack against a specific company or individual, hence the word spear in the name. Research is used to craft the most believable email possible in hopes that the recipient will take it at face value.
These phishing emails take much more time and effort to create, so attackers normally only go after companies they view as lucrative enough to spend this time on. Large enterprise companies are usually at the top of the list, followed by fast growing medium sized companies, but no company is immune.
Common phishing variations
There are some slight variations in spear phishing attacks which have been given their own names based on the medium and strategies that are used to compromise recipients. Let’s look at some of the most common variations of phishing attacks.
Whaling takes the targeted nature of spear phishing and refines it even further to impersonate a CEO or senior staff member within an organization. Whaling is a form of phishing that exploits the power dynamics between authority figures in a company to trick and pressure other staff members into clicking on a malicious link, wiring funds, sending sensitive information, or opening a virus laden attachment.
Clone phishing is an especially devious type of phishing attack because it can use real previously sent email correspondence to look like a real email. Attackers either recreate or steal previously sent emails from the sending party, and then resend them from another account that looks similar to the real sender.
The new scam email will contain the old correspondence, but with an updated attachment that is malicious. The scammer may note that the attachment has been updated, or the first one was not correct.
How do I report a phishing email?
If you’ve entered information into a phishing email, or have been sent a phishing email, there are a few simple steps you can use to report it.
You can forward the email directly to the FTC Anti-Phishing Working Group at [email protected]. If the message was a text message you can forward it to SPAM (7726).
You can then report the phishing attack by visiting http://ftc.gov/complaint
Protecting against spear phishing emails
Protecting against phishing emails requires a consistent combination of phishing education and security planning to help prevent phishing emails while mitigating risk. Agari offers organizations an out-of-box solution to phishing defense that leverages artificial intelligence to identify, prioritize, and neutralize incoming phishing attacks.
Here are a few changes you can make to your environment to help stop spear phishing attacks:
Keep staff informed and educated. Implementing an educational phishing campaign program across an organization can help drastically reduce the number of phishing emails opened. This helps staff identify and report phishing emails and works as a first line of defense when other security measures are in place.
Enable two factor authentication (2FA). Two factor authentication provides an extra layer of protection that combines login credentials with something physical such as a smartphone or authenticator app. Even if a phishing email is opened and credentials are entered into it, the attacker will not be able to access the site if 2FA is enabled.
Tag emails that originate from outside your organization. Email server rules can be configured to label emails with a warning stating it came from outside of the company. This helps staff easily identify phishing attempts, even when the email is well crafted.
The Agari advantage
Agari offers a turnkey solution to combat spear phishing email attacks through automatic threat response, remediation, and containment. The system utilizes both signature-based security as well as behavioral analysis to stop malicious files and bad actors at the same time.
If you’re looking to learn how to keep your business safe from phishing emails, see how Agari Phishing Defense works. | <urn:uuid:b5c27097-201f-4e38-aca4-7a25d090efa1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.agari.com/blog/spear-phishing-emails-what-they-are-how-to-prevent-them | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337595.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005073953-20221005103953-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.929867 | 1,644 | 2.5625 | 3 |
A Quick Guide to the Different Types of Outliers
The only way to succeed in today’s rapidly changing economy is through business agility — making the right decisions at the right time. Companies generate more data points than ever before, but decision-making requires more than data. Business leaders need actionable insights in real time to keep up with the speed of change in the modern marketplace.
They say no one can predict the future, but outliers in business data can act as markers for future opportunities and risks.
Outlier detection can help you chart a better course for your company as storms approach or the business currents shift in your favor. With rapid detection and contextual analysis, leaders can adjust course in time to generate revenue or avoid losses. Here is a look at outliers and their main types.
The 3 Different Types of Outliers
In statistics and data science, there are three generally accepted categories which all outliers fall into:
- Type 1: Global Outliers (aka Point Anomalies)
- Type 2: Contextual Outliers (aka Conditional Anomalies)
- Type 3: Collective Outliers
Type 1: Global Outliers
A data point is considered a global outlier if its value is far outside the entirety of the data set in which it is found (similar to how “global variables” in a computer program can be accessed by any function in the program).
Type 2: Contextual (Conditional) Outliers
Contextual outliers are data points whose value significantly deviates from other data within the same context. The “context” is almost always temporal in time-series data, such as records of a specific quantity over time.
Values are not outside the normal global range, but are abnormal compared to the seasonal pattern.
Type 3: Collective Outliers
A subset of data points within a data set is considered anomalous if those values as a collection deviate significantly from the entire data set, but the values of the individual data points are not themselves anomalous in either a contextual or global sense. In time series data, one way this can manifest is as normal peaks and valleys occurring outside of a time frame when that seasonal sequence is normal or as a combination of time series that is in an outlier state as a group.
We combined two related time series into a single anomaly in this example. The individual behavior does not deviate significantly from the normal range for each time series but shows a more significant deviation when combined.
Think of it This Way
A plane landing on a highway is a global outlier because it’s a truly rare event that a plane would have to land there. If the highway was congested with traffic that would be a contextual outlier if it was happening at 3 a.m. when traffic doesn’t usually start until later in the morning when people are heading to work. And if every car on the freeway was moving to the left lane at the same time that would be a collective outlier because although it’s definitely not rare that people move to the left lane, it is unusual that all cars would relocate at the same exact time.
These analogies can help in understanding the basic differences between the three types of outliers, but how does this fit in with time series data of business metrics?
Let’s move on to examples which are more specific to business:
A banking customer who normally deposits no more than $1000 a month in checks at a local ATM suddenly makes two cash deposits of $5000 each in the span of two weeks is a global anomaly because this event has never before occurred in this customer’s history. The time series data of their weekly deposits would show an abrupt recent spike. Such a drastic change would raise alarms as these large deposits could imply illicit commerce or money laundering.
A sudden surge in order volume at an eCommerce company, as seen in that company’s hourly total orders for example, could be a contextual outlier if this high volume occurs outside of a known promotional discount or high volume period like Black Friday. Could this stampede be due to a pricing glitch which is allowing customers to pay pennies on the dollar for a product?
A publicly traded company’s stock is never a static thing, even when prices are relatively stable and there isn’t an overall trend, and there are minute fluctuations over time. If the stock price remained at exactly the same price (to the penny) for an extended period of time, then that would be a collective outlier. In fact, this very thing occurred to not one, but several tech companies on July 3 of this year on the Nasdaq exchange when the stock prices for several companies – including tech giants Apple and Microsoft – were listed as $123.45.
The Limitations of Manual Outlier Detection
Businesses today manage millions of data points potentially relevant to their KPIs, along with multiple types of outliers to consider and evaluate. Whether an outlier indicates an opportunity or a problem, reaction speed is critical to achieving positive results in the face of uncertainty. Something as simple as one API losing service could cause a business to lose money every second. Reducing the time between occurrence and discovery can buy a company critical time to roll back an update and restore revenue flow.
Looking for unusual data points by manually examining every metric, however, is impractical for more than a few dozen metrics. In addition, manually monitoring dashboards and alerts in traditional BI tools doesn’t provide the real-time insight organizations need to stay ahead of problems before they become too costly and damaging.
Manual detection is insufficient even when the outlier represents an opportunity rather than a problem. For example, an unusual uptick in users or purchases from a specific geographical area may be due to a successful social media marketing campaign that has gone viral in that region. Given the short lifespan of such surges, your business has a limited time window to capitalize and transform that engagement into logins and sales.
How Anodot Approaches Outlier Analysis
Regardless of industry, no matter the data source, the outlier detection capabilities of Anodot’s system can find all types of outliers in time series data, in real-time, and at the scale of millions of metrics.
A data-agnostic solution, Anodot uses machine learning algorithms and outlier detection capabilities to spot anomalies in time series data.
Although explaining the math, software and algorithms in detail would require a more extensive technical explanation (see our 3-part white paper on outlier detection), below we’ve outlined the key steps in accurately detecting outliers:
- Choosing the most appropriate model and distribution for each time series: This is a critical step to detect any outlier because time series can behave in various ways (stationary, non-stationary, irregularly sampled, discrete, etc.), each requiring a different model of normal behavior with a different underlying distribution.
- Accounting for seasonal and trend patterns: contextual and collective outliers cannot be detected if seasonality and trend are not accounted for in the models describing normal behavior. Detecting both automatically is crucial for an automated anomaly detection system as the two cannot be manually defined for all data. Anodot’s solution includes a very efficient and accurate seasonality detection algorithm (called Vivaldi), and all models account for various trend changes in the data that are normal.
- Detecting collective anomalies involves understanding the relationships between different time series, and accounting for them when detecting and investigating anomalies. Anodot developed several algorithms for learning those relationships from the time series behavior, and delivers collective anomalies by combining anomalies at the single time series level to the multivariate level.
Outliers are often visible symptoms of underlying problems that you need to fix fast. Those symptoms are only as visible, however, as your outliers detection system makes them to be. Whether it’s money laundering, a pricing glitch or testing data let loose, machine learning-based anomaly detection can find the needle in a haystack of millions of metrics. | <urn:uuid:72e6fee2-837d-4d30-9514-b2f8e45b661f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.anodot.com/blog/quick-guide-different-types-outliers/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337595.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005073953-20221005103953-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.937944 | 1,671 | 2.921875 | 3 |
|File Organizations||File Status|
This chapter covers:
This COBOL system, and applications created with it, use the standard UNIX filename conventions.
The ASSIGN clause in the SELECT statement is used to specify either a physical filename or a logical name which can be mapped to a physical name at run time.
There are three types of filename assignment:
The filename is specified as a literal in the ASSIGN clause of the SELECT statement.
The filename is specified as a data-item in the ASSIGN clause of the SELECT statement, and so can be changed by the program at run time.
The filename is specified as EXTERNAL in the ASSIGN clause of the SELECT statement and is resolved at run time.
Run-time mapping of filenames is available for all three types of filename assignment.
With static filename assignment, the filename is specified in the SELECT statement as a literal:
select filename assign to literal.
In the following example, opening stockfile causes the warehs.buy file in the current directory to be opened:
select stockfile assign to "warehs.buy".
In this example, opening input-file opens the file prog in the data directory (relative to the current directory):
select input-file assign to "data/prog".
With dynamic filename assignment, the filename is specified in the SELECT statement as a COBOL data-item:
select filename assign to dynamic data-item
where the parameter is:
|data-item||The name of a COBOL data item. If the data item is not explicitly declared within your program, the Compiler creates one for you, with a picture of PIC X(255). Before the OPEN statement for the file is executed, the program must give a value to the data item.|
If you use the ASSIGN"DYNAMIC" Compiler directive, you can omit the word DYNAMIC from the ASSIGN clause.
In the following example, the file input.dat is created in the current directory:
... select fd-in-name assign to dynamic ws-in-file. ... working-storage section. 01 ws-in-file pic x(30). ... move "input.dat" to ws-in-file. ... open output fd-in-name.
With external filename assignment, the filename is specified in the SELECT statement as follows:
select filename assign to external external-file-reference
where the parameter is:
|external-file-reference||A COBOL word that identifies the specified file to the external environment for possible further mapping. If external-file-reference contains one or more hypens, all characters up to and including the last hypen are ignored.|
See the section Filename Mapping for further details on run-time filename mapping.
This COBOL system provides several ways of mapping the filename supplied by the program via the ASSIGN clause onto a different name, for greater flexibility at run time.
When the file handler is presented with a filename (which may be a literal, the contents of a data item, or, in the case of the ASSIGN TO EXTERNAL syntax, an external reference), it isolates the first element of that name, that is, all the text before the first slash character (/), all the text if the name does not include such a character, or nothing if the filename starts with a slash character. Having done that, it:
The result is then considered to be the filename of the physical file.
Consider the following examples:
|Filename in ASSIGN Clause||Envrionment Variable Searched For||Contents of Environment Variable||Filename of Physical File|
Although the period ( . ) is not allowed in the names of environment variables, it is often used in filenames, so you may want to map logical filenames containing this character. In this case, you must replace the "." with the underscore character ( _ ). For example:
refers to the logical filename file.PNT.
An environment variable used for filename mapping can specify multiple pathnames. This causes the system to search for subsequent files if a "file not found" condition is returned for the first path specified by the environment variable.
Consider the following example contents of an environment variable named dd_dir:
This causes the system to search /c/d for the assigned file if a "file not found" condition is returned on /a/b.
You can write a COBOL program to send a report directly to the printer, or to transfer data across a communications port. To do this, you need to assign a device-name to your COBOL filename.
The following device-names can be specified using static, dynamic or external filename assignment:
|CON||Console keyboard or screen|
|PRN||First parallel printer|
|LPT1||First parallel printer|
|LPT2||Second parallel printer|
|LPT3||Third parallel printer|
|COM1||First asynchronous communications port|
|COM2||Second asynchronous communications port|
When specifying any of these device-names, a trailing colon(:) is optional.
In the following example, read or write operations on
cause data to be read from or written to the console screen:
select fd-name assign to "con".
In this example, write operations on
fd-name cause data to be
lpt1:, the first parallel printer:
select fd-name assign to dynamic ws-filename. ... move "lpt1:" to ws-filename.
You can use COBOL file syntax to launch another process (such as the dir command) and either write data to the standard input of that other process, or read data coming from the standard output of the other process. The COBOL file organization must be either LINE SEQUENTIAL or RECORD SEQUENTIAL.
To launch a process and write data to its standard input, the filename must consist of the > sign followed by the name of the command. The file should be opened for output.
select output-file assign to ">lpr" organization is line sequential. ... open output output-file write output-file-record from "Hello world".
In this example the program passes the characters "Hello world" to the standard input of the print process.
To launch a process and read data from its standard output, the filename must consist of the "lt" symbol followed by the name of the command. The file should be opened for input.
select input-file assign to "<ls" organization is line sequential. ... open input input-file read input-file
In this example the program launches the ls process and reads in the first line which that process writes to its standard output.
Two-way pipes combine the functions of input and output pipes. To use a two-way pipe the filename must consist of the pipe symbol (|) followed by the name of the command. The file should be opened for i-o.
select i-o-file assign to "| sort" organization is line sequential. ... open i-o i-o-file write i-o-file-record from "Hello world" read i-o-file
In this example the program launches the sort process and passes the line "Hello world" to its standard input. It then reads one record from the standard output of the sort process.
Copyright © 2000 MERANT International Limited. All rights reserved.
This document and the proprietary marks and names used herein are protected by international law.
|File Organizations||File Status| | <urn:uuid:a4b65230-8c57-4363-ab55-a513cb8e8b62> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.microfocus.com/documentation/server-express/sx11/books/fhname.htm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337595.1/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005073953-20221005103953-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.812641 | 1,769 | 3.4375 | 3 |
What is Information Assurance (IA)?
Information Assurance (IA) is the practice of managing information-related risks and the steps involved to protect information systems such as computer and network systems.
The US Government's definition of information assurance is:
“measures that protect and defend information and information systems by ensuring their availability, integrity, authentication, confidentiality, and non-repudiation. These measures include providing for restoration of information systems by incorporating protection, detection, and reaction capabilities.”
The 5 pillars of Information Assurance
Information Assurance (IA) is essentially protecting information systems, and is often associated with the following five pillars:
The five pillars of information assurance can be applied various ways, depending on the sensitivity of your organization’s information or information systems. Currently, these five pillars are used at the heart of the US Government’s ability to conduct safe and secure operations in a global environment.
Integrity involves assurance that all information systems are protected and not tampered with. IA aims to maintain integrity through anti-virus software on all computer systems and ensuring all staff with access know how to appropriately use their systems to minimize malware, or viruses entering information systems.
IT Governance provides a variety of E-learning courses to improve staff awareness on topics such as phishing and ransomware to reduce the likelihood of systems being breached; and data being exposed.
Availability means those who need access to information, are allowed to access it. Information should be available to only those who are aware of the risks associated with information systems.
Authentication involves ensuring those who have access to information are who they say they are. Ways of improving authentication include methods such as two-factor authentication, strong passwords, biometrics, and other devices. Authentication may also be used to itentify not only users, but also other devices.
IA involves the confidentiality of information, meaning only those with authorization may view certain data. This step is closely mirrored by the six data processing principles of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), whereby personal data must be processed in a secure manner "using appropriate technical and oganizational measures" ("integrity and confidentiality").
The final pillar means someone with access to your organization’s information system cannot deny having completed an action within the system, as there should be methods in place to prove that they did make said action.
Ready to simplify your security? Let’s get started.
Let us share our expertise and support you on your journey to information security best practices. | <urn:uuid:4b211a2c-cbc7-47ae-aad2-9f2583a274e8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.itgovernanceusa.com/information/information-assurance | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337853.66/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006155805-20221006185805-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.925626 | 560 | 3.0625 | 3 |
It has been reported today that Interpol has warned that any device which is connected to the internet is potentially at risk of attack. According to the news, cyber criminals are more regularly attacking Internet of Things (IoT) devices including webcams, televisions and smart home devices such as Alexa. They could also be targeting wearable like Fitbits and smart watches and even home appliances, like your fridge or washing machine. Adam Brown, Manager – Security Solutions at Synopsys commented below.
Adam Brown, Manager – Security Solutions at Synopsys:
“Attacks on IoT devices such as internet connect fridges, TV’s, smart home devices etc. are down to flaws in the software running on them, and attacks will continue to happen until those flaws are dealt with. Good practices by vendors around configuration and authentication need to be initiated or matured to prevent this in future.
“The famous Mirai botnet attack of late 2016, which saw the likes of Twitter, Netflix and others knocked out of service, was made possible because of the use of default credentials in IoT devices – a flaw in the design.
“I would love to see certification for IoT devices become commonplace so that consumers can know that the devices are cyber safe, much in the same way that if you buy a toy with a CE mark you know it has been through a process of assessment and it won’t, for example, poison anyone because it has lead in its paint.
“A certified IoT device will be less likely to lend itself to a hacker to steal from you, use you as a place to attack others from, or use your electricity to mine cryptocurrencies for themselves.” | <urn:uuid:68785d5a-4972-4039-acec-4e14acb38c01> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://informationsecuritybuzz.com/expert-comments/interpol-report-home-appliances-tvs-wearables-risk-attack-cyber-criminals/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335276.85/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928180732-20220928210732-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.968162 | 345 | 2.5625 | 3 |
Updated: Nov 16, 2021
Nmap is a port scanning tool used by penetration testers and hackers to identify exposed services. While there are various options and configurations available to the user, the aim is to gather information on the target system, look for security flaws and potential entry points. An example of this may be scanning an external web server and identifying key open ports such as a MySQL service running on port 3306.
What is Nmap penetration testing?
An Nmap penetration test simplified refers to a penetration test in which the Nmap tool may be used by the ‘attacker’ to gather information on which services the host is using. Port scanning is often one of the first techniques an attacker would use as part of their methodology as it will expose potential attack vectors.
Do hackers use Nmap?
Although there are multiple options available to an attacker when using Nmap to port scan a target, they all tend to create a large quantity of network traffic as the scan will individually probe each port to check if the target responded with the port being open/filtered/closed.
Can Nmap scans be detected?
Intruder Detection systems (IDS) can spot these types of scans and either block the originating IP address or simply mark each port as filtered/closed.
If you like this blog post, find more content in our Glossary. | <urn:uuid:899cab5a-09b6-4de9-b05d-614376b2bb6c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.covertswarm.com/post/nmap-in-cyber-security | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335424.32/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930020521-20220930050521-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.921648 | 277 | 3.1875 | 3 |
A wide-area network (WAN) technology, asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) is a transfer mode for switching and transmission that efficiently and flexibly organizes information into cells; it is asynchronous in the sense that the recurrence of cells depends on the required or instantaneous bit rate. Thus, empty cells do not go by when data is waiting. ATM’s powerful flexibility lies in its ability to provide a high-capacity, low-latency switching fabric for all types of information, including data, video, image and voice, that is protocol-, speed- and distance-independent. ATM supports fixed-length cells 53 bytes in length and virtual data circuits between 45 megabits per second (Mbps) and 622 Mbps. Using statistical multiplexing, cells from many different sources are multiplexed onto a single physical circuit. The fixed-length fields in the cell, which include routing information used by the network, ensure that faster processing speeds are enabled using simple hardware circuits. The greatest benefit of ATM is its ability to provide support for a wide range of communications services while providing transport independence from those services. | <urn:uuid:f1d2130b-cf3d-4111-b07c-f579d700c106> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/atm-asynchronous-transfer-mode | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335609.53/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001101652-20221001131652-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.92898 | 226 | 3.203125 | 3 |
Firewalla Rules can be used to manage access control traffic on your network and devices. The targets for the rules can be Applications, Target Lists, Categories (gaming, adult, video ...), Network flows (IP, domain, port), or regions, Internet, or Local Network.
- Definition of Rules
- Rules List
- Create a Rule
- Pause / Delete a Rule
- Add/Remove Rules at Device Level
- Block from Alarms
- Layered Logic in Rules
- Direction in Rules
- How to troubleshoot blocked sites
- How to block applications using rules
Definition of Rules
A rule defines how you want to control network access for one or more devices. A rule has four basic elements: action, target, device, and schedule. It can be interpreted as the following:
Take an action on matching target(s) and apply to device(s)
following a schedule
For example, if you want to block YouTube access on Melvin's laptop between 7-9 PM every day, you define a rule like this:
Device: Melvin's laptop
Schedule: 7-9pm daily
All user-defined rules are shown on the Rules screen under Home → Firewalla → Rules. Rules can be created as above, or when you use the control buttons on the device home screen, such as block/unblock all gaming sites, a rule will be automatically created and appear on the Rules list.
Create a Rule
To create a new rule, go to the Home screen → Firewalla → Rules → Add Rule. You'd need to specify the following:
Action can be one of the following:
Allow rules will always take precedence over Block rules and Ad Block features. When applied, these rules are like exceptions to blocking rules, which apply to everything (Learn more about the direction in allow rules).
However, Allow rules do not override the Family mode blocked sites and Safe search features.
2. Target and Target Category
You can choose target(s) to allow/block based on one or a combination of the following items:
- Target List
- IP Address
- Range of IP Address
- Domain name
- Remote port
- Local port
- Local Network (Firewalla Gold and Purple only)
- Internet (all internet sites)
Application: The App list is sorted alphabetically and it will be continually updated. Only blocking rules are supported when matching Applications.
Target List: You can create a list of domains or IPs and then use that list to allow or block all of the items in that list. See Target Lists for more details.
Domain Name: You can define the target as a domain (e.g. abc.com) or subdomain (e.g. x.abc.com).
- When you block a domain, all subdomains and IP addresses mapped to the domain and subdomains are blocked as well. (e.g. "google.com" would also block "images.google.com")
- Blocking TLD (top-level domain) can be done by using the wildcard notation, such as blocking all *.adult or *.country
- There are two settings:
- Default: If two different domains map to the same IP address, then blocking one would cause the other, seemingly unrelated domain, to be blocked as well.
- Domain-Only: Less restrictive option won't accidentally block other domains hosted on the same IP but some applications may access servers by IP address rather than domain so they rule may not work as intended.
IP Range: You can define a group of IP addresses by specifying an IP range in CIDR notation (e.g. 192.168.100.14/24)
Remote Port: You can block/allow certain applications using a port or a range of ports. For example, block remote ports 6881-6889 will block p2p traffic (typical p2p traffic uses these ports).
You can also create Rules matching the combination of a Domain/ IP address / IP range and Remote Ports. Specifying protocol is also supported.
Local Port: You can block/allow others from accessing local services by specifying Local Port + Remote Target. For example, if you have a web server running, you can now create a rule to allow traffic from any region to access a certain port on your web server.
Local Network: On Firewalla Gold, You can block traffics between local networks by selecting any local network -> Traffic from/to the local network, then apply the rules to another network or device.
Here are more details on How to use rules to segment your network (Gold only).
You can also choose from a set of system-managed target categories. The following categories are supported:
Each category contains a list of domains or IP addresses associated with specific types of activities. Firewalla automatically populates the list in each category by learning the traffic in your network, but you can also view and edit the list manually.
The list of target categories can be found on the Target screen. Tap on the "i" icon next to a category, you will see all targets included in the category. Tap on "+" to add a new target, or tap on an item to see the delete option.
For example, you've blocked "All Video Sites" for your phone, but the iTunes Apple store is automatically included. If you want to be able to access the iTunes Apple store, you can simply remove this destination from the All Video Sites category.
Once you've defined the target, choose which device(s) to apply the rule. You can select:
- a single device
- a device group
- a network segment (Firewalla Gold and Purple only)
- or all devices
The active time of a rule can be set as "Always" (never expires unless deleted), "One-Time-Only" (expires after configured time), or recurring following a daily or weekly schedule.
For example, if you want to block Melvin's iPhone from accessing Facebook every weeknight from 9 PM to 7 AM(next day), you can create a new rule:
- target: "domain" -> "facebook.com"
- apply to: Melvins-iPhone
- schedule: "every week, Monday through Friday, from 9 PM to 7 AM (next day)"
Pause / Delete a Rule
You can pause a rule from the rules detail screen. Pause is useful when you want to temporarily disable the rule without having to delete or reschedule the rule.
To customize the duration when pausing rules, tap Pause Rule -> Custom… -> pick any duration -> tap Done. A rule can also be paused for "Today", which means it will be paused until the end of the day.
To delete a rule, tap Delete on any rule's detail page.
Manage Rules at Device/Group/Network Level
You can easily block/unblock internet access for a device. On the device detail screen, there is a set of control buttons. You can block all internet access on this device or only block certain categories of access (e.g. Games, Social, Video activities). The button can cycle through "Block off" (unblock), "Block for 1 hour" (temporary block), and "Block on" (permanently block) with each tap.
All blocking rules activated by the control buttons will also appear under the Rules listing screen. You can also create additional rules on this device by tapping the "+" icon.
Block Rules Created from Alarms
When you receive an alarm, you'll see an option to "Block" under the alarm summary. Depending on the type of alarm, you may see multiple options under Block. In the following example, you can either choose to block the specific domain or block the type of activity (Gaming) altogether. Depending on your selection, a new rule will be created. You can view and manage the rule on the Rules screen.
Layered Logic in Rules
The operational state of network access on a particular device can be determined by multiples rules defined at different layers:
- Rules for the device itself
- Rules for the device group that includes the device
- Rules for the network segment where the device is connected (Firewalla Gold and Purple only)
- Global rules apply to all devices
A network segment is a special device group. Its group membership is dynamic based on physical connectivity. Rules defined for a network segment will only apply to devices in that segment.
Device group membership is static. When a member device changes the segment, it still stays with the group. Group rules apply to member devices regardless of which segment the device is in.
The logic for rules processing is the following:
- When a device joins a group, all previously defined device-level rules will be removed. The device will adopt the rules defined at the group level (block rules can still be created at the device level from alarms, network flows).
- A device or device group will inherit the Network and Global rules if there is no conflict.
When there is conflict:
the priority of different levels are device > group > network > global.
- When there is conflict, device group rules will take precedence over Network rules.
- When there is conflict, Network rules will take precedence over Global rules.
At the same level, allow rule takes precedence over the block rule.
One exception: inbound allow rules will take effect after going through all block rules except inbound blocking on all devices.
- If you have a rule allow a domain globally, but another rule block the Internet on a specific device, that device will not be able to access that domain. The priority here is Device > Global.
- On a device, if you have one rule allow the region US and another rule block YouTube, that device will still be able to access Youtube because traffic to the entire region (including where YouTube is hosted) is allowed. The priority is Allow > Block on the same level.
- If a network has a rule to block All Gaming Sites, then all devices in the network will have games blocked, because device inherits rules from the network it belongs to when there is no conflict.
- If a network has a rule to block All Gaming Sites, but a device (or a device group) in that network has a rule to allow nintendo.com, that device can play games on nintendo.com. Because when there is a conflict, priority is Device > Network.
- If a network has a rule to block Traffic from US, but a device in that network has a rule to allow Traffic from the Internet on a local port, US traffic can't connect to that device via that port.
- If you block a domain in default mode, It may also block other domains due to IP address sharing. More details can be found here: How does Firewalla block domains?
- Please be careful when blocking Regions. The Internet is distributed, data centers are also distributed across the world.
Example: "firewalla.com" is based on Shopify, and Shopify is in Canada. Since there are many shops are using Shopify, if you blocked Region - Canada, you are likely going to have trouble shopping.
- Port-based and Regional targets are fairly large, please try not to use them to "allow" or give an exception to your rules. Please see this article for a better way to do port opens.
- Allow rules are always like exceptions. For example, if you block YouTube and ALLOW the USA region, the YouTube block will not take effect, since Youtube is in the USA, which is an exception.
Direction in Rules
Firewalla allows directional ALLOW rules, the direction for allow rules can be:
- Outbound only: This is the default setting. It allows traffic from your devices to the target, but not the other way around.
- Bi-directional: It will allow all traffic between the target and your local device. If a rule is set to bi-directional, others from the outside your network will be able to access your local devices. This may increase security risks, so if you are not sure about it, we recommend using the default setting.
Blocking rules are bi-directional unless specified in Internet or Local Network targets. | <urn:uuid:67f0ab0a-d587-49c1-a5c8-5a274054de0c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://help.firewalla.com/hc/en-us/articles/360008521833-Manage-Rules | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337339.70/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002181356-20221002211356-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.901368 | 2,635 | 2.53125 | 3 |
Security testing is a combination of the testing techniques used to test the application for security problems. It is mainly used to test the security of the data and functionalities of the application.
Security is a big deal in modern application development. Business logic is getting more and more complicated. Web applications are incorporating a lot of new stuff. On the one hand, it is a good thing – a modern application is a complex product. On the other hand, it leads to a lot more security vulnerabilities.
It is a challenging task to develop browser-based software, which will be secure and reliable. In this blog post, We will share our opinions and ideas about what security testing is and how it can help in making a web application more secure.
What is Security Testing?
Security testing is a type of software testing used to search for security vulnerabilities in the application. These vulnerabilities are primarily found in web applications, cloud infrastructure, blockchain applications, etc.
Security testing is not just about testing the application by breaking into it, but security testing is also about identifying weaknesses in applications that attackers may exploit. Security testing can be done manually or with the help of software tools known as automated security testing tools.
Why is Security Testing important?
Security testing is a process that evaluates the security of a system and determines its potential vulnerabilities and threats to its security. Security testing is an essential phase in the SDLC and is used to find the security issues in the system to prevent attacks in the real world.
Security testing is based on the assessment of potential security threats in the system. It is a process in which the system’s security is tested by performing both positive and negative tests to find the potential security threats in the system.
The main goal of security testing is to identify the threats in the system and measure its potential vulnerabilities so that the threats can be encountered and the system does not stop functioning or can not be exploited.
5 different types of Security Testing
1. Vulnerability Scanning
Vulnerability scanning is an automated activity that identifies the vulnerabilities present in your software systems or network. Typically, automated vulnerability scanning is done periodically and is not tied to a specific event (such as a change to the system). It is a proactive approach to finding and remediating vulnerabilities.
2. Penetration testing
Penetration testing is a testing method in which testers find security weaknesses, usually to determine the risk of damage from possible attackers. In other words, penetration testers try to find security weaknesses before a hacker does in your network or software.
3. Risk Assessment
Risk assessment is the process of identifying and prioritizing the risks and threats that may be faced by an organization and its business-critical assets or IT systems. Risk assessment helps an organization take the necessary countermeasures for reducing and mitigating risk and threats and respond to them in the event of an incident effectively. This is why risk assessment is often considered the first step of the risk management process.
4. Security Auditing
A security audit reviews and assesses an application or network to verify its compliance with standards, regulations, and company policy. It is a systematic and detailed examination of a system or network to evaluate the system’s security and detect and report any security vulnerabilities. A security audit is usually carried out by an independent third party or by an internal auditing team.
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5. Source Code Review
Source code analysis (aka source code review) verifies that the code complies with the specifications. It is a process of looking for errors and vulnerabilities in the code. It is an essential part of the software development life cycle (SDLC).
Even though it’s called “review,” the review process often involves more than one person, and it is usually done by independent security experts rather than by the development team. This way, the specialists can identify and report potential security and functional issues. As a result, the quality of the product and its security is improved.
6 principles of Security Testing
Confidentiality is one of the cornerstones of information security. Confidentiality is the obligation of an organization or individual to keep the information confidential. Confidential information is any information that is not meant to be shared with third parties. The primary purpose of confidentiality is to protect the stakeholders’ interests by preventing the unauthorized disclosure of information.
Integrity is one of the core security concepts. It is about system and data integrity. The need for integrity stems from the fact that we often want to ensure that a file or data record has not been modified or has not been modified by an unauthorized party. Integrity is a fundamental security concept and is often confused with the related concepts of confidentiality and non-repudiation.
The definition of availability in information security is relatively straightforward. It’s the ability to access your information when you need it. A data breach might cause downtime, productivity, loss of reputation, fines, regulatory action, and many other problems. For all of these reasons, it’s crucial to have a data availability plan in case a data breach happens.
Authentication is the act of confirming or denying the truth of an attribute of a single piece of data claimed valid by an entity. Authentication can be perceived as a set of security procedures intended to verify the identity of an object or person.
Authorization is a security mechanism to determine access levels or user/client privileges related to system resources, including files, services, computer programs, data, and application features.
In the context of information security, non-repudiation is the capability to prove the identity of a user or process that sent a particular message or performed a specific action. Proof of non-repudiation is a critical component of electronic commerce. It protects businesses from fraud and ensures that a company can trust a message or transaction from a specific user or computer system.
Security Testing Tools
Static Application Security Testing (SAST)
Static Application Security Testing (SAST) focuses on analyzing source code and application files. It is a technical and time-consuming process and is used to identify security flaws and vulnerabilities in applications.
SAST is also known as Static Code Analysis (SCA) or Static Application Testing (SAT). It is a methodology used to assess the security of software applications. It involves the use of manual and automated tools to discover defects or flaws in the source code and configuration errors. In contrast to the Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST) methodology, SAST focuses on analyzing source code and application files.
SAST operates at a different level of abstraction than a typical vulnerability scanner. The security issues that a SAST tool can detect are similar to those detected through a source code review.
Dynamic Application Security Testing (DAST)
DAST is the process of finding security issues using manual and automation testing tools that simulates external attacks on an application to identify outcomes that are not part of a typical user experience.
A dynamic application security testing tool is a testing tool that examines the application during runtime. The purpose of DAST is to detect exploitable flaws in the application while it is running, using a wide range of attacks.
In DAST, the application is tested with different inputs and parameters, and the tool monitors the application, looking for any reactions. The goal is to test the application for all possible vulnerabilities, and the DAST tool will generate a report detailing the weaknesses of the application.
Application security testing is an integral part of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC). It is essential to test the application during the development phase, as well as the production phase. DAST tools are the next step in the evolution of application security testing, as they can detect vulnerabilities using different kinds of real-time attacks.
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST)
Interactive Application Security Testing (IAST) is a modern approach to application security testing. IAST is a best-in-class methodology for evaluating the security of web and mobile applications that are designed to identify and report vulnerabilities in the application under test.
3 Things to check while opting for External Security Testing Vendor
When a company has a limited budget for a security testing project, they usually choose to outsource this testing work. One ubiquitous question that then arises in the minds of the management is: how do you choose a suitable security testing vendor? Choosing a good vendor is not an easy job.
The following are the three things that you should consider while choosing a good security testing vendor.
1. Make sure the company has an up-to-date vulnerability database and skilled security engineers.
2. The Return on Investment (ROI) should be good as compared to the price.
3. Check the reputation of the third-party vendor in the market.
Tools used for Security Testing
Security Testing is a broad term that encompasses a wide range of activities, from vulnerability scanning and code analysis to penetration testing, security audits, and more. To better understand what tools are used in security testing, we have created a list of security testing tools.
The most common tools used for Security Testing are:
1. OWASP ZAP: OWASP ZAP is an application vulnerability assessment and management tool for web applications. ZAP is often used by developers who are building applications and by security teams who are doing internal security assessments.
2. W3AF: W3AF is a Web Application Attack and Audit Framework. The framework is extensible with modules that are designed to be easy to configure and extend. The framework can either be used in a manual or automated way by using the API in the Python language.
3. SonarQube: SonarQube is an open-source platform developed by SonarSource. It is designed to perform a continuous inspection of code quality to perform automatic reviews with static analysis of code to detect bugs, code smells, and security vulnerabilities in 20+ programming languages.
4. NMAP: Nmap is an open-source network administration tool for monitoring network connections. It is used to scan large networks and helps for auditing hosts and services and intrusion detection.
5. Wireshark: Wireshark is a network traffic analyzer, monitoring software that allows you to see what traffic flows through your system network.
Also Read: A Complete Guide to Cloud Security Testing
Security Testing with Astra
Astra is a leading cyber security company providing cutting-edge security testing solutions. We offer a comprehensive range of services, from testing and vulnerability assessments to complete application security testing.
Companies of all sizes use our products to test their applications’ security and protect their digital assets. We provide complete testing solutions that both security experts and non-technical users can use.
Our security experts perform a thorough security audit and penetration testing of your systems. Post that, Astra provides you with a detailed and extensive report, along with an action plan to fix issues for any security vulnerabilities we detect.
Security testing is one of the essential parts of making sure your application is secure and fast. Many software companies and testers consider it a complex task, but you can make it a success with the right approach. Astra’s only goal is to make security simple for you. Get in touch with us, and let us make sure you are protected from hackers.
1. What is Security Testing?
Security Testing is a process of identifying and eliminating the weaknesses in the software that can lead to an attack on the infrastructure system of a company.
2. How is Security Testing different from Software Testing?
A primary difference between security testing and other forms of software testing is that security testing is concerned with identifying vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit to gain access to systems. This is in contrast to other testing practices, which are more concerned with identifying deficiencies in the way software functions.
3. How much does penetration testing cost?
Security testing costs between $490 and $999 per scan, depending on your plan. To learn more about the pricing of Astra’s solution, check this out.
4. Can Astra help me with Security Testing?
Yes, Astra offers an automated security testing tool and manual security testing. Astra can help you with web application security testing, mobile application security testing, network security testing, blockchain security testing, and API testing. | <urn:uuid:f5b728e4-641d-4a27-abd0-bf80797a51a2> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.getastra.com/blog/security-audit/what-is-security-testing/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337473.26/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004023206-20221004053206-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.932805 | 2,560 | 3.03125 | 3 |
How about a great story about a cybersecurity incursion in the late 20th century?
What’s instructive about this one is it has all the essential elements of today’s cyber-attacks:
- A global computer network was used by a foreign government to conduct espionage against the US.
- The attackers used multiple hops through several different computers prior to attacking to mask the origin of the attack.
- The cyber attackers illicitly escalated their privileges to “root” (also called “superuser” or “administrator”) on targeted systems.
- Discovery of the attack came as Cliff Stoll tracked down a 75-cent accounting error in the charge back of computing time. This highlights the importance of event logging, conducting regular event reviews, and prompt investigation of suspicious system events.
- The use of a “honeypot” (which is a cache of fake but realistically attractive data files) by Stoll to slow down the attackers long enough to trace their origins (a form of what we now call Active Defense).
- Pioneering coordination of AT&T, the FBI, and the West German government.
- Eventual arrest and conviction of a cyber-attacker, but only through heroic efforts.
This online theft of military technologies by the “Hanover Hackers” was discovered in 1986 and documented in Cliff Stoll’s fantastic book The Cuckoo’s Egg.
I talk about it in the April 2, 2019 episode of my podcast: | <urn:uuid:b37b868d-5d3e-4544-a76a-27f01e5be0d1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cyberriskopportunities.com/what-are-some-little-known-cybersecurity-incursions-of-the-early-21st-century/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337625.5/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005105356-20221005135356-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.930312 | 316 | 3.265625 | 3 |
Sextortion is an attempt to extort money or get victims do something against their will by threatening to release embarrassing, personal images or video about the victim. The compromising images may come from the victim's webcam which is hijacked by malware, or it may be fake imagery such as in sextortion scams.
Sextortion attacks often originate by email and are becoming a new form of ransomware. In a recent attack discovered by Barracuda Networks, the attacker used stolen personal data and passwords to gain access to victim's email and personal contacts. The attacker sends an email to the victim flaunting the stolen password to get their attention. They then claim to have installed malware on the victim's computer that can be used to send the sexually explicit images to all their contacts unless the victim pays a ransom.
A sextortion email often begins with a subject line like "your password is…" followed by one of your passwords that the attacker has gained from a data breach. The email will then claim to have the ability to remotely control your computer or distribute sexually explicit or personal images to your friends and contacts. Finally, the email will demand some type of action such as making a payment (often in Bitcoin) or clicking on a link.
Common characteristics of sextortion emails:
- Misspelled or poorly written text
- Evidence of a threat such as revealing a secret password, some data about one of your accounts or the name of a friend or associate
- A claim to have installed malware such as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) that can take control over your computer or email account
Here is an example of a recent sextortion email:
Do not pay the ramsom! Most sextortion attacks are scams in which the attacker cannot carry out their threat. Attackers are counting on you to act out of fear. Instead, immediately change the password of your email account and any other accounts that you think may have been compromised.
Next, you should take the following basic measures to stay protected:
- Do not pay the demanded ransomware.
- Periodically check if your email addresses have been involved in a data breach using a site such as haveibeenpwned.com.
- Create complex passwords that are different for each of your accounts to make it more difficult for hackers to guess your passwords based on your email address. A pasword manager can make this easier to manage.
- Make sure all your emails and data are backed up. An email protection solution like Barracuda Essentials can automate this.
- Turn off your webcam or install a camera cover on your computer to ensure the camera is not enabled without your knowledge and permission.
- Stay informed by checking sites like Barracuda Threat Spotlight and Barracuda Security Insight.
Barracuda Email Protection is a comprehensive, easy-to-use solution that delivers gateway defense, API-based impersonation and phishing protection, incident response, data protection, compliance and user awareness training. Some of its capabilities can prevent sextortion attacks:
Barracuda Impersonation Protection is an API-based inbox defense solution that protects against business email compromise, account takeover, spear phishing, and other cyber fraud. It combines artificial intelligence and deep integration with Microsoft Office 365 into a comprehensive cloud-based solution.
Its unique API-based architecture lets the AI engine study historical email and learn users’ unique communication patterns. It blocks phishing attacks that harvest credentials and lead to account takeover, and it provides remediation in real time.
Barracuda Security Awareness Training is an email security awareness and phishing simulation solution designed to protect your organization against targeted phishing attacks. Security Awareness Training trains employees to understand the latest social-engineering phishing techniques, recognize subtle phishing clues, and prevent email fraud, data loss, and brand damage. Security Awareness Training transforms employees from a potential email security risk to a powerful line of defense against damaging phishing attacks.
Barracuda Incident Response automates incident response and provides remediation options to address issues faster and more efficiently. Admins can send alerts to impacted users and quarantine malicious email directly from their inboxes with a couple of clicks. Discovery and threat insights provided by the Incident Response platform help to identify anomalies in delivered email, providing more proactive ways to detect email threats.
Do you have questions about sextortion emails and sextortion scams? Contact us today. | <urn:uuid:b47dc4ba-cd28-4f94-9afe-227509cf704b> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.barracuda.com/glossary/sextortion | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337855.83/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006191305-20221006221305-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.922805 | 898 | 2.75 | 3 |
Throughout the years, high-profile critical infrastructure attacks have continued to shock the world, including the discovery of Stuxnet in 2010 and the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack in 2021. But numerous red flags foreshadowed these incidents for years - and sometimes decades - before they occurred.
The Colonial Pipeline attack was preceded by security advisories from the U.S. government for pipeline operators, security research from the threat intelligence industry, and even an audit conducted in 2018 on Colonial Pipeline itself that decried a tangle of poorly connected and secured systems and an overall lack of security awareness at the organization. All of these signals were ignored until it was too late, said Kim Zetter, an investigative journalist who has covered the cybersecurity space for decades, at Black Hat USA this week in Las Vegas.
“Despite a multi-billion dollar security industry and an unprecedented government focus on threats, everyone still seems to be surprised when threat actors pivot to new but often wholly predictable directions,” said Zetter on Thursday. “There are few things that truly blindside us, however. The rest cast signals long before they occur.”
Though it renewed a focus from the U.S. government on public and private collaboration around security, Colonial Pipeline is far from the first significant attack on critical infrastructure made up of operational networks and industrial control systems. More than a decade before, the Stuxnet worm that hit several nuclear facilities in Iran in 2010 was a big step in shining a light on critical infrastructure threats that the security community had largely ignored, instead focusing on IT networks. Stuxnet’s discovery brought several landmark changes across the security landscape. It led to a “trickle down effect” where cybercriminals were able to learn about tools and techniques from the government (as opposed to vice versa) and also heralded the “militarization of cyberspace” and the politicization of security research and defense, effectively linking together cybersecurity with national security, said Zetter.
“There’s a lack of imagination or… anticipation about the next move that hackers will make."
While Stuxnet marked a tangible critical infrastructure security incident, there have been warnings about critical infrastructure security threats that go back to 1997, when the Marsh commission cautioned the U.S. government of a growing trend toward connecting critical control systems for oil, gas and electricity to the internet. Two years before the Colonial Pipeline attack, Temple University started compiling data on publicly exposed ransomware attacks on critical infrastructure organizations in 2019, and found 400 incidents in 2020 (and later 1,246 incidents between Nov. 13 and June 30, 2022). In 2020, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a report recommending pipeline operators make a response plan and implement security measures like network segmentation. Despite these various clues, when Colonial Pipeline was hit, the organization shut down its pipeline for nearly a week and paid a ransom. The organization had no CISO when it was attacked (with security duties falling to a Deputy CTO) and appeared not to have an effective plan in place for operating the pipeline manually across its entirety of 5,500 miles, said Zetter. These same warning signs can be seen in other critical infrastructure sectors as well, including clues pointing to election security issues that led up to the 2016 threat actor targeting of voter registration systems, ones before the Oldsmar water utility hack and more.
“What happened with Colonial Pipeline last year was foreseeable, as was the growing threat of ransomware and the problems created by security issues with election machines,” said Zetter. “Russians going after election infrastructure in 2016 - really we should have been asking what took them so long, not being surprised by it.”
The collection of attacks over time on critical infrastructure sectors is indicative of society’s natural instinct to react to threats only after they occur rather than preparing for them, “or ignoring voices of reason that warn of impending problems, only to scramble into action when they occur,” Zetter said.
“There’s a lack of imagination or… anticipation about the next move that hackers will make. This is often the case here,” she said. | <urn:uuid:0892bfea-7730-42bf-a029-0da7cbb8eff0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://duo.com/decipher/long-before-colonial-pipeline-red-flags-foreshadowed-hack | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336674.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001132802-20221001162802-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.961595 | 856 | 2.546875 | 3 |
DeepMind’s pioneering work with artificial intelligence
DeepMind Technologies is a British artificial intelligence (AI) company that is dedicated to accelerating the industry with an interdisciplinary approach. It brings together new ideas and advances in machine learning, neuroscience, engineering, mathematics, simulation and computing infrastructure.
2010 - Founding
Hassabis, Legg and Suleyman began working on AI technology by teaching it how to play old games from the seventies and eighties. Their goal with this technology was to create a general-purpose AI that can be useful and effective for almost anything.
2011-2013 - Early investment and research
One year after its founding, Horizon Ventures and Founders Fund invested in the company.
2013 saw DeepMind publish research on an AI system that could surpass human abilities in games such as Pong, Breakout and Enduro.
2014-2016 - Google and other achievements
At the start of 2014, Google announced the company had acquired DeepMind for $500 million and agreed to take over DeepMind technologies. With Google, DeepMind established an artificial intelligence ethics board.
Later that same year, DeepMind received the “Company of the Year” award from Cambridge Computer Laboratory. It also published research on computer systems that are able to play the board game ‘Go’.
AlphaGo, a computer program developed by DeepMind, beat the European Go champion Fan Hui in 2015. This was the first time an AI defeated a professional Go player. Go is considered much more difficult for computers to win. Due to the high number of possibilities within the game, it is prohibitively difficult for traditional AI methods such as brute force.
With Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft, in 2016 DeepMind became a founding member of Partnership on AI, an organisation dedicated to the society-AI interface.
In 2016, the company launches a new division called DeepMind Health and acquired a university spinout company with a healthcare app called Hark.
A collaboration between DeepMind and Moorfields Eye Hospital was announced in July 2016. For this collaboration, DeepMind was applied to the analysis of anonymised eye scans, searching for early signs of disease leading to blindness.
Continuing its work in health, in August 2016 a research programme with University College London Hospital was announced. The partnership aimed to develop an algorithm that could automatically differentiate between healthy and cancerous tissue in head and neck areas.
Turning its AI to protein folding in 2016, DeepMind looked to tackle one of the toughest problems in science and developed its AlphaFold platform.
2017-present - DeepMind Health and AlphaFold
DeepMind Health continued its work in 2017 partnering with the Cancer Research UK Centre at Imperial College London. This was to improve breast cancer detection by applying machine learning to mammography.
The company opened a new unit called DeepMind Ethics and Society in 2017. This unit focused on ethical and societal questions raised by artificial intelligence featuring prominent philosopher Nick Bostrom.
During the same year, the company launched a new research team to investigate AI ethics.
DeepMind also released GridWorld, an open-source testbed for evaluating whether an algorithm learns to disable its kill switch or otherwise exhibits certain undesirable behaviours, in 2017.
To support doctors, DeepMind developed an app called Streams in 2018. The app sends alerts to doctors about patients at risk of injury. Towards the end of the same year, DeepMind announced that its health division and the Streams app would be absorbed into Google Health.
2018 also saw DeepMind’s AlphaFold win the 13th Critical Assessment of Techniques for Protein Structure Predictions (CASP) by successfully predicting the most accurate structure for 25 out of 43 proteins.
During the 14th CASP, AlphaFold’s predictions achieved an accuracy score regarded as comparable with lab techniques.
Deepmind published Agent57 in 2020. Agent57 is an AI Agent which surpasses human-level performance on all 57 games of the Atari2600 suite.
In partnership with The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), DeepMind launched its AlphaFold Protein Structure Database in 2021. This database more than doubled humanity’s accumulated knowledge of high-accuracy protein structures. | <urn:uuid:ef60a2b4-041e-4f4f-be71-209c2dbb66ac> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://aimagazine.com/ai-applications/deepminds-pioneering-work-artificial-intelligence | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337480.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004054641-20221004084641-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.943923 | 869 | 2.84375 | 3 |
First let’s define cloud computing, before jumping to its autonomy. A 2009 survey by Jeremy Geelan, CEO of the 21st Century Internet Group, suggests that the cloud has multiple definitions, which can range from “Everything you can use over the internet” to very specific ones like “virtual servers available over the internet”. In a nutshell, cloud computing is a broad term for services, storage space, and resources on demand hosted over the Internet. As a matter of fact, most internet users are using cloud services on a day to day basis, even if they do not realize it, driven by providers with the likes of Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon.
In the side of companies, cloud computing opens a lot of doors as it enables them to consume computer resources just like using utility, like electricity, instead of having to keep up the costs of building and maintaining their own respective computing infrastructures in-house.
Autonomous and semi-autonomous
On the other hand, Autonomous Cloud Computing is that which aims as much as possible to decrease human involvement in computer systems. In a book by author Richard hill, et al. titled, Guide to Cloud computing: Principles and Practice, it was discussed that ultimately, this schema would lead towards the production of systems which are autonomous or semi-autonomous, and who are able to manage themselves and by themselves self-adapt as well to many inevitable but unpredictable changes, with the latter involved in more externalities. There are many significant advantages do this, which is only exponentially multiplied in many folds when it comes to dealing with large data centers especially those that are characterized by large, international companies.
Semi-autonomous machines have three elements that are fundamental for them to be reliable. These fundamental aspects include an engine, which acts as effectors to apply any of the constantly required changes to the system, an adoption engine, as well as monitoring gauges and probes. Usually, the decisions that are made by these sophisticated machines are already predetermined from a set of defined policies.
One of the leading proponents of semi-autonomous cloud computing is Hewlett-Packard, especially with its service called HP Public Cloud. This provides on-demand and pay-as-you-go cloud services both for computing platform and storage infrastructure. This Cloud built its infrastructure on OpenStack technology, which is an open source cloud project, and delivers end-to-end cloud capabilities, which let their users manage their deployments. As a result, HP Public Cloud is able to offer an open, intuitive and a reliable cloud.
Collaboration as a Service
One of the examples of their many services is called Collaboration as a Service, this enables many organizations and companies to manage data as well as enable the filing and information sharing with the least amount of latency. Also, many businesses use what is called the HP Helion Managed Virtual Private Cloud, which performs a daily encrypted backup and automated load balancing on its many virtual servers. The data is stored off-site and the many user-companies and organizations can choose to retain their data by HP, for which there is a high-availability clustering option that can be added.
If you want to know more about cloud computing, its system and its platforms, contact Four Cornerstone now! | <urn:uuid:99da1c20-a303-4da6-8300-b508802b4875> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://fourcornerstone.com/autonomous-semi-autonomous-cloud-computing/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337480.10/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004054641-20221004084641-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.965359 | 675 | 3.234375 | 3 |
When it comes to mobile testing, developers have two choices: emulators versus physical devices. Emulators/simulators are software programs that mimic a device’s features. These are virtual devices that act like real smartphones, tablets or other mobile devices. While typically lumped together, simulators and emulators are slightly different. Essentially, emulators mimic the outer behavior of an object while simulators mimic an object’s internal state.
Why Use Emulators/Simulators
One reason emulators/simulators are used is that physical devices are expensive. Buying them for a project can quickly blow the budget for many projects. Plus, there’s a lot of manual work involved when working with physical devices.
On the façade, emulators seem to be more efficient. They can test very specific situations and can be used to simulate a wide variety of devices. Emulators for different devices are widely available, and for many companies most importantly, they’re relatively inexpensive (oftentimes free) in comparison to physical devices.
Emulators/Simulators and Faulty Results
While emulators seem like the perfect alternative to physical devices, they have many issues that could affect the overall validity of testing and possibly void results. Both simulators and emulators can give you both false positive and negative results – which is extremely problematic on both extremes. They also aren’t designed for all types of situations and may not provide adequate results as to how the app or website will perform on a device over long-term use.
Not all emulators support all types of mobile applications. Developers have to be very careful when selecting emulators. They may also have to purchase software patches in order to support additional applications. Finally, emulators can’t simulate all types of user interactions on a device while QA tests on a physical device do allow for different interactions.
Mobile is no longer a secondary market that simply needs to be accommodated. In many ways, it has vastly surpassed the days of mainly using desktops and laptops. The sheer number of devices and configurations that mobile apps and websites need to run can be a logistical nightmare for developers. Apps must run effectively without bugs on these devices. If not, consumers can get frustrated and cease to use the app.
For comprehensive results, always test on a physical device. If budgetary constraints keep you from buying a variety of different devices, consider hiring an outside QA testing house that has all needed devices on hand.
iBeta only tests with physical devices. We can test app and website compatibility with different hardware, OS and browser versions on a variety of carriers. Contact us today to learn more about our services. | <urn:uuid:9bed40e2-3f97-4113-9a09-708b18445c58> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.ibeta.com/emulators-versus-physical-devices-which-is-better/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337631.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005140739-20221005170739-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.942865 | 544 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Let me start this with some of the most common questions asked these days; ‘Is cloud going away?’ ‘What will happen after the sunset of cloud charisma?’ Cloud computing is popular now, and it’s imperative for people to ask such questions. The simplest answer is cloud computing is not going anywhere. On the other hand, it will pave way for others as a big daddy so that we can embrace digital and IoT better. How can this be done? One of the ways is Edge Computing which is expected to act complementary or in continuation to cloud.
Edge Computing is all about having processing and analytics closer to the data source or the endpoint for enabling real-time or near-real time insights. It is the reason why IoT application is a prefect use-case for it. For instance, a smart engine or a locomotive would require real-time insights for its movement (speed, direction, and correct way acting as other variables). The requirement to have real-time insights considering multiple variables would require data sets to be processed, analysed, and acted upon swiftly, without any latencies. Latencies might depend on thousands of data generating chips with varying volume, velocity, and variety that would make it even more difficult.
The entire loop of collecting, analysing, and feeding back of data to these devices for their smooth functioning and without any glitch requires zero latency compared to the cloud-based analysis which is being prescribed today as part of cloud computing solution. Similarly, an AI-based drone/robot will need to perform like a human being without wasting time on analysis. This paves the need for a new architecture. Will this architecture have room for current version of cloud computing? Most certainly.
All the data that will be processed at the edge or at the entity itself (acting as an edge) would need further analysis in terms of its health, pattern, trends, and improvement aspects. This can be done with the current cloud formats as it can withstand latencies without any direct effect on the immediate functioning of these entities.
The second aspect would be with the storage of such huge volumes of data wherein not all data would be relevant for the storage. However, a tiny fraction of that data multiplied with the data sources would certainly be more than what can be handled now. Cloud, in its current form, would again be the lone bearer in handling such a demand.
How soon can we expect the Edge? Well, it’s the maturity of use cases such as IoT, collaborative applications, AI based scenarios or simply the ecosystem gearing up to leverage such architecture in its entirety.
Another area where Edge architectures would do wonders is that of intuitive/interactive customer experience, context aware services, and associated applications that would embrace Edge-based architectures to have ‘lightening’ decision making capabilities. These certainly cannot be served with current service models owing to latency, efficiency, and cost issues. Considerable performance upgrades and efficiency is expected as data/insights move closer to the endpoint.
Now the question arises, will cost be a driver when adopting edge computing? Yes, it will be a driver as there is a significant chunk of data that moves to-and-fro between the source and the cloud. It would certainly be reduced, either in terms of volume or in terms of number of to-and-fro counts or both, thereby initiating a saving on bandwidth and storage capacities, not to mention the savings in time/effort in trying to do it all with the current models.
Hence, what does it take to be on the Edge? Is it technology alone? This would require as much as an architectural change as process, people, and services transformation. For instance, in terms of processes, it would require the segregation of functions/insights that are required for smooth operations versus the associated processes of conceptualization, creation, delivery, and service that needs change.
Similarly, the support services, skills, performance metrics, hierarchies, structures would need a change to support the ecosystem. Also, skills requirement would drastically change from traditional SME based model to more cross-skilled and automation based setups. Human intervention would be required but would be limited. And similarly, would demand denser skills than the L1, L2 skills that are more prevalent today in the industry.
So, what will this Edge be? The architecture needs to be modified or in some cases, would change completely to support it. Edge itself may act as another cloud where, in some cases, local processing will happen either on a semi-mobile or fixed device that will be feeding into the Edge directly. This could simply be the entity or device itself owing to technological advancements and requirements or a flurry of micro-datacentres acting as Edge gateways.
Their placement or identification will depend on what kind of application and performance is intended, and also the location and volume of customers sometimes. In some cases, it may simply percolate down to the usual run-of-the-mill applications as well to manage latency issues. This could also involve interactive experience requirements and connected devices generating massive amounts of data that need both warm and cold insights.
Lastly, all this connectivity may draw flank on security issues. As security vulnerabilities and data privacy issues may arise due to more ‘intelligent’ architectures being more prone to exploitation or acting as extended attack vectors. For edge architectures to prevail, security and privacy setups may also need to become smarter in order to address the ‘intelligent’ questions posed by such implementations.
This would need new administration and governance models along with up-skilling of resources towards management and analysis rather than maintenance alone. To be on the Edge, one would need support from these pillars so as to not end-up being on the wrong side of it. | <urn:uuid:432cbaae-5738-4dfc-916c-6648e1e1c915> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.hcltech.com/blogs/what-it-be-edge | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334871.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926113251-20220926143251-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.955248 | 1,182 | 2.578125 | 3 |
Tuesday, September 27, 2022
Published 5 Months Ago on Wednesday, Apr 27 2022 By Ahmad El Hajj
Climate change has become an urgent issue in the last decade as alarming numbers have emerged, forecasting some catastrophic consequences on humanity as a whole. Carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping gas released from irresponsible human activities such as deforestation and excessive fossil fuel usage, has reached an all-time high of 417 parts per million, according to NASA. The chain effect has resulted in an increase of 1.01 degrees in the Earth’s temperature, a 13 percent per decade decrease in arctic sea ice extent, and 3.94 inches increase in sea levels.
The United Nations mentions several extreme effects of climate change, including “intense droughts, water scarcity, severe fires, rising sea levels, flooding, melting polar ice, catastrophic storms and declining biodiversity.” To this end, it has dedicated a sustainable development goal (SDG) aiming to slow down human-induced climate change. SDG 13 clearly calls for urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. Technology has come a long way and is probably the best tool to break the devastating changes before they become irreversible.
Solar geoengineering is a technique that aims at reducing the Earth’s temperature by reflecting sunlight back into space. This is achieved using different approaches, all looking to increase the reflection of sunlight, a process known as albedo modification. In particular, two techniques stand out:
In this approach, aerosols are injected into the stratosphere. They will then reflect sunlight and lead to the cooling of the Earth’s surface. Aerosols will remain in the upper atmosphere for several years.
In this case, sea salt is injected into the cloud to increase its brightness. Consequently, their reflective properties are improved.
The technology from sci-fi is not without controversies in every angle one can think about. First of all, geoengineering solutions are artificial in nature in the sense they do not solve the root cause of the problem but rather slow down climate change effects preventing large-scale disasters. The interaction between geopolitics and economics also plays a big role in determining how such solutions are deployed. Who will benefit from these techniques, when and where are questions heavily impacted by politics and inequalities in resources, as is the case with most planetary problems?
The advent of new technologies has had a devastating effect on the climate as energy consumption has literally skyrocketed since its inception. From cryptocurrency mining farms to the metaverse and, lately non-fungible tokens (NFTs), the situation is only spiraling in the wrong direction.
Don’t get me wrong, the metaverse has been a disruptive technology in the last couple of years. But the extreme use of computational resources has had a devastating effect on the climate. The leap into virtual reality requires continuous processing and rendering tasks that basically keep cloud computing entities running. As a representative figure, running an AI model is estimated to produce 300000 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions.
Mining is another contributor to the exacerbation of the problem. Dedicated antminers and graphical processing units are usually operated continuously, performing mathematical operations to validate various blockchain transactions. The consequent rise in electricity usage, normally generated using fossil fuels, has a detrimental effect on the environment. An article by Fortune pictures the effect of bitcoin mining, notably highlighting the fact that Bitcoin emits some 57 million tons annually of carbon dioxide and that offsetting the related carbon footprint would require planting 300 million trees, a staggering number illustrating the heavy impact of new technological trends.
The proliferation of the Internet of things (IoT) solutions has been beneficial in many areas such as healthcare, industry, agriculture, etc. IoT offers a myriad of opportunities to reduce energy consumption by relying on smart sensing equipment. Many examples can be given, such as follows:
A smart grid is simply “an electricity network enabling a two-way flow of electricity and data with digital communications technology enabling to detect, react and pro-act to changes in usage and multiple issues. Smart grids have self-healing capabilities and enable electricity customers to become active participants,” as defined by i-SCOOP. Smart meters and sensors dispersed throughout the distribution and transmission grid allow an optimization of the process reducing power losses and improving energy provision. The generation stage in the smart grid can also consist of distributed plants relying on renewable energy sources.
AI and IoT is an excellent combination to reduce carbon emission with the hope of reaching the “zero emissions” target. Fleet management can be optimized to reduce fuel consumption and emissions. Smart farming solutions can be devised to reduce generate waste and improve productivity. Smart cities are another area where AIoT can be employed to reduce carbon emissions. By deploying sensors throughout, different applications can be developed based on the huge amount of generated data. These include smart street lighting, traffic management, pollution monitoring, and energy management. Digital twins are another domain where operations can be optimized virtually before being applied to a real model.
Many other IoT use cases are actually being investigated as well to tackle climate change challenges, including smart buildings. The “upgrade” from the internet of things to the internet of everything (IoE) promises to further expand the spectrum of possibilities to save the planet.
Climate change is an extremely urgent issue. The severity of the problem, highlighted by the United Nations, has reached a point where irreversible damage can occur at any point in time. Judicious use of novel technologies or even the development of climate change technologies can help significantly reduce carbon and hazardous gas emissions. In all cases, finding the sweet spot when using any alternative is key to achieving the projected targets. Among others, the use of AI is a double edge sword. Its usefulness in the context of IoT solutions can be negated easily by the significantly large carbon footprint of AI algorithms. Therefore, moderation is the first solution towards a net-zero target in the coming years.
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The world of foldable phones keeps welcoming more additions to its roster. And it makes sense. The foldable phones are selling well even with their pricy asking point. Huawei’s latest foldable is the Huawei P50 Pocket. While it does many things right, it also has its shortcomings. We will take a deeper look at it. […]
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WHAT IS TWO-WAY RADIO?
The term two-way radio is a technology that allows individuals to keep in contact with each other using radio waves. Each user is given a radio unit which sends and receives audio and data sent over the radio waves. A two-way radio system can be as simple as two radios connecting directly to each other, or a complex as an encrypted network that covers an entire country.
You might know two-way radio by the name “walkie talkie”, which is the term used for unlicensed radio devices. The term two-way radio covers the unlicensed equipment and the licensed equipment.
What is Two-Way Radio?
How Does Two-Way Radio Work?
Two-way radio works by converting audio to radio waves that are then transmitted through the air. These radio waves are received by other radios which convert the radio waves back to audio.
The conversion to radio waves can be sent as an analogue signal or a digital signal, with digital transmission being the more modern technology. With digital radio, it is possible to send other types of data over the radio waves such as text messages and status updates. It is even possible to encrypt data when using digital radio to stop people using your network without your permission.
What Frequencies Do Two-Way Radio Use?
Two-way radio works between the frequencies of 30 MHz (Megahertz) and 1000 MHz, also known as 1 GHz (Gigahertz). This range of two-way frequencies is divided into two categories:
- Very High Frequency (VHF) - Range between 30 MHz and 300 MHz
- Ultra-High Frequency (UHF) - Range between 300 MHz and 1 GHz.
From these ranges, most two-way radio equipment falls into the 136 - 174 MHz and 403 - 527 MHz parts of the spectrum and must be licensed. Each country has its own organisation tasked with allocating licences, but some two-way radio frequencies are allocated as license-free.
Do I Need A Two-Way Radio License?
It depends on what type of system you require. If you only need a small number of radios in a remote location over a small area then you might be able to use unlicensed radios. If you require a larger area of coverage, require secure communications, have multiple teams who need to communicate separately, or are operating in a built-up area such as a town centre then you will need to buy licensed equipment.
Radio licensing is a complex topic, but through Motorola Solutions extensive partner network, we can pair you with a local expert to help you find the solution that is right for you while aiding you through the licensing process for your region.
Can Two-Way Radio From Different Manufacturers Communicate With Each Other?
Yes, and no; some functions are common across all manufacturers because they are defined by radio standards such as DMR (see What is DMR?). While basic functionality will work between systems (such as voice transmission), you might want to use features outside those defined by the standards.
Before deciding what equipment to purchase to extend your system, you should check what features you are already using and find out if any are unique to your current equipment. If they are not unique, you should still check with the manufacturers to ensure that interoperability testing has been performed between the systems.
What Distance Do Two-Way Radios Work Over?
The answer to this question depends on the equipment you are using and the infrastructure you have installed around it. As an example, the International Space Station, orbiting at an altitude of 408 KM uses two-way radio to communicate with the earth, but there are very few obstructions between the station and the antennas so the signal is easily received. In comparison, an unlicensed radio operating inside a building may only work for around 100 metres.
Two-way radio systems can have infrastructure installed around the area of coverage which makes the range of the system only limited by the amount of equipment you can afford to install. Two-way radio repeaters can extend signals over a large area and can be joined together through other means such as the internet to create connected pockets of coverage (such as a multi-site university campus).
Motorola Solutions extensive partner network can we can pair you with a local expert to help you find the right system solution for your unique requirements. Contact us today to start your journey.
Can Two-Way Radios Be Traced?
Many models of Motorola Solutions two-way radios include GPS functionality which can report the position of the radio over a digital network to a control room. The location functionality can be always-on or only switched on in specific situations such as when the emergency button is pressed.
Explore LMR from Motorola Solutions
APX and ASTRO P25
With mission-critical communications, there’s no room for error, the APX radio series creates intelligent action and ensures you are always connected to your team to ensure the best outcomes.
Create a safer and more efficient workflow with MOTOTRBO, enhancing productivity and keeping your team connected in a ruggedized manner.
To ensure the best customer service, keep your staff connected so they remain concerned with putting the customer first through Business Lite Radios.
For families and casual users, Talkabout radios keep you connected through hands-free communication so you can enjoy conquering moments.
Maintain and restore your system through improved network responses to reduce risks and manage the complexity of your networks through our LMR services. | <urn:uuid:ff4c5219-3223-490c-9738-15f2a27b42cb> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.motorolasolutions.com/en_xa/solutions/what-is-two-way-radio.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337504.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004121345-20221004151345-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.941711 | 1,137 | 3.46875 | 3 |
What is CyberSecurity
What is cyber security (a.k.a cyber-security or cybersecurity)? Cyber security is concerned with protecting computing systems from a variety of perspectives, including:
- Theft, including hardware, software and the information that resides within a computing system
- Damage to a system and/or its information
- Attacks on a system including denial of service, disruption and manipulation of information
- Misdirection of services
- Errors and omissions on the part of the developer or operator of a computing system
Today, almost everything is a computing “system”, given the wide spread use of computers, information storage, and the Internet. Even running shoes and refrigerators collect information and “talk” over networks today. Any type of system that communicates in some form faces cyber security risk. From this perspective, literally everything can be considered a “system”.
Obviously, the importance of cyber security varies with the nature of the computing system. In many instances, the outcome of a cyber security failure may be nothing more than an annoyance; for example, perhaps a particular feature stops working on your computer. But as systems become mission critical, the outcome of a cyber security attack or failure can be devastating. Examples of mission-critical systems include:
- Military and commercial aircraft
- The banking system
- Secure communications systems and networks used by police and federal authorities
- Medical databases, laboratories and hospitals
- Emergency 911 system
- The GPS network
Moreover, cyber security has taken on even more importance as critical products increasingly go “digital”. For example, in the last few years, there have been several news reports of hackers overtaking cars. The possibility always exists that a critical system could be overtaken and that its data content could be modified or stolen without proper cyber security measures.
Cyber security is one of the fastest growing fields because of the increasing reliance on computerized systems and communications in most everything we use, be it a product or a service. The need for cyber security is exacerbated by the Internet of Things (IoT) defined by the Global Standards Initiative on Internet of Things (IoT-GSI) as “the infrastructure of the information society”. A host of old and new products are being digitized such that they can communicate over a network – from heart implants to clothing.
Finally, cyber security is critical from another perspective. Our litigious environment places individuals and companies at risk more than ever. A product or service failure can have devastating consequences on people, on the companies responsible for providing those products and services, and the on the individuals within those organizations.
Want to know more about how cyber security can impact your business? Contact Us. | <urn:uuid:5d7f3c81-5d3c-4d7f-b3e9-8cc91302555c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://kdmanalytics.com/resources/what-is-cybersecurity/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337971.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007045521-20221007075521-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.932822 | 556 | 3.65625 | 4 |
For all practical purposes, the digital divide in the western world has vanished. Computers and computing platforms are available to anyone, sometimes at very little cost, and sometimes for free. Training on how to use those devices is now readily available in schools and elsewhere, also for free. By the time students reach middle school, computer use is routine.
This is important to the global economy because computer literacy, as we used to call it, is a necessity for nearly any task in today’s world and is a part of most jobs in some way. While access to computing devices lags elsewhere in the world, it’s not lagging by much. But it seems that access to data, especially wireless access, hasn’t kept up.
And access to wireless data isn’t a problem just in the third world or among the urban poor. It’s a problem to anyone in the U.S. who doesn’t have a good enough job to afford $100 a month to pay for it. In the U.S., access to wireless data is something for the rich who live in areas where they can be connected. The poor, whether they live in the city or in rural areas, need not apply.
If you’re not at least fairly well-off, you can’t afford those pricey mobile share-everything plans. Even the low-cost, prepaid data plans for most carriers don’t go below $20 per month, which may not sound like a lot to you, but could be a week’s worth of bread and milk for a struggling family.
Meanwhile, hardware makers are stepping up to the challenge. According to our former sister publication, PC Magazine, Acer is getting ready to sell a 7-inch Android tablet for under $100. Amazon Kindle e-readers start at $69. Used desktop computers, which may not be the fastest or coolest, but which work well for Internet access are available at little or no cost to anyone who needs them from a wide variety of sources.
But then there’s the issue of Internet access. While you really need a computer these days for everything from homework to job hunting, you also need the data to go with it. And where do you get that? Those Kindle e-readers need WiFi which is at least available for free in a number of places from your public library toStarbucks. But you can’t lug that desktop computer to Starbucks. So what do you do?
If you’re poor then you have to hope that you live in a community that mandates the availability of cable service to everyone and that the mandated cable service is affordable. However cable service or DSL service, if that’s what you can get, starts at that same $20 a month.
The Digital Divide Is Now All About Affordable Data Access
The only alternative is wireline phone service which requires a slow analog modem and can cost as little as 11 dollars a month. But how can you do homework or look for jobs on an analog connection? The answer is that if it works at all, you will find that it takes a very long time to load a web page at 54 kbps. Good luck with that.
But suppose that you’re poor and rural—or even not-so-poor and rural? The ugly truth about rural broadband service is that it’s mostly not there at all, except for pricy satellite services that start at about $40 per month for limited data plans. These plans do provide access, but not everyone can use them. And while there are government subsidies available, not everyone qualifies. But forget cable access. Cable companies have no interest in stringing lines sparsely-populated rural areas.
What this boils down to is that if you live in the ‘burbs or in the city, you can get Internet access if you can afford it. If you can’t afford it, you’d best hope that you live near an area with free WiFi or municipal broadband. But if you don’t live in these areas, you’re out of luck unless you bring home a decent pay check. For the rural poor, the data divide is very real.
Of course, many of you probably don’t care. You’re a tech person. You’re working in IT where salaries are good. You can afford the fastest network access available, along with an iPhone, an iPad and anything else you want to access data. This isn’t your problem, right?
But it is your problem. Any time a portion of the population is excluded from participating in the digital economy, it hurts the economy. In times of economic stress, this exclusion slows the recovery and limits the extent of the recovery. It also means that some portions of the economy aren’t able to compete.
But maybe you do care. Maybe you’re in a position where your employer can put some pressure on communications providers to find a way to help those who need it in a meaningful way, such as low-or no-cost data access. Perhaps you can donate Internet access to shelters and employment centers.
Or maybe you’re in a position where you can make this happen yourself. Either way, the data divide is fast becoming an economic tragedy that will separate a new class of have-nots from everyone else. Maybe in this season of giving, you can find a way. | <urn:uuid:20182c51-a00c-424d-8a8f-3cd1c45bb227> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.eweek.com/cloud/the-digital-divide-is-now-all-about-affordable-data-access/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337971.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007045521-20221007075521-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.945943 | 1,126 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Here's one of the greatest ideas I learned at my first ASAE Great Ideas Conference last week: K.I.S.S. You creative types out there probably already know this acronym, and I hope you'll add your tips in the comments. This post is dedicated to everyone else out there who didn't go to design school!
Tips for Creating Online Learning Content Strategy that Works
In Tracy King's presentation "Next Generation Learning: Keep the Design in Mind," I gained insight about designing forms and pages for online courses. Tracy displayed actual e-learning pages and we discussed elements that were helpful – or distracting. One of the most common problems with the examples we reviewed were very busy pages where the reader cannot find the call to action (what they are supposed to do)!
Here are a few good tidbits I jotted down that I will keep in mind the next time I am designing online learning web pages – or working with a client on such a system. You can find more in her SlideShare presenation.
- Pages do not have to be fancy. Keep them simple and relevant.
- Make sure you have enough white space on the page.
- Use different type and color (but not so much that they're distracting) to help the learner move through the page.
- To develop a calm look on the page, select colors that are near each other on the color palette.
- To develop contrast, select colors on the opposite side of the color palette.
- Limit pop ups. They are very distracting (and might be blocked by the reader's browser, anyway).
- Make sure navigation and directions are clear. Have a clear call to action – what you want the reader to do next.
- Use graphics and video to provide visual opportunities.
- When using graphics, make sure they are clear and relevant. Don't add a graphic just because it seems like a good idea.
When you are developing content pages, include review information from a previous course, if applicable. This helps the online learner build on existing knowledge and resources, creating a continuum of learning.
Present feedback after a student answers a question. If the question is correct, display supporting information related to the answer. If the answer is incorrect, provide additional information that will help the online learner understand why they missed the question.
When you are developing content pages and you think they are getting a little busy, they are! Stop and simplify! | <urn:uuid:631cebce-bdf7-4cac-9374-1b30c2060383> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.delcor.com/resources/blog/how-to-apply-design-principles-to-online-learning-content-strategy | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.935304 | 501 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Offsite Data Protection (Vaulting)
Offsite Data Protection (Vaulting) is a supplementary security process of storing a backup of data at an outside facility for the purposes of business continuity or disaster recovery.
Vaulting, as offsite data protection is widely known, plainly entails taking a backup of the data from the places or places where it normally resides and storing that backup copy at a dedicated facility located elsewhere. In addition to the split locations inherent in such an arrangement, vaulting also involves security measures at the “vault” property such as physical security (including personnel), encryption, or cold storage.
Vaulting may be at a company-owned data storage facility or as a managed service provider’s facility, providing that the setting in either case is secure and not subject to a loss incident that would affect the place where the data is conventionally held.
“Offsite data protection is simply that, having a backup of data reside at another location to minimize the risk of a total loss caused by a natural or man-made catastrophe at the data’s primary location.” | <urn:uuid:10a95668-cee5-4683-8edc-f10f4c24ffe3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.hypr.com/security-encyclopedia/offsite-data-protection-vaulting | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334912.28/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926144455-20220926174455-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.953905 | 233 | 2.671875 | 3 |
In most of our projects we use RES Automation Manager for task automation and as I’m a RES Certified Trainer I have to explain how RES Automation Manager works and every time I give this training I have to explain “Conditions” and “Evaluators” so I thought it would be a good idea to write a blog about these two options, their differences and their use cases.
What’s a condition?
From the Admin Guide:
When configuring Tasks, Modules, Projects or Run Books, you can optionally set a condition. A condition determines to which settings a Task, Module or Run Book Job in a Job must comply before it is executed. A condition contains one or more expressions that determine whether the condition can be satisfied and defines what action should be taken based on this. This makes it possible to create intelligent Modules, Projects and Run Books.
- Task conditions determine whether a Task should be executed, skipped or failed and can be set when configuring Tasks and Modules.
- Module conditions determine whether a Module should be executed or skipped and can be set when configuring Projects.
- Job conditions determine whether a Run Book Job should be executed or skipped and can be set when configuring Run Books. When setting Job conditions, only the expression types Date Time, Parameter and Status of Previously Executed Job are available.
What’s a evaluator?
From the Admin Guide:
For a number of Tasks that query objects, it is possible to configure Evaluators. Evaluators are very similar to conditions, but where a condition determines to what settings a Task must comply before it is executed, an evaluator does this afterwards: An evaluator contains one or more expressions that determine whether the evaluator can be satisfied based on the query results and defines what action should be taken based on this. This makes it possible to let the execution of succeeding Tasks depend on the results of a query. An evaluator is optional.
You can use evaluators in the following Tasks:
- Query Computer Properties
- Query Disk Space
- Query Installed programs
- Query Service Properties
- Query TCP/IP Properties
Basically both technologies are used to make intelligent processes but on a different way, the condition is determined before the task runs while the evaluator does a query and based on the outcome of that query ‘decides’ whether the next task should start or should be skipped.
There are a million ways to do task automation but normally when I use conditions it’s based on a true/false option only for example if I want to deploy a XenApp server I want to do it the same every time I repeat the installation without interaction or corrections from my task automation solutions but if I need to take corrective actions I can use the evaluator to take actions based on the output of a query and do nothing if the value what it should be.
When I want to install VMware Tools, I’ve got two options when installing the MSI. Either I install the x86 or the x64 version of the VMware tools. Using conditions I can configure the specific task to use processor architecture as a condition to execute the task or skip this task and proceed to the next one:
Tip: If you want to use an evaluator try running the query first, based on the output of the query you can use the value and the notation in the evaluator.
So in the example above we can schedule the job and based on the Program = VMware Tools rule we can install the VMware tools (both x64 and x86 using conditions) on all targets without VMware Tools.
Latest posts by Kees Baggerman (see all)
- Nutanix AHV and Citrix MCS: Adding a persistent disk via Powershell – v2 - November 19, 2019
- Recovering a Protection Domain snapshot to a VM - September 13, 2019
- Checking power settings on VMs using powershell - September 11, 2019
- Updated: VM Reporting Script for Nutanix with Powershell - July 3, 2019
- Updated (again!): VM Reporting Script for Nutanix AHV/vSphere with Powershell - June 17, 2019 | <urn:uuid:1816a11e-5176-4e99-9984-d77329ed976d> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://blog.myvirtualvision.com/2012/12/05/when-to-use-conditions-and-evaluators-in-res-automation-manager-2/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335326.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929065206-20220929095206-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.872209 | 902 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Establishing a Women Inclusive Future in Quantum Computing
(AnalyticsInsight) The modern era of technology has changed the world upside down. The emerging trends are slowly placing women equally to men at all positions in the tech radar. Author Adilin Beatrice calls for quantum computing to become inclusive toward women. The writes that the worst case is that most of us don’t notice the discrimination quantum computing is bringing into the tech sector.
Beatrice says that the exclusion starts early on in careers in sciences. Physics, computer science and engineering are the basement of quantum computing. Only 20% of these degree recipients are identified as women for the last decade. Even women who survive the lone time at universities face an existential crisis on daily life as a person involved in quantum initiatives. They are often dismissed by their male peers. A research conducted by a group of five female scientists has concluded that women who receive an A grade in a physics course have the same self-efficacy about their own performance as men who earn a C grade. The research further unravels that women have a lower sense of belonging and they feel less recognized by their physics instructors as people who can excel in physics.
However, the world can still build an inclusive future for women by taking certain initiatives. Primarily, women need to be recognized in the science and engineering disciplines. Insufficient encouragement in the education level is a threat to women willingness. Instructors and research advisors should cheer female students to perform better and give them more opportunities. Organizations should also develop a culture that treats women and their ideas equally to their male counterparts. | <urn:uuid:a9a7ae2c-fa7e-4419-8ced-ab4982831b38> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.insidequantumtechnology.com/news-archive/establishing-a-women-inclusive-future-in-quantum-computing/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335491.4/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930145518-20220930175518-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.96895 | 323 | 2.78125 | 3 |
Satellite dishes are measured in square meters. They may be elliptical or round. Satellite dishes reflect the satellite signal to the feed horn where the signal is captured and decoded by the LNB. Other common sizes for satellite dishes are .74 meter, .98 meter, 1.8 meter, and 2.4 meter
The rotational axis of a mobile satellite system. Most mobile systems have a greater-than-360-degree rotation so that scanning for a signal is not impeded by a physical limit on the mobile dish.
The amount of data that can be transmitted in a fixed amount of time. Most commonly expressed in bits-per-second (bps with a small b) but occasionally in Bytes-per-second (Bps with an upper case B). Kbps is kilobits per second, or 1000 bits per second. Mbps is a million bits per second. A dial-up modem normally uses 56Kbps. A typical iDirect connection is 3Mbps download, or about 60 times faster.
Is simply high-speed internet access that's much faster than dial-up internet access. Normally, broadband is anything faster than 300 Kbps.
The 'Block Up Converter' is the transmitter for a satellite dish. BUCs are rated by wattage: the higher the wattage, the better the upload performance, especially during bad weather.
The C-band is primarily used for voice and data communications as well as backhauling. Because of its weaker power, it requires a larger antenna, usually above 1.8m (6ft). However, due to the lower frequency range, it performs better under adverse weather conditions on the ground. It operates in the frequency range for VSAT satellite communication from 3.7 to 4.2GHz for downlink and 5.925 to 6.425GHz for uplink communication. C-band systems are light-heartedly referred to as a 'BUD' - or big ugly dish.
Standing for committed information rate, CIR is the guaranteed speed you can rely on with your satellite connection. Your speeds will not drop below this amount. CIR is normally associated with an unshared channel where there are no other subscribers using that channel. This means that full speed is available at all times. Since a 1:1 CIR channel is not shared, it's typically much more expensive. Some companies use the term CIR loosely in describing their shared plans. However, these plans are not 100% guaranteed to committed speeds.
Refers to the number of subscribers that are sharing the connection at the same time. Many 'consumer' organizations like Hughesnet have contention ratios that approach 400 to 1, which makes the speeds crawl. Ground Control posts its contention ratios so you can predict your connection speed at any time. Most of our standard iDirect plans are between 10:1 and 20:1.
Decibel watts is a measurement of energy beamed from a satellite to a point on the earth. The higher the dBW, the stronger the signal strength, and the smaller the satellite dish that's required.
Dynamic host configuration protocol is a protocol for assigning dynamic IP addresses to devices on a network. With dynamic addressing, a device may have a different IP address each time it connects to the network. DHCP also supports a mix of static and dynamic IP addresses. Windows ICS uses the address range of 192.168.0.2 through 192.168.0.255 when it assigns addresses. It also works fine when computers on the ICS network are assigned addresses in that range statically, but it's a good idea to use high numbers to avoid conflicts.
Domain name system (or service or server), is an internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Because domain names are alphabetic, they're easier to remember. The internet however, is really based on IP addresses. Every time you use a domain name, therefore, a DNS service must translate the name into the corresponding IP address. For example, the domain name www.datastormusers.com translates to 184.108.40.206. The DNS system is, in fact, its own network. If one DNS server doesn't know how to translate a particular domain name, it asks another one, and so on, until the correct IP address is returned.
Information that comes to your computer from the internet. The typical download speeds of an iDirect connection is between 2500Kbps and 4500Kbps (kilobits per second),
Refers to the addresses assigned by the router your computer is connected to each time you log into the network. The IP address is how all information flows to and from your computer. Like a street address, it's an address required for communication. The reason it's dynamic (and not static) is because it changes each time you log on to a network (or the internet). Alternatively, a static IP address never changes for your computer.
Effective isotropic radiated power is the measure of the strength of the signal leaving a satellite antenna in a particular direction, equal to the product of the power supplied to the satellite transmit antenna and its gain in that direction.
The vertical axis (up and down) motion of pointing the satellite dish.
Fair access policy, pronounced as a word. Satellite connections, while always on, are not unlimited. Bandwidth is a finite resource, so the method used to provide high download bandwidth for all while preventing any one user from hogging that bandwidth is FAP.
The satellite signal strength as it falls on the earth. It can also be called a coverage map.
Internet protocol, pronounced as two separate letters. IP specifies the format of packets and the addressing scheme used on the internet. The internet combines IP with a higher-level protocol called transmission control protocol (TCP), which establishes the connection between a destination and a source. IP by itself is something like the postal system. It lets you address a package and drop it in the system, but there's no direct link between you and the recipient. TCP/IP, on the other hand, establishes a connection between two hosts so that they can send messages back and forth for a period of time. IP addresses are in the form of a 32-bit numeric address written as four numbers separated by periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 10.249.101.24 could be an IP address. Within a LAN, you can assign IP addresses at random as long as each one is unique; addresses which are public to the internet must be within assigned ranges in order to avoid duplication. The authorities that assign public internet addresses have designated certain ranges as never to be used on the internet. By convention, those are normally used as private addresses on a LAN. The ranges for private addresses are all addresses starting with 10 (e.g. 10.200.44.36), addresses between 172.16.0.0 and 220.127.116.11, and addresses between 192.168.0.0 and 192.168.255.255.
Indoor unit. It refers to equipment the satellite dish connects to inside of a building, such as a satellite modem.
Kilobits per second. Thousands of bits that are transferred in one second. KBps represents (Upper case B) represents thousands of bytes (a byte is made up of 8 bits) in one second.
The Ka-band is primarily used for two-way consumer broadband and military networks. Ka-band dishes can be much smaller and typically range from 60cm-120cm (2' to 4') in diameter. Transmission power is much greater compared to the C, X or Ku-band beams. Due to the higher frequencies of this band, it can be more vulnerable to signal quality problems caused by rain fade.
Pronounced 'kay-yoo', the Ku-band is used typically for consumer direct-to-home access, distance learning applications, retail and enterprise connectivity. The antenna sizes, ranging from 0.7m to 2.4m, are much smaller than C-band because the higher frequency means that higher gain can be achieved with smaller antenna sizes than C-band. Networks in this band are more susceptible to rain fade, especially in tropical areas. Ku communication is the microwave range of the electromagnetic frequency from 11.7 to 12.7GHz (downlink frequencies) and 14 to 14.5GHz (uplink frequencies). An interesting note is that older and gray-market radar detector/jammers operate on the Ku-band frequency and have caused interference to disable a VSAT satellite systems.
Operating in the frequency range from 1,530 to 2.7 Ghz, the L-band has a longer wavelength, and is therefore not affected by rain fade (which can impact the Ku- and Ka- frequency bands). Indeed the main selling point of the L-band is its resilience and stability. L-band antennas are small and lightweight, so they're particularly useful for portable and mobile use, such as military, marine, and transport applications. Inmarsat's FleetBroadband, and the Iridium Certus service, both leverage L-band frequencies; the Cobham Sailor range uses FleetBroadband, and the RockREMOTE and MCD-Missionlink products use Iridium Certus.
(Also known as ping time.) Internet traffic travels at the speed of light - a New York to California fiber optic connection will take 0.03 seconds (30 milliseconds) as a round trip. In reality, the overhead processes of a dozen or more routers and switches adds a bit of time, so an average connection would be about 50 to 90 milliseconds. With satellite connections, the distances are so vast that even light speed isn't fast enough. Why? Because all stationary satellites are located 22,300 miles above the equator, so the round trip is 90,000 miles or more. The speed of light is 186,000MPH, so the time it takes for a round trip is just under 500 milliseconds (half a second). Ground Control's iDirect services have very low overhead processes, so you can expect a latency period of just over 500 milliseconds. This half-second latency is outstanding for VOIP voice communication over satellite, as the pause between speakers is barely noticed. Many other satellite providers, such as Hughesnet, have a latency of over one second. Latency is not good for real-time gaming because the time it takes for the game to notice you've pulled the trigger is half a second or longer.
Line noise block, which is simply the receiver on a satellite dish.
The orbiting satellite acts as a "router in space" and can direct traffic to other VSAT dishes on the ground. This topology cuts satellite latency (ping times) in half because data doesn't need to make two round trips to the orbiting satellite as with the more common star topology satellite network. Mesh networks can also be a combination of star and mesh where some traffic may be routed through an Earth-based NOC.
MQTT stands for Message Queuing Telemetry Transport; it is a messaging protocol (i.e. a means of passing messages between components) for the Internet of Things (IoT). It has been designed to be extremely lightweight, making it ideal for connecting remote devices with a small code footprint, and minimal network bandwidth.
Outdoor unit. Refers to the radio BUC and LNB on the satellite dish.
This is the time required to send a signal in both directions over a particular communication link. This is the soonest that it is possible to receive an acknowledgement of a message.
Quality of service is a term used to show the requirements of some applications and users are more critical than others, which means that some traffic needs preferential treatment. By using QoS mechanisms, network administrators can use existing resources efficiently and ensure the required level of service without reactively expanding or over-provisioning their networks. Traditionally, the concept of quality in networks meant that all network traffic was treated equally. The result was that all network traffic received the network’s best effort, with no guarantees for reliability, delay, variation in delay, or other performance characteristics. With best-effort delivery service, however, a single bandwidth-intensive application can result in poor or unacceptable performance for all applications.
A device that forwards data packets along networks. Typically, a router will have a single WAN connection (like the internet) and one or more LAN connections (such as the computers in an office). As computers on the LAN make requests from internet servers, the router forwards those requests to the internet, and then routes the response to the computer that made the request. Routers can be distinct devices that do nothing but routing, or they can be combined in a single box with other devices including modems, hubs or switches, and wireless access points.
Satellite latency refers to how long it takes a single piece of information to make a round trip back and forth over a satellite connection (aka ping time). Data over satellite travels at the speed of light - 186,000 miles per second. The orbiting satellite is 22,300 miles above earth, and must travel that distance four times (computer to satellite, satellite to internet, internet to satellite, satellite to computer). This adds up to a latency of about half a second. This isn't long, but some applications like real-time gaming don’t like this time delay. The theoretically fastest possible ping time over a geostationary satellite would be 476 milliseconds, or just under half a second. Ground Control iDirect services have a latency time between 500 to 650 milliseconds, which is half that of consumer-grade service providers. Low latency reduces the length of the pause between talking parties over a satellite VoIP phone connection, among numerous other benefits.
The rotation of a dish around its center point. Seen as a clockwise or counter-clockwise rotation when facing the front of the dish. Skew is needed to align the antenna with the polarization of the satellite signal when the dish is not located on the same longitude as the satellite. When a dish is west of the satellite, the skew is a negative number, and from the front of the dish the left edge will be higher than the right. When the dish is east of the satellite it will have a positive skew, with the left edge lower than the right edge.
These use an Earth-based NOC (network operations center) to route all traffic to and from the orbiting satellite to the smaller VSAT dish clients. Star networks differ from mesh networks because mesh networks avoid an Earth-based NOC, and route traffic from the orbiting satellite. The obvious advantage is mesh networks' latency (ping time) is half as much as a star network's because mesh doesn't need to take two round trips to the satellite in order for information to be requested and received from a client star network VSAT site. Mesh networks are also inherently more secure because data is transmitted from VSAT dish to VSAT dish.
Refers to an IP that is permanently assigned, and does change each time that you log on to a network (or the internet). It's possible for a static IP to be a private one, meaning that a computer with that IP is invisible to other computers on the internet. That sort of static IP occurs when a computer owner chooses to set the network properties directly for a computer that would otherwise have a dynamic IP assigned by DHCP. In the satellite world, most references to static IPs mean public IPs, visible from the internet. Such IPs are desired for a number of applications, such as VPNs, or to run a server such as a web cam. When a satellite modem has a static IP, that IP can only be assigned to a single computer (an exception is the DW4020 modem, which can be ordered with up to 5 static IPs). Other computers on the network will normally be assigned private dynamic IPs by a router with DHCP server. That router/server can be an ICS compute on a DW4000 system, or a broadband router on a DW4020 or DW6000 system. A computer with a public static IP should always have good firewall software running to avoid malicious intruders. Computers that are behind a router and have private IPs, dynamic or static, are nearly immune from such intrusion.
Uploading is transmitting information from your computer to a location on the internet. Typical upload speeds of an iDirect system are 500 to 900Kbps (kilobits per second).
Virtual private network, pronounced as three letters. Computers connected by dedicated wires form a 'private network'. A VPN uses the internet or public channels and create an encrypted secure date tunnel from point to point.
Standing for very small aperture terminal, VSAT is two-way (transmit and receive) satellite dish that's normally under three square meters in size. VSAT dishes only communicate with geosynchronous orbiting satellites, and they're on the client-side of the satellite network (where the network operations center or NOC is on the other side). Frequency bands used by VSAT dishes are C-band, Ku-band, Ka-band and X-band. A VSAT system is comprised of the reflector (dish or antenna), the transmitter (BUC), the receiver (LNB), the waveguide, and the indoor unit (IDU).
The X-band is used mainly for military communications and wideband global SATCOM (WGS) systems. With relatively few satellites in orbit in this band, there's a wider separation between adjacent satellites, making it ideal for comms-on-the-move (COTM) applications. This band is less susceptible to rain fade than the Ku-band due to the lower frequency range, resulting in a higher performance level under adverse weather conditions. The X-band uses 7.9 to 8.4GHz for the uplink and 7.25 to 7.75GHz for the downlink. The X-band is heavily used by military organizations. | <urn:uuid:e23c1c05-2382-4996-b51d-24a2587dcee5> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.groundcontrol.com/us/knowledge/glossary/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337516.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004152839-20221004182839-00284.warc.gz | en | 0.940054 | 3,688 | 2.859375 | 3 |
Top ten best British tech inventions
From the computer to the World Wide Web, the iPod to the typewriter, a lot of modern technology started out in the UK
Thanks to the industrial revolution, the Second World War and the BBC, British inventions are behind more of modern life than you might realise.
Combine the resources of the Empire with the demands of automation and you get inventions that changed the world, from Jethro Tull's 1701 seed drill to the spinning machines of the 1760s to Bessemer's process for making better, cheaper steel.
Add in refugees fleeing Nazi Germany, who brought the UK everything from developments in cryptography to what became holograms, plus some inventive UK companies whose technology sells better than their own products, and a surprisingly amount of tech ought be mark invented in Britain'.
1) The computer
In the 1820s, Charles Babbage was trying to make complex calculations easier by designing a calculating machine to replace the frequently inaccurate printed mathematical tables used by engineers. His Difference Engine was planned as a calculating machine that could add a sequence of numbers, but the Analytical Engine he designed in 1834 had all the principles of a computer; a separate processor and working memory, programming concepts like loops and parallel programming and even a printer.
Victorian manufacturing techniques weren't up to building Babbage's computer, and post-war Britain didn't have the facilities to build Alan Turing's planned Automatic Computing Engine in 1945 either. Incidentally, that was the same year as John von Neumannn's famous report on the potential of computers (based on the 1941 Atanasoff-Berry Computer, the first to use binary).
Confusingly, von Neumann said the concept of the computer came from Turing's 1936 paper, with its discussion of a universal machine that could calculate anything that could be expressed as an algorithm. And in 1943, Tommy Flowers designed and built a system at Bletchely Park to crack a German cipher; Colossus was the first electronic, digital computer but it was an official secret and at the end of the war it was taken to pieces.
2) The computer program
Babbage borrowed the idea of using pattern cards to control his calculating machines from Jacquard weaving looms, but it was Countess Ada Lovelace (who called herself an Analyst and Metaphysician) who published the first program. She translated an 1842 French essay written about Babbage's work, adding her own explanation of how the Analytic Engine work - including a program for calculating a sequence of Bernoulli numbers. She also proposed the Engine could be used to calculate more than numbers, if you could express them as abstractions, for example, for composing music.
3) Telephone and telegraph
Born in Scotland, Alexander Graham Bell moved to Canada for his health and worked on building his "harmonic telegraph" while teaching deaf students (including Helen Keller). Many people were working on the idea of a telephone using electromagnetic fields to send the vibrations of speech as electrical signals, which were picked up and reproduced by thin membranes, but he got the first patent in 1876.
While at Somerset College in Bath, Bell ran a telegraph wire from his room to a friend's; the electric telegraph was invented by Charles Wheatstone (who also invented the concertina and the Playfair cipher) and William Cooke in 1837, first installed it between two London stations that year but didn't become popular until it helped catch murderer John Tawell in London in 1845. The idea of instantaneous communication took off and telegraphs were installed in offices and clubs, with the first transatlantic cable coming ashore in Cornwall, which was used to send everything from stock prices to the results of horse races.
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8.29.2022 • Blog
You have probably heard of antivirus software but do you know what it is or how it works? If you don’t know what antivirus software is or how it works, your computer could be at risk of a virus or have a virus without your knowledge.
Antivirus protection software is one of the most well-known security options for combating malware and computer viruses. You might even have some kind of antivirus protection software downloaded onto your computer right now.
Coeo prides itself on being fully transparent with its customers on all things telecommunications related.
While Coeo does not offer its own antivirus software version, we provide security in other ways through managed firewalls. We know just how important it is to keep not only your network secure but your devices as well.
By the end of this article, you will know what antivirus protection software is, how it works, as well as the different types of antivirus software so you know how to better secure your computer and other devices.
What is antivirus protection software?
In today’s world, hackers and malicious sources are more prevalent than ever. So securing your network has to be a main priority. Antivirus protection software can help prevent you from becoming a victim of a cyber attack.
Antivirus protection software prevents, detects, and helps remove threats such as software viruses and malware from your computer systems. These threats can be devastating to your devices and your network.
Once threats like viruses enter your network, they can easily spread. If one device is infected with a software virus, it is important to get rid of it as soon as possible before it spreads to other devices costing you thousands of dollars.
Antivirus protection software can be purchased and downloaded onto your devices. The software is designed as a proactive approach to malicious sources and is used to remove malicious software from your device when they are detected on your computer.
The software is designed to run in the background of your device to scan your device. Since it runs in the background, you can accomplish your day-to-day activities without the software getting in the way.
How antivirus protection software works
Typically, antivirus protection software works by comparing applications and files on your computer to known kinds of malware and viruses stored in a database.
By checking through each application and file on your computer, it compares the characteristics of the files and applications on your computer, to the characteristics of known viruses and malware.
The antivirus software, checks your files, programs, and applications to find matches to the known malware and virus software.
When the antivirus software finds a match to a virus or malware, it segregates, scans, and eliminates the malicious software before it can do any further damage to your device.
The main downside to relying on antivirus protection software is that it does not prevent viruses and malware from entering your computer instead, it only scans and eliminates the malicious software once it is already discovered.
The antivirus software scans and looks for malware and eliminates it as soon as possible. Depending on when the antivirus protection software is able to scan and eliminate any malware or viruses, some damage can already be done to the device.
Different types of antivirus protection software
There are a couple of different types of antivirus protection software. There is traditional antivirus protection and next-gen antivirus protection.
Both types have the same idea in mind, and that's to scan and eliminate any threats to your computer but they have different features and different ways of performing those tasks.
● Traditional antivirus protection software
Traditional antivirus protection software relies heavily on the signature or characteristics of the software to identify viruses and malware.
Traditional antivirus security analyzes files suspected of containing malware and adds them to a database. Once it is in the database, the antivirus protection software can test other software for the characteristics of malware.
One downside to traditional antivirus protection software is that it only is able to detect more traditional viruses and malware. This makes it easier for more modern-day viruses to slip by undetected.
● Next-gen antivirus protection software
This kind of antivirus software is of course a newer, more sophisticated software created around 2013. Next-gen protection software has shifted to signature-less approaches as a way to detect viruses and malware.
This means that instead of testing software for virus and malware characteristics, it performs one of two tasks;
- Behavior-based malware detection
This method employs active malware analysis to detect malware and virus software based on behavior instead of characteristics. It is often powered by machine learning algorithms.
- Machine learning models
Machine learning models identify patterns that match known malware and other forms of artificial intelligence.
Next steps to keeping your network secure
Now that you have learned about antivirus software, how it works, and the different types of software, you can start to implement a form of antivirus software to secure your network and avoid software viruses and malware.
If you already have antivirus protection software, you can have a better idea of how it works. You can also figure out what kind of software you have and determine if it is the right software for you.
Nobody wants to be a victim of a virus or malware attack. Antivirus protection software can stop you from being that victim.
Coeo takes pride in educating you about the dangers of cyber-attacks, malware, and viruses and telling you the importance of network security. We have helped many customers with their network security throughout the years and know the concern for a secure network.
After reading this article, you can check out these articles for more ways to protect your network:
- How do I know if my network environment is secure?
- Managed Firewall: What is it and how does it work?
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Wednesday, September 28, 2022
Published 2 Years Ago on Sunday, Jun 28 2020 By Adnan Kayyali
Early Coronavirus detection, if applied on mass, would significantly decrease transmission rates of the virus. The virus is most contagious before symptoms even show, and in the first week of contraction according to a German study, and the CDC, as 40% of all transmissions occur before clear symptoms are shown if any. Thus, a preemptive approach to healthcare, as always, can save many lives.
The US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, has rewarded $718,000 to American digital healthcare company, Empatica. The funding is for a validation trial of the company’s wearable products to be used for body monitoring and early Coronavirus detection before the appearance of symptoms.
The way the system – dubbed Aura – works is that the wearable measures and analyzes data such as blood volume, pulse, heart rate, temperature, and electrodermal activity. The system’s artificial intelligence-based algorithm then calculates the probability of infection based on data collected and compares it to previous samples and analysis, all done non-invasively and updated continuously in real-time.
All data collected will serve to refine the early diagnostic’s algorithm over time to give a more accurate probability. The data will automatically be shared with the user and their healthcare provider. Patients can then respond accordingly, either by self-isolating or seeking treatment safely.
“This product introduces a new paradigm: empowering individuals and institutions with smart health monitoring, so that they will know early when they need to self-isolate and take care of themselves”, said Matteo Lai, Empatica CEO. “Without BARDA’s leadership and foresight over the past year, our early detection algorithm would not have reached this pivotal stage of clinical validation, which will accelerate our request for FDA’s approval of Aura as a medical product for use by people at risk of contracting COVID-19.”
Empatica’s early Coronavirus detection initiative is not the only project utilizing wearables and artificial intelligence driven data collection, but the healthcare company is certainly taking big strides in this field of research. Pre-emptive detection is now recognized as the future of COVID-19 detection, and as an important tool in MedTech.
The world of foldable phones keeps welcoming more additions to its roster. And it makes sense. The foldable phones are selling well even with their pricy asking point. Huawei’s latest foldable is the Huawei P50 Pocket. While it does many things right, it also has its shortcomings. We will take a deeper look at it. […]
Stay tuned with our weekly newsletter on all telecom and tech related news.
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The new economy has been compared in importance with the discovery of electricity and the invention of the internal combustion engine, and journalists frequently describe it as a new industrial revolution. The hype includes claims that the new economy is responsible for sustained productivity growth and that its very existence has eliminated the normal ups and downs of business cycles.
Before we dispute such claims, let’s define new economy. It would be much too broad to describe it as everything the electronic computer has ever achieved. Decades ago, mainframe computers eliminated clerical drudgery, but somehow that did not budge the stagnant growth rate of the U.S. economy’s productivity; it remained a mere 1.4 percent per year from 1973 to 1995. This mismatch between IT investment and stagnant productivity growth evoked Nobel Prize-winner Robert M. Solow’s famous 1987 Productivity Paradox: “We can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics.”
Because the computer began business operations in 1951 and the economic miracle dates only from 1995, a more focused definition of new economy would be “the acceleration of the rate of technical change in the computer industry after 1995.” The price of computer power (a megabyte of memory or a gigabyte of hard drive capacity) declined more than 30 percent a year from 1995 to 1998, double the 10 percent to 15 percent decline in price before 1995. Combined with this technological acceleration was the invention of Web browsers and widespread access to the Internet.
Taken together, the invention of the Web and the rapid decline in computer prices spurred a massive wave of investment in computers, peripherals and software. An important fact to remember is that economywide investment in computers grew at 20 percent before 1995 and at 40 percent after 1995. As we shall see, the fate of the U.S. economy in 2001 and the years beyond depends on whether computer investment continues to grow at 40 percent a year or slows again to the pre-1995 rate of 20 percent or even lower.
Whatever happens from here, there is no question that the U.S. economic miracle of 1995 to 2000 occurred and created enormous benefits for everyone?not just stockholders but also consumers and employees. Between 1995 and 2000, output per hour in the business sector of the economy rose at an annual rate of 2.9 percent, double the pre-1995 rate. This productivity revival became a source of pride at home in the United States and of envy abroad, and it made the 1995 to 2000 U.S. economic miracle possible. The productivity acceleration held down inflation and directly boosted GDP growth far above rates that were thought possible before 1995, thus allowing Alan Greenspan’s Federal Reserve Board to resist more than minor increases in interest rates. Soaring profits and an unheard-of surge in stock market valuations created trillions of dollars in wealth from this revival in productivity growth.
A Miracle that Can’t Hold
But there are reasons to doubt that the foundation of the Productivity Miracle can remain intact through the next five years. As a historical fact, productivity growth always contains a temporary component when the economywide output of American workers grows faster than its sustainable rate. This seems to have occurred when real GDP grew by 6.1 percent between mid-1999 and mid-2000. Even the most optimistic estimates of America’s sustained growth potential are 4 percent or somewhat lower. If output growth were to slow, productivity growth would also surely slow.
And this is what happened. As real GDP growth fell from 5.6 percent in the second quarter of 2000 to 1.1 percent in that year’s fourth quarter, productivity growth fell from 6.3 percent to 2.2 percent. As the economy slowed, productivity growth slowed with it.
There are several reasons the U.S. economy cannot grow as fast in the next few years as it did during the five-year boom between 1995 and 2000:An unsustainable decline in the unemployment rate.
An unsustainable increase in our international trade deficit.
An unsustainable increase in stock market prices that in turn fueled unsustainable growth in personal consumption spending.
But that’s only the beginning of the story. The nation’s greatest experts on the effects of computer investment, Stephen Oliner and Daniel Sichel at the Federal Reserve Board, have estimated that a full two-thirds of the 1.4 percent productivity growth revival was due to the post-1995 growth of computer investment. Part of this acceleration reflected faster growth in production of computer speed and memory per hour of work by employees making the computers, and the rest reflected the benefits enjoyed by the entire economy in having so many more computers around to make each hour of work more productive.
Too Tied to the Computer
That’s all well and good, but Oliner and Sichel’s research raises a scary prospect for the next few years. Because they attribute so much of the productivity revival to an acceleration in computer investment, their work implies that most of the productivity revival will disappear if the growth of computer investment dips below 40 percent to, say, the 20 percent growth rate that was typical before 1995. Yet even 20 percent seems optimistic for the next year or two. The growth rate of computer investment was down to 5 percent in the last quarter of 2000 and it looks likely to turn negative in 2001, just as it did back in 1990 to 1991.
In short, some of the productivity revival was inherently transitory while much of it relied on a 40 percent growth rate of computer investment that could not be and has not been sustained. Think of all the reasons investment in IT hardware is slowing down.
1. The monumental effort to build websites is largely complete, and it requires less hardware and software investment to simply maintain those sites after they are built.
2. The timing associated with the year 2000 issue compressed the normal computer replacement cycle into a shorter than normal period during 1999 and 2000.
3. The usual race to replace hardware to use evermore complex software seems to have petered out. Computer journalists tell their users not to upgrade beyond Windows 98 unless they are heavy users of complex games or heavy downloaders of music and DVDs, yet these types of computer leisure activities do not generate productivity gains for business companies.
4. Most analysts agree that there has been a massive amount of overinvestment in fiber-optic telecom capacity.
5. Many doubt that the benefits of the Web can be squeezed onto the tiny screens of next-generation mobile phones, thus raising doubts about the financial sustainability of much of the worldwide telecom industry that has created so many resources and taken on such debt in the hope that the Web-enabled mobile phone is the wave of the future.
Coming off a high is equally difficult for an economy as for an addict. The adjustment in 2001 to 2002 will be painful. I don’t expect a depression, and we may even escape an officially defined recession. But the days of double-digit growth rates in profits and stock market returns are over, growth in both real GDP and productivity will slow significantly from the past five years, and the adjustments that everyone from Wall Street to Sand Hill Road require have only just begun.
Robert J. Gordon is the Stanley G. Harris professor in social sciences at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. You can read more about his economic arguments at www.northwestern.edu/economics/gordon. Which side of this debate do you favor? Let us know at firstname.lastname@example.org. | <urn:uuid:55fd756e-e66c-4dca-a413-ef4b4ac22a23> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.cio.com/article/266741/it-organization-the-new-economy-what-productivity-miracle.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335350.36/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929100506-20220929130506-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.950695 | 1,523 | 2.890625 | 3 |
Genetically Modified (GM) crops created through biotechnology have a lot to offer in terms of solving food insecurity and farmers’ rising production costs, according to agricultural experts.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, GM crops have the gene(s) added from the same or unrelated organism using genetic engineering procedures (FAO).
According to the FAO, these genes offer desirable qualities such as insect resistance, the ability to thrive in harsh and unfavorable environments, and higher nutritional levels, among other things.
Consider a GM cowpea (legume) variety resistant to Legume Pod Borer, one of the most devastating insect pests that may reduce cowpea productivity by up to 80%, according to the AATF, which spearheaded a worldwide public-private partnership that produced the variety.
To create the variation, scientists inserted a gene from Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt). This soil bacterium generates proteins that selectively kill the targeted insects while causing no harm to other living animals.
“The GM cowpea variety has helped tackle the legume insect pest, hence increasing cowpea production by 80 percent, and that is a lot of impact already,” Vitumbiko Chinoko, Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology (OFAB) Project Manager told The New Times last week.
OFAB is a project of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF).
He indicated that some GM crops are being grown in a couple of African countries. They include cotton in Malawi, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Nigeria, which is also growing [drought-resistant] GM maize, and cowpea.
He said South Africa has long used GM crops and had been eating GMO maize for over 20 years without incident.
According to Evariste Tugirinshuti, head of Rwanda’s Federation of Maize Farmers’ Cooperatives, drought is affecting maize production. | <urn:uuid:330b4f83-4a1d-43ef-9fd7-20d39c16c7d3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://enterpriseviewpoint.com/agricultural-biotechnology-has-the-potential-to-improve-food-security/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930181143-20220930211143-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.925889 | 393 | 3.421875 | 3 |
Last December, a U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) declared artificial intelligence (AI) “critical to America’s economic growth and security,” but warned that China and other countries have attempted to “steal U.S. intellectual property” in the field of AI.
To be fair, China has made great strides lately in strengthening its own enforcement of patent rights. Nonetheless, the NSS warned that stronger efforts were needed by U.S. companies to “curtail intellectual property (IP) theft by all sources” of our cutting-edge AI research. But as telecommunications giant AT&T and other firms can attest, only human intelligence can stop the theft of artificial intelligence.
AT&T deploys a sophisticated suite of AI tools to manage the nearly 200 petabytes of data traffic that flows through its global telecommunications network every day (equivalent to 100 trillion pages of printed text). AT&T’s artificial intelligence system may be smart enough to manage a vast communications network, but like a clever dog that can’t recognize itself in the mirror, it lacks the ability to tell when its own software brains are being pilfered for use in other companies’ (or other countries’) products and services.
So to protect its patented AI innovations, AT&T deploys a unique “human search engine” called Article One Partners (AOP) to scout out IP theft. The group is a crowdsourced network of 42,000 researchers in 170 countries speaking 114 languages — 42% of whom have graduate degrees in a variety of science and technology fields.
Acquired last year by the global intellectual property services firm RWS, Article One Partners got its start a decade ago as a “patent troll killer” working for defendants in high-stakes patent infringement suits. There, its sleuths earned a reputation for finding patent-busting prior art in hidden corners of the globe that non-human algorithms and Internet search engines could never reach — an unpublished Korean-language PhD dissertation in an academic laboratory, a handwritten document in a rural Norwegian library, even an old camera lens in a New York City pawn shop. In each case, AOP’s research proved that a patent troll’s supposedly “novel invention” wasn’t so novel after all, thereby invalidating the patent.
But in recent years, AOP investigators have begun to make a name for themselves in a burgeoning new field called Evidence of Use (EoU) research. Working for tech clients like AT&T, for example, they search for evidence that the company’s patented innovations are being used without permission in other companies’ products and services. If they discover such evidence, it can be used to confront an infringer and force it to compensate the patent owner. […] | <urn:uuid:8a7fc74f-f649-4acd-aed1-6671a72fcea1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://swisscognitive.ch/2018/05/17/how-human-detectives-catch-ai-thieves/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337244.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.92602 | 587 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Smart grid and smart meters are part of the wider industrial internet, which will offer insight into people’s lives at home. But what are the security implications?
Connecting such industrial systems to the internet raises important security and privacy questions, Donna Dodson, chief cyber security, Nist (US Nationoal Institute of Science and Technology) warned during a roundtable discussion at InfoSec Europe 2014.
"In industrial system, we have an opportunity to think more about privacy. You start building prototypes [models] of people – but when you start profiling [people] in big data, opportunities blow up. So building privacy protection is very important in smart grids."
Dodson was speaking on a panel discussion looking at the security implications of connecting industrial systems to the internet. The debate has implications outside industrial control, since such systems are part of the internet of things.
Commenting on the risks of putting industrial control systems on the internet, she said: "Security is about people, processes and technology. We need to think about usability and make it much easier to do the right thing, harder to do the wrong thing."
More articles on the industrial internet
- Is the UK smart meter project doomed to fail?
- GE creates partnership to build industrial internet
- US researchers find 25 security vulnerabilities in SCADA systems
- Stuxnet leak investigation leads to project originator
In the past, industrial control systems were standalone, where an engineer would visit the system and physically plug in a laptop to manage it. But to improve efficiency such systems are increasingly being connected to the internet.
Unfortunately, it may not be easy to keep these devices secure. "Some products are not designed [for software updates], which creates interesting conundrum in how those devices can be updated," said fellow panel member, Trey Ford, global security strategist, Rapid7.
Barrie Millet, head of business resilience at Eon, warned that strong security cannot be achieved in isolation. "As organisations start to up their game the threats will morph, they'll change and attackers will go down the path of least resistance. While you are looking after your own backyard you also have to look at your overall supply chain and make sure in your contract negotiations you have got some key clauses around how your suppliers are securing their network and their systems and they have to make you aware if they have any breaches and they are security compliant." | <urn:uuid:1663ad56-8da5-4da4-8463-ee48b76eedbb> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.computerweekly.com/news/2240220000/Addressing-security-and-privacy-on-the-industrial-internet | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337244.17/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002021540-20221002051540-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.956357 | 487 | 2.59375 | 3 |
Developer Friendly Defect Report
- March 27, 2015
A defect report is a document that explains the basic gap between the expected output/result and the actual output/result of the application and the details on how to reproduce the scenarios. The primary objective of a defect report is to let the developers experience the failure themselves and it is a perfect medium of such communication.
It is very important that the basic information must be shared with the developer in any case and nothing should be kept hidden from him. Make sure that specific information of each defect is ONLY shared in a very clear way that would help the developer to reproduce the defect easily. Here are a few things that must be mentioned in the defect report for every defect in case of a mobile application.
- Defect Summary
- Defect ID
- Build ID
- Defect Type; Functional, UI, System etc
- Device/OS version
- Severity; Blocker, Critical, Major, Minor etc
- Priority; High, Medium, Low
- Module/Feature (in which the defect has appeared)
- Defect Description
- Steps to Reproduce
- Expected Result
- Actual Result
- Assigned to (only if the person is known)
- Attachments; screenshots, videos etc
While writing the defect report, it is also important that proper terms and terminologies must be used so that both the developer and the reporter have same understanding of the defect.
Enlisted are a few common mistakes (along with their solutions) that are made while writing defect report.
- Never write ‘click’ in the defect report of a mobile application. Instead write ‘Tap/Double Tap’ as these are the correct terms.
- A mobile application has ‘screens’ and not ‘pages’. Never use the term ‘page’ in the defect report of a mobile application as only web applications have ‘pages’.
- The ‘keyboard’ that only contains numeric values is called ‘Keypad’. If this ‘Keypad’ is used for dialing numbers, it will be referred to as ‘Dial pad’. So always use the specific terms while reporting the defect.
- There are two screen views. i) Landscape, ii) Portrait. Used these terms instead of writing ‘horizontal screen’ and ‘vertical screen’ for Landscape and Portrait respectively.
- ‘Drag n Drop’ is a term that is used for web applications. For mobile application, ‘slide to rearrange’ must be used.
- ‘Slide’ or ‘Swap/Swipe’ must be used when moving down the application screen instead of ‘scroll’.
- Particularly in iPhone, there is a three line button on top which is used to show/hide side menu. This button is called ‘hamburger’ button. While writing the defect report, it is mostly referred to as ‘menu icon’ or ‘side menu button’.
- The use of the following terms will also make it easy for the developers to understand the defects properly.
- Tap: Opens or launches whatever you tap.
- Double Tap: Zooms in or out in stages.
- Pan: Moves through screens or menus at a controlled rate.
- Flick: Scrolls rapidly through menus or pages or moves sideways in hubs.
- Pinch: Zooms gradually out of a website, map or picture.
- Stretch: Zooms gradually in a website, map or picture.
- Rotate: Move a picture or other item(s) on the screen in a circular direction (clockwise or counter-clockwise).
The exact format of your defect report isn’t important. You can decide what works best for you and your development team. However, the important thing is that you start experiencing bugs in a different way and that you respect your and the developers time by sharing information in such a way that helps them reproduce the defects easily. | <urn:uuid:1e8853b0-719e-4e49-8c66-4da918c0cb07> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.kualitatem.com/blog/developer-friendly-defect-report | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337415.12/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003101805-20221003131805-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.913117 | 858 | 2.5625 | 3 |
At one time, a firewall and antivirus protection were adequate protections to keep networks secure. Businesses had a perimeter, a boundary protecting the network from unauthorized access. All that has changed over the years, with millions of devices connected to networks all over the world, and to the Internet via these networks. Enter “zero trust”, granting access on a case-by-case basis. Read on to learn more about this principle and how it can benefit your organization.
Why Zero Trust is Important Now
In recent decades–especially the last two years since work went remote–more users are connected to business networks and other Cloud services. With the “perimeter” now outside the traditional office, more care is necessary to grant access only to legitimate users. With more devices connected, data and applications are available to more people. In the zero-trust model, no individual is assumed to be trustworthy simply by being part of the organization. And that begs the question of who is a legitimate user.
Zero Trust Defined
Zero-trust is a cybersecurity posture that assumes that any user seeking to access the system could be a bad actor. Organizations using a zero-trust architecture have set up various criteria to determine that the entity (a device or a person) seeking access is entitled to it. Not only that, but depending on the location of the device and the role of the person using it, access can be limited to the computing resources needed for that person’s function. A common practice used in zero-trust is multi-factor authentication. After giving their password, a user performs an additional step, like submitting a one-time code.
The Why of Zero Trust
The “why” of zero trust comes from so many more devices connected to business networks and the Internet, as well as the growth of cloud solutions. Cyberattacks have become ever more frequent, and businesses need a way to verify the validity of access requests. Besides this, once the business has the criteria set up to determine legitimate activity, it is better able to spot suspicious activity. With other cybersecurity practices and tools, zero trust is yet another way to secure your company’s network.
Naturally, companies want their systems, data and applications to be as secure as possible. For help with setting up a zero-trust environment, contact your trusted technology advisor today. | <urn:uuid:bc53db1d-9910-4da2-be0e-f0d5176436b0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://clikcloud.com/blog/considering-zero-trust-as-part-of-your-cybersecurity-plan/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337524.47/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004184523-20221004214523-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.950016 | 479 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Using Excel can help you group large amounts of data in nearly any way you want to see the data. This helps find trends and patterns that can help build your business, reduce loss, track sales or inventory, and much more. A helpful time-saving feature is the ability to filter data. Filtering data provides a view of only those items you are interested in. Unfortunately, when using functions against filtered data you may get unexpected results, which can be challenging to find when you have very large amounts of data.
This post discusses how to apply the correct functions that will include or exclude filtered data in Excel so you end up with the data you expect.
Below is a video showing which functions to use for including and excluding filtered data.
How to Include and Exclude Filtered Data in Excel Functions
Filtering data is a great way to narrow down information when you have larger data sets. It can help you find trends in data, locate anomalies, find the most or least common of any category - like sales day of the week or item, just to name a few examples. If you were tracking inventory it could help you find what you have too much or too little of and much more!
For this post, our example data represents sales for a gardening store that tracks customer sales by day of the week, items and their number sold, and the total cost for those item.
To show how filtering data is handled by functions, we will first do a sum of all sold items so we have a number to compare to.
To include filtered data in functions
- Scroll to the bottom of the entered data by using the keyboard shortcut control + end.
- Click in a blank cell after the data to sum and click on the Greek E to the right of the Home tab.
- NOTE: If you click the E it will assume Sum, or you can click the arrow next to it and choose "Sum" from the drop down menu.
- The Sum function automatically assumes you want all the cells above or next to it, depending upon how your data is set up, as long as there are no empty cells. If empty cells exist, you will need to type in the cells to include because by default, the function will stop before the first empty cell.
- Hit enter to set the function and the results of it will be displayed in the cell where the function was entered.
- Click the down arrow next to a column title and uncheck the box next to the data you want to filter out. Once all items have been filtered out, click "OK".
In the image below you will notice the data showing has changed. In this example, plants and some other items have been removed, but the total sales remains unchanged. This is because the Sum function counts the data in all cells, even if there is data filtered out.
You can also verify that data is filtered out because there is a filter icon next to the "Item Purchased" heading. Additionally, there are numbers being skipped in the row numbers. Lastly, the row numbers have changed color, also representing some of the data is being filtered out.
To exclude filtered data in functions
If you want to exclude the filtered data from being included in a function, you will need to use a different function than the Sum function.
- Scroll down to the bottom of the data by using the keyboard shortcut control + end.
- Click in a blank cell and type "=Subtotal(9,the data range)". The data range should be represented by a cell, then a colon, then another cell. For example, E2:E333, and this will include both the starting and ending cell.
- NOTE: The Subtotal function has several ways it can process data. The number 9 tells the Subtotal function to sum the data, but does so without including data that has been filtered out.
- Press enter to save the formula which will display the result of the function.
When you compare this result to the previous total, the difference is obvious. When using a Subtotal function, any data that has been filtered out is not included in the function results, even if it lives in cells that are included in the function. This is unlike the Sum function, which included the data in the filtered out cells.
This is a big distinction when you are trying to summarize large amounts of data and it is important to understand how the different functions work and how filtered data is processed. If you are working with a very small amount of data, it would be easy to see that a function was not giving you the result you wanted or expected. However, with larger amounts of data, and where you are more likely to need functions, it is important to be confident in the results of the functions you create.
Filtering data can change how functions process data. In this post we show the difference between how filtered data is included and excluded in Sum and Subtotal functions, respectively. Both functions are valuable and there will be times when you need both. However, you need to know what data you are capturing when using a function or the results of those functions will be useless.
As always, understanding how the data is being processed is very important when handling large amounts of data! | <urn:uuid:fa9ff0d4-630a-479b-ac6f-b2dae66ac285> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://blogs.eyonic.com/how-to-include-and-exclude-filtered-data-in-excel-functions/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.938323 | 1,071 | 2.75 | 3 |
Cybercriminals have so many schemes aimed at your credentials
May 17, 2021
Be it personal or professional, it's now an ordinary fact of life that people own dozens of different online accounts. From the essential to the mundane, every facet of our lives can be linked to a service that's probably tethered to its users by an account name and password.
For cybercriminals, those account names and passwords -- commonly referred to as credentials -- serve as the keys to an endless amount of kingdoms. Credentials are a core enabler of cybercriminals' ability to establish and perpetuate their operations; without a foot in the door, they would have to work remarkably harder to successfully carry out their crimes. At Intel 471, we've observed how cybercriminals use stolen credentials as a way to make money or use them in attacks where monetization occurs further downstream. It's a pattern of behavior that is a hallmark of the underground.
The use of compromised or stolen credentials to seize legitimate accounts, also known as account takeovers, is fueled by two distinct actions: credential harvesting and use of specific software tools that ultimately hijack accounts. Credential harvesting is most likely done through the use of information stealers, malware that skims for username and password information by injecting scripts into common web tools used on retail and other e-commerce platforms. Information stealers also allow for social engineering through phishing attacks that contain malicious files or links. Additionally, actors in the underground have created account-checking and brute-force tools that give all levels of criminals the ability to crack open accounts in all corners of the internet. Actors will also share various configurations of the brute-force tools that specifically target all types of services, including e-commerce payment platforms, online banking, social media and others.
How the criminals make their money
Actors who use account takeovers as a way to make money have several different ways to cash out on their ill-gotten gains. Intel 471 has observed four distinct methods that are popular on the cybercrime underground: online banking fraud, fraudulent travel services, gift card fraud, and credential marketplaces. Our team has tracked a multitude of instances for each of these methods, including:
Two actors who abused account credentials of a U.S.-based, online-only banking service using stolen cardholder data, but tied accounts to their own email addresses and Google Voice accounts. Funds were withdrawn from accounts once microdeposits were made to get around fraud detections.
Another actor advertised several mail-accessed travel rewards accounts of an international hotel chain for sale. The actor offered to sell the accounts, transfer points to other accounts and make hotel bookings on the buyer’s behalf. From there, buyers could book car rentals, flights and hotels at substantially discounted rates.
An actor allegedly collected 160,000 compromised accounts from a well-known U.S.-based bank using a custom account-checking tool, then sold them on forums or cashing them out by trading gift cards through undisclosed online shops. Most of the accounts purportedly were protected with two-factor authentication (2FA), so if a buyer could not use of them directly, the actor suggested using the same email address and password combination list to attack accounts at other banks Therefore, not only did the actor attempt to complete the account takeover cycle via monetization through gift cards, they restarted the cycle by selling the account credentials and advising others to use them to attack additional associated accounts.
An underground marketplace, named Genesis store, that allows actors to purchase compromised account credentials with victim device cookies and fingerprints to gain access to different website user accounts. The combined use of varying information allegedly provides an attacker the ability to bypass anti-fraud detection in several industries and appear as a legitimate login from a victim machine. While more experienced actors may opt to use other methods, the Genesis Store opened up a space for unskilled actors to participate in ATO activity with its user-friendly interface and clear instructions on how to use the site via the Genesis wiki page.
While credentials tied to accounts that directly hold monetary value will always be worth something in the cybercriminal underground, the interest in credentials tied to back-end interfaces that control websites, cloud instances, or other business-essential services is an extremely sought-after and lucrative commodity.
Intel 471 has seen a vast amount of activity around this type of transaction. Some of the instances we've observed, including:
A newcomer to a very popular cybercrime forum attempting to make a name of themselves by claiming to possess hundreds of stolen credentials consisting of passwords, URLs and usernames that could be used to gain unauthorized access to the web control panel (cPanel) and web host manager (WHM) of the victims’ websites. The actor sought between US $3 and US $5 for one domain access, but claimed to offer substantial discounts if a large set was purchased.
A Russian-linked actor joined a popular cybercrime forum in June 2020 and quickly became a prolific credential vendor by the end of the year. His stock has risen due to selling access to Citrix and other virtual private networks, as well as corporate networks with other entry points. The actor allegedly purchased logs across underground forums and directly from malware log vendors, validated the account credentials and subsequently sold them on the forums. By January 2021, the actor offered to sell about 400 compromised Citrix, RDWeb and VPN accounts, with the majority of compromised accounts belonging to educational entities.
An actor on a China-linked cybercrime forum advertised 1,000 hacked cPanel host servers and claiming full access to the servers was guaranteed. The actor’s inventory at the time of the post, which was written in October 2020, included many batches of data from businesses based in Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and the U.S. Despite the steep prices listed, we observed the actor made some sales from the offers.
What happens next
As Intel 471 has stated before, a key cog in the cybercriminal underground is the interdependency between those who specialize in selling credentials and those looking to launch ransomware attacks. The astronomical growth in ransom payments in 2020 has helped access merchants put a premium on their services. In years past, a large ransom payout would earn attackers somewhere between five- and six-figure sums. Now, it's becoming increasingly common for attackers to demand seven- and eight-figure ransoms, partly due to the need to pay off actors that have helped them obtain access to the victim's system.
Instances show that anywhere from one week to six months after access is obtained and advertised, other known actors on various underground forums look to use or purchase that access to launch ransomware attacks. The targets run the gamut of regions and economic sectors, with the pattern playing out in ransomware attacks on every continent.
In January, Intel 471 observed an actor on a popular cybercrime forum looking to cooperate with network access brokers, offering a 20 percent cut from each successful ransomware attack. The actor allegedly preferred targeting entities based in Australia, Canada and the U.S. with an annual revenue of at least US $150 million. Once given credentials, the actor conducts multistage network attacks that include reconnaissance, privilege escalation, moving laterally, exfiltrating data and deploying ransomware.
Protecting your credentials
Compromised credentials are a massive problem that often extends conversations about security beyond the posture of third-party vendors. With Intel 471's Credential Intelligence feature, It's now possible to gain coverage over this aspect of the cybercrime underground.
You can now monitor the credentials that are most important to your organization including those tied to your suppliers or vendors. With credential intelligence built into the Titan platform, your organization can now mitigate the risk of compromised credentials and proactively monitor for newly compromised credentials. | <urn:uuid:97f348d0-d420-485e-8898-71b68258c63a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://intel471.com/blog/credential-theft-cybercrime | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338073.68/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007112411-20221007142411-00484.warc.gz | en | 0.951608 | 1,596 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The COVID-19 pandemic caused an explosion of cybersecurity incidents, with ransomware chief among them. The total cost of ransomware attacks is expected to cross the $20 billion threshold in 2021, according to Cybersecurity Ventures, making them one of the most critical malware threats facing organizations in the digital economy.
It can be difficult for your organization to know how to prevent an attack and even more challenging to know what to do if you’re the victim of one. Continue reading to learn more about ransomware attacks and how to strengthen your organization’s cybersecurity.
What is ransomware and how does it work?
Ransomware is a type of cyberattack in which black-hat hackers gain access to an individual or organization’s private data information, encrypt the data, and then demand a ransom payment from the owner of the data to restore access via a decryption key. Attacks have ballooned in recent years, particularly since the start of the pandemic, as an unprecedented volume of personal and business activity has moved online.
Ransomware attacks are common but costly. According to a survey compiled by Sophos, 37% of organizations were subject to a ransomware infection in the last year. Those organizations were forced to shell out an average of more than $761,000 in 2019 alone, a figure that exploded to $1.85 million in 2020.
Contrary to what some believe, attackers don’t necessarily target the most lucrative enterprises; instead, they tend to cast a wide net, attacking several organizations of varying sizes at once, and then exploiting whichever one(s) they’re able to access.
The most common attack vectors:
- Email phishing: Phishing is consistently recognized as among the most common ransomware attack vectors. It occurs when a threat actor sends bogus emails to users containing prompts, attachments, or links from what is purported to be a trusted source. The email copy encourages unsuspecting users to either divulge sensitive personal information or download malware directly to their computers.
- RDP protocol: Remote desktop protocols (RDPs) enable multiple Microsoft Windows devices to connect over the internet without needing a physical connection. Without careful controls in place to ensure all RDP ports are closed after they are no longer operable; ransomware actors can easily gain access and encrypt exposed data.
- Software vulnerabilities: When system administrators don’t regularly update their firewalls and patch new security vulnerabilities, harmful actors can penetrate systems and steal key data. Once a ransomware attacker has breached your security, they have access to an enormous volume of your organization’s sensitive information.
How ransomware attacks can affect your business?
Ransomware attacks can have a tremendous financial impact on your business. While direct ransom payouts to attackers account for a huge portion of financial losses, they don’t end there. Systems and processes are usually forced to shut down temporarily in the event of an attack, making it impossible for you to continue running business as usual. You’re unable to deliver for your clients, and that can lead to further financial losses and damage to your brand.
A survey from TechRepublic found that 66% of surveyed businesses experienced “huge revenue losses” due to ransomware attacks, much of which resulted indirectly.
Here are some of the most damaging effects ransomware can have on your business:
- Hurts brand recognition: Ransomware is bad for everybody involved, and that includes customers. When operations are forced to go offline, customers aren’t able to get the products and services they’re paying for (at least not within a reasonable timeframe). That can cause anger and resentment to grow, and your brand’s reputation could be the main casualty.
- Damages trust: Data is the engine that drives the digital economy forward. Thousands of pieces of data are exchanged every day between customers and companies, an activity that is undergirded by a substantial degree of trust. When your organization is the subject of a ransomware infection, customers might see you as careless with their personal information. That can cause permanent damage to their trust in you.
- Disrupts your organization: Ransomware attacks are serious, and executive teams are sometimes forced to dole out punishments to help heal the brand’s image. Oftentimes, that means senior-level personnel who bore some responsibility for failing to prevent the attack are asked to step down or leave. Loss of revenue could also force executives to terminate junior-level staff.
- Forces permanent closure: In a worst-case scenario, ransomware attacks are sometimes so financially damaging that organizations are forced to close their doors permanently. While these instances are somewhat rare, a report from Atlas VPN did find that 31% of U.S. companies end up going out of business after a ransomware attack.
How to protect yourself from a ransomware attack?
Here are the recommended actions you need to take before, during and after an attack to protect your organization.
1. Monitor and identify
Hackers’ capabilities are constantly evolving, and that means you need a program in place that helps you monitor and identify vulnerabilities to your own assets and implement a disciplined patching program to reduce the attack surface. It is also important to pinpoint the latest developments in ransomware campaigns. This threat intelligence helps you better understand the capabilities of malicious actors so you can better plan and prioritize assets that need to be patched.
2. Detect and contain
Even the best security systems are unable to stop all attacks, so it’s critical that you have a way to recognize indicators of compromise (IOC) once a cyber criminal has penetrated your networks. Specifically, it’s important to establish a robust monitoring system to continuously analyze log data from across your applications and systems. These help you identify attacks as soon as they open, helping you take immediate action.
Once a ransomware threat has been identified, your critical infrastructure needs to be properly equipped to limit the spread of the attack, localizing it and preventing it from gaining access to system files in other parts of your organization. Collecting threat data not only helps you mitigate the damage caused by the current threat, it also helps you learn more about the latest ransomware trends and better plan for future attacks.
[Related Reading: Hunting Ransomware with Threat Detection]
3. Respond and mitigate
You need to carry out a full assessment of the attack to better understand its modes of operation. Information like which hosts were infected, how the attack happened and the degree of damage sustained are all key points of information your organization needs to gather.
Once this information has been gained and analyzed, you can harden other targeted assets. Any remedial action should involve multiple teams, partners and users from throughout your organization, ensuring that every stakeholder affected by the attack is able to provide input on updating your response plan/strategy.
Should you pay the ransom?
Law enforcement officials in the FBI urge organizations not to pay the ransom in exchange for the decryption key. Paying the hacker encourages future attacks against other people and organizations, and it won’t guarantee that you regain access to your data.
How to prevent ransomware attacks
One of the simplest yet most important measures you can take to prevent ransomware attacks is to properly instill best practices in your employees. In fact, CISO MAG found that 88% of security breaches were the result of human error. Train employees in recognizing and reporting any online activity that looks suspicious (particularly suspicious emails). Employees should know not to give personal information away on the internet unless they are certain they can completely trust the source they’re sharing it with.
While this isn’t exactly a way to prevent a cyberattack, it’s important to have data backups stored in a secure, off-site backup facility. Backups provide a safety recourse in the event of a security breach, helping you restore any data that’s lost to attackers.
A hacker can gain access to IT assets that have not been properly disposed of at the end of their lifecycle. If you’re replacing legacy components with new hardware or software, it’s critical that you destroy all stored data and work with a licensed third party to properly retire existing products.
Attackers are constantly developing their hacking capabilities, and that means they can identify new security vulnerabilities your current firewall may not be equipped to handle. The right security software will also inspect your entire IT network infrastructure to identify any possible security vulnerabilities, giving you the information you need to patch those weak points. You need to constantly update your security software to be better prepared against emerging threats.
Partnering with the right cybersecurity professionals
Cybersecurity incidents are on the rise, and it’s critical that your systems, networks, and processes are properly secured to ensure long-term growth and stability. That starts with having the right cybersecurity professionals on your side.
Our team of white-glove security experts makes cybersecurity easy and effective. They work with you to gain an intimate understanding of your business and security needs to provide you with the tools, knowledge and expertise to protect your organization’s precious data 24/7. All of this helps us develop an effective rapid response plan in the event of an attack.
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In a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM), a black hat hacker takes a position between two victims who are communicating with one another. In this spot, the attacker relays all communication, can listen to it, and even modify it.
Imagine that Alice and Barbara talk to one another on the phone in Lojban, which is an obscure language. Nancy is a secret agent who needs to listen in on their conversation but who cannot tap the phone line. Nancy is very clever and talented, so she does the following:
- Nancy observes Alice and Barbara for a while. She notices that Alice always calls Barbara, not the other way around.
- Nancy recognizes that Alice and Barbara are speaking in Lojban. She learns that language.
- Nancy slips a business card into Alice’s purse. The card says “Barbara” but it has Nancy’s phone number.
- When Alice calls this number, it is Nancy who receives the call. She answers in Lojban and imitates Barbara’s voice.
- Nancy immediately calls Barbara on another phone. She imitates Alice’s voice, saying hello in Lojban.
- Nancy continues both conversations switching between them as needed.
Now Alice and Barbara are both certain that they are talking to one another. In reality, they are talking to Nancy who relays communication between them. Nancy knows all the secrets. She may also manipulate the information that Alice and Barbara are sharing with one another.
To pull this off, Nancy uses several tools. For example, she spoofs Barbara’s phone number, she figures out the encryption (Lojban language), and she authenticates by imitating voices. Black hat hackers do very similar things in the IT world.
Are Man-in-the-Middle Attacks Dangerous?
In the world of IT security, black hat hackers usually use man-in-the-middle attacks to eavesdrop on communications between a client and a server. This includes HTTPS connections to websites, other SSL/TLS connections, Wi-Fi connections, and more.
Such hackers have two primary goals: to gain access to sensitive information and/or to manipulate transmitted content. In practice, they can use MITM attacks:
- To get personal information for identity theft
- To get login credentials, for example, to gain access to an online bank account
- To change the target account number to their own when the user is making a bank transfer
- To get a credit card number when the user is paying at an online shop
You must also remember that websites are not the only target of MITM attacks. A very common target are emails which by default do not use any kind of encryption. If an attacker can get access to an email account, they may intercept and spoof emails.
Real-Life Examples of MITM Attacks
Man-in-the-middle attacks were known a long time before the advent of computers.
- One of the oldest cases was the Babington Plot. Communications between Mary Stuart and her fellow conspirators was intercepted, decoded, and modified by a cryptography expert Thomas Phelippes.
- During World War II, British intelligence conducted MITM attacks against Nazi forces using Aspidistra devices. Cracking of the Enigma code could also be considered a MITM attack.
In the world of computing, some of the most famous cases linked to MITM attacks were the following:
- In 2013, information was leaked about the Quantum/FoxAcid MITM system employed by NSA to intercept TOR connections.
- In 2014, Lenovo installed MITM (SSL Hijacking) adware called Superfish on their Windows PCs.
- In 2015, a British couple (the Luptons) lost £340,000 in an email eavesdropping / email hijacking MITM attack.
How Do Man-in-the-Middle Attacks Work?
A black hat hacker may attack a connection that is secure (encrypted) or not. In both cases, the first goal is to intercept the connection – like Nancy first has to slip a business card into Alice’s purse. There are many ways to do this including ARP spoofing, IP spoofing, and DNS spoofing. The attacker may also use other attack vectors to take control of the victim’s machine or the server and eavesdrop from there.
ARP Spoofing (ARP Cache Poisoning)
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) translates between the physical address of an Internet device (MAC address – media access control) and the IP address assigned to it on the local area network. An attacker who uses ARP spoofing tries to inject false information onto the local area network to redirect connections to their device.
For example, your router has the IP address 192.168.0.1. To connect to the internet, your laptop needs to send IP (Internet Protocol) packets to this address. First, it must know which physical device has this address. The router has the following MAC address: 00-00-00-00-00-01.
Let’s say that Nancy is no longer working with phones but she is a black hat hacker:
- Nancy injects false ARP packets into the network.
- These ARP packets say that the address 192.168.0.1 belongs to Nancy’s device with the following MAC address: 00-00-00-00-00-2A.
- The ARP cache stores false information associating IP 192.168.0.1 with MAC 00-00-00-00-00-2A.
- The next time your laptop is trying to connect to the internet, it connects to Nancy’s machine.
- Nancy’s machine connects to the router (00-00-00-00-00-01) and connects you to the internet, so you don’t even know that Nancy is there.
IP Spoofing (IP Address Spoofing)
IP spoofing means that a computer is pretending to have a different IP address – usually the same address as another machine. On its own, IP spoofing is not enough for a MITM attack. However, an attacker may combine it with TCP sequence prediction.
Most internet connections are established using TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol). When two devices on the network connect to one another using TCP/IP, they need to establish a session. They do it using a three-way handshake. During this process, they exchange information called sequence numbers. The sequence numbers are needed for the recipient to recognize further packets. Thanks to sequence numbers, the devices know the order in which they should put the received packets together.
In this situation, the attacker first sniffs the connection (listens in). This is very easy on a local network because all IP packets go into the network and may be read by any other device. The attacker learns the sequence numbers, predicts the next one, and sends a packet pretending to be the original sender. If that packet reaches the destination first, the attacker intercepts the connection.
Let’s go back to Nancy who wants to try IP spoofing with TCP sequence prediction this time:
- Nancy joins your local network as 10.0.0.42 with her laptop and runs a sniffer. The sniffer software lets her see all the IP packets that go through the network.
- Nancy wants to intercept your connection to the gateway (10.0.0.1). She looks for packets between you (10.0.0.102) and the gateway and then predicts the sequence number.
- At the right moment, Nancy sends a packet from her laptop. The packet has the source address of the gateway (10.0.0.1) and the correct sequence number, so your laptop is fooled.
- At the same time, Nancy floods the real gateway with a DoS attack. The gateway works slower or stops working for a moment. Nancy’s packet reaches you before the packet from the gateway does.
- Nancy convinced your laptop that her laptop is the gateway. Now she convinces the gateway that her laptop is 10.0.0.102 (you), and the MITM attack is complete.
DNS Spoofing (DNS Cache Poisoning)
ARP spoofing and IP spoofing need the attacker to connect to the local network segment that you use. An attacker using DNS spoofing can be anywhere. It’s more difficult because your DNS cache must be vulnerable. However, if successful, it can affect a large number of victims.
DNS (Domain Name System) is the system used to translate between IP addresses and symbolic names like www.example.com. This system has two primary elements: nameservers (DNS servers) and resolvers (DNS caches). The nameserver is the source of authoritative information. Usually, there are two or three systems that keep that information for every domain. For example, the IP number for www.example.com is stored on two nameservers: sns.dns.icann.org and noc.dns.icann.org. You can check this using the Google DNS lookup tool.
If every client that wants to connect to www.example.com connected to these two servers every time, they would be overloaded. That is why every client uses its local resolver to cache information. If the cache does not have information on www.example.com, it contacts sns.dns.icann.org and noc.dns.icann.org to get 220.127.116.11. Then, it stores the IP address locally for some time. All the clients that use this resolver get the address from the cache.
A DNS spoofing attack is performed by injecting a fake entry into the local cache. If a black hat hacker does that, all clients connected to this cache get the wrong IP address and connect to the attacker instead. This lets the attacker become a man-in-the-middle.
This time, Nancy cannot connect to your network so she tries DNS spoofing:
- Nancy knows, that you use 203.0.113.255 as your resolver (DNS cache).
- Nancy also knows that this resolver is vulnerable to poisoning (uses BIND 4 software).
- Nancy poisons BIND 4 at 203.0.113.255 and stores information that www.example.com is 198.51.100.123.
- When you type www.example.com in your browser, the site that you see is Nancy’s site.
- Nancy connects to the original site to complete the attack.
Other Methods Used to Intercept Connections
Black hat hackers may use many more methods to place themselves between the client and the server. These methods usually belong to one of the following three categories:
- Server compromise: An attacker may use another technique to gain control over the server that you connect to. They can then place their own software on that server to intercept connections with you. For example, they may start with SQL Injection and escalate to full system compromise, then place MITM software on the compromised web server. They might also abuse a code injection vulnerability to place a shell on the server.
- Communications compromise: An attacker may take over a machine that routes information between the client and the server. For example, a network router with vulnerable software or a public Wi-Fi hotspot. Black hat hackers may also place their own malicious Wi-Fi access point in your vicinity so that you connect to it. If your Wi-Fi network connection uses a vulnerable encryption protocol like WEP, you may be a target of Wi-Fi eavesdropping.
How Do Attackers Listen In?
If the victim uses a secure connection, being in the middle is not enough. Nancy must understand the language that Alice and Barbara are using (Lojban). She must also be able to speak it fluently and imitate Alice’s and Barbara’s voices. This is needed so that Alice and Barbara are still sure that they are talking to one another. Some of the techniques used for this in the IT world are HTTPS spoofing, SSL hijacking, and SSL stripping.
HTTPS Spoofing (IDN Homograph Attacks)
International domain names (IDNs) can contain Unicode characters. Some Unicode characters look similar to ASCII characters. Black hat hackers use this to fool victims. A victim visits a fake website controlled by the attacker who intercepts information and relays it to the real website.
For example, Nancy wants you to visit a fake Acunetix website аcunetix.com (the Cyrillic
а looks exactly like the ASCII
- Nancy uses Punycode to register the domain аcunetix.com:
xn--cunetix-1fg.com(you can try to create your own using Punycoder).
- Nancy buys a legitimate SSL/TLS certificate for аcunetix.com.
- Nancy sends you a malicious link to visit the fake Acunetix site.
- When you visit the site, you can see https and a lock symbol in the address bar so you are not alarmed.
- In the background, Nancy relays all the information sent by you to the real Acunetix site.
Current browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Edge, Safari) have protection against homograph attacks. For example, they display Punycode in the address bar instead of national characters. However, websites and emails may still contain links in Unicode that look exactly like originals.
Anyone can generate an SSL/TLS certificate for any domain. An attacker who intercepts a connection can generate certificates for all domains that the victim visits. They can present these certificates to the victim, establish a connection with the original server, and relay the traffic. This is called SSL hijacking.
However, your browser trusts only certificates that are signed by a trusted Certificate Authority (CA). If the certificate is not signed by a trusted CA, browsers display clear warnings or even refuse to open a page. Therefore, an attacker needs a way to make your browser believe that the certificate can be trusted. To do it, they must add their CA to the trusted certificate store on your computer. This can be done using other attack vectors.
If Nancy wants to listen in on your SSL/TLS connections using SSL hijacking, this is what she does:
- Nancy gets you to download and install her CA certificate using some other type of attack.
- Every time you visit a secure site, for example, acunetix.com, Nancy intercepts the connection.
- Nancy generates a certificate for acunetix.com, signs it with her CA private key, and serves it back to you.
- Your browser trusts the certificate because Nancy’s CA public key is in your trusted store.
- Nancy establishes a connection with acunetix.com and relays all the SSL traffic through her system.
SSL hijacking is very often used for legitimate purposes. For example, malware protection software installed on your computer probably uses SSL hijacking. If not, the software would not be able to protect you when you try to download malware using a secure connection. Some companies use SSL hijacking to control traffic in their internal networks, for example, to check what content their employees are accessing. Parental control software also uses SSL hijacking.
When you type an address in your browser, your browser first connects to an insecure site (HTTP). Then, it is usually quickly redirected to the secure site (HTTPS). If the website is available without encryption, the attacker can intercept your packets and force an HTTP connection. If you don’t notice that your connection is unencrypted, you may expose secrets to the attacker. This technique is called SSL stripping.
If Nancy wants to use SSL stripping to get your secrets:
- Nancy listens in on your connections to secure websites and intercepts them.
- Nancy modifies your initial web requests (they are sent using plain text). The server thinks that your browser is requesting to be served via HTTP.
- If the website is configured to serve content via HTTP, your data is sent in plain text and Nancy can read it.
Today, many websites use HTTP Strict Transport Security (HSTS) which means that the server refuses to provide content using an insecure connection. Such websites cannot be attacked using this method.
Other Methods Used for Eavesdropping
There are more methods used to compromise secure connections, including:
- SSL/TSL vulnerabilities: Older versions of SSL/TLS protocols are vulnerable to attacks that let black hat hackers decrypt the data. For example, CRIME or BEAST attacks.
- Session hijacking: If parts of the site are available via HTTP and other parts via HTTPS, an attacker may easily get the session cookie and impersonate the user. Session cookies may also be stolen if the website is vulnerable to Cross-site Scripting.
How To Detect and Prevent a Man-in-the-Middle Attack
There are many types of man-in-the-middle attacks and some of them very difficult to detect. The key to preventing them is to have as little trust as possible.
It is more difficult to prevent interception. If the attacker is able to access your network directly, if they compromise the destination server, or if they control network equipment that is used for your connection, there is not much that you can do. What you can do in such cases is choose a different communication route or make sure that encryption is unbreakable.
Here are some basic tips that may help you:
- Patch your system and use renowned anti-malware software.
- Don’t use public networks and/or hotspots for any sensitive activities.
- When connecting to your Wi-Fi, check if you are not connecting to a network with a similar name.
- Don’t forget to check the browser address bar and make sure you are using a secure connection.
- Click the lock symbol next to the address bar to get more information about the certificate.
- Install add-ons that help you detect SSL hijacking, for example, CheckMyHTTPS.
- Never send any sensitive information via email and do not trust any emails with sensitive information.
- Set up two-factor authentication wherever you can. Even if an attacker intercepts your data, they will have a hard time getting control of your Android or iPhone as well.
Does SSL Protect Against Man-in-the-Middle Attacks?
Some sources may say that SSL/TLS is enough to protect against MITM attacks. This is not true for the following reasons:
- The weakest link in a MITM attack is often the human. For example, if you don’t monitor the lock symbol on your browser address bar, you will easily fall for an HTTP stripping attack.
- Older versions of SSL/TLS may be vulnerable to MITM attacks. If the client or the server uses an older version of SSL/TLS, the attacker may be able to break the encryption.
- If the attacker compromises your computer or the server, they may tap the communication before it is encrypted or after it is decrypted.
- In the case of email, connections to servers may be encrypted but it is not as common as in the case of web connections. Also, email is stored on the server and often sent between servers in plain text.
How to Prevent MITM Attacks Against My Website?
Man-in-the-middle attacks are often facilitated by websites, even if your client and connection are safe. If you own a website, make sure that you regularly scan it for vulnerabilities, for example, using the Acunetix web vulnerability scanner (click here for a demo version). If you don’t, some vulnerabilities such as SQL Injection or code injection may let someone install malicious software on your web server. In addition, the Acunetix scanner also checks for SSL/TLS vulnerabilities that might let the attacker eavesdrop on connections to your web server, for example, CRIME, BREACH, and POODLE.
Frequently asked questions
In a man-in-the-middle attack (MITM), a black hat hacker takes a position between two victims who are communicating with one another. In this spot, the attacker relays all communication, can listen to it, and even modify it. Man-in-the-middle is a general term for many different types of such attacks that use different Internet technologies.
Man-in-the-middle attacks can be very dangerous for you. Malicious hackers can use MITM attacks to get your personal information for identity theft, to get your login credentials (for example, to gain access to your online bank account), to get your credit card number when you are paying at an online shop, and more.
Common types of MITM are: ARP spoofing (ARP cache poisoning), IP spoofing (IP address spoofing), DNS spoofing (DNS cache poisoning), HTTPS spoofing (IDN homograph attacks), SSL hijacking, and SSL stripping. You can learn how these attacks work by reading this article.
To prevent MITM, always patch your system to the latest version, don’t trust public networks (such as free Wi-Fi), check the Wi-Fi name that you connect to, check the address bar of your browser and the certificate, and use multi-factor authentication. If you own a website and want to protect your users, make sure that your website does not have any web vulnerabilities by using a web vulnerability scanner such as Acunetix.
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Drones can enhance our lives in many ways. These include delivering critical supplies to remote or isolated communities, monitoring crops and livestock, transporting donated organs swiftly across cities, assisting in search and rescue operations, patrolling rail networks and offshore installations, transforming the video sector, and helping engineers inspect buildings without the need for scaffolding. Drones can even put emergency Wi-Fi networks in the air as part of a disaster response.
All these applications of the technology are great ideas that pass the common-sense test. But one that does not is local or last-mile urban deliveries, and yet it is the one most pushed by entrepreneurs and policymakers at drone conferences.
Proponents claim that drones will take thousands of gas-guzzling, polluting vans off city streets – a good idea in itself – and deliver packages to consumers within 30 minutes inside a 15-mile radius. Yet despite the apparent promise of instant, green consumer gratification, the idea is completely unworkable.
The first reason is simple math, as previously reported on diginomica. To recap, take just three of the many companies testing drones beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in North America: Amazon Prime, FedEx, and UPS. Between them, these giants deliver 10 billion packages a year in the US by traditional means.
If, hypothetically, just 10% of those were delivered by drone, there would be one billion drone flights a year in the crowded airspace above America’s cities. Why? Because most of these devices are designed to carry single payloads. That’s 2.7 million flights every day.
Yet if only one percent of packets were delivered by drone, it would still mean 270,000 flights a day over US cities by our three example companies. Even that tiny percentage of all deliveries would represent a colossal increase in air traffic. Even before the pandemic, there were fewer than 6,000 piloted passenger flights a day in the US, and 100,000 worldwide.
In other words, if only one percent of the packages delivered by just three firms in the US arrived by drone, there would be three times more drones in America’s skies daily than there are passenger planes flying in the entire world.
And that would still leave 99% of those companies’ packets being delivered by road, barely denting the problems of urban traffic congestion, air pollution, and greenhouse gases. (While we are on that topic, could millions of large, battery-powered delivery drones be manufactured sustainably and later recycled? That seems unlikely.)
Take off at scale
However, the above figures would be an underestimate if urban drone deliveries take off at scale, because countless other firms, including the world’s biggest company by revenue, Walmart, are exploring the concept. If only a tiny percentage of those companies’ deliveries were to arrive by air, the sky would be full of drones.
Remember: we are not talking about small hobbyist devices, but remotely piloted or autonomous aircraft, most with payloads of up to 5lbs/2.2kg (which constitute up to 90%of e-commerce deliveries, according to Amazon Prime).
Bear in mind too that an electric or hydrogen-fuelled van – driver operated or autonomous – might carry many dozens of packages from door to door in a single, city-wide journey. By comparison, most battery-powered drones would drop off their one payload before returning to base and recharging.
From these perspectives alone, single-payload delivery drones make no sense at all, especially when a rider on an electric scooter or bike could carry more items across a city centre and get to locations almost as quickly – certainly fast enough for most consumer items.
For a local or last-mile drone delivery model to be viable, a central warehouse or delivery hub would have to be built in each location, containing all the most common goods ordered by consumers in cities. A term exists for such a facility: your local supermarket.
Yet autonomous air delivery also demands the building of a new supporting infrastructure of drone landing pads and drop-off stations on or near homes and offices: a commercial opportunity, perhaps, but also an eyesore.
Coming through the kitchen window
It’s also not that convenient for the consumer. Unless you think an industrial-scale drone is going to fly through your kitchen window, you would have to go outside to the machine and open it – perhaps in the pouring rain – using a code sent to your phone or home hub. At this point we are starting to over-engineer solutions that are less convenient than a courier knocking on your door, especially if you live on the 10th floor of a block of flats.
It stands to reason that the player with the largest physical infrastructure, city by city, would win the drone-delivery wars. This may be why Amazon’s drone division has been haemorrhaging staff recently and Walmart is still pushing the idea. Or perhaps Amazon has simply realised that the idea is a non-starter.
In the UK, which accounts for 25% of total e-commerce in Europe, the drone numbers problem would be even worse were the model ever adopted. There are 3.5 billion packets under 2kg delivered in Britain every year. That's just one-third of the number transported in the US by Amazon, FedEx, and UPS alone, but over a landmass that is 40 times smaller.
Clearly, there is a risk that the UK’s already crowded airspace would be choked with thousands of rotorcraft, which brings us to the next reason why last-mile drone delivery is an insane idea for our ageing, crowded cities. The public would never accept the noise nuisance and the dangerous, intrusive reality.
Picture what it would actually be like: thousands of whining drones with exposed rotors flying over people's heads, past windows, and over gardens, schools, offices, and streets, morning, noon, and night – a new form of environmental pollution. No entrepreneur has tried to sell that vision. More accurately, no entrepreneur has even mentioned it, because it’s horrifying.
And all this disruption would be for what? To deliver non-essential consumer items, such as nail polish, shampoo, hair gel, yoga mats, smart speakers, and water bottles, which are among the most common Amazon purchases in 2021. Seen in that light, urban drone delivery begins to resemble a late-capitalist vanity project, an exemplar of a culture in crisis.
Bear in mind, these remotely piloted or autonomous platforms would also have to avoid hitting people, aircraft, birds, pets, buildings, power lines, masts, and traffic, and fly safely in all weathers, including wind and rain.
The first delivery drone to land on a rough sleeper, maim a child, kill an inquisitive dog, strike a helicopter, or cause a fatal accident would also kill the market overnight. From a business perspective – let alone an ethical one – that’s a massive downside risk.
And that’s not all: drones would also have to avoid colliding with each other, regardless of the vendor or technology platform in play. That would demand a level of tech, autonomous air safety, and policy standardisation that’s unlikely to be in place on day one – if ever.
Drone safety and avoidance technologies, from companies such as the UK’s D-RisQ and others, do exist but have yet to be widely adopted.
Fortunately, app-based, real-time, per-flight drone insurance is a fast-expanding industry, driven by start-ups such as Flock. But there’s an inbuilt problem with this concept too: premiums drop when drones move away from populous or higher-risk locations, and they increase over office blocks or railway stations.
That’s good news for the pilot or drone service provider, but it creates a financial incentive to route flights over parks, gardens, and residential areas to keep insurance costs down and profits up. The tranquillity of our green spaces would inevitably suffer.
Drone deliveries may also trigger a rise in crime. Thefts of, or from, drones, attacks on devices, and protests from socially conscious activists seem inevitable. Why wouldn’t citizens rebel against the constant noise and intrusion into their lives? Why wouldn’t thieves or vandals see opportunity dropping from the sky?
Even these are not the only objections. Delivery drones are commercial aircraft, which means they must be safely integrated into our air traffic management systems. The challenge is being discussed in the UK by the Civil Aviation Authority and others, who accept that autonomous flight will become part of the aviation mix – and of course it will.
Unified air traffic management is technically feasible, but that doesn’t make urban drone deliveries a good idea, except for emergency applications in a disaster, or during any incident that might shut roads or leave citizens cut off from normal supply routes.
Drone deliveries to any isolated community are a good idea, though single-payload devices don’t seem to be the right solution for that problem.
But what about the pilots? One pilot per drone to deliver a single low-cost packet is economically unworkable. Far more likely is a single pilot overseeing a fleet of autonomous or semi-autonomous aerial vehicles, working long shifts for the lowest acceptable wage. Underpaid local air traffic controllers who are also expected to fly the planes? Zero risk to citizens there.
Drone pilots are already by far the biggest aviator community in the UK, with 260,000 registered users. Yet just 6,000 (roughly two percent) of those are qualified professional operators. This means that most – perhaps 98% of all drone pilots – know little about aviation rules, civilian airspace, or public safety.
By comparison, statistical aggregator Statista estimates that there are just 330,000 qualified pilots of traditional aircraft in the entire world. The subtext is clear: soon there will be more drone pilots in the UK alone than there are trained airline pilots on the planet.
That figure is something we should all be concerned about, as it represents a vast, high-risk intrusion into the skies above our cities.
It’s time to set aside the techno-evangelist hype and consider the reality of the drone delivery concept. Doing so reveals problems that are completely ignored at tech/policy conferences, for benefits that are – at best – highly questionable.
Drones are an exciting technology with countless sensible applications, but urban deliveries are just not one of them. Unless all the above objections can be answered credibly and in depth, the idea is utterly insane. | <urn:uuid:e8e4669b-5cd8-4441-8e66-9cd2cfc38159> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://diginomica.com/why-urban-drone-deliveries-are-insane-idea-flying-above-hype | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930212504-20221001002504-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.952998 | 2,200 | 3.171875 | 3 |
What is DNP3? DNP3, or DNP 3.0, is a communications protocol used in SCADA and remote monitoring systems. It is widely used because it is an open standard protocol. This means that any manufacturer can develop DNP3 equipment that is compatible with other DNP3 equipment.
Distributed Network Protocol (DNP or DNP3) has achieved a large-scale acceptance since its introduction in 1993. This protocol is an immediately deployable solution for monitoring remote sites because it was developed for communication of critical infrastructure status, allowing for reliable remote control.
GE-Harris Canada (formerly Westronic, Inc.) is generally credited with the seminal work on the protocol. This protocol is, however, currently implemented by an extensive range of manufacturers in a variety of industrial applications, such as electric utilities.
DNP3 is composed of three layers of the OSI seven-layer functions model. These layers are application layer, data link layer, and transport layer. Also, DNP3 can be transmitted over a serial bus connection or over a TCP/IP network.
DNP3 is based on an object model. This model reduces the bit mapping of data that is traditionally required by other less object-oriented protocols. It also reduces the wide disparity of status monitoring and control paradigms generally found in protocols that provide virtually no pre-defined objects.
Purists of these alternate protocols would insist that any required object can be 'built' from existing objects. Having some pre-defined objects though makes DNP3 a somewhat more comfortable design and deployment framework for SCADA engineers and technicians.
DNP3 is typically used between centrally located masters and distributed remotes. The master provides the interface between the human network manager and the monitoring system. The remote (RTUs and intelligent electronic devices) provides the interface between the master and the physical device(s) being monitored and/or controlled.
The master and remote both use a library of common objects to exchange information. The DNP3 protocol contains carefully designed capabilities. These capabilities enable it to be used reliably even over media that may be subject to noisy interference.
The DNP3 protocol is a polled protocol. When the master station connects to a remote, an integrity poll is performed. Integrity polls are important for DNP3 addressing. This is because they return all buffered values for a data point and include the current value of the point as well.
As an intelligent and robust SCADA protocol, DNP3 gives you many capabilities. Some of them are:
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Whether you're new to our equipment or you've used it for years, DPS factory training is the best way to get more from your monitoring.Reserve Your Seat Today | <urn:uuid:e27af85c-cf97-4737-a9d6-301d7b85cc05> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.dpstele.com/dnp3/index.php | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.37/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930212504-20221001002504-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.934015 | 627 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Cybersecurity tactics guard your internet connections against unwanted intruders. But information assurance (IA) goes one step further to better protect the systems and data within your network.
The term "information assurance" was first used by the U.S. government, but has since made its way into common usage. The term describes the technical and managerial components of information, particularly maintaining control over it and ensuring it’s only accessible to those who have authorization.1 Complying with Information Assurance (IA) standards is a mandatory requirement for security personnel with privileged access to monitoring, system control, and administration functions.
Many types of information assurance (IA) standards exist: Common Criteria, NIAP, EAL, and TEMPEST, for example. In this article, we will explain these IA provisions and what each means for your secure network.
The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation (CC) accompanied by the companion Common Methodology for Information Technology Security Evaluation (CEM) are the technical basis for the Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA), which is an international agreement that verifies:
The CC is the gold standard for the recognizing secure IT products worldwide.
The National Information Assurance Partnership (NIAP) implements the Common Criteria in the U.S., and manages the NIAP Common Criteria Evaluation and Validation Scheme (CCEVS) validation process.
Partnering with the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), NIAP also approves Common Criteria Testing Laboratories to conduct these security evaluations in private-sector operations across the U.S.
An international standard introduced in 1999 defines the Evaluation Assurance Level (EAL1 through EAL7) of an IT product or system. The EAL level measures the security assurance level of an IT product or system recorded during a Common Criteria security evaluation. Higher levels of security indicate that the system’s main security features meet more stringent assurance parameters. The EAL level does not measure the security of the system itself, it simply states at what level the system was tested.
Requirements for EAL involve design documentation, design analysis, functional testing, or penetration testing. The higher EALs include more detailed documentation, analysis, and testing than the lower levels. Reaching a higher EAL certification usually costs more money and takes more time than achieving a lower level. The EAL number assigned to a certified system indicates that the system completed all requirements for that level.
What is a Security Target (ST)?
Each product and system must meet the same assurance requirements to achieve a particular EAL level, but they do not have to satisfy the same functional requirements. The functional features for each certified product are established in the Security Target document tailored for that product's evaluation. A product with a higher EAL may not be "more secure" in a particular application than one with a lower EAL, because they may have dissimilar functional features in their Security Targets. A product's suitability for a particular security application depends on how well the features listed in the product's Security Target meet the application's security requirements. If the Security Targets for two products both contain the necessary security features, then the higher EAL reveals a safer product for that application.
Originating in the late 1960s, “TEMPEST” is codename for a classified (secret) U.S. government project to protect sensitive information from outside hackers. The acronym stands for Telecommunications Electronics Material Protected from Emanating Spurious Transmissions. The TEMPEST specification (designated by U.S. National Security Agency) measures the data theft risk of computer and telecommunications devices. TEMPEST compliant devices guard against leaking unintentional radio or electrical signals, sounds, and vibrations that could provide a doorway for hackers to compromise secure systems.
Now that you know the basics of Information Assurance, you are ready to put the Common Criteria, NIAP, EAL, and TEMPEST standards to work to help you protect your sensitive data in your public- or private-sector network. Download the free white paper, “Meeting Cybersecurity Threats with Secure KVM Switches” to learn more about Secure KVM and these security standards.
Download white paper: https://goto.blackbox.com/l/770423/2021-05-21/fp39vz
Need more information? We can provide further advice, answer your questions, and/or consult with you about your specific application. Contact us at 877-877-2269 or firstname.lastname@example.org | <urn:uuid:7e7f18b6-77c2-43ab-aac0-69ac8bc9336a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.blackbox.com/en-be/insights/blogs/detail/technology/2022/01/11/beyond-cybersecurity-what-is-information-assurance | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337287.87/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002052710-20221002082710-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.903178 | 942 | 2.78125 | 3 |
It may seem like large enterprises are running the economy, but new companies contribute to a fair share of national growth. A report by said that last year there were 388 million entrepreneurs starting or running new businesses, and 70 percent of new jobs in the United States come from startups.
Even though entrepreneurship is booming, new business are a great security risk. SMBs must make security a top priority. Even if cyber security only fails once, a company's reputation could be ruined and new customers could be frightened off.
The report said that businesses are most vulnerable when they're beginning. Finances are tight and no one knows who to trust with new hires and business plans. With all of that going on, startups are key targets for cyber criminals. Businesses with less than 250 employees were the greatest area of growth for targeted attacks last year at 31 percent. The early stages of a business process are easier for hackers to infiltrate because they are not as prepared or fortified against attacks.
An online presence is vital to a startup's survival, but getting a website live in a short amount of time doesn't leave a lot of room for security, according to the report. These websites are then prime targets for malicious attacks. And cyber criminals are after more than financial information. Smaller businesses can provide access to larger companies. Each of the top 500 international businesses have an average of 60 alliances with smaller companies, making many SMBs a stepping stone to greater reward.
Some may think that being new to the market means cyber criminals won't take notice, but that's incorrect according to the report. Once the web page is set up, attacks can immediately begin. Attacks can come through infected links, spam emails and malware. Web based attacks among businesses increased 30 percent last year . Within two months, an account typically receives dozens of spam messages, some containing malware. By five months, the numbers increase to the hundreds. Should malware get through and infect a computer, it will require a system restore and recovery.
How to keep a startup safe from attack
Just as someone would run a virus scan on a PC, businesses should do the same for their websites. Slow-loading pages and unwanted ads are common signs that a web server may have been infected.
The report suggested adding software layered security with anti-malware tools. This scans for changes in file size, suspicious email attachments and identifies programs matching known malware. | <urn:uuid:5c024160-e167-45e7-9a04-418b9331bcde> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.faronics.com/news/blog/business-start-ups-are-susceptible-to-cyber-attacks | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337529.69/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004215917-20221005005917-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.963822 | 483 | 2.703125 | 3 |
The effect of air travel on global warming has remained a major concern, which has forced the aviation industry to search for alternative technologies that can help reduce emissions and thereby, improve the environmental impact of air travel. Presently, air transportation accounts for about 4% of the global greenhouse gas emissions. This the reason why the aviation sector is giving a serious thought to the hybrid electric aircraft.
A hybrid aircraft is basically an aircraft that has gas turbine engines and electrical propulsors. The main advantage of the hybrid-electric propulsion system is that it has the potential to lower fuel consumption and emission levels while also reducing vibrations and the take-off noise.
The hybrid-electric propulsion system contains both electric motors and internal combustion engine to get the best of both worlds. A hybrid aircraft is mainly powered by electricity, while the turbine generators are used during take-off and climb when the aircraft requires a huge amount of power.
Several important players in the aviation sectors have already taken initiatives to develop and operate electric-hybrid aircraft. For example, Boeing and JetBlue are backing Zunum Aero, which has been working on a family of hybrid electric regional aircraft since 2013. The company began the development of a 6 to 12-seat aircraft in 2017, which is expected to fly in 2020. Airbus has also teamed up with Siemens and Rolls Royce plc. to develop E-Fan X hybrid-electric airliner demonstrator, which too aims to fly in 2020.
However, the main limitation of such aircraft is the amount of power that needs to be generated on-board, which necessitates a significant increase in on-board power generation capability. This in turn, will require developments not only in the design of aero-electrical power systems but also in appropriate technologies. So, the hybrid systems will have to improve rapidly in order to be adopted in a large scale. As of now, the potential of such aircraft is limited for general aviation.
But since the airline industry aims to cut down its carbon dioxide emissions to half by 2050 from 2005 levels, we can expect the introduction of some really disruptive technologies and innovative aircraft in the coming decade.
The market for hybrid aircraft was valued at around 540 million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach around 1,200 million USD by 2025, fuelled by factors like environmental concerns and also due to the fact that these aircraft require less fuel than the conventional aircraft. | <urn:uuid:01b18d75-96ae-4637-bdb1-cd1ead8f37f3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.alltheresearch.com/blog/will-hybrid-aircraft-become-a-reality-soon | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.966457 | 484 | 3.328125 | 3 |
In the wake of recent cyberattacks around the world, consumers are wondering what they can do to protect themselves if a service they are using has been compromised.
A cyberattack is a criminal attack launched by one or more computers against one or more computers or networks. A cyberattack can maliciously disable computers, steal data, or use a compromised computer as a launch pad for additional attacks.
As a result, several methods must be used, including changing passwords, freezing credit cards, activating multi-factor authentication, and using the latest version of applications.
It is important that organization change the password to prevent the hacker from accessing information such as name, address, phone number and credit card information. They can do that by using a complex password that contains symbols, numbers, upper- and lower-case letters. Passwords that resemble old ones should be avoided.
Organization should freeze credit cards in case of suspected leaks of credit card information during a data breach. They must monitor credit card values in the event of changes and freeze credit card payments to prevent unauthorized payments.
They must also enable two-factor authentication because it makes it harder for hackers to access critical information. It also adds an extra layer of security to the login process by requiring the user to give permission for a secondary device.
Stay up to date with developments to implement the damage mitigation measures proposed by the company and be aware of what may have been exposed in the hack.
Using the latest version of an app is also recommended because app developers regularly send updates to their software to address security vulnerabilities and improve the utility of the program.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters. | <urn:uuid:bad41e42-8391-4edd-a209-d8d27497c562> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.itworldcanada.com/post/how-organizations-can-survive-corporate-hack | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337731.82/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006061224-20221006091224-00684.warc.gz | en | 0.938666 | 334 | 3.25 | 3 |
While data breaches have become a nearly daily occurrence in news headlines — most recently, Drizly and the Ritz Hotel — it's important that businesses and security professionals understand the cascading effect these incidents have on the broader online landscape. Regardless of the size of the business reporting a breach or amount of consumer data exposed, all businesses are threatened by a "fraud supply chain" that feeds off these types of breaches.
The fraud supply chain is an interconnected ecosystem that allows cybercriminals to use different attack vectors to steal from consumers and businesses, often through more complex ways than merely buying stolen credit cards to make large purchases. Therefore, fraudsters can feed off any type of data to provide both a bridge for gaining further personal information from existing victims and a springboard for executing larger attacks.
Even the Smallest Breaches Cause Ripple Effects
Data breaches are almost always a means to an end. For example, seemingly minor information such as usernames or passwords can arm fraudsters with enough to execute more sophisticated attacks. Often, bad actors will harvest user information obtained from various data breaches to develop complete user profiles. Additionally, typical consumer behaviors can often make this easier for fraudsters; studies have shown 65% of users repurpose their passwords across multiple platforms. Data breaches provide attackers with the credentials needed to execute more widespread attacks such as:
- Accumulating More Personal Information Through Phishing Scams
Often, a minor data breach is not enough for fraudsters to execute immediate attacks on an individual. However, simple credentials such as an email address offer a direct line of communication for fraudsters to initiate phishing schemes. Through this tactic, they'll often impersonate a trusted source to convince consumers to share further personal data such as credit card information, passwords, etc. While most people may think it's easy to recognize a phishing scheme, sophisticated fraudsters will use additional information garnered through previous data breaches to personalize content that demonstrates potential legitimacy.
For security teams, email protection is critical and must lean on a layered approach. The foundation must be set with standards such as email authentication and domain-based message authentication, reporting and conformance (DMARC) to protect employees, stakeholders, and customers from unauthorized usage.
Alongside these measures, secure email gateways (SEGs) and phishing awareness/training can help avoid external threats. For example, fraudsters often play to consumer emotions and fears, a reason why we've seen phishing attacks accelerate amid the pandemic. Recent phishing schemes have included cybercriminals impersonating health officials and agencies seeking consumer information to facilitate fake virus testing or contact-tracing initiatives.
- Coordinating Account Takeovers With Compromised Credentials
Once fraudsters have enough information, they'll use these credentials to access and take over victims' accounts. This opens the door to a variety of opportunities, including exposure to payment information, ability to open new accounts with similar credentials, and access to post fake or malicious content to victims' personal networks.
There's little you can do about users falling victim to social engineering tactics outside of your platform. However, you can empower your team to act accordingly when these bad actors show up on your platform. Two-factor authentication (2FA) can address this by adding friction when someone is trying to gain unauthorized access into an account, and also notifying users when suspicious account access has been detected.
There are also internal measures you can take for schemes in which a user has been tricked into willingly handing over their credentials to a bad actor. For example, businesses dealing with payments can leverage a holding period before funds can be transferred, and review transactions that seem anomalous (such as amounts outside of the user's normal activity or transfers into a new account).
Lastly, you may also want to consider educational outreach (for example, a newsletter, FAQ, or help center) that informs users of common tactics. Let them know that your organization will never ask them to share a verification code, for instance.
- Siphoning Money and Assets Through Payment Fraud Schemes
Payment information is often the holy grail for fraudsters. Payment fraud typically begins with card testing through the purchase of typically low-value, low-effort items. If the purchase is successful, they know the payment information is valid. Funds can then be used to buy goods to keep or resell, or to buy more data on the Dark Web.
While account and payment protection is paramount, users also demand seamless experiences. Therefore, security professionals should implement risk assessments based on user trustworthiness. This dynamic friction will help eliminate friction for trusted users, block risky interactions, and implement verification for suspicious activities.
Every business needs to face the repercussions of breaches, whether they are directly involved or not. Simply put, every data breach is every business's problem. That means fraud prevention needs to be an ecosystemwide effort, so that user data is rendered useless — thus breaking the most important link in the fraud supply chain. | <urn:uuid:0f4189f8-71df-4ae5-90cf-d04a86cb3508> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.darkreading.com/vulnerabilities-threats/3-ways-data-breaches-accelerate-the-fraud-supply-chain | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334596.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925193816-20220925223816-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.93064 | 1,016 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Data obfuscation is a data security technique that copies and scrambles sensitive data, often via encryption, as a means of concealment.
What do I need to know about data obfuscation?
Data obfuscation is often used interchangeably with data masking. Data obfuscation scrambles data to anonymize it.
What are the benefits of data obfuscation?
Data obfuscation is essential in many regulated industries where personally identifiable information must be protected from overexposure. By obfuscating data, the organization can expose the data as needed to test teams or database administrators without compromising the data or getting out of compliance. The primary benefit is reducing security risk.
What are the challenges of data obfuscation?
Data obfuscation is difficult because the changed data must retain any characteristics of the original data that would require specific processing. Yet it must be sufficiently transformed so that no one viewing the replica would be able to reverse-engineer it. Commercial software solutions are available to automate obfuscation and provide confidence in the obfuscation quality. | <urn:uuid:c44c4796-b9cf-47bf-8bb0-2376b961e6ce> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.informatica.com/gb/services-and-training/glossary-of-terms/data-obfuscation-definition.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334596.27/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925193816-20220925223816-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.918396 | 208 | 3.40625 | 3 |
Beyond renewables: Emerging technologies for “greening” the data centre
Facebook recently made news with the opening of its data center in Los Lunas, Arizona, USA, which will operate exclusively on renewable energy. This project joins ventures by companies like Italy's Aruba.it and Australia's DC Two in prioritising alternative energy.
As important as renewables are to long-term sustainability, there are additional environmental considerations. From water use to raw material inputs, data centers are huge consumers of natural resources. They will need to realise greater efficiencies to minimise their impacts as global data volumes and the demand for intensive processing skyrockets.
Fortunately, there are several emerging technologies that can help slim the industry's ecological footprint in the coming decades.
#1 Liquid hardware cooling
In the immediate future, liquid cooling could be among the most significant contributors to overall energy savings. Various liquid-cooled hardware is already in production. Lenovo, for instance, announced rear-door heat exchangers capable of cutting power usage effectiveness (PUE) from the 1.5 to 2 range to about 1.3. And systems using direct-to-chip cooling could bring PUE down to 1.1.
The time is also ripe for full immersion cooling, dunking sealed components in dielectric fluid. This approach eliminates server fans, reduces CPU power consumption, and takes the pressure off data center air conditioning. Estimates for power savings reach as high as 50 percent.
Immersion cooling can also achieve three times the density of traditional Intel processors, which means delivering more computing power on less land. A final benefit is that immersion cooling reduces the effects of heat and humidity, helping to extend component lifespans. This means fewer drive replacements and lower overall material inputs.
#2 AI-driven data center infrastructure management solutions
Artificial technology has a role to play as well, and Google is a leader in this field. The company recently upgraded from a 2014-era machine learning-based “recommendation engine” requiring manual infrastructure adjustments, to a proprietary, automated infrastructure management solution. The system evaluates over 120 variables, from fan settings to the dew point, in order to identify inefficiencies and optimise PUE. The technology is shaving 30 percent off the company's cooling system energy use, and savings could reach 40 percent.
#3 Increased server utilisation
Speaking of AI, it has a lot to offer for server utilisation. Data Center operators recognise that zombie servers are a problem – one that's not going away with virtualisation alone. While some 25% of physical servers may be comatose, estimates are that 30% of virtual servers have seen no activity over at least six months.
Arriving to remedy this problem are AI-based load balancers that can detect ghost servers and distribute workloads across available hardware based on server performance, disk utilisation, network congestion, and the energy efficiency of each piece of equipment.
IDC predicts that 50 percent of IT assets will have autonomous operation capabilities by 2022. Turning server utilisation over to the machines will help overcome human inertia, which sometimes prevents manual workload retooling that is expected to return only incremental efficiency gains.
#4 Quantum computing
Further into the future is the promise of quantum computing. A study by Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy facility, found that quantum computers could reduce energy needs by more than 20 orders of magnitude over their conventional counterparts.
The prospect has a lot of money flowing in. The government of British Columbia, Canada, for example, has spent millions with D-Wave, backing its promises to address climate change. Venture capital investment has reached $250 million per year, and some governments—the EU, China, and the USA—are pumping billions into research and development.
Some experts worry that the current status of quantum computing is overhyped. It's true that today's quantum computers remain prone to errors that are difficult to correct. The need for an entirely different programming approach is another core barrier.
Nonetheless, IBM has unveiled a commercial quantum computer, the Q System One. IBM is also among the companies making their quantum computers and accompanying programming kits publicly available online.
Unfortunately, these systems are of little practical value yet, and quantum computers won't simply replace laptops anytime soon. For near-term applications, quantum computers will most likely serve as “accelerators” within major providers' clouds. The goal would be to identify when workloads can benefit from a quantum system's computational fortes and tap those resources on a targeted basis.
The true breakout of quantum computing is likely more than a decade off, but we still look forward its potential once the field has matured.
#5 Increasing dominance of hyperscale providers
Hyperscale providers are in a position to leap to these types of efficiency technologies, and the large financial impact of the sometimes marginal savings can provide them with the incentive to do so.
It's hard to imagine interests with less of a budget than Microsoft, for example, exploring how to site data centers under the ocean to benefit from the naturally cool temperatures. Similarly, Google's own AI-based DCIM cannot be deployed without deep learning at a particular site, so an equivalent commercial system capable of rolling out to more diverse data centers is still many steps away.
There are certainly reasons to worry about market consolidation, but as an increasing share of data storage, processing and network traffic moves to hyperscale providers—with their share expected to reach 57%, 69% and 53% respectively by 2020—the world is shifting toward those companies that can best leverage emerging technologies to enhance sustainability. | <urn:uuid:43136c09-7782-4b3e-a184-05c3dfdf6c66> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://datacenternews.asia/story/beyond-renewables-emerging-technologies-for-greening-the-data-centre | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337432.78/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003200326-20221003230326-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.928832 | 1,148 | 3.0625 | 3 |
“I think Google was very proactive in terms of what we’ve been doing around trying to help prevent users from being infected with malware,” said Ian Fette, security product manager for Google. “On the Web browser, we’re trying to do everything we can to make sure that users are not becoming affected with malware, and a big part of that is the sandboxing technology.”
Calling it a second level of defense, he said the technology is designed to prevent malware from persisting even if there is a flaw in the code that would lead to the Web browser being compromised.
“It’s designed to prevent malware from getting installed on the system, from being able to start again when you close the browser and restart the computer; it’s designed to help prevent malware from being able to read files on your file system … it’s really a defense-in-depth mechanism,” Fette explained.
As noted on the Google security blog, however, there are some limitations. Since it depends on Windows, there is the possibility of a flaw in the operating system security model itself. Another issue is that some legacy file systems used on certain computers and USB keys, such as FAT32, don’t support security descriptors. Files on those devices can’t be protected by the sandbox, according to the blog.
In addition, if a third-party vendor configures files, registry keys and other objects in a way that bypasses the access check-the mechanism by which the system determines whether the security descriptor of an object grants the rights requested to an access token-it can give everyone using the machine full access.
In addition to the sandboxing, Google has outfitted Chrome with a number of security features similar to those of Internet Explorer, such as Incognito mode. Like IE 8’s InPrivate Browsing, Incognito mode allows users to hide their Web surfing histories, and no cookies are stored beyond the lifetime of a browser window.
“Incognito mode is designed to reduce the amount of data that gets stored on your computer; it’s not designed to provide, for instance, anonymous browsing,” Fette said. “When you go into Incognito mode you are essentially saying, ‘Everything I do in this browser window, please don’t record that on my computer once [I] close off that window.'”
Chrome also takes a blacklisting approach using Google’s SafeBrowsing API to protect users against known malicious sites.
“I think the biggest advantage that we have is that Chrome is the first browser built from scratch after bad guys started exploiting other browsers,” opined Google Engineering Director Linus Upson. “We’ve had the luxury of looking at the security problems other browser vendors have had, and designing around those from the very beginning.” | <urn:uuid:7e17cda1-b392-48e3-bacc-58445df300c0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.eweek.com/security/google-chrome-puts-security-in-a-sandbox/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337537.25/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005042446-20221005072446-00084.warc.gz | en | 0.938853 | 681 | 2.515625 | 3 |
Existing copyright laws in the United Kingdom are out of date and should be updated to provide consumers with more flexibility, including the right to copy the content on DVDs and CDs to portable players, a new report argued.
The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) issued a report Sunday saying that copyright laws should be amended to create what it calls a “private right to copy.” The change would reflect the growth of digital media, most of which has occurred since such laws were last amended, the group says.
Breaking the Law
“Millions of Britons copy CDs onto their home computers breaking copyright laws everyday,” said Dr. Ian Kearns, the deputy director of IPPR. “British copyright law is out of date with consumer practices and technological progress.”
The music and movie industries have taken the right approach to date, according to Kearns, by not pursuing those who illegally copy their own music but instead tackling the problem of illegal distribution of copyright-protected works.
The group also expressed concern that digital rights management (DRM) technology could infringe on the ability of libraries and other public institutions to retain and allow access to digital works in the long-term.
The report interjects a new point of view into the ongoing debate over copyright, and its applicability in a rapidly changing digital world. The music and movie industries have been aggressive in their pursuit of those who swap digital files without authorization, while having only recently begun to embrace digital distribution channels.
Rip and Burn
Of course, the practice of “ripping” CDs to create digital files to be played on iPods, other portable music players and on PCs themselves, is a widespread approach to building out music collections, with literally millions of tracks having been transferred to portable devices through so-called “format shifting.”
With a growing number of video-capable players hitting the market, analysts widely expect the trend to be followed for movies and TV shows.
The report, “Public Innovation: Intellectual Property in a Digital Age,” also recommends that the UK government ignore requests from the music industry to extend the copyright term beyond the current 50-year period. “There is no evidence to suggest that current protections provided in law are insufficient.”
It also calls for unspecified government action to ensure that UK libraries are given DRM-free copies of digital works, and suggests that DRM technology should become void and legally be broken once the copyright protecting the work expires.
The battle over copyright protection using DRM continues to rage, with the same teen hacker who broke the code protecting DVDs from being copied — earning him the nickname DVD Jon — saying recently he had reverse engineered the iPod, enabling it to be opened up to play songs that weren’t downloaded from the iTunes Music Store and aren’t protected with the Apple endorsed DRM, known as “FairPlay.”
The report also comes as the music industry begins to rethink the future of the CD, a technology that is now more than 20 years old — somewhat long in the tooth for a music-bearing format, given the short life expectancy of the 8-track tape, for instance.
Music label executives in the UK have stated publicly they wouldn’t pursue consumers who copied their own music onto their computers and other devices, said JupiterResearch analyst Mark Mulligan.
“Still, the fact remains the law needs changing,” he added.
The industry is also looking for ways to have CDs do more than just deliver music, with added features starting to appear in more compact discs and likely to become an industry standard before long, as the industry tries to keep consumers buying the format. | <urn:uuid:a911f20b-0166-4bf7-9ddc-121102a75dd8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/uk-group-pushes-for-more-open-copyright-laws-53987.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335257.60/warc/CC-MAIN-20220928145118-20220928175118-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.950732 | 759 | 2.71875 | 3 |
[This is my second post on a series of articles that I would like to cover different tools and techniques to perform file system forensics of a Windows system. The first article was about acquiring a disk image in Expert Witness Format and then mount it using the SIFT workstation. The below one will be about processing the disk image and creating a timeline from the NTFS metadata. LR]
After evidence acquisition, you normally start your forensics analysis and investigation by doing a timeline analysis. This is a crucial step and very useful because it includes information on when files were modified, accessed, changed and created in a human readable format, known as MAC time evidence. This activity helps finding the particular time an event took place and in which order. Different techniques and tools exist to create timelines. In recent years an approach known as super timeline is very popular due to ability to bring together different sources of data. However, in this article we will focus on creating a timeline from a single source. The Master File Table file.
Before we move to the hand-on exercise let’s review some concepts behind the Master File Table. The Master File Table is a special system file that resides on the root of every NTFS partition. This file contains a wealth of forensic evidence. The file is named $MFT and is not accessible via user mode API’s but can been seen when you have raw access to the disk e.g, forensic image. This special file contains entries for every file and directory including itself. As written by Brian Carrier the MFT is the heart of NTFS. Each entry of the $MFT contains a series of attributes about a file, directory and indicates where it resides on the physical disk and if is active or inactive. The active/inactive attribute is the flag that tracks deleted files. If a file gets deleted, its MFT record becomes inactive and is ready for reuse. The size of these entries are usually 1Kb. Because each record doesn’t fill 1Kb each entry contains an attribute stating if contains resident data or not. Due to file system optimization, NTFS might store files directly on MFT records. A good example of this are Internet cookie files. Microsoft reserves the first 16 MFT entries for special metadata files. These entries point to a special file that begins with $. The $Bitmap and $LogFile are examples of such files. A list of the first MFT entries are shown in the below picture. As well, it shows how to read the MFT record of a disk image on SIFT workstation using istat. The 0 at the end of the command is the record number you want to read for this partition that starts at offset 206848. The record 0 is the $MFT file itself.
Each record contains a set of attributes. Some of the most important attributes in a MFT entry are the $STANDART_INFORMATION, $FILENAME and $DATA. The first two are rather important because among other things they contain the file time stamps. Each MFT entry for a given file or directory will contain 8 time stamps. 4 in the $STANDARD_INFORMATION and another 4 in the $FILENAME. These time stamps are known as MACE.
- M – Modified : When the contents of a file were last changed.
- A – Accessed : When the contents of a file were accessed/read.
- C – Created : When the file was created.
- E – Entry Modified : When the MFT record associated with the file changed.
For our exercise, this small introduction will suffice. Please see the references for great books on NTFS.
Now that we have reviewed some initial concepts on MFT let’s move to our hands-on exercise. For this exercise we will need the SIFT workstation with our evidence mounted – this was done on previous article. Then we need a Windows machine where we will access the mounted evidence on the SIFT workstation using a network drive. Finally, we will need the Mft2Csv tool from Joakim Schicht on the Windows machine to read, parse and produce the MFT timeline.
To start we share the mounted evidence on our SIFT workstation. In this case its /mnt/windows1 and was mounted on previous article. To perform this we edit the smb.conf and we add the lines as shown in the below figure. Then we restart the SMB deamon.
Next, from your windows machine, which needs to be in the same network segment as your SIFT workstation. you can view the shares by using the net view command. Then using the net use command you can map a drive letter. With this step on our Windows machine we will have access to our mounted evidence over the Z: drive. Next step is to run Mft2Csv tool. Mft2Csv is a powerful and granular tool developed by Joakim Schicht. For those who are not familiar with Joakim Schicht, he is a brilliant engineer who has enormously contributed to the Forensics community with many powerful tools.The tool has the ability to read $MFT from a variety of sources, including live system acquisition. It runs on Windows and has GUI and CLI capabilities and needs admin rights. The tool can be downloaded from here. As we speak the last version is v188.8.131.52. In this case, we will launch it from our Windows machine. The command line parameters define from where you are reading the $MFT file and the Time zone. The output by default will be saved in a CSV format but could be saved in a log2timeline or bodyfile. If you are familiar with the log2timeline format than you could use /OutputFormat:l2t. Below picture illustrate this step. The command executed is Mft2Csv.exe /MftFile:Z:\$MFT /TimeZone:0.00 /OutputFormat:l2t
When the command is finished you can open the timeline in Excel or copy it to SIFT workstation and use grep, awk and sed to review the entries. Another approach to create a timeline of the MFT metadata is using an old version of log2timeline which is still available on the SIFT workstation. This old version has a MFT parser. You can use log2timeline directly on the mounted evidence. First we capture the Time Zone information from the mounted evidence using Registry Ripper – which we will cover on another post. Then we run log2timeline with -f MFT suffix to read and parse the $MFT file. The -z defines the time zone and the -m is a marker that will show prepended to the output of the filenames.
Or if you don’t have the evidence mounted you can export the $MFT using icat from TheSleuthKit.
Below picture illustrates the output of both tools using the l2t format. In this case the cache.txt is an executable file part of a system that has been compromised with w32.morto worm.
That’s it! In this article we reviewed some introductory concepts about the Master File Table and we used Mft2Csv and Log2timeline to read, parse and create a timeline of it. The techniques and tools are not new. However, they are relevant and used in today’s digital forensic analysis. Next step, review more NTFS metadata.
Windows Internals, Sixth Edition, Part 2 By: Mark E. Russinovich, David A. Solomon, and Alex Ionescu
File System Forensic Analysis By: Brian Carrier
SANS 508 – Advanced Computer Forensics and Incident Response | <urn:uuid:bd9ed3fe-fe10-4d39-b642-fd36e0679266> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://countuponsecurity.com/2015/11/10/digital-forensics-ntfs-metadata-timeline-creation/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335396.92/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929225326-20220930015326-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.926327 | 1,616 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Before you begin working with CSV data sources, there are a few key terms that you should know.
- Delimiter - a character, such as a comma, used to specify a boundary between separate regions in a data stream.
- Enclosure - a container that holds a collection of other data objects.
- Length - indicates the maximum number of characters allowed in a field.
- Precision - the number of digits after a decimal point.
- Login to the User Console.
- Click the Create New button, then choose Data Source from the menu.
- Click the New Data Source button. The Data Source Wizard appears.
- Enter a name that identifies your new data source in the Data Source Name field. The following characters are not allowed in Data Source names:
- Select CSV File from the Source Type drop-down menu.
- Click Import... to browse for your CSV file. Double-click to select the CSV file you want to upload.
- Choose your delimiter and enclosure types.
If you want to use the first row of your CSV file as headings for columns in the file, leave First row is header check box selected. If you want to use the first row as data, disable the First row is header check box.File Preview window displays the first few lines of your CSV file based on the selections you made for the delimiter, enclosure, and header. Once the columns align correctly in the preview, the delimiter and enclosure have been set correctly.
- Click Next.
The Staging Settings screen displays a list of columns from your CSV source file. All columns are enabled.
Choose the columns that you want to use in your data source, either individually or by clicking Select All. You can deselect all columns by clicking Deselect All.
- Change the Name and Type values, if applicable.
- Choose the options that you want to use from the drop-down menu for dates and numeric values.
- You can enter a value manually in the Source Format text box.
Drop-down lists are not enabled for certain data types such as the String data type. Boolean values are rendered as "true" or "false."
- Click Show File Contents to look at a sample of the data in your source file. Click Close to return to the Staging Settings screen.
- Continue to work with your CSV data settings or click Finish.
The Data Source Created window appears. You can choose to Keep default model or click Customize model now to launch the Data Source Model Editor and refine the model. Click OK.
Your new data source is now available for use in Analyzer, Interactive Reports, and Dashboard reports, or the Data Source Model Editor appears. | <urn:uuid:158d2a03-f07c-416c-90c9-916ce9cafc51> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://help.hitachivantara.com/Documentation/Pentaho/6.0/0L0/0A0/040 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337338.11/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002150039-20221002180039-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.818509 | 571 | 2.8125 | 3 |
Ping of Death
What Is a Ping of Death Attack?
The ping of death is a form of denial-of-service (DoS) attack that occurs when an attacker crashes, destabilizes, or freezes computers or services by targeting them with oversized data packets. This form of DoS attack typically targets and exploits legacy weaknesses that organizations may have patched.
Unpatched systems are also at risk from ping floods, which target systems by overloading them with Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping messages.
How Does the Ping of Death Work?
A correct Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) packet is formed of 65,535 bytes, and most legacy computers cannot handle larger packets. Sending a ping larger than this violates the IP, so attackers send packets in fragments which, when the targeted system attempts to reassemble, results in an oversized packet that can cause the system to crash, freeze, or reboot.
The vulnerability can be exploited by any source that sends IP datagrams, which include an ICMP echo, the Internetwork Packet Exchange (IPX), Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), and User Datagram Protocol (UDP).
The Ping Command
Computers use an ICMP echo-reply message system, which is known as a "ping," to test network connections. The system, in essence, acts as a sonar between devices. It sends a pulse, which emits an echo to provide an operator with information about the network environment. When the connection works as intended, source machines receive a reply from target machines, which is frequently used by engineers. Ping commands are limited to a maximum size of 65,535 bytes.
Changing Ping Into a Ping of Death Command
Attackers use ping commands to develop a ping of death command. They can write a simple loop that allows them to execute the ping command with packet sizes that exceed the 65,535-byte maximum level when the target machine attempts to put the fragments back together.
Exploiting the Vulnerability
Sending packets that are larger than 65,535 bytes violates the rules of IP. To avoid this, attackers will send packets in fragments that their target system then attempts to piece together. When it does, the oversized packet will cause a memory overflow.
Does the Ping of Death Still Work?
The ping of death is an old attack vector that originally appeared in the mid-1990s, which caused target systems to crash or freeze. Since 1998, most computers and devices have been protected against these types of attacks. Furthermore, many websites still block ICMP ping messages to prevent future variations of this DoS attack.
However, an organization can still be vulnerable to the threat in these situations:
1. Vulnerable Legacy Equipment
Some legacy devices and equipment can still be vulnerable to the ping of death if they have not been patched. Malicious content on any network, computers, and servers can cause damage to and crash a network.
2. Recent Ping of Death Attacks
Ping of death attacks made a return in August 2013, when they caused a threat to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) networks. The resurgence of the attack vector exploited a weakness in OpenType fonts in the soon-to-be discontinued Windows XP and Windows Server 2013 operating systems. The attack exploited a flaw in the IPv6 implementation of ICMP by sending huge ping requests that crashed the target computer when it reassembled the packets. The risk could easily be avoided by disabling IPv6.
In October 2020, a flaw was discovered in the Windows component TCPIP.sys, which is a kernel driver that would reach the core of any Windows system if exploited. If an attacker is able to exploit the flaw, the result is a hard crash and total shutdown of the computer followed by a reboot. However, it was difficult for attackers to exploit and relied on users patching their devices to avoid the risk.
These examples show that ping of death attacks can still occur, and organizations need to protect themselves against them.
How To Protect My Organization from the Ping of Death?
Organizations can protect themselves from the risk of ping of death attacks by avoiding the use of legacy equipment and ensuring their devices and software are constantly updated. The ping of death can also be avoided by blocking fragmented pings and increasing memory buffers, which reduces the risk of memory overflows.
Block ICMP Ping Messages
Most networks operate firewalls that allow organizations to block ICMP ping messages. This will enable them to block ping of death attacks but is not a practical approach because it affects performance and reliability and blocks legitimate pings. They also are not ideal—invalid packet attacks can be launched through listening ports like File Transfer Protocol (FTP).
Use DDoS Protection Services
Using distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection services is a smarter approach to network security and protecting against ping of death attacks. Protection against DDoS attacks helps organizations block malformed packets before they can reach their target, which prevents the risk of a ping of death occurring.
How Fortinet Can Help
Fortinet helps organizations protect their infrastructure against DDoS attacks and prevent ping of death attacks with FortiDDoS. FortiDDoS is a dynamic and multi-layered solution that safeguards organizations from known and zero-day attacks. It is easy to deploy, offers a ping of death tutorial, an intrusion detection system (IDS), comprehensive analysis and reporting, and behavior-based DDoS protection that removes the need for signature files.
FortiDDoS provides defense against all forms of DDoS attacks, such as Layer 7 application, Secure Sockets Layer/Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (SSL/HTTPS), and bulk volumetric attacks.
What is a ping of death attack?
A ping of death attack is a type of denial-of-service (DoS) attack. It occurs when attackers overload a computer, service, or system with oversized data packets and Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ping messages.
Does the ping of death still work?
Modern computers are protected against ping of death attacks and have been since the late 1990s. However, there are still examples of vulnerabilities that can be exploited by using the ping of death approach.
How do I protect my organization from the ping of death?
You can protect your organization from the ping of death by keeping computers and systems patched and updated and avoiding the use of legacy equipment. You can also block ICMP ping messages and use distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection services. | <urn:uuid:b87fe731-d8bd-46ae-9aae-274e360c6dba> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.fortinet.com/kr/resources/cyberglossary/ping-of-death | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030333455.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924182740-20220924212740-00485.warc.gz | en | 0.939876 | 1,329 | 3.375 | 3 |
Making 8-bit computers load from "tape" super fast (posted 2022-04-03)
Back in the early 1980s, kids such as myself had their first computing experiences with 8-bit home computers such as the ZX Spectrum and the Commodore 64. And the only way, or in Europe in those days, the only affordable way to load games and save/load your own programs was from cassette tape. And boy was that slow. I remember that my fighter jet game on the C64 took 30 minutes to load.
Fortunately, there were fastloaders that replaced the built-in routines optimized for reliability with something much faster. In this video, Noel of the Youtube channel Noel's Retro Lab asks:
If we suddenly had a perfectly-reliable cassette tape, how fast could we possibly load data from it? This is a question I started pondering a while ago. To answer it, I had to do look into how data is stored on tape and how exactly we load it. Along the way, we'll find several limits and assumptions we have to work around on our quest for the fastest-possible loading.
The big limitation he ran into was the little device he used as a standin for the cassette player, that just couldn't create the audio pulses with consistent timing as he pushed the speed as far as it would go.
Serial port to the rescue
These old 8-bit computers could just "bit bang" this type of stuff, where you could have a small bit of assembly code read or write I/O pins at completely predictable intervals. Modern computers just can't do this. Even if the sound pulse generating code wouldn't have to pause to read more data from the SD card, variable clock rates and hard or impossible to predict timing because of caches makes for inconsistent timing.
But then modern computers, even small microcontrollers, have all kinds of more advanced I/O options that we could use. For instance, the audio out interface. But I think we can do better, and use an RS232 serial port to generate our fake cassette signal. Not sure how practical this would be in practice, but I thought I'd see how fast this should be able to work in theory.
Noel uses Z80 assembly on his Amstrad CPC. However, I'm more familiar with the C64 and 6502 assembly, so I'll use that for my proof of concept code below. However, it turns out that the cassette port on a C64 is unsuitable for decoding serial communication, as it will only measure the timing between two pulses, and not let us see the actual state of the signal. So we'll just connect the serial output of our imaginary tape emulation machine to the C64 user port pin that normally handles serial port input. (After accounting for the difference in imaginary voltages!)
Now don't get too excited: we can't just use the C64 implementation of the serial port to receive the data, as that implementation tops out at 2400 bps. And I want to go as fast as 57600 bps. That's about 5 kilobytes per second, enough to load any C64 program in 12 seconds or less.
That's about 200 times faster than the original Kansas City (more or less) standard and still 25 times faster than the improved 2400 bps version used in computers like the MSX.
The C64's 6510 CPU runs at just about 1 MHz. 1000000 clock pulses / 57600 bits = ~ 17 clock cycles per bit. So the challenge I'm setting for myself is write the code that reads one bit in no more than 17 clock cycles.
In normal serial communication, both sides are set to the same speed. I think that's an unnecessary limitation for our purposes here. Instead, the sending device sends some synchronization bytes. These contain the byte $7E. (The convention on the C64 is that hexadecimal numbers are preceded by $ to keep them apart from decimal numbers. % for binary numbers.) This generates the following bits on the serial port:
S 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 S
Where the first S is the start bit, which is 0, and the second one the stop bit, which is 1. So:
0 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1
When the line is idle, it's set to 1. If we now measure the time from the start of the first transition from 1 to 0 (at the beginning of the start bit) to the start of the second transition from 1 to 0, we know the time it takes to transmit 8 bits. This is more precise than trying to time a single bit. (However, for brevity, timing variations aren't addressed below.)
Then we need a few bytes that tell the receiver we're going to send a data block, and how long that data block is going to be. I'm limiting that length to 256 bytes as that makes the code on the 6510 (the C64's variant of the 6502) faster. We can then insert a few "idle" bytes during which the receiver has time to do some house keeping to get ready for the next data block.
6502 assembly in two paragraphs
The 6502 is a super simple CPU. It only has three 8-bit registers that programmers can use: the A register (accumulator) that can be used for simple math and logic operations, and the X and Y index registers that pretty much just count. There's also a status register that has a number of flags that are set based on the previous operation and can be used to perform branches (conditional jumps).
So as an assembly programmer you need to assemble your algorithms from really small and simple parts. So it's easy enough to do small things. Only the various addressing modes take a bit of time to get used to. The full 6502 instruction set.
We set up our receiving code by loading the address where the incoming data is stored in bytes $FC and $FD. Some other initialization, assuming we're going to receive 256 bytes:
SEI ; disable interrupts LDY #$00 ; load $00 in Y, index for our data block
So now we first wait for the start bit using:
readbyte LDA #$01 ; load $01 into A register waitstart BIT $DD01 ; AND of A register value ($01) and CIA ; register (4 cycles) BNE waitstart ; branch if not equal (not zero) back to ; repeat (2/3 cycles)
Depending on when the start bit happened, we're done 2 to 9 cycles after that moment. So we want to use up another 20 cycles before we start reading the first data bit so we sample the data bit more or less halfway through. We still have six cycles worth of setup to do:
LDX #$FE ; load value $FE in X register (2 cycles) STX $FE ; store X register in memory at $FE (2 ; cycles) SEC ; set the carry (overflow) bit (2 cycles)
Then add another 7 NOPs (no operation) at 2 cycles each:
NOP ; #1 NOP ; #2 NOP ; #3 NOP ; #4 NOP ; #5 NOP ; #6 NOP ; #7
And then we can finally start reading a data byte:
readbit BIT $DD01 ; check the CIA register bit (4 cycles) BEQ writezero ; branch if equal (zero) to write a zero, ; otherwise continue and write a one ; (2/3 cycles) ROL $00FE ; rotate left: all bits shift, carry bit ; (which is 1) goes into bit 0 (6 cycles) BCS readbit ; if carry is set, jump back to read next ; bit (3 cycles) BCC bitsdone ; if carry is clear, we're done, skip ; ahead (3 cycles) writezero ASL $FE ; arithmetic shift left, 0 bit becomes 0 ; (5 cycles) BCS readbit ; if carry is set, jump back to read next ; bit (3 cycles)
Now we have a complete byte, so store that byte and do it all over again until we have our full block:
bitsdone LDA $FE ; load data from memory at $FE into A ; (2 cycles) STA ($FC),Y ; take memory location from $FC/$FD, add Y ; to it, store A there (6 cycles) INY ; increment Y register (2 cycles) BNE readbyte ; if Y register is not 0, jump back to ; read the next byte (2/3 cycles)
That's 13 cycles that happen during the stop bit, so the less critical parts are all fine.
Are we fast enough?
Now let's look at the timing of code that handles reading the individual bits. This is what gets executed when the incoming bit is zero:
readbit BIT $DD01 ; check the CIA register bit (4 cycles) BEQ writezero ; branch if equal (zero) to write a zero ; (3 cycles) … writezero ASL $FE ; arithmetic shift left, 0 bit becomes 0 ; (5 cycles) BCS readbit ; if carry is set, jump back to read next ; bit (3 cycles)
So that's 4 + 3 + 5 + 3 = 15 cycles. And if the incoming bit is 1:
readbit BIT $DD01 ; check the CIA register bit(4 cycles) BEQ writezero ; branch if equal (zero) to write a zero ; (2 cycles) ROL $00FE ; rotate left: all bits shift, carry bit ; (which is 1) goes into bit 0 (6 cycles) BCS readbit ; if carry is set, jump back to read next ; bit (3 cycles)
Note that in this case, the first jump is not taken, and therefore only takes 2 cycles rather than 3. Having different numbers of cycles depending on whether we read a 0 or a 1 would be bad, so we need to compensate for that. However, it's only a 1-cycle difference and all 6502 instructions, even ones without any arguments such as NOP, take at least 2 cycles.
But we can use a trick: address memory location $FE using the full 16-bit address $00FE rather than the 8-bit zero page address $FE with the ROL instruction. This way, the ROL instruction uses an extra cycle, so in this case everything adds up to 4 + 2 + 6 + 3 = 15 cycles, too. So we actually need a 2-cycle NOP to reach our 17-cycle target!
What helped here is that I was able to avoid using the X register to count down the bits. Instead, the memory location $FE where we're going to store the incoming bits is initialized with $FE = %11111110. To make room for an incoming bit, those existing bits all move one position to the left when using the ROL or ASL instructions. When that happens, the highest bit is placed in the carry flag. So after the first 7 bits, the carry is always 1 and then we know we need to read more bits. But after receiving the 8th bit, that lone 0 moves into the carry and we know we're done.
A Commodore 64 with its 1 MHz should be just about fast enough to read serial data at 57600 bps. I'm assuming the same is true for a Z80 clocked at the commonly used 3.5 MHz. Not because the clock is so much faster, as the Z80 uses many more cycles per instruction than the 6502. But the Z80 has a lot more registers so it probably wouldn't be necessary to store intermediate results in memory, which is the slowest part of the 6502 code.
It would be interesting to see how well all of this theory holds up when it hits the real world… interesting, but time consuming. | <urn:uuid:c02ec2dd-0630-42b6-822f-32447aa28e40> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.iljitsch.com/2022/04-03-making-8-bit-computers-load-from-tape-super-fast.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030333455.97/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924182740-20220924212740-00485.warc.gz | en | 0.929936 | 2,489 | 2.96875 | 3 |
What's Artificial Intelligence? Here's a Solid DefinitionUnderstanding AI, Deep Learning, Machine Learning and Neural Networks
What's the difference between artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning and neural networks? Don't trust vendors' marketing materials to help you find a workable, accurate definition.
"It's almost criminal, the use of these terms by the vendors today," says Kris Lovejoy, CEO of security firm BluVector. "Pretty much anybody that has analytics embedded in their system is calling it a form of AI. It's confusing the marketplace, and frankly, I think it's incredibly unfair to the consumer."
So what exactly is artificial intelligence? "I like to think of AI ... as being a concept that was initially devised back in the '50s to make computers more useful and capable of independent reasoning," Lovejoy says.
In this interview with Information Security Media Group (see audio link below photo), Lovejoy discusses:
- Deep learning, Bayesian models and unsupervised machine learning versus supervised machine learning;
- The quest for full system autonomy, and what it will take to get there;
- Gaming the system: Why tricking AI or weaponizing AI is difficult;
- Beyond AI marketing messages: Try before you buy.
Lovejoy is CEO of BluVector, which offers a machine learning threat detection and hunting solution. She previously served as head of the business unit at defense contractor Northrop Grumman, from which BluVector was spun out as a stand-alone business in January 2017. Previously, Lovejoy served as president of Acuity Solutions, general manager of IBM's security services division, and CISO of IBM, among other roles. | <urn:uuid:f6c179ef-e63b-4da8-874d-192a463844b7> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.databreachtoday.com/interviews/whats-artificial-intelligence-heres-solid-definition-i-3939 | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00485.warc.gz | en | 0.959689 | 341 | 3.015625 | 3 |
What is a Supply Chain Attack?
Supply chain attacks can damage organizations, individual departments, or entire industries by targeting and attacking insecure elements of the software supply chain.
A software supply chain consists of:
- Elements of the software development lifecycle (SDLC) process, including build systems, development, and testing environments
- Open source or third-party software used as components in enterprise software
- Open source platforms used directly by enterprises – such as WordPress or Magento
- Vendors providing professional services, consulting, or development services
- Partners who store or process data on behalf of the enterprise
- Cloud services (including IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS)
- Past suppliers of the enterprise who still hold company data or access to IT systems
Most organizations have limited visibility over their software supply chain. Any third party that is not well secured, and provides software or services to large organizations, is a risk for a supply chain attack.
Most commonly, attackers look for the weakest links in a supply chain – for example, they target small vendors with no cybersecurity controls or open source components with a small community or lax security measures.
Most supply chain attacks are caused by adding backdoors to legitimate and certified software or compromising systems used by third-party providers. These attacks are difficult to detect with existing cybersecurity defenses.
Supply Chain Attack Example
Here is an example of a sophisticated supply chain attack:
- An attacker discovers large organizations using an open-source component built by a certain group of developers
- The attacker identifies a developer who is not actively working on the project, and compromises their GitHub account
- Using the compromised GitHub account, the attacker commits innocent-looking code to the project, which in fact contains a backdoor
- The backdoor is packaged into the next release
- When one of the target organizations updates the open-source component to the new, compromised version, they are owned by the attacker
This example shows how attackers can take advantage of the lax security measures of some open source projects to penetrate a large, well-secured organization.
Supply Chain Cybersecurity Best Practices
Here are some best practices that can help protect your organization from supply chain threats.
Map Out the Threat Landscape
The first step is to fully map out the software supply chain. In a large organization, it can be composed of a large number of software vendors, open-source projects, IT, and cloud services.
Automated tools like software composition analysis (SCA) can be used to discover which software dependencies are hiding inside an organization’s software projects, and scan them for security and licensing issues. But this is not enough – you must perform a complete inventory of all third-party tools and services used in your software projects.
Policies and Governance
Make sure your supply chain vendors have structured, validated, and certified security policies and procedures. You can verify this through formal certification, such as a HIPAA Business Partner Agreement or a PCI audit. Vendors must have internal governance ensuring that security systems and procedures are in place.
Contracts between the company and its suppliers must clearly state the standards and requirements for access and use of data so that liability can be accurately assigned in case of violations. Agreements should require suppliers to notify the organization if they are breached. There must also be clear provisions for mitigating risk when the relationship with a supplier ends.
Control Information Privileges
It is common for companies to make data available to third parties, but this must be done with due consideration. The more people who have access to data, the harder it becomes to control and mitigate threats. When starting to address supply chain security, it is important to conduct an audit and determine what is the current situation—who has access and what they are doing with the data—and use this information to limit data access.
This is especially important for third-party vendors, who are often targeted by hackers because their security controls are typically less robust than those of the enterprise. When choosing a vendor, consider its cybersecurity framework, perform due diligence, and accordingly, adjust what type of data they can be exposed to.
One approach to sharing data with vendors is a “one-way feed”—in which data required for a specific vendor is shared with them, and only with them, precisely when they need it. The enterprise can use data masking to reduce the sensitivity of the data and ensure that the vendor disposes of data after it is no longer needed.
Reduce the Risk from Developer Endpoints
Many supply chain attacks focus on compromising developer workstations or development environments. A developer workstation, which has permission to commit code to the CI/CD pipeline, is a “jackpot” for attackers. This is how the infamous SolarWinds attack breached the company’s build pipeline and was able to deploy malicious artifacts directly into its product.
You should comprehensively protect any endpoint – workstation, server, or cloud virtual machine – that is part of your organization’s build process. This can be done by deploying endpoint protection platforms, including endpoint detection and response (EDR) technology, which can detect anomalous behavior on endpoints and facilitate immediate response by security teams.
Protecting Against Supply Chain Attacks with Imperva
Imperva’s Runtime Application Self Protection (RASP) uses a lightweight security plug-in to analyze activity within the application and block unwanted actions, such as third-party libraries establishing a network connection to an external site for command and control (C&C).
Imperva RASP protects applications, runtime, servers, open-source dependencies, and third-party libraries. It deploys in minutes by easily snapping into an application, without requiring any code changes, and requires no ongoing signature updates.
Beyond supply chain attacks, Imperva provides multi-layered protection to make sure websites and applications are available, easily accessible, and safe. The Imperva Web Application and API Protection unifies RASP and Client-Side Protection with five more best-of-breed application security solutions on a single platform:
- DDoS Protection—maintain uptime in all situations. Prevent any type of DDoS attack, of any size, from preventing access to your website and network infrastructure.
- CDN—enhance website performance and reduce bandwidth costs with a CDN designed for developers. Cache static resources at the edge while accelerating APIs and dynamic websites.
- WAF—permit legitimate traffic and prevent attacks, safeguarding applications at the edge or inside your network.
- Bot management—analyze your bot traffic to pinpoint anomalies, identify bad bot behavior, and validate questionable behavior via challenge mechanisms that do not impact user traffic.
- API security—protect APIs by ensuring only desired traffic can access your API endpoint, as well as detecting and blocking exploits.
- Attack analytics—identify and respond to security incidents confidently with ML-powered intelligence across all your layers of defense. | <urn:uuid:28082811-305f-4b66-88f9-2dc2955d2234> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.imperva.com/learn/application-security/supply-chain-attack/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334644.42/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926020051-20220926050051-00485.warc.gz | en | 0.923875 | 1,494 | 2.625 | 3 |
What is Penetration Testing?
Penetration testing (also called ‘pen testing’ or more commonly ‘ethical hacking’) is the practice of testing computer systems, networks, and web applications to find vulnerabilities that attackers could exploit.
A penetration test is an information security assessment that simulates an attack against an organisation’s IT assets. The ‘Red Team’ (ethical hackers) examine your IT systems for any weaknesses that genuine attackers would exploit to compromise the confidentiality, availability, or integrity of the network and associated data.
What is an ethical hacker?
The Red Team can be considered the actual Pen Testers. Their primary objective/goal is to emulate the mindset of an attacker; to try and crack open all of the present weaknesses and vulnerabilities in the systems. In other words, it is the Red Team that attacks all possible fronts.
Features of a pen test:
- A highly skilled team of ethical hackers and global security experts
- Conduct penetration tests in the same way as actual malicious hackers
- Latest tools and techniques used by ethical hackers
- Not always necessary for ethical hackers to be at your premises
- Comprehensive reporting explaining each exploitable vulnerability
- Detailed remediation and resolution steps to enhance your Cyber-Security
Benefits of a pen test:
- Provide real information on vulnerabilities within your IT infrastructure
- Compliance adherence. Certain standards and certification bodies require penetration testing
- Providing your clients and stakeholders with a clear message that you take Cyber-Security seriously
- Thoroughly tests your existing Cyber-Security defence capabilities
- Offers third-party expert opinion
- Protect your reputation and brand
Browse more articles from our experts and discover how to make better use of IT in your business.
AAG Security Advisory – ‘EvilProxy’
A new type of phishing attack, called 'EvilProxy', is being used by cyber criminals to attack businesses like yours. This security advisory highlights the danger that EvilProxy poses and how…
Cyber Security Career: Essential Knowledge
Are you looking for a great opportunity in a rapidly expanding sector? A cyber security career is rewarding and dynamic, offering the chance to defend the digital infrastructure of businesses… | <urn:uuid:5f49bc58-a819-43a7-a748-db51b08cd4c0> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://aag-it.com/penetration-testing-guide/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030333541.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924213650-20220925003650-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.898243 | 455 | 2.875 | 3 |
AI-driven Programs Drive Student Success for Business courses
Artificial Intelligence (or AI) is an area that is finding widespread use in different industries today, from security to healthcare to education. It is an interdisciplinary field that leverages techniques from the domains of computer science, statistics, mathematics, and machine learning to devise complex algorithms for analyzing data and making effective business decisions.
Higher education today is rich in data, consisting not only of student academic records but also information about students’ demographics and background, engagement in different curricular and co-curricular activities, utilization of various kinds of academic and support resources, engagement and usage of the learning management system (or LMS) which is used in delivering courses in most academic institutions today, among others. Given the availability of such rich and critical data and that of technology and software to analyze such large and complex datasets, colleges and universities around the world are increasingly using AI to gain deeper insights into factors that affect student performance and success and hence develop programs to further enhance student learning outcomes and shorten graduation times.
At California State University Fullerton, we have extensively used AI to identify factors that have an impact on performance of students in traditionally difficult courses (often termed “bottleneck” courses) with the goal of introducing additional intervention and support services to help students at risk improve their chances of successful completion of courses and eventually earn their degrees in a timely manner. Our studies have involved not only academic and demographic factors, but also cognitive, behavioral, and motivational factors that are equally important in understanding student behavior and their consequent performance, along with their propensity to seek help and resources in case of difficulties. Studying so many different factors together in the context of higher education was a challenging task owing to the underlying complexity due to the different nature of the variables that were accomplished via AI-driven models. Further, we analyzed and compared student performance across different learning environments, such as traditional face-to-face and online, and discovered that different groups of factors play a role in student performance across these different class formats. These findings have led our College to implement several programs like Supplemental Instruction (or SI) that are aimed at providing additional support to students. Such initiatives have led to considerable improvement in the overall passing rate of multiple bottleneck courses in the Business discipline. Currently, we are also exploring the application of AI to a large-scale study of all Business students to identify which factors (academic, demographic, co-curricular) contribute to the non-retention of students in their freshmen year (where we typically see maximum attrition on our campus).
The power of AI in improving education via harnessing the information contained in data is vast – not only have we been able to utilize the knowledge gained to improve student learning, but the findings have provided valuable feedback to instructors to redesign their courses to suit students with differing learning behaviors. For example, instructors teaching both traditional and online courses now understand which students are more likely to succeed in each class format and hence develop course materials accordingly to maximize the chances of students to succeed in both. Moreover, instructors are also sometimes provided with a list of at-risk students in the middle of the semester identified via our models so that they can reach out to them to offer extra help. Thus, AI has significantly changed the education landscape today on our campus as well as in other universities. As technology keeps on improving daily with new software platforms, data storage services (cloud technologies, for instance), it offers a more significant promise to drive student success in the future by informing students, faculty, and administrators alike. | <urn:uuid:c894b360-4ad2-49c5-b010-cb29cbf78232> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://women-in-tech.cioreview.com/cxoinsight/aidriven-programs-drive-student-success-for-business-courses-nid-32642-cid-266.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030333541.98/warc/CC-MAIN-20220924213650-20220925003650-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.958705 | 719 | 2.65625 | 3 |
In fiber-optic communications, WDM (wavelength-division multiplexing) is a technology which multiplexes a number of optical carrier signals onto a single optical fiber by using different wavelengths (i.e., colors) of laser light. This technique enables bidirectional communications over one strand of fiber as well as multiplication of capacity. Generally, WDM technology is applied to an optical carrier which is typically described by its wavelength.
WDM system uses a multiplexer at the transmitter to join the signals together, and a demultiplexer at the receiver to split the signals apart (see Figure 1). WDM system is very popular in the telecommunication industry because it allows the capacity of the network to be expanded without laying more fiber. By utilizing WDM and optical amplifiers, users can accommodate several generations of technology development in their optical infrastructure without having to overhaul the backbone network. Moreover, the capacity of a given link can be expanded simply by upgrading the multiplexers and demultiplexers at each end.
WDM could be divided into CWDM (coarse wavelength division multiplexing) and DWDM (dense wavelength division multiplexing). DWDM and CWDM are based on the same concept of using multiple wavelengths of light on a single fiber but differ in the spacing of the wavelengths, number of channels, and the ability to amplify the multiplexed signals in the optical space. Below part will introduce some differences between CWDM and DWDM system.
CWDM provides 8 channels with 8 wavelengths (from 1470nm through 1610nm) with a channel spacing of 20nm. While DWDM can accommodate 40, 80 or even 160 wavelengths with narrower wavelength spans which are as small as 0.8nm, 0.4nm or even 0.2nm (see Figure 2).
DWDM multiplexing system is capable of having a longer haul transmittal by keeping the wavelengths tightly packed. It can transmit more data over a larger run of cable with less interference than CWDM system. CWDM system cannot transmit data over long distance as the wavelengths are not amplified. Usually, CWDM can transmit data up to 100 miles (160km).
The power requirements for DWDM are significantly higher. For instance, DWDM lasers are temperature-stabilized with Peltier coolers integrated into their module package. The cooler along with associated monitor and control circuitry consumes around 4W per wavelength. Meanwhile, an uncooled CWDM laser transmitter uses about 0.5W of power.
The DWDM price is typically four or five times higher than that of the CWDM counterparts. The higher cost of DWDM is attributed to the factors related to the lasers. The manufacturing wavelength tolerance of a DWDM laser die compared to a CWDM die is a key factor. Typical wavelength tolerances for DWDM lasers are on the order of ±0.1 nm, while tolerances for CWDM laser die are ±2-3 nm. Lower die yields also drive up the costs of DWDM lasers relative to CWDM lasers. Moreover, packaging DWDM laser die for temperature stabilization with a Peltier cooler and thermister in a butterfly package is more expensive than the uncooled CWDM coaxial laser packing.
To sum up, CWDM and DWDM have different features. Choosing CWDM or DWDM is a difficult decision. We should first understand the differences between them. Fiberstore has various kinds of WDM products, such as 10GBASE DWDM, 40 channel DWDM Mux, CWDM Mux/Demux module and so on. It is an excellent option for choosing CWDM and DWDM equipment.
Learn more details about CWDM and DWDM SFP+ transceivers at Everything You Need to Know Before Buying CWDM and DWDM SFP+ Transceivers
Related Article: The Advantages and Disadvantages of Multimode and Single-mode Fiber | <urn:uuid:2a9ce1ec-8b01-47f8-8b84-7acfb103c510> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.fiber-optic-components.com/tag/wdm | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334802.16/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926051040-20220926081040-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.937689 | 850 | 3.84375 | 4 |
Internet of things (IoT) adoption is nothing new, as both organizations and individuals have embraced these devices for a long time. However, the security of this technology isn’t necessarily strong enough to withstand any threat. This blog explores some of the top threats facing IoT, including ransomware and AI-based attacks.
What Are IoT Attacks?
The IoT landscape includes a host of network-connected devices many of which we use in our daily lives, including cell phones, smartwatches, smart locks and appliances, cameras, and industrial equipment and sensors. The entire IoT attack surface is the sum total of the security risk eposure from these devices and the larger network ecosystem and infrastructure they are embedded within.
IoT devices are essentially “headless” without onboard security features or the ability to install software. This limitation didn’t matter in traditional operational technology (OT) settings because they were isolated from the larger IT networks and not connected to the outside world in any way. But as technology has advanced, so has the interconnectedness of IoT ecosystems with the enterprise network and the entirety of the internet.
This new connectivity has made IoT and industrial IoT devices a prime target for cyber criminals. IoT attacks include any cyberattacks that seek to gain access to (or control over) IoT devices with the intent to either cause harm to the devices or use them in attacks against other targets.
Challenges Associated with IoT Security
Most IoT devices are not designed with security in mind, and many do not have traditional operating systems or even enough memory or processing power to incorporate security features. Not only that, but IoT devices are growing in number, with over a million new devices connecting to the internet each day. The result is a significant quantity of data moving freely between devices and across network environments, remote offices, mobile workers, and public clouds with minimal visibility, making it difficult to track and secure this data.
What Are the Risks of IoT?
IoT devices are vulnerable to hijacking and weaponization for use in distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, as well as targeted code injection, man-in-the-middle attacks, and spoofing. Malware is also more easily hidden in the large volume of IoT data, and IoT devices sometimes even come with malware already onboard. Further, some IoT devices can be remotely controlled or have their functionality disabled by bad actors. In fact, swarms of compromised IoT devices can act as swarms which could really change the game in terms of protecting against these types of attacks.
Additional IoT threats include the following:
1. Convergence of IT, OT, and IoT
IoT devices have become ubiquitous in operational technology (OT); they are used for everything from sensing temperature and pressure to robotic devices that improve assembly line efficiency.
Historically, OT systems and IT networks were “air-gapped” ; OT was separated from the rest of the enterprise and not connected to the outside internet. However, as OT and IT have converged, IoT devices are now regularly connected and accessible from both inside and outside the corporate network. This new connectivity leaves both the OT and IT networks vulnerable to IoT threats and requires new, more holistic approaches to security.
Cyber-crime groups can compromise IoT devices connected to the internet and use them en masse to carry out attacks. By installing malware on these devices, cyber criminals can commandeer them and use their collective computing power to take on larger targets in DDoS attacks, send spam, steal information, or even spy using IoT devices with a camera or sound recording capabilities. Massive botnets made up of hundreds of thousands or even millions of IoT devices have also been used to carry out attacks.
Ransomware is a form of malware designed to lock files or devices until a ransom is paid. IoT devices, however, rarely have much – if any – files stored on them. Hence, an IoT ransomware attack is unlikely to prevent users from accessing critical data (which is what forces the payment of the ransom). With this in mind, cyber criminals launching IoT ransomware attacks may attempt to lock the device itself instead, though this can often be undone by resetting the device and/or installing a patch.
How ransomware truly makes headway in the IoT world is by focusing on critical IoT devices (such as those used in industrial settings or those upon which significant business operations depend) and requiring ransoms to be paid in a very short time span (before a device could be properly reset).
4. AI-based Attacks
Bad actors have been using AI in cyberattacks for over a decade – mostly for social engineering attacks – though it is only in recent years that this trend has really started to take off. AI is now being used more broadly across the cyber-crime landscape.
With cyber crime becoming a booming business, the tools needed for building and using AI in cyberattacks are often available for purchase on the dark web, enabling just about anyone to take advantage of this technology. AI systems can perform the repetitive tasks required to scale up IoT threats rapidly, in addition to being able to mimic normal user traffic and avoid detection.
5. IoT Device Detection and Visibility
One difficulty in securing networks with IoT devices is that many such devices are not readily detected by network security. And if the security system is unable to detect a device, it won’t be able to easily identify threats to that device. Network security often lacks visibility into these devices and their network connections, as well. Hence, one of the key pieces in securing a network with IoT is readily identifying new devices and monitoring them.
Managing IoT Security Threats
Robust IoT security requires integrated solutions that are capable of providing visibility, segmentation, and seamless protection across the entire network infrastructure. Key features of such a solution include the following:
- Complete network visibility, which makes it possible to authenticate and classify IoT devices, as well as build and assign risk profiles to IoT device groups.
- Segmentation of IoT devices into policy-driven groups based on their risk profiles.
- Monitoring, inspection, and policy enforcement based on activity at different points within the infrastructure.
- The ability to take automatic and immediate action if any network devices become compromised.
Zero Trust is Key
Additionally, as digital innovation expands networks and there is an increased reliance on remote access, a zero-trust approach is necessary to protect distributed environments, including securing IoT. With Zero Trust Access (ZTA), role-based access control is a crucial component of network access management with a least access policy that gives users the minimum level of network access required for their role while removing their ability to access or see other parts of the network. ZTA also can authenticate endpoint and IoT devices to establish and maintain comprehensive management control and ensure visibility of every component attached to the network. For headless IoT devices, network access control (NAC) solutions can be relied on for discovery and access control. Using NAC policies, organizations can apply the zero-trust principles of least access to IoT devices, granting only sufficient network access to perform their role.
Tools such as Fortinet’s Network Access Control solution – FortiNAC – provide these capabilities and more. When fully integrated into the Fortinet Security Fabric, FortiNAC offers visibility, control, and automated response for complete protection of any network containing IoT devices.
Learn how to simplify, automate secure remote access that verifies who and what is on your network and secures application access no matter where users are located with Zero Trust Access. | <urn:uuid:ebac8e8a-b6a5-48cb-9fbc-2d3f3c396f76> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.net-ctrl.com/examining-top-iot-security-threats-and-attack-vectors/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335444.58/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930051717-20220930081717-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.950554 | 1,547 | 3.03125 | 3 |
Nearly a decade ago, researchers made international news by demonstrating that an implantable medical device — an insulin pump — could be hacked via radio and controlled to the detriment of its user. Even earlier research indicated that heart monitors could be hacked to provide incomplete or erroneous data from their sensors. These two cases shared a trait also shared by most of the implantable medical device security research that has followed.
Most of the research has been focused on how the devices could be manipulated to harm the user. Alan Michaels tries to answer a very different question with his research: Could an implantable medical device be hacked to harm a third party?
Michaels, director of the Electronic Systems Lab at the Virginia Tech Hume Center, has a very specific third party in mind. He's interested in the threat a "rogue" implantable device might pose to a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) — a special facility where sensitive and classified information can be worked on and discussed.
The issue, Michaels says, is that insulin pumps, continuous glucose monitors, heart monitors, and more are electronic devices that have radio communications capabilities. From the viewpoint of the SCIF, the fact that they're involved with human health is almost irrelevant.
"We're all paranoid, you know. I mean, we can pick up what could happen," Michaels explains, "but we also have to be practical about the true risk." And calculating that true risk is the focus of his research.
Part of that risk begins when the devices are manufactured. "We're most interested in the fact that devices are mostly not manufactured in the United States," Michaels says. For the reason location matters, he turns to the example of the popular DJI drones, which were found to have encrypted tunnels back to the manufacturer in China, through which the drones' telemetry data was communicated. "Why would I not believe that the same thing is occurring [in implantable devices]?" he asks.
Michaels is most interested in the possibility that a third party might hack into a user's device and use it as a point of entry for the SCIF — a point of entry that would then allow the third party to pivot to other, much more sensitive systems.
Attack pivots become more of a concern as devices become more capable. Michaels points to fitness trackers and similar devices as wearable systems that some SCIFs now allow because of the health benefits. And yet, "Basically it is a smartwatch that starts to look a lot like a personal computer. It really is very capable," he says.
And some of these wearables are more than just step counters that can easily be removed at the SCIF's door. "We found one called 'Adam' that's an asthma monitor," Michaels says. "And it basically gives you a predictive warning that you're about to have a major asthma attack." He points out, "That's harder to take off because you're not worried about your 10,000 steps — you may actually have an asthma attack while in the facility."
So far, SCIF administrators have dealt with implantable devices through one-off waivers for the wearers. That may be fine for a single employee in a single facility, but Michaels says his team has calculated that there could easily be more than 100,000 individuals with implantable devices who have a regular need to access a SCIF. That's a lot of waivers, he believes.
So far, Michaels says, there has been relatively little recognition of this as an issue in secure facilities, with existing rules driven by HR as much as cybersecurity. "We want to protect the information and support the individual. Yet there comes a point which you probably deny entry," he adds, and that point may be coming sooner than many people think.
The reason for the rapid arrival rests on medical devices in the research pipeline. Michaels mentions a "bionic eyeball" that might provide sight but also have sufficient intelligence to pose a threat.
Michaels' research points him to a broad conclusion: "Make sure you give the support to the individual to do their work, but we think there needs to be a balance with mitigations."
Michaels will be presenting results of his research at Black Hat, in a session titled "Carrying Our Insecurities with Us: The Risks of Implanted Medical Devices in Secure Spaces" at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, August 5. | <urn:uuid:f7586abf-fca9-47c8-af99-ad8f621d4dde> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.darkreading.com/iot/a-most-personal-threat-implantable-devices-in-secure-spaces | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336674.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001132802-20221001162802-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.976079 | 909 | 2.734375 | 3 |
If we look at a typical data science lifecycle, many of its stages have more to do with data than science. Before data scientists can begin their work regarding data science, they often must begin by:
- Finding the right data
- Gaining access to that data, which might involve establishing credentials
- Transforming that data into a usable format
- Combining that data with data from other sources
- Cleansing that data, if necessary, to eliminate incomplete data points
Enter Data Virtualization
Data virtualization provides data scientists with integrated real-time views of the data, across all of its existing locations. The best part is that it provides such views without having to move any data from its original locations to a new, centralized repository, such as a data lake or data warehouse.
Data virtualization can do this because it forms a unified data-access layer above the different data sources. This layer contains no source data; just the critical metadata necessary to access the different data sources.
Not only does data virtualization facilitate finding and gaining access to data, but because it is implemented as a separate data-access layer above the disparate sources, it can also perform transformation, combination, and cleansing, all on-the-fly.
Here, I’ll provide a little more information about how data virtualization can support data scientists throughout the typical data science workflow:
- Identifying Useful Data: Data virtualization provides data scientists with seamless access to all types of data sources, from data lakes, to Presto or Spark systems, to social media, or even flat and/or JSON files. The Denodo Platform offers a built-in data catalog, which enables data scientists to find the data they need using simple search functionality like that of a search engine.
- Modifying Data into a Useful Format: The Denodo Platform also provides administrative tools that enable data scientists to add notes alongside their data sets. In the Denodo Platform, data scientists can use their own notebooks, such as Jupyter, for this, or they can leverage the included notebooks, which offer automatically generated recommendations using artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), based on past usage and behavior.
- Analyzing Data: With data virtualization, data scientists can engage in analysis by immediately executing queries on the data when they first discover it, after it has been modified into different formats, or at any time to suit the data scientist.
- Preparing and Executing Data Science Algorithms : The Denodo Platform provides a query optimizer that streamlines query performance by a series of techniques, including pushing down processes to the sources. For this technique, users can push down only a select part of the operation, depending on what delivers the best results.
- Sharing Results with Business Users: Data virtualization provides data scientists with a platform for sharing queries and results with other team members, for a more collaborative, iterative workflow, especially using a data catalog like the one provided by the Denodo Platform. With data virtualization, data scientists can also publish data directly to a specific application like MicroStrategy, Power BI, or Tableau, and they can immediately see the results using the tool of their choice.
Data Virtualization: The Foundation for Data Science
Data virtualization can be deployed at any phase of the data science lifecycle, to streamline data science initiatives. Data virtualization offers data scientists real-time access to disparate data sources, it helps to facilitate data preparation and analysis, and it enables effortless collaboration.
- Data Virtualization and Data Science - July 1, 2021
- Key Insights from Three Cloud Experts Roundtables: Accelerate Hybrid Cloud Journey, Harness Cloud Best Practices, and Simplify Data Management - September 30, 2020
- A CIO’s Guide: How to survive tough economic times through IT Portfolio Rationalization - September 9, 2020 | <urn:uuid:de9ddf42-d87d-4211-a8e9-469fbf3b8f70> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.datavirtualizationblog.com/data-virtualization-data-science/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030336674.94/warc/CC-MAIN-20221001132802-20221001162802-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.878618 | 793 | 3 | 3 |
When buying a new computer, there are a few key factors you should consider before you go to the store. While everyone likes a computer that is shiny and new, the most important pieces affect a computer’s power and speed are the RAM, CPU and Hard Drive.
Random Access Memory (or simply RAM) is the memory or information storage in a computer that is used to house running programs and data for those programs. The more programs you are going to use, the more RAM you need to keep your system running smoothly. If you like to keep a lot of google chrome tabs open and browse the web, then you’ll want a computer with at least 8GB of RAM.
Computer Processors (CPUs). Whether it’s a laptop, tablet or desktop computer, the processor is one of the most important pieces of hardware that determines how well the computer will perform. The processor – also called the central processing unit or CPU – is the brain of the computer. These are usually i3, i5, i7 and each one is faster than the other respectively. Go over your needs for the computer before settling on a CPU.
Hard Drives are the storage house of the computer. This choice is the easiest and is decide based upon how many programs and how much data you are planning to store on your computer. There are SSD or sold state drives that are faster than hard disks. These come in 250GB, 500GB, and even 1TB.
Purchasing a new computer is an expensive undertaking. Making some early decisions about RAM, CPU, and hard drive space before entering a store will make it simpler to find the computer that’s most appropriate for you.
LI Tech Advisors is a Long Island, New York-based Managed IT service company. When you partner with LI Tech Advisors as your next IT services company, you’ll have a partner who has over 30 years of experience working with organizations across Long Island. | <urn:uuid:f37c5d00-0aec-4794-8c54-4a63330978a1> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.litechadvisors.com/buying-a-new-computer-know-what-youll-need/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337360.41/warc/CC-MAIN-20221002212623-20221003002623-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.957502 | 408 | 2.71875 | 3 |
SANTA ROSA, CA – Established in 1980, the National Women’s History Project (NWHP) is a registered IRS 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational corporation dedicated to the promotion and recognition of multicultural American women’s history. NWHP led the successful Congressional campaign to recognize March as National Women’s History Month. The NWHP has trained thousands of teachers on how to include women in their curricula, and use NWHP materials across the country in classrooms, government agencies, and civic organizations.
Source: National Women’s History Project
Photos: Marvel Studios, National BDPA, BDPA Chapters, and bdpatoday
In the latest blockbuster movie, Black Panther, actress Letitia Wright plays ‘Shuri’ (above), leader of the Wakandan Design Group. She leverages her new technology skills to help her nation and create better devices that aid her brother [King T’Challa] in his superhero role as the ‘Black Panther’.
Visit bdpatoday‘s archives at: https://www.pinterest.com/bdpatoday/ for newly discovered historial pictures, vignettes, and technical achievements of women in computers, cyber, data sciences, and related fields. Student BDPA Memberships and General BDPA Memberships are available to anyone by applying online and selecting a BDPA Chapter via: BDPA.org. | <urn:uuid:dacc9569-f23c-48f2-9191-92b40fb9d7ae> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://bdpatoday.com/category/womens-history-month/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337631.84/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005140739-20221005170739-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.923436 | 296 | 2.828125 | 3 |
In the world of Cybersecurity, there are many ways to find out where the strengths and weaknesses lie in a company’s lines of defense. For example, conducting a Risk Assessment allows you to tally up a list of all your digital assets and, based upon the controls they have, you rank them on a categorical scale of how vulnerable they are to a security breach. Although this is an effective method, it relies heavily on human intuition and the interpretation can be quite subjective.
Other kinds of tests can provide a much more accurate look into this level of vulnerability, without any human biases. These tests are known as Vulnerability Scans and Penetration Testing. While these terms are often used interchangeably, the two tests are, in fact, quite different. The matrix below summarizes some of the key differences between a Vulnerability Scan and a Penetration Test.
|Vulnerability Scan||Penetration Test|
|Tests are passive.||Tests are active.|
|Tests are automated, with no human intervention.||Tests are primarily manual, with a lot of human intervention.|
|Tests occur in a short timeframe.||Tests occur over a longer timeframe.|
|The client receives reports but no recommendations for remediating issues.||Clients receive reports and recommendations for remediating specific issues.|
|Scans can be run on a continuous cycle.||Scanning is done only at a point-in-time intervals, due to their exhaustive nature.|
|Tests are primarily done on digital assets.||Tests are done on both physical and digital assets.|
|Only known vulnerabilities are discovered.||Both known and unknown vulnerabilities are discovered.|
|The tests are affordable.||The tests can be quite expensive.|
|Only general tests are performed.||All kinds of tests are conducted, depending upon the requirements of the client.|
Understanding and Weighing the Cost
Clients often ask, “Which kind of test should my company use?” It all comes down to cost.
One primary advantage of a Vulnerability Assessment is the cost. It is very affordable, even to the SMB. Because of its low cost, a Vulnerability Scan can be run on a continual cycle, at different timing intervals.
The greatest advantage of a Penetration Test is the deep level of thoroughness involved. The downside is that it can be quite expensive. As a result, Penetration Tests are typically carried out only once or twice a year.
Typically, smaller businesses can only afford the Vulnerability Scan, whereas medium-sized and big businesses can afford the Penetration Test.
Whatever the size of your company, it’s critical to keep in mind that a security breach can easily cost a business 10 times more than either of the tests described in this article. With that perspective in mind, a CISO and his or her IT Security team must be constantly proactive. Ultimately, this makes the Penetration Test the better choice.
Ravi Das is a Cybersecurity Consultant and Business Development Specialist. He also does Cybersecurity Consulting through his private practice, RaviDas Tech, Inc. He is also studying for his Certificate In Cybersecurity through the ISC2. | <urn:uuid:75c1dd14-b652-4f73-b9f5-9f0bd4c11b0e> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://platform.keesingtechnologies.com/which-is-better-vulnerability-scanning-or-penetration-testing/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337889.44/warc/CC-MAIN-20221006222634-20221007012634-00685.warc.gz | en | 0.940383 | 669 | 2.625 | 3 |
[K1 x BW + (K2 x BW) / (256 – load) + K3 x delay] x [K5 / (reliability + K4)]
By default: K1 = 1, K2 = 0, K3 = 1, K4 = 0, K5 = 0
Delay is sum of all the delays of the links
along the paths Delay = [Delay in 10s of microseconds] x 256
BW is the lowest bandwidth of the links along the paths
BW = [10000000 / (bandwidth in Kbps)] x 256
By default, metric = lowest bandwidth in path + sum of all delays along path
Cisco CCNP ROUTE Choosing Routes
Here we are viewing a topology table. We are trying to identify the best route (successor) from RouterA to network 10.26.99.0 on Router G.
Neighbor H states that it can get to network 10.26.99.0 with an advertised distance of 30. Considering that Neighbor H can get to network 10.26.99.0 and it cost Router H 30, how much does it cost Router A to get to Router H?
It cost Router A 10 to get to Router H. So the Advertised Distances is now added to 10 which gives Router A a Feasible Distance of 40 to get to Network 10.26.99.0 via Router H.
Fill in the appropriate Feasible Distance now for the path though Router B and then for the path though Router D.
Cisco CCNP ROUTE Choosing Routes
Now that we have found the Feasible Distance for all of our neighbors, we can now define the Successor and see if we have a valid feasible successor available.
The Successor will be the least cost path to the remote network.
The next best route does not automatically become the feasible successor, the route has to match certain criteria.
The Feasible successor must have an advertised distance less than the current successors feasible distance.
Cisco CCNP ROUTE Choosing Routes
Route through B is current successor because it has the least cost path to network 10.26.99.0.
Route through H is the feasible successor because it has an AD less than the currents Successors FD to network 10.26.99.0.
Cisco CCNP ROUTE Topology Table & Terms
In order to view the EIGRP topology table enter the following command:
Router# show ip eigrp topology
IP-EIGRP Topology Table for process 200
Codes: P – Passive, A – Active, U – Update, Q – Query, R – Reply, r – Reply status
P 126.96.36.199/16, 1 successors, FD is 2195456
via 188.8.131.52 (2195456/281600), Serial0
Passive: A route is passive if it is up and no changes are occurring
Active: A route is active if it is down and the EIGRP process is actively trying to find a replacement
Query: A query happens with the Successor Route goes down and there is no known Feasible successor.
Successor: Primary Route (up to 6, default 4)
Feasible Successor: Backup Route (up to 6, default 4)
Advertised Distance: Distance to a remote network from the perspective of the advertising router
Feasible Distance: Distance to a remote network from my perspective which includes the cost of getting to the neighbor that provided the advertised distance
Cisco CCNP ROUTE EIGRP Route Table
The EIGRP routing table represents the best routes found by EIGRP. These routes will be presented to the Route processor for it to decide if they should be placed in the forwarding table (the routers routing table).
Uses “D” for internal
Uses “EX” for external
Default administrative distance of 90
Cisco CCNP ROUTE EIGRP Variance
By default EIGRP can load balance over 4 equal paths to same network and can be configured to support up to 6 (maximum paths command)
The Variance command allows proportional load balancing over un-equal cost paths. The Variance command acts as a “multiplier”
The following example illustrates the syntax:
Router Eigrp 100
This allows paths whose metric is 2 times greater than the best
Cisco CCNP ROUTE EIGRP Reliability
EIGRP reliable packets are packets that require explicit acknowledgement:
Update – used to convey reachability of destinations. When a new neighbor is discovered, update packets are sent so the neighbor can build up its topology table. In this case, update packets are unicast. In other cases, such as a link cost change, updates are multicast. Updates are always transmitted reliably.
Query – always multicast unless they are sent in response to a received query. In this case, it is unicast back to the successor that originated the query. Queries are transmitted reliably.
Reply – always sent in response to queries to indicate to the originator that it does not need to go into Active state because it has feasible successors. Replies are unicast to the originator of the query. Replies are transmitted reliably.
EIGRP unreliable packets are packets that do not require explicit acknowledgement:
Hello – multicast for neighbor discovery/recovery (sent every 5 [LAN] or 60 [WAN] seconds)
ACK – always sent using a unicast address and contain a non-zero acknowledgment number.
Cisco CCNP ROUTE Discovering Routes
The following documents the steps that are taken in order build EIGRP
- Router A comes up and sends out hello through all interfaces (184.108.40.206)
- Routers receive hello and reply with all routes they know about
- Init state in the packet
- Router A provides it’s routes and acks received routes
- Neighbors ack
- Advertises a prefix length for each destination network
Cisco CCNP ROUTE EIGRP Traffic Statistics
To find out EIGRP traffic statistics, such as how may hellos/updates/queries/replies and acknowledgements have been sent and received, you should issue the following IOS command:
Router# show ip eigrp traffic
Cisco CCNP ROUTE EIGRP Retransmission
EIGRP transport has window size of one (stop and wait mechanism). Every single reliable packet needs to be acknowledged before the next sequenced packet can be sent. If one or more peers are slow in acknowledging, all other peers suffer from this.
Solution: The non-acknowledged multicast packet will be retransmitted as a unicast to the slow neighbor
Cisco CCNP ROUTE Feasible Successor not Available
If your successor is lost, and your DUAL was unable to find a feasible successor a query is sent out to all of the EIGRP neighbors. Each neighbor should respond to the query, if there is no response to the query, the route will become stuck in active. If all neighbors do respond, EIGRP evaluates their responses and calculates the most appropriate route to become the Successor.
In some circumstances, it takes a very long time for a query to be answered. So long, in fact, that the router that issued the query gives up and clears its connection to the router that isn’t answering, effectively restarting the neighbor session.
The most basic SIA routes occur when it simply takes too long for a query to reach the other end of the network and for a reply to travel back. One of the most effective techniques for containing EIGRP queries is to use route summarization or stub networks.
Stub networks are configured in a hub and spoke network and is configured only on the stub router. The command is
router eigrp 100
The result of this configuration is that the stub routers will send updates about routes they have to the hub router but the hub router will never query the stub router for updates in the event of a route being lost. | <urn:uuid:b3865df7-361b-467d-9fac-51d7ac35f48f> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.certificationkits.com/cisco-certification/cisco-ccnp-route-642-902-exam-study-guide/cisco-ccnp-route-implementing-eigrp/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334514.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925035541-20220925065541-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.91076 | 1,731 | 2.71875 | 3 |
It’s not R2D2
For the uninitiated, the “robot” part of robotic process automation (RPA) can be confusing. RPA does not employ physical robots like those used to build cars or star in science fiction movies. Rather, RPA uses software robots, more familiarly known as bots. RPA bots are computer-coded software with no arms, legs, or other physical presence.
Imitation is the highest form of flattery
RPA bots replicate transactional processes. What does that mean? Well, by mimicking the way humans interact with a computer or other digital device, software bots can automatically perform repetitive rules-based tasks to execute a business process. And they are on the job 24/7. That means you can cost-effectively increase throughput, improve process accuracy, and ensure compliance. See the many RPA benefits.
Empower your staff
RPA reduces the amount of time your staff spends on mind-numbing, repetitive tasks and routine activities, which historically result in the highest number of errors. This frees up your employees to work on more important, mission-focused activities, such as analytics, project management, or interacting with the public. Communication and coordination between the robotic processing output and human capabilities foster success.
Discover the right opportunities
With the insight and guidance of the right partner, you can identify the best RPA opportunities and quickly and cost-effectively implement a solution. Bots can be used in a wide variety of use cases, but it’s best to focus first on applications that produce a rapid return on investment (ROI).
With the right RPA platform, it is easy to go from automating a few processes to enterprisewide adoption. This scalability means you can start small and add on later with no loss of investment. So if you’re ready to go, let’s build a bot. | <urn:uuid:c5c0eae5-7185-499f-9deb-722448675fb9> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.iimage.com/robotic-process-automation/rpa-101/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334514.38/warc/CC-MAIN-20220925035541-20220925065541-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.898045 | 404 | 2.59375 | 3 |
GNS3 Portable Project File: https://bit.ly/2JjtYh6
This is one of multiple Cisco CCNP GNS3 Labs. Are you ready to pass your CCNP exam?
For lots more content, visit http://www.davidbombal.com – learn about GNS3, CCNA, Packet Tracer, Python, Ansible and much, much more.
The weight attribute is a Cisco-defined attribute. This attribute uses weight to select a best path. The weight is assigned locally to the router. The value only makes sense to the specific router. The value is not propagated or carried through any of the route updates. A weight can be a number from 0 to 65,535. Paths that the router originates have a weight of 32,768 by default, and other paths have a weight of 0.
Routes with a higher weight value have preference when multiple routes to the same destination exist.
The metric attribute also has the name MULTI_EXIT_DISCRIMINATOR, MED (BGP4), or INTER_AS (BGP3). The attribute is a hint to external neighbors about the path preference into an AS. The attribute provides a dynamic way to influence another AS in the way to reach a certain route when there are multiple entry points into that AS. A lower metric value is preferred more.
Unlike local preference, metric is exchanged between ASs. A metric is carried into an AS but does not leave the AS. When an update enters the AS with a certain metric, that metric is used to make decisions inside the AS. When the same update passes on to a third AS, that metric returns to 0. The diagram in this section shows the set of metric. The metric default value is 0.
Unless a router receives other directions, the router compares metrics for paths from neighbors in the same AS. In order for the router to compare metrics from neighbors that come from different ASs, you need to issue the special configuration command bgp always-compare-med on the router.
Note: There are two BGP configuration commands that can influence the multi-exit discriminator (MED)-based path selection. The commands are the bgp deterministic-med command and the bgp always-compare-med command. An issue of the bgp deterministic-med command ensures the comparison of the MED variable at route choice when different peers advertise in the same AS. An issue of the bgp always-compare-med command ensures the comparison of the MED for paths from neighbors in different ASs. The bgp always-compare-med command is useful when multiple service providers or enterprises agree on a uniform policy for how to set MED. Refer to How the bgp deterministic-med Command Differs from the bgp always-compare-med Command to understand how these commands influence BGP path selection.
Route Filtering and Manipulation
Route filtering is a method for selectively identifying routes that are advertised or received from neighbor routers. Route filtering may be used to manipulate traffic flows, reduce memory utilization, or to improve security. For example, it is common for ISPs to deploy route filters on BGP peerings to customers. Ensuring that only the customer routes are allowed over the peering link prevents the customer from accidentally becoming a transit AS on the Internet. Filtering of routes within BGP is accomplished with filter-lists, prefix-lists, or route-maps on IOS and NX-OS devices.
Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is a standardized exterior gateway protocol designed to exchange routing and reachability information among autonomous systems (AS) on the Internet. The protocol is classified as a path vector protocol. The Border Gateway Protocol makes routing decisions based on paths, network policies, or rule-sets configured by a network administrator and is involved in making core routing decisions.
BGP may be used for routing within an autonomous system. In this application it is referred to as Interior Border Gateway Protocol, Internal BGP, or iBGP. In contrast, the Internet application of the protocol may be referred to as Exterior Border Gateway Protocol, External BGP, or eBGP.
BGP neighbors, called peers, are established by manual configuration between routers to create a TCP session on port 179. A BGP speaker sends 19-byte keep-alive messages every 60 seconds to maintain the connection. Among routing protocols, BGP is unique in using TCP as its transport protocol. | <urn:uuid:4fb33f43-0ce5-4c11-a92e-d9e954d1ff78> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://davidbombal.com/ccnp-large-scale-bgp-med-weight-path-prepending-gns3-ccnp-lab-1-6-answers-part-6/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334871.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926113251-20220926143251-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.889484 | 943 | 3.15625 | 3 |
There are many potential dangers to using the internet, and most people are familiar with the idea of identity theft, unauthorised access to online accounts and the like.
But there's another hazard which has come to prominence recently: Doxing.
The idea is not new, having its roots back in the 90s, but there have been numerous high profile cases of celebrities who have fallen victim to "document dropping".
This is involves releasing personal information about someone to the internet - information that could be embarrassing, personally revealing, or something that the victim would just rather keep to themselves.
Interestingly, doxing is not necessarily illegal, but that doesn't mean that the ramifications are not far-reaching.
While doxing is something that is often carried out by hackers, it's not necessarily the case. Nearly all of us publish massive amounts of personal information online, and this can be very easily pieced together and used to gain access to even more data.
It is thought that 2015 is going to be the year in which doxing really hits the headlines, and Studyweb.com (opens in new tab) has produced an infographic that explains areas of risk, and the steps that can be taken to avoid falling victim. | <urn:uuid:218059cc-25fb-4051-9939-a1476e78fb3c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.itproportal.com/2015/02/01/what-doxing-how-stop-happening/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030334871.54/warc/CC-MAIN-20220926113251-20220926143251-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.969551 | 252 | 2.90625 | 3 |
Thursday, September 29, 2022
Published 3 Months Ago on Saturday, Jun 18 2022 By Adnan Kayyali
Engineers from UCLA and their peers have created a novel design methodology that will allow manufacturers to 3D print robots in a single step, with their creations having movement and jumping abilities.
Robots are normally constructed via a series of intricate manufacturing stages that include limbs, electronics, and active components. As a result of the process, force production is lowered, and weights and volumes become heavier, giving smaller robot manufacturers a much harder time getting off the ground.
A new form of 3D printing procedure for designing active materials with many functionalities, or “metamaterials,” allowed the full mechanical and electrical systems required to run a robot to be printed at once. A “meta-bot” that has been 3D printed may perform a variety of activities, including propulsion, movement, sensing, and decision-making.
The internal network of sensory, movable, and structural components of printed metamaterials moves on its own after being configured. The only external component required is a tiny battery to power the robot since it already has an internal network for moving and sensing.
For the totally autonomous operation of the 3D printed robots, each measuring the size of a fingernail, the researchers added an onboard battery and controller. The approach, according to the researchers, may result in novel designs for biomedical robots, such as self-steering endoscopes or tiny swimming robots that may emit ultrasounds and maneuver themselves close to blood veins to administer medicine dosages at certain target regions within the body.
The creation and printing of piezoelectric metamaterials, which can change shape and move in response to an electric field, is the main component of the all-in-one technique developed by UCLA researchers. The complex piezoelectric and structural components that make up the robotic materials are intended to bend, flex, twist, rotate, expand, or compress quickly.
“This allows actuating elements to be arranged precisely throughout the robot for fast, complex, and extended movements on various types of terrain,” said Huachen Cui, lead author of the study and a UCLA postdoctoral scholar in Zheng’s Additive Manufacturing and Metamaterials Laboratory.
“With the two-way piezoelectric effect, the robotic materials can also self-sense their contortions, detect obstacles via echoes and ultrasound emissions, as well as respond to external stimuli through a feedback control loop that determines how the robots move, how fast they move, and toward which target they move,” Cui added.
Researchers created and presented three 3D print robots, referred to as meta-bots, with various capacities using their novel method. A robot can flee after making touch with another, another can navigate past S-shaped corners and haphazard obstructions, and a third robot can traverse uneven terrain and even make short leaps.
The researchers, the team behind this study, have invented a method of creating the materials for robots, allowing people to build their own models and print the components straight into a robot.
This has the potential to one day give everyday people the ability to create their own robots at home.
Even during its current winter state, the crypto world is still alive. New buyers are still coming in, maybe not as before, but still, some are committed to buying the dip. The Crypto wallet conversation is one to be had when venturing into the crypto world. Between the crypto physical wallet and its virtual counterpart […]
Stay tuned with our weekly newsletter on all telecom and tech related news.
© Copyright 2022, All Rights Reserved | <urn:uuid:2b31e1e1-e71b-412c-8cb0-ce6355bfea33> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://insidetelecom.com/engineers-developed-a-one-step-3d-printing-process-for-producing-robots/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335304.71/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929034214-20220929064214-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.943926 | 780 | 3.828125 | 4 |
A recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report on development of quantum information technologies covers the general waterfront on the current status of the technologies, but notes that development of game-changing systems are probably still ten years and billions of dollars of further investments away.
GAO prepared its report to assess the potential of quantum information technologies, and dig into benefits and risks, as well as policy options for the government to help guide and prepare for further development.
“Quantum information technologies aim to use the properties of nature at atomic scales to accomplish tasks that are not achievable with existing technologies,” GAO wrote in the report. “These technologies rely on qubits, the quantum equivalent of classical computer bits.”
According to GAO, quantum information can’t be “copied, is fragile, and can be irreversibly lost, resulting in errors that are challenging to correct.”
On the plus side, the report says that quantum computing and communications technology could be developed in tandem, because the two share physics principles, laboratory techniques, and common hardware.
“Quantum communications technologies may have uses for secure communications, quantum networking, and a future quantum internet,” wrote GAO. “Potential drawbacks of quantum technology include cost, complexity, energy consumption, and the possibility of malicious use.”
GAO identified four big factors that will impact quantum development and use, including:
- Workforce size and skill;
- Investment; and
- Supply chain.
And the government watchdog agency provided policy options around those four factors for policymakers to consider. | <urn:uuid:c8f155db-22ab-4f82-b5a5-ba13b3de7dd8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://origin.meritalk.com/articles/gao-on-quantum-tech-development-10-years-billions-to-go/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337398.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003035124-20221003065124-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.910613 | 333 | 2.859375 | 3 |
White Paper 4
Historically the data center industry has not participated in demand response. In part this is due to a lack of awareness, risk of downtime concerns and complexities within the utility and regulatory domains.
Many data center owners and operators have publicly pledged to address climate change recognizing that data centers make a significant contribution to the national and global carbon footprint.
Data centers are uniquely positioned to participate in demand response and consequently benefit from additional revenue streams and reduce average and marginal carbon emissions.
Depending on location and regulatory factors data center demand services are likely to succeed in assisting with GHG abatement even with the installed base of emergency diesel generators, provided the type of fuel used has significantly reduced carbon emissions. However, the increasing market penetration of natural gas/ hydrogen generators and fuels cells will enable increased participation in demand response and greater contributions to greenhouse gas reduction.
Combining data center on site generation and battery storage should enable a symbiotic relationship between data centers and utilities where both groups benefit by reducing their carbon footprint and from the operational and financial rewards.
Utility Supply and Demand
Variable Renewable Energy
Data Center Power Utilization
Data Center Assets
Data Center Energy Storage
Data Center Generation
Demand Response Adoption Barriers
Regulatory and Utility Issues
The data center industry is uniquely positioned to participate in demand response (DR), and by doing so, will reduce its carbon emissions and generate additional income for data center owners. Unlike conventional DR service providers, data centers have an inherent ability to provide multiple stacked DR services from the same location.
This paper aims to provide insights into DR opportunities in the context of the data center power system infrastructure and considers the most appropriate types of utility support services suited to data centers.
2. Decentralized Consensus and Byzantine Fault Tolerance
Governments are reducing their dependence on high-inertia fossil fuel generation and deploying increasing amounts of renewable energy sources.
For many countries, the process of grid decarbonization will continue for decades as they strive to attain their commitment to GHG abatement.
Figure 1 - IEA Renewables reach new heights while coal-fired generation steadily declines3
Paradoxically, a major consideration in terms of grid decarbonization is the rate at which the global population is increasing, and with it the amount of additional energy that will need to be generated.
It is predicted that world energy consumption will grow by nearly 50% between 2018 and 2050. Most of this growth comes from countries outside of the OECD, focused in regions where strong economic growth is driving demand, particularly Asia.³
3. Utility Supply and Demand
The electricity grid must maintain a nominal voltage and frequency within specific limits. The challenge for utilities is that supply and demand are always balanced irrespective of variations in load conditions, generation status and distribution system faults.
The issue of balancing is exacerbated in countries with a high penetration of wind and solar power since both these energy sources are intermittent, and for the most part do not follow the load in the same way that conventional synchronous generation does.
Consequently, utilities are dependent on third party embedded generation and energy storage companies to provide balancing services as consumer demand and grid capacity fluctuates. An equilibrium is essential to ensure consumer voltage and frequency stays within mandatory operating parameters.
4. Variable Renewable Energy
Whilst wind and solar power generation benefit the grid in terms of carbon abatement, both power sources are inherently variable and intermittent in terms of timing and quantity of power generated; unlike hydro-electric and geothermal generation which are continuous. Wind and solar are therefore referred to as variable renewable energy sources (VRE).⁴
To reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve the security of energy supply, many countries are replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy generation. Technology advances and economies of scale have reduced the cost of solar PV and wind generation. Consequently, their share in the global energy mix is increasing substantially. However, integrating high levels of VRE into power system operations is challenging.
Figure 2 – Example of the Intermittent and Uncertain Characteristics of VRE - Source: Ela and others (2013)
The issue with VRE sources is how to match supply and demand when the wind stops blowing, or the sun isn’t shining. The answer is the utility must hold generation in reserve to balance the grid.
Aside from fast-start peaker power plants, often the reserve takes the form of carbon intensive fossil fuel plants which are typically expensive to start and required to run for extensive periods. 6
VRE does not provide the rotational inertia associated with traditional synchronous generators. Consequently, as the ratio of non-synchronous generation on the grid increases, the frequency stability of the grid decreases.
Island countries with limited interconnects and a high penetration of VRE, are more susceptible to frequency instability compared to countries with strong interconnections with neighboring grids. Notwithstanding, even countries with strong interconnected grids require third party frequency support, particularly real time Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR) and frequency response to counter generation and distribution faults.
Consequently, utilities have responded by seeking demand response services from third parties that can inject energy into the grid to pre-empt or counteract in real time unacceptable frequency excursions.
Ireland for example, has a high proportion of wind VRE, so the utility has imposed a limit of non- synchronous penetration, thereby forcing large consumers, most notably data centers to run in island mode using low carbon embedded generation, i.e., natural gas reciprocating engines or turbines.
5. Demand Response
DR is the adjustment in demand relative to grid generating capacity, designed to address supply and demand imbalance, high wholesale electricity prices and assist with grid reliability.
The underlying objective of DR is to actively engage customers in modifying their generation or consumption in response to pricing signals. The goal is to reflect supply expectations through consumer price signals or controls and enable dynamic changes in consumption relative to price.
Generally, DR is achieved by consumers reducing energy consumed or by injecting energy into the grid based upon either the predicted day ahead market or the instantaneous real time market.
In the day ahead market, DR participants commit to buy or sell energy one day prior to the operating day, to help avoid price volatility, balance forecast generation and demand conditions. Whereas the real time market DR participants buy and sell electricity during the day in response to grid event driven utility signals.
The fundamental principles underpinning DR are illustrated in Figure 3.
Figure 3 - Balance between Electricity Generation and Consumption - Source: Next Kraftwerke GmbH
Companies participating in DR are paid according to the type of DR service they provide. Typically, DR services that are provided at the shortest notice, in real time, are more lucrative than day ahead services.
Types of DR Services
DR programs can generally be categorized as follows:
1. Load Curtailment
From a data center perspective, load shedding is the simplest and most obvious type of DR participation, where the data center disconnects from the grid and runs on its generators in island mode.
2. Load Shifting
Consumer power consumption is reduced during a peak demand period by shifting energy use to another time.
IT workload power use is typically not something that can be controlled by wholesale and colocation data center operators. However, it may be viable to reduce load to allow the on-site battery storage to partially discharge and support the IT load in parallel with, or in isolation from the grid.
End-user owned data centers can achieve load shifting by controlling compute and storage resources to reduce energy consumption or by shifting IT workloads to different geographical locations.⁵
3. Short Term Operating Reserve (STOR) and Load Reduction
The utility requests additional power when the actual demand is higher than forecast, or in the event of unforeseen generation unavailability.
DR providers help to meet the reserve requirement either by providing additional generation or demand reduction.
Typical requirements are:
Provide several megawatts of generation
Respond to a utility signal within 20 minutes
Sustain the response for a minimum of two hours
Respond again with a recovery period of not more than 20 hours
Data center participation in STOR involves supplying the grid and the data center from its generators, which will require the available data center generating capacity to be significantly higher than its load.
4. Frequency Response
Frequency response is often the most lucrative DR program. It's used by utilities to counter unplanned power generation and load imbalance that would otherwise cause a frequency stability problem. Typically, there are three categories of DR frequency support as shown in Figure 4.
Figure 4 - Frequency Regulation Processes and Activation Times⁷
Fast frequency response (FFR) is provided within a few seconds of a utility frequency event. The purpose is to reduce the initial extent of the disturbance.
Frequency containment reserve (FCR) is typically provided within 30 seconds to bring the frequency to a new steady state.
Frequency restoration reserve (FRR) is typically provided 30 seconds after the disturbance and is used to restore frequency to its nominal value.
Real time near instantaneous frequency response will normally be amongst the most lucrative DR services. It is envisaged this is probably most suited to bi-directional UPS Battery Energy Storage Systems (BESS).
In the United States, the PJM (a regional transmission organization - RTO) provides market-based compensation to resources that have the ability to adjust output or consumption in response to an automated signal. PJM generates two different types of automated signals that Regulation Market resources can follow. Regulation D signal is a fast, dynamic signal that requires resources to respond almost instantaneously, Whereas Regulation A is a slower signal that is meant to recover larger, longer fluctuations in system conditions. The two signals are managed so that they work together to match the system need for regulation.
Load curtailment, Load Shifting, Load Reduction and STOR can participate in either the day ahead market or real time incentive-based programs. Whereas frequency response services are predisposed to the real time market.
The types of programs available, integration complexity and remuneration values vary widely across utility geographies. The user should also be aware that utilities may penalize DR service providers that do not provide the agreed DR service when it is requested. Also, the terminology used to describe a particular DR service often varies between different territories.
The following types of DR service may be applicable to a minority of data centers:
5. Energy Arbitrage
Involves purchasing additional electricity from the utility during off-peak periods to charge the BESS, then discharging it back into the grid during peak periods.
6. Time Variant Pricing
Time variant pricing can be categorized as follows:
Critical peak pricing
Critical peak rebate
Figure 5 refers.
Figure 5 - Time-variant electricity pricing⁸
7. Distribution Deferral
Delaying, reducing the size of, or entirely avoiding utility investments in distribution system upgrades necessary to meet projected load growth on specific regions of the grid.
8. Transmission Congestion Deferral
ISOs charge utilities to use congested transmission corridors during certain times of the day. Assets including energy storage can be deployed downstream of congested transmission
corridors to discharge during congested periods and minimize congestion in the transmission system. ⁹
9. Transmission Deferral
Delaying, reducing the size of, or entirely avoiding utility investments in transmission system upgrades necessary to meet projected load growth on specific regions of the grid.⁹
10. Black Start
In the event of a grid outage, black start generation assets are needed to restore operation to larger power stations to bring the grid back online. In some cases, large power stations are themselves black start capable. ⁹
6. GHG Abatement
DR services contribute to GHG abatement by reducing the average carbon footprint and marginal emissions of the utility. The reduction in both types of utility emissions will also be reflected in a reduction of the data center carbon footprint. The extent of GHG reduction will be the utility fuel mix and the type of data center standby generation.
Consider the situation when there is insufficient grid capacity, in response the utility signals DR service providers to disconnect from the grid and switch to island mode operation.
The impact on GHG depends on the prevailing grid emission factor (GEF) at the time. If for example, we assume a 50MW facility in China has natural gas generators as its emergency power source, the gas generator emission factor is approximately 486 g CO2e/kWh, compared to the national combined margin grid emission factor of 852 g CO2e kWh. For the purposes of this example, we will assume 852 g CO2e /kWh is the prevailing GEF when the generators are operating. Then if the standby generators are running in island mode for 10 hours, this results in 183,000kg CO2e saving, calculated as follows.
[852g CO2e /kWh x 50,000kWh] – [486g CO2e /kWh x 50,000kWh] = 18,300kg CO2
There is also a case for running diesel generators in island mode using alternative fuels such as Ultra-Low-Sulphur Diesel (ULSD), Gas-To-Liquid (GTL) or Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO). Each application should be assessed taking into consideration the difference in CO2e between the grid emission factor and the emission factor of the diesel engine running on the alternative fuel type.
Marginal Emissions Reduction
Marginal emissions occur when the utility brings a different type of generating plant on the grid. This is relevant when demand reaches a point such that the utility needs to start up non-CCS coal or oil- fired generators.
Consider the example where the load on a grid is 20GW, comprising 7.5GW of wind and 7.5GW of PV renewable energy and 5GW of CCGT all running to match the load. Then the demand changes to 20.1GW. At this point the utility must add generation by bringing on line one of its oil-fired plants, albeit just to cover off the 0.1GW necessary to meet demand. Assuming the oil-fired generation has 777 g CO2e /kWh emission factor, then an additional 777g of CO2e is required per kWh associated with the additional load.
Figure 6 – The Impact of Marginal Emissions
Consider a situation where a 100MW data center was able to react to a signal from the utility and disconnect from the grid and run in island mode on its lower emission generators, this would avoid the requirement to start up the utility oil-fired generators, thereby reducing marginal emissions.
The wider implications of operating data centers using low carbon energy storage and generation systems will be discussed in a separate paper by the EYP MCF, Part of Ramboll i3 GHG Abatement Group, titled Low GHG energy Trading Opportunities for Large Scale Data Centers.
7. Data Center Power Utilization
One of the most pervasive issues affecting data centers is low utilization values. Utilization is defined as the ratio of maximum actual load to the amount of load contracted by the end user. The general perspective is presented in Figure 7, which states the typical utilization across a large portfolio of data centers is just 40%.
Figure 7 – Power Over-provisioning in Data Centers – Source Equinix
A more granular perspective in terms of load growth is shown in Figures 8 and 9 for a hyperscale end-user and a connectivity provider respectively over a 24-month period with maximum utilization levels of 43% and 45% respectively.
Figure 8 – Hyperscale Load Utilisation Example – Source: ServerFarm
Figure 9 - Connectivity Provider Load Utilisation Example – Source: ServerFarm
The over-provisioned power and cooling infrastructure is wasteful, both in terms of investment and carbon footprint. Evidently there is an opportunity for data center owners and end-users to exploit what are otherwise underutilized power assets by using the excess capacity to provide DR services, and in doing so provide additional revenue and reduce carbon footprint.
Data Center Assets
Data centers are protected from grid disturbances and outages by UPS. The purpose of the UPS is to condition the power supply to the critical IT load and provide continuous power that bridges the gap between the start of a utility outage and the time taken for emergency generators to accept the load.
Most data centers still use diesel generators to provide emergency power, and either lead acid (VRLA) or more recently, lithium-ion batteries to perform energy ride-through.
Data centers are not designed to be bi-directional microgrids. However, they are designed to operate as unidirectional microgrids occasionally, i.e., during a utility failure when generators are used to supply the data center load.
Data centers have inherent energy storage in their UPS batteries and flywheels as well as generating capacity in their emergency generators that can be used to provide DR services in the appropriate circumstances.
As Wierman et al explain, when grid operators look at data centers, they should view them as large- scale energy storage installations that are sitting unused due to a lack of appropriate programs… each data center represents millions of dollars of unused fast-response storage-equivalent capacity.¹¹
Data Center Storage
Most utility events are short duration transient disturbances lasting less than a few seconds11 where the UPS energy store momentarily provides power during the utility event.
The UPS energy storage is also used to provide power during longer utility events, to provide continuous power to the IT load, and sometimes to maintain cooling circulation from the moment the outage commences until the data center generators accept load.
UPS energy storage is usually provided by batteries or flywheels. The energy storage capacity of the UPS is calculated at full load and is typically 5 to 10 minutes for batteries, and 10 to 20 seconds for flywheels.
Historically most UPS have used lead acid batteries. However, new data centers are increasingly using lithium-ion batteries.
Different types of batteries and their application to data centers are discussed in a separate paper by the EYP MCF, Part of Ramboll & i3 GHG Abatement Group titled the Assessment and Application of BESS to data centers.
In developed countries where the utility grid is stable, UPS batteries and flywheels remain idle most of the time. Until recently, this was considered the inherent price to pay for the occasional time when they were needed to support the critical load. However, with the introduction of DR service incentives by utilities, there is an opportunity to utilize UPS energy storage to provide DR support services.
This has been recognized by UPS suppliers such as ABB, Eaton, Schneider12, and Vertiv13 who have configured their UPS batteries to provide grid support services. In principle, flywheels could also provide frequency support albeit only short duration FFR services.
The DR applications associated with UPS energy storage are frequency response services due to the speed in which UPS can respond, but limited by the energy storage capacity of the UPS.
The specific types of DR frequency response applicable in general are shown in Table 10.
Table 10 – UPS Energy Storage Potential DR Services
10. Data Center Generation
Like UPS, data center generation equipment is idle almost all the time except for the occasional utility outage and periodic testing. Generators are even less utilized than UPS energy storage since they cannot respond quickly enough to start and accept load during a short duration utility event. Therefore, during these extensive periods of inactivity, these assets are non-productive.
Most data center generators use conventional diesel fuel. However, there is increasing pressure from governments to look at alternatives to diesel engines. Consequently, whilst the installed base almost entirely comprises diesel reciprocating engines, the use of lower carbon NG engines, turbines and PEM is increasing.
From a GHG abatement perspective, both diesel and NG gas engines can be used to provide DR services under the appropriate circumstances. In other words, when their use in providing DR services has a net positive contribution to the reduction of GHG emissions. This is determined by the GEF associated with each application and the marginal emissions that could be avoided.
With diesel generators in particular, the predisposition to providing DR services is determined by the type of DR service under consideration, the type of engine and the type of fuel used i.e., GTL, ULSD or Dipetane and biofuels such as HVO in lieu of conventional diesel.
The type of engine, i.e., standby, prime or continuous will determine the duration and frequency of runtime limits, and the fuel type will determine the emission factor of the engine relative to local GEF. Given, the typical minimal actual runtime of diesel generators, especially in developed countries, it is likely that even standby rated machines can contribute to DR, albeit less than prime and continuously rated machines.
Fuel cells can be used to provide DR services. Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are unsuitable to provide real time frequency support services due to their relatively slow load following capability. Whereas hydrogen Proton-Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuels cells are quicker in terms of load following ability and may be suitable for FFR, FCR and FRR frequency services. However, in principle SOFCs and PEM fuel cells are both able to provide load curtailment, load shifting and STOR services.
The various types of DR services that could be provided by generators and fuel cells are indicated in Table 11.
Table 11 – Generator and Fuel Cell Potential DR Services
11. Demand Response Barriers
The majority of the data center industry has not yet participated in demand response services for several reasons.
Lack of awareness DR programs and policies
Unsuitable DR programs for data centers, e.g., the ability to stack services
Perceived additional risk to the critical load
DR is not a core business
Complexities of implementation and operation
Utility interface issues
Regulatory issues i.e., limited hours of operation for Diesel generators
Each of the above considerations can have merit, however wholesale and colocation data center owners are confronted with two major commercial issues.
Data center owners have made public commitments to sustainability. It is evident that major reductions in carbon footprint will not be achieved by incremental efficiency improvements. And the purchase of RECs and carbon offsetting are losing credibility. So, there must be a new factor that will make a significant difference to a company’s carbon footprint.
Secondly, with new data center companies constantly entering the market, competition has eroded margins. Therefore, the opportunity to generate revenue by accessing what are essentially stranded assets through DR is an obvious consideration. Each company will base their decision to participate on their own circumstances and the relative financial and carbon merits in the territories they operate.
The interoperability of DR services is complex and still evolving. The extent of DR services available and the complexity of participation varies considerably across countries.
12. Regulatory and Utility Issues
Some key regulatory issues that need to be addressed include the removal of barriers that preclude the use of multiple stacked services. Also, the restructuring of business rates to reflect the value that energy storage can provide to the grid via temporal, locational, and attribute-based functionality, making utilities indifferent to the distinction between distributed and centralized resources.⁹
To participate in DR, data center owners have two choices: either go it alone or engage with an aggregator.
The benefit of using an aggregator is that the complexities of DR participation are simplified. Decisions about what services to offer, grid integration, control signaling, and practical implementation are all handled by the aggregator. The only downside is that the aggregator takes a share of the revenue, that would not otherwise happen if the data center operator were to work directly with the utility.
Where the data center owner decides to go it alone, they are responsible for all implementation, operational and commercial issues.
For large data centers organizations with a large portfolio, supported by in-house technical and commercial expertise, it may be appropriate to provide DR services independently without an aggregator. On the other hand, smaller data center companies will probably benefit most from using an aggregator.
Data centers represent a significant and increasing load on the grid. Given the sustainability imperatives and the obvious desire to improve margins it seems logical that the data center industry will increasingly participate in DR programs.
This is likely to initially involve load curtailment, i.e., operating in island mode. As the industry gains confidence and the regulatory authority recognizes the immense potential of the data center sector, this will be followed by frequency response services.
Undoubtedly, combining on-site generation with UPS BESS with import and export connections to the grid will unlock stranded investment in UPS batteries and generators.
For contemporary data centers, on-site power will probably see the increased use of gas generators or biofuel/ low carbon diesel engines (also hydrogen) to meet environmental legislation. Both are likely to provide significant GHG reductions.
The highest income from participation in DR will probably be derived from premium prices paid under real time load shedding, STOR and fast frequency response.
Utilities will need to adapt industry requirements and permit data centers to provide multiple stacked DR services to fully realize the untapped potential of data centers in terms of available capacity, and to ensure equitable DR programs that benefit the utility and data center owners.
Abbreviations and Acronyms
BES Battery Energy Storage
CCGT Combined cycle gas turbine
CCS Carbon capture and storage
CO2e Equivalent carbon dioxide
DR Demand Response
EIA US Energy Information Administration
FCR Frequency containment reserve
FERC Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
FFR Fast frequency response
FRR Frequency restoration reserve
GEF Grid emission factor
GHG Greenhouse gas
GTL Gas to liquid
HVO Hydrotreated vegetable oil
ISO Independent system operator
kWh Kilowatt hours
MWh Megawatt hours
NG Natural gas
OECD Organization for Economic Cooperation
PEM Proton exchange membrane
RE Renewable Energy
REC Renewable energy credit
RTO Regional transmission organization
SNSP System non-synchronous penetration
SOFC Solid oxide fuel cell
STOR Short term operating reserve
ULSD Ultra-low sulfur diesel
UPS Uninterruptible power supply
VRE Variable Renewable Energy
International Energy Agency - Emissions Factors 2021 https://www.iea.org/data-and- statistics/data-product/emissions-factors-2021
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (2021). List of Grid Emission Factors, version 10.10. https://pub.iges.or.jp/pub/iges-list-grid-emission-factors
US Energy Information Administration https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=41433#
World Bank Group, Livewire – Integrating Variable Renewable Energy into Power System Operations
Ghatikar - LBNL Demand Response Opportunities and Enabling Technologies for Data Centers: Findings from Field Studies (2012)
Johnson et al - Understanding the impact of non-synchronous wind and solar generation on grid stability and identifying mitigation pathways (2020)
Sandelic et al - Battery Storage-Based Frequency Containment Reserves in Large Wind Penetrated Scenarios: A Practical Approach to Sizing (2018)
All Electricity is Not Priced Equally: Time-Variant Pricing 101, EDF http://blogs.edf.org/energyexchange/2015/01/27/all-electricity-is-not-priced-equally-time- variant-pricing-101/
Fitzgerald et al, Rocky Mountain Institute – The Economics of Battery Energy Storage
Wierman et al, Opportunities and Challenges for Data Center Demand Response
Grebe et al, EPRI - An assessment of distribution system power quality
Thompson and Avelar, Schneider – Monetizing Energy Storage in the Data Center
Di Filippi and Valentini, Vertiv – How to Maximize Revenues from Your Data Center Energy Storage System with Grid-Interactive UPS | <urn:uuid:0a7669bd-8319-44af-84a6-3bf8dc164457> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.eypmcfinc.com/data-center-demand-response | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337398.52/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003035124-20221003065124-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.911245 | 5,980 | 2.546875 | 3 |
Determined to keep tape rolling in the red-hot storage market, IBM said its engineers have hit a new record in data density on linear magnetic tape.
Researchers at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif., packed data onto a test tape at a density of 6.67 billion bits, or more than 6 terabytes, per square inch.
This compression, achieved with the help of new magnetic tape from Fuji Photo Film Co., is more than 15 times the data density of magnetic tape products from IBM, Sun Microsystems and other tape system makers.
Bruce Master, senior program manager of worldwide tape storage systems at IBM, said that should products using IBM’s new data recording technology and Fuji’s tape hit the market in five years as expected, a standard Linear Tape Open (LTO) tape cartridge could hold 8 trillion bytes (define) of uncompressed data.
For some perspective, this is 20 times the capacity of today’s LTO Generation 3 cartridge, which is about half the size of a VHS videocassette, and is equivalent to the data in eight million books.
The new mark shatters the compression rate IBM established in 2002 by recording a terabyte of data onto one LTO cartridge at 1 billion bits per square inch.
Corporations employ tape to sock away large volumes of data that are used infrequently or don’t need speedy access times. Tape is frequently used in data archives, backup files, data replication, and is considered one of the tools to help enterprises meet federal compliance rules.
Tape has been replaced in some cases in favor of faster disk-based methods of storing data.
Some disk users have also argued that tape breaks and is less reliable than disk storage. Recent lost tape cartridges haven’t endeared users to the classic medium either. | <urn:uuid:46f3a832-d58e-49ca-b245-839e1b67b1d6> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.datamation.com/storage/ibm-shatters-tape-density-mark/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337504.21/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004121345-20221004151345-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.914137 | 380 | 2.734375 | 3 |
Virtual attacks are becoming more common these days. According to a survey released by security firm Trend Micro, ransomware attacks increased 752% in 2016.
The ransomware known as Bad Rabbit, one of the latest attacks, has infected several Russian websites, in addition to an airport in Ukraine and the subway system in the country’s capital, Kiev. But that’s not all: it has also hit personal and corporate computers from several Eastern European countries. Evidence shows that the attack even reached Brazil.
“In 2016, cybercriminals have managed to profit more than $ 1 billion from data hijacking”
There are many ways of ransomware infection and its variations, which always have the same goal: data hijacking. This blog post aims to make a survey of the main variations of ransomware, responsible for generating losses to companies headquartered in Brazil and worldwide. Keep reading and have access to the peculiarities of each variant of the attack.
Ramsonware is a type of malware that infects computers so that the victims no longer has access to their data. The criminal then charges a ransom, usually using bitcoinvirtual currency.
Once the operating system is infected, all information stored by the company (or individual) will be encrypted/hijacked. Then a warning is sent: the device is locked and the user no longer has control over it.
It is worth remembering that there is no guarantee that the idealizers of a ransomware will comply with the part promised in the “transaction”, that is, the decryption of the compromised data. Therefore, the best way to combat this type of malware is through prevention.
What are the main types of Ransomwares?
There are two types of ransomwares. Locker Ransomware, which prevents access to the infected computer, and Crypto Ransomware, that encrypts the files preventing data stored on the computer from being accessed. In both cases the malicious user requests redemption for release or decryption of the data hijacked.
The most well known ransomware attacks
In addition to the latest variation of Ransomware, the Bad Rabbit, other variations are posted on the internet often. Some are minor attacks, others have been spread across continents. These attacks are very harmful, not only because they cause gigantic damage to companies and individuals, but because they can directly affect the image of the organization.
According to experts, these types of attacks happen because companies do not invest in basic security measures, nor in prevention.
To better understand the risks of these variations, we have compiled some of the most representative attacks in Brazil and the world.
“The Jigsaw Ransomware,” as it became known, was inspired by the famous character in the “Jigsaw” movie series. This type of attack begins with a greeting from the hacker, followed by a ransom request.
The attackers then give 24 hours for the victim to pay about $ 150 dollars in bitcoinvirtual currency and claim that in 72 hours all data is deleted. The difference of the Jigsaw, however, is that criminals keep deleting file by file until the payment is done.
The WannaCry infection started in May 2017. This is a Crypto-Ransomware that affects the operation of Windows OS and, according to rumors, uses scanning techniques used by the United States National Security Agency (which had been leaked months before the attack).
According to information released, more than 200 thousand people and 300 thousand computers were infected by ransomware. Some of the victims in Brazil, for example, were the Court of Justice of São Paulo and the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital.
Active since March 2016, Petya (also known as NotPetya and ExPtr) has already had three variations and reached much of Europe and Russia. The latest version of Petya, unlike much of ransomwares, did not encrypt only files. The process was started by encoding some key sectors of the disk, which prevented the system from starting. That way, no software can access the file list.
Petya is spread primarily through e-mail, as well as other variations of ransomwares. According to the cyber security company Proofpoint. This ransomware has a better propagation mechanism than that of WannaCry. | <urn:uuid:9c60cf35-3ed1-495e-81d2-f446a2e1e65a> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://ostec.blog/en/perimeter/main-ransomware-variations-and-characteristics/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337668.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005203530-20221005233530-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.963538 | 886 | 2.640625 | 3 |
“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you’re not part of the steamroller, you’re part of the road.” –Stewart Brand
In part 1 of the beginner's guide we looked at what a container is. How Docker Engine supports the workflows involved in building, shipping and running the container-based environment and also how Kubernetes coordinates this environment across multiple machines, providing scalability, high availability, and most importantly predictability.
In part 2 we will focus on Kubernetes purely within the realms of open networking. We will look at how communication takes place between clusters consisting of various nodes and pods and the technologies that implement this. As promised, we will also look at the industry’s first Cloud Native Network Operating System (CN-NOS) from SnapRoute, and how being built on a containerized, microservices architecture with embedded Kubernetes enables rapid and efficient application deployment and operations.
Kubernetes is all about sharing machines between the applications, so understanding how they communicate is essential. The first important element to understand is that every Pod gets its own IP address. This means you do not have to create links between the Pods and also negates the need to map host ports to container ports, as is done in the Docker networking model. Pods can now be treated very similarly to VMs or physical hosts with respect to naming, port allocation, load balancing, migration and more.
So, each Pod within the Kubernetes cluster now has its own unique IP address which allows for Pod-to-Pod communication without the need for Network Address Translation (NAT). The containers within these Pods behave as if they were on the same host when it comes to networking, and they can all reach each other’s ports on the localhost. This offers simplicity, security, performance and also uncomplicates the process of moving applications from uncontainerized physical or virtual hosts.
There are a number of ways this network model can be implemented as Kubernetes does not provide a default approach. Some of the more popular ones include Flannel, Project Calico and Weave Net. I want to focus on two technologies that will implement the model required but also serve the entire Data Center, or multiples of, in the case of Big Switch.
AOS from Apstra – Apstra Operating System (AOS) is an Intent Based Network (IBN) system that creates and manages Data Center environments. With IBN you tell the network what you want it to do and AOS looks after the how part. AOS supports L3 connected hosts (Linux servers) that create BGP neighbouring relationships with the top of rack switches (TORs). It automates the routing adjacencies and then provides fine-grained control over the route health injections (RHI) which are commonplace in Kubernetes deployments.
AOS has a rich set of REST API endpoints that allow Kubernetes to rapidly change network policy based on the requirements of the applications. AOS also supports equipment from a multitude of vendors which includes whitebox switches from Edgecore and Delta running a variety of network operating systems (NOS) such as CumulusLinux, SONiC and OpenSwitch. Webinar with Apstra.
Big Cloud Fabric from Big Switch Networks – Big Cloud Fabric (BCF) leverages software-defined networking (SDN) to provide one big “logical switch” governed by a centralized controller. This solution delivers simplified network operations, visibility and telemetry of containers and their hosts, and network automation for rapid application and micro-services deployment. The scale-out architecture of BCF also accommodates future growth in east-west traffic, caused by an increase in micro services deployment, without costing an arm and a leg.
With the help of the Big Cloud Fabric’s virtual pod multi-tenant architecture, container orchestration systems such as Kubernetes, RedHat, OpenShift and Docker Swarm will be natively integrated with VM orchestration systems such as VMware, OpenStack & Nutanix. Engineers will be able to securely interconnect any number of these clusters and enable inter-tenant communication between them if needed.
Its SDN architecture works on open industry-standard switch hardware from Edgecore, Delta and Quanta, which allows vendor choice and also reduces costs.
You can watch their Kubernetes Demo here!
SnapRoute’s Cloud Native Network Operating System (CN-NOS)
The final element of today’s blog is a closer look at CN-NOS. I have written about SnapRoute in previous blogs but only in a very general way, briefly explaining the general idea of a Cloud Native NOS. It’s time for a more comprehensive analysis.
CN-NOS was built from the ground up by operators, for operators. They describe it as being, “embedded with the wisdom and battle scars of engineers who helped design and build some of the world’s most scalable Datacenters” (both founders were engineers with Apple). Their software is based around the network’s need to be managed using the same Cloud Native tools that are being deployed elsewhere in the Data Center. They believe that this is the only way to remove the network from its siloed existence.
CN-NOS is delivered as a complete NOS that installs via ONIE (Open Network Install Environment) onto whitebox switches from Edgecore. It provides the full control and data plane functionality required for autonomous device operation, and every CN-NOS installation includes native Kubernetes support for direct device management via kubectl and kube-apiserver.
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- Leverages Kubernetes natively so it is now possible to load only what is required for your use case. With other NOS vendors the full protocol stack is downloaded even though only a fraction is used.
- CN-NOS offers Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD). The key protocols and services are containerized as microservices, then orchestrated using Kubernetes. This allows network teams to synchronize with their colleagues in compute and storage.
- Upgrades to protocols and services can be done surgically for the first time. You do not need to disrupt systems and reboot entire switches. Patches and upgrades can be done in a targeted manner.
- CN-NOS provides the highest level of automation and orchestration because of the use of Kubernetes. Operators can now manage the data center from end to end, alleviating risk and complexity while adding predictability.
These are just a few of the extra benefits that CN-NOS brings to the table as SnapRoute attempts to drag networking kicking and screaming into the Cloud Native era.
As always, I would be more than happy to share additional resources with you or for more technical information on products or SDN give me a shout also you can browse our Open Networking products here.
Slán go fóill,
Glossary of Terms
- IoT – Internet of Things
- 5G – 5th generation of cellular mobile communication
- Linux – Family of free open-source operating systems
- ONF – Open Networking Foundation
- OCP – Open Compute Project
- SDN – Software Defined Networking
- Edgecore – White box ODM
- Quanta – White box OEM
- Data Plane – Deals with packet forwarding
- Control Plane – Management interface for network configuration
- ODM – Original design manufacturer
- OEM – Original equipment manufacturer
- Cumulus Linux – Open network operating system
- Pluribus – White box OS that offers a controllerless SDN fabric
- Pica8 – Open standards-based operating system
- Big Switch Networks – Cloud and data Center networking company
- IP Infusion – Whitebox network operating system
- OS – Operating system
- White Box – Bare metal device that runs off merchant silicon
- ASIC – Application-specific integrated circuit
- CAPEX – Capital expenditure
- OPEX – Operating expenditure
- MAC - Media Access Control
- Virtualization – To create a virtual version of something including hardware
- Load Balancing – Efficient distribution of incoming network traffic to backend servers
- Vendor Neutral - Standardized, non-proprietary approach along with unbiased business practices
- CORD – Central Office Rearchitected as a Data Center
- SD-WAN – Software Defined Wide Area Network
- NFV – Network Function Virtualization
- RTBrick – Web scale network OS
- Snap Route – Cloud native network OS
- MPLS – Multiprotocol label switching
- DoS – Denial of service attack
- ONOS – ONF controller platform
- LF – Linux Foundation
- MEC – Multi-access edge computing
- Distributed Cloud -
- COMAC – Converged Multi-Access and Core
- SEBA – SDN enabled broadband access
- TRELLIS – Spine and leaf switching fabric for central office
- VOLTHA – Virtual OLT hardware abstraction
- R-CORD- Residential CORD
- M-CORD – Mobile CORD
- E-CORD – Enterprise CORD
- PON – Passive optical network
- G.FAST – DSL protocol for local loops shorter than 500 metres
- DOCSIS – Data over cable service interface specification
- BGP – Border gateway patrol routing protocol
- OSPF – Open shortest path first routing protocol
- DSL – Digital subscriber line
- Container – Isolated execution environment on a Linux host
- Kubernetes – Open source container orchestration system
- Docker – Program that performs operating-system-level virtualization
- Cloud Native – Term used to describe container-based environments
- CNCF – Cloud Native Computing Foundation
- API – Application Programming Interface
- REST API – Representational State Transfer Application Programming Interface
- CLI – Command Line Interface
- VM – Virtual machine
- NAT – Network Address Translation
- IBN – Intent Based Networking
- TORs – Top of Rack Switches
- RHI – Route Health Injections
- BCF – Big Cloud Fabric
- VPC – Virtual Private Cloud
- ONIE – Open Networking Install Environment
- CI/CD - Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment | <urn:uuid:f987d3d7-f015-4e72-9e7b-972606f62635> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.epsglobal.com/about-eps-global/blog/august-2019/containers,-docker-and-kubernetes-a-beginners-guid | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337668.62/warc/CC-MAIN-20221005203530-20221005233530-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.889934 | 2,189 | 2.75 | 3 |
Monday, July 23, 2012
Who invented the Internet: evolution or intelligent design?
I believe in evolution. The Internet is the product of thousands of people spanning industry, universities, and yes, even government. In order to prove their point, the supporters of Intelligent Design magnify the contributions of Government, and trivialize the contributions of everyone else.
The Darwin in this evolution debate is Gordon Moore, who back in the 1965 noticed that the number of transistors on a chip doubled roughly every 2 years. “Moore’s Law” has become our generation’s “Natural Selection”. Moore’s Law predicts that the “mainframe” computers of the time would eventually fit within your pocket. The iPhone indeed has as much compute power, storage, and network bandwidth as all the world’s computers combined when Moore first formulated his law.
That we would all be interconnected via a world-wide network is likewise a natural outgrowth of Moore’s Law. Had there been no Internet or World Wide Web, there would be something else very similar in its place.
Moore’s Law says that the computer evolves through thousands of small inventions, and is not the product of a few big inventions, nor is it the product of a Master Plan. Yes, some of those small inventions were by Government, which the Creationists seize upon in order to “prove” the Internet was created by Government.
Because the TCP/IP Internet has been the only network for 20 years, we have this perception that it appeared fully formed out of the void, that it was invented in a single step. The reality is that it evolved slowly over time, step by tiny step. During the Cold War, our government spewed research dollars indiscriminately at any project that might have military applications, which means that some of these dollars would inevitably touch TCP/IP. Many more government dollars also went to alternatives – because they didn’t know what they were doing. That government contributed to the version of the Internet that eventually won doesn’t mean that they deserve credit for it, or even that it was their plan.
The most famous government contribution is the specification for “TCP/IP” funded by the military by university researchers. TCP/IP is the “protocol” that runs the Internet. However, there is very little that is new or innovative in TCP/IP. It’s largely a clone of existing packet-switching technology that was mostly developed by the computer industry. What made TCP/IP different than competing solutions was the idea of “end-to-end” – but that, too, was copied from others. The inventors of the “end-to-end” idea (Saltzer, Reed, and Clark) deserve every much the fame as those who copied the idea (Bob Kahn, Vint Cerf).
I’m not saying Kahn and Cerf don’t deserve a lot of credit. They do. TCP/IP is an exceptionally well-written protocol compared to all the others they copied ideas from. I’m just trying to point out how much of TCP/IP relied upon the inventions of others.
We have this Lamarkian view that the Internet was designed this way on purpose. The reality is that that there were many competing versions of an Internet. Techniques that proved their worth survived and were copied by others. Techniques that work less well withered and died. When TCP/IP was created in the early 1980s, it had to compete against many alternatives from companies like IBM, DEC, and Xerox. It won the competition largely because it was the latest protocol to be invented, and had the benefit of learning from those that preceded it, to copy the best ideas.
Humorously, the TCP/IP Internet also had to compete against something known as “OSI”, which was the government-designed alternative. Yes, the government had a Master Plan, but that plan didn’t include TCP/IP. Even into the early 1990s when it became obvious that TCP/IP had defeated all competing protocols, government regulations still mandated that all government computers support the OSI protocols.
But this discussion of TCP/IP and competing protocols is a distraction. Protocols aren’t technology themselves, but simply control the technology. The technology itself that transports the data is the underlying physical network, namely the fiber optic network that crisscrosses the world. If there is any one big invention that deserves credit for the Internet, it is the invention of fiber optics in a Owens-Corning laboratory in the 1950s. If anybody deserves credit for building the Internet, it’s the trillion dollar investment by Wall Street that laid those cables across continents and under oceans.
I'm not trying to argue one side of this political debate such much as point out that it's only a political debate (not technical). It's a tautology: you can't use the idea that the "government created the Internet" to conclude the worth of government actions, because it's the focus on only worthy government actions that you use to prove the premise. It's a slight of hand ignoring the enormous contribution by non-government researchers. It's a circular argument, like claiming that the "Bible is the infallible word of God -- because it says so in the Bible".
In a recent speech claiming that nobody but government builds things, President Obama justified his claim by saying “The Internet didn’t get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet”. Well, yes, if you believe that only government could've created the Internet, then it naturally proves your assertion that only government could've created the Internet. | <urn:uuid:566c7340-16a8-472d-abe9-567eb1cce3f3> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://blog.erratasec.com/2012/07/who-invented-internet-evolution-or.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337971.74/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007045521-20221007075521-00085.warc.gz | en | 0.975684 | 1,185 | 2.9375 | 3 |
With data center cooling equipment accounting for 40 percent of the electricity consumed by facilities, it’s understandable that high expectations are being set for innovations that will increase their efficiency.
According to a recent study, the data center cooling market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.1 percent from 2016 to 2020. Innovations in this area have contributed to a less accelerated rate of growth in energy consumption.
Here are some of the innovative areas that have been contributing to energy-efficient operations:
1. Use of fresh air. Some data centers have shifted to cooling systems that incorporate the use of fresh air — key innovation that contributes to energy efficiency.
2. Flexible floor planning. Inefficiencies can be caused by re-circulation, which can be caused by improper rack hygiene and an insufficient supply of cool air for the face of the rack. Unlike previous configurations, in which server racks had to be arranged in uniform rows, newer containment strategies allow data centers to position enclosures in configurations that best work for the spaces.
3. Liquid immersion cooling. With this option, data center designers immerse IT equipment in cooling fluid, bypassing the need for cooling fans. According to some estimates, companies can reduce their overhead costs for cooling by up to 95 percent, according to Green Revolution Cooling.
4. Evaporative cooling. Direct and indirect evaporative cooling are increasingly being used in the data center industry. With this technology, evaporative coolers don’t use environmentally hazardous refrigerants. They also are considered environmentally friendly because of reduced usage of electricity.
This technology, which has been widely used in the residential market, relies on a large fan to draw warm air through water-moistened pads. When the water on the pads evaporates, the air becomes chilled. Because of the need for warm outdoor air, this system is more ideal for locations with dry climates.
Want to learn why EMP shielding, FedRAMP certification, and Rated-4 data centers are important?
Download our infographic series on EMP, FedRAMP, and Rated-4! | <urn:uuid:c42d653b-c9d7-4aaf-83d3-b761a003fcb6> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://lifelinedatacenters.com/data-center/projected-growth-rate/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335059.31/warc/CC-MAIN-20220927225413-20220928015413-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.937044 | 427 | 2.78125 | 3 |
From June 15 to July 15, 2019, the Russian government ordered all Russia’s major telcos to demonstrate that the internet within Russia could continue to successfully operate after it was disconnected from the rest of the world. Not enough people appreciated the significance of these tests. Co-dependency is one of the strongest guarantees that countries will not go to war. The creation of the Russia-only internet, sometimes referred to as ‘Runet’, is the product of a strategy that prioritizes preparation for conflict. So it came as no surprise when Oleksiy Danilov, Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, said he was “99.9% sure” that Russia was behind a massive cyberattack on 70 Ukrainian government websites that was launched at 2am on Friday morning. The defaced websites showed a message (pictured above) written in Ukrainian, Russian and Polish which was designed to induce terror amongst ordinary Ukrainians, including the chilling words: “be afraid and expect the worst”.
Both the Ukrainian and US administrations have since reminded the world that Russia engaged in cyberattacks as part of the destabilization of Georgia prior to their invasion in 2008. Russia was also blamed by Estonia for a series of cyberattacks in 2007 that targeted the Estonian parliament, banks and media. The 2007 and 2008 attacks on Estonia and Georgia set new precedents for cyberwarfare in terms of the level of sophistication of the techniques used, and Georgia represented the first instance of large-scale digital warfare alongside a physical invasion. Practice makes perfect in all matters, and training is essential to any military force, which is why we use the word ‘wargaming’ to describe the process of anticipating how to handle a crisis. With troops amassed on the border, there is concern that Friday’s cyberattack is a prelude to a physical assault on Ukrainian territory, but even if war is averted, the Russian government keeps learning more about how to conduct warfare in concert with the disruption of networks that most societies now rely upon.
Probing an enemy’s defenses can also be crucial to negotiating the terms for maintaining the peace because an opponent that has been made aware of their weaknesses may be more willing to grant concessions. Russia denies any intention to invade Ukraine but has threatened to take unspecified military action unless NATO makes a series of uncomfortable and unlikely promises. These include prohibiting Ukraine from joining NATO and not basing any troops or equipment within the NATO countries of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia. The timing of Russia’s demands is astute, given there has been a recent change of government in Germany, the country within the Western alliance that was most opposed to basing NATO forces in countries to their East, and which has the most favorable opinion of Russia according to polls of the general public.
The new German administration is headed by the Social Democratic Party (SPD), who have historically been critical of NATO whilst seeking to appease the Russian government. Former SPD Leader Gerhard Schröder championed new pipelines to obtain gas from Russia whilst he was Germany’s Chancellor, and has since been appointed to top jobs at state-owned Russian gas producer Gazprom and oil producer Rosneft. In contrast to Russia’s internet, which can be run independently of the rest of the world, there are now serious concerns that Germany would be badly affected if Russia cut off supplies of energy.
This is the context for NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg issuing an urgent statement about the cyberattack on Ukraine.
NATO has worked closely with Ukraine for years to help boost its cyber defences. NATO cyber experts in Brussels have been exchanging information with their Ukrainian counterparts on the current malicious cyber activities. Allied experts in country are also supporting the Ukrainian authorities on the ground. In the coming days, NATO and Ukraine will sign an agreement on enhanced cyber cooperation, including Ukrainian access to NATO’s malware information sharing platform. NATO’s strong political and practical support for Ukraine will continue.
Reassurance is needed because the West appears to be ill-prepared to counter Russian aggression in cyberspace. Russia’s invasion of the Crimean peninsula in 2014 relied upon troops whose uniforms were disguised so it was not immediately apparent who had instigated violence. The problem of attributing responsibility for aggression is far worse in cyberspace. Hackers do not wear uniforms and there is no conclusive way to distinguish between a hacker who works for himself and a hacker employed by the state. Too often it appears that vital network resources can be infiltrated, commandeered and abused by petty criminals. If lone hackers and organized criminals can disrupt networked services then there is every reason to believe states have the resources to do far more harm. Perhaps the best illustration of how the internet leads to blurred lines between crime and military aggression comes from lowly North Korea, whose hackers are estimated to have stolen USD400mn of cryptocurrency during 2021.
When discussing Cold War 2 it is tempting to imagine there is a simple divide between the West and East, but relations between Russia and China have never been perfect. An essay by Chinese President Xi Jinping that was published on Saturday referred to a broad swathe of digital risks, but it is worth noting sections that said China must improve national security within the digital realm. He particularly emphasized the need for early warning systems, and the maintenance of security around key industries and valuable intellectual property. The priorities being established by China could just as well be applied to any nation that is relying upon networked technologies to improve the quality of life for its population.
The sad irony is that we have all become used to the benefits of living in networked societies but our politics, culture and news still treats warfare as if it is oriented around guns, troops, tanks and planes. The invention of aircraft dramatically changed the way war was pursued, making it important to establish domination of the skies and creating the potential to bomb factories and civilians located far behind the front line. War has historically concerned the capture of land and people because both are important sources of wealth and power. However, cyberspace does not map to a physical terrain. Digital assets and network infrastructure are now incredibly valuable. They may be stolen or disrupted as a prelude or adjunct to physical invasion, but they can also be military targets in their own right. A misplaced naivety that networks need to be protected from spammers and fraudsters can blind us to the fact that anything a spammer or fraudster can accomplish could also be achieved by an enemy nation intent on wreaking havoc. But unlike any ordinary spammer or fraudster, the enemy nation will go after all networked resources at the same time.
If our networks are so poorly secured that small groups of criminals can do expensive harm, this means they are also vulnerable to far worse disruption by forces whose motivation is not limited to making money. The front line of a digital war is everywhere, unless you can cut off a country’s internet like Russia can. We must hence act as if any networked resource can come under sustained attack, whether they be government websites, phone networks, online services provided by banks, or the operating systems of water and energy utilities. We must identify and address all vulnerabilities before anyone else can. | <urn:uuid:b35e5f9b-5459-4925-b8cd-1ca0598288a2> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://commsrisk.com/massive-cyberattack-on-ukraine-shows-the-network-cold-war-is-heating-up/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335326.48/warc/CC-MAIN-20220929065206-20220929095206-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.965374 | 1,470 | 2.515625 | 3 |
The RIP is the IP route exchange protocol, which uses the distance vector to measure the cost of the provided route. The RIP uses the hop count as its metric or cost. The IPv6 RIP is known as the routing information protocol next generation (RIPng) functions similarly to the IPv4 RIP version 2. This RIPng supports the IPv6 prefixes and addresses as well as introduced few new commands which are specific to the RIPng. In this section, the RIPng is described well.
The RIPng will maintain the routing information database, which is the local route table. This local RIB comprises the lowest cost internet protocol version 6 routes learned from the other RIP routes. On the other hand, the RIPng attempt to add routes from the local RIB into a main IPv6 route table.
Even though the RIPng is the new protocol, a particular efforts were made to make the RIPng like its predecessors. The basic operation of the RIPng is nearly same and uses the similar overall operation and algorithms. The RIPng will not introduce any of the specific new features when compared to the RIP2, except those required to implement the Rip on IPv6.
The RIPng also maintains most of the enhancements which is introduced in the RIP2 and a few are implemented as it is in RIPv2, when others appear in the modified form. Given below are how the 5 extensions in the RIPv2 are implemented in the RIPng.
The next hop specification feature is maintained in the RIPng, which is implemented differently. Because of the larger size of the IPv6 addresses such as a next hop field in the RIPng Rtes format would almost as double the size of each entry. Though the next hop is the optional feature, it would be wasteful, rather when the next hop is required, that is specified in the separate routing entry.
Subnet mask specification and classless addressing support: in the IPv6 all the addresses are classless and also specified by the address as well as prefix lengths rather than the subnet mask. Hence, the field for a prefix length is offered for the each entry rather than the subnet mask field.
Authentication: The RIPng will not include own authentication mechanism. In this, it assumed that suppose the authentication or/and encryption are required, it will be offered with the help of the IPsec standard features defined for the IPv6 at the layer of the internet protocol. It is very efficient than the individual protocols, including RIPng perform authentication.
Use of multicasting: The RIPng uses the multicasts for the transmissions by using the reserved internet protocol version 6 multicast address FF02::9.
The route tag: It is the field which implements the same method as it is in the RIP2.
There are 2 basic message types in the RIPng such as RIP response and RIP request. It is exchanged by using the UDP- user datagram protocol as with the RIP 2 and RIP 1. Though RIPng is the new protocol, it will not use the same user datagram protocol reserved port number as 520 used for the Rip or RIP 1. Rather RIPng using the well known port number- 521, semantics use is same for the port 520 in the RIP 2 and RIP 1. For convenience, some rules are listed below:
The RIP response message sent in the reply to the Rip request are sent to the source port of 521 and the destination port is equal to whatever source port that the RIP request used. The RIP request message is sent to the UDP destination port of 521. It may have the source port 521 or can use the ephemeral port number. The unsolicited RIP response message is sent with both the destination and source ports set to the 521.
To configure the RIPng, it is essential to enable the RIPng globally on individual router interfaces and on foundry device. Below are the optional configuration tasks:
The RIPng packet header contains the following fields:
Version number: it specifies the version of the RIPng in which the originating router is running. It is currently set to the version 1.
Command: it indicates whether a packet is the response message or request message. The request message seeks the information for routing table of the router. The response message is sent when the request messages are received or periodically. The periodic response message is called the update message. The update message comprises the version field and command as well as the set of metrics and destinations.
The rest of a RIPng packet comprises the routing table entry list in the following fields: Route tag: it is the route attribute which should be redistributed and advertised with a route. The route tag will distinguish the external RIPng routes from the internal RIPng routes when the routes have to be redistributed over the EGP. Metric: value of a metric advertised for an address. Prefix length: it is the number of significant bits in a prefix. Destination prefix: it is the 128 bit IPv6 for a destination.
The RIPng will only use the fixed metric to choose the route. Then other IGP will use the additional parameters, including measured reliability, load and delay. The RIPng is the prone to a routing loop while the routing table is reconstructed. Specifically, when the RIPng is implemented in the larger networks which consist of many hundred routers, then the RIPng will take longer time to solve the routing loops.
The RIPng is proposed to permit routers to exchange the information to compute routes in the IPv6 enabled networks. The RIPng relies on the specific information about every network, mainly metric. The RIPng is the value between the 15 and 1, inclusive. Then the maximum path limit is the 15, which the network is considered as unreachable. The RIPng supports the multiple IPv6 addresses on every interface. This RIPng is widely deployed in the modest size network in the commercial, banking, military and much more.
The EIGRP is the enhanced version of the IGRP. The EIGRP will use 6 different packet types, while communicating with the neighbor EIGRP routers. The EIGRP uses the reliable transport protocol to handle the reliable delivery and guaranteed of the EIGRP packets to the neighbors. This reliable and guaranteed will sounds a lot like the TCP, but the 2 is quite different in how it operates. Not the entire EIGRP packets will send reliably.
The hello packet is sent between the EIGRP neighbors for the recovery and neighbor discovery. It helps to keep the existing neighboring relationship alive. The EIGRP hello packet is the multicast to 188.8.131.52. It does not require acknowledgement. The EIGRP neighbor ship is maintained and discovered by the hello packets. If a router fails to get the hello packet within a hold timer, then the corresponding router can be declared as dead.
In the above example, all the 4 routers running EIGRP. The hello packet is sent between the routers to form the adjacencies. You can easily get from the above figure, that the Lizzy router is sending the 3 hello packets meant for the James, John and Jack. You can ask, that it is really useful to send 3 various hello packets on the single and is it essential that the hello packet receives the anything return. Sending three packets on the same links are not useful so rather of doing that EIGRP can send the hello packet using the multicast on the multicast access network like the Ethernet.
The hello packets no need to acknowledge since the EIGRP uses the holdown time. If the routers do not get the hello packets in the X period of time it can drop the neighbor adjacency.
As soon as you send the hello packets and get them in the EIGRP routers can try to form a neighbor adjacency. It need not require acknowledgement for confirmation that it was received. Because it need no explicit acknowledgment, the hello packets are again classified as the unreliable EIGRP packets. The EIGRP hello packets have the OP code of 5.
The update packets are used to convey the reachability of destination. When the new neighbor is discovered, then the update packet is sent so a neighbor can build up their accurate routing as well as topology table. In that case, the update packet is unicast. In some other cases, like the link cost change, then the update is multicast. The updates are mostly transmitted reliably. So the update packets can be sent to single neighbor as well as a group of neighbors too. This packet has the routing information to whatever router that needs this information. The update packet is assigned an OP code of 1.
The query packet is used when the EIGRP router lost its information about the specific network and it does not have any backup routes. This query packets are always multicast unless it is sent in response to the received query. In that case, it is the unicast back to a successor which originated the query. The EIGRP packets are used to reliable request the routing information. The packets are sent to the neighbors when the route is lost as mentioned above or not at all available as well as the router requires to ask about the route status for the faster convergence. If a router which sends out the does not get the response from any neighbor, then it will resend the query as the unicast packet to a non responsive neighbor. If there is no response in 16 attempts, then the EIGRP neighbor relationships are reset. The EIGRP query packet is assigned an OP code of 3.
The EIGRP rely packet is sent in response to the query packets. Then the reply packet is used to reliably respond to the query packet. The EIGRP reply packet is assigned an OP code of 4. The replies are unicast to the originator of the query. The replay packet indicates that the new route to a destination has been found.
The request packet is sent in response to the query packets. Then the reply packet is used to reliably respond to the query packet. The packets are unicast to the query originator. The EIGRP reply packet is assigned an OP code of 4. This request packet is used to receive certain information from 1 or more neighbors and is used in the route server application. This type of packet can also be sent through multicast or unicast, but are transmitted unreliably.
The acknowledgement packets are themselves simply the hello packets which have no data. Neither hello and nor ack packets use the RTP and hence it is considered as the unreliable. The packets use to know the status of the transmission. If the hello packets are sent without any data which is recognized as an acknowledgment. The unicast address with the non zero acknowledgement number is always sent by the Acknowledgement packets. This packet will acknowledge as a receipt of update, query, and replay packets. The ACk uses the OP code as same as hello packets because, it is just a hello which contains no information, so that the OP code is 5. It packets cannot be sent through multicast.
The RIP next generation is an IGP that uses the distance vector algorithm to determine the best path to the destination, using the hop count as a metric. It is based on the routing information protocol and inherits the constraints and limitations that are in the RIP. In the above section, the RIPng features, formats, messages and configuration are explained in detail. It is important to learn about the EIGRP packet types in the network field. So that the types like query, update, acknowledgement, hello, reply and request packets will give you great knowledge about the EIGRP packets.
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Innovation Exposes Payment Vulnerabilities
Innovations in technology are permeating almost every aspect of our lives, from how we communicate with friends and family, navigate in cars, read books, make purchases and much more. Not only do technology innovations impact us personally, but they can also have broad societal impacts that go undetected for years. For instance, who could have predicted the use of Facebook by hostile foreign agents attempting to influence election outcomes? This is just one example of many illustrating how innovation that provides great personal and commercial benefits can also be applied maliciously at the expense of society. Unfortunately, banking and payments are not immune to harmful applications of new technologies. We are just now recognizing the scale of the vulnerabilities exposed and the actions required mitigating attacks that exploit technology innovation.
"Chips embedded in credit, debit and prepaid cards enable dynamic data authentication for in-person purchases"
What innovations are the root causes of most of the payment fraud challenges we face today? The Internet is the most obvious one. The Internet has increased both system to system and email connectivity among businesses. It has also enabled greater connectivity among individuals through email and social media applications like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. This enhanced connectivity has provided innumerable benefits to business and society as whole, but it has also empowered criminal elements searching for ways to penetrate your systems and steal valuable payments and personal identifiable information (PII) that can be used to commit payment fraud.
The primary vulnerabilities exposed by the Internet are twofold: first, system and data access security, and second, the risk associated with including sensitive payment information within transactions (as opposed to masked account information). The Internet has provided an ideal environment in which criminals from Eastern Europe, China or anywhere in the world looking to steal payment data can perform large scale automated attacks on systems anonymously, with low risk of getting caught and prosecuted. Prior to the Internet exposure risk of payment account data already presented vulnerability, but it was much more difficult to access the data and attacks were not scalable, thus minimizing the risk exposure.
Data stolen through data breaches, along with employment and family history information stolen from social media sites like LinkedIn and Facebook and via phishing schemes, have all been enabled by the broad adoption of Internet. This information can be used to steal or guess payment credentials to initiate fraudulent transactions fraudulently apply for new accounts or penetrate accounts already held on merchant sites. Using breached data and information stolen from social media sites, criminals utilize many devious methods to commit payment fraud.
A remote electronic payment is another internet enabled innovation which is at the root of growing payments fraud. Remote electronic payments made on home computers, tablets and mobile phones have revolutionized how people shop, introducing the convenience of shopping from anywhere. Consequently, remote electronic payments are now both the fastest growing form of payment and the fastest growing form of payment fraud. When the customer is not present in-person to make the purchase, it greatly increases the complexity of authenticating the cardholder.
The primary vulnerability exposed by remote electronic payments is the reliance on static data to authenticate a transaction. That is, the same account information is used for every transaction: it does not change. As a result, once the payment information is acquired it is easy to perform a fraudulent transaction. Furthermore, this fraud is extremely difficult to detect.
To address the risk posed by static authentication, in 2015 the U.S. began migration to chip cards. Chips embedded in credit, debit and prepaid cards enable dynamic data authentication for in-person purchases. This means that unique data, secured with cryptography, are generated for every transaction. The outcome is improved detection and mitigation of fraudulent transactions, in particular for counterfeit card fraud. Unfortunately, chip technology is not readily applicable to remote payments so the industry is feverishly searching for new solutions that can be broadly adopted cost effectively to enhance remote authentication capabilities.
As they say, the train has left the station, so the Internet and remote payments are here to stay. Usage of both will grow even faster in the years to come and protecting data will become more difficult than ever. The good news is that there are viable ways to curb payment fraud resulting from them. The question is, how long will it take for payment industry stakeholders to make some tough decisions to remove account credentials from payment transactions to eliminate the utility and value of data breaches? And how long will it take payment industry stakeholders to agree upon the best approach to strengthen remote payment authentication? The technology exists to resolve these vulnerabilities. It is achieving collaboration across payment a industry stakeholder that is the greatest challenge. | <urn:uuid:684632ba-fdbd-44bd-9f35-182091d3b1b8> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://mobile-payment.cioreview.com/cxoinsight/innovation-exposes-payment-vulnerabilities-nid-34358-cid-268.html | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337404.30/warc/CC-MAIN-20221003070342-20221003100342-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.945151 | 920 | 2.5625 | 3 |
FERPA AssessmentsPrivacy Assessments for Education
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. The law applies to all schools that receive funds under an applicable program of the U.S. Department of Education. FERPA gives parents certain rights with respect to their children’s education records. These rights transfer to the student when he or she reaches the age of 18 or attends a school beyond the high school level. FERPA covers the release of a broad list of information about students, including grades, behavior, test scores, disciplinary action, etc. — and also how mandatory testing data are transferred to federal agencies and colleges. Regular FERPA Assessments are critical to ensure compliance with these established statutes.
Although protecting our childrens’ privacy is undeniably important, the lines that FERPA draws are not always 100% clear. There have been many instances related to the misapplication of FERPA, to conceal public records that are not “educational” in nature. And although FERPA violations do not expose an institution to private litigation, violations can and have damaged an institution’s reputation, and repeated violations can also lead to a catastrophic and debilitating loss in government funding.
Aerstone’s deep cybersecurity experience can help your institution protect itself against violations with our FERPA Assessments. Our services in this space are comprehensive, and include:
- Helping prepare mandatory annual privacy notices to students
- Structuring the implementation of an approved signed consent system
- Training faculty and staff on FERPA compliance
- Investigating compliance from potential third-party data consumers
- Conducting a security audit of current information systems, to ensure data protection
Our Experience Sets Us Apart
Aerstone is an NSA-certified vulnerability assessor, and a service-disabled veteran-owned small business.
We approach each engagement with the highest levels of professionalism, determination, and creativity, honed by years of working with
security professionals across the military, intelligence community, civilian government, and private industry.
Contact our sales team at email@example.com for more information. | <urn:uuid:1ab4a602-aca1-4776-8f3a-b560cd32df40> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://aerstone.com/assess/ferpa-assessments/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030337516.13/warc/CC-MAIN-20221004152839-20221004182839-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.927436 | 464 | 2.65625 | 3 |
Network Infrastructure & Network Monitoring System
Network infrastructure is made up of the underlying elements of the network that carry out the processing and distribution of network communications. Network infrastructure is typically comprised of hardware, software, and services.
Network Infrastructure Primer
When architected well, the network infrastructure provides an interconnected assembly of technologies and tools that work in tandem to empower employees and boost business operations and productivity.
It’s been said that “the computer is the network” because so many of today’s computer functions are built around accessing and processing information from remote, networked, sources. But today, it’s really the enterprise that is the network, because the interconnection of customers, employees, data, and software is vital to every aspect of the function of a business. As technology innovations have occurred in every business function, the network has followed close behind, resulting in the rise of the “enterprise network.” An effective enterprise network infrastructure is one that is available, secure, scalable, and robust enough to consistently and reliably drive productivity throughout the business, at all times.
Network infrastructures are broken down into three core areas: hardware, software, and services. The basics of each core area are covered below, accompanied with a few fundamental examples.
Networking hardware is the physical layer of the network infrastructure that transfers the data within a network. Hardware components encompass the physical devices needed to establish communication between devices on a network. These include cables and wires, network interface cards, hubs, modems, routers, gateways, and so on.
Network Interface Cards (NICs)
These enable a computer to be identified on, and connected to, the network. In the absence of a network interface card, a computer will not be able to connect to a network.
They also serve other functions, such as enabling wireless and wired network communications. And as well run some physical layer and data link layer features, simultaneously
These act as collection points, grouping various devices into a segment. A hub is an essential networking device, which connects the segments within a LAN and are characterized by the multiple ports on the front panel. Any packet that arrives at one port is evenly copied across other ports so that all connecting segments detect the packets.
These are network devices that channel incoming data packets to the intended recipients. Routers allow for interconnected links to be established across networks, and grant internet access to the computers within the network.
A router can be referred to as a network’s dispatcher. Data being transmitted across a network gets analyzed, and then sent through the best possible route by a router.
These are the meeting points between two different networks, enabling each to communicate with the other by adopting its protocols. A gateway can be described as an interface that allows for the exchange of data between two different networks by translating the signals or protocols of each network.
Networking software is another core area, enabling network administrators to deploy, manage, and monitor a network. In network infrastructure, this includes various tools bordering on network operations and management, operating systems, firewall, and network security applications.
These tools are used by network administrators to help ensure the network is performing optimally. Reliable monitoring software functions as an all-seeing eye over every other component of a network infrastructure.
The features transcend monitoring capabilities to include security operations, through real-time notifications at the point of detecting any abnormalities in a network.
Network operating system (NOS)
This is the computer operating system that provides the features for each component of the network to function. The primary role of the NOS is the provision of fundamental network services and capabilities that allow for multiple network processes in a multiuser environment, simultaneously.
In a nutshell, NOS software provides an interface for interaction and resource sharing across multiple network devices in a network.
These are network security devices that monitor incoming and outgoing network traffic, blocking specific traffic based on a defined set of rules. A firewall is used to create a barrier between an enterprise network and other unauthorized external networks, such as public internet.
Network Security Software
These provide network protection to help ensure usability, integrity, reliability, and safety of data throughout the network.
The third core area of a network’s infrastructure is network services. These are the applications that provide data storage, manipulation, presentation, and communication. These include a T1 Line, DSL, satellite, and IP addressing.
A T1 Line is high-volume fiber-optic or copper cable that can carry data at a rate of 1.544 mbps (megabits per second), and because of its capacity, hundreds of devices can share it. These cables serve as a dedicated connection line between a service provider and a client’s internet infrastructure.
Since a client can lease them, they are privatized through the lease period. Consequently, this ensures usage strictly by one client, as well as the reduction of congestion during communication.
Fully noted as “digital subscriber line”; this is a communications medium, mostly in the form of fiber optic cables and copper wires, used to transfer digital data over standard telephone lines.
It is an innovative alternative to the Integrated Service Digital Network (ISDN), which doesn’t provide broadband connections via analog media.
Satellites are a communication technology that provides extensive global coverage and access to information via radio signals transmitted from the earth’s orbit. As part of network infrastructure services, satellites enable the worldwide transmission of data at cost-effective rates.
Satellites can be classified as repeaters; as they intercept signals emanating from one location or station, and then rebroadcast the signals to another station. The ability to receive and retransmit data is made possible by transponders, which are part of the components of a satellite.
Internet Protocol (IP)
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the method by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet and within an enterprise network. Each computer on the Internet is assigned at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all other computers on the Internet.
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS)
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) is a routing technique designed to speed up and shape traffic flows across enterprise wide area and service provider networks.
MPLS is a more efficient alternative to traditional IP routing, which requires each router to independently determine a packet’s next hop by inspecting the packet’s destination IP address before consulting its own routing table. This process consumes time and hardware resources, potentially resulting in degraded performance for real-time applications such as voice and video.
Maintaining Performance Visibility across The Network Infrastructure
The multiple domains of a network create several performance visibility challenges onsite and offsite, which is why monitoring network performance, to optimize performance and security is so critical. With one central monitoring platform, it is possible to maintain network visibility to help ensure efficient processing throughout the network.
Enterprises rely heavily on the communication capabilities provided by a network. With this dependency comes the risk of data breaches, packet loss, communication drops, and so many other anomalies. Left unchecked, any of these situations could easily jeopardize the productivity of an organization. The ability to achieve network performance visibility across the enterprise network is critical to maintaining the performance of the enterprise itself.
The business refrain of “you can’t manage what you can’t see” is as applicable to network performance as it is to any other business function. If NetOps teams are unable to determine what is going on within a network, it becomes impossible to respond to any issues that arise.
LiveAction, as an industry leader in enterprise network monitoring, is trusted worldwide by IT professionals, for the provision of all-encompassing network monitoring solutions.
Contact us today to enable multi-domain performance visibility of your enterprise network. | <urn:uuid:7891761e-cd27-43a0-ac0e-eb44b61eeb5c> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.liveaction.com/resources/blog/network-infrastructure/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030338001.99/warc/CC-MAIN-20221007080917-20221007110917-00285.warc.gz | en | 0.923924 | 1,659 | 3.171875 | 3 |
As anyone with a newsfeed will tell you, fake social media accounts have been on the rise in recent years. A recent study revealed nearly 8% of Instagram accounts are spambots. A problem for marketers, sure, but it’s even worse for you. Creating a robot network, or botnet, used to involve hacking into thousands of computers and wresting control of them from their unsuspecting owners over a long period of time. Cybercriminals have now discovered an even easier and faster way to create their malicious networks that will carry out their malicious plots: the social botnet.
Unlike traditional botnets that directly infect computers to create networks, social botnets use social media platforms to create a network of fake profiles linked together to spread malicious links and content. To do this, cybercriminals either create hundreds of profiles themselves or use specially designed software programs to create and multiply false personalities.
James Foster, a longtime cybersecurity pro, has an excellent breakdown on social botnets and how they work. According to Foster, there are five distinct ways social botnet “herders” promote their wares. I’ll break down three of the most common—phishing attacks, retweet storms and hashtag hijacking.
Phishing attacks, in which cybercriminals pose as a trusted source to trick victims into giving up sensitive information, are often launched via email. Increasingly, however, they’re coming through social channels. This includes Facebook messages or Twitter replies and direct messages. Most people know how to spot these types of phishing messages, but botnet operators play a numbers game; send out thousands of messages on social media platforms and a few unsuspecting users will wind up being snared.
Another way cybercriminals disseminate malicious links is through retweet storms. In this scenario, a single fake profile will create a post containing a malicious link. Thousands of social bots connected to the profile will then retweet the post to reach the widest audience possible, aiming to lure in unsuspecting victims through the post’s staged popularity.
Social bots can also be used to infiltrate conversations on social networks centered around trending hashtags. Cybercriminals will command their social bots to create thousands of posts containing the trending hashtag along with a malicious link, knowing that someone will wind up clicking.
So, how are these social botnets being monetized? The social bot herders mainly make money from the data extracted through their malicious expeditions. They often sell this data to cybercriminal networks, or use the data themselves to access victims’ credit cards or bank accounts. Other times, hackers use the malware installed on computers through a social botnet to create a traditional botnet. They can then rent that botnet out to cybercriminals, or use it themselves to hack into other computer networks.
Simply put, social botnets are on the rise and there’s little to we can do to stop them at this time. There are, however, tactics you can use to keep yourself safe online:
- Enable two-factor authentication. I’ve discussed the benefits of two-factor authentication repeatedly, but it truly is one of the best ways to protect yourself. It protects accounts by asking you to provide verification with something you know (like a password) and something you have (like a smartphone). It’s one of the strongest methods of preventing unauthorized access to your information, and can help keep cybercriminals out of your accounts in the event of a social botnet attack.
- Beware of suspicious messages. Phishing attacks often rely on a victim’s trust of a company or organization, but most attempts are detectable. Grammar mistakes, messages from strangers or a strange request from someone you haven’t talked to in years are good indicators. If you’d like to brush up on your phony message detection skills, try our Phishing Quiz here.
- Use comprehensive security. Most attacks hinge on the ability to install malware onto your device. Thankfully, you can protect all of your devices from this malicious software with comprehensive security solutions like McAfee LiveSafe™.
Follow us to stay updated on all things McAfee and on top of the latest consumer and mobile security threats. | <urn:uuid:0bbbfe48-c42b-4eb8-82b4-388e17fac288> | CC-MAIN-2022-40 | https://www.mcafee.com/blogs/internet-security/social-networks-but-for-botnets/ | null | s3://commoncrawl/crawl-data/CC-MAIN-2022-40/segments/1664030335504.22/warc/CC-MAIN-20220930181143-20220930211143-00485.warc.gz | en | 0.918789 | 876 | 2.671875 | 3 |
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